Under a Killing Moon

"Just shy of an out-and-out masterpiece (that was to come later)."

There is something to be said for gaming companies that like to push the envelope. These gutsy fellows manning the helm of experimental games, they deserve recognition simply because they are trying to go further into their respective realm - that of video game production - than their predecessors, pressing onward into uncharted territory. Sure, there have been failures in this arena - the Virtual Boy, Nintendo's foray into Virtual Reality gaming, was all but a complete disaster - but the successes into the gaming world are truly wonderful articles. Games like Dragon Warrior, Doom, and Myst were all pioneers in their own respective genres and styles, bringing more accolades and critical respect to the gaming industry.

Access Software is no stranger to such intrusions in the uncharted depths of creative gaming. Riding high from their success of the Links 386 series, a pair of programers - Chris Jones and Aaron Conners - decided that making a game would be an interesting expansion to previous projects. Conners, known for his ability to write and stage Murder Mystery parties, had a script that was just itching to be thrown into use, and Jones knew just how to implement it. See, a few years ago Jones worked on a Flight Simulator game called ''Mean Streets'', featuring a futuristic Private Detective named Tex Murphy. The game didn't fare too well, but people seemed to enjoy Murphy's escapades. Murphy's popularity grew when he starred in the game ''Martian Memorandum'', a King's Quest -esque game that had him solving another mystery. Yes, it would appear that Murphy was ready for another jaunt into the future of gumshoes.

In case you hadn't figured it out by now, the game I'm building up to is ''Under a Killing Moon'', the 5th installment of the Tex Murphy Quintilogy. Jones and Conners had the script, they had Access' consent to their demands, and they were ready to go. However, the game right from the get-go was looking to be a huge undertaking, most likely too large for the gents to effectively produce - they were considering every option possible, such as full-motion video, extensive voice acting, interactive environments, etc. In the time of PCs when the 3.5 Floppy Disk reigned supreme as the manner of transmitting data, our pair had immediately ruled them out as their preferred media, opting for the new ''CD Rom''. Once they fully made the decision to go into daring new direction - 2 full years before CD Rom games (i.e., Myst, The 7th Guest, Return to Zork) began dominating the gaming market - they set out to do everything they could with the game.

Enough of the technological aspects, though, as I'm sure they bore you. Tex Murphy's latest adventure, ''Under A Killing Moon'', starts off with him reflecting on his spotty past, both professional and personal. His old mentor, 'The Colonel' (wonderfully portrayed by the late Brian Keith), shows up to see his former pupil a despondent wreck. Murphy shrugs off The Colonels' words of encouragement, resigning himself to a life inside the bottle instead of outside in the real world. This haphazard lifestyle ends, though, when he discovers that the Colonel has been stabbed, and he has to protect a strange statue from a Doomsday cult that wishes to eradicate life from Earth.

Ok, so the game doesn't advance THAT quickly. The first chapter of the game entails Murphy's hum-drum life, despite the fact that an actual case has surfaced. Rising to the challenge, Murphy's day is concluded when he successfully apprehends the thief that had stolen from the local pawnshop owner. From here, Murphy becomes tangled in a storyline, culminating in his climactic battle with...ok, there's no battle. He just has to stop a satellite run by wackos from dispersing a lethal virus into the atmosphere, one that would kill all life on Earth in a matter of hours. Hey, nobody said being a P.I. was easy!

Tex's adventures are played out mostly from a first-person perspective. This is where the game's meat of the gameplay comes from, as you meander about each area, exploring their various nooks and crannies with Tex's not-too-amazing skills. He can look at stuff, search stuff, open/close stuff, etc. It's basic, but the combination of looking up and down, moving fully about each room, crouching, standing up taller (for a higher look around), and Tex's basic ''look/search/move'' functions are enough to propel the game without becoming boring or challenging. Murphy finds objects that he can take or interact with, then uses them to progress further into the game; need access to a computer terminal, but don't have the necessary cardkey? Search underneath the desk (crouch, look up, and search) to find it! Need to deactivate the security measure in the penthouse, but you're on the wrong side of the hallway? Try shooting the Console at the far end with a dart gun (which you conveniently found)!

The various locations Tex travels to have interactive points as well, occasionally harmful to our hapless hero - lethal security droids, laser-grid defense systems, and doppleganger-shamans can quickly end Tex's life and propel him up into the presence of the ''Big P.I. in the Sky''. I'll get to those characters in a minute, though.

The amount of vocal work and individual acting displayed by each individual character (mostly Chris Jones, the programmer-turned-futuristic-detective) is phenomenal. Have Tex look at an object and he'll comment on it, usually with a witty comment or two. Occasionally, picking up or using an item will initiate a small cutscene, were we get to see Mr. Jones/Mr. Murphy interact with the item. For example: looking at Murphy's gun (in his office) will prompt him to regale just how much he loves it. Pick it up and you'll be treated to a short scenario where Tex imagines himself in a fierce firefight, getting so into the enactment that he accidently hurls his gun out the window. Tex then walks over to the window, yelling at a kid on the street to toss his gun up to him; instead, the child shoots Tex's hat off and pilfers his pistol as his own. Tex no longer has a gun, his hat has a hole in it, and his day is already looking for the worse.

The game is littered with puns of this caliber; the pawnshop on Tex's street is owned by a man named Rook (''Rook's Pawnshop''...get it?), Tex wistfully waits by parking meters for ''a glimpse of Rita'' (that's a Beatle's joke, folks), a man named Ferrell runs the ''Ferrellette Table'', etc. Humor abounds in almost every nook and cranny of the game, complimented by Murphy's slow drawl and sarcastic demeanor. You could tell Jones/Conners were having fun, since they decided to poke fun at everything from the Film Noir genre to Tex himself to his situations to Tex (again)...

Of course, the game would most likely be a throwaway specimen if it didn't have the decent plot and wonderful acting to go along with it. Tex's trips are accompanied by a cast of actors and actresses, portraying the various folk he encounters. Featuring the likes of Brian Keith, Margot Kidder, Chris Jones (duh), Russell Means (the aforementioned shapechanging Native American), and James Earl Jones as the ''Big P.I. in the Sky'' - who chastises Tex whenever he fails in his mission and dies - Under a Killing Moon definitely is propelled by its acting as much as it is its humorous narrative and logic puzzles. Find the items you need, solve the puzzle, press onward and try to save the world. Fail, and you'll have Darth Vader telling you what a dimwit you are. He's even gracious enough to provide the introductory phrases for each chapter of the game, literary quotes from Poe and such. Jones gives a delightfully dark addition to the somber, almost jovial tone of the game. He helps keep it in check, along with Means, Kidder, and Keith, preventing the game from fully straying into the realm of satire and holding it a more logical (if, at times, silly) timeplace.

Under a Killing Moon pushed boundaries right from the start. The diskette was king, yet they wanted to go with the experimental format for their game. Not only that, but the sheer volume of their game required an unprecedented FOUR disks to contain it all, and they wanted to try a style of game that mimicked their previous efforts, yet placed gamers in a completely different style of exploratory strategy. The contents of the game, of course, were delightfully entertaining with their poignant humor and mental puzzles. The game never gets too difficult, providing you with a ''Hint Guide'' within the game (in case you get stuck or simply don't know what to do), so you shouldn't have any problems beating the game and reliving another of Tex's cases bit by bit (unless you want to go solo, without the hint guide).

It's a shame that this game was only a moderate success, never achieving the popularity it so rightfully deserved. The interaction between your surroundings alone set it far ahead of games to follow (such as Myst & The 7th Guest, which was paled in comparison), while its graphical level rivaled that of more popular games (such as...well, Myst & The 7th Guest). Add in the humor, the acting, and the all-around fun of the game, and you have a clear-cut winner. And to think, there were 2 sequels to this game, both of which I consider superior!

---Final Score: 8/10---

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/10/02, Updated 06/10/02