Martian Memorandum

Overview

Martian Memorandum is the second video game in the Tex Murphy franchise, and the sequel to Mean Streets. You are once again Tex Murphy, stereotypical, womanizing private investigator. The game takes place in a dystopian future, where a nuclear holocaust has drastically changed the landscape of California.

Plot

Tex Murphy is given a case by Marshall Alexander, president of a large industry with Martian interests. His daughter has run away, and taken something very important to him with her. You are tasked with finding her and bringing back this important item.

Gameplay

Martian Memorandum plays very differently from Mean Streets, and is much more akin to traditional point-and-click adventures. The game consists primarily of two parts.

In the first, you'll be tasked with puzzle-solving and pixel-hunting to progress. Much like Lucas Arts' SCUMM engine, interactions between Tex Murphy and the surrounding environment are performed via action options followed by a targeted click. On the bottom of the screen, the player will find: LOOK, OPEN, MOVE, GET, USE, GOTO, TALK, TRAVEL, HELP, and SAVE. The first seven are for directly interacting with the environment, while TRAVEL allows the player to fast-travel to any known location or person. HELP provides a guide that tells the player hints pertaining to objects on the screen to aid in his progress.

In the other, you'll interrogate and question witness/friends/other sources for information and items. In these sessions, there is typically only one conversation tree that will present the desired response, at which point the player will have to begin the conversation again. Probing a character for information will also often require giving them an item. Only once this character has been satisfied will he/she reveal pertinent information.

Martian Memorandum also features a Comlink device, which takes the place of the Vid Screen from Mean Streets. Tex can use the wrist-watch style Comlink to obtain information from his secretary about people, places, or items.

Technology

Martian Memorandum features several in-game FMVs of live actors with real speech. These are typically in the form of characters that Tex interrogates.