Tex Murphy: Mean Streets + Martian Memorandum

These are great games - well-written, funny, tense and often surprising. But your greatest enemy will not be the various thugs and villains you encounter but rather the user interface, which makes MS-DOS look like an intutive and simple way of interacting with a computer. For this reason the games are best played with a walkthrough open on a second screen. Sure, it reduces the challenge to nil, but even just plodding through it that way it's like an enjoyable visual novel, and you'll get every dollar of the ridiculously low GOG price out of it.

I had never played Tex Murphy games before, aside from a few playing hours of "Under a Killing Moon" more than ten years ago. I only got Mean Streets + Martian Memorandum because gog gave us these games for free in 2009. A few months ago I finally decided to play the first game, Mean Streets, and I absolutely loved it. It is very novel, fusing flight simulation, adventure, action (not great action, but very interesting anyway)... I loved the setting and the mood, and Tex is really an interesting character. I even loved the flight sim sequences, that most people complain about. It's all about immersion here, and you really feel like Tex, going around San Francisco asking questions and gathering clues. In fact, you sure get very confused and lost if you dont take detailed notes on every character you find in the game and the things they say. I dare say I've spent more time working on my notes then on the game itself. It's a real nice experience. Martian Memorandum is less varied and more focused on being an adventure game. It's a lot easier to play, because you don't have to type in your questions, the names and relevant subjects are added automatically to your options when you first read about them. But it's still a pretty hard game. The thing I loved most about MM was the story. There is a big revelation near the end, it's really well thought out. Sadly, I got stuck in one of the many dead-ends the game presentes, but I was close to finishing the game, so I watched the final moments on YouTube. Tex is also more developed as a character, since you have dialogue options to choose, and they are usually very, very, very funny! This is an excellent adventure game, with an above average story. To sum it up, this is an amazing package for a very low price. It's technology is very primitive by today's standard, but if you let this get in your way, then it's very weird that you are a GOG user ^_^ I proceeded to play all games in the series after these two, and they are just as great. Play them all, you'll love the series.

The Tex murphy is one of THE classics, not only that but has never been duplicated in the realm of gamedeom.Must buys, must plays, all around.

Many moons ago, I owned Mean Streets on the Amiga. Initially, I thought it to be a fairly good game. Decent graphics, somewhat dull flyingsequences and overall good, but nothing spectacular. Until I started to think about solving the puzzles when I wasn't playing it. I even thought about it after I'd gone to bed. Then I understood that we are talking gaming greatness. Highly recommended.

One could say that Mean Streets and Martian Memorandum are rough-aroud-the-edges kick-offs to an incredible FMV adventure series (arguably the best of its kind), especially the first one. Mean Streets is an adventure game mostly with early elements of FMV back when it wasn't fully a thing, mixed with mechanics that may throw off players not used to older game mechanics. Do you know Tex's ship-car from the games? You actually pilot it from the cockpit similarly to a Wing Commander panel. You have shooting sessions. It's not everyone's cup of tea but it's a great story that is later retold in the remake Overseer, so if you want, you can skip right to that. The Poisoned Pawn is yet another oncoming remake of the first game. Martian Memorandum is more of a standard point and click adventure game which would not be out of place in a Sierra catalogue. The story is cool as well and stands strong graphically until today as all quality 2D art does. Recommended!