Daryl F. Gates Police Quest: Open Season

The Good
Police Quest: Open Season (PQ4) features realistic looking graphics, detailed police procedures to follow and a frank, if a tad cynical, take on early 1990s, Los Angeles.

Homicide Detective John Carey (new to the Police Quest adventure game series) must track down a serial killer who, as the game begins, has claimed the life of Carey's partner and a young boy.

As a point and click, graphic adventure game, the player uses Sierra's familiar icon interface to travel, pick up items and interact with the diverse citizens.

Failure to follow actual police procedure will result in death. Failure to survive an arcade sequence shootout, will result in death. The sheer level of realism in this game is groundbreaking, if not a bit annoying at times.

The Bad
Being an urban, homicide detective is not all fun and games. Police procedure must be followed in the game or else. If you are hoping to cut corners or ignore department policies, take my advice; play a different game.

Sometimes the game's depiction of people of color, immigrants and the LGBTQ community is not terribly flattering. It would have been better had the game not relied so much on stereotypes and cliches.

Last, but not least, it is very difficult to get this game to run on a modern operating system. This is a problem that I have experienced far too often with adventure games and it is unfortunate, because PQ4 has plenty of gritty realism.

The Bottom Line
Police Quest: Open Season is big on real-life, police procedure and fans of Sierra adventure games should enjoy it. I really wish that the game did not rely quite so much on stereotype, but if you can get past that, then you are going to enjoy unfolding the mystery.