Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Apr 17, 2014

  Moebius is an entertaining and decently good point n' click game that lacks a lot of polish. Jane Jensen's story is bit silly but interesting. Robert Holme's music is fantastic but bit repeatitive. The gameplay is little bit disappointing because of the narrow amount of choises you can make. Moebius feels like a simplified and slightly modernized version of those 90s point n' click adventure games that we all grew up with. The length of the game is around 10 to 15 hours for an average player. I liked the characters in the game and I liked the story. Althought I do have to write that Jane Jensen in past has written better material than this. There're issues with the narrative that feel stupid after you've played the game though. And even during the game you occasionally wonder why certain things had to be done in a particular way. Moebius is a fairly basic point n' click game that doesn't do anything particularly well or bad. It's like it was made following a googled tutorial on how to make a point n' click adventure game. It doesn't add anything new or even try to challenge the existing concepts. Most of the puzzles in Moebius are fairly easy to figure out. There's usually only one route to take to a puzzle and only one solution for that puzzle exists. Sometimes the solution is rather unrealistic. To avoid making Moebius a "hidden object" game and to add some realism into it the game doesn't allow you to pick up items or go to some places until the need to do so arises. That leads to an issue where you need to remember place of certain items you previously couldn't pick up. Occasionally there are more challenging puzzles that are well written. The main character also has infinite pockets to stuff things to which I thought was amusing. Towards the ending of the Moebius started to fell apart. For example (without spoiling anything) the player needs to fly from Washington to New York to pick alcohol from a bar the main character has contantly refused to enter into any given point of time during the game. There's nothing indicating you need to do so. I don't even understand why there couldn't be alcohol store at Washington player could enter. This is done so because main character thought that the antique item in his shop he saw earlier would still be there and that he needed to pick that up for a certain character. This is done based upon observation of that character's tastes. And so upon exiting antique store main character thought that he would also need to bring alcohol seeing the bar on other side of the street. That is some truly horrible game writing and game design in my opinion. Graphics in Moebius are decent and I like the art style. But this is probably a good point to start talking about the bugs. Moebius has lots of bugs. None of those bugs break the game and they're mostly just visual annoyances. Such as main character is able to stand on certain places he isn't supposed to be able to stand. Or certain water effects are places on surfaces where they shouldn't be. Occasionally the animations have timing problems. Sometimes there are texture related issues such as really low resolution textures. None of the visual issues are dramatically bad. It's just a sign of a lack of polish in Moebius. Music and audio is good and there are lots of nice music. However sometimes the main theme just repeats itself so much that it's the only thing you'll remember after you've played the game. This is due the fact that the main theme is also present in various tracks in a suttle ways. So even if I do like the main theme quite a bit, it became an annoyance to hear so often during the game. Sometimes there were audio tracks where the mixing had failed. Voice acting in this game is decently played out. User Interface of the Moebius is weird but it works. There are no "verbs" which makes the game easier to play since the game always offers only the actions you can do with various points of interest. Moebius is designed towards people who have little or no experience with point n' click adventure games. The way UI has been designed and the strong hint system in this game reflects that. I also thought it was weird that the game didn't have end results screen despite counting points in a similar manner to the classic Sierra adventure games all which have the end results screen. Technically the game works fine most of the time. But being based on top of Unity Engine has all the good things and all the issues that come with the Unity Engine. For example the game has freezing issues on certain hardware. But those can be corrected with a launch parameter. And sometimes the rendering quality is pretty bad. To sum things up, Moebius is entertaining game which is fun to play. The story is interesting but sometimes badly written. I liked the main characters and would like to see more of their adventures in the future. Moebius as a game also severely lacks polish and fine tuning. It's worth the cost but it's not outstanding game like Gabriel Knight or Gray Matter.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 27, 2017

  Not as enjoyable to me as Cognition (a similar adventure game by same devs). The characters are much less likable, the story is less enjoyable, and the ending [spoiler]was lackluster (I was expecting some epic time and space interdimensional showdown, not "ok hostages rescued good jorb.")[/spoiler]. And one gameplay mechanism really irked me: you're not allowed to pick up anything until you've interacted with the puzzle that requires it. e.g.: See an oil can in the middle of the road, try to pick it up, "I have no use for that now." Several screens later, see some rusty gears, go back to oil can, try to pick it up, "I have no use for that now." Go back to rusty gears, rub Malichi's fucking face in them, try to turn them, "hmm, if only I had some oil." Go back to oil can, try to pick it up, "aha, I can use this oil on the gears!". Another gameplay aspect that was unenjoyable was the find-a-historical-match guessing game that you're repeatedly forced to play, that feels more like it belongs in an edutainment title like Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 7, 2014

  Do you like good games? Then this game is not for you. Do you like demented puzzles and being annoyed out of your pants? Then this game IS for you. Ironically, though, I have no doubt whether to recommend it or not - I enjoyed it, a lot. Guess it's a question of what you're looking for. If you're looking for Cesar Bittar, by jove you've found him. It is obviously a game developed solely by him without any involvement of that pesky Jane Jensen whatsoever. Or at least by Phoenix Online, and not by Pinkerton Road at all. Pay attention. If you're looking for, say, cool characters, then you should marry it - Malachi and David are amazing, and everything that concerns them is done brilliantly. From the beginning of their friendship through all the shunning of Gretchen to the pointed indifference to Amble it's downright adorable, sincere and applauds-inducing. And man, I love these straight to the point dialogues where characters are saying the most logical things that suit the situation. I can't say enough just how perfectly it is done. It was a pure enjoyment and a crate of marbles in a world of pervasive bureaucracy and Leisure Suit Larry remakes. Unlike everything else in the game. The story? Have you heard of the world's silliness contest of '72? Where Helen Slapps was standing on one leg on a frozen turkey with a thrashing fish in her mouth and an open urn of ashes on her head, and playing a triangle? It was waaay less silly than the plot of Moebius. The puzzles? Oh, don't even start about the puzzles. When I was flying back to Chicago from New Orleans because I forgot to pack my toothbrush, that was painful. And this game made me relieve the experience. Honestly, the only good thing about them is that they're easier than the ones in The Walking Dead. The graphics? You know you have issues when you visit New York, Venice and Zurich, and the only pretty place is still a bar in New York. The music? Well, there were some niceish pieces, but nothing comparable to Gray Matter. The technical issues? I thought it's good pairing when characters are walking through one another on a regular basis. I must say, it IS a Jane Jensen's game, mainly meaning that it's amazingly written and tries to tackle metaphysical issues with a healthy dose of excitement and a pinch of old fashioned naivety. It is worth your playthrough. It's good like that. It's just you'll have to put up with its shit, and there're surprisingly big amounts for a game you can complete in ten hours. So there. Scratch what I said, don't marry it. It will ruin your life.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 4, 2015

  7/10 Although the puzzles were all rather easy, the story was intriguing enough to play to the end. It’s not as bad as many of the reviewers make it sound. I want to address a few point I’ve seen in some reviews: -This is not as good as Gabriel Knight. Yes, we all love the GK series, but let’s not forget you had to put tape on a fence to get cat hairs to make into a moustache. Moebius is not GK, it’s different. Both have good and bad points, but it’s unfair to compare a current game with your memory of how good another game was. -Malachi is not likeable. He’s human. If you stopped to consider his character and what he has been through and seen, it’s easy to see how he became “not likeable.” I didn’t find this a hindrance to the game at all. More importantly, his character evolves over the course of the game, which is lacking in many games. -Animations/graphics/character models suck. They aren’t Final Fantasy graphics, but they serve their purpose. They’re obviously much better than GK3 graphics, and everyone loved that game. Yes, smoother graphics would’ve been nice, but it’s not game-breaking. -The game is buggy. There were some bugs. They recently released a patch which was supposed to fix many of them. The bugs I encountered weren’t game breaking; just skipped animations. But personally, I feel that bugs in an adventure game are less forgiving than other genres. You don’t want to feel like “maybe I can’t solve this puzzle because there’s a bug.” So minus points on this lack of polish. Now on to the positives: + The story was interesting, and I liked how you had to make connections with historical people. The game (like all of Jensen’s) was well researched and I felt that I came out of the game with new ideas or thoughts, which is more than can be said of many games. + The puzzles were a bit on the easy side, and some were illogical (or just time wasters) but for the most part, they made sense. I know I spent more time addressing negatives than adding positives, but overall, I thought the game was good. Not superb, but not half as bad as a lot of the reviews made it sound. There was nothing really ground-breaking with the game, but the story was strong enough to make it worth playing.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 20, 2016

  This could have been a fantastic game - and to some high degree, it is. It has many positive elements that make it stand out and be a great gaming experience, which is why I am definitely recommending it anyway. Coming from the team that created the Gabriel Knight series, this was more or less expected. The characters are good, the plot is good. There is variety in settings and puzzles, there are some really nice dialogues, beautiful ambience and gorgeous music throughout. The main hero travels to several parts of the world, after accepting a complicated mission that involves several riddles. While at it, he meets an ally, who seems to be connected to him in more than one ways. Their relationship is extremely interesting, and in particular when interwoven with the - imaginary but very well-developed - theory that runs through the story. Said theory brings together influential people from the past and specific individuals from the contemporary world. The parts where you have to examine several characters and match them with those historical personalities are wonderful. Like in all purely Adventure games, you have to do lots of research, talk to people, carry out sub-missions, combine info and reach conclusions. You also have to collect important items and use them when necessary so as to move on. All this is very well-organized, although some of the dialogues, especially with people that do not play crucial part of the plot, may feel sometimes like they drag out too long. On the technical side, the characters (especially the main hero) seem to have a bit of awkward movement, but personally I didn't mind this much because it didn't affect the gameplay in any way. There are a few really serious issues however that make the game frustrating without reason and lower its overall quality. There is one puzzle at some point that you have to solve; it is based on cryptology and you are supposed to figure out the various options, rule out those that do not fit and solve the puzzle with the one option that is suitable. All this is OK when you play the game for the first time, but what about when you want to replay it? You have to go through the whole chore again, even though you already know which is the correct option and answer. You have to search again, find all the options, rule them out and stick with the correct one. As if this wasn't enough, if you try to use directly the correct option, the game locks the puzzle and you can neither reset it nor cancel it. The only solution is to use a previous save, assuming you have one. Personally I found this issue extremely serious for a game of this class. A game designer should always keep in mind that their game may have replay value for a player; and if a player goes through a game for a second or third time, they already know what to do and they should be given the option to do just that. I have played lots of games of various genres and this is the first time that I come across such a situation. Some other time, I had to search a sleeping character. I searched him and exited the activity screen. It turned out then I hadn't searched him enough so I was missing an item. I tried to search him again, but it was impossible. Again the puzzle was locked and I had to reload. I don't know if this was an actual technical glitch or if it was designed that way on purpose so as to frustrate the player, but if it was the latter, it succeeded. On another occasion you are in Washington, visiting a woman in her apartment, and you have to take some info from her. To make her talk, you have to flirt with her in various ways, and part of the process is bring her whiskey as gift. And what do you have to do? Fly back to Manhattan, because Washington obviously has no bars, buy a bottle from the bar opposite the hero's office, then take the plane and return to Washington. Oh, and if you try to buy the whiskey beforehand (ie, before flying to Washington in the first place), you are unable to. I know it's a game and realism is not exactly necessary, but some things are just too much. Despite all this, I did enjoy the game and liked it a lot, although I am not very much into this genre. There is enough mystery and intrigue to keep you interested, and there are a few pretty intense situations that you will surely remember for a long time.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 11, 2017

  In terms of adventure games it's pretty generic. The writing is actually terrible, which is a shame... I think a lot of people that played this game come from Gabriel Knight fandom and so they'd be hard pressed to give the game a negative review, but truth be told it has really bad writing (embarrassingly bad when compared to Gabriel Knight). The story is basically a bunch of weak characters that few gamers would care about. The plot pretends to have the awe that made Jensen's previous games so interesting, but it ends up being more pretentious than epic. It has flat out silly puzzles that don't make sense in the context a game that is clearly taking itself seriously. The gameplay is irritating as well with lots of animations that go on too long. Ultimately if you should pass if you are looking for an adventure game there are plenty of better ones out there. If you are a Jane Jensen fan then you're gonna play this anyway and thumbs down this review. So for Jensen fans I say yes, play it and then pretend you aren't disappointed.