Tex Murphy: Overseer

Moby ID: 1455

Description official descriptions

It seems that the relationship between Tex Murphy, the private investigator in post-apocalyptic San Francisco, and his sweetheart Chelsee finally entered a happy phase. Tex is going on a date with Chelsee, they talk about their feelings and their future, and Chelsee asks Tex to tell her the story of his first case as a PI. This is where the player begins the game - as young Tex, still an idealist, full of energy and with none of the ironic bitterness of his later years.

A beautiful girl enters his office. Her name is Sylvia Linsky, and she asks him to investigate a case. Her father, Carl Linsky, has apparently committed suicide. But although there seems to be nothing suspicious in the circumstances of his death, Sylvia tells Tex she is convinced it was a murder. Tex's first investigation, which will influence his entire life, is about to begin.

The general storyline of Overseer is similar to that of Mean Streets, the first game in Tex Murphy series, but it is told in a much more detailed way; gameplay style and locations are for the most part completely different. The gameplay system is similar to the one first implemented in Under a Killing Moon. The player can move around in a fully 3D environment, which can be viewed from different positions and angles at any time. Dialogues and cutscenes feature live actors. There are a number of puzzles to solve in Overseer, but in-game help is available if players find them too difficult.

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Credits (Windows version)

179 People (173 developers, 6 thanks) · View all

J. Saint Gideon
Sylvia Linsky
Big Jim Slade
Sonny Fletcher
Chelsee Bando
Tex Murphy
John Klaus
Larry Hammond
Robert Knott
Eve Clements
Arnold Sternwood
Wanda Peck
Jorge Valdez
Vanessa
Delores Lightbody
Frank Schimming
Harry Rice
Greg Call
Hostess
Carl Linsky
Mac Malden
Bosworth Clark
Law & Order Thugs
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 76% (based on 19 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 43 ratings with 2 reviews)

Once Upon a Time...

The Good
The fifth in a row of Tex Murphy detective series, and can as well be taken as remake of the first one called "Mean Streets". However, as many of you think this is a remake of the game, it is not completely. What I wanna say is, that there is a story within a story, and ending definitely has nothing to do with "Mean Streets". As the game starts, and intro scene opens, we see a man on the run, but we don't get to see what happened exactly. Suddenly, we hear a video-phone call and Tex awakens, just to duck behind his bed as he sees Chelsee. For those of you who haven't seen any of two previous games, "Under a Killing Moon" nor "The Pandora Diretive", this is a mutant babe Tex has developed soft touch for. Well, they do look great together, in this game for sure :)

So, as Tex awakens, she asks him if he forgot about tonight's dinner. Duh, of course he's not, lol, only his alarm-clock doesn't work properly, hehe. Anyway, after some chit-chat, you come to her, and start telling her a story of your first case, probably for the same reason you had your dreams earlier today. So, we see Tex in his office, several years ago, while he was still rookie, nevertheless great adventurer and detective. Just as he thought it was a bad idea he tried his luck alone as PI, a tall femalish figurine showed up at his door. He opened his detective book, and check under PI rules, seeing the first one saying Don't Get Involved With Your Client, just to be sure he'll follow it. Well, anyway, a woman came with quite some deal, and since Tex was late to pay for a few years hiring rates, he accepted the case, but not completely at the beginning. The woman, Sylvia, wanted him to find her father, who's supposedly make suicide. Well, in that case she doesn't get a million refund, so it's really important for her that you find it out otherwise.

Well, don't wanna spoil the whole story to you, but it is intense, and there is quite a lot of actions, as well as some known and/or unknown puzzle thingy, with lots of weirdo characters. I must admit, Tex is rather imaginative character in a stakeout situations, hehe, he is indeed, or he would be here and telling us this story. Anyway, I'll rather concentrate on real story in this game, and not the inside one. We know that Tex is telling the story to make him look good, lol, and to brag a bit, but while he's telling that story to Chelsee Bando, he's not all the time with her in her apartment. First of all, they went out for a dinner, and barely found the parking spot. Anyway, as you approach more to the end of story, and you confront Michael York in yet another try to better the world, you finish your dinner with a Chelsee, and they kiss sooner or later. Well, now we have our famous detective in love, eh? Anyway, just as everything seem to be alright and what a nice and romantic dinner, Tex starts to be a bit shocky as he realizes someone has stolen his car. Well, about a ten mins after, some man comes along, and offers them a lift. Tex, of course, is experienced PI and says no, but Chelsee get him to come, so they end up flying with someone unknown. Now Tex remembered yet another PI rule from his book he just throw away saying Never Accept a Lift from a Stranger. Oh, if only he thought of that earlier. Anyway, just about same timed, a man says to Tex 'Look at the bright side. No matter how things bad are, they can always get worse.' and shoots both, Chelsee and him in a head.

well, I cannot even guess how Tex will make it out alive this tim (if he's not dead already), but this thing proves that "Overseer" is more then just a story-by remake. The music in this game is at the level, with a solid nice detective tunes as we heard in previous Tex Muphy games, and this time, we don't just get to see squares, but we can use the power of 3D graphic cards support as well. Also, I dunno if that's in every case, but you get the game on five CDs and one DVD, so you can play it with frequent disk changing, or in better graphic without lines. I personally never got my DVD to work properly, hehe. Yeah, I guess I had some lousy experiences with such games, and if you ask me, games shouldn't use DVD, ever! It just cannot be as fast as CD, I dunno why, but it can't.

What is important in this game, and why it's worthy of having, and for somewhat higher reason then just to complete the collection, is the story. I know we had the same story back in 1989 when we were playing "Mean Streets", but this gives us better feeling, and now we can experience already known areas with solid background of our own. I mean, remakes can be great in some things. And I doubt we had as much action in the original game. However, for those with nostalgy present, tehre is a part, later in the game, when you are in Gideon's manssion, and you find a playing machine with infinite action shoting from "Mean Streets". Yeah, you can now experience it under DirectX, hehe, but I can assure you, it's quite the same.

The Bad
There's not much to say from my side, as I love both, Tex Murphy series, and detective stories in general. One thing annoyed me, though, and that was I saw pink colors at many parts when using 3D acceleration. I dunno why, but I think I encountered that before, or at least it looked familiar. However, movies were okay, as they had no need for 3D acceleration. And when there's something like that, I didn't want to play the game just in squared mode, if you know what I mean :) Even with that, the game was great!

The Bottom Line
The fifth installment of Tex Murphy series, with somewhat old techniques used on graphic, but still fun to play, and watch all those movies piled on these five compact discs. It's not only a remake, it's more, and you should prepare to be even more impatient for the next game of Tex Murphy once you see the ending, the real one, not the story one ;) Hey, for those of you who haven't had a chance to see how Tex Murphy actually started with his PI work, this can be as well used as the first game to play... more or less.

Windows · by MAT (240542) · 2012

The end of the road for one of the greatest series ever!

The Good
Since I first fired up Under a Killing Moon back in 95 this series has had me hooked. After managing to conquer the second game in this series shortly before the release of Overseer, I needed a break from TEX. However the call of just one more case, one more chance to be a PI was simply too much.

Overall Overseer was a visiable upgrade from the other two. More clasic tex humor, (probably some of the best ever) and more than enough puzzles to keep you busy. I still cant say enough about the designers of this series adding the hint files to the game. As far as I know this is the only series of games that provide a complete hint system inside the game. They could have just waited and sold it as a book form and thus made more money. (but they decided to give us a treat!) The suspense was terrific, and I could hardly wait till the next scene unfolded. Without a doubt this series is one of the best written dramas in games. This series could have easly been seen on tv or movies. (which says a lot considering most computer games plot consists mainly of exploding objects and chard flesh)

Which brings me to the next point.
Overseer is a classic, but it didnt need to use exposed flesh, massive violence, nudity, witchcraft, or other garbage found in most games to frighten or excite you. It was so refreshing to have a game test me mentaly and have a terrific story line that hooked you from the word go. Today most games have so much attention placed on graphics and displayed violence or flesh that there seems no time for a plot. I hope that the majority of gamers grow up soon and realise that there is more to games than the before mentioned items. Mabie if they do we can start to see more quality games re-enter the market.

The Bad
As many fans of TEX already know this will be the last game in the series. ACCESS had already announced that they were not going to make another TEX game even before MICROSOFT bought them. Now there is almost no hope that we will ever see TEX again. However the designers have decided to make some comic type webepsodes that will explain what happened to tex and chesley at the end of Overseer. Sometime this summer we should finaly see what happened.

Mostly there wasnt much wrong with the game except that the sub-ending with Mike York was poor.



The Bottom Line
Overall this is a classic, probably the last great drama game that we will ever get.

This one was written for adults (not because of unclothed women or language) It tested your mind and heart and didnt have to resort to sex or violence to do it.

Windows · by William Shawn McDonie (1131) · 2001

Trivia

Overseer came in two seperate boxes depending on if you wanted the CD release or the DVD release. DVD-ROM Games were fairly rare during 1998.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by MAT.

Additional contributors: William Shawn McDonie, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Shoddyan.

Game added May 22, 2000. Last modified March 7, 2024.