![]() ![]() Under a Killing Moon walks the line between comedy and drama, with goofy dialog and sarcastic voiceover contrasting a reasonably complex homage to classic film noir. Like Guybrush Threepwood, Roger Wilco, or Larry Laffer, Tex Murphy is a classic adventure hero a bumbling incompetent with more luck than wits. If you do get stuck, you can buy hints using in-game points, thanks to an ingenious hint system that remains the best the genre has seen to this day. While some small items like keys or cards require a thorough search of the premises, there are usually just enough clues to nudge you in the right direction. While there's a ton of voice and video to convey the story and dialog, you'll still spend most of your time sleuthing, combing the many 3D environments for clues, and solving the usual inventory and logic puzzles you'd expect from a '90s adventure game. But Access wisely never let their aspirations of interactive cinema overshadow the actual gameplay. Surprisingly, everyone seems to pull their weight, with the amateurs hamming it up in comedic roles, and the pros holding down the more dramatic moments. The cast was an odd mix of Hollywood vets like James Earl Jones, Russell Means, and Margot Kidder, alongside moonlighting computer programmers, with the game's director doubling as its lead character. While other developers like LucasArts and Sierra were simply using the CD-ROM media to add voiceover, Tex's new adventure spanned an unprecedented four CDs, packed with video to illustrate every conversation and major plot point along the way. It might seem funny now, but it seemed impossible that these detailed, high-resolution environments full of shadows and nuance could be rendered on the fly. But this reviewer will never forget that feeling of awe upon seeing those graphics move and discovering they were real-time 3D. During a time of pre-rendered slideshows like Myst, it was natural to glance at Under a Killing Moon, and assume it was the same. It might be tough for a new generation of gamers to appreciate how amazing this title looked in 1994. But unlike those games, this was a 3D, first-person adventure game with an unrivaled cinematic presentation. While his first game was an experimental mish-mash of genres, and his sophomore outing a standard point-and-click adventure, Under a Killing Moon was proudly billed as an "interactive movie," a label already facing some backlash as a tide of titles substituting video for gameplay flooded the shelves. This was not the first game in the Tex Murphy series, but it was a new beginning. ![]() Years later, it remains a seminal classic but often goes overlooked for the very reasons that once made it seem so fresh. Caught somewhere between the tail end of the full-motion video craze and the dawn of the 3D revolution, it walked a delicate line between passé and cutting-edge, and for that brief moment in time, it was perfect. Features the voice of James Earl Jones.Īlmost 2.Like Tex Murphy, a hardboiled, fedora-wearing gumshoe in a post-nuclear future, Under a Killing Moon was a game out of time. Starring Brian Keith, Margot Kidder, and Russell Means. An interface that makes interaction intuitive and simple.Be part of an exciting comedy thriller!.Full freedom of movement, explore where, when and what you want!.Four CDs of unparalleled graphics and sound.Instead, descriptions of the dialogue choices were given, providing some mystery to what Tex would say.Īccess Software's Under A Killing Moon features: It was also the first Tex Murphy game to stray from the traditional adventure game dialogue format of providing options that showed exactly what the player's character would say. The virtual world allows full freedom of movement, and as such allows the player to look for clues in every nook and cranny. The player controls the protagonist Tex from a first-person perspective. Under a Killing Moon dramatically shifted the gameplay of its predecessors in the series by fully utilizing interactive 3D environments. The graphics quality, the fascinating, believable characters, and complete freedom of movement will make you feel like you've actually walked through the screen and become the main character in a rich, intriguing mystery movie. ![]() This thrilling and hilarious adventure is unlike anything you've seen before. Enter the virtual world of Under A Killing Moon, where it is December 2042, and you, as Tex Murphy, must stop the forces of evil before they destroy mankind and rob you of your next unemployment check. ![]()
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