Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure

Bardzo ciekawy ukłon w stronę interaktywnych filmowych przygodówek z początku lat 90tych w stylu produkcji na 3DO Panasonica. Ten typ gier albo się podoba, albo budzi niechęć. Wszystko to kwestia gustu. Bardzo interesujący tytuł.

Started off funny and cheeky with lots of dialogue before devolving into hours of boring pixel-hunting while running around unnecessarily large environments. Later areas include stealth areas and environmental obstacles with annoying sound effects that for some reason cannot be turned down. The puzzles are uninspired and painful to deal with (coming from someone who loves puzzle games). Items are hard to find even if you know what room they're supposed to be in. Fortunately the game comes with a built-in walkthrough (not a great look if you know your gameplay is so weak that you have to develop a system to let people bypass it).

Tex Murphy is a fossil both in-universe, and as a game. 80% of this game's writing is Gen X humour (derogatory) and some equivalent of "Hey Tex, remember da time?" It's incredibly lazy to prop your "revival" game up with flashbacks to previous titles. I'm sure this was done to keep it in "the style of the time," but when you're having conversations with characters you can pick one of three vaguely-titled prompts, and heaven forbid you go pick the wrong one because an entire conversation thread is abandoned. Tex should've stayed in the past.

Great oldschool gem. Interesting story, solid gameplay, partly nice riddles and of course some funny and great passionate acting, especially from Chris Jones (playing Tex Murphy) himself. Just the double bidsch slap against Tex was worth it.

Tesla Effect is a game that I saw played by a youtuber about a decade ago and I knew then that one day I'd have to play it myself. While Ultimately, I think some of it didn't quite land for me because of this being my first exposure to what seems to be a multi-part series of video game adaptations of a book series, I think overall it was a very good experience! It was good to play an old-fashioned point and click game again, and this one has aged much better than some of the other ones i've played in my time on Steam and before. The story is clearly the main heart of the game and, while some pieces never quite fall into place (such as some cutscenes referencing things I thought I hadn't seen or known, or some of the characters having very little in the way of arcs or resolutions (which makes sense in some cases as they're ultimately minor)), the overall experience is good fun, and has a delightful amount of silly, often outlandish moments combined with some more serious undertones that tend to have the right amount of time to breathe. The characters are very interesting themselves, though that lack of pre-exposure makes me wonder if they would hit home a bit better If i'd met them before and were more familiar with them, and are the main hook at the start of the game - something that helps the game hold momentum through the rockier sections towards the end. Speaking of, it's worth noting that Tesla Effect plays at it's best in the opening two thirds - finding clues, interviewing witnesses, piecing together the elements of a larger medium, where the interplay between characters and dialogue helps shore up the basic gameplay and exploration elements. The game starts to struggle, however, once you reach around Day 8, where the character interactions are almost completely absent from that point onwards - and the game starts to lean back on it's core gameplay which, while serviceable, is often very barebones and has some particually cheap feeling moments. Deaths become a lot more random and unfair due to either bad hitboxes or very janky and unexplained enemy design, and the puzzles actually shift away from the more complex and intriguing ones to the much more basic "find the object, use them at the specific times" design. This low point in the game, right before the game's surprisingly short and abrupt finale which, while resolving everything capably, lacked a lot of the charm the start of the game did, with almost no real feeling of the silly but interesting detective game I was hoping for. Overall, while the graphics are middling and the end of the game tends to lean too much into frustration or unsatisfying territory, the actual FMV and story are strong enough, especially in the beginning, to carry you through to the end. There's not a real motive or moral going on, but it's a fun story with some interesting people that can be played out comfortably in an afternoon. Solid, but nothing groundbreaking, Tesla Effect is charming and doesn't outstay it's welcome.

Nice Old School Detective Noir Game!

I liked it a lot and was happy to play another Tex Murphy game. Really happy to see that Under A Killing Moon will get a remake. Btw, you were one of those developers that made a kickstarter and actually delivered within 2 years or so, and the game was good. Love you guys, thanks for the great games.

Tex Murphy is BACK! I remember I was in awe when Under A Killing Moon came out, graphically it was revolutionary. Like Links LS at the time, similar type graphics.

campy and fun

90 minutes in and it's great. I remembered the Under a Killing Moon game from back in the day and this follow up is great. Better graphics and smooth play of course, but all of the cheesy, tongue-in-cheek, film-noire hijinx I remember. Funny and compelling. Worth a play-through.