The following games are precursors to the squad based action FPS game Swat 4 that was released a few years ago. For their age (16 to 18 years)they are remarkably good looking games. Both should play in Windows; but may not, depending upon your system set up. If they don't work, try changing the compatibility mode (via the properties menu - {right clicking on the executable and select properties, then change the compatibility to Win 95}) to see if that helps. If you still can't get it to work after that, then play them via DOSBox. If you're new to this site, you'll find a tutorial on how to use DOSBox easily and effectively, which was prepared by Wizzard in the games discussion thread - just look in the sticky section at the top of the list of threads.
Police Quest IV: Open Season (18.2Mb)
The game was released in 1994 by Sierra and is arguably the most realistic game about crime ever made. Police Quest 4: Open Season stirred a lot of controversy at the time of its release. The controversy arose due to two main factors: the departure of Police Quest creator Jim Walls to join other ex-Sierra employees at Tsunami (where he later designed a 'Police Quest-lite' game called Blue Force, which is also now available free HERE, and looks althogether much better than the the Police Force games. I would have posted a nice review of Blue Force instead of Police Quest if I'd known about it before hand; but this is an addendum to my post today, lol). also the the signing of Daryl F. Gates as game designer caused a big stir.
The reason being was that less than a year earlier, Gates had been forced to retire as police chief of Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) following the LA riots that resulted from the public outcry over the brutal police beating of Rodney King, an event captured on a home video that was aired nationwide. True to his background, Gates recreated the gritty, no-holds-barred crime scene of LA in Open Season. The result is a very realistic police game that is unfortunately bogged down by numerous tedious, by the book? police procedures, game-crashing bugs, and a hackneyed plot full of cliché and stereotypes that are sure to offend some people.
In contrast to the previous 3 games in the series, you are no longer Sonny Bonds, local hero in the small town of Lytton. Instead, you are J ohn Carey, a young, clean-cut LAPD detective. As the game begins, your best friend Bob Hickman, an undercover detective, has just been killed by poison and horrific torture. Your boss, Lieutenant Block, has given you a go-ahead to find his killer, but not without first cautioning you not to let personal feelings cloud your professional judgment. As you investigate Hickman?s last assignment, interview suspects, and gather evidence, you will be drawn into a sinister world of LA underground, tracking down a mad serial killer who is on the loose.
Fittingly enough for the most realistic game in the series, Open Season is the first game from Sierra to feature photo-realistic rendering rather than traditional animations for both characters and backgrounds. The basic game play, however, remains the same as other Sierra titles, except it is made much more tedious by the strong emphasis on actual police procedures. For example, you will need to fill out various forms that real policemen use, and check your gnu more times than you care to remember. The game even includes an abridged version of the manual that LAPD officers actually use, the procedures in which you need to follow by the letter in order to finish the game.
The tedium of police paperwork is made worse by the extreme linearity of game play: in contrast to earlier Police Quest games where you do not have to follow every step of police procedures to finish the game, but could do so to obtain optional points, Open Season simply refuses to let you progress until every step has been taken, and thereby maximum score for that scene obtain. A good example of this is the opening crime scene: until you click your notebook on every important item in the scene (to record your observations), collect every possible evidence, and follow every relevant procedure, the game will not let you leave the scene. This makes the game very easy in addition to it being very tedious. Realism is always nice, but clearly Open Season offers realism at the expense of playability. When you fill out form 3.14 for the umpteenth time, you will see what I mean.
Overall, with easy puzzles that feel more like paperwork than a real challenge, a cliché, plot, and a stickler to realism, Open Season is going to be a disappointing end to a great series for most enthusiasts of this series and will probably only appeal to anyone who is curious about what LAPD detectives do in real life. Given the games focus on realism as opposed to adventure-genre puzzle solving, it is not surprising that Sierra decided to switch the genre from adventure to simulation in the sequels, and renamed the series to Police Quest: SWAT.
Hints and Cheats:
• Arcade mini-games - The arcade machines in the Short Stop Bar can be played. Make sure the arcade machine is not being played by anyone. Place a couple of coins in the machine, then click on the machine with the hand icon to play the rocket game or truck game.
• Extra points - Do the following for points. You can either feed the dog in Griffith park pretzels, or shine light in his face with your broken car mirror to earn points. For example, feed him the pretzels, then go to the map screen. Go back to the park, then use the mirror on him. Use the tool you made with the mirror, glue, and drumstick to check under the bed in the "mysterious place". Record the trapdoor and the shoe in the "mysterious place" in your notebook. If you want, at the Parker center computer, you can look up Wendy James and Erik (the guy listed under Walker's profile) under hate crimes for some interesting information.
• Extra Points - Call Lieutenant Varaz to get 3 points each time.
• Shocking discovery - After you get the skeleton key in the Third Eye theater, go to the bathroom. Unlock the paper towel dispenser with the key. Record the discovery and put it in a bag.
• Game tells you not to cheat - Try entering the license plate number "E2BSY669" in the computer before you get that information.
Reference: The hints and cheats were found HERE
Check out the You Tube video of Police Quest 4 HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE
If you need a walkthrough of the game you’ll find a good one HERE
You do require a free subscription to be able to download this game. The site seems okay, though there were pop ups appearing. Once I’d subscribed I was able to download the file without having to verify my Email, so if you’re not happy about giving your email out try using one of those disposable emails. :) You can download Police quest IV HERE and you can get a manual for the game HERE
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Police quest III: The Kindred (5.21Mb)
The third police quest game which is set in the town of Lytton opens as Sonny Bond's wife is brutally attacked by the brother of Jessie Bains.
Sonny Bond and Marie got married following Bains' death. Promoted once more, Sonny now has to deal with rampant crime as a drug cartel begins operating in Lytton and evidence of a satanic cult starts to appear. The game opens with sonny’s wife Marie is stabbed in a mall parking lot by the brother of Jessie Bains, which makes Sonny's police work personal.
Sonny must deal with Pat Morales, his new partner who displays some questionable ethics and may be hiding something. He must also find patterns in a growing series of crimes to find his next lead. Combined with ritualistic killings in the city and his wife clinging to life in the hospital, Bonds must catch the killer and find the attacker of his wife.
Police quest 3 magazine reviews :
http://amr.abime.net/review_7552
http://amr.abime.net/review_35569
http://amr.abime.net/review_39769
http://amr.abime.net/review_954
You can find a walkthrough of the game HERE or HERE
Check out the you tube video of Police quest 3 HERE and HERE and HERE
You can download Police Quest III: The Kindred HERE, though as with Police Quest IV above you’ll require a free account first, or alternatively you can download if from a French site called Lost Treasures, HERE. If you can’t read French look for the words Telecharger. There’s also a copy of the games manual available just below the download link. :)
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Police Quest I and II are also available from many abandonware sites. The graphics are a little more basic, but the game play is similar. The first one called Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel can be downloaded from HERE (13.5Mb), (just click on the Telecharger link, which takes you to another page where you again need to click on Telecharger) together with the manual from HERE and Police Quest 2 HERE, amd the manual for the latter game can be downloaded from HERE
Police Quest I:
Police Quest II:
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