Story-driven puzzle-adventure games are finding a new resurgence lately, with titles like Telltale’s The Walking Dead and Fables finding critical success in the typically first-person shooter dominated games market.
Jane Jensen is the veteran game designer from the days of Sierra Online with massively popular games like King’s Quest and Gabriel Knight to her credit.
Developed by her new venture Pinkerton Road, funded via Kickstarter and published by Phoenix Online Studios, Moebius: Empire Rising is the first installment in a planned series revolving around Malachi Rector, a modern-day take on Sherlock Holmes with an attitude.
His bodyguard, David Walker, is a bad-joke loving ex-special forces badass with a heart of gold. It’s these two that form the central relationship in the game story, a nice break from the typical romantic love-interest interactions we see all too often.
Moebius tells the story of the sarcastic but brilliant Rector as he heads to Venice to find out if a recently murdered woman resembles another historical figure. What he finds during his investigation will bring a mysterious and powerful paranormal secret the US government will protect at all costs — even his life.
That’s where the bodyguard comes in. Walker is calm, experienced, and much better with a gun than Rector can ever hope to be. He also offers the comic relief, cracking bad jokes to make Rector — and the rest of us — cringe. (Did you hear the one about the Buddist who asked the hot dog vendor to make him one with everything?)
The narrative-based puzzle-adventure game is a great way to spend some gaming time, expecially if you’re sick to death of the same old FPS or MMO and need a bit of a break, but stil want something deeper than an Angry Birds session on your iPhone.
You can grab your copy for Mac or PC now, or wait a bit until it’s available on iPad, Linux, and Android later this year.
Source: Phoenix Online Studios
