Tex Murphy Tex Murphy: Tesla Effect

[Sceptic]

After playing a few hours yesterday, some random thoughts.
- Visually the game is awesome. That long panning into Chandler Ave brought back instant memories of UKM's intro (I'm sure this was deliberate), but seeing the city in glorious high quality and full screen, 15 years after we thought there would never be another Tex game, almost brought a tear to my eye.
- Engine and interface are pretty good, the best so far IMO. The lack of discrete separation between locations is great; walking out of Tex's office and onto the street without any loading gave me a boner.
- Writing and acting have come a LONG way. Watching some of the UKM flashbacks is faintly embarrassing now. Chris is really, really, REALLY great as Tex this time around, it's such a pleasure seeing him meld into the character so well after all these years.
- Whoever designed and voiced that narrator PDA thing needs to DIAF. The only exception to the acting comment above. Really terrible stuff
- Story is excellent so far. I think it's the most complex case - so many parallel threads, some of them going unexpected places. The amnesia stuff is done surprisingly well and I'm loving the way that and the actors' inevitable aging is woven into the plot.
- Puzzles so far have been way, way too easy. It's by far the easiest game in the series. This is a huge disappointment, especially since I'm playing on Gamer and Chris Jones promised that it would be tough. It's not, in fact it's even easier than TPD's easymode. I shudder to think how easy Easymode is this time around. The "puzzle" puzzles have also been excessively easy when compared to some of the brainwrecking ones from TPD and Overseer. I wouldn't have minded THAT much the easy puzzles.... but then the game CONSTANTLY tells you what you need to do. Stupid PDA once again needs to DIAF, by reminding you ALL THE TIME of things you already know you should be doing. And other examples abound, like Tex picking up a fax from Archie that tells him to come visit him.... then remarking "I should go visit him". Yes I already noticed, thank you. Should've kept all this by-the-nose bullshit in easymode, it has no place in Gamer.
- Dialogues are great and Tex's answer choices are delightfully obscure, as they have been since UKM.

Oh yeah and as much as I'm enjoying the story, there's a rather serious plot hole.

Spoiler

We first see the holes Tex punched in the wall. Then we find out he did this after having one of his dreams, from Taylor. Then we find on Margaret's recording that Tex had the Faberge egg..... and then Tex suddenly knows that the egg was hidden inside the walls and he took it out. Wut?

I'm hoping the puzzles pick up a bit. So far the game is great, and this is the only disappointment. Though perhaps I didn't really expect anything challenging, not with the way today's games are made.

Play in Gamer mode.

I already am, duh.

 

[Infinitron]

The Codex doesn't give out review scores.

 

[Angthoron]

Oh yeah and as much as I'm enjoying the story, there's a rather serious plot hole.

Spoiler

We first see the holes Tex punched in the wall. Then we find out he did this after having one of his dreams, from Taylor. Then we find on Margaret's recording that Tex had the Faberge egg..... and then Tex suddenly knows that the egg was hidden inside the walls and he took it out. Wut?

This does get sort of explained later on in a way that (?) sort of (?) makes sense.

I'm hoping the puzzles pick up a bit. So far the game is great, and this is the only disappointment. Though perhaps I didn't really expect anything challenging, not with the way today's games are made.

They do pick up some, yeah.

 

[Duraframe300]

http://www.adventuregamers.com/articles/view/26429

The Good:
Classic gameplay matches the series perfectly; a robust case to investigate, with plenty of twists and turns to uncover; abundant tongue-in-cheek humor; atmospheric musical score; multiple endings and paths through the game add some replayability.

The Bad:
Ambiguous dialog choices; change in style of later puzzles; point system not implemented in any meaningful way.

4/5 stars, Metacritic interprets this as 80. Which is weird since Metacritic is inconsistent about how they are interpreting AG scores.

Anyway more evidence that Codex should aspire to the ranks of metacritic, we even have the score system ready to go. DarkUnderlord

Metacritic is incosistent in everything.

Most of all. THEY DON'T PUT EVERY REVIEW OF A PUBLICATION UP.

You may find a metacritic with a giantbomb score while another game may miss it. REGARDLESS OF THE TIME THE REVIEW WAS POSTED.

A review might also not be posted on every version of the game despite it not being platform specific.

Metacritic is corrupt bullshit.

 

[Angthoron]

A corrupt tool for a corrupt industry, what a shocker.

 

[moraes]

Justi finished this. I hated the "find N of some small object" puzzles, the game almost played like one of those hidden-object crapwares that are infesting Steam right now. But apart from that type of puzzle, the game, and especially the humor, were pretty enjoyable. Which other TM would you guys recommend for someone who has only played Tesla Effect?

 

[Tramboi]

UAKM, Pandora Directive and Overseer
Martian MEmorandum and Mean Streets are just for huge fans (like me)

 

[Sceptic]

Martian MEmorandum and Mean Streets are just for huge fans (like me)

MS and MM are awesome and anyone who thinks otherwise is a faggot.

 

[cvv]

but then the game CONSTANTLY tells you what you need to do.

Yeah, I thought it was pretty retarded too, was wondering if this was supposed to be a part of Easy mode and they just messed up somehow. But if memory doesn't fail me this is really an issue in the first 1/3 of the game, I think it eventually disappears completely.

And yes, the game is disappointingly easy, almost everybody is pointing it out now. The second half picks up a bit but don't expect anything remotely hardcore. I still enjoyed most of the game, especially the final location was a real treat.

 

[Tramboi]

Yes the only real difficulty pix... texel hunting.
But it's great nonetheless and it makes me warm in the heart.

 

[Darth Roxor]

One thing that annoys me a bit is that I can't really play this game for longer periods of time at once. And the reasons for this are kinda bizarre.

1. For some reason, it gives me massive motion sickness and headaches after a longer session.
2. I think it's got some weird memory leaks going on - after playing for a while, the game will just start stuttering, mostly in spoken bits, slightly at first, but increasing steadily.

 

[Sceptic]

1. For some reason, it gives me massive motion sickness and headaches after a longer session.

The FOV is a bit odd. I got used to it about an hour in, but you might want to adjust it if it's giving you problems. I think the default is 60? maybe try 70 or 80, and see how it goes.

2. I think it's got some weird memory leaks going on - after playing for a while, the game will just start stuttering, mostly in spoken bits, slightly at first, but increasing steadily.

I had the game running for a good 6h on my first session, including alt-tabbing to do other things that cropped up, and the performance stayed smooth throughout. Maybe there's something about your system config it doesn't like? Do you have something else running in the background? Was this the Steam version? I ended up installing the Steam one because I couldn't wait (and then the GOG one appeared before I got around to playing anyway, hurr) but I haven't had any technical issues with it, despite Steam running constantly in the background (and contrary to what some claimed, that Steam doesn't need to run with the game).

 

[Azrael the cat]

http://www.adventuregamers.com/articles/view/26429

The Good:
Classic gameplay matches the series perfectly; a robust case to investigate, with plenty of twists and turns to uncover; abundant tongue-in-cheek humor; atmospheric musical score; multiple endings and paths through the game add some replayability.

The Bad:
Ambiguous dialog choices; change in style of later puzzles; point system not implemented in any meaningful way.

4/5 stars, Metacritic interprets this as 80. Which is weird since Metacritic is inconsistent about how they are interpreting AG scores.

Anyway more evidence that Codex should aspire to the ranks of metacritic, we even have the score system ready to go. DarkUnderlord

Metacritic is incosistent in everything.

Most of all. THEY DON'T PUT EVERY REVIEW OF A PUBLICATION UP.

You may find a metacritic with a giantbomb score while another game may miss it. REGARDLESS OF THE TIME THE REVIEW WAS POSTED.

A review might also not be posted on every version of the game despite it not being platform specific.

Metacritic is corrupt bullshit.

Fortunately, I think they're soiling their own nest. The next generation of gamers will have never known an era where people weren't skeptical of online reviews. I don't just mean gaming reviews. The internet is full of review sites and youtube channels that have no value when it comes to identifying what you want to buy/watch. Moreover, people generally treat them as such - they follow them to find out what new shows/films/games are released, not because they place weight upon the reviewers' opinions.

there was an investigative news article where I live on the phenomenon of cosmetics companies paying teenage girls large sums of money to go on youtube and promote their products. All of these 'youtube celebrities' said outright that they would never give a bad review to a company that paid them - or even one that simply gave them free products to review (less because of the financial incentives, mainly because they felt like it would be 'mean' to say nasty stuff about them online - an attitude that is endemic in television review sites). Sounds depressing. But then they interviewed a bunch of teenage girls who VISIT those youtube channels for makeup advice. All of them knew exactly what was up - they weren't visiting the sites for the 'youtube celebrities' opinion, they went there because they could see the makeup being applied and judge for themselves in the knowledge that the average youtube chick lacks the resources to 'fake' the results using digital editing.

I suspect that sort of attitude will be the norm within 5-10 years. People will treat online reviews like they treat reviews of a community theatre production - as friendly promos that might be good for gleaning information, but are useless for sorting the shit from the gems. Current generations will keep on getting fooled, but they'll be viewed in the same way as the old pensioners who buy things because they're recommended on talk-back radio or early morning 'current affairs' shows: relics of a more naive age.

 

[Angthoron]

You're quite the optimist, man.

 

[Sceptic]

Some more thoughts on the game.
- Puzzles get significantly more interesting around day 5. Had a lot of fun with all the Sesen mucking around....
- ... except for the hidden object games. There are WAAAAAAAAAAY too many of those. They were bad all the way back in UKM, and seeing that kind of gameplay come back isn't fun
- Story flow is a bit odd. Tex seems to remember things he isn't supposed to, or reaches conclusions that I'm not sure I agree with (and then it turns out he's wrong anyway)
- Everyone lies to you and has their own agenda. Great stuff, brings back much good memories from TPD. Especially since you can call them out on it
- Aside from the smallish plot holes the writing's pretty brilliant in parts
- Ménage à Tex

 

[Azrael the cat]

You're quite the optimist, man.

If it helps balance things out, I'm quite sure that there'll be new ways for marketing execs to screw people out of their money. The sources of info that are trustworthy now will be tomorrow's fraud-merchants. Expect a Microsoft-sponsored clone of the codex, complete with focus-grouped racism and modded by Skyway and HR, promoting Mass Effect 7 in the not too distant future.:D


Okay, that was a joke, but notice how they're already started to shift their attention to 'edgy'/'angry' critics?

 

[Sceptic]

So, instead of being in bed 3h ago I ended up finishing the game.

I can see what they tried to do with the Tesla Facility, replicating the Roswell puzzles from TPD. I give them credit for trying, but it doesn't work as well, mainly because the inventory-manipulation puzzles are piss easy. I ended up getting stuck a couple of times anyway.... because I missed tiny pixel-hunting items, again. On both occasions I even knew what I was looking for, just not where it was. Some of the puzzle-puzzles however were quite good (and I admit the water valves in day 7 drove me nuts).

Ended up with the Petrified Forest ending (which I'm guessing is because of the afore-mentioned Ménage à Tex). Hilarious and quite satisfying.

Spoiler

Tex gets arrested for killing Slade, somehow gets out, FINALLY gets his revenge on Dalton, then rides off into the Sunset with Saffyre

Very Codexian too, now that I think of it.

Got the highest rank, but that doesn't surprise me.

The game's shorter than TPD but it didn't feel shorter than UKM. It's certainly as good or better than UKM, same flaw with the pixel hunting but otherwise better in every way. Not as brilliant as TPD, but that's a hard one to top considering it's one of THE best adventure games ever made. Overall I'm very satisfied. I expected to be let down, but despite my annoyance with the hidden objects I don't feel the game fell short. The last couple of days are very FMV-heavy, but after the loooooooong and involved days 8-9 I didn't mind.

Some plots points are unresolved. Not sure if that's because of the particular path I chose, but in the case of some of them it actually works well within the narrative to not provide a Final Answer.

Steve Valentine was brilliant. TPD and Overseer both had great villains, but Tesla managed to top them both.

Oh and seeing my name in the credits at the end made me feel all

 

[DalekFlay]

Ménage à Tex

Did I miss some debauchery?

 

[Darth Roxor]

ok so

where the FUCK do I find the "tools" to shape the cog in the swamp house?

To be honest, the item hunts in this game are REALLY DRIVING ME FUCKING NUTS

edit: ok nvm, elephant in the room

 

[Sceptic]

where the FUCK do I find the "tools" to shape the cog in the swamp house?

You need two of them. One to actually get the cog into the fire, and one to shape it.

To get it into the fire

Spoiler

You need the tongs.

Spoiler

They're in the bedroom

Spoiler

Right near the fireplace there

To shape the cog

Spoiler

You need the hammer, which is in the wardrobe in the same room. Which cannot be opened by normal means because the lock is stuck. Maybe more... aggressive means will help?

Spoiler

Like, big explosion aggressive.

Did I miss some debauchery?

Replay the game and find out!

I really have to find out what happens if you reject both dames and stay true to Chelsee.

 

[Darth Roxor]

You need two of them. One to actually get the cog into the fire, and one to shape it.

I only lacked the hammer. I completely forgot about the cabinet in the library because I assumed earlier it would be opened by a puzzle or something, and remembered it p much right after posting.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Well, finished.

I generally agree with Sceptic on p. much all points. Tesla Effect is a boatload of , it's funny, witty and engaging, but also manages to be a bit disturbing at times too (Tesla Facility, Swamp House).

Also, that petrified forest part of the ending was BADASS! Although generally the entire ending was very cool, lotsa dramas and very good music.

I generally really liked the puzzle-puzzles, but ho lee fuk those fucking "find x of [item]" sequences were so overused, ESPECIALLY since so many of these items were extra small. I think the difficulty was also more or less alright, some parts required a lot of attentive searching, but I FELL INTO A MURDEROUS FRENZY WHEN LOOKING FOR THE FUCKING SILICONE TUBE IN DAY 9, and that was not the only example of "pixel"-hunting that really got me hard-stuck and searching for answers in the internet.

Also agree on the translator being a great villain.

Although I'd say that while the start and the late-mid/final parts are great, Tesla Effect dragged a bit around the middle. The beginning is good because it sets up the mystery, tone and dramatis personae properly (and also has the cool beach house), and the later sections are great because there's a lot of stuff to do (Sesen, Swamp House, Tesla Facility). But the middle part, starting when you leave the bitch house and ending when entering Sesen, I thought was mostly about going back and forth and dialoguing at people, looking for rather inane stuff, and Tex coming up with confusing conclusions out of the blue.

I also think it was actually fairly long for a modern advenchurr game, but it might be an illusion caused by the fact that I didn't have much time to play it and had to go through it in short intervals (changing the fov later fixed muh motion sickness at least D: ).

And finally, my only regret is that I MISSED OEN FUCKING IKE AND MIKE COMIC SOMEWHERE

All in all, money well spent, would play another one

Ended up with the Petrified Forest ending (which I'm guessing is because of the afore-mentioned Ménage à Tex).

nop

Spoiler

I stayed true the entire game and also ended up with arrest + petrified forest

however, afterwards there was a scene of Tex leaving Chelsee a sad vidphone message, and that was basically all.

I really liked the BBQ part tho. So deliciously noir. Black and white, guns loaded, raise glasses in toast... and suddenly a fuckhueg shootout

 

[Sceptic]

But the middle part, starting when you leave the bitch house and ending when entering Sesen, I thought was mostly about going back and forth and dialoguing at people, looking for rather inane stuff, and Tex coming up with confusing conclusions out of the blue.

I think that middle part is just day 4? I think you're right, but TBH that part went so quickly it didn't bother me. Though some of Tex's conclusions are pretty stupid, but then him getting butthurt because he was so wrong was quite entertaining.

And I agrree that the entire extended endgame is fantastic stuff. The puzzle itself is a bit too easy and mechanical, but at least it gives you the feeling that you're pushing ahead with the conclusion rather than everything happening in cutscene, and I always believed player agency at the end game is important. I forgot to mention the soundtrack is fantastic throughout, but during that endgame it manages to be epic and over-the-top without being TOO epic or over-the-top - a perfect balance. And of course Valentine's delivery there is superb.

And finally, my only regret is that I MISSED OEN FUCKING IKE AND MIKE COMIC SOMEWHERE

I think I did too, but I'm not sure because, after finding the ones in Tesla Facility, I never checked at the office again, and got whisked into the endgame sequence afterwards.

Spoiler

however, afterwards there was a scene of Tex leaving Chelsee a sad vidphone message, and that was basically all

Huh, I didn't see any of this. Looks like there are multiple layers to the endgames, not just one-choice-one-endgame, that's pretty cool (and again much like TPD)

Spoiler

I really liked the BBQ part tho. So deliciously noir. Black and white, guns loaded, raise glasses in toast... and suddenly a fuckhueg shootout

I LOVED that whole part. I'm also pretty sure it's a part-homage to the Bogart movie. Great stuff all in all.

Spoiler

It also seems to be the only ending where Tex settles the score with Dalton. Generally I thought TE was very good about the endings, better than TPD. The "bad" endings in TPD were litterally telling you "you screwed up, go back and do it right", but TE's are more organic and less judgemental. You get the ending you deserved, but it's still a satisfying ending, in line with the choices you made and the kind of Tex you were.
I'm not sure what's up with Charles at the end though. It looks as if he's getting away, but you don't see him make it through the door. I wonder if both him and Dalton getting away in the non-Petrified endings are so that they can be reused if there's a sequel.

 

[DalekFlay]

Replay the game and find out!

I really have to find out what happens if you reject both dames and stay true to Chelsee.

I was tempted but in the end I went for Taylor. Because she's hot. Oh yeah.

 

[Stokowski]

IGN's Tesla review by one Scott Butterworth, archived for your pageview-free viewing pleasure: http://archive.today/jvjLZ

Most notably, Tesla Effect relies heavily on live-action video. While I could never bring myself to fully embrace that (crucial as it might be to the franchise), Tesla Effect manages to be both funny and flawed independent of its dated delivery.

> doesn't like the defining feature of a game
> reviews said game

Unlike other games with similar mechanics, Tesla Effect doesn’t allow players to preview the lines they’re selecting. Rather, dialogue options are given vague titles like “Shock and Ohhhhh” and “Brightside.” It usually felt like I was choosing blindly and that, therefore, my input was meaningless, which turned out to be true when I replayed conversations multiple times. I can only recall three instances where I actually faced a potentially story-altering decision. The whole setup really made me appreciate the elegance and subtlety of similar mechanics in games like The Walking Dead.

> Wants meaningful, story-altering player input
> Points to Telltale games

Then suddenly, the fifth chapter whisked me away to a snowy castle for a marathon gauntlet of “activity book” puzzles: sliding tiles into place, pushing buttons in the correct sequence, solving mazes -- all standard, forgettable mini-games entirely divorced from the rest of the gameplay. That dramatic shift from gumshoeing to puzzle-solving exposes a disappointing lack of balance in Tesla Effect’s design, but after the castle, the experience finally leveled out and started to recapture the layered complexity I always loved in ‘90s adventure games. Rather than leaning so heavily on simplistic standalone puzzles [...]

It sounds like he never actually played the previous games.

6.8 OKAY
Tex Murphy's latest weaves campy live action, silly puns, and convoluted mysteries into a fun, if dated adventure.

Meanwhile, IGN gave Telltale's TWD a 9.3.

I just had mixed feelings about the game despite being well informed and open-minded.