Of all the things I imagined returning through the magic of crowd-funding, FMV adventure games weren’t high on the list. They made up such a huge part of my youth, the likes of Phantasmagoria, Sherlock Holmes, The Beast Within, so the thought of never seeing their ilk again was a crying shame.
But here we are, in the glorious future-era of 2014, and we’re about to get another Tex Murphy game, of all things, and it’s going to be in glorious FMV. I’ve missed the downtrodden detective from post-apocalyptic San Francisco terribly.
It’s been around 15 years since the last Tex Murphy outing, though all of them were given a new lease on life thanks to GOG a while back.
For those not in the know – for shame – the Tex Murphy series saw the eponymous, hung-over, womanising private dick wandering around a half-destroyed San Francisco of the future, getting into arguments with mutants, pissing everyone off and getting doublecrossed. It was equal parts slapstick comedy and pulp noir pastiche.
The new installment, Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure brings back the classic gameplay and style from the originals, with FMV and 3D backgrounds, interactive dialogue, branching storylines and a big serving of moral ambiguity.
And joining the original Tex, Chris Jones, is a cast that includes Larry Thomas who everyone who loved Seinfeld will know as the Soup Nazi, and Kevin Murphy, otherwise known as Mystery Science Theatre 3000’s Tom Servo. Bloody hell, it’s like the ‘90s all over again.
The adventure is due out on April 22nd, and you can pre-order it from GOG or pre-purchase it from Steam right now. It’s currently discounted by 10 percent from it’s regular £14.99/$19.99 price.