Space Quest V: The Next Mutation

The Good
Space Quest V occupies a somewhat unique position within its series. One of the two famed "guys from Andromeda", Mark Crowe, collaborated with his new colleagues at Dynamix to create the only adventure in any of Sierra's major series not to be developed in-house. The result is a rather noticeable change of tone and pace, which has its ups and downs, with the former outweighing the latter in my opinion.

You can feel pretty clearly after a few playing sessions that this game is considerably less chaotic than its predecessors. Sierra's games generally tend to be erratic, moving from open exploration to tensely designed, confined areas; they are moody, rich in contrasts, and unpredictable. Space Quest V, on the other hand, is well-proportioned, well-structured, comfortably flowing forward at its own pace. There are less surprises in the game, but also less uneven occurrences and unpleasantly drastic changes.

That is not to say that Space Quest V has boring and predictable gameplay. On the contrary, it is actually richer and more involving than in the previous entries. The game doesn't have expansive non-linear areas, but every planet you visit presents several screens dedicated to some exploration and diverse activities. Some of the best setpieces include outsmarting a fearsome female terminator relentlessly chasing you through the mountain paths of a sunny planet, and turning into a fly in order to infiltrate a lab concealing important evidence.

In a not-so-subtly implied Star Trek parody, Roger Wilco, the protagonist of the series, commandeers an extravagant garbage-collecting spaceship, complete with a crew, navigation screen with scientific mumbo-jumbo, rooms with different functions, etc. The ship will often get in trouble, and you'll have to use your resources and wits to solve various situations - such as bringing a crew member who is lost in space back onto the ship. Traveling to distant planets on your own accord (or at least within the frames of an overarching assignment) rather than being simply transported there for not very apparent reasons is what distinguishes this game's structure most from its predecessors.

In fact, it is safe to say that Space Quest V is the only installment in the series with a clearly outlined, logically developing plot. Participating in a cohesive narrative tying together the planetary and ship-bound setpieces creates a sense of belonging and also contributes to the growing tension, making you eager to press forward and find out how the whole thing ends. The game, therefore, feels considerably warmer than its rather emotionally detached predecessors, which were mostly focusing on raw adventuring and amusing situations. You don't get as many funny death scenes, but instead there are real characters you can care for. Not to mention that there is even a love story in this game, done in a somewhat comical, but nevertheless endearing and even heart-warming fashion.

The Bad
I can see why some fans of the series have problem with the fifth installment. No matter how good the game is, it does lack a certain intangible spirit permeating the earlier entries. It is a more focused and coherent comedy - but perhaps that's exactly the problem. Previous Space Quests were silly and nonsensical; but there was more of that wild, abundant energy that Sierra injected into their adventures. Even flaws such as cheap dead ends, disproportional segments, etc. somehow contributed to the charm. Space Quest V is by far more pleasant, and you can feel that sometimes it doesn't dare to be irreverent and wacky enough. Somehow I felt that the game tried too hard to stay within a certain style, to be an "accurate" Star Trek parody rather than just an assortment of bad jokes. It's good that the game tried to have its own style, but sometimes I missed the nonchalant, unrestricted fun of the previous titles.

It did, however, remain faithful to Sierra's notorious programming issues. The crewman-rescuing sequence quickly became unplayable on faster computers. Later all sorts of workarounds (slowdown software, disabling internal cache, etc.) were found, but imagine the pain this inflicted on the poor players whose computer was just too powerful, causing the crewman to shake in convulsions and die before the rescue crew could pull him out of that predicament. And the copy protection is, as always, annoying. You have to input coordinates every time you travel to another planet.

The Bottom Line
Is it the worst or the best Space Quest? Depends on how you look at it. Fans seem to be very divided over this particular installment because of priority differences. If witty one-liners and hilarious situations are what you expect most from these games, then this fifth iteration will probably moderately disappoint you. But if you value balanced gameplay and prefer softer, warmer comedy writing with real characters and a plot you could actually care for, Space Quest V would be just the right thing for you.

Personally, I find myself somewhere in the middle; but I have a feeling that, as I grow older, I get more and more inclined towards games like Space Quest V, and will some day probably consider it my favorite in the series.