If only every other would be like this...
But once a while even this genre bring something unique - a must play if you will. And Gemini Rue is one of them. You realize from the first moment you start playing, this is indeed more than your average adventure and I mean on general level - read "for everyone" not just fans of the genre.
Gemini Rue is very dark, serious story adventure game setup during times when humans colonized space. Weather is bad, cities are dirty and corruption is everywhere. Thats the feel of game and wonderful music only add to it. You start as cop investigator, looking for your brother that was supposedly captured and imprisoned in kind of rehabilitation center hidden somewhere in galaxy where they are erasing memories and injecting people with new identity. Thats the start but story twists in such way you won`t believe it. Especially the last part of game, where others would just give up(giving you some silly ending or explanation) you get such incredible twists it may make you cry. If you though other adventure games have great story then wait till you finish this.
Another aspect of genre are puzzles and they relevance thereof. Even the most acclaimed games of the past tend to contain a lot of illogical puzzles that ruin experience, often resort to walkthrough. This is one of very few adventure games where I haven`t felt it. Every action you do make sense thereof resulting in progress. Just think what you would do in real life - with limit of game abilities and items available of course and puzzles are clear. Its not perfect but right direction. If there is one thing that could make you stuck its because interface, I`ll get to that soon.
Dialogs along with a story are as natural as it get. Wonderful writing, everything make sense, its so good you forget you`re playing game.
There are action shooting sequences where you fire from the cover and its about correct timing. If its good or bad is up to you, I like it but don`t like too many buttons, especially extra "ctrl" for headshots.
Game have some negatives though and even though I completely love it won`t be fair if I don`t mention them:
Resolution. Its(you better sit before I...) 320x240 with possibility of upscaling through various filters, like ones often used in emulators(hq2x,...). It looks like game made for DOS. I believe this must have been intended to look like retro - and it really does give you that warm, old school feel... but am still surprised. At this point I don`t see it as a flaw although I mention it here, its because others may have problem with that.
Interface use old system when you had to click on mouth to speak, foot to kick, hand to manipulate etc... again am sure this will be a welcome for many. But there is one thing I don`t like: default action. In other games, default action is when you click on something and it does same predefined stuff - like clicking on objects would give you its description, double clicking would manipulate it etc. Here system remember what you used last time(hand, foot, mouth...) and use it as default action until you manually use other element. So if I used mouth to speak to someone then I could just double click on other person to speak with, but if I double click on door game thing I want to speak with it instead of using it(hand). You see, this "remembering" system for default action plain suck big time - no other words around it.
There is more to interface, namely inventory. As far as I know, you cannot bring it just like that, only by right click on active item in the scene. If you would want to use the item, that would be used on active item in the scene you invoked inventory for. That logically makes you assume you won`t ever need to open inventory for anything else, but you will. Once in game you will need to combine 2 items - how you do that? You will right click on irrelevant active object in the scene just to invoke inventory(that have nothing to do with what you want to do), then right click `n drag one item to another.
Then there is at least one point where you need to examine item in inventory, again open it similar way as above and right+left click both buttons on item where right one(if I remember correct) must be pressed first.
Limited scope. When you first time access map in terminal, you will be blown by how big this game is. You are located in one specific district of the city which already consist from several screens. But there are more districts on the map, there are more cities on the planet, there are more planets/colonies/spots on the galaxy map! Well, actually no, that one small district you are in + 5 floor rehabilitation center(you play 2 characters) is almost ONLY place you visit for 99,999% of the game. When you count all your fingers + on your feet`s, about that many screens game may have(ok with your sister together ^_^).
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Overall, this is one kickass product(now where did I heard it)! No but really, it got almost everything right. And it will hook you from start until you finish it. And when you do, you realize this game actually had one of the better stories out there. I would even go as far as to recommend it to people who don`t like adventure games in general. Even if you prefer action games, or have just build your new powerful rig and want to get most out of it by playing graphically stunning and demanding games, please DO find your precious time, whether sooner or later... and play this little gem.