Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel

The Good
Police Quest was the first adventure game I played and it's still one of my favourites.It's quite long for a game of this age and the story takes a few twists.Some scenes can get quite intense including one where you have to make a drug bust.There's lots to do in Lytton City so you never actually feel like your on a linear path,even though you are.There's actually an ending to this game and it's the best one I've seen in a game this old.

The Bad
The graphics are starting to get a little outdated.You can still play with them,but it might seem annoying at first.Sometimes,it can be very hard trying to figure out exactly what you have to type to do something.I had trouble pulling someone over in the game even though I had my siren on.Finally,there's a poker scene near the end of the game that's pretty tough and requires patience and time.

The Bottom Line
If you were ever interested in what a cop does,play Police quest 1-4 and learn the basics.While 2 and 4 have you playing detectives,1 and 3 have you playing more of a cop on his beat.All of them are good and should all be played.

The Good
Regardless of the game, I like the idea of a text adventure about police work. So you're "fighting evil" like in any other game, but in a more realistic, procedural way. Doing all the preparations, considering safety etc. But I think the game might have been boring if Sonny Bonds hadn't been a bit like Roger Wilco. Sonny is supposed to be a 15 year veteran, but because the average player isn't, Sonny is treated more like a rookie, mocked and told off for making mistakes. Also, there's some light mockery of the police in general, good for those who have run-ins with the cops and I guess, acknowledging that sometimes the law sucks and deserves a bit of mockery. Undoubtedly, any mockery is balanced with deadly seriousness. The encounter with gunman "Marvin Hoffman" was probably the height of the tension in the game, you had to follow step-by-step procedure or be shot dead.

The Bad
The more I played the game, the more I started to feel that, as faithful to police work and police life it might be, it's a bit too black and white when it comes to cops and robbers. There's a bit of a "time to clean the filth from the streets" attitude. As the only villain in the game of any real depth, I think Jason Taselli/Marvin Hoffman is pretty respectable, he doesn't come quietly. One of the biggest problems with the game is Jessie "The Death Angel" Bains. As far as I'm concerned Taselli/Hoffman is the real death angel. Bains is only introduced late in the game as a friend of Taselli's and there's nothing to suggest he's bigger and badder than Taselli.

The Bottom Line
Well I still think it's one of the best text adventures, regardless of what one thinks of the cops. Maybe Space Quest 1 is a little better, because you're playing a very average fellow who is somehow given the chance to become the savior of his race.

The Good
This game recreates the life of police officer Sonny Bonds on the job patrolling the mean streets of Lytton. It is fun to patrol the streets in your cruiser, responding to alerts, giving tickets to bad drivers & arresting offenders. The graphics are the standard Sierra pixels with more detailed drawings for close ups. The plot ramps up when you have to entrap...err, perform a sting operation on the local drug kingpin, Jessie the Death Angel Bains. Along the way, romance your high school girlfriend who is now a street hooker. This is not a typo.

The Bad
Much of the game play is directed by following proper police procedure as described in the manual. Failure to follow these procedures results in very bad things each & every time. It can be monotonous to do these steps every single game day but you must or you die! Also this game implies that cops have a weird double life. They uphold the law and arrest transgressors while following stringent rules but they also date prostitutes & have birthday parties with strippers. There is a subplot where a police sergeant is being harassed at work by a prankster known as the Gremlin (which is never resolved). To be clear, I am not saying cops are doing these things, the game is telling me cops are doing these things. Since Police Quest was written by a retired police officer, Jim Walls, I am left with some questions.

The Bottom Line
This game was the first Sierra adventure game I ever played so I have nostalgia for it. It is not the greatest adventure ever made but it is fun & interesting. Just make sure you perform vehicle inspection before driving your hooker girlfriend to your favourite sleazy dive bar or you WILL crash.