Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Retro DOS Review: Police Quest 1: In Pursuit of the Death Angel


This week I bring you another adventure classic, Police Quest 1! Sonny Bonds stars as your average beat cop turned narcotics detective, eventually cracking a big time drug dealer single-handedly.


You start off as a lowly, but decorated, traffic officer, writing tickets and pulling over drunk drivers. Eventually his achievements earn him a spot on the narcotics squad, where several small-time busts lead him to the mysterious Death Angel.

Police Quest was a big step past the short storyline of Space Quest, not only taking quite a bit longer to play through, but requiring you to know some basics of police procedure. I HIGHLY recommend reading THIS MANUAL or having it on hand if you've never played before. Many parts of the game include actions or words you have to say, which, if you didn't know ahead of time, could put you in a position later where you can't proceed (For example, if you don't read your suspect their Miranda rights, you won't be able to book them into jail later). Being familiar with the manual will help you to maximize your points. This episode carries the same sarcastic humor as the whole Space Quest series. Remember, don't be afraid to die and try things out. You'll never know what you'll find! I recommend trying to get naked.














Police Quest 1 spawned three sequels after it, and eventually became the SWAT series, although loosely based, and not even of the same game genre.   Same as with Space Quest, I would play the game on Fast. Only time you may want to switch to Normal is when driving if you're having trouble keeping control. I only ended the game with 188 of 245 points, so obviously I missed a ton of little things. I'd love to hear from someone who got all or close to all. I have a feeling you can do "more" with Sweet Cheeks the prostitute.

Only Police Quest 1 is available for download HERE. The rights to the others are still held by Vivendi. GOG.COM has a collection of all 4 Police Quests here, which includes a VGA version of this episode.

Next week, a game I completely forgot about until I found it on a list of abandonware, and by far one of my favorite puzzle-type games ever, D/GENERATION. Enjoy!