Tex Murphy: Martian Memorandum

Loveable nostalgic experience! Game runs on DOSBOX and is like 27MB in size. Classic point-and-click adventure set in a dystopian post-WW3 era. You play as Tex Murphy, private detective. It absolutely feels like a [b]mixture between Blade Runner and Total Recall[/b] and I love it! It borrowed heavily from these two movies but offers enough unique content to stand on it's own. Martian Memorandum features a very simple interface with big buttons on the bottom of the screen. Just click on either "LOOK", "OPEN", "USE" etc. and then on the object to interact. Unique for it's time is the usage of some FMV sequences starring real actors. Dialogue sequences play a big role in this game. Chosing the wrong dialogue option leads to uncooperative behaviour. There are also a few "action sequences" like using a hoverboard to pass through a security area with pressure plates and lasers or traversing a ventilation shaft in full 3D! What I didn't like: - most of the music tracks don't fit the atmosphere at all and are somewhat upbeat. Some tracks feature some smooth synthesizers though and give off a nice cyberpunk feeling. But, like I said, most tracks don't fit. The very basic SoundBlaster 16 emulation in DOSBOX doesn't help either. - the mouse controls are somewhat clunky. I very much enjoyed this game and recommend it to anyone who is fond of adventure and / or retro-games.

I could actually see myself get into this if the resolution was.... twice as good?

I really enjoyed the first game, Mean Streets, but Martian Memorandum was pretty bad. Almost everything that made the first game enjoyable was missing from this game. Martian Memorandum feels more like a text adventure because there is very little interaction and the environments are really bland. The way the dialogue works is very frustrating because there is only one correct path and you have to try and get through a dialogue tree. Every time you fail, you have to start over and repeat the same dialogue trying to find the correct path. Some characters have no correct path until you do something else in the game which means you just keep going through all the different dialogue trees and forget which choices you have already made because you have to keep starting over. It is easier to just go through all the options in order, but that is not enjoyable. Making progression through most parts where you have to pick up or use objects is not enjoyable because there is usually nothing to hint you in the right direction for what you are supposed to do and the things you have to do are often not that logical. The first game did not have this issue and I only needed to check a walkthrough in a couple parts. I hate having to use a walkthrough and usually leave it as a last resort for when I get completely stuck and need it to just get past one part. This is the first game I ever played where I just decided to used a walkthrough for the entire game because I knew it would be too frustrating to play without it. I guess I preferred to use the walkthrough to experience the story of the game rather than skipping the game entirely.

Графическая приключенческая игра с живыми актёрами. Вам поручают одно дело. Вы расспрашиваете людей и путешествуете по местам на земле и даже отправитесь на Марс. Для тех, кто хочет почувствовать себя в роли детектива.

Tex'in maceraları devam ediyor! Açık dünya macera oyunlarının babaannelerinden Mean Streets'te Dünyayı kurtaran acar dedektifimiz Tex Murphy, Dünyayı kurtarmak yetmemiş olacak ki bu sefer de Mars'a uzanan çılgın bir yolculuğa yelken açıyor. İlginç karakterler ve mekanlar bu oyunda da sürüsüne bereket ama ilk oyunun bir çok türü harmanlayan eşsiz oynanışı Martian Memorandum'da ne yazık ki mevcut değil. Seveni kadar sevmeyeni de olan uçuş simulasyonu ve atış galerisi kısımlarına veda edilmiş, karakterlerle etkileşimde ise sopa gösterme ve parayı veren düdüğü çalan tadında oldukça ilginç sonuçlar yaratabilen seçimler de artık yok :) Martian Memorandum'da diyaloglara dayanan klasik bir point & click macera ile karşı karşıyayız. Her ne kadar bahsettiğim ilginç mekan ve karakterler sayesinde oyun sizi kendine belirli bir ölçüde bağlayabilse de, ilk oyuna kıyasla oynanış oldukça geri planda kalmış durumda. Seriyi sıra ile oynayacaklar ve oynanıştan ziyade "Tex baba var dediler, geldim" diyenler haricindekiler es geçebilirler....

10x the game Mean Streets is but no where remotely in the same dimension as Under A Killing Moon. If you're thinking of going back and playing the original Tex Murphy games, don't. Watch a Lets Play instead. And I say that as someone that played plenty of DOS games when Win 3.1 was the newest os. That said, I did gain an appreciation for what came before UAKM and it's lore.

Martian Memorandum deviates from the formula established in Mean Streets by playing more like a traditional point and click, MM has more that it's fair share of puzzels and unfair deaths so be sure to save ofter. There's even a game breaking "bug" where you can screw yourself if you don't get certain details on a certain power plant while still on earth.

CrazyPyro's review sums it up well. Good for nostalgia. Much more playable than Mean Streets. Even works on Linux (even without Proton), which is nice. Not up to modern gaming and cultural standards in many ways, if that's what you're looking for...but if you're here, chances are that's not what you're looking for.

Alexis Alexander, daughter of business tycoon Marshall Alexander, has disappeared. Daddy believes she has been kidnapped and hires me, Tex Murphy, to find her. That's a pretty simple case for a veteran private investigator as myself. Don't be fooled, though! Finding Alexis isn't that easy. And it's mostly the old school user interface making it so hard. That, and the pixel hunting. Thankfully, the "HELP" verb works as a hotspot locator. Usually I try to avoid those, because I often think they make an adventure game too easy. But this time, I must admit it's pretty essential. Basically I go around trying to convince people to giving me information, either by choosing the right combination of dialogue options (thankfully if you fail and get thrown out, you can just visit them again and start over as if nothing happened) or by offering them a key item. The list of topics you can question people about will slowly grow, and you can also contact your secretary Stacy through your comlink to ask for further information -- if she has something to offer, that is. I lost count of how many times I had to reload. Not only is this a game where you can die, apparently there's also a dead-end if you don't give the correct replies during a dinner date. I really felt like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day trying over and over again to sweettalk Andy MacDowell. Either she fell asleep, or emptied her wine glass in my face, and then I had no means to continue that conversation. So countless reloads later, eventually I got her to answer my questions, and I was able to follow another lead. It was like travelling through time, to an age where you didn't just have to save your game if you wanted to continue playing at a later time. You had to save your game to continue five seconds later! Reload after reload and using all inventory items all over the place finally forced me to look up a hint. Turned out I had gamed my way into an unwinnable state, because I had missed a key item way back when. So, reload to a much earlier safe, move one item to find another, then play through to the finale again and yes, finally, mission accomplished! The girl is saved, we're both still alive, and nobody has entirely blown up either Earth or Mars. I'd say, that's a good day in the life of Tex Murphy! A hard and difficult day, extremely at that, but good nonetheless!

**Tex Murphy: Martian Memorandum (1991)** I started playing **Tex Murphy: Martian Memorandum (1991)** again — a truly hardcore point-and-click game, but with a great story. It’s a pure **DOS experience**, and honestly you’ll probably need a **walkthrough** at some point. Still, the way you can handle **conversations** makes up for a lot. The game also uses **FMV content**, which really adds to that classic Tex vibe. The conversations are what it’s all about. There’s even a **hint system** that can help you move forward step by step if you get stuck. I haven’t needed it yet, because I played the game in the past — just never finished it. Because of that, I still remember most things… up to a certain point in the game. One thing I definitely remembered: **save often**. Martian Memorandum can be ruthless. Sometimes you’re forced to reload an old save, and if you’ve been thinking “I’ll save later”… well, you’ll regret it. That happened to me right away: I hadn’t saved yet, I’d played for hours, and then suddenly I was stuck and had to reload — from the very beginning. Those are the less fun parts. Still, I’m going to try to push a bit further and see how far I can get this time. According to **HowLongToBeat**, the game should take about **5.5 hours**, but for me it’ll probably be longer — especially since I like taking my time, and I was already pretty far when I stopped. Graphically it’s not great, but it is what it is. The audio isn’t that strong either. Like I said, it’s really the **story**, who you are as Tex, and the **quirky characters** that make the game worth it. If you’re a real hardcore point-and-click gamer, the original price is definitely worth it — as long as you don’t mind needing a walkthrough sometimes, and occasionally having to reload from far back because you forgot to save… or because you suddenly die. Because yes, you *can* die, or get stuck, and then you always have to load a previous point. That can be extremely irritating. Well, I played the game a bit longer, but it turned into a constant cycle of checking hints and reloading old saves. I’m going to call it here for this one. I recommend the game if you’re a hardcore point-and-click fan; otherwise, I’d wait until it goes on sale.