Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers

aka: SQ4, Space Quest 4, Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco e i Viaggiatori del Tempo, Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco und die Zeitspringer
Moby ID: 143

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Critic Reviews add missing review

Average score: 68% (based on 24 ratings)

Player Reviews

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 125 ratings with 5 reviews)

Leather babes, tentacle monsters?.. No, it's not what you think

The Good
Space Quest IV is considered the most brilliant installment of the lighthearted sci-fi saga by many fans. The pre-requisite for that choice partly lies in the trajectory of the series' development. Unlike Larry with his ups and downs, or King's Quest, which took upon itself the task of testing out new engines and gameplay mechanics, Space Quest found its tone and style right away, and has been steadily building up upon them. The fourth entry is therefore a more polished, better executed version of the same concept that gave life to the franchise. It does little new, but intensely focuses on everything that made us love the series in the first place.

What really stands out in Space Quest IV is the sheer abundance of action, changes of setting and pace, and creative ideas thrown at you. Energy surges through the game, and no moment is dull. Remember the disappointing lack of civilization in the second game or the drawn-out factory level in the third one? The fourth does away with such filler material, presenting well-measured, exciting setpieces. You'll be constantly switching locations, and almost each one is cool and memorable.

Gameplay-wise, Space Quest IV utilizes the same melange of tricky situations with an occasional puzzle that characterized most Sierra's early adventures. You may or may not like the style, but this game is probably its most perfect incarnation. Almost every area you travel to contains traps and dangerous situations, but they are more logically placed and cleverly designed than the more randomized hazards in some of the company's older games. The game starts strong, much more so than the previous Space Quests; using the always-working time-traveling concept, it whisks you away to a future installment of the series (Space Quest XII!), the initial segment taking place in an atmospheric, post-apocalyptic area with a scary mutant threatening to take your sanity and life. Later, even a leisurely episode in a shopping mall culminates in an indirect confrontation with the omnipresent time police. You'll be exploring sewers, traveling to exotic planets, outsmarting horrifying tentacle monsters to please scantily-clad women, and even taking a part-time job in a fast food restaurant.

There is a solid reason for this game's unofficial position as the leader of the series: it is very funny. Even hardcore haters of classic Sierra design would find it hard to deny that this game is worth playing just for humorous value. The game takes advantage of the new icon-based interface more than its contemporaries from the parallel series, providing funny text feedback when you try to experiment with such extravagant commands as "Smell" and "Lick". The death scenes are as hilarious as ever, and the sci-fi movie spoofs are more clearly pronounced. The comedic highlight of the game, however, is the brilliant software store containing parodies of well-known games, including not-so-subtle jabs at Sierra's main rival.

Space Quest IV is one of those "next-gen" adventures Sierra started making in the early nineties, reforming the gameplay system (icons instead of text), and introducing gorgeous VGA graphics. Generally, that visual style was and will always remain among the finest, most artistic, aesthetically pleasant ones in the history of video games. Space Quest IV is so much more cinematic and immersive that the previous titles, separated from it by just a few years, thanks to the graphical overhaul.

It was also one of the first adventures with a subsequent CD version, featuring full voiceovers. Be sure to get that version; like in so many early games, the voices are delightfully goofy and make the game even more attractive. Also, even though the character cast is more or less on par with the amateur acting of King's Quest V, it is less grating; also, a particular mention should go to the narrator, who reads his amusingly written parts with a proper sense of slightly concealed sarcasm.

The Bad
Pretty much the only thing that can be said against Space Quest IV is that it is still a typical Sierra game, for good and for bad. It has a few annoying dead ends, and lethal situations galore. Personally, I didn't mind that - but then again, the things that attract me so much in Sierra games by far outweigh their quirks and even render them charming and lovable. I like the suspense, the fear of death, the necessity of remaining vigilant at all times. I liked the nerve-tickling moments when I was frantically choosing icons and clicking on the screen, hoping to get it right this time so I won't see that "Game Over" screen again. But I understand it can be frustrating.

Programming problems have been plaguing too many Sierra works, and this particular game is one of the worst offenders. Space Quest IV has serious speed issues that made the timed sequences almost unbeatable on faster computers. People had to use slowdown programs or even go to system BIOS and disable internal cache. I don't think there was ever enough support for making those games run on slightly more advanced hardware, just a few years following their releases.

The Bottom Line
Is this the best Space Quest? In terms of creativity and sheer wackiness, it probably is. Before Sierra moved onto more balanced and slower-paced design, Space Quest IV was the embodiment of its chaotic, careless philosophy that produced tightly scripted, amusing, entertaining setpieces. If you like that style, this is top of the line; it also really brings across a goofy Star Wars-lite atmosphere and features some of the funniest moments in the series.

DOS · by Unicorn Lynx (181788) · 2014

Possibly Roger's most creative adventure.

The Good
The overall plot was a riot. What happens if a game character is bounced around within his own gaming universe? ("With a glance at the status bar, you notice you're now in Space Quest Twelve") It also has some of the funnier (and sicker) gags of the series, especially if you're inclined to run around using the "tongue" icon on everything you see. Gary Owen's narration (on the CD-ROM) is spot-on perfect. The VGA graphics were very oddly stylizing, as though they couldn't decide if they wanted to be realistic or cartoony, so they tried both at once.

The Bad
The rest of the voice acting was pretty painful, as Sierra was still pulling programmers out of their cubicles to do the voices at this point. It's too short, and while a couple of the puzzles are nasty, overall it's a bit on the easy side. (although better than some of the other icon-based games they wrote) For modern gamers, good luck getting it to work - the timing of many of the bad guys is based on the system clock. In the opening scene, a kills-you-on-sight robot, which is only supposed to show up every 30 seconds to a minute, appears every four seconds on my 300 mhz machine. While it's possible to play it through, that's only if you know ahead of time exactly what to do. First time playing is probably impossible on a fast machine.

The Bottom Line
If you can disable your processor's internal cache (definately a "don't try this at home" stunt) or pull some other trick to slow down your machine, it's great fun to play, and one of the better entries in the SQ series.

DOS · by WizardX (116) · 2000

Roger's greatest Space Quest adventure yet

The Good
Sierra's fourth instalment in the Space Quest franchise was released in the early Nineties to very positive reception, and I can see why. Having already played the second game, I was glad that my favorite enemy returned. If you have played the second game like I did, let me give you a recap: Roger Wilco, space janitor and hero of the day, managed to shut down Vohaul's life support system and stopped a machine that planned to infest Xenon with genetically-engineered life insurance salesman.

Roger thought that he saw the last of him. But, no. Using a tracking device, Vohaul finds out that Roger is on Magmetheus and sends his Sequel Police to the planet and destroy him. Fortunately for Roger, two guys help Wilco escape by allowing him to enter a Time Rip that sends him forward in time. He ends up being stranded in a post-apocalyptic Xenon, in the Space Quest XII time era, in which the only signs of life are two creatures that roam the surface and will destroy Roger on sight. And so the majority of the game has Roger time-traveling to different places and running away from the Sequel Police.

What I really liked most about Space Quest IV is the time-traveling aspect of it. One of the time periods that he ended up in is a time where Roger's home planet Xenon is nothing but a pile of rubble. There isn't much life here but two creatures that can kill him on sight. The SP headquarters looms in the distance, with lightning striking it every now and then. Both it and the orange sky provides some atmosphere to the whole thing. There are other time periods to explore, including the one from the EGA version of Space Quest.

If you haven't played the VGA remake of Space Quest, you will realize two extra icons in the icon bar: the smell and taste icons. Both of these form most of the humor in the game, as clicking them on most objects in each screen will generate a humorous response. You also go exploring in a shopping mall, after being ditched by the “Latex Babes of Estros”, and reading the product descriptions in Radio Shock (or Hz. So Good in the CD version) and each game title in the software store is amusing.

At the time of its release, VGA cards were becoming popular, so it made sense for Sierra to take advantage of these cards. This means that the game boasts 256 colors, a first for a Space Quest game (not counting the Space Quest remake). Mostly all of the hand-painted backgrounds look fantastic. As I mentioned before, you enter the time era reminiscent of the original version of Space Quest. The graphics have been downgraded AGI-style, and I liked how the dialog boxes have a red and black border to match the original's.

The game also supports a variety of sound cards. Sure, hearing the soundtrack through the Sound Blaster is excellent and beats the PC Speaker hands down, but using the Roland MT-32 is awesome. Even the sound of the player being awarded a point is quite satisfying. Having said that, SQ4 must be the first Space Quest game not to have its theme at the beginning of the game. The music is identical in both versions (disk and CD), but I prefer the sound effects in the Disk version.

The CD-ROM version has the voice of Gary Owens, who was a regular of NBC's “Laugh-In” program years ago, way before my time. He is the narrator, and he provides some witty responses if you do certain meaningless actions in the game. The CD version also contains various tweaks that made sense at the time. Also, when I played the CD version, I wanted to keep dying on purpose just to hear Owens's amusing remarks as he reads out the text.

Removed is the copy protection from the disk version, which requires you to look up some coordinates in the manual. I miss laughing at Roger as he gets out of the time pod and is killed when you get the protection wrong three times.

The puzzles in the game are easy once you figure out what you're supposed to do, and they should take up to five minutes to solve. The most memorable one is near the end of the game, when you have to align the lasers in such a way that Roger won't get fried on his way to the Super Computer. There is also a nice arcade sequence where you have to pack some burgers, but it's much harder than that skimmer sequence from the first game. Apply for a job at Monolith Burger and you will find out why.

The Bad
Games released by Sierra are often plagued by CPU-related issues, where playing the game on a high-end system causes some sequences to run very fast. Space Quest IV (particularly the CD version) is no exception. When I first played this game on my Pentium 233 mHz machine, I had to mess around with the BIOS, disabling the Level 2 Cache, and play the game as normal. DOSBox didn't exist back then, so this was the norm.

The Bottom Line
This was the last game The Two Guys from Andromeda worked on together. After SQ4, they went their separate ways, but they would still work on the final two games individually. As far as the game is concerned, it is the first and only SQ game to deal with time-travel, mainly as a tool to escape something that would put an end to Roger's adventures once and for all. SQ4 is a very god game that improves upon the previous games, with its great graphics and sound, and its fair dose of puzzles. It is also the favorite of many Space Quest fans out there, but this has to be my second favorite over The Pirates of Pestulon.

DOS · by Katakis | ă‚«ă‚żă‚­ă‚č (43092) · 2015

A good, old-fashioned adventure

The Good
Many of the puzzles were interesting. The game is quite funny, probably funnier than the first three in the series. The plot makes little sense, but that's not really all that important. This is definitely one of the classics of the genre.

The Bad
There are a few movement based puzzles. These are more tedious than interesting. In fact, there is apparently a timing error in the CD-ROM version that causes the game to run too fast on faster machines (most Pentiums). Moslo will not help you here. Instead, disable your CPU's internal cache from the BIOS config program (be sure to re-enable it when you are finished!).

The Bottom Line
This is probably the funniest Space Quest except for Space Quest 6. While the puzzles are not quite as good as those of Space Quest 3, the humor is definitely sharper, wittier, and more abundant. In terms of gameplay, it's just a simple point and click adventure, and we see all too few of those today. Definitely a game you will want to play repeatedly.

DOS · by Mark Abrams (4) · 2000

Best SQ game, and I replay it almost yearly

The Good
Amazing graphics, story, sound quality & humor (for it's time of course). The music totally blew me away, but it was also the first game I played with my brand new Sound Blaster card. I have the soundtrack on CD both from the Sound Blaster midi and from the original Roland MT32 midi.

The Bad
Perfect in every way, the only bad thing you can say about it is some poor programming decisions that cause a couple parts of the game unplayable on anything faster than a 486. Thank gosh that there are 3rd party patches to fix this now.

The Bottom Line
I'd say this is my 1st or 2nd favorite gaming experience of all time (this is in a tough fight against Hero's Quest 1). The humor was great and dastardly, tons of original ideas and very diverse story changes. The fact that I can reply this game every year shows it's virtually flawless and the original developers should be proud of themselves for making this game.

DOS · by Travis Owens (6) · 2004

Contributors to this Entry

Critic reviews added by Pseudo_Intellectual, Alsy, Narushima, Terok Nor, Joakim Kihlman, vicrabb, Patrick Bregger, RetroArchives.fr, Martin Smith, xPafcio, Scaryfun, WONDERăȘパン, Tim Janssen, S Olafsson, Parf.