Tex Murphy: Mean Streets + Martian Memorandum

The chances are that (like me) you already know what to expect and just want to know if it's worth it. If you're not into adventure game history, or you're not looking to play through all Tex Murphy, don't bother. Other adventure games are more worthy of your time. If you're still unsure, just play them. I knew they would be dated and awkward before I went in and I really enjoyed them (especially Mean Streets). They have interesting features and a fun story. They are not that long (5-8 hours) so (especially with a walkthrough), they won't steal much of your time. If you make sure you make multiple saves, and save BEFORE entering new locations, it's totally possible without a walkthrough. To minimise frustration: MEAN STREETS is a little awkward to play at first, but: - Check the manual for the list of usable words, and always ask all of them. - Write any names or locations down and always ask about all of them. - Always check a new person or location with your secretary. - Sometimes you need to LOOK at items again after you OPEN them to reveal hidden objects. - It's actually fine just to use the autopilot in the vehicle - read how to do it in the manual. MARTIAN MEMORANDUM is more fun than people give it credit for. Here are some pointers to avoid dead ends (VERY mild, necessary, spoilers): - The HELP button will give you a list of all objects in the current area which you should know about. If it's not there, you don't need it. Check them all before leaving Earth; you can't go back. - The duct section is easy if you stop and figure out where you are on the map and which direction you're facing. - The laser and quicksand areas are OK if you save along the way. - You CAN kill the snake. - You must enter the side alley on Mars before you leave the first screen or you can't go back. - If you trigger a conversation where you are left alone in an office, reload. You've triggered an unstoppable timer. Only do it when you know why.

The entire series of Tex Murphy Adventure games, some combined with little cutscenes of FMV are what got me into computer gaming in the first place (well, not including Sierra's Quest for Glory and King's Quest, of course). The "Golden" age of originals offered truly talented, quality substance in story telling, with built in intrique as well as humor (important!) and to my mind, much of that integrity is pretty much gone from games, at least for now. Back then, creative development was then only able to utilize what is now the mere backbone of today's gaming technology. Perhaps more talent will emerge eventually, however, for now, I believe these are so much more immersive and endearing than most any copy-cat "Retro" style or other current day even orginal detective mystery adventures available. I am so grateful these can still be played, thanks to GOG. These are gems and like good diamonds truly won't ever get too old imo. If you are an adventure gamer, check them out and keep your tolerance hat on because due to their age, they deserve a little respect and a bit of a good-will attitude. THANK YOU GOG for including these in your PRESERVATION PROGRAM!!!

MEAN STREETS: Back in 1989, 'Mean Streets' was as close to a cinematic video game experience as we could get. Seeing the game box cover rendered exactly as it was on screen in 256-colour VGA graphics, and hearing snippets of actual human speech and synthesized music playing through my PC speakers were simply astounding. I didn't know it at the time, but much of the visual design in 'MS' was inspired by, if not ripped off from, 'Blade Runner'. From Murphy's fashion sense to his hovercar to his image-enhancing video phone, 'MS' was pretty shameless in replicating the movie's style. Despite knowing this today, the rip-off doesn't bother me because 'MS' is a solid, hardboiled mystery or futuristic pulp fiction at its core. What makes 'MS' not so great now is that it was a poor mix of adventure, interrogation, flight simulation, and side-scrolling action games. While the first two worked well together, the latter two were wholly unnecessarily. The graphics and sounds for the flight simulator did not mesh well with the rest of the game, and the side-scrolling shooter was half-baked and simplistic. But back in the day as a teen, I admittedly thought this mix of genres was ingenious. The joy of playing 'MS' was unravelling the mystery bit by bit. Over 15 years later and now an adult, I still enjoy the "pulpiness" of this game, and would recommend it in a heartbeat. MARTIAN MEMORANDUM: On the other hand, I was disappointed by 'Martian Memorandum'. Okay, it was not that bad, just mediocre compared to its contemporaries like 'Conquests of the Longbow', 'Space Quest IV' and 'Monkey Island 2', to name a few. This game obviously took visual inspirations from Paul Verhoven's 'Total Recall', but did it really need to use so much reddish brown colours? The game strived for realism visually, but a lot of the time, I had no idea what I was looking at, let alone find my character on screen. It was hard not to fault 'MM' when 'SQ4' managed to strike a balance between its use of reddish hues and making manipulable objects obvious. In truth, I actually found the colours, graphics, speech and music in 'MS' more pleasing. Plus, the game interface in 'MM' didn't get better, if not got worse. Despite being a point-and-click adventure game, it was perplexing that I needed to select the “MOVE” command, and not “USE”, to turn on or off a switch. Also, why would I need to first click the “GOTO' command to exit the screen when walking off it would have sufficed? Thankfully then, 'MM' was a more focused game without the unnecessary flight simulator and side-scrolling action bits. Still, you would think that the developers would have spent more time polishing 'MM' up. On the contrary, game backgrounds were mostly static, and character animations were few. When opening or moving an object, your character would stand still and complete the action even though he was physically far away; yet, you would need to move him close to the object first to pick it up or use it. This lack of detail was disappointing, especially when Sierra and LucasArts had done better during that time. 'MM', while a serviceable detective adventure game, just couldn't compare to other better made adventure games at the time. The story was not too bad, but some puzzles could be obtuse though not requiring "moon logic" (or is it "Martian logic"?). Give it a try if you have time, but it doesn't get a hearty recommendation from me.

I first played this back when it came out. On a Commodore 64.... Honestly I was blown away that somehow they squeezed digitized animation of actual actors onto 5 1/4 floppy disks that could run on a 8 bit computer with 64k of memory! I usually let the auto pilot handle the aerial transport. The side scrolling combat while you were trying to get to the place you were investigating made for a welcome change from your normal point and click adventures of the time. I really enjoyed the story and I can recommend this. The caveats are mostly due to its era. If you want high graphical fidelity, this is probably not the game for you. Its an 8bit game and everything that goes with 8 bit games. Still, if you can get past the graphics and the oddness of having a flight sim, side scrolling shooter, and point and click detective generas all thrown into one game, you will probably enjoy this.

Mean Streets should be considered unplayable by today's standards. You will rip your hair out! If you can still be bothered, make sure to have a pen and BIG pad handy, because you play this game half on screen, and half on paper. Also, you have to get from one location to another by playing another game, called "Mean Streets Flight Simulator". Seriously, you have to actually fly from one play to another. You can use autopilot, but it still takes as long! If you want to experience the story, rather play "Tex Murphy:Overseer" To be fair, Mean Streets has a great story is full of suspense and is really a great game, but it is a bit like the difference between silent movies and today's hollywood SFX blockbusters. Martian Memorandum, though, is definately one of the adventure game greats, and is still enjoyable today!