Tex Murphy: Martian Memorandum

Sound: 5 Graphics: 4 Story: 7 Gameplay: 4 Commands: 5 Fun: 5 Time to load / lag: 9 Bugs / Problems: 9 Final (my score, my rules - these is not math, punk) - 5

2039 -- San Francisco, California You're Tex Murphy, soft-boiled gumshoe & former celebrity -- and now you've gone point-and-click. Six years on from making your name uncovering the doomsday 'Overlord' initiative, things are back to business as usual. You're hired by the world's richest man to find his kidnapped daughter & stolen property -- and that's where things get interesting -- from the mean streets, through Mayan ruins, and onward to Mars. A more traditional adventure game that its predecessor, this Access Software title never quite achieves the greatness of it's contemporaries from 1992, like some similar Sierra games. It's still mostly about getting the right keywords from an ever-wackier cast of interviewees -- but now you choose your options from a list. Point and click your way through canned responses & the occasional cutscene or minigame. Gone is your flying car & navigating a map -- but now you get a lot of digitized voice acting, and a lot more neo-noir/sci-fi atmosphere. There's more mystery to uncover, more to do, and more to love in this sequel. It's ultimately a mixed bag.

It's a very old school point and click adventure game. You'll need to follow a walkthrough the entire time. It's far too easy to get stuck in a no-win situation.

Нуар

Tags: Adventure - P&C - Point&Click Additional Tags: Delete Local Content & Remove from Library TLDR: Mouse cursor constantly gets stuck. Does not use a standard classic p&c interface. Could not find my inventory. Use of FMV making for better portraits does not really qualify as a worthy tradeoff for the shortcomings. I would say that this is way too clunky to bother with. Even Sierra games with their moon logic and their death traps had a reactive engine in which you could readily explore. I constantly was being returned generic message boxes for incorrection action/hotspot interaction. The audio was better than most tex murphy games as well, with a proper retro sounding track but it did not have that trademark soundblaster type quality to it that I am used to and am fond of. Altogether there might be a niche of nostalgia gamers or people who want to study this for its historical value, but as an entertainment product for a new audience I can confidently say that it is not worth fishing for walkthroughs for, or troubleshooting issues with the dosbox emulation for. Removing permanently for declutter.

Good game and I do recommend for the adventure 's fans. Beware of possible Unwinnable situations. Save often.