Space Quest: Chapter I - The Sarien Encounter

The Good
The sense of humor is very good, but there's just enough seriousness for the game to feel like a genuine story of a humble, somewhat lazy and clumsy man who is forced to fight for survival and then ends up with a shot at beating the enemy and saving his race. Space Quest:The Sarien Encounter and Police Quest:In Pursuit of the Death Angel were just about sharing the top of my list of Sierra's best games, but now I'd have to put Space Quest above Police Quest. So I guess I like playing the role of a very average person who grows into a hero. Sonny Bonds in Police Quest is similar, he's supposed to be a 15 year veteran(as Jim Walls was I believe), but you get the sense that he's a rather average cop at the start of the game, not particularly favoured by his superiors. It can be great to play the role of someone who is a tough hero right at the start of the game, but I liked playing the role of someone who was a rookie in heroism, like a lot of gamers would be.

Another thing I like about Space Quest is its division into three parts , like 3 stages i.e your home space station, planet Kerona and the enemy battle cruiser, which I suppose makes it feel more like an arcade game and I loved arcade games before adventure games.

The Bad
I liked a lot of the problem solving, but there are some puzzles that drag the game down a bit, the worst being the gambling at Ulence Flats Bar(there is actually a code phrase cheat that makes you win every time). But even in the Arcade at the start, I felt that the keycard required to escape was a little too randomly placed. Other puzzles were interesting and probably worth the effort. The skimmer challenge, dodging rocks, is quite difficult, though there are a couple of strategies to make it easier.

The Bottom Line
My opinion is that it's Sierra's best game, not only that, the best adventure game ever, better than any I've played by LucasArts, Revolution Software, MicroProse and all the rest. Of course the game was made fairly early in the timeline of computer adventure games, but I think it has a heart and soul that the more visually and sonically impressive adventure games don't have.

The Good
I was 6 years old in 1986, I didn't know much about computers or computer games. My father had just purchased a Tandy SX. I had little to do with the computer when it first came to my house, the obscure commands (DOS) that my Father, and brother used to interact act with ti confused me. That all changed when my mom brought home this classic. I saw my brother playing it and was instantly mesmorized, unlike the cold environment of DOS, the screeen lite up with color and movement. There was your little charcter walking around and interacting with his environment. I watched my brother play it for hours, I didn't understand much of what was going on but I couldn't pull myself away. I was 7 when iIfirst played it myself, playing the game was more addictive then watching it! It wasn't until I was 9 that I beat the game, but I owe so much to that simple old game. In a way it taught me DOS, as I had to know DOS to run the game, and got me hooked on computers, here it is 13 years later and I'm still playing them! The story is cliche, but that's o.k. as the whole game, as the whole series is a spoof of the science fiction genre! The graphics were simple, but the gameplay was great. To this day I still occasionally pull it out and play it.

The Bad
I was 6, the graphics dazzled me, the theme song catchy, and the story funny, I liked it then, and to this day I can't find fault in it!

The Bottom Line
A classic in adventure, set the path for latter humorous series like Monkey Island.

The Good
This game is a humorous science fiction tale. You are Roger Wilco, space janitor & you must save your world from the Sariens. The pixel graphics are nice with several different locations to visit. Most of the puzzles make some logical sense & there are a few that have multiple solutions.

The Bad
There are the usual Sierra gotcha instant kills but they are not as bad as some of their other games. There are a couple of items that are very easily missed as they are almost invisible onscreen.

The Bottom Line
If you like sci-fi then this game will entertain you for several hours.