NOCLIP Pocket E61 - Juice Heads - Gemini Rue

We hope you’ll listen to this podcast so we don’t have to wipe your
memory again. Welcome to Mystery May! This week, we’re going to be
talking about Gemini Rue, a detective point and click adventure
game with a cyberpunk setting. This game came out during an era
that you could call the Adventure game revival period, if you think
the genre actually was revived at some point, but the important
thing is that it is obvious the design was inspired by classic
adventure games. There are several ways to interact with objects in
the environment, an inventory system and progress is made by
solving puzzles. There are a few wrinkles here, a gunfight mechanic
as well as the ability to swap between two playable characters, but
these don’t act to really shake up the basic functionality of the
genre and the result is something that feels very retro. While the
adherence to the old adventure game style is a strength if you are
a fan of the genre, the real appeal here is a very competently told
story that, yes, contains its fair share of mysteries. It could
have done more to work the detective angle and make the player work
to figure out the solutions to those mysteries, but watching it
unfold is still an entertaining experience. We’re going to be
talking about economic use of assets that work from both a design
perspective and also fit thematically within the game world itself,
voice acting taking the story telling potential of the game to
another level, and we construct a food metaphor so deft it will
finally get us the recognition we deserve. Thank you for joining us
this week! We’re having a truncated Mystery May this year with only
two episodes, but I think the game selection ended up pretty strong
nonetheless. Have you played this game before, or were you
compelled by this episode to pick it up? Do you find point and
click games boring and obtuse, a genre that only appeals to sleepy
old men and pedants? Let us know down in the comments or over on
Discord! And while you’re over there, drop us a suggestion for a
game to play, which I mention because… our next game is the
inspiration for Fanbruary (which we’d recommend checking out if you
haven’t already), Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures! We hope you’ll
join us for that.