Summary: This is a classic point and click game, with an absorbing story, a simple, intuitive interface and some really funny moments.
It’s the year 2039 (Hmm, that is creeping up on us fast). This is San Francisco post WW3; there are the reminders of that war all around you – the reddened sky, the mutants, survivors of nuclear fallout who have been discriminated against and in many cases, oppressed by the ‘norms’.
You are Tex Murphy, a private detective, who won fame (but not fortune) in the case that became the game Mean Streets.
Summary: This is a classic point and click game, with an absorbing story, a simple, intuitive interface and some really funny moments.
It’s the year 2039 (Hmm, that is creeping up on us fast). This is San Francisco post WW3; there are the reminders of that war all around you – the reddened sky, the mutants, survivors of nuclear fallout who have been discriminated against and in many cases, oppressed by the ‘norms’.
You are Tex Murphy, a private detective, who won fame (but not fortune) in the case that became the game Mean Streets. You are hired by the millionaire businessman Marshall Alexander to find his daughter, the victim of a kidnapping. He has also had “something else” stolen from him, and he is willing
to pay handsomely to get them both back. You get the distinct feeling that the “something else” is more important than his daughter… He gives you some names and addresses to follow up on, and the search begins.
As the story unfolds, you start to realise that there’s much more to it than a simple kidnapping. Both the history and the conclusion of your search lie on Mars.
So, after exploring the extent of your leads on Earth, you cleverly find a way to catch a lift to Mars, where the action continues. (No, no hints here.) It is possible to go to Mars without all of the information you need to collect on Earth, so make sure there’s a save just prior to that. I found it interesting that the Mars of this game is uncannily like the one depicted in the Schwartznegger movie “Total Recall”.
Essentially, the gameplay is pretty typical of the early 90s point and click adventures. You use a mouse or the keyboard to control Tex, action is in 2D. The “travel” feature is a bonus, as it means you avoid a lot of walking around just to get back to places. Other good features are that you don’t die very often (though some of the death scenes are funny enough to do just for the hell of it), and you can keep going back to characters and scenes until you get the information you need. There’s also a built-in hints feature that will help if you’re really stuck, but the game is not really difficult enough to need them often, if at all.
The animation/voice matching have never been good on any computer that I’ve played it on, giving an odd ‘dubbed’ look to some of the conversations. I personally felt this added to the enjoyment rather than detracting from it, particularly when you get “Kiss me, Tex” mouthed at you, then hear it from a pair of pre-puckered lips.
This is definitely worth playing, particularly as part of the three-part series starting with “Mean Streets” and completed by “Under a Killing Moon”.
