Gemini Rue (PC) Review

This is not actually a WadjetEye Games-developed title, with it coming from a chap called Joshua Nuernberger instead, and Dave Gilbert's company simply acting as publisher. The difference is noticeable immediately, with poor visuals that aim for a retro style but look muddy and generic, stale gameplay, awful controls, and a poor user interface, to boot, as well as many other issues.

Anyway, first things first - the setup of Gemini Rue catches the eye, with a dark, sci-fi setting, where Azriel Odin, a former-assassin-turned-policeman, is guided down on the gritty streets as he searches for information about his missing brother. There is also another person that needs assistance, and that is a nameless person that goes by the given codename of Delta Six, someone who recently had his memory wiped and is looking for answers as to why this happened and how to escape from the sterile facility he is being held captive in. The story gets the mind racing from the off, with thoughts turning to Delta Six being Azriel's missing brother, and the way the tale unfolds is certainly impressive enough to keep working through to find out where all the twists and turns eventually lead to come credits time. With a great soundtrack that suits the gloomy atmosphere, the positives, unfortunately, end there.

For all the intriguing plot points, there are just too many frustrating moments in the gameplay stakes for this to be worthy of all the accolades heaped upon it. Get ready for a lot of niggling complaints that all accumulate to make Gemini Rue a frustrating experience that is only for those desperate for something to scratch their point-and-click itch when nothing else is available. There is a desire to enjoy, as it has a certain something that entices, promising to deliver, yet too many issues on the design front hold it back, stretching that desire to its limits.

Here are some examples… Clicking on a door to open it should lead to it indeed opening and progress through it occurring, but no, Azriel / Delta Six does not go through, leading instead to the empty space where said door previously was, needing to be clicked again in order to make progress continue. Even more bizarre is when hovering the cursor over an already open access point, or passageway entrance/egress, and seeing an 'Exit' notice pop up - using the 'hand' icon too often leads not to going through it, but merely bringing the character right up to the screen's edge without going further, since the game does not always register the user's intentions because the screen was not clicked on far enough left or right! Madness, right? Especially when the 'puzzles' usually just involve going backwards and forwards on fetch quests, rather than actually using brainpower to crack crafty conundrums. It gets worse…

Finding something that needs to be interacted with further along the screen often means that gamers will want to save time by clicking on it and waiting for their lead to mosey on over and then interact with it in whatever way was requested. Not here, though! That would be too easy. Using the appropriate icon to look/touch/talk will only result in a message popping up, proclaiming that the character is too far away, meaning that walking closer and then doing the action again is necessary. There is no logic to how this plays out. The slow walking pace that is such a bug-bear early on in the adventure, does finally get a random upgrade to help alleviate the pain of walking so much in the constant hikes back and forth, with this aspect supposedly negated by hitting the 'Escape' key to skip the walking and arrive at the final destination, yet in many circumstances the AI simply fails to recognise the input in the correct way, merely bringing up the menu screen, and even causing a crash towards the latter part of the journey.

Additionally, the only way to access the inventory is seemingly to click on any random object to bring up the action icons, where any items held on the character's person are stored underneath, leading to ridiculous situations where something inconsequential needs to be clicked on, just to use an item on the protagonist himself. It is all so poorly thought out. Then there is the shooting elements that are shoe-horned in, causing all manner of problems in what is otherwise a regular (if mundane) adventure romp. Hiding behind objects and having to pop out and wait for a concentration gauge to fill, before pumping lead into some impending threat, proves to not only be harder than it sounds later on, but gives no sense of satisfaction upon completion, nor does it fit in with the rest of the style, ending up being a very confusing addition, and one that fails epically.

It is so sad to see such potential wasted by such a broken end product. Even the old chore of having to select something from the environment and every single time choose whether to look at, talk to, touch, and so on, should simply not be there - there is good reason for this archaic menu interface to be relegated many moons ago. There is a semi-solution on offer, and that is to allow for double-clicking on anything resulting in triggering whatever action was previously used, yet with the need to mix things up, rather than always, for instance, use the touch icon, there are far too many moments of 'I should try talking to them first' or 'Why would I want to touch that?' cropping up, when actually needing to speak to someone or view something is what really needs to be carried out. Everything is clunky and spoils the otherwise any intrigue the tale has. A major disappointment… Finally, to rub salt in the wounds, there is a chance that save files will not be stored in the usual Steam folder, since a configuration screen pops up before the game launches, and if anything is amended, saves go into another directory that the Steam application does not check, leading to a search and then copy/paste process being required. Over four years and no fix for this? Poor show, indeed.