Tex Murphy: The Pandora Directive

My wife owned all these when i was playing flight sims. I remember us going to PCWorld to buy Under a Killing Moon, it being the largest game of it's kind, at the time, on 4CDs costing a bloody fortune! Tex (Chris Jones) is just hilarious! The film noir style has never been equaled or bettered. The interface is simple to use, the help system also. Someone mentioned being colour blind? That's *not* the games fault. There's no *running* back and forwards as it's a simple click on 'visit a location'. If you get lost or are are not sure what to do, the help system is instantly intuitive and provides full dialogue and inventory 'what to do's'. If you follow the series right through, the same or similar cast are used throughout I'm so glad that i got *all* Tex murphy now, as i remember my wife disc-swapping on our old Pentium 100 x4 CD-ROM, which took ages to load. lol Put simply, you have to have been 'around' these classics to understand that they were cutting edge and the interface of the move,examine,use,open/close etc. was just standard then. All in all, a funny classic franchise that never grows old and never punishes you either. My review is for them all. Apart from the stand-out 'Tesla Effect'. which for a kickstarter is a monster! Tex, your a LEGEND!!!

I've bought and played both Pandora Directive and Under a Killing Moon; the differences are more apparent once you've played both for yourself. In Under a Killing Moon, interaction between you and characters is a bit more streamlined, intended to reach a single ending. Here, its turned into a morality system, and definitely makes you think about your conversation choices. Getting the best ending is determined by your beginning conversation choices, so bear that in mind. The jokes are back, full force, and the new characters happily replace some of the ones that have left since. Tex's choices are always a riot, and you can spend a good chunk of playing this game reloading saves just to take different conversation choices to see how characters react to what you say. The tone in the second half of the game is heavily shifted; in UAKM, it felt it didn't take itself seriously. Here, it gets REALLY serious midway through. The game is also less cheap about finding things (where in UAKM, things could be REALLY hidden from view) and does have less "Open door, instantly die" cheapness. However, one particular section is UTTERLY tedious due to this. The puzzles are more fair, and there is less "assemble the annoyingly hard picture puzzle"...unfortunately, there are other annoyingly hard puzzles to balance this out. Is Pandora Directive a perfect game? No. At times you'll hate the moving controls (a bit improved over the last game, but still wretched for precise movements), and you still have to shift your perspectives often to find an object or two. Puzzles will require some patience (but the hint system has thankfully become merciful to the stupid), and saving whenever you can will become apparent soon enough. Is it a good game? Undoubtedly so. Almost the entire cast of characters pulls off a solid performance, and some have vastly improved. The atmosphere is everywhere you want it to be in a good detective story. The one-liners by Tex are still as excellent as ever, and he actually becomes less of a comedic relief (in the slapstick sense too) as he was in the last game, showing good character development. Well worth the money you put toward this one, and the same applies to UAKM (But if you wanted one where you play the underdog to the extreme, UAKM is where you should start). Highly recommended FMV gaming at its finest.

This game will grab you by the gamers wrists, pull you in, and never let go. So as I bought this game to continue my quest through the Tex Murphy series, I tried ahead of time to predict how the game would be (as I often do) and boy did it exceed my expectations. Tex Murphy: The Pandora Directive is one of those rare gems. One of those unique games that leaves you sitting there watching the entire credits sequence. Just sitting... watching, thinking to yourself "Wow, now THAT'S an adventure!". The hundreds of different options, and unique endings give this game some amazing replay value. Play through the first time as a witty and generous nice guy, or play through a second time as an evil, secretive, and hard boiled PI. Most interestingly, I don't see many games like this that let you bond with your characters. No-one gives a crap about the Doom Marine, or even (in my opinion) the cast of Half-Life 2. They were great, but in the Tex Murphy series, you'll feel for Tex, and his interesting day-to-day life will leave you wondering how things will pan out for this burned-out-of-San-Francisco gumshoe PI. If you've played Under a Killing Moon (and I highly recommend you do so first), this game is about six times bigger and more amazing. The story is long, and the locations are expanded. No longer are you confined to just the police station, Chandler Avenue, and a few other locations, but instead you will find yourself traveling with Tex all over the country, from secret military bases in Roswell (which has a very very scary moment in it), to various luxurious houses in America. As stated in the title of my review, this is one amazing game that will grab you by the wrists and pull you into an amazing new world, and it won't let go of you until the ride is at the end. So buckle up and pay just a few dollars for an enormous and amazing adventure that will keep you immersed to the end, and wanting more. This game is some serious bang for your buck.

Many people like 'Under a Killing Moon', but I didn't. I had many issues with the game and that led me to second guess my decision in purchasing 'The Pandora Directive'. Thankfully, 'TPD' turned out to be a better than I anticipated! In the couple of years between 'UAKM' and 'TPD', the game developers improved the way they make a computer game with full motion videos. The production value of these FMVs was higher, with better video quality, lighting, staging, cinematography, costumes, makeup, and acting. Many of the original actors from 'UAKM' returned, and their familiarity with their roles certainly improved their performances. More importantly, Chris Jones' portrayal of Tex Murphy returned to the more serious character that I came to love in 'Mean Streets'. Improvements made to the 3D engine and the game's writing also made 'TPD' a much better game than 'UAKM'. Game textures and object modelling made traversing environments and examining objects easier, which were something that I found challenging in the previous game. The story in 'TPD' also returned to being more serious like in 'MS'. The detective story in 'TPD' had just the right amount of drama, mystery and humour. However, 'TPD' is still far from perfect. First, it is a very difficult game at the Game Player (hard) level. There was one sliding puzzle box challenge too many, and more mazes than I care for. The puzzles in the game started to fall apart by the sixth (of nine) chapter, by which time there were more timed puzzles and puzzles that required foreknowledge of what's to come. That meant a lot of trial and error, which got very annoying given how difficult and pointless the puzzles got. By the end, the puzzles in 'TPD' were more like those in a typical exploration/maze adventure game than those in a detective game. It was also in the sixth chapter that the story in 'TPD' began to take a turn. It was at this point that the narrative became less of a detective story and more of a science fiction. What was once a hard-boiled detective story featuring a femme fatale pretty much immediately became an 'X-Files' television episode. It was then that I began to lose interest. For the most part, 'TPD' kept the same user interface featured in 'UAKM'. I didn't like the interface much, but it also meant I didn't need to spend time relearning how to play a Tex Murphy game. Movement was still being done using a mouse, but for some reason, it was more manageable and fine tuned in 'TPD'. It's still annoying given modern day standard, but it's serviceable given what majority of the puzzles required. Overall, 'TPD' is a great Tex Murphy game, albeit its failings in the last half. It's a challenging game, but a satisfying, entertaining and fulfilling one, especially the first five chapters. Because of its high production value and excellent first half of the game, I'd still recommend 'TPD' in spite of my criticism.

The whole series is unique among the best P&C Adventure games and offers quirky, intriguing, immersive, artistic, imaginative, and a mix of foreward thinking with vintage appeal. It is PERFECT and downright fabulous!