Review

Gemini Rue

When I previewed Wadget Eye Games’ Gemini Rue I really couldn’t wait for the full version to be released. After playing it I can say that I was not disappointed. Even though it began as a student project, it has developed into a pretty gripping mystery adventure game. Developed by Joshua Nuernberger, winner of the 2010 Independent Games Festival Student Showcase, this “neo noir” point-and-click mystery adventure provides you with a distinctive gameplay though its 2D side scrolling, real time action sequences, and sixty plus hand drawn backgrounds.

As you’ll remember from the preview, Gemini Rue features two protagonists. The first is a recovering amnesia patient named Delta Six and the second is Azreal Odin, a former assassin turned police officer. Being that this is a mystery adventure game, I don’t want to give away too much of the story but lets just say that I’m quite impressed how well the title fits the plot development and overall story. You begin the game following the character Delta-Six as he is rehabilitated after his apprehension during an attempt to escape from a holding facility. You’ll eventually switch over to the other main character, who is currently in search of his brother on one of several crime corrupted planets in the Gemini Solar System. The setting of the game is somewhere after the year 2200, in a time where space-travel and planet colonization is a thing of the past. Instead, there are allied planets recovering from previous revolutionary wars and presently faltering under the corrupt influence and control of the Boryokuden mob. Even though the setting is futuristic, the character designs, scenery, and even the narration have the film noir mood from a 1940’s crime drama, giving life to the “neo noir” theme.

Gemini Rue is a point-and-click (adventure) title, so the gameplay mainly consists of investigation, information collection, and problem solving to progress each of the unique storylines. You can maneuver your character using the left mouse button and interact with people and things by bringing up the verb interface and inventory with the right mouse button. So if I wanted to look at a poster on a wall I would right-click it and then use the left mouse button to select the eyeball icon to interact. You have other interaction options such as talking (the mouth icon), touching (the hand or feet icons), or selecting an item from the adjacent inventory to use on another object. You can even utilize people as items to interact with other objects, like instructing a more muscular friend to help you move something out of your way. However, it was through this verb interface that I ran into one of my very few annoyances with this game. On occasion you may need to interact with an object that is not directly next to your character and instead of the character just walking over to the object to complete the action, they would complain that they were not close enough. This issue was greatly improved from the preview build but there were still instances were I became frustrated with my character’s inability to complete seemingly simple tasks.

One aspect of Gemini Rue that makes the gameplay different from other games in its same genre is the live action scenarios. These could be anything from a chase scene to a gunfight where you’ll need your hands to be glued to A S D W X and spacebar for prompt reactions to avoid a quick death. However, the auto-saving feature kicks in at the beginning of these actions sequences making it easy to pick up where you left off. Another great quality about this game, which I also noted in the preview, is the option to alternate between story lines. Unlike other adventure games where you can take up several side missions or beef up your character’s attributes when you are unable to complete a task and advance the game’s story, point-and-click adventures normally come to screeching halt when a difficult puzzle gets the best of you. However with Gemini Rue, the ability to engage in either story line at almost anytime during the game helps to avoid this problem and allows you to continue playing while giving you some time away from the brain busting puzzle. Now you do have to eventually play though both story lines to a certain point. When one is completed, you are automatically switched back to the other but at least you are able to take a mental break without completely stopping gameplay.

As far as graphics are concerned, there are definitely similar games with much more sophisticated visuals, but the less refined pixilated images add to the throwback feeling of this game. If you look past the 32-bit graphics you will notice the exquisite, hand drawn backgrounds and how the meshing of the two visual aspects perpetuate the “new-but-old” themes in Gemini Rue. The soundtrack was fairly simple and reinforced the film noir theme with a jazzy blues feel. Less laidback tunes were used to heighten the mood and had a more urgent meter to help to create some anticipation during the more eventful situations. The music usually intensified during the action and drama scenes and mellowed out again for the more mundane events. And though it was not astonishing, the voice acting was good. Certain characters had some rather memorable accents that seemed to strengthen their personalities; I particularly liked the voice of the character, Balder.

Other than the unpredictability of the verb interface interactions, the only real drawbacks with Gemini Rue were how relatively short it was and its lack of replay value due to the nature of the adventure genre. Now there were subtle details that I thought enhanced the gameplay overall. Things like the volume of the rain changing appropriately as you entered and exited buildings or  the ominous figures appearing in observatory windows when playing as Delta-Six. My personal favorite was the practicality of the solutions to some of the puzzles and how the most logical actions seemed to elude you under the pressure of an action sequence. Throw all this in with the compelling plot and unique atmosphere and you have a game that is way more interesting than your average point-and click and definitely a must-have if you truly enjoy this genre.