Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel

The Good
This game was the second Sierra adventure I played, and it still is one of the most memorable. The character development is awesome with a wide range of NPC's all with distinct personality's and stories to learn throughout the game. The humour in the game is great - from the locker room banter to the angry sergent to all the funny descriptions at each location you go to.

This game redefined what adventures were when it was released - up until then adventures were solely based in the fantasy realm whereas this was an engaging story based on real-life happenings and characters. The need to follow police procedures to advance the game and gain maximum points was a great way of giving the game more depth and also implementing the copy-protection - and it was a very convincing way of making you feel like you really were a cop.

The learning curve of the game is nicely set with a few easy patrols and crimes to solve early on. As you delve deeper into the plot, more characters are revealed and more of the overall story becomes apparent - and everything interconnects nicely, with things getting harder as you get deeper into the game. The finale is brilliant and a truly great ending to the game, after the perfectly paced build up.

This game has that magical 'charm' that most of the early Sierra adventures seemed to have, but which got lost pretty much after the first batch of point and click adventures. Definitely lovingly created. It is possible to finish this game and miss out on a lot of the extra points and a couple of interesting side stories to uncover too. A good incentive to replay the game to find out everything.

The graphics are the blocky AGI original style, but are never the less colourful, charming and convincing, drawing you magically into the world of Lytton. Great atmosphere, and a who lot more attractive than the rubbish VGA re-release.

The Bad
Not a lot wrong with this title - it probably wouldn't be that much fun to your fan-boy, top-20 commercial game players who saturate the market these days (anyone who bought the bland Matrix Reloaded game for instance), but anyone who has a love of great adventure games should check this out and play it through - without using any walkthrough's (it really makes it a lot more fun and satisfying). Also, play it using the Sarien AGI parser because you get the three-channel sound instead of PC speaker nonsense.

The Moby score of this game is a bit low in my opinion - perhaps conceived by someone who played it using a walkthrough or something and not enjoying it fully. Or maybe I'm biased because I loved these Sierra games dearly when growing up. I would've given it 4.5 out of 5. It doesn't deserve 5 out of 5 simply because there are other adventure games that are even better than this - Kings Quest 3 and Monkey Island 1 for example.

The Bottom Line
A classic adventure, that drags you into its world with lovable characters, a great plot, cool cartoon graphics, awesome set-pieces and is a perfectly paced game that escalates into a worthy conclusion. This and Police Quest 2 are by and far the best in the series, and are right up there with the best Sierra adventures (Kings Quest 3, Space Quest 1-4, Manhunter, Larry 1-3).

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
I liked the story of this game very much, when you start your given a basic introduction to your avatar. an average cop (Sonny Bonds) in an average town. after you attend a briefing, and get ready to patrol in your car (car is driven by you in Realtime on a city screen). you hear of the case of "Death Angel" an infamous drug dealer. and after a few side-missions) you start to get leads for the death angel case. As this game was written by an ex-cop its packed full of realism and is one for any fan of any cop show or anyone who is interested in a good action&puzzle adventure game

This game combined the "text to action" format with the amazing story(s). You had to type "walk east" to walk east or "Pickup Radio" to pickup the radio, it wasn't a point and click adventure game (Flight Of The Amazon Queen, & Monkey Island style).

The Bad
If you didn't type it correctly it wouldn't work. and sometimes you had to type very fast. But all that does add to seriousness of being a cop, it helps the game become more real. Sometimes when driving around the city screen, you could be waiting a long time for a case to happen.

The Bottom Line
This is a great adventure game to start you off. Or even one for the seasoned pro. This game has a decent point scoring system and different speeds (Speeds come in handy when your in your car and in certain dangerous times)