

That list of flaws has probably scared off a few of you, and that’s a shame, because pretty much everything else about Moebius: Empire Rising is pretty damn good. One puzzle – which is, honestly, barely a puzzle – has a solution so boneheadedly specific that I actually thought the game had bugged, because the next location I needed to visit hadn’t been added to my map. One or two of the backgrounds are horrendously low-resolution, possibly because they were all drawn to similar size but a few of them are for significantly wider areas. There are occasional pauses between ordering Malachi to do something, and him actually doing it. The lip-synching is so bad it’s distracting. So, before I get onto the good stuff, let’s quickly go over the rubbish.Īnimations are janky, particularly some of Malachi’s walking animations (although the developers have told me that some of this might be down to my refresh rate).

Malachi has the amazing superpower to mentally disparage anyone’s home decor, no matter the circumstances.Īlas, there’s a surprising amount to dislike about Moebius… but very little of it actually matters because the core bits of the game – the writing, the story, the puzzle-solving – are all rather strong. Then, while he’s trying to make historical connections, people start trying to kill him and he’s going to have to figure out very quickly what’s going on. Rector’s photographic memory, excessive knowledge of history, and uncanny ability to size objects and people up at a glance are called on by a mysterious government agency who want him to travel to Venice and determine whether or not a young murdered woman reminds him of anyone in history. It’s like having (a significantly less annoying) Simon Cowell running a house makeover show in which he appraises their antiques while deriding their taste.

He’s rather more upscale than Knight, and if I’m honest, I’m a pretty big fan of the way most of his “Examine” responses are him talking about how shit everyone’s furnishings are. Here, it’s Malachi Rector, the brilliant-but-arrogant antiques dealer with a photographic memory. There, of course, it was the charming-but-sleazy Gabriel Knight, unsuccessful writer and unsuccesful bookstore owner.
#Moebius empire rising professional#
Meet Malachi Rector, professional arsehole.
