Tex Murphy in The Tesla Effect - A Spoiler-Free Game Review

The year is 2050 and the Earth is still reeling from the effects of World War III. The world is a harsher, crueler place and that suits Tex Murphy just fine. Once an idealistic private investigator, seven years of hard living have changed Tex Murphy from the kind of man you go to when you're in trouble to the kind of man you go to when you need to cause trouble.

That all changes one night when Tex wakes up on the floor of his office with a bump on his head, two injection marks in his arm and a suitcase full of money. A quick tour of the neighborhood reveals that Tex has lost seven years worth of his memories and most of his old friends want nothing to do with him.  Worse yet, one of his old enemies is now his business partner!

What happened to Tex that night? What happened to change him over the past seven years? Whatever happened to Tex's girlfriend Chelsea, who disappeared seven years ago? And what does any of this have to do with Tex's current case, which involves a missing neurologist, a mysterious cult and the lost research of Nikola Tesla?

You, as Tex Murphy, will have to figure it all out.... or die trying.


It's not a subject I've written about much in all my years of covering the gamut of geek culture, but I love adventure games. I spent more weekends than I care to think of in my formative years playing all the classic point-and-click adventures by Sierra On-Line and Lucasarts. But there's one series that holds a special place in my heart and indeed still holds a place on my computer desk's disc-shelf to this day - The Tex Murphy Adventures.

As such, I was both pleased and horrified to learn that after the better part of a decade and some change, the long-awaited Project Fedora finally saw light in the form of a new Tex Murphy game called The Tesla Effect. I was pleased to see that a new game in the series (which promised to resolve the cliff-hanger ending of the last game, Overseer) had finally come out and I was horrified that such a game had been brought to fruition without me being able to support the KickStarter that made it all possible!


For the first few hours, The Tesla Effect is the homecoming fans of the series have been waiting for. Everyone who fondly remembers games like Under a Killing Moon and The Pandora Directive will thrill to walk the streets of Chandler Avenue one more time.  They'll love talking to all the old gang once again, as they start putting together the pieces of just what happened to Tex and learn more and more horrifying details about the man he has become.

Then you'll get to the game's halfway point and it becomes clear that The Tesla Effect was rushed to completion.  Movie scenes become information dumps and the classic logic-driven object puzzles are replaced with mazes, sliding-tile puzzles, pixel-hunts in dark rooms and the sort of random deaths that made many old-school adventure games so frustrating to play.


Thankfully, The Tesla Effect offers a learning curve of sorts for those who are experiencing a classic adventure game for the first time.  There are two game modes - one of which offers harder puzzles for the veterans and another that offers in-game hints, a hot-spot highlighting flashlight and the ability to skip some puzzles in exchange for a loss of points for the newbies.

Another boon is that Tex is accompanied this time around by Smart Alex - a digital personal assistant (with the voice of Kevin Murphy, Tom Servo himself!) who will not-so-gently remind the player of your current objective throughout most of the game.  The game itself is also surprisingly forgiving compared to earlier entries, as it is completely impossible to find yourself in an area without the tools you need to accomplish your goals for that day.  Tex himself will often note that you still have things to do before leaving some areas you can't come back to easily at a later time.


I should note that despite the flaws (and there are more than a few, which I plan to detail in a later, spoiler-filled review) I still greatly enjoyed The Tesla Effect for non-nostalgic reasons.  The acting and direction of the movie sequences are top notch and everything is played with the right amount of the melodrama that the series is famous for. You just wish that they had time to let what seems like two-games worth of story unfold more naturally.  Still, whether you are a hardened P.I. or a green rookie, I'd suggest giving The Tesla Effect a try.

The Flash: Season Zero #2 - A Review

There are times when super-speed can be as much of a curse as it is a blessing and one of those times is when your body attempts to heal a broken bone faster than you can properly set it yourself. It's a good thing The Flash has allies he can count on at STAR Labs to lend a helping hand because he'll have little time to rest and recover. This is both because CSI Barry Allen has been called to the crime-scene that he just left as The Flash and because another mysterious villain is about to wreak havoc on Central City.


The second issue of Flash: Zero Year is far-less fast-paced than the first. Thankfully, this issue is a fun read in spite of that. Most of the script here is devoted toward exploration of the characters - particularly Barry Allen's friends at STAR Labs and his co-workers in the CCPD - and in setting up our new villain. There's little action to be had but the cliff-hanger ending promises a lot of excitement in the next issue.


As in the previous issue, the penciling duties are handled by the always-excellent Phil Hester.  Hester's distinctively angular style is tested here, as he proves to be as capable of drawing exotic animals as he is superheroic action. The inking by Eric Gapstur is decent enough but I do think he overdoes it on some panels and some of Hester's fine details are lost as a result.  Thankfully, these moments are few and far-between and do little to harm the final effect of the issue as a whole.

Gotham : The Pilot - A Review

Gotham is a paradox on multiple levels. On the one hand, the show goes out of its way to try and win over skeptical fans of the Batman comics by dropping repeated references to the books. On the other hand, much of the show's story cuts out the heart of those same comics.

The show is at its best when it is played as a straight police procedural drama. It is at its worst when it winks at the camera whenever anyone compares toadying-thug Oswald to a penguin or GCPD technician Eddie is told to stop talking in riddles. However, the unsubtle references are merely an annoyance. It is the subtler references that are likely to outright offend the comic fans.

Case In Point. Early on in the episode, Detective Rene Montoya is introduced along with her partner, Crispus Allen. In the comics, they are among the few honest cops in Gotham City. In Gotham, they are glory-hounds who try and take over the Wayne murder case. Later, when they are given a tip that an innocent man was framed for the murder as a result of Jim Gordon's investigation, Rene goes to Jim's fiancee - Barbara Kean - to tell her that James is a low-down crook and she should leave him. And then we get the revelation that Rene and Barbara are more than old friends.

Where do I start in describing everything that is wrong with this from the perspective of a comic fan? Rene Montoya being more concerned with publicity than justice? Rene's first response to finding out that a fellow detective is bent being to go outside the department and tell stories out of school? The cliche of the predatory lesbian trying to win back the ex-girlfriend who went straight? All of this is a slap in the face to fans of Rene's character in the comics.

This is the most extreme example, but other characters are similarly warped. Harvey Bullock, for instance, is portrayed as a mobbed-up cop whereas his comic counterpart is as clean in his conduct as he is dirty in appearance. And Alfred Pennyworth - from what little we see of him - seems to be an East London thug rather than a Gentleman's Gentleman.

Jim Gordon introduces a completely different set of problems. Jim is portrayed as the honest policeman that he should be but much of the character's motivations in the comics were born of his being an outsider to Gotham and their way of doing things. It seems ludicrous for Gordon to be as naive as he is portrayed here when he's reportedly a Gotham native and his father was a former district attorney. Then again, having Gordon be part of an old money Gotham family is perhaps the only way to explain how he can afford the opulent apartment he has on an honest cop's salary.

Still, at least Harvey and Jim are fully developed as characters in this pilot.  Most of the references to the comics are completely incidental to the plot.  Yes, we get to see a young Selina Kyle prowling around but nothing is made of her appearances throughout the episode nor of her chance presence when The Waynes are killed.  Yes, there's a young redhead girl who loves plants named Ivy Pepper but she is completely unnecessary to the story.  And how is Edward Nygma's presence in this episode like an unsharpened pencil?  They're both completely pointless.

Technically, the show is something of a mixed bag.  The cinematography is decent enough when we're getting long, slow shots of the Gotham skyline yet it becomes laughably bad during the action scenes, which feature some of the worst shaky-cam effects I've ever seen on television.  The music is subpar industrial rock, which leaves a montage of Harvey Bullock's questioning suspects looking and sounding like a Slipknot video from four years ago.

The performances are equally mixed.  Ben McKenzie is suitably earnest as Jim Gordon and Donal Logue makes Harvey Bullock into a likable rogue, even as he's working against Jim. Sean Pertwee manages to make Alfred Pennyworth intriguing by sheer force of personality. But Robin Taylor's Oswald Cobblepot and Cory Michael Smith's Edward Nygma are far too campy compared to the dark tone of the show.  And Jada Pinkett Smith's performance, as the mob boss Fish Mooney, shows why she is best remembered by audiences as Will Smith's wife.

In the end, Gotham tries too hard to be all things to all people and succeeds only in being nothing special.  Fans of cop dramas are unlikely to be wowed by the differences the show's setting inspired. And most comic fans will be indifferent, at best, to the nods to the source material that amount to nothing more than a handful of names and nothing else.
 

Doctor Who, Series 8 - Episode 5 - Time Heist

THE QUICK, SPOILER FREE REVIEW

A good, well-written episode. Capaldi's Doctor finally feels like his own man yet also seems much more like The Doctor we know and love. The guest stars are memorable and work well with what relatively little material they have. And the monster for this episode is one of the best in recent memory... no pun intended.


THE PLOT

The Doctor is ready to go off on an adventure but Clara has other things on her mind.  Specifically, her second date with Danny Pink.  But adventure has a way of finding you when you least expect it... or want it, in Clara's case!  So when The Doctor answers the phone on The TARDIS that never rings, the two quickly find themselves elsewhere, with a cyborg computer-hacker, a mutant shape-shifter and directions from a mysterious figure called The Architect on how they are to go about robbing the most secure bank in the universe!


THE GOOD PARTS 

* By necessity, a good heist film has to be tightly plotted and this episode is that.  There's no major plot holes and the story hangs lampshades on all the obvious problems (i.e. Why aren't they using The TARDIS, when a time machine would make any bank caper ludicrously easy?) before providing a logical explanation in the end.

* Great cinematic direction again this week by Douglas Mackinnon.

* All the guest stars in this episode are excellent.  Jonathan Bailey brings out the full humanity of the cyborg Psi as does Pippa Bennett-Warner the shape-shifting Saibra.  And Keeley Hawkes is an imposing villain, despite not being given much in the way of depth.

* The Teller is one of the most frightening monsters - physically and conceptually - in a good while, looking like something from Star Wars crossed with a particularly nasty beast from the 1st Edition Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual.

* Every episode of the series so far has struggled with two questions - "Is The Doctor a good man?" and "Is he a hero?"  This episode is no exception but the answers this time  are a bit clearer.  We're still not sure where Capaldi's Doctor may stand at any given moment but, to paraphrase a line from Terry Pratchett, "...where you stand isn't as important as which way you are facing."  And this Doctor is firmly established as staring into the shadows with the light at his back.


THE PROBLEMS 

* While some of the twists in this episode are effectively played, most fans will figure out the identity of The Architect long before The Doctor does.  And not for the reasons given involving nobody liking to look at themselves but because of the good and logical reason that The Doctor and Clara bring nothing useful to the heist and there's no reason for them to be there... unless The Doctor is the one running things.  The one "in charge".

* I'm as sick of Clara's Mary Sue tendencies as everyone else, she has very little to do in this episode and contributes nothing of significance to the plot.

* Moffatt really needs to stop with the two word admonishments.  On top of everything else, "Don't Think!" sounds way too close to "Don't Blink!".


THE FINAL VERDICT

Easily the best episode of Series 8 so far.  The story is well plotted and the guest stars are superb. Most importantly, this is the first episode where Peter Capaldin's Doctor truly seemed like his own man rather than a hodgepodge of elements from earlier Doctors vying for dominance.  Here's hoping for more episodes like this!

George Perez's Sirens #1 - A Review

George Perez's Sirens #1 is not an easy book to summarize and the reasons for this are its one weakness. While quite a lot happens in this first issue, little of it seems to pertain to the main plot. And what is that main plot? That, at least, is easily summarized but I can't really explain it without giving away the ending. Suffice it to say there is a group of space-faring, ass-kicking women called The Sirens who had to hide themselves through time and space.



Before I discuss the book proper, I should note that despite the all-female team and a plethora of alternate covers (my own comic shop of choice, Keith's Comics, has their own unique cover with the Siren Bombshell) this is not your usual girl-group comic. And by "usual", I mean that the excellent artwork depicting beautiful women is not being used to dress up a weak story. Those of you familiar with George Perez's work should know he is better than that. And this book is far better than that! Perez is a living legend in the American comics industry for a reason and that reason is showcased throughout this first issue.


Most of the book focuses on The Sirens at differing points in time, showcasing their abilities and personalities as we observe them in action. From Viking skalds to Roman gladiators to American frontier school-marms, we see a wide variety of time periods. Unfortunately, we don't get to see all of The Sirens in the field and more is the pity. What we do see comprises some of the best action sequences I've seen in a comic in recent memory.

That's the one weakness of the book.  Perez is not only introducing us to The Sirens - he is introducing us to a whole universe! And as much material is packed into this issue, it still seems like too little to really appreciate the scope of what Perez is trying to accomplish.

Still, I think it's better to leave an audience feeling overwhelmed rather than unimpressed. There's also something to be said for leaving an audience wanting more... and I definitely want more! And if you enjoy good books about awesome women, you'll enjoy Sirens #1 as much as I did.