keinleben's Full Review: Police Quest Compilation for Windows
John Carmack, John Romero, and Tom Hall are probably more identifiable than Roberta Williams, Ken Williams, or Scott Murphy. However, the latter three were the big wigs of Sierra Online in the 80s and early-to-mid 90s. Under their supervision, a slew of entertaining and downright clever adventure games was released. The Police Quest series was one of them, and the games were spearheaded by a former Sheriff, Jim Walls. Police Quest takes you into the eyes of Lytton cop Sonny Bonds as he executes traffic stops, performs investigations, arrests drug dealers, and hunt down murderers.
For a game made famous more than twenty years ago, it still has a certain charm.
If you're expecting the latest and greatest in graphics, forget it. Police Quest and all of its counterparts such as Space Quest, Quest for Glory, King's Quest, and Laura Bow (especially Laura Bow) are thinking games. They utilized the graphics engine back in their day, so there's no dynamic lighting or three-dimensional mapping. In some cases, these games are better in 2D.
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A SIERRA ONLINE ENTHUSIAST
The compilation contains, to my knowledge, four games. The first three were directed by Jim Walls: Police Quest I: In Pursuit of the Death Angel, Police Quest II: The Vengeance, and Police Quest III: The Kindred. The fourth game is directed by another fellow from the law enforcement, Daryl F. Gates - Police Quest IV: Open Season. This short-lived series was succeeded by Police Quest SWAT, and as more games followed, the SWAT series tended more towards action than adventure. The four true adventure games hallmark the genius of the Sierra writing department.
INTERFACE
The interface for Police Quest 1 and 2 focus strictly on the keyboard, and the games are rendered in a whopping 16 colors (referred to as EGA back then). Again, PQ1 was considered state-of-the-art for its day, back when text adventures were the norm. The game is controlled entirely by entering commands and sentences via keyboard, and maneuvering your character via directional keys and/or the NumPad. The collection also contains a VGA version of Police Quest 1, which has 256 colors. You may select either one depending on your graphics preference.
Police Quest 3 and 4, on the other hand, are rendered in VGA - 256 colors. The games also do away with the keyboard and utilize a "point-and-click" interface which operates with the use of a mouse.
Once you manage to get over the graphics hump, you'll uncover the games for what they truly are.
YOU DON'T NEED A CRIMINAL JUSTICE MAJOR TO PLAY POLICE QUEST... (but it helps!)
As I mentioned before, the games are directed by former Sheriffs, so you'll be put in the driver's seat of cops in their day-to-day duties. The game should come with a packaged manual, which you ABSOLUTELY MUST READ, as it contains important information to playing and eventually winning the game. Since many of the law enforcement procedures are derived from the manual you'll want to keep it close at hand so you know how to defuse a particularly drastic situation. Be advised; a serious blunder can send you "zombie-walking" with no path to the game's end, so it is recommended by both the designers and by players to save early and save often.
There are many walkthroughs and hint sites online that can help you play the game, but the greatest satisfaction comes from being able to play and complete the game with no outside aid, other than your manual and your wits. Those unwilling to use their head will not receive the greatest enjoyment from Police Quest, or from the rest of the "Quest" series for that matter.
ANY DRAWBACKS?
Sure. First of all, these games do not operate under Windows, and for some who use Vista, certainly not under a 64-bit interface. You will need the aid of a certain program named DOSBox - instructions and further information can be found at http://www.dosbox.com. You will not need to do this if you have an old 486 lying in your basement.
Second, DOSBox will need to be finely tuned to avoid "timer issues." These games were designed to run under state-of-the-art 64 mHz processors. Don't be surprised if you find some aspects of the game run at blazing fast speeds; sometimes unplayable speeds. You will need to obtain patches on the Internet for this purpose.
Third, Police Quest III was rushed to production, so there are a few plot and grammatical errors further into the game. However, this is the only "content" drawback in the series that I know of.
CONCLUSION
Buy it. And after you buy it, buy King's Quest, Space Quest, etc..
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