Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon

Solutions to puzzles are sometimes very implausible, the characters are clichés and the acting is sub-par -- especially from the lead, Chris Jones, who's playing the detective going by the name Tex Murphy -- but boy, is this a great game or what? Under a Killing Moon does every single thing right in making you feel you're a detective. You can talk to people, decide "how you want to play it" and -- if you're succesful -- ask them what they know about items you've found, people you've met and locations you've heard of. You'll carefully search desk drawers, paper bins and turn around furniture and whatnot for clues. You can examine suspicious items you've found to see what's beyond their exterior. And you'll patiently piece together scraps of paper to see which secrets they contain. Then there's the plot, the mystery, the mood, the virtual world, the interface (which is designed as something I would describe as an organized and stylish file cabinet) and last but not least: Chris Jones -- yeah, who I said was a bad actor. Again: everything is set up in such a way that makes it fun and exciting being a detective, investigating your surroundings. Chris Jones tops it off. Sure, his acting may be merely ok, but he sells it nevertheless. Without him as Tex, I don't know if I'd be as attracted by the game as I was when I was younger. Why? His voice and the delivery of his lines. It's completely fitting. The funny remarks, the conversations; you can't help but laugh and you want to keep on listening. Yes, Chris Jones IS Tex Murphy. What else? Well, the game is really colorful, intriguing, atmospheric and suspenseful. Yeah, I said the characters are cliché, but they are interesting nonetheless, and alright, I said the solutions to puzzles are sometimes implausible, but they can be deduced and the puzzles themselves are actually quite entertaining and really fit their surroundings. Ah, just forget the negative things I said. It was just a ploy to lure you into reading this review and subsequently into playing the game. Go on, you'll find yourself immersed in Tex' world in no-time.

The best FMV Adventure game of all time. Plays perfectly

I remember the first time I played UAKM, as a kid with a 486mhz PC... The game simply blew me away. Motion capture was just starting to catch on, and the idea of seeing "real" people in a game was something that just seemed way ahead of its time. The story was futuristic noir humor, and keeps you hooked from start to finish. GOG is a savior. Having Tex Murphy on my Windows 7 laptop for the road has made my month.

I originally played this when I was around 8 years old but I never ended up completing it, perhaps it was because I wasn't clever enough. I'm now playing it in 2013 and it's still a great game. I've had so much fun playing it. It's full of so much nostalgia for me. The setting is amazing and the music is so great. It puts a lot of modern games to shame.

There's something in this kind of games, a magic you simply can't seem to find anymore. When the first FMV games arrived in all their CD glory, man were we stunned. And among the most brilliant exemples of what that bygone era had to offer, here is Under a killing moon. You want a great mystery in a sci-fi noir universe à la Blade Runner? With great dialogues, excellent puzzles, a lot of exploration, and of course a bucket of Chris John's charisma - and humor ? Here, take it and enjoy. They just don't make games like this anymore.