Under A Killing Moon - KIXX (Budget) RRP œ12.99

    Reviewed by Dave Stone, PC CD ROM version on a P120.

Without doubt the best value adventure entertainment available. At
the Budget price this game scores 100% (in spite of a few
irritating features).

THE PLOT requires you to save the world in the Guise of a hard
bitten, cynical, divorced and impoverished PI. On the way you
need to solve some minor cases to earn beer money. (There are
numerous terrific twists and plot developments to ensure that the
game remains un-return-to-dos-able throughout).

THE GAMEWORLD comprises beautifully rendered rooms & locations,
examined by walking and exploring with no movement restrictions.
Bend down to look in wastebins, examine ceilings, look in drawers,
admire paintings - this is close to virtual reality. (16 MB needed
for best Graphic effects).

Additionally you meet some fascinating people, all of whom are
well acted & scripted, and will usually either help or bash you on
the head. I liked the conversation method which required a
general approach to be suggested, and then supplied the
appropriate response, always with just the right level of wit -
The scripting is spot on.

INTERACTIVE MOVIE? No, much better. This is a real adventure with
excellent movie cut scenes carrying forward the story.

DIFFICULT? The game has an excellent on line Hint system & an
easyplay feature which starts each day with all the required
objects.  The puzzles themselves were mostly straightforward, but
many of the objects were fiendishly well hidden - requiring very
extensive searching. Regular saving was helped by a very
attractive interface.

BUGS? Of course. Screen breakup with a 64MH S3 (Cured using
Univbe) a torn note which does not award any points when

assembled & game lockups after failing certain tests). None of
these were major threats to game enjoyment.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS A 16MB Pentium is recommended, but it should
be fine on an 8MB 486. Performance on a 386 with 4MB memory and a
slow Graphics card is not good (I tried running on my old system &
the game is significantly degraded).

CONCLUSION - A must have game - if your system can take it.










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