Space Quest 6: Roger Wilco in the Spinal Frontier

The Good
Notwithstanding the disagreement of some fans, I believe that Space Quest VI, the last of the epic janitorial saga, is a worthy conclusion to the series.

In fact, it has everything that made the series memorable: humorous dialogues and situations, funny sci-fi cliches, parody, wacky gameplay segments, swift changes of locations. To that, it also adds a surprisingly solid narrative, which in my opinion is the most original one in the series.

Space Quest VI will be remembered for being one of the most all-encompassing movie spoofs among video games; plenty of movies are parodied here, from Terminator to Fantastic Voyage, which inspired the most memorable chapter of the game: the travel inside Stellar's body (I hope you know what I mean... for those of you who didn't play the game - it's not what you think!).

As always, there are some very funny situations and creatively designed locations - think of, for example, the part where Roger appeared on a Windows 3 desktop. What really attracted me was the "hub" of the game - the planet Polysorbate. It really gave you some opportunities to explore -something all the previous games in the series were missing. You could visit different locations and solve the puzzles gradually, understanding the situation and getting used to the location and its inhabitants. And you didn't have to worry about dying.

That's right: although you could still technically die in the game, you were automatically restored to life shortly before you tried the lethal experiment, without any penalties. Which means that they retained the funny death screens, but didn't force the player to cringe his teeth when he realized he forgot to save. It's a win/win situation.

Graphically and musically, the game is still very impressive. Perhaps some of the backgrounds and character graphics lacked the charm of Sierra's previous efforts, but for its time, Space Quest VI was certainly very good-looking and perhaps even better-sounding.

The Bad
Perhaps it lacked the sheer wackiness, the dramatic events, and the satiric wit of Space Quest IV; also, the story of the predecessor, while less original, was generally better.

Some of the puzzles were also really incoherent and unnecessary, the worst one being some assembling exercise that turned out to be, among all things, a copy protection! A copy protection for a CD game of that time? Why?

I actually bought this game. I got the original jewel case off eBay or something like that. But lo and behold: the copy protection must have been hidden somewhere in the box, because even though I explored the jewel case with a magnifying glass, I couldn't find anything that resembled it. So I had to look for it online.

Also, the game had a show-stopping bug, at least on the computer I played it on (admittedly, belonging to a more powerful generation): at one point it crashed, refusing to let you continue. A patch corrected it, but I still remember the frustration...

The Bottom Line
It was easy to see why they didn't want to make more Space Quest games; sooner or later, they would run out of creativity, because you can only do harmless sci-fi parodies for so long. The final chapter of Roger Wilco's digital heroics might have begun to show the first signs of decay; but it was still a great classical adventure, with entertaining gameplay and enough wacky ideas to keep you in suspense.

Good-bye, Space Quest! You were fun while you lasted. And you'll always have a place in the adventurer's heart, because they don't make games like this anymore.

The Good
The humor. Period. This is almost certainly the funniest SQ game released, and almost every text box read by Gary Owens is hysterical. Their radio commercial jingle for "Soylent Clear" is an absolute classic. ("Less people too, like me and you, and less reprocessed waste!") There's nary a sci-fi movie (or game) made which isn't lampooned. And, unlike previous adventures, this is a rather lengthy game.

The Bad
The gameplay just didn't feel like Space Quest. The puzzles were way too convoluted for my taste, often with very little payoff. We're talking some on the level of Monkey Island 2, with you having to spend two days, solving a half-dozen puzzles (each with multiple steps), just to turn a lousy dial or something. (which, in turn, is just part of a bigger puzzle) The cartoony graphics sometimes worked really well, and sometimes fell flat.

The Bottom Line
If you can find it for cheap, it's worth picking up JUST for the humor. It's a shame this couldn't be made into a movie; it's far funnier than Spaceballs or any other parody.

The Good
I honestly like this game. It is definitely the funniest game in the series and one of the most humorous games of all time -- up there with Monkey Island 2 and 3 and Zork: Grand Inquisitor. The graphics are highly effective and, they evoke the proper feeling. The puzzles are definitely some of the series's most challenging and are highly involved; I found this to be a plus, although others may agree.

The Bad
Now, I like the involved puzzles, but a few are quite difficult. While many people complain about the homing beacon puzzle, it is really not all that hard if you concentrate. The puzzles that really gave me problems were the hookah hose problem and some of the puzzles inside Steller's body. Again, like Space Quest IV, there is a strange timing issue in the sickbay when you try to read the results of the DNA test. Disable your CPU's internal cache from the BIOS config and move speed all the way up and detail all the way down. Remember to turn the cache on again when you are finished (don't try this in Windows--trust me).

The Bottom Line
In my opinion, a great game. It has a good story, complex, involving puzzles, and hilarious dialogue and narration. One of personal favorites, I would like for it to get the attention it deserves.