Daryl F. Gates Police Quest: Open Season

aka: PQ4, Police Investigation 4, Police Quest 4
Moby ID: 149
DOS Specs
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/23 6:35 PM )

Description official descriptions

Police Quest: Open Season is the fourth installment in the Police Quest series. It abandons the story arc of the previous three games, introducing a new setting and a new protagonist, homicide detective John Carey of the Los Angeles Police Department. Carey finds his best friend and ex-partner, Officer Bob Hickman, murdered in an alley in the Southern part of the city. An eight-year-old boy named Bobby Washington has been murdered as well. Carey begins an investigation that leads him deep into the criminal life of the city and a hunt for a maniacal murderer.

The game utilizes Sierra's traditional icon-based interface for interaction with the environment and generally follows an adventure format. However, it focuses on realistic police procedures even more than the previous games in the series. Much of the gameplay is dedicated to examining crime scenes, questioning suspects, and conducting a by-the-book investigation. There is a considerable degree of freedom in the interaction, allowing the player to perform actions not connected to the main story, some of which will, however, lead to the protagonist's death. The game utilizes digitized photorealistic images for its visuals.

Spellings

  • חקירה משטרתית 4 - Hebrew spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Videos

See any errors or missing info for this game?

You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.

Credits (DOS version)

112 People (90 developers, 22 thanks) · View all

Producer \ Director
Designer \ Writer
Art Designer
Lead Programmer
Composer
Author
Cinematographer
Artist
Team Quality Control
Programmer
Configuration Lead
Director of Technology
System Technologists
System Programmer
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 74% (based on 20 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.3 out of 5 (based on 62 ratings with 8 reviews)

A bad game (but not due to its realism) that lamentably takes 'Police Quest' title

The Good
The first three PQs weren't brilliant games; however, they were very good adventures. Their general design was neat, and all of them had a good detective-cop story (well written and with an original realistic touch) together with a good implementation of Sierra's traditional adventures gameplay. They weren't perfect or stood out particularly on something, but resulted to be solid, enjoyable and interesting. With PQ4, many think it's completely dedicated to realism and simulation of homicide detective's activity, and they distinguish (whether for good or for ill) this characteristic as the big difference with the previous PQs. But, although it's evident the designers intended distance from light-realism of the three firsts and to get something more serious, finally I think didn't exist such a difference, and in general it keeps the typical deep of realism of the series, that is, accessible to any no-cop average human being. Nevertheless, unlike its predecessors, PQ4 ends committing several important errors, but one really unpardonable.

To beginning with, PQ4 leaves "the universe" created since PQ1, that is the story no longer develops in the fictional "Lytton" City, or features to Sonny Bonds. Now we work for LAPD (in Los Angeles City, obviously) as the detective of homicides John Carey, but this doesn't mean it is more "realistic": the "more" realism than PQ1-2-3 stops right here, in the city's name. Sadly, the new protagonist is no very good developed. Actually, he isn't developed at all. John Carey lacks personal life, emotions and personality, and barely the only thing we finish knowing is his name. Sonny Bonds wasn't a cold stone. One more thing that was lost in PQ4. The story focuses on the resolution of a series of murders by means of "more or less" real police procedures, and this includes (sometimes annoying) bureaucratic formalities. We go back and forth collecting evidence at crime scenes, picking up (crude) analysis at the morgue, and doing reports to our Chief, while wait phone calls with new data for the case. All very mechanical, lineal and monotonous. We can't (and it's not necessary) do any deductive analysis with the clues that we have, because we achieve nothing. We always have the impression whatever we do is not useful to advance in the case, but to advance through the game. And that is not the same. The plot keeps slightly interesting mainly because in all police story we always want to know who is the murderer. However, Sierra doesn't exert itself more than that. From the relationship with the rest of characters, to the exploration of the crime scene, all never is as attractive as it could have been. Only once (in a particular situation) I felt interest to investigate to a suspect, and I involve in a very tense and thrilling situation. But after that, boring formalities again. In general, conversations with witnesses, suspects and victims' relatives are convincing and enough. But the dialogue with our comrades is so scarce and useless that it seems we don't belong to LAPD. In fact, we haven't any partner at all in the case. We are alone. Something quite rare in almost every section of the real police. The Chief is the only one with who we have some work-related relationship, but we never can tell him anything, only he gives us some orders. Well, there're also a couple of bureaucrats at desks which don't even see us, and other cops (bureaucrats too) receiving evidences on the 4th floor of the station, whose interaction is "hello-take this evidence-see you".

We come to the gameplay. Here is where it commits a capital sin. But about that sin I'll talk in "the bad" section. The development is quite logical, although very rigid, following police procedures such as: go to a crime scene, collect evidences, talk to possible witnesses for gather (maybe) relevant data, come back to the station, submit evidence to analysis, go to the morgue for autopsy results, come back to the station, make the report to the Chief. All of this repeats some times during the game. Yes, from time to time we must go to ask at some suspect's house, or to visit other site, but in general almost nothing removes us from the monotonous routine. None of these activities requires imagination, investigation, or some mental challenge to us. In the middle there is a action sequence (tough and frustrating), and other ones at the police academy in order to practice aiming (easy and boring). I don't think someone enjoys this part of the game with so many good FPSs nowadays, although I doubt that someone had enjoyed it at that time (year '94). There are some tedious "realistic" features that were included, such as put our ID on every time we enter in the station, go up and down on the elevator in real time (!), and deliver the report to the Boss every day, which don't add nothing else but anger and boredom.

The graphic part is also a aspect that changed to the realism in PQ4. The word "realism" always seems to suggest that something is "better"; well, this graphics prove that is not correct. Both settings and characters are photo-realistic, that is photographs of real things. "Hey, that sounds very well…but then, which is the problem?" perhaps you wonder, and the answer is: PQ4's graphics are very pixelated; and super-pixelated real things look horrible. But the worst of this is some object that we "must" to examine are completely unrecognizable. Our desk is a random bunch of all-color square points, and there, in theory, we must find a sheet of paper for the Chief. Also, I challenge you to find our office's computer (which we must use) in the station… The audio in general is acceptable. The midi music remarks tragic, tense and relaxing moments with quite success. But definitely, the songs of Larry (Laffer!) games inside the lift win the main award. Going up and down 800 times an elevator might have been something enough to damn entire industry of videogames, but thanks to that genial idea, I only damn this game.

So far, despite all debilities I mentioned above, PQ4 keeps certain attractive like police story, and it might be considered as a tolerable adventure. But the review doesn't finish yet…

The Bad
Although we don't need much cleverness to advance in the game, in some occasions we encounter some "puzzles" which challenge not to mind, but to patience. These "bothers" (it's better name them like this) are absolutely impossible to guess (guaranteed it!), blocking us inexplicably and without a logic reason. For example, at one point, I couldn't do anything: I went to a walkthrough which said that I should meet with a dog (!) at a crime scene. The problem was that the dog didn't appear! I thought it was a game bug. I read in detail the solution and I realized I hadn't bought glue at a mini-mart which I had visited a few days before. What for? I wondered. Anyway, I drove my car to buy that glue, and surprise!, the dog appears at the proper site. Thus I could continue the adventure. There are a couple more of "bothers" during the game, as to buy a drumstick (yes, a drumstick), enough to make us doubt about whether we must play it with a "realistic" approach or with a "Sam & Max" one. Besides, this causes we'll never be able to completely involve in its serious and realistic atmosphere. If you think the previous glue has at least a coherent and logic use later in the game, you are wrong. The glue, combined with other crazy objects, constitutes a portion of a puzzle at the end of the game, which might have easily emerged from design sketches of "Day of the Tentacle". This puzzle is as unnecessary as ridiculous, and thanks to it, PQ4 wins finally the title "absolutely forgettable game".

The Bottom Line
Sierra crucifies the reputation of PQ saga with this installment. Due to try (without success) the ambitious idea of make it more realistic than its predecessors, it achieves a tasteless and without personality story, with an extremely weak gameplay which sometimes touches ridiculousness. If you are looking for graphic adventures with the words "realism", "homicide" and "detectives", my recommendation extends to PQ3, and if you are looking for some more rich and complex, play the excellent "Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Rose Tattoo". And to think that two years before PQ4, Sierra produced one of the best adventure ever... what a crazy world!

DOS · by jorgeabe (13) · 2007

Realistic mystery, sometimes gritty to a fault

The Good
To lend an air of authenticity to their already-established Police Quest series, Sierra brought infamous LAPD Chief Daryl Gates to oversee production of this gritty detective mystery. The result is a richly-detailed and fully interactive episode of In The Heat of the Night. You use your gut instincts combined with supposedly-real police tactics to find out who's behind a string of murders in South Central.

The photo-realistic environments and real actors, while somewhat dated looking, are so compelling that it really takes you back to urban life in the 1990s -- the good and the bad. Adventure, mystery, and police fiction fans will enjoy wrapping their head around this whodunnit.

The Bad
The game captures the stress and depression of being a police detective so well that you'll find at times it's actually a drag to play. Bodies of innocent children turn up, best friends die, widows grieve and your boss is breathing down you neck. All in all, there's not much actual fun to be had..

The voice-acting is, unfortunately, very cheesy. It ruins the movie-like quality of the game, to the point where you may find greater enjoyment in turning it off and just reading the dialog.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect is the resolution to the mystery -- after spending the greater part of the game meticulously interviewing, note-taking, evidence-collecting, and putting the pieces together, you accidentally stumble upon the killer's trail. This is a huge disappointment for potential armchair sleuths who looked forward to solving the whodunnit aspect themselves.

The Bottom Line
A gory, realistic depiction of Los Angeles police life, and worthwhile mystery that sometimes takes itself a little too seriously. Anyone who's a fan of modern crime fiction would have a field day... or an Open Season.

Windows 3.x · by jTrippy (58) · 2007

PQ4's realism doesn't go far enough

The Good
The Police Quest series was always about realism ever since In Pursuit of the Death Angel was created. There were three games, which were designed by Jim Walls. It was up to the player to deal with situations based on actual events that plagued Walls' career as a California highway patrol officer. With three games under his belt, Walls resigned from Sierra, even before The Kindred was completed, leading many people to believe that was the end of the series as they knew it.

But no, there was actually a fourth game, but it went through drastic changes. Replacing Walls was former “America's Most Wanted” producer Tammy Dargan. Dargan was previously a producer for the remake of PQ1, but now she has a much bigger role in Open Season, serving as producer, director, designer, and writer. In addition, the main character is now a homicide detective called John Carey, not Sonny Bonds the policeman; Los Angeles replaces the fictional Lytton; and no longer will you be handing out traffic fines or driving from one location to the next. The only thing that Open Season has in common with the last three games is that you still have to do everything “by the book”.

Open Season comes on a whopping twelve floppy disks or one CD-ROM. The latter version contain full speech throughout the entire game. Not only that, but you also get a “making of” video, with a woman explaining what I have just covered. You also get a demo of King's Quest VII. The disk version is restricted with the option of 320x200 or 640x480 resolution. But no matter which version you get, you get the usual game manual, warranty card, and something called the “abridged manual”, in which you refer to to get the job done.

The game opens with a crime scene where Carey's friend and partner, Bob Hickman, is found tortured and mutilated in an alley of South Central LA. What he was doing there at the time and who would do this is unclear. Several of your colleagues are on the scene already, and it is up to you to investigate the crime scene thoroughly. The game doesn't proceed further until you have done everything a real homicide detective would do.

Now, if you happen to live in the City of Angels, you'll know that the alley isn't a hand-painted background, but the real thing (as it looked like in 1993). The PQ4 team digitally photographed each scene in the game, and then scanned them into the computer. I really enjoyed looking at the chopper shots of the city at the beginning and ending of the game. I like how each location you visit opens with a nice exterior shot. The characters themselves are no longer 2D works of art, but portrayed by real actors.

What you have to do in the game is similar to both the first and second games. During the game, you have to make arrests and collect evidence in plastic bags. You also interview people, but this is often done through a Quest for Glory-style tree, where selecting one conversation topic can cause a whole bunch of new topics to appear. I really enjoyed interrogating Nobles at the coroner's office. There is some interesting information he gives out about how victims die. It is right up there with novels by James Patterson.

The gray and black appearance of the interface looks excellent. Highlighted items are in red. The icons in the icon bar are laid out nicely, and a few things are added to it, including a button that lets you access a map and two smaller buttons allow you to turn on or off this icon bar. Default is off meaning that you still have to put up with the stylized “Police Quest” logo throughout the game, but I don't have a problem with this since it doesn't take up too much space. Speaking of the icons, a black-and-white squad car replaces the normal Sierra “wait” icon. I like the grid that serves as the background in the inventory window.

I enjoyed watching the little bits of animation here and there, and a good example of it can be found in the opening shot. What seems to be a chopper appears from the right with a light beaming down on the streets, but it turns out to be a Carey's badge. I found this to be pretty cool. Also cool is the way the map of Los Angeles disappears when you select your destination.

I believe that Open Season is the first game to use Sierra's SCI2 engine, and one of the main features of the engine is the ability to support a resolution of 640x480, selectable through the installation program. In the game, everything interface-related including the text and icons appear smaller.

The soundtrack blends well with what you are doing, and it really sounds good when you selected General Midi as your sound card. The music sounds quite creepy as you make your way through the killer's house. There are realistic sound effects whatever you do.

The narrator is quite humorous when it comes to clicking the hand cursor on objects or characters, or trying to use certain inventory items on things. My personal favorite is clicking the hand on Dennis Walker's belongings.

The Bad
Daryl Gates, the person who oversaw the project, said in an interview with Peter Scisco for his “Police Quest Casebook” that the battering ram we saw in the third game was done all wrong. It is ironic, then, that Open Season is unrealistic in some areas. In more than one instance, Carey is threatened with a person carrying a weapon, but whoever it is freezes just before the attack, allowing you to go into your inventory so that you can draw your gun at them. This doesn't work in real life, so why couldn't Sierra get it right and make the player make the gun active before the encounter? After all, you don't see that deranged man in the third game freeze just before he assaults Sonny. In another example, the game has Carey walk through the killer's house without calling for backup.

It is nice that Sierra used photo-realistic backgrounds, but this causes problems, the actors stand there like statues if there isn't a close-up view of them. And even then, it isn't long until you discover that the game suffers from poor lip-syncing. Also, at a long distance, even their faces are blocky.

In order to get through each day, you have to think like a detective and ask yourself what they would go through when they want to interview people or inspect crime scenes. This information is supplied in the abridged manual. Thinking like a detective might be fine, but it becomes boring once in a while and the player is likely to forget what they have learnt in, say, ten years time. I'm sure that the LAPD changed its policies, making the information redundant.

The Bottom Line
As the final adventure in the series before the Police Quest team decided to turn their backs on the genre and decide to focus on tactical simulations from now on, Open Season has its fair share of ups and downs. It was the first Sierra game to feature photo-realistic backgrounds, long before the likes of Phantasmagoria and its sequel. The interface looks good, and the soundtrack is great. Seeing as Open Season went through some drastic changes, it made sense not to label this as Police Quest IV.

DOS · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2015

[ View all 8 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Is dude's name really part of the game's title? Pseudo_Intellectual (66255) Jan 28, 2013

Trivia

CD version

Daryl F. Gates Police Quest: Open Season was re-released in a CD version with new music, full speech (done by different actors than those who played the characters), numerous removed bugs, and many changes to the graphics. The cursors were re-designed and their size decreased, all objects in the inventory were re-drawn or re-photographed in a higher resolution, and many backgrounds and objects in background were re-shot in higher resolution (and thus higher quality) again. A short promo film on the game's making is included on the CD. There also two arcade games which can be accessed at 'The Short Stop' bar by clicking on the arcade games (an Asteroids clone and dune buggy game are available).

Though the CD version of the game is vastly expanded, it's also censored in one place - in the floppy version, Dennis Walker - the Nazi ruffian - is listening to music with Hitler's speech clearly audible in the background. This sample is present in the game's resource file RESOURCE.SFX. In the CD version, only the music is audible, and the file RESOURCE.SFX contains no trace of Hitler's speech anymore.

Locations

All the locations in the game are real, though some names are fictitious. Chief Gates wanted to keep the game as realistic as possible and insisted on using actual LA locations. Some of those were only available to the police and it was only thanks to Chief Gates' connections that the designers were able to photograph them. The Short Stop bar, featured in the game, is not only real, but infamous for a number of public disturbances involving police officers that occurred there. As the LAPD Chief, Daryl Gates disliked the bar for this reason so strongly that when he appeared there with the Sierra crew to take photos, the bar's owner thought they came to shut the place down.

Matchbox

It seems that the matchbox - not easy to find and not having any practical use in the game - may have been a trigger for some Easter Eggs, judging by certain messages that the game stores in the memory. For instance, there is a clear suggestion present in the memory to try and use the matchbox to light Mitchell Thurman's cellar *after* it's already lit. Doing so in the game displays an obscene message.

Points

Both versions of the game have bugs which allow the player to gain more points than he's supposed to. In the floppy version, Carey can call Varaz multiple times and score points. In the CD version, this bug is removed, but another one is present - in some situations, the "flamethrower" can be constructed an infinite number of times, and every time the player scores points.

References

  • The game has two cameos by Chief Daryl Gates - he's on one of the top floors of Parker Center, and at the very ending of the game, as he speaks and gives the Medal of Valor to Detective John Carey.
  • All the texts in the game are encrypted and can only be read by dumping memory contents while playing the game, at its various stages. This also reveals some interesting notes left by the programmers - such as a funny habit of referring to John Carey's character as to "ego" (Editor's Note: This is because all of the "actors" in Sierra graphic adventures were called "ego"s in the game interpreter.). Some seemingly critical comments regarding the LA Mayor from the game can also be seen - and Chief Gates, the game's designer, left his post mostly because of heavy clashes with the LA mayor at the time.
  • The names of the characters' sprites, visible in memory dumps, seem to indicate that Mitchell Thurman's final victim - the unconscious woman, unbilled in the credits - was played by the game's producer, Tammy Dargan.
  • In addition, there seems to be yet another developer cameo in the game. Dumping the contents of memory while playing the last hours of the game reveals that the unfortunate "Mr Head", who can be found in Mitchell Thurman's refrigerator (and whose - headless - corpse is probably stacked in Mitchell's bathroom), is apparently played by someone called Dave. Since "Mr Head" is unbilled, this is most likely a macabre cameo by the game's programmer Dave Artis.
  • The "Red Dogs" entry in the gang database is apparently a reference to Sierra developers ("hanging out behind fast food restaurants, hiding somewhere in the Sierra Nevada mountains...") or perhaps their friends (the "gang leader" is named "Billy D." - and Billy D. is credited as playing the character of Dennis Walker in the game)
  • Try looking up the registration plate "1ADAM12" in the DMV database on the Homicide Squad server - this is probably a reference to the old TV series. (The server itself is named "Sonny" - probably a reference to Sonny Bonds)

Sex

Both versions had depictions or references that were on the more "mature" side of the gaming industry. If you try and touch a female police officer too many times, your character will be fired from engaging in sexual harassment. If you touch the Neo Nazi thug, he will call you a "mother-loving faggot." The West Hollywood record store owner sounds like a stereotypical stoner and some of the records in the store, next to a transgender nightclub, are often associated with gay men. The issue of gender identity is raised in the game, both through cross-dressing of the serial killer and through the implication that your best-friend/former police partner was transgender.

Information also contributed by Edward Brown and Rambutaan

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest: SWAT
Released 1995 on DOS, Windows, Windows 3.x
Police Quest Collection
Released 2006 on Windows
Police Quest 3: The Kindred
Released 1991 on DOS, 1992 on Amiga
Police Quest 2: The Vengeance
Released 1988 on DOS, 1989 on Amiga, Atari ST
Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel
Released 1987 on Amiga, DOS, 1988 on Atari ST...
City Patrol: Police
Released 2018 on Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Police Simulator: Patrol Duty
Released 2019 on Windows
Police: Destruction Street
Released 2017 on Windows

Related Sites +

  • PQ4 Hints
    These hints, written by Diana Griffiths, will help you with the puzzles in the game.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 149
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Andy Roark.

Macintosh added by Tomas Pettersson.

Additional contributors: PCGamer77, Jaromir Krol, William Shawn McDonie, Jeanne, Alaka, Crawly, Patrick Bregger.

Game added May 29, 1999. Last modified January 29, 2024.