App and game reviews by Mobilism's Android Reviews team
Feb 2nd, 2016, 12:18 am
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Game: Gemini Rue v1.2
Developer: Wadjet Eye Games
Category: Trivia/Puzzle
Price: $4.99
IAP: N/A

Gemini Rue is a 90's style cyberpunk pixel-based point-and-click adventure game that originally came out back in 2011 for PC and was ported to Android back in 2013. Within the retro trappings, despite a few small flaws, is in my view one of the best modern day adventure games in terms of story and atmosphere.

Without spoiling much of the story, Gemini Rue is set in the future with a classic cyberpunk type motif and initially involves an assassin type character named Azriel looking for someone, and a person with the name Delta-Six in an odd rehabilitation facility. It starts from the perspective of one character for the first hour or so, then switches to the other character for the next hour or so. After that, the game allows you to switch freely between the two characters at any time, so if you get stuck with one character, you can take a break of sorts by flipping to the other character. The story is very good, with strong character development, plot twists, and world-building all the way through. This is aided by solid voice-over work and a good sci-fi soundtrack, though I wish there were more music in spots.

Visually, if you like pixel-based work (which isn't for everyone), the game is impressive, with good animation and nicely detailed backgrounds that almost always have something going on to help breath life into the game world. From a gameplay standpoint, Gemini Rue's puzzles are relatively straightforward, with traditional inventory-type puzzles and environmental puzzles. There are a few gunfights in the game and you can die, but the gunfighting mechanic is easy to learn as well as having variable difficulty settings. The game also auto-saves whenever an action scene where you can die is about to occur to further protect your progress. The difficulty of the game is fairly balanced in terms of the puzzles, but you will have to do some exploring at points to prompt things where it won't hold your hand, and that can be tedious on occasion. The length of the game is solid at about eight to ten hours depending on the player's skill level, though as with most adventure games the replay value is limited, and with the retro style unsurprisingly the game runs well on older Android devices. In short, if you're a fan of adventure games and don't mind pixel art, Gemini Rue is certainly one of the best adventure games of the last ten years or so.

Pros:
  • Great story.
  • Solid gameplay length.
  • Good soundtrack/voice acting.
  • Excellent pixel-based art and animation.

Cons:
  • Needs more music.
  • Limited replay value.
  • Too much walking to find things.
  • Pixel art style is not for everyone.

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Reviewer rating: Image
Device/OS used: Samsung Galaxy Note 5/Lollipop 5.1.1, Samsung Galaxy Note 2/Kitkat 4.4.2

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Mobilism: Gemini Rue v1.2


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Feb 2nd, 2016, 12:18 am