Enter the Virtual World of Under a Killing Moon, where it is December 2042 and you as Tex Murphy, must stop the forces of evil before they destroy mankind and rob you of your next unemployment check.
This thrilling and hilarious adventure will make you feel like you've actually walked through the screen and become the main character in a rich, intriguing mystery movie.
Become a part of an exciting comedy thriller.
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.
One time, during the 90s, full-motion-video (FMV) adventures had a chance. Thanks to CD-ROM improved storage capacity, everybody and their uncle tried to imitate The 7th Guest and Myst, and jump on the FMV craze. Many of them thought filming amateur actors in front of a green screen was enough, and many less-than-compelling games were released.... full review
But somewhere in Salt Lake City, this was the perfect opportunity for a group of designers that had been creating adventure games with digitized graphics for a long time. Somehow, they had managed to cram digitized speech and graphics in floppy-disk games! Free from space constraints, they could now focus on great design. And they certainly did!
The main diference with other FMV games, apart from the great design, is in the full-3D environments. While other titles allowed you to just move through pre-rendered animations, in UAKM you could literally move anywhere, like in a regular FPS (no shooting here, though). There's nothing like the feeling of discovery you get when you interact with the environment in unexpected ways! Imagine ducking next to a table and finding a note taped under the drawer and you'll see what I mean.
This game also foreshadows the puzzle extravaganza at the heart of the next title, The Pandora Directive. Also, there's a cast of well-known B actors (James Earl Jones provides the narration!) and Access Software employees (with the surprisingly good Chris Jones as Tex Murphy) doing a decent job. There's also a handy built-in hint system which is really helpful to avoid those "I don't know what to do now!" moments.
This is one of the best games of the 90s. If more games like this had been made, FMV wouldn't be reviled now. Maybe even the adventure game as a genre would still be here today.
So there I was, holding a game in my hands that i've never heard about before. I was really curious about it's graphics and noir style and since it was cheap (I found it as a bargain in a shop i knew) i though "heh, why not".... full review
A game with 4 cd's was rare back in those days. Only FMV's games like Phantasmagoria, Gabriel Knight 2, etc, had them so I was thrilled to try another one of that kind of games. And I was blown away.
The freedom of strolling around in a post-apocalyptic city, the dialogs, the quality of the cinematics, everything was top-notch.
I like to divide the game into 3 types of gameplay:
- Exploration: walking around freely either in town or other places
- Puzzle/"Quest" solving: using items, solving puzzles, etc
- Dialogues: like the name says, talking to other characters which is a fundamental part of the game
All these 3 parts combined made one hell of a game and let's face it, it wouldn't be the same without Chris Jones playing Tex Murphy.
And here I am, buying the game again just to travel again to New San Francisco.
When I first saw this game I was at Comdex in Vegas (before E3). My friend was in the Intel booth watching some promo film and when he came out I showed him all the junk I got from the different booths. He showed me his copy of O/S 2 Warp and a game called Under a Killing Moon. I looked at the back of the box and I had to have it. Keep in mind that all we had to play was Wolfenstein... full review and DOOM. My friend told me they gave it away for FREE. So I got it home and it wouldn't run on my computer. The system requirements were to steep. I went over to another friends house that had the best computer I knew of with 4 mb of ram and a 100 mhz Intel. We plugged it in and were immediately drawn in by the story and dark humor. The game was incredible for it's time with full motion video in it with a 3-D environment. I had never in my life seen a game like it. I have yet to see a game that can match it. It has an 80's pop culture feel to it with a sci-fi spin. There are alot of colorful characters and mutants to talk to not to mention a case to solve, lots of fascinating puzzles and side interests. If you’re a fan of Fallout or Wasteland then this game is for you. Where as it's not a free to do what you want environment but the story is along the lines of being campy post nuclear. The controls are a little clunky where you have to press the spacebar to switch to the walk mode and press it again to switch back to the rendered environment. That's the only downside that comes to mind. It is a SOLID GAME, back when they still knew how to make them. It even has an in game hint system if you get stuck. I'm sure Sierra would of killed to have this game as part of their catalog of adventure games. Bottom line if you love adventure games and have a place in your heart for a good mystery BUY THIS GAME.
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