Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon

The first time I played UAKM, I was around ten years old. We had a 486 that my dad had spent beaucoup bucks getting a CD-ROM drive for(which took us a couple hours to install, back in the bad old days before plug and play) and UAKM was one of the first games we bought for it. Problem was, it didn't work! Not enough RAM, damn! So we went back to the computer shop to buy a slick new stick of 32MB of RAM for about 150 bucks. Yeah, no joke. Those numbers just seem insane now, but that was a deal for a lot of RAM back then. Anyway, I'm rambling. I can't not ramble, because this game just is burned in my brain with memories of a more innocent era. But let's get to the game: it's awesome. It's amazing especially when you factor in the time period it was released in, and it still holds up today. It oozes, bleeds, breathes and pisses atmosphere. YOU MUST BUY IT! And buy Tesla Effect too, support these guys.

Tex is back! No fiddling with work arounds to play Tex!

Say the words Full Motion Video to anyone who purchased PC games from the 90's and they will tell you to stay away, FAR AWAY! I cant think of any other sub-genre that was done so horribly. Actors who were down on their luck mailing in a performance that would make even a fanboy scream. Yet this series managed to be that gem inside a pile of dung. Characters who were memorable, a story line worthy of its own novel (yes one was done) and some firsts in gameplay. When it was all said and done this one was a classic.

I remember first playing this game when I was still in elementary school. It was my first Tex Murphy game (the friend who introduced me to it mentioned others, such as Martian Memorandum; he also introduced me to the likes of 7th Guest, Phantasmagoria, and King's Quest VI). Even as a young kid, I found this game extremely enthralling and charming. It's still a pretty singular experience, even if it's dated, and I've been trying to find a copy ever since I sold my old one back during middle school. If you haven't played this game, but you wouldn't mind enjoying an adventure game with off-color humor and a bit of pulp parody, give this one a whirl.

I have been looking for a game like this for a long time. I first played "Mean Streets," and then I fell in love with Tex Murphy. I quickly bought this game to complete my collection. This game has lots of things to see and do outside of the central story, which gives it more replayability than some adventure games of the era. All locations and rooms are represented in an explorable 3D environment, where it is VERY IMPORTANT TO PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL. If you miss getting objects in some of the rooms, you will get very stuck later in the game. The cutscences and interragations are all shown in FMV movie format, and most of the acting is pretty descent. The game has got famous actors and actresses like James Earl Jones and Margot Kidder. Instead of reading and selecting a specific response to the people you talk to, you pick one of three "attitudes" with which you can respond. This makes it harder to know exactly what to say and do, so I suggest that you save before talking to somebody. The game has a hint system that you can use based on the points you accumulate during gameplay. You get points for getting important objects, solving puzzles, and for doing and seeing extra parts of the game that have nothing to do with beating the game. Each time you use a hint, you lose some points. I only used the hint system once during the game, and I got a final score of 970 on my first run through. Overall, this is a pretty good game that will probably keep you entertained for several hours during your first play through, and will probably become a game you will play again later.