The series

[Evil Taco]

#11001

I’ve never played any of the Tex Muprhy series, though I somehow own the first two on GOG.com..

In the suggestion thread the original poster mentioned those first two are nowadays “unplayable”, which I think is a pretty common assessment!

But how about Under a Killing Moon vs. The Pandora Directive? The pick here is The Pandora Directive. I remember Under a Killing Moon being quite iconic (I remember its coverage well in the magazines), but does The Pandora Directive play better?

The creators have done a good job keeping the legacy alive. Video Game History Hour had a great episode about preservation of the FMV footage: https://gamehistory.org/ep-39-tex-murphy-p-i-solves-the-case-of-the-missing-production-tapes/

[Tijn]

#11003

When picking the games, we wanted to go for an FMV game and Tex Murphy was brought up as a possible candidate.

The argument was then made that The Pandora Directive is the best entry in the series, so that’s why we went with that one.

I haven’t played any of the Tex Murphy games myself, so I don’t know really. I’m sure we’ll get to talk about Tex Murphy in general on the podcast though!

[Pix]

#11005

I think you’d be hard pressed to find any Tex fans who wouldn’t regard Pandora Directive as the better game. It’s a lot less goofy and has way more to the story, including numerous paths and endings. It’s one of my all time favourite games. If we were going to play one, it was an easy choice in my eyes.

If you have the time, playing both wouldn’t be a bad idea. Both games even have a built in gradual hint system, and easy/hard modes to help you along.

I wouldn’t say the first two were unplayable myself but they are somewhat of their time for sure. Tex Murphy Overseer retells the story of Mean Streets so if you really enjoy these, you could carry on and play that one as well if you want to see where it started.

[Evil Taco]

#11006

Thanks for the replies! I think I’ll check out the first two entries casually earlier in the year, if I get hooked I might try to play Under the Killing Moon as well before September.

I’ve been on quite an adventure game kick thanks to Toonstruck this last week!

[jibsaramnim]

#11008

By chance I’ve actually very recently played through and finished Under a Killing Moon. I’ve used the recently released patch (https://github.com/moralrecordings/tex3-mouselook) that gives it and Pandora Directive more modern mouselook+WSAD controls, which at least for me really helped as it removed the need for me to try to get used to the original mouse controls.

I quite enjoyed it, especially because it didn’t feel too challenging (though challenging enough). I’m not the greatest at puzzle games, so I appreciated the built-in hint system too, really made it more approachable for someone like me.

This was the first Ted Murphy game I ever played, so I don’t know how it would compare to later or earlier parts in the series. I’ve got Pandora Directive queued up next though, so I’ll be curious to hear what others think of (re-)visiting this one.