Police Quest Collection

One of the great 'Sierra' quest series on gog. For those who are new to the old seirra quest series, its pretty much point and click, albiet at times quite unforgiving point and click with death almost around every corner. That said, Police Quest is probably the fairest of the lot when it comes to deaths since the large majority of them happen when you dont follow police procedure. What this collection is missing though is the original Police Quest EGA edition which is odd considering both the other 'Quest' series (Space Quest and Kings Quest) have the original game starter in place of the remake. Oh well, most newcomers will prefer the remake anyway.

If crime and police procedure with interesting characters interest you then the first three games for you. Unlike other adventure games from Sierra, puzzles tend to be logical and sensible rather than the extreme lateral thinking required in the other Quest series. Together ex-police officer Jim Walls and Sierra made an exceptional set of games. Police Quest 4 shifts tone and setting with Daryl F. Gates ex-chief of the LAPD coming aboard and while not as good as the first three, it is still worth a look. However unfortunately this pack doesn't include the original Police Quest 1. Those looking for it here will unfortunately miss out.

The Police Quest series is one of the great Sierra classics. You play Sonny Bonds, a police officer in the fictional town Lytton. The main task is to bust some big shot criminal, however part of the game is also to bust others and learn police routine. This collection includes PQ 1-4, note that contrary to what some write here, both the VGA remake and original PQ1 is included (perhaps it was added later?),. This is important, as the VGA remake of PQ1 is quite bad in my mind. The transition from a parser towards point-and-click ruins most of the gameplay, they went as far as to completely remove the free driving.

Police Quest 1 was the first adventure game I bought with my own money as a kid. (Clearly before the ESRB ratings!) I'm not sure what drew me to Sonny Bonds instead of Roger Wilco, though I played all the Sierra games one way or another. My interest in crime drama hadn't really manifested yet, but maybe growing up with Agatha Christie on TV was the catalyst. PQ1 was also the first official hint book I bought. They were the "lemon juice" highlighters revealing invisible ink. Because I wasn't actually familiar with TV cop dramas, I was never able to guess the phrase "book him", and the game would not accept ANYTHING even remotely similar. That was the phrase you needed. Being so formative, I enjoyed all the PQ games through 4, and moved away from the series after that as Sierra moved into more live capture.

Man...do I have some fond memories of these games. Police Quest 3, in particular, was one of my favorite adventure games back then. However, one of the puzzles later in the game is damn near impossible to figure out on your own. To those who play it now; I wish you the best of luck.