Further proof that Sierra was always looking for new directions to push the adventure genre, Police Quest ends up as a shining example of the best the company had to offer. The series was originally designed by Jim Walls, a retired California highway patrol officer. The stories and situations (based on Mr. Walls real life) come off as very realistic as a direct result and, with the exception of a few 80s cop drama moments, will serve to make you emotionally invested in the character of Sonny Bonds. Throughout the game you will have to adhere to strict police procedure in order to get the highest possible score in the game. In some cases it will be required to get through the scene. Compared to other Sierra games it's very easy to complete these titles without help from a walkthrough, you just have to use common sense. Sierra's flair for photo-realistic graphics is also on full display (in PQ4's case, quite literally) showing that the company was always ahead of the curb despite technical limitations. If anything keeps this series from getting five stars it's that the quality started to wane in PQ3 and Jim Walls departure before PQ4 made that title almost unrecognizable when compared to the others. Both the third and fourth installment are a little heavy handed when asking the player to strictly follow procedure and it can come at the expense of fun. However, all four titles deserve to be played and their stories will keep you gripped to the edge of your seat. This is a must buy.
This release was plagued with a terrible bug that made saving or restoring your progress impossible on most Vista/7 user's machines. But GOG has since corrected the error and I've had the chance to play the game again for the first time in a decade. The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time is the sequel to the original photorealistic time traveling adventure. You play the role of Gage Blackwood, who has seen worldwide fame for saving the word from the evils of time travel in The Journeyman Project. Buried in Time starts with Gage being approached by himself from 10 years in the future. This Gage from the future is sporting a new time travel suit in lieu of using Pegasus (the original time machine) to travel through time to see you. He's distressed but he has no time to explain because other temporal agents are hot on his trail, so he gives you the suit and sends you away. It seems future you has been framed and now you're being accused of crimes against humanity. As a time traveller it's normally your job to observe history but somebody has been altering the past ever so slightly in your assigned places in time to make you look guilty. it's up to you to travel to these location and search for evidence that will clear your name. Buried in Time has a hollywood sci-fi blockbuster plot and it's story will keep you guessing until the very end, the writing is that good. Graphically Buried in Time is a step above other FMV games of the time. The videos and stills are so sharp and free from artifacting that you're liable to forget that this game is pre-rendered. All enviromental models, texturing and lighting is so realistic that we wouldn't see anything like it rendered in realtime until the xbox. Also, the acting is pretty good for a video game this old and the soundtrack is probably the best heard in a graphic adventure. From a presentation standpoint it's top notch. Gameplay is typical first person adventure fair, but the puzzles are much more logical than other games in the genre. It doesn't matter if you find the puzzles in Myst to be impossible because the game presents you with challenges that make sense surprisingly from an inventory driven puzzle standpoint. But don't think that the game will be to easy. Finding all the evidence you need will take some clever thinking but just in case you aren't the greatest at adventure games Buried in Time comes complete with a Walkthru mode that will give you hints to keep you going along and eliminate the hardest puzzles alltogether from the game. This not only opens the game for novices but also gives the game an unprecedented amount of replayability because you can play the game again on the harder Adventure mode and find all new challenges in between you and the end of the game. Either way Gage has an AI sidekick that will chime in when he thinks he has something to add. Plus you can even ask for his help when you're truly stumped. The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time is truly a masterpiece from it's Story to it's Graphics and Gameplay. And now thanks to GOG it's running flawlessly on everyone's Windows machines again. If you're an Adventure lover you owe it to yourself to purchase Buried in Time. If you're not an Adventure game player or have never been able to get into the genre than this is the place to start, don't miss it.
A Puzzle of Flesh is something of an enigma, a game released in the mid-90s as part of the interactive movie craze that launched a slew of terrible "games". But with the FMV fad long gone we can look back at the dozens apon dozens of bad titles as lessons of how not to make games and the few select great titles as examples of how great game design can overcome the limitations of technology. Wheras the first game in the series belongs in the latter category, Phantasmagoria 2 falls into the former, and it's all the better for doing so. Infact, A Puzzle of Flesh seems to find it's way into every pitfall the interactive movie genre has to offer. The production values are low, the special effects are shoddy, the writing is awful, the acting is a mixed bag and there is little if any actual gameplay to be found anywhere from beginning to end. And yet, I love Phantasmagoria 2 as much as any real Sierra classic. This game has become a cult classic for it's "so bad it's good" quality. The story revolves around a loveable loser named Curtis Craig. Fresh out of the insane asylum Curtis has obtained employment at WynTech, an evil pharmaceutical company, as a writer for the warning labels on the pill bottles. Obviously the women at Curtis's office find him more loveable than the player does because they both seem to have the hots for him. All is well in Curt's world until he starts losing his mind all over again and the company asshole Bob gets himself mudered, with Curtis losing touch on reality he isn't sure if he killed Bob or not. It's up to our hero to solve the mystery with the cops hot on his heels and he'll stop at nothing to find the truth, except of course taking a quick breather at the local S&M club for a little experimentation and a stop at the nearest Chotchkie's for some extreme quesadillas. Can curtis survive the memories of his nightmarish past? Will he be able to choose between the office slut and the girl next door? Will he finally express his true feelings for his best friend Trevor? And will he finally uncover the secret of WynTech? The story, is laughable to say the least but the game is notable for being one of the first to tackle issues such as sadomasochism and bisexuality, albeit in a very poorly conceived way. Where the game does succeed is in it's atmosphere. The attention to detail is surprising and the quality of the video and the still images far surpasses other FMV games from the time. If you're going into this looking for a great story wrapped in fantastic gameplay than you will be sadly dissapointed, the game will make you sit through some genuinly boring and mundane stuff as you search for that one click that will move the game along. but if you're a fan of B horror films and you have a friend that's willing to play with you if only to add his commentary to the terrible cinema than grab a beer and this game for some fantastic fun.
The day and age of Adventure gaming has come and gone with the genre all but disapearing. What was once the leader in multimedia entertainment and video games has moved on to be a niche' market. The time has passed since you could walk into your local computer store and pick up the latest Sierra or LucasArts adventure. Before joining GOG.com the only game in the series I had played was Under a Killing Moon, one of the biggest heavy hitters in the classic adventure arena. I had always wanted to play the other games in the series but where was I gonna find them? The Tex Murphy games take place in a post World War III America. Things like a deep red sky and radiation forecasts are common place and the country isn't what it used to be. The people are also divided into two classes, mutants and norms. I'm a sci-fi nut so I knew I would eat this stuff up but I had never really read a detective novel before and I didn't know if I would enjoy the story telling as much as the enviroment. Well you know what I learned from playing the entire series? I love detective novels and the whole game is presented in the classic film noir style. Overseer is a retelling of Tex's first case and that makes it a great place for people new to the series to start. The world is seen in first person and maybe the most technically impressive part is that the visuals are all polygonal, texture mapped and rendered in real time. Unlike adventure games with pre-rendered visuals this game has full freedom of movement, but even more amazing is that this game has visuals on par if not surpassing the likes of Myst or The Journeyman Project. And your going to need the freedom of movement because you need to look into every nook and cranny to find items, evidence and clues to give you a lead. Adventure games like this are also heavily reliant on FMV to progress the story, so it's good news that the story is extremely interesting and the actors are the finest I have ever seen in a video game. Chris Jones is a natural actor and his charm and humour help carry the game to greatness as well as make Tex extremely likable and relatable. He's an everyman, hopeless with women, a bit of an idiot and he has a nack for getting himself into trouble and saying the wrong thing. But he's resourceful like any good adventure game hero and with the games incredibly realistic presentation and Chris Jones' performance you help but feel like you are Tex Murphy. The games puzzles are alot more logical than othere games in the genre. You'll find the solution to most of your obstacles easily but if you are having trouble the Tex Murphy series features the best hint system to ever be integrated directly into an adventure game. Any time you occomplish anything you are given points and you can open the hint system and spend the points on answers to your questions. This helps keep the pace of the game moving without it feeling like it's giving it away. And because of this you'll probably play through the entire 10-15 hour game in one sitting. This series is one I'm sad to say I missed back in the day, playing through all the games in the past month has me excited for a possible sequel. Overseer is my favourite game in the series and you owe it to yourself to play it. Everything is perfect from the gameplay and pacing to the story and presentation. Buy it today.
Mean Streets is the most ambitious game from the 80s that I've ever played. The developers tried to deliver a multi-layered cinematic experience with real character and emotion using only a 286 computer with 256 color VGA and a PC Speaker, and you know what? They succeeded! Mean Streets is the first game in the seminal Tex Murphy series, a collection of classic PC adventure games that are held in high regard with other classics like Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry or Maniac Mansion. Access Software has created a realistic dystopian future with a living, breathing city. You play as Tex, a classic gumshoe private eye. It's your mission to solve a murder mystery that quickly unravels into a global conspiracy. You'll fly your hovercraft through a polygonal open world San Fransisco, engage crooks in shoot-outs, raid homes and offices for clues, question witnesses and interrogate criminals. The story is well written, the graphics look like filmed actors and the audio (despite using your PC Speaker in the original release) features digitized sound effects and voice acting. Access Software has also managed to find a balance between drama and humor in a way that surpasses LucasArts adventures, the writing is that good. Mean Streets is a treat to play and witness. Martian Memorandum is more of the same but without the elements that made Mean Streets so original. Instead it plays more like any other point and click adventure, and there's nothing wrong with that but it stands out as the black sheep in the series and isn't nearly as engaging. But while the gameplay may be a step back the presentation is a definate step up. If you have played the legendary Under a Killing Moon then you owe it to yourself to see the series' origins first hand. Mean Streets alone is worth the price of admittance and Martian Memorandum comes as a nice bonus, a must buy.
