A tremendously entertaining and memorable game. Music and graphics are excellent. Voice acting is some of the best and most convincing I've ever heard in ANY game. The story is VERY out there with every chapter upping the ante even further but man is it entertaining. Many very memorable set pieces and scenes. Once I started playing I couldn't stop and finished the whole thing in a day. Puzzles are only average though. Nothing bad but also nothing special. Over all I would VERY strongly recommend to any fan of adventure games and weird sci-fi.
I had never played any of them when I bought the Tex Murphy games on gog some time ago during a sale. I finally got around to playing them. While Under a Killing Moon was fun with lots of goofy humor and cheesy cutscenes and some potential and good ideas it was clearly something not meant to be taken too seriously either by the player or the creators. Pandora Directive is when Tex Murphy became for me a real game series to be respected. It plays much the same as UaKM and has some of the same problems but everything is just done better here. The plot is more complex and involved, the puzzles are better, the acting and general quality of the cutscenes are MUCH better and the game itself is about twice as long and is a true epic by adventure game standards. It fulfilled the potential of the previous game and more. It's easily one of the best adventure games of the 90s and is a must play for any adventure game fan.
I admit that I didn't really pay any attention to this one at first. I'm not really a Postal fan so you can imagine how interested I was in playing a Postal spin-off but I'm glad I finally did. It does take a few levels to really get going and I think episode 1 is probably the weakest but once it hits it's stride it's a damn good arena/horde shooter (people say it's a boomer shooter but honestly it's a lot more inspired by DOOM 2016 that DOOM 1993). The arsenal and items are excellent (make sure to USE your items and don't hoard them) and it has a HUGE roster of enemies. Encounter and map design are both strong too, though maybe some levels are a little too long. The music is also great and even manages some good atmosphere at times. The Bevis and Butthead meet Caleb from Blood sense of humor is not for everybody, though Postal is one of those series where you're never sure if the jokes being bad isn't actually part of the joke. Still, it adds to the silly and surreal atmosphere and what self respecting retro aesthetic FPS protagonist isn't constantly spitting out bad one liners? If any of this seems at all like something you would enjoy than I highly recommend it. I hope Brain Damaged becomes a franchise of it's own because I want more.
I had never played this before, either the PC version of the 3DO one, but I liked it. It's an interesting attempt to do something different and unique in the FPS genre, unfortunately held back a bit by slightly clunky mechanics. Positives: Very engrossing for a 90's shooter. The whole game is one giant map, allowing you to play different areas in different orders and really pulling you in in a way games with a more traditional level structure don't. There's actually a plot and the cut scenes are actually in game and activated by standing in specific spots. You can watch or ignore as you like and it won't pull you out of the game like cut scenes usually do. And the acting is actually O.K. if a little corny at times. There's a wide variety of enemies and where they are makes sense. Zombie hunters wander the forests, devil maids are inside the mansion, chefs are in the kitchens and dining room etc. Each area has a unique look and feel to it. You're not just wandering through identical corridors, they feel as much like real places as anywhere in a 90's FPS really can. The music is really good too, with the track changing when you enter a new area. Negatives: 90's clunkyness. You get stuck on walls easily and have to use mouse move if you want a WASD setup, meaning you can't move the mouse while strafing or look up and down with it. And while the open world is cool, it also means there's likely going to be some backtracking as you get keys. And while there's a lot of enemy types, there's not that much difference in terms of what they do and how you kill them, mostly fairly small differences in strength and speed. And while I never had any issues running or playing the game, sometimes the music would cut out if there was a lot of shooting and noise and I'd have to leave and re-enter the area to start it up again. Very annoying. I'd recommend this if you want a cool and unique take on the FPS genre with engrossing atmosphere, and don't mind the flaws of early FPS games.
