Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure

I purchased, played, and finished every Tex Murphy adventure back in the 90's. The last time I played was back 1998... It had been soon long, that I forgotten how much fun it was to play. The developers did a great job creating a Tex Murphy game. The plot is good, and video and voice acting was the same as the old games. If you like the old games from the 90's, get this one. Now my biggest issue with the game is, well it seems incomplete. Like they had plans for so much more... But didn't do anything with many of the sets they built. The Largest level is a 4 level base. And yeah you run around doing stuff in it.... But so much of the base is empty of things to do. I saw places that to me clearly looked like they were going to do stuff, but didn't. At one point you find a active remote control console, but you never use it. Clearly they were thinking about it... Just didn't pan out. There's a new club that you go to some trouble to get the access card. Only you never have to go to the club, or use the card. I'll play it again, to see a different ending. It does have 5 different endings. If your a fan of the old series, only one ending is truly happy... I mean for a game that brags they filmed 160 hours of video, only used 6 hours.... I have the feeling they left a lot unfinished and cut. But I still give this game 4 stars. It's a great game to wrap up the story... I just hope Tex returns again!

LOVED this game and all other Tex Murphy games. I remember being a kid and playing Under a killing Moon and that did it for me. From UAKM thru Tesla Effect, these are all interactive movies and a breakthrough for its time (early 90s)...humor is spot on and the music, as always, is awesome. By far, my favorite game series that has a good ending that really raps things up while leaving the door open for possible future Tex games....

Under a Killing Moon and The Pandora Directive were great games, the first because of the mysterious plot, the sense of freedom, the humor, the varied locations and the fact that it was so damn fun to play, despite the high corn factor. TPD had a well-written story, solid gameplay and the choices you could make were subtle and had a real impact on your character, which had an effect on people around you, and, in turn, on the outcome of the game. I felt let down by the Tesla Effect for a couple of reasons. My gripes from big to small: (*Possible spoilers*) - The game is too easy: you almost never feel clever for achieving something. Example: when you leave your office for the first time you'll notice a suspiciously open window in the building across your office. Before you can review your options on how to get in there, you're being handed the answer. Another example is when you find a zip-line trolley. No sense in trying to figure out where to use it on as there is an empty box for the item near it spoon-feeding you: this is the spot. - The story is all over the place: not only are you trying to find out what exactly happened to you and Chelsee and why, you have to deal with a Doomsday machine that also happens to be a device to communicate with the dead apparently and you discover that you were someone else about a hundred years ago (really!?) and something with a Farbergé egg. It was confusing as hell and I still don't know the answers to the first questions. - Smart Alex, your virtual buddy, is annoying and unnecessary. He scoffs you (in an unfunny matter) when you try to combine two items or do something that doesn't have the desired effect. I thought this was game design 101: never insult the player. - Choices are not so subtle this time around. Changes in (the outcome of) the story always seem to be dependent on (not) rejecting a woman in the game. (To be honest, I have only seen one ending: the reunion with Chelsee.) - You get points for simply looking at everything in your inventory and talking about everything to everyone instead of making sensible queries, looking at important stuff or solving a puzzle efficiently. - Most of the locations aren't very well-designed or just downright ugly. Notable exception: the beach house. - Puzzles don't really blend well with the game, admittedly not unlike the ones in the Mayan temple in TPD. - Old characters (Archie Ellis) and flashbacks (the NSA card) sometimes are clumsily shoehorned into the game, as are some of the new characters, e.g. Taylor, who has nothing else to do besides being one of Tex's love interests. - The feeling of being a detective is reduced as you aren't offered the opportunity to piece together torn up paper, really examine stuff or snoop under desks anymore (there's no crouch button). The latter was a unique selling point back in the day for UaKM. All in all, for me this was quite a let-down, especially compared to Under a Killing Moon and The Pandora Directive, the two masterpieces of this series.

Absolutely FANTASTIC! Firstly I love the way that they went with the original actors and not CGI models. Secondly seeing Tex again was like wallowing in bliss... and battling through to find out the fate of another important character was a marvellous adventure with an awesome payoff. I also found it amusing that, just like with the originals, I had to turn the settings down to the minimum to play it on my ageing laptop! :D

This is easily the best Tex Murphy Adventure, a series which started in the nader of adventure games, but has steadily rose with each title to become slightly better than average. What makes this game the best of the bunch is that the acting has finally risen to a high enough standard that I can stand it. It also has more puzzles than previous titles, I particularly liked the section in the Tesla labs, although other reviewers didn't. I suppose because it was sort of horror/stealth puzzle thing and other games have done that a lot better. But still I liked it here, and it's one of the few times in the Tex series where I felt some atmosphere building. (the puzzles in the secret society temple, on the other hand, should have been cut from the game.) What this game doesn't do so well is tell a coherent plot. Overseer was much better at that. SPOILERS below. Here there are just so many characters and lose ends. And most of them have little to do with the mystery. I think this had to do with the way the story was written and expectations. They had to at least name drop everything from the Overseer cliffhanger and the Tex Murphy Radio Theater, but frankly the kiddnapping of Chelsee and the Tesla Egg stuff should have maybe been two tandem mysteries rather than worked together. And even still it doesn't follow history, because in Overseer, Chelsee was living in the same apartment complex as Tex, and that's a part of the plot here. Also, if Chelsee had always been able to contact Tex and just didn't she's kind of a crappy person. (meanwhile in the Radio play she had tried to leave a clue for him) (But maybe that's why they gave Tex two more reasonable love interests this time.)