BBP vs Moebius

[BBP]

As you probably know by now, ever since I fell hopelessly in love with Gabriel Knight 3, I've been captivated by Jane Jensen's storytelling in her games. All the sadder that, when Pinkerton Road was starting out, I didn't have the means to support them. After hearing what negative reviews some of the people here had, I decided to forego on the game altogether.

And then it was on offer and I bought it.

Sooooo... I just fired Moebius up. I haven't yet discovered how you would pronounce it English style.
LAST WARNING:
THis entire topic is spoiler!

Firing up!!
Hmm, looks a bit slick... Oooh graphic novel intro! Let's wait until I hear where Robert's music is going here...
(the music continues while reading comic)
Yay!

OK what's the story? Malachi lost his mother young of lion's bite and he got on the wrong side of someone whose antique wasn't as genuine.

(intro plays)
Oh and there's Raleigh! Hm, someone spent a lot of effort giving this the cinematic feel it has!

As I start the game I try to get the hang of the interface. The inventory and menu are quite hidden and not very intuitive, but let's see if we get used to it. The instructions of the game are sparse. So, let's roll!

(enter the antique shop)
(capable and intelligent and overbearing shop assistant evokes a blonde Grace)
(handsome and jerkish but lovable Malachi is a dark Gabriel if ever there was one, or maybe a new David)

The conversation gets the job done, as do the descriptions of all the items. Here it is more Gray Matter than Gabriel Knight though - in Gabriel Knight a lot of items lend themselves to a quip, snark, insight or lewd remark. Here it's all background. We'll see how it turns out.
I look at all items and drain all topics and learn of a new client. I get my passport from the suitcase. Then i visit my office to read a letter and receive a text, and then I leave for the new client.

He wants to test me? My historical knowledge and photographic memory? All--- right? Anyone else smell a rat?
And now he sends me, an antique dealer in New York, to Venice (the Venice in Italy) to find out about a murder? There'd better be a good plot play-off to warrant such a leap of logic, but we'll take it for now. All the same, taking this job seems like a bad idea.

Sometimes I see a squiggly icon when I click on a character. I don't know what it is as I drain all conversation with the police officer when I make it to Venice - and I get the notification I'm on his bad side? What What am I missing?

Whatever I'm missing, it's not the Woman Obviously In The Background. After talking to her, I talk to her again for the squiggly thing - and realize it's a brain, and an "analyze" function. I click around and learn stuff about this old lady, but don't realize how this is used. Should have done this before talking to her. Lesson learned. Analyze first.

I discover the key in the canal, talk with the antiques dealer and buy a necklace and a rowing stick and a chess piece. I talk to the widow, drain the topics, look at everything and get some putty from the flower pot and find the secret drawer, I manage to obtain the key, open the secret drawer...

And then it's time for food. End of Act I.

[/b]Thoughts so far[/b]
Atmosphere is GK-ish with the Robert Holmes soundtrack. Good feel.
Dialogue as I mentioned lacks the humour that made GK as terrific as it is
Analysis puzzles are interesting, let me see how that develops
I really like the voice acting. I could listen to Malachi all day. Not too sure about the physical "acting" of the characters though - it seems like this would have felt better in the pixellated era. Not yet sure about the graphics, they can be gorgeous and eyesore at the same time.

On to act 2!

[Rath Darkblade]

Huzzah! Sounds like a good game, despite the logical leap of sending an antique dealer to Venice to learn about a murder. Um ...? I've been to Venice, and got lost in the little streets, and managed to come out alive again. But being a stupid poor tourist like me, or an antique dealer, is not the same as being a private investigator! Looks like the Set-Up could use some work! *wags finger sternly*

Still sounds like an interesting game with puzzles ... but without the GK-ish humour. I wonder if it will emerge in Act 2 and onwards?

[BBP]

Act 2 ended prematurely. In Cairo I end up in a hotel which reminds me of some of the things I get complaints about. I find it a bit cumbersome to walk around at the square, that it takes me like 10 clicks to get into the hostel that's a tad annoying. Hostel doesn't get me anywhere.
Nothing in any of the trash cans. In the bar I analyze the two men on the couch (hurray, I learnt a mechanic!) and realise I'll have to play darts.
Fortunately I already did that and realised the air vent is "throwing off the aim", cough cough.
In the alley I fix the loose wires and move the crate, but now it's time to break the lock.

That wire hanger would be perfect but Malachi wouldn't take it from the hotel room. He needs lessons in Adventure Game Heroism from Gabriel, who did get a basic wire hanger.

I retrace my steps to look at literally everything I have - I find my gun but Malachi won't shoot the lock... I'm stuck here. I'll think it over and see if I can find the solution tomorrow.

[Tawmis]

As you probably know by now, ever since I fell hopelessly in love with Gabriel Knight 3, I've been captivated by Jane Jensen's storytelling in her games. All the sadder that, when Pinkerton Road was starting out, I didn't have the means to support them. After hearing what negative reviews some of the people here had, I decided to forego on the game altogether.

And then it was on offer and I bought it.

Sooooo... I just fired Moebius up. I haven't yet discovered how you would pronounce it English style.

I really need to fire this game up. I played it for a bit, just to walk around and get a feel, but never got far.

[BBP]

Well better stop reading the thread before you get too many spoilers. Or make a video about it and we'll play together!


Act 3

After I got stuck yesterday, I thought it'd be fun to start the game up a second time to catch up on things, like analyses, I may have missed. I play up to my conversation with Amble (it hits me: he's called Amble, what will be the odds he'll be getting out of his wheelchair?) when I decide to load my Cairo game.

At Cairo I had gotten stuck with the vent, which I need to do something with so I can win at darts. However I needed something to open the padlocked vent control box.

I looked over the whole scene (which is large, and with the controls, cumbersome) yesterday, but now somehow my eye falls on a brick straight away. That's it! I climb the crate to reach the controls and smash the thing with the brick.

Oh no! Ceased controls! That's why you should have picked up the motor oil, Gabriel wannabe!

After oiling the controls I jiggle the controls and breathe a sigh of relief when I advance and don't need to go back to the hotel to get the wire hanger.

All of Cairo has very suspenseful, anxious music, which was getting on my nerves while I win the darts, but after winning it and getting useful info on the guy I'm supposed to meet, I leave the bar... and am treated to action. Muchas action.

Malachi hears a fight coming from an alley (RUN!) but although antiques appraiser with a gun but no skill to use it should better not snoop into alleys - he's the puppet on my strings and I bring him in and am treated to a fight between The Man From The Awkward Cutscene and three - count em - three - thugs.

Ooh wait! I hadn't told you yet. Chapter Venice closes off with an awkward cutscene:
Malachi's car breaks down in the desert
Hiker comes up and offers to fix the car
Malachi says it's not necessary, he's already rung someone
Hiker goes to the bonnet to fix it
Malachi pulls out his gun
Hiker laughs awkwardly
Malachi laughs along awkwardly.
If the words "awkward" hadn't entered the screen (the game often uses onscreen words to describe Maachi's thoughts in cutscenes)

Anyway Hiker From The Awkward Cutscene is being attacked by three thugs. Hiker really manages to put up a decent fight but is at the end being overpowered, the thugs try to hang him from the fire escape.

At this point I'm back in control. I have a gun but the game won't allow me to shoot the rope Clint-style, or anyone else as we're too far away.
I use the "closer" crate and it works, Malachi hides behind that one, but even though I have a better view here I cannot shoot anyone or do a Clint - I can't even shoot the thug on the fire escape.
Suddenly the sequence ends with Hiker From The Awkward Cutscene being a badass fighter again and he escapes. When you regain control all action is gone and there's a ticket left behind allowing you to get into the hostel, where Hiker From The Awkward Cutscene apparently is.

I get to walk into his room and snoop on it. I do an analysis and when I look at him closer, Malachi will open his shirt, ho yay, and reveal his dog tags. Wow, he has a name. David Of Awkward Cutscenes.
After looking and getting everything I can I leave, but the game won't let me go to bed, won't let me take the wire hanger and won't reveal anything else anywhere.

After checking all locations again without finding anything new, I go back to David of Awkward Cutscenes again - he wakes up and I hire him to be my bodyguard. He then tells me a bad joke. His name is now simply David of Awkward.

Now the game lets me go to sleep. In the morning I meet the antiques dealer, discover his item is stolen, and call the cops. The store owner tries to get his gun but David Of Awkward Cutscenes stops him by throwing his knife to pin his sleeve to the chair. After leaving the shop, another cutscene where the two of us are attacked by 4 thugs - the men from the night before - we fight them off and I find one leaves a footprint that matches the one we found in Venice.
Wait. Did we find a footprint in Venice?

Aaaanyway - I don't know if there's a ton I've missed. We'll see how it plays out. After the attack I hire David as bodyguard and take him to New York, to stay in the spare bedroom at my apartment.

Chapter 3 starts and there's some simple puzzle about getting into a VIP tent to meet a senator, and appraising an artwork for another senator. Goes smoothly.

Then game play switch - I'm now David of Awkward going on a date with Gretchen, Malachi's shop assistant. Gretchen warns me about not starting a relationship with him and things are getting even more awkward.

Back in the apartment, there's noise coming from Malachi's room. I gotta go to him! I improvise a grappling hook and use a slippery table to get to the balcony that's diagonally above it, only to find that Gabriel Knight our David of Awkward is not and I kill him 4 times trying to figure out how the game wants me to climb this table.

There ends act 3!

[BBP]

Act 4

As Act 4 I decide to start again with a replay. I already had the idea I'd missed content, which was confirmed when I was stuck climbing and sliding off the balcony countless times (6 times ) .

Aside from the analysis, the section where you witness David From The Awkward Cutscene being executed by the thugs, I couldn't find the right hotspot and David saved himself. But you can also save him, for more puzzles. I finally got to use the wire hanger!

By the time I had reached Chapter 3, I wanted to carry on where I left off - and then I accidentally threw away my save file (lock option, game developers! Invest!) I had to do that chapter again anyway. In it you have to appraise an artifact for a client and try to arrange a VIP meeting with a senator.

After that section, you play as David of Awkward. You are staying in Malachi's apartment when you hear a scream from his bedroom, which is locked, and you need to climb your way in from the balcony.

This time I made it and walked in to find Malachi having a panic attack.

***this is the point where the spoilers come***

My bodyguard can accompany me to the next meeting with Amble Dexter. Apparently there's this idea that historical events and persons keeps repeating. There are parallels between the deaths we have investigated and some historic people. We need to protect the senator, who is Augustus, because his future wife Livia Drusilla is being threatened. The Venetian beauty from prominent family that married a much older politician and got pregnant young, was murdered as she would be Livia.

I want to be Heron of Alexandria!

We are sent to various women to see if they are Livia. Which means the next chapter is in Paris! Not after David of Awkward Cutscenes tells me a ton of jokes.

Six of them, anyway. There's an achievement for listening to them. But the thing is - they're all stale kind of Christmas Cracker jokes, bad and clean puns. So David Of The Awkward Cutscene is now plain Awkward David, as his awkwardness is not limited to the cutscenes.

In Paris I make a cup of sugared coffee and make Awkward David flirt with a librarian so I can steal the password, I meet the butler of the posh house who steals artwork from his boss, and now I'm being pushed forward to the catacombs.

So that's where I left off yesterday. THe plot has taken a less realistic twist but I'm still on the willing end of suspension of disbelief.

[BBP]

Act 5

In Paris it's noticeable how similar Charlotte Lorraine's theme is similar to the GK theme, it uses quite a successive few same notes.

The game's views... I mentioned they are a mix jaw-dropping and eyesore. The backgrounds are stunning - the way the people are animated, not so much. Unruly polygon creations walking as much in the wrong direction and exaggerated hip and shoulder movevment makes everybody look awkward. Except for David Awkward, whose awkwardness comes from other things.

In Paris I get to be chuffed by the background, Eiffel Tower, Bibliotheque Nationale and Catacombs, and an anonymous castle garden are all looking gorgeous. I feel a bit guilty after cracking into the safe and finding the ledgers.

Aaaanyway Lorraine is not Livia, but when visiting the grave in the catacombs of a certain knight with a weird puzzle putting skulls in the correct order (basically an Insert Password Here puzzle) David Awkward turns out to be that knight. St. A. St Alphonse? Not sure. Can't remember.

I resort to a walkthrough too quickly before exhausting all backtracking options. It's not like there are many available locations at the time but loading makes it a bit cumbersome to travel around.

Upon leaving Paris I go to Zurich, where I spill wine onto someone on purpose and infiltrate yet another person's privacy by finding a positive pregnancy test in the trash and break into her cell phone. Protected but with an easy password.

All you ever needed to know about poor passwords and bad password management is in video games.

Anyway, in Zurich my bodyguard (David Awkward) is drugged and kidnapped, along with Livia (forgot her name ingame, oh wait, helene) and that's where I wait with proceeding and end Act 5.

[BBP]

Act 6

We left after we caught a glimpse of Livia Drusilla who is Helena, and St Awkward, being kidnapped from the party. That's so fast there has to be a mole somewhere.

I discuss this with Dexter and filter out who the mole is. Either Reichart, that's a character we haven't spoken to but who previously attended the conversations with Dexter, or it's that senator we were trying to get hooked up with Livia Drusilla in the first place. It all starts with searching the salon. There's a puzzle box, a few photos and a diploma, and a computer. And a cryptography book. And a file calling me antisocial. After completing the picture puzzle I obtain an USB stick but for the PC I need to decipher a password.

The password hint is deciphered and the game will only allow you to use the potential keys to decipher it. Bit iffy, but okay. At least he stores his password well enough.
Reichart turns out to be trustworthy so I turn my attention to Senator Marcus, so it's plane time to Washington.

When I meet the senator, he's not as careful with his passcode. He refuses to let me enter his computer but I make him pull the blinds and then I can see the code he types in the window's reflection.

Some of the puzzles here make me going back to New York - hardly makes sense to get a pair of earrings and a knife. I'm sure there's decent antique shops in Washington. But I need to impress a potential dangerous girl, the Senator's ex-girlfriend who forwarded the e-mail that was sent about Livia to her boss. It's for her that I need to go all the way back to New York to snatch earrings and buy whiskey. Of course, Washington DC doesn't have liquor stores.
[/cynisism]

Trying to get more information out of the Dangerous Girlfriend, I die three times. Once I accidentally click the Load button instead of Retry - if you do this, it's no longer possible to go back to the previous point. And of course I hadn't saved so I was back commuting between NY and DC.

After choosing the right demand to prevent the Medea Bitch from killing me and getting information on her boss out of her, I rush this information to Dexter and hurry to the Big Boss's house.

Big Boss is playing pool. I negotiate more info out of him about St Akward and Helene - they're both alive. Then I eat his SIM card to prevent them froom getting killed.

That's where I had to step out to do the groceries.

I'm not going to lie. It's been a long time since I've been this invested in a game's story - even Gray Matter didn't get me as much as this one.

[BBP]

Act 7 + 8


Upon picking up where I left, I find myself in Qatar, trying to get into a fortress. The screen is dark and the larger terrain to walk around in is not the easiest to work - it won't scroll and you don't have much feedback on where the screen ends. It's also so dark, it's hard to make stuff out. I have to resort to a walkthrough soon, then put it away and time a grenade with a flashbang to explode a grate into the tunnel system under the fortress.

I am now St Awkward, in a prison cell with Helene. In talking with her he's pretty good at talking to her and getting out of the prison cell, then locking up the guard is a piece of cake.

What comes then? Not so much. A very dark maze brings up visions of GK1's Snake Mound or KQ6s Catacombs and I don't want to trodge around it. After walking around a bit, I have had it and go to a walkthrough. Never ever eat nectarines washed.

Guide in hand, I make it through the maze, then play as Malachi again, walk from an entrance into another direction...As I have to solve several puzzles in a completely dark environment I'm glad I resorted to the walkthrough. The game has a target button that shows all targets (this is different from the hint systen) but that is deactivated in this section, so I cannot see where anything is.

As Malachi I meet up with the others, we have to find another exit, and fast because the tide is coming in. So I decide to evoke a panic attack to see what the exit is, giving me apparently a brain aneurysm. In my head I have to solve a puzzle, that gives me a map of the maze. Then I need to take my friends to the exit and get on a ledge, then St Awkward swims us to safety but gets washed away, Malachi saves him and is then treated in the army hospital for that aneurysm. That covers it up, I finish the game with 649/676 points.


I really enjoyed playing this. It may be no Gabriel Knight and at points be very much hinting towards GK (the music in Paris is very reminiscent of the GK theme), but I still couldn't put it down.


The Good -
#1 is the Storytelling, which is Jane Jensen picking a story that seems a bit off-beat, but ultimately wholesome and full of suspense;
The controls are largely good. Maybe one nasty hotspot on an off spot, and the walking around in the two large screens worked poorly, but overall I got used to them enough to focus on the puzzles.
The Music is sometimes a bit too over-the-top for the scene (when you are in a hotel in Paris it sounds like the invasion of a small country) but mainly brilliant.
The Puzzles - I can't judge the maze because I hate them with a passion to an end that I skip them when I can. Most of them were decent. No cat hair moustaches. The analysis sometimes borders on trial and error, but upon replay I noticed that for some elements, multiple options are available.
The Backgrounds are mostly very pleasant. Helps of course that the game takes place in among others, Manhattan, Venice, Paris and in a mansion in Zürich.
The Voice Acting - I could listen to Malachi forever.

Tons of research. Due to the story there's some acceptable "tweaking" or "inventing of historical facts as we're comparing people to historic characters that we don't always know much about. However I found some things inexcusable (Catherine Howard listed as seventh wife of Henry VIII was one that caught my eye).

I made a remark about the lack of humour earlier, but there's still some of it. Mostly David's jokes but there are some nice moments here and there.

The Bad -
Well, the animation was poor - exaggerated shoulder and hip movenemts, eyes rolling around the sockets, expressions are off -
Awkward Cairo Cutscene
Several of the puzzles feature backtracking. Your basic wire hangah is in a cupboard and disappears in Gabriel's pants a day and a half before he uses it. Moebius's Basic wire hanger? Depending on the story line you pick, it either stays in the closet or requires you to backtrack when you need it.


I found it a bit disheartening seeing so many negative reviews about the game. It was really pretty decent. It's not Gabriel Knight, but you can't really expect it to be that on an indie budget. I'd rate it above Gray Matter on several levels.

[Rath Darkblade]

Thank you for playing and reviewing the game, BBP!

It sounds good. I don't mind the poor animation or the occasional backtracking. (I grinned hugely, and also winced, at the phrase "the wire hangah ... disappears in Gabriel's pants". Ouch).

I agree about Catherine Howard listed as Henry VIII's seventh wife. (She was his sixth and last. Any history book or google can tell you that in two seconds).

There is one thing that confused me, though: why should I never eat nectarines washed? Or is that part of the game?

[BBP]

Hey where did my post go?

Chatherine Howard was the fifth wife, not the sixth. She was 17 when she married the much older Henry VIII and was beheaded less than two years later, we assume now she was framed. Horrible things that guy got away with.

In Leisure Suit Larry III: in Pursuit of Pulsating Pectorals, a lot of the game's hints are in the game's manual, which you can view here: https://allowe.com/games/larry/tips-man ... nuals.html.
One of them is very obscure: on the top of several pages you can see sheet music with the text "Follow the bouncy fruit!" and lyrics "Never never ever eat nectarines washed... NO! Eat Nontoonyt Nectarines Natuarally When We're Slurping Wholesomely - We Nibble Nutritiously With Nectarines!"

Which hints to the maze.

I've had my fill of mazes due to a real life incident that I still have nightmares about.

[Rath Darkblade]

Hey where did my post go?

Yay! (Sorry, but now I KNOW that I'm not the only one that happens to!)

Catherine Howard was the fifth wife, not the sixth. She was 17 when she married the much older Henry VIII and was beheaded less than two years later, we assume now she was framed. Horrible things that guy got away with.

Ah, whoops! Of course you're right. I got confused between Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr.

Yes, Henry VIII got away with some terrible deeds. After all, he was a King By The Will Of God(TM). An authoritarian king can do whatever he likes. Pity he chose to end up being so fat, though. As a young man, he was quite slim and handsome.

I'm not so sure Catherine was framed. Before she married Henry, she has pre-marital relationships with Francis Dereham (a "gentleman about town") and Henry Mannox (her music teacher), and during her marriage, she had an affair with Thomas Culpeper (another courtier). No-one can blame her for that; her husband was 30 years her senior, grossly overweight, and suffering from various ailments, so he probably disgusted her.

Where Catherine Howard went wrong was in her incredible indiscretion, keeping all three men's letters and not bothering to conceal any of her relationships. From a 21st-century point of view, she had nothing to conceal as she was underage at the time, so it wasn't her fault. But to someone as jealous, vindictive and brutal as Henry, it was fatal. (It was also assumed that both Catherine and all three men only wanted sex, no matter the true reasons why they met. Their motives were not sexual. Culpeper, for instance, probably wanted to advance his political career).

At any rate, Catherine was foolish and indiscreet, but probably (mostly) innocent. The other three men, I'm not sure about; but Dereham definitely didn't deserve what he got, which was hanging, drawing and quartering. (Culpeper and Catherine, due to their closeness to Henry, "escaped" with a simple beheading. Mannox was released because there was no evidence against him and because he gave evidence against Catherine. Compared to the others, he was very lucky).

[BBP]

From what I read on Wikipedia I would doubt that but this is hardly the place to discuss the history of Tudor Britain. Though tempting.

At any rate. if you haven't yet, Play Moebius! It's Pretty Good!

[BBP]

Played through it for full score, and I did. 678/676 points. Huzzah!

[Tawmis]

Played through it for full score, and I did. 678/676 points. Huzzah!

How I wish you'd do a Youtube channel. I love how you power through these games and have such great insights (posted here).