Gemini Rue Keeps Sci-Fi Breath in Adventure Genre

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
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Gemini Rue Keeps Sci-Fi Breath in Adventure Genre


Wadjet Eye Games has announced the impending release of Gemini Rue, a sci-fi thriller that adventure game fans need to take a look at.

Telltale Games isn't the only company keeping the adventure game genre alive, there are also plenty of independent outfits like Wadjet Eye Games doing the same. For the company's next game, they've teamed up with Gemini Rue [http://jburger.blogspot.com/], a sci-fi noir adventure that follows two very different characters that are connected through fate, despite being a galaxy apart.

Players begin the game in the shoes of Azriel Odin, ex-assassin and now police officer looking for a defector from the violent Boryokudan crime syndicate on the planet Barracus. Later, players take on the role of a man known only as Delta-Six, who awakens in a hospital after having his memory wiped by a bunch of doctors, Total Recall [http://www.amazon.com/Total-Recall-Arnold-Schwarzenegger/dp/B00070FX5U] style.

Wadjet was nice enough to let me take a look at a preview build, and it reeled me in from the get-go. Keep in mind that I was already a sci-fi, noir, and adventure game fan, so it's almost like Nuernberger made this game just for me. Thanks, man.

I'm a sucker for pixelated rain effects like those in Gemini Rue, but that's not all the game has going for it. Barracus is the epitome of a dystopia, with "juice" addicts huddled in dilapidated alleyways, loudspeakers periodically informing citizens that enforcement has been dispatched to take care of "defectors," and scary guys in suits watching your every move just waiting for you to step out of line. This is all within the first few minutes, by the way.

Gemini Rue plays like your typical adventure game, giving players the ability to use "eye," "hand," and "mouth" icons on the environment, but it throws in a "foot" icon too just in case you need to kick a door down here or there. Players have a futuristic communicator at their disposal, which keeps track of notes and important details while additionally serving as a phone. An interesting component of Gemini Rue also comes from the inclusion of a gun in Odin's inventory, which is actually used for action-based gunplay sequences.

If you look closely, you might even see some interesting cameos in Gemini Rue by characters from popular media. Wadjet Eye has been known for quality adventure games like the Puzzle Bots [http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/bwbundle.htm], but Gemini Rue might be one of its most intriguing yet.

Gemini Rue will be available from Wadjet Eye Games [http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/geminirue.htm] on February 24 with preorders currently open. The downloadable version is priced at $14.99, while a limited edition CD version is also available for $24.99 that includes the game on disc, the full MP3 soundtrack, professional packaging, and additional access to the downloadable version. Adventure game fans, take note.


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The Random One

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May 29, 2008
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Wadjet Eye makes great games, but can't price them properly for their lives. They may be one of the most polished indie games out there, but not that much. I was pleasantly surprised to learn of their end of year sale last month that allowed me to buy their much hyped Blackwell trilogy, although my game backlog is so great I probably won't get to play them until 2020.

Likewise, I probably won't be able to play Gemini Rue until it's a historical documentary, but I love adventure games and sci-fi and noir as well, so I will definitively get to it... eventually.
 

coldfrog

Can you feel around inside?
Dec 22, 2008
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I'm sold. Where do I sign?

This sounds like a ton of things I've just been itching for, and while I love the old lucasarts adventure games, you can only play Grim Fandango so many time before you... erm... before... Hmm. Let me rethink that phrase while I go collect another ticket to the ninth underworld.

Meanwhile, I'll keep an eye out for this. It sounds like everything I could want, as long as their action sequences aren't rather lame (a la Sam and Max's reboot. I'm so sick of running things over with that car!)
 

Cyberjester

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Oct 10, 2009
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Only $25? I've paid more for the soundtracks. Although admittedly the soundtrack wasn't in MP3.

Unfortunately there's too many collectors editions coming out this year, and my backlog is already jammed for the next millenia. But I do like adventure games..

More Ceville than noir, but could be good.
 

DanDeFool

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Aug 19, 2009
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Reminds me of Yahtzee's Seven Days a Skeptic, but perhaps with less of a horror bent, and probably much higher production values. That's probably because it appears to use the same engine that Yahtzee built his games in (the name of the engine escapes me at the moment).

Anyway, this looks pretty cool.
 

Technocrat

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Nov 19, 2008
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RebellionXXI said:
Reminds me of Yahtzee's Seven Days a Skeptic, but perhaps with less of a horror bent, and probably much higher production values. That's probably because it appears to use the same engine that Yahtzee built his games in (the name of the engine escapes me at the moment).

Anyway, this looks pretty cool.
That'd be Adventure Game Studio (or, AGS). I've been fiddling with it myself, and managed to make a few adventures myself [http://www.bigbluecup.com/games.php?action=detail&id=1368]. It's pretty nifty, I recommend anyone vaguely interested in trying to make games give it a go.