I think we can all agree that the Tex Murphy games have really proven the exception to the rule when it comes to FMV, because the team behind it had more passion and drive to make the games a cinematic experience, filled with interesting, funny and believable characters, not just a game with some characters who happened to be live actors. But it got me thinking, which characters didn't quite live up to the quality of the rest of the games' characters?
Now, ignoring the performances in Martian Memorandum, I can think of two characters that I don't particularly care for. The first is Melahn Tode. While Shannon Engemann did a decent job being a ditzy blonde valley girl type, I really just can't stand listening to her. Her character's voice is grating, and I'm glad she's in such a small part of UAKM. Shannon is returning in Tesla Effect as Ariel, a character who's looking pretty "bad ass" (I don't know that I've ever used that term before). I'm looking forward to see what happens with her performance when she has no need to "ditz it up." I'm certain I'll like her new character far more than the old.
But the real sour spot out of all of the Tex Murphy performances has to go to Emmett Grennan who played Jorge Valdez in Overseer. His lines were delivered so poorly that I cringed the first time the character was introduced and he hasn't grown on me since. If I could delete one character from the whole of the Tex Murphy canon it would be Jorge, without a doubt. I love the Tex games and I love Overseer, but I just don't love Jorge Valdez.
I want to wrap this up by reiterating, the Tex games have many great performances, especially by the standards of video games. There are only a handful of games that have managed to affect me emotionally the way J Saint Gideon's final moments did or the way Jackson Cross did when he spoke to Archie. I'm looking forward to see what Tesla Effect has in store. It's certainly promising to be the best adventure yet!
So, do you have any characters you'd like to see eliminated from the series, or just a character who you didn't much care for? Discuss in the comments!