What happened to the "true adventure" mode?

[exegete]

The Kickstarter campaign said that Moebius would have two modes:

What kinds of adventure game will Moebius be?  Hard?  Casual?

Our plan is to have a "casual" and a "true adventure" option at the start of the game.  This will allow us to provide an easier path through for those who are not hard-core players -- while allowing our 'true adventure' path to be uncompromised (and by uncompromised we mean classic Sierra-style puzzles).  We're looking forward to beta-testing with our studio CSG members and tuning the game.

A different section of the campaign said the "true adventure" mode would be "more challenging -- like the Gabriel Knight games".

What happened to that mode?  The whole game seemed to me to be very casual.  I don't think I encountered any classic Sierra-style puzzles, and although the subject matter was like the Gabriel Knight games, I didn't find Moebius to be challenging like the GK games (or at all, really).

Did Jane decide to compromise those elements, and if so does anyone know why?

[raVen image]

Seems like a reasonable question but your question has been lying here for more than a week without a response.  Clearly, you aren't going to get anything out of these guys.  I would take it to Jensen's forum and see if you can pin her down to an answer. 

http://forum.pinkertonroad.com/

[snabbott]

I agree that the Pinkerton Road forums are probably a better place for this question, as the Phoenix Online team were mainly implementing Jane's design.

It *could* be argued that the hints ARE the "casual" mode, but I agree that the puzzles could have been more challenging. I think it's just really hard to design good challenges that are logical and integrate well into the story. The other thing is that there has to be a balance where puzzles are challenging but solvable. Maybe I just wasn't very good at adventure games (or too impatient), but back in the days of Sierra, there were times that I felt like some of the puzzles were designed to sell hint books.

[raVen image]

The puzzles could have been more challenging.

Yes.   I was waiting for a "Le Serpent Rouge" or "Lewis Carroll Scavenger Hunt" type of puzzle that never came.   "Moebius" never gave us a compelling or fascinating puzzle that kept us awake at night pondering.   Everything was just a standard kind of puzzle, that took no consideration to solve.

You may tout the character/artifact analysis puzzles as "new and different" and there is some merit to this notion.   But the crux of the game--the "moebius theory" of repeated lives--puzzles could each be solved within 30 seconds once the player realises the pattern of the puzzle ( which is a simple process of elimination).  All of the text describing the historical figures is a smokescreen because the mechanics of the puzzle only requires a visual observation of the photos/paintings.   It's an interesting idea, but the execution falls completely flat.

Ultimately, the puzzles are all flat and unremarkable things.   They are staples of adventure gaming but they never rise above that level of mediocrity.

Likewise the evaluation of NPCs is equally simplistic.  One you understand Rector's motivation, all you have to do is choose the snarkiest description to get the correct answer within seconds.

And the maze (which serves as a third act???) is the easiest maze I've ever encountered in an adventure game.   It was impossible to get lost, even if you ignored the obvious markers.