Tex Murphy: Overseer

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.