For a long time, nobody had heard much about Gray Matter. Since the press conference last August, where Jane Jensen presented the first concepts of her new adventure with German publisher dtp, there hasn't really been much to write about. Recently, however, we were able to get our first look at the game, as acclaimed game designer Jane Jensen was in Hamburg to present an early version of the upcoming title.

In the introduction, players are introduced to Samantha "Sam" Everett, who is travelling through Europe on her motorbike, following her passion as a street artist of magic. In the first few minutes of the game, Sam ends up in the manor of neurobiologist Dr. David Styles, a remodeled clinic in the woods of Oxford, which is quite convenient for the restless biker-lady. Through an associate, Sam learns that Styles is looking for a new assistant, and because the job promises a warm place to stay and a little payment, Sam pretends to be an Oxford student and takes the offer. The fact that she doesn't know what her new boss, whom she has never seen before, does in the cellar laboratory doesn't matter to her at all.

With her latest game, Jane Jensen wants to reach a more widespread audience than just the hardcore adventure community. As co-founder of Oberon Games, she has developed and published casual games for casual gamers in recent years, gaining a lot of important experience in this area. Not surprisingly, she was also successful at it, as it was Oberon who was asked by Microsoft to provide games to include with Windows Vista. The first evidence of Jane's plan to include more casual appeal is the tutorial, which introduces adventure greenhorns smoothly to the point-and-click control. Anybody who does not want to learn everything click by click can switch off the tutorial easily, and most adventure veterans will probably do so, as control is not difficult at all. While one mouse-key is used for exploring, the other one is used for contextual interactions like take, push or talk.

After the game's initial puzzle, Sam is sent on her first mission by Dr. Styles. To be precise, Styles leaves her a note, telling Sam that she should recruit six students from the nearby city for his next experiment. So the first encounter with the mysterious scientist still has to wait. As it turns out, finding volunteers who would undergo an unspecified scientific experiment for 15 dollars is much more difficult than Sam thought. Just mentioning the name of David Styles is enough for most respondents to lose their interest at once. Fortunately, there is a meeting of freshman students who are all new to the city.

Of course, the first of the game's eight chapters has more to offer than just convincing six freshmen to join you, which you'll do using methods typical to adventure games. In a magic shop, Sam stumbles across a scavenger hunt that leads her to places all over Oxford, arranged by an organization called the Daedalus Club. And when you start to interpret cryptically phrased texts, associate coats of arms to their Colleges and search existing places for the next hint, then it's back to the good old Gabriel Knight feeling. But you have to expect the level of difficulty to be far below Jane's famous trilogy. The sometimes obscenely hard Sierra classics are not considered compatible with the broad audience that the game is trying to reach. For the same reason, you won't die in the game and you won't need dexterity skills.

Sam Everett's ability as a magician is not just a background interest, but also affects the gameplay. Besides providing her with some magical implements, the 26-year old carries a magic book with her, which she can use to look up and perform certain tricks. This requires translating a description from the book into an "algorithm" which can be performed on demand. This happens when the player fills in three categories, one for an action, one for an object and one for a setting. With the right series of commands like "pull cards out of left sleeve" or "hide cassette in right hand", you'll be able to deceive other people.

Here the value of Jane Jensen as an experienced writer becomes obvious. Even in secondary issues such as magic, the author does not just make things up out of the blue, but has done a lot of research before the process of writing even began. From the vocabulary of the magician's book to the procedure of performing magic tricks to the authentic pack of cards (a red bicycle-deck), each detail fits perfectly with the real world's magical guild.

With casual gamers in mind, Jane has reactivated a relict of the past, which German developers have rejected in recent times: the score system. Instead of showing "3 from 3333 Points reached" like in the good old days of Sierra, now there is a progress bar for particular sets of puzzles. With this method the gamer can see with a single click how far they've come in recruiting students or in a scavenger hunt. If something is incomplete in either, the bar is not filled, and it be can easily seen in which area there is still something to be done.

With the first screenshots released, it became very clear that Tonuzaba know their business and will provide a great visual appearance for Gray Matter. Some finished scenes from the early version we saw looked very detailed and coherent. Sam Everett has been integrated very well into the background, thanks to the game's dynamic lightning, anti-aliasing and shading that already looks very nice. In Dread Hill House, the property of Dr. Styles, there are still some animations missing, but there is much more going on outside. There are birds flying, clouds crossing the sky and trees swaying in the wind.

The chance is "nearly 100%" that music will be provided by Jane Jensen's husband Robert Holmes, who also composed the music for the Gabriel Knight series. Apparently a contract hasn't been signed yet, but with such statements one can be fairly certain that it will happen in the near future. Even the placeholder piece from Holmes that has been implemented into the current version is able to create a really gripping atmosphere.



One thing is already certain at this point: Jane Jensen is back. Her new game promises two charismatic main characters that are anything but dull stereotypes, a deep story weaving between science and spirituality with a philosophical appeal, and mysterious riddles from ancient times based on fictional and non-fictional settings around the city of Oxford. Anybody who is not thinking of Gabriel Knight right now has obviously not played those earlier classics. However, Gray Matter is not just a poor copy of Jane's previous work, as it shows a lot of new ideas and influences, and many different characters can be discovered in her new game.

But she hasn't reached her goal yet. She could easily convince us of the great potential that lies within her new title, but it is still a long way until the game is finished. Even in the first chapter, many locations consisted of big grey dummy-blocks. Character animation only includes Sam so far and the finished backgrounds could use a little more animation. With the game scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2008, it seems an overly ambitious target at this point. And we would strongly encourage the game's publisher not to rush production just to meet a self-imposed deadline. If it takes more time to make the game as good as it can be, we will impatiently but willingly wait. Tonuzaba and dtp need to be thorough, do a good translation, conduct extensive testing, make it smooth in every way. Jane Jensen deserves it, and we the gamers also deserve it. It's been a long time since the last Gabriel Knight game, so we can surely wait as long as it takes to make Gray Matter a worthy successor.

This article was originally published on the German website Adventure-Treff. It has been translated and reprinted here with permission. Translation provided by Silke Stein.