After my frustrations over adventure game classification yesterday — which, as promised, culminated in a full article today — I decided to boot up on that it occurred to me I'd never actually tried before: Police Quest from Sierra.
To be perfectly honest, I'd always been a bit daunted by horror stories of this one: the need to follow strict police procedure, its unforgiving nature, its terrible driving sequences. But I noticed that the GOG.com version incorporated its VGA remake as well as the chunky EGA original; the newer version makes a significant amount of the game a lot more palatable, stripping out some of the more obnoxious elements and making it significantly more intuitive to play. Even the driving doesn't suck… as much.
Anyway, I'm now here wishing I'd given this one a go sooner, because I've always had a soft spot for police procedurals, investigative stories and thrillers, and Police Quest is packed with a whole lot more personality and humour than I'd been led to believe over the years. I guess this is just another example of a lesson I've re-learned many times in recent years: if something sounds interesting, then you may as well give it a go rather than relying on hearsay.
Anyway. I estimate I'm probably about halfway through Police Quest so far and have solved the majority of it by myself so far. I did check a walkthrough at one point just to see if I was missing something important, but other than that I have successfully seen Officer Sonny Bonds through a couple of shifts on the traffic beat, and he's now temporarily been reassigned to the Narcotics division to help chase down "The Death Angel".
Looking forward to seeing what comes next, but DOSBOX crashed not long after I saved (thankfully) and then I needed a poo, so I took that a sign I should probably leave it for tonight. I'm definitely into it, though, so I'll likely try and see it through over the next few days!
And yeah; if you've been putting off trying Police Quest for yourself for whatever, reason, give the VGA version a go. You'll be pleasantly surprised, I feel. Just don't forget to read 'em their Miranda rights.
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