Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel

The Good
Lots of stuff to do. (Also, lots of ways to die heh, heh) I mean, how many games do you come across where you can shower with your clothes on, or take off your clothes anywhere? I doubt there are many, if any others. That's what I like about text command games! Now, back to Police Quest. I like how you have to do things right. For instance, if you don't read people their rights before arresting them, you lose. I really like the part where you intercept and crash the drug pass. I thought that was really cool. I also like how when you're driving, if you turn on your sirens, you can go through red lights. Driving's tough though--that's how I've died the most.

The Bad
All Sierra adventure games are too short, this one included. Lots of play/replay value, though!

The Bottom Line
A good cop game.

The Good
Although I had played nearly all of Sierra’s "big" titles – the 'Space Quest's, the 'King’s Quest's, the 'Leisure Suit Larry's, etc. back in their heyday, 'Police Quest' was one title that for whatever reason, I didn’t get to play for some years. Having only got to finally play it only in more recent years, it’s interesting to see how this game holds up without the nostalgic tint that somewhat biases so many reviews, including my own. Whilst the majority of other Quests from Sierra concentrated more on fantasy elements, the sometimes over-looked 'Police Quest' deals in real-life Police procedure, with the only way to win being doing things “by the book”, step-by-step, as if you were a genuine cop. The fact that it was written by Jim Walls, a former real-life cop in California helps give the game it's more "realistic" approach, as opposed to the glamorous, not-stop-shootout image of policing given in so many other games, and movies…

This adventure sees you as law officer Sonny Bonds, starting off as an “on the beat” cop responding to routine calls. As the adventure develops, you find yourself climbing the promotion ladder as you set off in pursuit of the murderous, drug running “Death Angel”. This is most probably Sierra’s most down-to-earth and realistic adventure game ever. Most of it is quite serious, with just the odd line of humour thrown in here or there.

While LucasArts generally surpassed Sierra’s adventure games in later years, PQ shows that when Sierra tried, they could come up with something really original. A shame this creativity waned slightly in later releases, but that’s another story.

The graphics… hard to decide whether this should be under “good” or “bad”; a little of both, really. They are adequate for their time, looking typically Sierra-ish of the era – anyone who’s ever played a couple of Sierra adventure games will know what I mean; they all have a very similar design look. While looking very dated and hardly pushing the limits of EGA gaming forward, the graphics do the job, I guess.

The realism and insistence of getting every little thing right and “by the book” can be awkward to get to grips with at first, but once I’d got into the early stages of play, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself drawn into it much, much more than I had at first expected.

I found part of the game's appeal was for it's variety of situations and places to visit in the course of your day-to-day Police work, giving the game a far less linear feel that in many other adventure games.

The Bad
The game insists you follow Police procedure (as described in the game manual) to the letter, and is VERY harsh in insisting on this. Many, MANY times during play, if you forget to do one small thing, the game is over. For example, if you forget to check over your squad car EVERY TIME before going out on patrol… you loose.

I consider myself a hardened adventure gamer, eventually being able to find my way through most situations that present themselves in adventures, but I must confess that I consulted hint and walk-though guides quite a few times when playing this game! I defy anyone to get maximum points on this game without playing through at least a dozen times! Even with aid of walk-through I was some points short of a perfect score at the end.

But the game's meanness doesn’t end there. It’s really HARSH at times. For example, at some points in the game, you must shower before changing clothes - if you forget to turn the shower off after you, the game docks you a point!!

Driving around the city of Lytton with little coloured lines representing cars - it’s very awkward, and even for the era, it looks pretty tacky! What’s more, driving badly (wrong side of the road, etc.) is fine, but jump a red light (in normal drive mode, not pursuit) and you’re scolded for breaking procedure and have to restore.

It’s very easy to miss something vital or to mess things up, so a LOT of saving and restoring, with a long back-list of saves, is needed (even by Sierra’s standards!)

All this can make the game a little hard to get into, and it’s certainly not to everyone’s taste.

The graphics, whilst they do they job and are actually quite good in places, are a little unimaginative in others, and are just so very Sierra-ish! Sonny looks practically identical to Gwydion, the lead in ‘King’s Quest III’, not to mention a passing resemblance to early renderings of 'Leisure Suit Larry', and several other Sierra game characters

The early text interface doesn’t ease matters any, either. Whereas later games’ interfaces would, for example, open doors for you automatically, here you have to manually type “open door” every time, making play seem a little long-winded sometimes. (Oh, and one trivial thing that niggled me: The text cursor at the bottom of the screen. Normally the text input line begins with a >, but for this adventure is was <, back to front. A teeny thing, but it bugged me none-the-less!)

Personally, I found the game's ending was a little flat, and almost an anti-climax after some of the scenes earlier in the game. The last few actions are done on "autopilot", which I found rather disappointing; I would have liked to have been more involved.

Oh, and the Poker game. For some reason, Sierra went through a long phase where they for some reason felt obliged to stick in some sort of gambling game as part of there adventures, and here is no exception. Having to play the damned game once is enough, but to have to play it twice… grrr! All-in-all, things really did feel like they began to run out of creativity towards the end of the game, a few more ideas would have been welcome.

While I believe that some of Sierra’s later VGA remakes were pointless, this game is one that does benefit in many ways, with some of the more obscure, over-picky bits toned down for that release, though the lack of text interface does take away from a lot of the feeling of involvement.

The Bottom Line
A game that won't be to all adventure players' tastes, but if you’re looking for something a little different and more realistic, this one’s not a bad bet. If you’re willing to forgive the very dated graphics and have a walk-through handy to help you through the numerous over-harsh and obscure areas, there is some enjoyment to be had. You’ll either like it or loathe it, but if you like it, you’ll probably like it A LOT. (However I do feel that it's one of the very few Sierra games where the later VGA remake is generally a better play, even if it does loose the user input interface.)

The Good
Back in the Eighties, Sierra was on a role with many of their high-profile adventure games becoming successful. In 1987, they hired Jim Walls, a retired California patrol officer who was asked to create a new game based on everyday police life. Hence, it wasn't going to be like any other game that Sierra released, where everything in the game is make believe. Furthermore, the game was used by real police officers as a way to improve their skills.

In this game, you play Officer Sonny Bonds, a cop of the Lytton Police Department who starts his day doing normal police work. Later, he gets promoted to Detective and does bigger things like breaking up a major drug ring and stopping someone nicknamed "The Death Angel". It is nice to play a police officer for once, as you are given an insight of how things operate; and although the cop himself and the city is fictitious, how you go about doing things is not. The game provides plenty of fun and lots of adventuring as you spend your time issuing tickets, arresting criminals, and dealing with biker scum, among other things.

While patrolling the streets, you get to meet a variety of characters. Some characters are good and may help you get through the game, while some are dangerous. Only a few of them have ridiculous names like Morris Fudley, Helen Hots, Hoochie Coochie Hannah, Whipplestick, and Fuddrucker. For a game that focuses on the real world, you would think Sierra made up real names for these characters. Helen Hots, the girl you pull over, lives up to her name. You can get a close-up view of her, and you can see the top of her blouse is unbuttoned. This is a nod to Leisure Suit Larry.

There are quite a few locations you need to drive to. As soon as you start the engine, you are presented with a map that occupies more than one screen. Even under the low resolution Sierra's old engine was capable of, the map is well laid out and each section of it still looks good. Each location you visit is beautifully drawn, and I liked exploring each one.

The game encourages you to perform certain tasks such as inspecting your squad car to make sure there are no flat tires, obeying normal road rules, and locking your gun up before you enter the jail. The game ends if you don't do these things. Most of the reviews I read on here criticize these, but that's real life. If there is a red light blocking my way, I managed to bypass it by leaving the screen then coming back. Simple as that.

You can die in this game, in each situation you are faced with. Death is mainly caused by doing something foolish. Some of the actions you can perform are quite amusing, and so far I have managed to remove my clothes any time during the game, walk out of the locker room wearing nothing but a towel, and call up the girl I just pulled over.

The sound is PC speaker only, which means that you will only hear one voice for the music. That is what sound was like back then, at a time before soundcards were invented. If you have a Tandy computer, the music and sound effects are much better as they have three voices instead of one.

The Bad
I didn't have a problem with the parser in other Sierra adventures, but I found the parser used in Police Quest very strict. Many times did I try to execute an action, only to have the game respond with "How can you do that?" or "You can't do that -- at least, not now". There are no alternate command. You need to type in a specific command to perform the action you want.

Sierra went through a time where they just had to put a poker game here and there, and the player is forced to play them to progress through the game. Police Quest is no different, and in this case, it's a poker game that happens near the very end of the game. I would rather skip and lose points for doing so, which is what you can do in the SCI remake of the game.

The Bottom Line
As I said before, playing Police Quest showed me the day to day operations of a police officer. You spent half of the game patrolling the streets, arresting anyone breaking the law and having a coffee break with one of your colleagues, but eventually you get promoted to Detective where you eventually nab "The Death Angel". I would play this game again because I found situations and other bits about the game interesting. The graphics and sound are okay, but they are better if you happen to have a Tandy computer. The only real turn-off is the poker game that you are forced to play near the end of the game.