Under a Killing Moon and The Pandora Directive were great games, the first because of the mysterious plot, the sense of freedom, the humor, the varied locations and the fact that it was so damn fun to play, despite the high corn factor. TPD had a well-written story, solid gameplay and the choices you could make were subtle and had a real impact on your character, which had an effect on people around you, and, in turn, on the outcome of the game. I felt let down by the Tesla Effect for a couple of reasons. My gripes from big to small: (*Possible spoilers*) - The game is too easy: you almost never feel clever for achieving something. Example: when you leave your office for the first time you'll notice a suspiciously open window in the building across your office. Before you can review your options on how to get in there, you're being handed the answer. Another example is when you find a zip-line trolley. No sense in trying to figure out where to use it on as there is an empty box for the item near it spoon-feeding you: this is the spot. - The story is all over the place: not only are you trying to find out what exactly happened to you and Chelsee and why, you have to deal with a Doomsday machine that also happens to be a device to communicate with the dead apparently and you discover that you were someone else about a hundred years ago (really!?) and something with a Farbergé egg. It was confusing as hell and I still don't know the answers to the first questions. - Smart Alex, your virtual buddy, is annoying and unnecessary. He scoffs you (in an unfunny matter) when you try to combine two items or do something that doesn't have the desired effect. I thought this was game design 101: never insult the player. - Choices are not so subtle this time around. Changes in (the outcome of) the story always seem to be dependent on (not) rejecting a woman in the game. (To be honest, I have only seen one ending: the reunion with Chelsee.) - You get points for simply looking at everything in your inventory and talking about everything to everyone instead of making sensible queries, looking at important stuff or solving a puzzle efficiently. - Most of the locations aren't very well-designed or just downright ugly. Notable exception: the beach house. - Puzzles don't really blend well with the game, admittedly not unlike the ones in the Mayan temple in TPD. - Old characters (Archie Ellis) and flashbacks (the NSA card) sometimes are clumsily shoehorned into the game, as are some of the new characters, e.g. Taylor, who has nothing else to do besides being one of Tex's love interests. - The feeling of being a detective is reduced as you aren't offered the opportunity to piece together torn up paper, really examine stuff or snoop under desks anymore (there's no crouch button). The latter was a unique selling point back in the day for UaKM. All in all, for me this was quite a let-down, especially compared to Under a Killing Moon and The Pandora Directive, the two masterpieces of this series.
