

Santa Fe Mysteries: The Elk Moon Murder (Windows)

100 point score based on reviews from various critics.
5 point score based on user ratings.

User Reviews

There are no reviews for this game.

Our Users Say

Category Description MobyScore
Sound / Music The quality of the sound effects and/or music composition 2.3
Overall MobyScore (6 votes) 2.7

The Press Says

All Game Guide
Unlike most mysteries, though, you have only a limited time to solve the mystery. However, since you can replay the game again, you have the chance most real-world detectives don't, to start the game over and try a different path. Still, this game is exciting and interesting, making you think your way through the game instead of blindly hacking and slashing or defeating endless streams of opponents. For people who enjoy thinking games, track this one down. You'll be glad you did.
PC Games
Elk Moon is not intended to keep an audience of hardcore gaming detectives enthralled for weeks on end. Rather, it is meant to be played through, in a relatively brief amount of time, by a more general audience looking for a good story with some mild brain teasers - a task it accomplishes quite nicely.
PC Player (Germany)
Wow! Lichtjahre trennen "The Elk Moon Murder" von der Affäre Morlov. Die heiße, staubige Atmospähre von Santa Fe kommt prächtig rüber und läßt das Adventurer-Herz höher schlagen. Die Geschichte um die ermordete Anna Elk Moon ist äußerst stimmungsvoll und professionell in Szene gesetzt worden.
Computer Games Magazine
Even if you do solve The Elk Moon Murder the first time around, you're bound to be amazed at the richness of the setting, the fine acting, and the sharp design. This is a high quality product, and it's bound to leave players hungry for the next installment of Activision's Santa Fe Mysteries. Stay tuned.
Just Adventure
Dies ist in vielerlei Hinsicht ein frustrierender Titel. Ein sehr dünnes Handbuch. Ungewöhnlich lange Ladezeiten. Eine Oberfläche, die nicht gerade benutzerfreundlich ist. Aber was die Sache wirklich frustrierend macht, ist, daß hier ein wirklich großartiges Spiel verborgen ist, das versucht, sich aus den angelegten Fesseln zu befreien.
As I said earlier I was really looking forward to enjoying an absorbing murder mystery and although The Elk Moon Murder had potential it never quite lived up to its early promise. Had it not been for the annoying time limit I could have heartily recommended this to all murder mystery fans but, as it is, be aware you could finish it in a few hours if you happen to hit on the correct leads.
Adventure Gamers
Power Play
Die Wertung von “Elk Moon Murder“ gestaltet sich schwierig: zwar ist die Präsentation technisch sehr hochwertig, und die ersten paar Tage ist die Spielmotivation relativ hoch. Sobald Ihr Euch aber nach dem ersten Fehler wiederholt durch immer gleiche Interviews klicken müßt, beginnt der Frust zu steigen. Hinweise der Kollegen oder Befehle des Chefs versteht Ihr oft nicht, wenn Ihr irgendwo eine winzige Kleinigkeit überhört habt. Fünfmal acht Stunden sind ein zu kurzer Zeitraum, damit könnt Ihr gerade mal zwei bis drei Verdächtige verhören, was bei der hohen Zahl von Informanten bzw. Verdächtigen nicht besonders viel ist. Und wer nicht genau Buch über das Who-is-Who in Santa Fe führt, bekommt schnell Schwierigkeiten, einzelnen Namen die richtige Person zuzuordnen. Alles in allem kann “Elk Moon Murder“ nicht vollständig überzeugen, da einfach viel zu wenig Spiel fürs Geld geboten wird.
Entertainment Weekly
Despite its noble stab at multiculturalism and its refreshingly nonfuturistic plot, this game is as flat as a tortilla, offering as its sole attractions a neat virtual map of Santa Fe and an atmospheric soundtrack by Tim May (who played guitar on the theme to Melrose Place). Elk Moon was cocreated by Northern Exposure writer and producer Sam Egan, who's apparently more suited to Alaska's frozen tundra than to the vast, ethnically diverse American Southwest. The game's tag line reads, ''Fear the desert,'' but what I really fear is that CD-ROMs like this are replicating cable TV's more arid terrain.
Computer Gaming World (CGW)
When you do finally hit upon the right suspect, the denouement is quite good, and the myriad clues are tied up in a decent fashion. Unfortunately, by then, you may be too annoyed to care. It's too bad, really, because if the designers had just concentrated as much on the gameplay as they did on the rest of the title, they might have had something here. In my event, if you're still on the fence about whether to buy this game, think about this: For the $30 you'd spend, you could go to your local video store and rent Vertigo, Rear Window, Touch of Evil, Chinatown, The Third Man and five more mystery classics, for more than 20 hours of outstanding entertainment – at least twice as long as you'll be playing THE ELK MOON MURDER. And none of those movies will cheat you in the end.
TEMM is an interactive murder mystery that could use a lot more mystery. Go buy a five-dollar paperback detective novel ... it'll probably take you longer to read the book than to solve this game.
Adventure Classic Gaming
Far too many gigabytes have been utilized in various media criticizing the use of Full Motion Video in computer games to be repeated again here. Suffice it to say that except for the odd titles have used it competently to enhance the ambiance and propel the storyline, Full Motion Video has never really found favor with hardcore gamers. Primary amongst the reasons is the forced linearity in gameplay that is intrinsic to the medium and the huge amounts of disk space (and consequently, disc swapping) that it involves. Santa Fe Mysteries: The Elk Moon Murder is such a title that illustrative this point. The game, which sprawls across 2 CDs, can be solved well within a few hours even by Joe Average. Of course, proponents of this technology say that it adds realism to the gaming experience by having live actors rather than sprites or rotoscoped animations. Then again, if I want to see reality, I rather watch CNN or visit Ethiopia!