![]() It's not all point-and-click in Moebius, though. Moebius' approach to puzzles doesn't make you feel smarter – it makes the game feel dumb. Conversely, if I know an item will be useful, I want to pick it up right away. In a point-and-click, I don't want to know that I'll need a particular item until I figure out the puzzle myself. Then it's out of the canal, back to the mansion, into the flower pot, and back to the canal. Malachi sees the florist putty but can't touch it until he's visited all of the correct locations around Italy, and the story finally says he needs something sticky to solve this puzzle. Another of Moebius' padding mechanisms is a rash of illogical backtracking across cities and states for each mission. ![]() When you notice some florist putty protruding from a basket of flowers, it's obvious you'll need that for a coming puzzle – if only because it's not a sofa.īut I couldn't pick up that florist putty, at least not at first, when I knew I would need it later. The repetition of mundane items only lessens the mystery by making the truly useful things stand out more. Instead, the game is bloated with boring, unnecessary objects that the game itself repeatedly calls uninteresting. The items scattered around the antique shops and fancy mansions in Moebius, however, are devoid of anything useful in a mystery. There's nothing wrong with adding irrelevant details to a mystery game, things to throw off the player or lead the character to incorrect conclusions before revealing the final, brilliant master plan. Upon clicking it, the pop-up says, "It's a sofa." In one sitting room, I clicked on several vases and paintings that are "nothing interesting," before looking for some clues on the sofa. Unfortunately, most of them are also unimportant. Rooms are filled with paintings, knickknacks, flowers and rugs, and most of these things are clickable. The settings are generally pretty, done in an airy, hand-drawn art style with plenty of detail. The point-and-click gameplay is padded with pointless movements and backtracking, while the mechanics that pop up during moments of clue analysis are in need of editing.Īt its heart, Moebius is a point-and-click adventure, so let's start there. The character animation is on par with NMA's parody news videos: Characters are stiff, blocky 3D renders, and their lips move in opposition of whatever they say. Moebius feels cheap on multiple levels, including its uninspired relationships. Given the involvement of adventure game guru Jane Jensen, I expected Moebius to have sophisticated characters uncovering a mystery complete with adventure, thrills and, most of all, surprises.Īs it turns out, I've read better fanfiction. Moebius plays out like bad fanfiction – the action sequences are dramatized to the point of absurdity, the characters are caricatures rather than believable human beings, and the story is predictable. Hudson is Gretchen Stern, Rector's long-suffering assistant. John Watson is filled in by David Walker, an ex-military man who puts up with Rector's snark in order to protect him and Mrs. The Holmes role is played by Malachi Rector, a highly intelligent antiques dealer-turned-investigator who makes it clear he doesn't want anyone to care about him Dr. It's fitting that the story itself plays like a knock-off of previously written characters and storylines – most notably Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series. Moebius: Empire Rising is a game about history repeating itself, asking the player to investigate a string of people whose lives mirror those of famous, important figures throughout history.
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