Unfortunately, this extensive world-gallivanting often feels wasted, offering only glimpses of locations’ real-world counterparts, such as a single screen canal in Venice or a brief view of a catacomb in Paris. Each chapter introduces a new city and subsequent locations that must be explored, from Manhattan to Cairo and half a dozen places in between. This blending of historical fact with fantasy extends to the locales Malachi and David visit throughout their adventure. At the same time, we’re privy to Malachi’s knowledge and a wealth of historical facts that are both fascinating and informative, expanding the scope of the game and what someone might get out of it. His immense databank of knowledge allows him to appraise antiques for authenticity and narrow down historical similarities to a few choices.Īll of these mental exercises are placed in the player’s hands, requiring a keen eye and thoughtful consideration to reach the correct solution, but punishing a wrong answer only by asking you to try again. Like the current BBC Sherlock, Malachi can evaluate people by the most minute clues, from the age of their clothes to the style of their hair. This analysis takes many forms, acting as the end-goal for some chapters-like analyzing the murdered woman and which historical figure her life matches-or merely expanding our understanding of certain characters or objects in others. This method of solution also creates eureka moments when you encounter the use for an item you noticed previously and thought “Catalogue that in the ol’ brain box.” It gives the tiniest hint of role-playing as photographic memory savant Malachi, except he would never say “brain box.”īesides this refreshing approach to item management, Moebius introduces an even more engaging and important puzzle type that is built around Malachi’s mental abilities and their role in the story itself: data analysis. This does result in a lot of backtracking, but with self-contained chapters and quick teleportation at exits, return trips are a breeze. You may recognize an item you’ll need later-why else would your hotel closet be open and contain a single, examinable wire hanger?-but you can’t pick it up until you have an actual use for it. To stay true to the mostly logical and modern real-world setting of Moebius, Malachi doesn’t stuff his pockets with random junk. As a classically-inspired point-and-click adventure, Malachi will tackle many of the expected inventory item puzzles. Those puzzles are the other key component to Moebius‘s plot-driven journey, and they blend seamlessly into the story. Of course, this unique assignment becomes the gateway to a much larger mystery and conspiracy that ensnares Malachi and the player for seven chapters. He is not expected to solve the murder, but simply research the woman’s life and use his talents to decide if her biography parallels that of anyone in history. We learn early on that this is no desk job: Malachi travels the globe to meet the needs of his clients and has been sent to the hospital by some who have received less savory appraisals.Īt the start of Moebius, Malachi is approached by a government agency, FITA, to investigate the death of a young woman in Venice. The story revolves around our protagonist, Malachi Rector, a world-renowned genius who utilizes his photographic memory and knowledge of history to appraise priceless antiques and expose fakes. Moebius maintains this focus on writing and story, playing out like a page-turner mystery that also happens to be filled with ingenious puzzles and challenges. Her commitment to quality writing, characters, and plot in each Gabriel Knight entry opened the point-and-click adventure up to explorations of deeper, more mature subjects that have persevered through modern entries like those from Wadjet Eye. Moebius: Empire Rising has an impressive adventure game pedigree thanks to creator Jane Jensen’s genre-defining work at Sierra, and on the Gabriel Knight series specifically. An adventure worthy of the name Jane Jensen
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