The Pandora Directive

The fourth episode in the saga of possibly the greatest but more likely the luckiest P.I. in the history of adventure gaming stuck with the good old recipe. "If it ain't broken, don't fix it." The virtual world the developers created for Under a Killing Moon was a perfect set, so this episode of the series has the exact same interface, the same kind of music, matching graphics, but a brand new story. And what a story it is!

Story

As usual, things are going pretty wrong for Tex and the only thing he has to look forward to is slow, gradual deterioration. His date with Chelsee - well, more like two friends out for dinner than a date, really - doesn't quite turn out as he'd planned so nobody's more surprised than him to find a client banging on his door.

The job appears to be simple - they always do -, all he has to do is find a university professor who's disappeared a couple of weeks ago. He was working on the translation of some ancient Mayan hieroglyphics which - according to his former associates - had no particular significance. Things start to get really interesting when Tex finds out that the professor worked at Roswell, the site of the - alleged - UFO crash and guess where he got those hieroglyphics...

Opinion

There's really no point in praising the virtual reality engine any more than I did in the review of the previous episode, since - as I said in the intro - it didn't change a bit. The graphic quality is exactly the same as it was before, which is to say it's beautiful, but for lack of 3D support appears a bit chunky at times. The music and the control interface stayed the same as well, although I must admit that for some reason I enjoyed UAKM's music more than PD's.

The only apparent change this game has to offer lies in its story, but you're going to have to see that part for yourselves. I'll warn you up fornt, be prepared for a mystery involving aliens, romance and deceit. The wonderful actors and actresses will make you forget completely that you're merely playing a game and the three different paths which ultimately lead to seven different endings will keep you pinned down to your chair for a long, long time, I promise.