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Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure |OT| Under a Mean Overseer Memorandum Directive

Card Boy

Banned
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Developer: Big Finish Games
Platform: PC & Mac (Linux planned)
Price: $19.99
Genre: FMV First Person Point and Click Adventure
Demo: Steam Demo
When: Out Now!
Where: GOG, Steam, Humble Store, Mac Store.

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Tex Murphy is the last of the hard-boiled gumshoe detectives living in dystopian post-World War III San Francisco in the 2040s. Tex is an honest and good-natured private investigator with a penchant for bourbon, cigarettes and getting himself into trouble. He runs his P.I. (and dance instructor) business from his apartment/office on the top floor of the Ritz Hotel, located on Chandler Avenue in Old San Francisco. In stark contrast to the sparkling, futuristic New San Francisco, Old San Francisco is a run-down part of town known for its high concentration of Mutants a section of the population disfigured by post-war nuclear fallout. Tex has found several friends and allies among the Mutants on Chandler Avenue. His talents as a detective are matched only by his knack for putting his foot in his mouth and bumbling his way into the path of danger. However, using his wits, creativity and a bit of luck, Tex has managed to save the world on several occasions.

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Tex Murphy wakes up - disoriented and head pounding - on the fire escape outside his office atop the Ritz Hotel. Another typical morning for the last of the old-school detectives. Except it isn't. What starts out as the worst hangover in history becomes a baffling nightmare: something - or someone - has erased Tex's memory of the past seven years. Motivated by lost love, revenge and the world's strongest coffee blend, Tex must retrace his own steps into a maze of unsolved murders, hidden agendas and lost technologies of Nikola Tesla. Only by solving the mysteries of his past can Tex hope to regain his memory in time to restore what's been lost and stop a terrifying future.

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Tesla Effect incudes an eclectic cast of actors, including:


  • Todd Bridges (Willis from Diff'rent Strokes...ask someone older if you don't know what that is)
  • June "TV's Greatest Mom" Lockhart (ask someone even older if you don't know who that is)
  • Larry "Soup Nazi" Thomas (you all have seen Seinfeld, right?)
  • Kevin "Tom Servo" Murphy (Mystery Science Theater 3000)
  • The original Tex himself, Chris Jones
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Launch Trailer
Trailer 3
Trailer 2
Trailer 1

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Old timer GAF unite! Been waiting 15 years for this. Yeah, it hurt a bit when they delayed it a few weeks, but I can't stay mad at Tex. It's pretty surreal (and awesome) to see a Tex Murphy OT. :D
 
My story with the Tex Murphy games is interesting: until 2012, I had never played any Tex Murphy game. Then I got the first two games on GOG (if I remember correctly, GOG gave them as a gift at the time). Yes, I'm talking about those old games and their ugly graphics.

The thing is, I ended up enjoying the first game (Mean Streets) a lot! I took notes furiously to solve that case. I read on many websites that moving around with the flying car was boring, but I loved it and would never turn the autopilot on!

As soon as I finished it, I jumped into Martian Memorandum, which I also loved (even though I hit one of the infamous dead-ends very late in the game and had to restart). When I started playing Under a Killing Moon, I decided to write a big feature about it (I write articles for a retrogaming mag here in Brazil). I played Pandora Directive and Overseer very passionately, and the end result was a really, really nice and extensive feature about the whole Tex Murphy series that I'm very proud of.

A few days later, Big Finish announced the kickstarter for Tesla Effect. That was perfect timing, I had just finished Overseer and was kind of sad because the Tex games were apparently over. I'm so glad I was wrong! I can't wait to play this!
 

vocab

Member
My biggest problem with pandora directive is that it was so puzzle heavy that I got sick of the puzzles. Slider puzzle followed by another slider puzzle. It got old by the end. Under a killing moon was a much better balanced game in that regard. Pandora did have larger scope though so I'll give it credit for that stuff. The puzzles just were a slog. I hope Tesla Effect has a good balance of both but doesn't go overboard.
 
My biggest problem with pandora directive is that it was so puzzle heavy that I got sick of the puzzles. Slider puzzle followed by another slider puzzle. It got old by the end. Under a killing moon was a much better balanced game in that regard. Pandora did have larger scope though so I'll give it credit for that stuff. The puzzles just were a slog. I hope Tesla Effect has a good balance of both but doesn't go overboard.

You can skip all the standalone puzzles in Pandora Directive though, like the slider ones and whatnot. I too am not crazy about some of those despite being a diehard Tex enthusiast. I might play Tesla Effect on Casual on my first playthrough just for that reason. This way I can enjoy the story without getting stuck on non sequitur minigames too often.
 
My story with the Tex Murphy games is interesting: until 2012, I had never played any Tex Murphy game. Then I got the first two games on GOG (if I remember correctly, GOG gave them as a gift at the time). Yes, I'm talking about those old games and their ugly graphics.

The thing is, I ended up enjoying the first game (Mean Streets) a lot! I took notes furiously to solve that case. I read on many websites that moving around with the flying car was boring, but I loved it and would never turn the autopilot on!

As soon as I finished it, I jumped into Martian Memorandum, which I also loved (even though I hit one of the infamous dead-ends very late in the game and had to restart). When I started playing Under a Killing Moon, I decided to write a big feature about it (I write articles for a retrogaming mag here in Brazil). I played Pandora Directive and Overseer very passionately, and the end result was a really, really nice and extensive feature about the whole Tex Murphy series that I'm very proud of.

A few days later, Big Finish announced the kickstarter for Tesla Effect. That was perfect timing, I had just finished Overseer and was kind of sad because the Tex games were apparently over. I'm so glad I was wrong! I can't wait to play this!

Awesome story. I had a different yet similar experience with the series. Played Under a Killing Moon as a teenager during the 90's but my computer could not run the game well and I was never able to finish it. Tried to get back into the series years later but all attempts failed for various reasons. It was only when GOG released Windows 7 ready versions that I played through all three FMV games... that was last year. Always had a soft spot for those games but it took me twenty years to finally experience them properly... and it was absolutely worth it.
 

Tizoc

Member
I'm saving up on Steam Gaben Dollars to drop the game's price a bit before I buy it.
I'm expecting to get it for $15 or less if I'm lucky =V
 

low-G

Member
My friend & I loved Under a Killing Moon. Cool series, very unique. Went back to Under a Killing Moon and game storytelling is still pretty much on that level if not worse...

I love the 3D exploration of a physical space with the goal of semi-real detective work. Fun!

(so yeah I've preordered this)
 

astonish

Member
So hyped. These games were pillars of my youth gaming. I played UAKM again not that long ago and it held up much better than I expected.

Really looking forward to this and glad the Big Finish crew could continue an obvious labor of love
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
Hey you get Pandora Directive free with pre-order? Done!

Played every game back in the 90's up through UAKM. Owned but never played Pandora or Overseer. Seems like a perfect chance to try out what I missed now.
 

megalowho

Member
Just remembered they hit the stretch goal for the in-game golf simulator. So alongside a new Tex Murphy game, we're getting the next golf game from the folks behind the Links series baked inside. So good.
 

The kickstarter made somewhere over $600,000.00 with PayPal pledges, but I have to wonder if Atlus (well, now Sega) pitched in a little extra? Really interesting that Atlus picked this one up, of all developers. But at the same time it really fits in with their quirky portfolio.

I'm watching the trailer right now, and while it does have a lower budget TV show quality to it, I still think it looks quite good going by its production values. It's pretty cool seeing a modern take on an old and dead genre like FMV adventures. To me, this is one of the more interesting looking games of 2014.

2K video folks. 2K video.

2K resolution for video? That's pretty awesome.
 

Tizoc

Member
Yup and they did something like 140 hours of video recording for the game.

...and they're only asking for $20?!
I wanted to try and finish up as many of the Tex Murphy games as possible before this game gets released but doesn't look like I'll make it =/
Going into this with a fresh/first impression and I think I will be pleased and entertained.
 

EmSeta

Member
Just tried the demo. Graphics are rough, but the puzzles are fun and ol' Tex is as lovable as ever. What a relief.
 
Under a Killing Moon was one of the first CD-ROM games my dad bought me in 1994 along with Rebel Assault. I'm so happy they had a chance to make this.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
I keep asking in these threads, but how do Kickstarter backers actually get the game? lol

I feel like they just haven't bothered updating the Kickstarter page with any information about actually getting the game.
 

inm8num2

Member
I keep asking in these threads, but how do Kickstarter backers actually get the game? lol

I feel like they just haven't bothered updating the Kickstarter page with any information about actually getting the game.

They'll likely post an update on kickstarter with instructions in the coming days.
 

Card Boy

Banned
Love how Archie Ellis has now turned into a hipster in this game. Not sure if its legit but IMDB has Chelsea in the cast.
 

protonion

Member
Under a Killing Moon was my first pc game!

After the epic Overseer cliffhanger I thought the next game was around the corner...
I was almost depressed when I read the news back then.

Now my biggest gaming wish comes true in couple of days!
Thank you!!!!
 

dream

Member
Dumb question, but do GoG and Humble Store give Steam keys for this? Steam is giving out Pandora Directive, but I'd much rather get Overseer if possible.

edit: duh, I should have clicked on the Humble Store link.

another edit: Humble Store doesn't say if the preorder includes an older Tex Murphy game though. sigh. life is hard.
 
Technically the 3D environments are behind the times but artistically I find them quite charming... as for the cinematics, they're just flat-out amazing IMO.


So I managed to play through the demo tonight from start to finish. Yeah, the 3D environments feel like a rather vanilla Unity3D game, there's really nothing much to them. Models are basic, there isn't much in the way of shader effects, and the game looks like it came from about 2006. Textures are alright though, and there is a certain charm to the game, I will give it that. But at the same time, there's nothing really incompetent about the engine, it does what it needs to do and nothing more.

I don't have a super high resolution monitor, just 1080p, but I was playing the game at 2560x1440 downsampled, and I do notice that the video does look much cleaner than anything at 1080p. It's honestly nice to see a game that doesn't use those horrible Bink video codec packs. The video quality in this game just looks phenomenal, this is how to do FMV right.

As for the game, the puzzles remind me of old Resident Evil games, not too hard but good enough to keep me invested in the game. Some of the actors in the cut scenes are a little iffy, but nothing bad. Overall, there is a B-movie nature to the game, but I find that to be a good thing. The writing is very sharp though and Tom Servo seems to be your sidekick.

The Navigation is OK, simple right click circular menu, here's not really much too it. And it's nice to be able to save anywhere.

Overall I rather enjoyed the demo, it does have a certain charm to it and it is kind of a trip to play a modern FMV adventure game in 2014. I actually want to go back and play the old games now.
 
Tex Murphy is great, loved "Pandora Directive" and "Under a Killing Moon", I still have the CDs around. Didn't play "Overseer" because I think it wasn't released here.

Will definitely buy the new one once I clear a little my backlog.
Damn you Dark Souls 2
 

Dalthien

Member
So many memories. I played so many FMV-adventures back in the day. And Tex was in the upper tier of the genre.

Can't wait!!!
 
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