Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure
(Big Finish Games / ATLUS)
For fans of the Adventure gaming genre, the last few years have been a goldmine of long-awaited sequels, re-imaginings and reissues. We’ve seen genre heroes Sam & Max and Monkey Island revived in a new, episodic format; Leisure Suit Larry has had a makeover, with a recent reissue bringing him into the naughties (literally!); the creators of Gabriel Knight and Space Quest have used Kickstarter campaigns to successfully fund their new projects; and the relaunch of iconic games company Sierra will see the return of Kings Quest in 2015.
Another fan favourite, and one of the most long-awaited returns to the world of point-and-click, is the recently released Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure. Backed by a successful Kickstarter campaign that saw 7,000 odd fans donate almost $600,000 to the project, original creators Chris Jones and Aaron Connors have joined forces once again to play out the cliffhanger ending to Tex Murphy: Overseer we never thought we’d see resolved. It seems we would finally be getting the answers we were looking for (and, in the true style of the detective noir genre, a lot of heavily narrated questions on top of that).
Tesla Effect is a full motion video (FMV), point-and-click adventure that brings players back into the world of Tex Murphy seven years after those fateful final moments of Overseer. Tex is changed man, harder and colder than the charming, bumbling gumshoe of the five previous games. Why he’s changed so much becomes as much a part of the mystery as the case he’s trying to solve – he’s attacked at the start of the game (typical Tex!) and has had the last seven years of his life wiped from his memory. This event plays a large role in setting the narrative structure for the game, and gives players the chance to once again fall in love with the character they’ve missed, rather than the one he’s become.
For me, there’s a ritual in preparing for Tesla. I’ve spent several weeks replaying the first five games in the series, reacquainting myself with the characters and backstory. This has ignited me with a sense of giddy nostalgia that has boosted my expectations of the new instalment a hundred fold. It’s also taken me about as long to download the 15GB installer file – a huge feat for those without the patience or download speeds to make light work of it – and it makes me pine for the oversized computer game boxes of old, a 5- or 8-disc CD-ROM bundle nestled inside, with the all too familiar ‘insert disc X now’ prompt popping up at all the wrong moments.
Once I get the game installed and running, the real excitement hits. The clarity and detail of high definition 2K full motion video brings the world of New San Francisco to life. Once the cut scene ends I’m back on Chandler Avenue, which is as recognisable as the previous games albeit in a more detailed 3D environment.
Learning the new interface is tricky at first, but there’s a full video tutorial that walks you through Tex’s new ‘gadget’ – the Smart Alex – and I soon figure out the interface is more similar to the older games than I realised. Unfortunately, there are some small glitches I discovered during gameplay that made the interface a bit tedious, including menus that would pop up randomly while I was trying to solve some of the puzzles.
Even with all the fancy graphics and high quality production work, it’s still the cast that make the game. You’d never guess how long it’s been since Jones last donned the trench coat and fedora, because his performance as Tex Murphy is spot on. The return of original characters like Louie LaMintz (Randall Edwards), Rook Garner (Douglas Vandegrift) and Big Jim Slade (Richard Norton) make it feel as fifteen years couldn’t possibly have passed between games. Other exciting additions to the cast including love interest Taylor (Jodi Russell), femme fatale Ariel (Shannon Engemann), villainous ‘Translator’ (Steve Valentine) and new police chief Lt. Danwicz (Larry ‘Soup Nazi’ Thomas). Along with Todd Bridges and June Lockhart, there are some real casting coups for an indie video game production.
Cute Easter eggs can also be found throughout the game, with lots of verbal and visual references to remind players of Tex’s humble beginnings. These are surprising and delightful in small doses, but it does start to get a bit much after a while and it starts to lose the balance between “this is one for the fans!” and “this is a whole new adventure!” New players who don’t understand the references may be more confused than charmed by it all.
One of the best features of the game is the multiple paths and endings that the player can follow – a true reminder of why they call this ‘interactive fiction’. Each action you take will influence what you learn, whom you’ll encounter and what kind of ending Tex will arrive at. This is a return to the narrative technique in Pandora Directive, one of the most popular titles in the series. It gives the player the ability to replay the game in order to access all of the different locations and videos available, and get much more playability for their buck than a game with a linear narrative.
As a long time fan of both the series and the genre, Tesla Effect has been a real treat for me. The storytelling is clever, the dialogue snappy, and the range of exotic 3D locations (dosed with a good splash of the supernatural) still creep me out enough that I won’t play in the dark. The game isn’t perfect – there are glitches that make it difficult to navigate through puzzles and scenes in some parts – but for an indie release made on a budget, the team at Big Finish have certainly given fans a sequel that is worthy of the wait. New fans should enjoy the game too, but may not fall for its charms in the same way.
(Image via IncGamers)