It's April 2043 and you, as Tex Murphy, the last of the old-style gumshoes, find yourself racing against time in the most dangerous game of your life.
What is the truth behind the rumored UFO crash at Roswell? Why did the military suddenly shut down and seal off the Roswell complex? And why the frequent references to the lost Mayan civilization?
The government has concealed the 20th century's greatest secret... Until now...
Age requirements: ESRB Rating: TEEN with Realistic Blood, Realistic Violence, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco.
Minimum system requirements: Windows XP or Windows Vista, 1 GHz Processor (1.4 GHz recommended), 256MB RAM (512 recommended), 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 8.1 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended), Mouse, Keyboard.
This is it! The pinnacle of what genre has to offer! Look no further if plot, characters, puzzles and everything in between is right up your alley!
If you don't know Tex Murphy, it's a shame. He's a likeable down-on-his-luck private investigator, who somehow always seems to get in trouble, get out of it again and save the world, probably without even knowing it himself. ... full review />
"The Pandora Directive", which is his fourth case, he even solves the mystery behind Area-51, uncover an ancient conspiracy and, if you've played it right, gets the girl in the end. Not bad for an ordinary guy who lives in post WWIII San Fransisco in a mutant neighbourhood. And yet, he still manages to be behind on his rent....
Tex is brilliantly played by co-creator Chris Jones. Always genuine, often funny and very human. He's the star in a wonderful cast of characters that will stay with you, long after you've turned your computer off.
The puzzles are good too, and if you find them too difficult, there's a hint system integrated in the game.
"So, how good is this game?" a few of you might ask. I'll tell you: it's so good, I wrote to the company and told them how good it was! And they sent me an autographed picture of Tex Murphy. My inner geek exploded!
Anyway, why are you still reading?!? Go download it! Go, go!!
The absolute best in its genre. Back when the FMV craze was a blank check to annoy players with low interactivity and cheap actors, one adventure got everything just right. Who could have expected so much depth from an FMV game?... full review
TPD seems to follow the blueprint used for Under a Killing Moon as a starting point, but everything feels less limited now. You start in the same office, on the same street, but very soon you’ll notice that many new exits and locations are available. Also, you have access to innumerable items and puzzles. You can find a puzzle almost everywhere, and many of them are really clever. Even if you get stumped at some point, you won’t be stuck there for long, as the priceless hint system from UAKM is back!
Once more, full 3D enviroments allow for exploration on a level absent in most adventures. Two difficulty levels are available: Entertainment (for casual gamers) and Game Players (with additional puzzles and content). Also, your choices during the game send you through different moral paths that lead to six different endings, some poignant, and some just over the top (Tex Murphy becomes a circus clown?).
The Pandora Directive especially benefits from the talents of a professional filmmaker, Adrian Carr. The sequences in UAKM were good, but they still had a staged feeling, like a line reading at worst. Now, you can feel the difference not only because of the improved “cinematic angles”, but also when you see the performances given by the actors, both professional and non-professional. You just have to compare the opening sequence in UAKM, with the stilted, heavily grunting and possibly confused Brian Keith, to the distinguished appearance made by Kevin McCarthy in the opening sequence in this game.
Chris Jones is back, better than ever, as Tex Murphy, and some supporting roles are filled in by TV veterans like Northern Exposure’s Barry Corbin (who has a great scene as a trigger-happy NSA agent), the beautiful Tanya Roberts, and even Wilford Brimley’s brother playing a famous conspiracy theorist!
This game is just like UAKM, only bigger and better. Still, you don’t need to play UAKM to enjoy this game. This one was my first Tex Murphy game, and I didn’t know who he was at the time, but I found out very soon that I was experiencing something special!
This is my favourite tex murphy game, I still play it ,10 yrs down the track I still enjoy it. There is no game that comes close to this. If you have never played it get ready for an adventure
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