Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist

The Good
This is a type of game that will make you laugh out loud. The humor in Freddy Pharkas starts with "The Ballad of Freddy Pharkas" and continues to the very end. Personally I think this is the best Sierra adventure game I have ever played. Who else but Al Lowe could make a story about a one eared frontier Pharmacist into such a fun and enjoyable game.

The Bad
Some of the puzzles are a little...let's say obscure. I had the hint book, and I think this one puzzle (making a silver ear) was pretty much impossible with out it, although it did make some logical sense. Some puzzles are illogical, but they are doable because the humorous writing gives you clues if you listen very hard.

The Bottom Line
This game is by the creator of Leisure Suit Larry, Al Lowe. The game has the same type of humor although most of it isn't adult oriented. The story is good, but the jokes are even better. Western movies, pharmacists, even adventure games themselves ("Summoning up super human strenghth you take the 6 tons of baking soda and stuff them into your pocket.") are made fun of.

I only played the CD-ROM version of the game in both Windows and DOS. I advise playing the game in DOS. I had a lot of trouble geting it to work under Win3.1, and I couldn't get it to work in 98. The sound and music is also much better for the DOS version. The voice acting is quite good. The graphics are good for a Sierra Adventure game. It uses hand painted background which I think still look nice after all these years.

All in all this game is really a funny and fun adventure game. Even if you don't like the genre, it's always fun to watch over someones shoulder just to hear the next pun, one liner, etc. I wished they had made a sequal.

The Good
This game seems to me to be a bit different in terms of setting for most Sierra games. The opening song lyrics with the bouncing ball are hilarious. The graphics are fairly well done, though sometimes they're really tiny and hard to see. There are some humorous moments in the game. Freddy strikes me as being the least likely person to be a hero, because he seems like such a geek--and it's nice to see a non-standard hero being the center of a game. The manual for the game is very well done, and is the most humorous part of the game or its packaging. It's also nice to see the puzzles involved some science background, like the baking soda puzzle. At the least, it felt like playing with a virtual chemistry set.

The Bad
It's too short, for starters. After the introduction, the game itself is a bit of a letdown. I think it progresses too fast. The plot is predictable. You really don't get a feel for the other characters in the game, so the end chapter was neither a surprise nor very interesting. There is very little dialogue in the game itself. I remember the reason why I bought this game was because someone mentioned wandering around the town before opening the pharmacy for the first time was the greatest part. Unfortunately, this did not hold up. There are very few characters to talk to, to begin with! Almost all of these dialogues are repeating, for the most part, or somewhat uninteresting. Once the action starts, you have no choice but to complete the solution before time runs out. That doesn't give you much time to talk to characters during the game itself, meaning their characters are very underdeveloped. This game was pretty much full of timed puzzles after the first act. This, I find, is unusual for a Sierra game, where most of the time you have plenty of time to do things--unless it's part of the endgame, or really necessary to the plot. The fact that the graphics were so hard to see made things like the sword fight very hard to win. And, lastly, the sound effects were not that great, had appeared in previous games, and could be downright annoying, like the barking dog--or else were just flat-out inappropriate.

The Bottom Line
If you're a diehard Sierra fan, go ahead and play it. If not, be ready for a game that is not exactly their best. While I wouldn't say this is the worst game Sierra ever produced, I would say that it could have been more thought out and made more original. Instead, it seems as if it was made quickly and without much thought as to plot and graphics design.

The Good
Having been written by the experienced designers and acknowledged gods of humour, Al Lowe and Josh Mandel, Freddy Pharkas is guaranteed to keep you laughing. The plot -- told in episodes -- is amiably crazy, good storytelling and lots of hidden gags reward you for solved tasks. That is, if you don't give up halfway in the game, driven to insanity by the most confusing and probably worst puzzles in the history of Sierra adventure games. You need an example? How about this: To get a pie from the cafe's excentric cook, you've got to scare him away by dropping horse plop on the floor. Sounds logical to you? Then try figuring this out in the game!

The Bad
It's nearly impossible to solve the game without a walkthrough. This is a pity, as the bad puzzles spoil a lot of the otherwise nice atmosphere of the game.

The Bottom Line
Funny, but not always fun to play. A solid Sierra adventure game, although it's not one of the all time favourites.