I haven't played The Walking Dead, so I don't know what its puzzle content is. I do know however that it is marketed and accepted as an adventure game, and we can't fight change. I don't think the Witcher 3 is much of an RPG, but things are what they are.

No, that is absolutely not the case here. Poisoned Pawn started as fan based remake of Overseer (since Overseer is not running on several new systems anymore at all) and now became sort of a sequel including NEW FMV segments and original HD FMV segements. It will also contain an "Overseer" mode which is just an Overseer remake without the new bits. One of those "fans" is Mat Van Rhoon who did the amaziong FMVs effects inside of Tesla and because of the fact the work is so good they are now working as a co production with the original creators.

If you want to know more about Tex Murphy and especially The Posoned Pawn. Take a look at the making of and FAQ with Mat Van Rhoon, other devs of Poisoned Pawn and Aaron Conners himself here:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/206243281

If you should only be interested in the "Making of Tex Murphy" and don't want to use Twitch you can access it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tooF40ktbdM

Nearly all questions should be answered after this :)

Yes, it is marketed as adventure and accepted by some as adventure. However I would hardly consider this to be "advanced" (which you seem to agree to since you also put it in ""). It is a change for sure and the focus is away from puzzles to narration only which as seppelfred pointed out is more or less a choice based visual novel. This is why it's hard to still categorize them as "adventure" anymore. I like both "kinds" but would also always prefer the usual point and click adventures.

I have to confess that I did not play Observer yet but if it more or less the same as Layers of Fear it's imo more or less a (very good) walking simulator. Don't know much about Tacoma as well.

Regarding classic point and clicks (which means "solve environment and inventory puzzles to progress in the story) I don't think gameplay has advanced much. There are additional features nowadays like "hotspot finder" and maybe even autosave but apart from this I would say adventures stayed more or less the same gameplay wise.

I've always meant to try the Tex Murphy series, but the first game had such a clunky interface it was hard to get into.

Which one do you mean. The official first game Mean Streets was originally developed as a SciFi flight sim (watch documentary above) so no wonder ;) You should try to start with "Under a killing Moon" instead. Play Mean Street and Martian Memorandum after you played all the others and you just cannot get enough of Tex :)

My suggestion:
UAKM
Pandora Directive
Overseer (if it runs)
Tesla Effect

As bonus if wanted:
Martian Memorandum
Mean Streets

Since Overseer is more or less a retelling of Mean Streets you won't miss that much if you start with UAKM.

Yeah it was Mean Streets, the controls were really hard to figure out and I kind of put it off for the unlikely event that I got a year off in vacation.

So Killing Moon and then what?

See post above I added a list :)

Let me add that the controls in the usual Tex games especially in the VR sections are also a bit unusual but it's possible to enjoy them after a short time. It's unusual to move by moving the mouse ...

Thanks!

You're welcome. Hope you will enjoy the wonderful world of Tex Murphy and the character itself just like I did. :)
Imo the Tex Murphy games were one of the only few that did FMVgames right - meaning still offering classic adventure gameplay but also adding FMV to support it and VR to add something completely new.

I loved the Journeyman Project, not a good comparison, but FMV-goodness.

And btw: Poisoned Pawn is not intended to be the last Tex Murphy game as well:

"This new video game, developed by Chaotic Fusion and Big Finish Games, takes players through Tex Murphy's past and sets the stage for his final chapter. "

So there is still one last story to tell. :)
Agree - they were pretty good as well. There are a few enjoyable FMV games but unfortunately in several cases those games ended up in being B-style FMV with gameplay reduced to a bare minimum. Probably one reason why so many hated them (I am a big film fan myself so I was never one of those).

Does anyone know if the Poisoned Pawn is still in the works? I heard that they parted ways with the main studio but still have the rights to publish the game on their own. The main website is down, however, and I have found nothing on it. I hope it is not vaporware.

The other day I read an article that said:

- the official IP holders have pulled out of the game.

(The article didn't say this part that is in brackets, but rather, this is my personal conclusion: so presumably, all the new footage that the IP holders shot for the game and all the work they did for it is gone forever too and never will be published, even if the game still comes out one day).

- the official IP holders gave the modders their blessing to continue making the game on their own if they want to

(This part in brackets is also my personal conclusion, and not what the article said: so presumably, without all the new footage and work from the IP holders that was previously going to be in the game, the game would be crap, even if the modders do finish it on their own...but maybe they decided to abandon the project because they knew it would be crap no matter what they did at this point?).