Under a Killing Moon

Why?

When I searched the GD Review archives, I was suprised not to find an Under A Killing Moon (UAKM will be used from now on) review! So I knew that I just had to review it. Besides, UAKM is one of the best "interactive movies" ever. Unlike other "interactive" movies, UAKM actually is interactive!

The story so far...

In this game, you take the role of Tex Murphy, a P.I. He has already appeared in two previous Access games - Mean Streets and Martian Memorandum.

The character of Tex is somewhere in his thirties and has wrinkles and a bad back from drinking, smoking, a poor diet and lack of exercise. If you like detectives from classic detective movies, you will definately like Tex. Overall, he is likeable and a very appropriate character for this game.

Now for the story. The year is 2042, just a few years after World War 3 (the source of radiation and the cause of destruction), and the place is San Franciso. To be more specific, Tex lives in the Old San Franciso, which is, mostly, populated by mutants - people who have mutated (did you expect something else?), an effect of the excessive amount of radiation. The other group of people are the "Norms" - people who have natural immunition to radiation (Tex is one of them) and are, therefore, not affected by the radiation. Most of the norms don't care very much about the mutants. ...Well, that is about all you know when you start the game, you'll have to find out more as the game progresses.

The gameplay

Before I even start, let's get one thing straight - UAKM is not an action game. Instead, it is a game of thought and intelligence. But don't get me wrong - there still is lots of action involved; you have to sneak past the guards, hide, and then shoot when the time is right, for example.

The game is controlled solely by mouse, but you can use keyboard shortcuts, if you desire.

Let's not jump ahead, and let's look at the game as it begins...
You start out in your "office" without really knowing much. Then, if you're observant, you can find your gun (which, beacause of your stupidity, you will never use), pick up the mail (which is just flyers), and just look around your "office" (after all, it is the place where you live).

After that, you'll go outside (because it's the only place where you can go) looking for a job. There are many characters you'll meet in this game, and here are just four of them:

Eventually, you'll have to find a job, 'cause you need money badly. The first day's job is in no way associated with the big story, it serves just as an intro to the game. If you do everything right and don't get killed, you'll advance on to Day 2 - where the big story will start to unfold.

The game play is very good and well balanced, you move around about 70% of the time (usually you're searching for something or solving a "puzzle"), and talk to people 30% of the time (no information is ever free, so you usually have to do something for that person to get the piece of information).

Unless you're a total genius, you won't get through the game in one day. There are many puzzles (mysteries would be more appropriate) to be solved and many things to be done. I especially liked the way the big story unfolds - you always know just a bit less than you'd like to know.

Unlike Myst and it's clones, in this game you can get killed. However, the big "P.I. in the sky" will bring you back to life (i.e., to your last game save, so save the game often). The good thing is that you can't get killed very often. In fact, if you're smart, you can play through the game wihtout getting killed even once. In the whole game there are only two places where you could get killed and precise timing is required, in other occasions you could get killed only because of your stupidity (for example, going through doors, thorough which you can hear the guards talking).

A thing which makes it possible to play throught the game without ever using your brain is called "Easy" (very creative, isn't it?). It is a series of saved games each day, with everything done and found. That way you can just look at most of the movie sequences. It is needless to say that I wouldn't recommend this game mode for anyone.

Another excellent thing in the game is the hint system - there is a hint available for each and every situation! The hint system is basically a walk throught the game, if you're stuck, this prevents you from buying a game walkthrough book. However, there is also a downside to this (then again, is anything perfect in this world): 1. Everytime you look at a hint, points get detracted from you score (therefore, if you use the hint system even once, you are saying goodbye to the possible 1000 point score), and 2. Some of the hints are very unclear. For example, the hint says: "Get the key in the warehouse." However, it can take hours to find the key, which is hidden in some place where it is close to impossible to find it.

That's about all there is to say about gameplay. Overall, I think that this is one of the best and most balanced "interactive movies" ever. The story could use a little tweeking (to make it more interesting and appealing), but it isn't that bad the way it is.

Graphics

The graphics in this game are nothing to brag about. They are standard and average 256 colour DOS graphics. The game has a couple of selectable resolutions and the detail level can be set to low, medium or high (see the config screen in the Techinal Notes section). I was running the game at the highest possible resolution in highest possbile detail level.

First, the movie sequence graphics. They are OK, but they definately are not anything spectacular. The movement is a bit jerky, and it could be improved (my hardware could definately handle it). Also, I didn't like the fact that actors were very pixelized, especially on close ups.

The dialogue graphics are about the same as movie sequence graphics - OK, but a bit pixelized. Also, to save space, while characters are talking, sometimes, the same movemets are looped over and over again.

The 3D movement graphics are probably the most disappointing - they don't even come close to the graphics of games like Doom, Heretic or Descent. With the game, there came a little card which showed the difference of graphics with 4MB and 16MB RAM. I have to admit that RAM makes a big difference, but even with 16MB RAM, when the graphics were running at the highest possible quality (the game manual said that if you have 12MB or more RAM, the game graphics will run at the higest possible quality), they still were pixelized and unclear.

Also, although I have a very fast 64-bit VRAM graphics card (see config screen in Technical Notes section), the 3D movement was still very jerky (about 2fps). This was definately the programmers fault, because Heretic, Descent and most other games run as smooth as possible, full screen and with all of the detail levels set to highest possbile.

So, my overall impression of graphics in UAKM wasn't exactly that they were spectacular, but remember that a little thing called game play makes up the game, not the graphics...

Sounds

The sounds in UAKM is a variety of either very good or v. bad.

The UAKM theme music and it's variations are always excellent, but almost all of the other musics are simply boring and uninspired. However, the musics are (almost) always appropriate and they build up tension and get that adrenaline rushing.

The sound effects, and there aren't many of them, are standard.

The last thing left is the actors' voice acting, which is (almost) always good and appropriate. Unlike other companies, Access didn't spare money and actually hired professional actors.

Again, same as with the graphics, while the sounds may not be revolutionary, they don't make up the game - game play does.

Control

The game is controlled solely by mouse, but you can use keyboard shortcuts. There isn't really much to be said about control - it is good and that's about it. The only thing I didn't like is the jerky movement (it made the control a bit harder), but, then again, I could run at a lower detail level and resoulution if I wanted to. ...OK, that's it.

Now, the MOST important part - MY game ratings!

Graphics..........................78%
Sound FX.........................76%
Musics............................84%
Replay value.......................80%
Game play........................94% (!!!)

OVERALL.........................92%

Techical notes

The worst thing technically about this game is that it wasn't designed to take full advange of the hardware. Other similar games run much better on my computer than this one. However, there also is a good techinical thing in this game, the config screen - it is thorough and easy to use (below)!

Other than that, there isn't really much to say, but the game could have been designed to be a bit better technically.

Other stuff (just a few mumblings and quick thoughts)

A good game, almost everyone should like it! .... The story line could be a bit better and more interesting and involving. ... There is only one ending - there should have been at least two endings (also, I personally would have never arrived at the one and only ending, if I had had a choice). ... Ending wasn't really that exciting... ...but, it also wasn't very bad. ... The acting was excellent! (Probably one of the best, if not the best, in "interactive movies") Access definitely didn't spare money on actors!

Tips and tricks

Since the game has a complete walkthrough included, there isn't really much to say, but there are a couple of things which might be useful (and these things are not written down anywere, so pay close attention to this):

• 1. If you want to get the maximum possible amount of points (1000), touch, move and examine everything (for example, if you combine two things without examining them, you will loose some points and will never be able to get a perfect 1000 point score). And, of course, never use the hint system.\
• 2. There are a couple of unclear directions in the hint system, but ALL of them ARE right. However, if you're like me, you could spend a couple of hours... or even days, looking for one thing, which is almost impossible to find (two good examples are the key in the warehouse and something (but I forgot what) in Eva's office).\
• 3. Assembling the notes may take you a long, long time, which you probably wouldn't enjoy. So, to see what the note is supposed to look like, just go into the next day in "Easy" mode and examine it. That should help you a lot (and definately more than the hint sytem).

OK, that's about it. Enjoy the game and remember that only a total idiot could get stuck in UAKM.

Conclusion

UAKM is one of my favourite games of all time. Although there was nothing new to see, I played the game through three times! Unless you only like action (no brains required) games, you should like UAKM. If you can rent it, definately rent it, and if you buy it, you probably won't regret it.

Review By GamesDomain