Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon

Under a Killing Moon is a really solid adventure game with lots of danger, investigative thrills, and cynical banter. This was a soft reboot of the Tex Murphy series back in 1994, and remains as one of the better FMV adventure games to date. A down-on-his-luck private detective Tex Murphy lives in the radiatoned strickened San Francisco after the WWIII, along with the outcasts and mutants. After he accepts what appears to be a simple investigative job, Tex will have to use all of his smarts to save the world. Besides being mired in the noire-movie atmosphere, the plot of the game explores the sadly everlasting issue of racism and classism, and the story moves at a fast pace. Tex will talk to people, look for clues, and avoid being seen, so he can successfully finish the string of connected cases. The dialogue can be a bit hammy, but it is also quite witty with a delightfully dry humor thrown in for a good measure. When you are not checking the full-motion-video cutscenes, you will walk, look, take and manipulate objects in a 3D first-person environment. The graphics are ok today, if heavily pixelated, and the midi soundtrack does have a few jazzy bangers that I keep playing on my phone to and from work. The puzzles are on the easier side and fairly logical to figure out, so they were not a chore to solve. The only exception is the Ferelette Wheel puzzle near the end that was more irritating and based on luck than fun. Most of the characters that you talk to in the game are nuinced, interesting and down-to-Earth, while some are kings and queens of movie-cheese. Overall, this was and remains a very good adventure game that nicely balances investigation, story, characters, and a bit of action scenes where Tex can die. The overall story is okay, but it is nothing exemplary for this game genre. While better stories await in the follow-up sequels of Tex Murphy games, Under a Killing Moon is a solid introduction to the series.

I'd like to say that I'm not an adventure game fan. Back when I played this, it was just an interesting and splashy thing. This game combined 3d with FMV. I remember the 3d choking my 486 back in the day. I loved it. I didn't realize just how special this game was at that time. I did enjoy searching for clues and finishing the puzzles. It was better than Cyberia. Cyberia was cool just because back then I was a kiddie for anything that would splash pretty things on the screen. However, Cyberia didn't have interaction like this game does. Tex Murphy: Under A Killing Moon defined the genre by really making you feel like you were Tex.

Arguably the no1 adventure game of the 90s

This was my first Tex game back in the 90s and it blew me away! The 'movie' cut scenes and the witty sometimes cheesy humor was awesome and extremely entertaining. I loved this game as a kid and I'm still loving it!!!

I bought UAKM (Under a Killing Moon) back in the 90's. I am very picky what games I buy or play. So picky, that during the 80's, when I didn't find a type of game I wished to have, I wrote one (for the Apple II line computers) and it was published by MUSE Software (Intellectual Decathlon, you can find it on Wiki). I wrote it just for the heck of it, just so I will have such a game, not for the money. That's how picky I am with games. UAKM is better than good, it is outstanding. Most other writeup here described already most of the positive aspects of this game. What I would like to add to it is that this game have an atmosphere, a kind of feel what makes one to wish to be there. In the game. Wish to be part of the game. Because that's how I felt when I played UAKM. And that is a huge positive plus. In these days games are lousy. They are faint copies of the copies of the copies of some great original back in the 80's and the 90's. What improved of course is the computer technology, the graphics quality, but not the games themselves. UAKM is a true original. It is of course an adventure game. Many other reviewers already mentioned the fully 3d environment, the "no pixel hunting", the outstanding built in help system, the easy enough to play without aggravation, but difficult enough to be a real challenge. Because if you resist using the help system, it is a real challenge, but the challenge is always logical. No stupid "gotcha" situations, often used by adventure creators. Tex Murphy, the main character is from the future, but totally based on the past, from the first part of the 20th century type detectives. A huge plus: he is funny. Very funny. You click on virtually anything, even if the object has absolutely no role in the game, Tex will give some very funny remark or comment. Thus even the "wrong clicks" will produce a huge entertainment value. There is no "timeout", no matter where you click, you either make progress in the game (find an important object, etc.) or just being entertained by Tex's remarks. The story is unique and outstanding. An unknown, unimportant, down to earth guy, who barely survives in a post WW III imaginary situation and scenario, by progressing scene to scene ends up saving the world. And there is no brute and artificial transition, it just happens that way. I personally loved the music, always perfectly fitting the given scenario. One thing I disagree with some other reviewers, I thought Chris Jones is an excellent actor, and made a perfect Tex Murphy. Both his looks and his voice perfectly presents the character. The other characters are very well played as well. And because of that, one quickly becomes (the player) sort of "part of the story" or rather wishing that. I sure have. No matter how long it will take for you (the player) to finish this game, it won't be perceived as a waste of time. UAKM is totally entertaining and worth every penny. I found GOG after attempted to play UAKM after finishing it 14 years ago. I tried DOSBOX, but I couldn't find the settings under which it worked with my original CDs on my Vista based computer. It was fantastic not having to bother with swapping the CDs, it was fantastic that it worked without a glitch, it was great not having to wait for loading the scenes, because today's computers are much faster. So, no matter who you are, whether you played UAKM back in the 90's or not, I highly, very highly recommend to get this game and immerse yourself in the outstanding atmosphere. Once you finished it, you will rush back and you will surely get the sequels, Pandora's Directive and the Overseer. If other adventure games were as good as these, perhaps the genre wouldn't have gone out of fashion.