Police Quest Collection

The Police Quest series features the perhaps most realistic and most authentic adventure games ever to be made. Designed by former police officer Jim Walls, the first three games all takes place in the fictional city of Lytton, where you follow detective Sonny Bonds, as he battles his arch nemisis Jessie Bains aka. The Death Angel, and at the same time keeps the street of Lytton safe. The VGA remake (which is the version included in this package) of the first game "In the Pursuit of the Death Angel" and the sequel "The Revenge" both features compelling stories as well as some memorable characters, with certainly makes them worth playing, even though they offer very little challenge. Unfortunately i can't recommend the third game of the series "The Kindred", as it got ruined by a failed attempt to include some sort of real life clock (in many situations the game jumpes back and forth in time, and in one situation a dead guy even revives, if you visit the same place twice). By the time of the fourth game designer Jim Walls, was replaced with former LAPD Chief Daryl F. Gates, and the game moved away from Lytton, and into the big city of Los Angeles. That also meant, that Sonny Bonds no longer was the main character. Instead the player stepped into the shoes of Homice Detective John Carey in his hunt for an brutal serial killer, witch first victim was non other than Careys best freind and colleage Bob Hickman. Feacturing scanned photographs of real life locations, motion captured video of actors and a much more mature story than it preceders, Police Quest: Open Season took realism to a whole new level. Besides the improved graphics and the inclusion of voice acting, another mayor improment, especially compared to Police Quest 1 and 3, is that every object on the screen can be examined, sometimes revealing a valuable clue or maybe a silly comment from the narrator. Such a thing is vital in an adventure game, especially when you spend a lot of your time, searching the surroundings for vital evidence and clues. When you finally the game (it's much longer than its preceders), you will undoubtedly be satisfided, simply beacuse the difficulty is that much higher than in the earlier games. Overall this is a great package, and i would certainly recommend it to every adventure game fan, and everyone with just a slight interest in crime stories out there. Police Quest: Open Season is really the highlight of the series, but the other games will surely entertain too.

Police Quest departs from a lot of adventure games in both it's freedom and it's restrictions. It constantly reminds you what is necessary to be a good cop, it gives you power, and then immediately puts restraints on that power. In each game you are given a number of scenarios that actual policemen face (apart from the over-all plot of the game which involves bringing in a really nasty badguy). In these situations, you have to carefully gauge how much force to use. If you go overboard, you'll be thrown off the force, and the game will tell you in no uncertain terms that the consequence is another criminal back on the streets. It's a tough game with a higher learning curve than most point and click adventure games but it's worth it for the satisfaction of completing each title. This one is a true classic, and definitely worth your time.

Police Quest series was yet another great adventure game series by the masters at Sierra. Police Quest will have you playing as a police officer starting from the mundane duties of making it on time to a meeting and arresting a reckless driver, to being promoted to a detective and investigating homicide cases. The convincing reality when playing as a police officer is helped a lot by the fact that this game had professional advisers and officers helping to write the game and keep it real. It's not easy to find many games where you play the role of a police officer in all it's facets, but this is a memorable experience all the way through. A shame they don't make these anymore. If you enjoyed King's Quests or Monkey Islands or any number of the other point and click adventure games of yesteryear, then you won't be disappointed in these.

Ive played police quest 1 and 2 on Commodore Amiga back in the days, i never played PQ 3 and 4 maybe released on PC only not sure about it. I have to say i loved the Sierra adventures at that time,expecially space quest 2, kings quest 3 and those first 2 police quest titles. It was really something new, you had the feeling to play an open world game with infinite possibilities, which ofc is not true but compared to most of the games around those days Sierra series seemd were giving the player a freedom never saw before. Personally i think the mechanic of those games now is really dated, i mean, they are great game probably for the ppl like me who played them back in the days, but im not sure new players could find them very appealing, fact is those games where is required to write what to do are very unforgiving about player creativity, sometimes you will find you trying to do the right thing but without the right "word" or sentence is not working. Anyway i remember police quest serie was a little easier, maybe was the setting more logic or more common to the ppl watching TV police series not sure, compared to other Sierra old time titles where sometimes you really had no clue what to do next, imho. At the end those games are masterpieces for any GOG player (at least the first 2 chapters), and any new player interested in gaming history may find those games interesting too.

Sierra had a great run of adventure games in the '80s and early '90s. Police Quest stands as a series that built itself from the beginning as a more serious take on police procedure and having the player step into the shoes of a cop. In the first three games, you'll follow the life of honest cop Sonny Bonds as he travels from rookie street cop to homicide detective, and finally as a ranking sergeant in command of other cops. The tight storytelling in the first three games keeps you involved from start to finish. So, why did I give this great collection 4 stars instead of 5? For one reason: Police Quest IV. Gone is our familiar friend Sonny Bonds in the familiar fictitious outskirts of Lytton, now replaced with a generic brown-suit detective in real-world Los Angeles. I was willing to go along with this despite the radical change, but some of the puzzles in this game ended with some really out-of-the-box solutions that you would never really think of in a million years. I needed a walkthrough to complete this one -- the only one of the four I had to use it. In summary, get this collection for the excellent first three games -- just don't expect number four to be anything like them.