Publisher: Sierra
Developer: Sierra
Year: 1993
Platform: DOS; Windows; Mac
Sierra hired Daryl F. Gates, the former LAPD chief and founder of SWAT, to help design the fourth installment in this best-selling series. His lifetime of experience no doubt helped ensure Police Quest 4 felt realistic when it came to police culture and tactics. However, his ability to design an adventure game is not readily apparent.
Continue reading Police Quest: Open SeasonPublisher: Sierra
Developer: Sierra
Year: 1992
Platform: DOS
Score: 6
Out of the many remakes that Sierra released of their original adventures, Police Quest fared the best. But as is the case with most of them, they failed to actually improve the game.
For the most part, the game follows the events of the original, though a lot of the ancillary camp is toned down or removed completely. For example, your coworkers act much more professionally and there’s less locker-room talk, matching the more serious tone of Police Quest 3. I might have appreciated this had the game’s serious moments been dramatically improved. Unfortunately, the atmosphere feels so dry that moments like the loss of Jack’s daughter aren’t any more moving than they were before. On the other hand, Sonny is surprisingly funny. His deadpan delivery made me chuckle a few times.
The interface has been switched to point-and-click, which removes a lot of the parser-type Easter Eggs, while admittedly removing some of the parser frustration. But the driving is similar to that of Police Quest 3, which is needlessly cumbersome. And, sadly, the MIDI soundtrack somehow does a worse job of conveying tension than the internal soundboard of the original. When I play the EGA version, I find myself on the edge of my seat during several scenes. Here, everything felt muted.
Publisher: Sierra
Developer: Sierra
Year: 1995
Platform: DOS; Windows; Mac; SEGA Saturn
Score: 4
Never before has Roberta Williams, or rather any game designer, integrated horror and humor to such monumental proportions. Of course, the humor derives from the George Lucas-type dialogue and poor acting, and much of the horror comes from the realization you had spent quite a bit of money to play this mess.
Continue reading PhantasmagoriaPublisher: Audiogenic Software
Developer: Paisano
Year: 1985
Platform: DOS; Commodore 64; Apple II; MSX
Yes, there were good text adventures during the 80’s not made by Infocom. This is one fine example.
Continue reading Perry Mason: The Case of the Mandarin Murders
Publisher: Lighthouse
Developer: House of Tales
Year: 2008
Platform: Windows
A competent game with a surefire premise, Overclocked suffers from some unevenness in storytelling and some unrealistic character motivations.
Publisher: LucasArts
Developer: LucasArts
Year: 1991
Platform: DOS; Amiga; Mac
While equally as lauded by most to the first game in the series, I didn’t get quite as excited about Monkey Island 2. It begins well, with our hero pirate Guybrush stranded on an island in search of the means to discover the treasure of Big Whoop. But about a third of the way in (pardon me) it jumps ship, and barely gets on track in time for a raucous ending.
Publisher: Access Software
Developer: Access Software
Year: 1991
Platform: DOS
On the successful heels of Mean Streets, Access Software released a sequel, attempting to build off their charming private investigator Tex Murphy, thrusting him into another save-the-world case filled with beautiful women, ruthless villains, and post-apocalyptic mayhem. From a technical level, they improved the game in nearly every imaginable facet. Unfortunately (but not as a direct result), the story and characters themselves take a bit of a downturn.
Publisher: LucasArts
Developer: LucasArts
Year: 1988
Platform: DOS; Amiga; Apple II; NES; Commodore 64
LucasArts’ first adventure game was an enormous success across several computer systems and the NES, helping to launch a successful empire in the industry. But while the creativity and ingenuity that would bolster the company is here in this offering, it more than makes up for it with questionable design choices and misguided puzzles.
Publisher: Sierra
Developer: Evryware
Year: 1988
Platform: DOS; Amiga; Apple II
Score: 4
The most original idea Sierra picked up, Manhunter unfortunately fails to capitalize on its premise.
Aliens landed in New York, circa 2002. It took them less than three days to destroy the city, and less than a year to end the human resistance. Or so they thought. You have been assigned by the alien “orbs” to be a manhunter. The tracking devices they implanted in every human were not entirely compatible with human physiology, so you (along with many others) need to help them. You have no choice. You must investigate humans who are not obedient and report them to the aliens.
Continue reading Manhunter: New YorkPublisher: Sierra
Developer: Sierra
Year: 1993
Platform: DOS; Mac; Windows 3.x
One can divide the six Larry games into two distinct eras. The first three were all released in the 1980’s and used a typing interface. The final three were all released in the point’n’click era with better graphics and sound available. The first games in each era had pretty shoddy game design and reeked of amateurish handling. Each game improved upon itself, with the final game being a masterpiece, representative of the era it was released in. The main difference is that while the first cycle advanced quickly with LSL2, the improvement was much more gradual with LSL6.
Like its more successful stepchild, Love For Sail, LSL6 is the first game in the series (except arguably the first) to ditch the complications of working with a plot and focuses entirely on the babes. Passionate Patti has left you for good. You win a trip to a resort, La Costa Lotta (puns abound in this game). There are many babes to be wooed (e.g. Char Donay, among other fine…um…spirits). And in sweet simplistic fashion, you must bring each of them the item, or items, necessary for them to feel obligated to return certain favors to you. While a lot of horrible games of an adult nature have the same premise, Larry is the perfect setting for these antics, as the nature of the beast is parody rather than titillation.
It’s hard to review this game and not compare it to the one before and the one after. Its predecessor was the worst commercial adventure of all-time, and its follower is great and considered by some to be the best commercial adventure of all-time. This one seems to fall exactly between the two extremes. The graphics have improved a little, but are still tacky and gaudy (and while the narrator points this out several times, it still hurts the eyes). The sound and music is slightly better, but usually painful to listen to. The puzzles are a little more clever, and usually fair, but do not impress. And the game engine is easier to use, but still contains many bugs that cause the game to crash.
But despite the sea of mediocrity, I enjoyed this adventure mainly due to the talkie version, which employs narrator Neal Ross to comment on Larry’s bumbles and successes. The fourth wall doesn’t even pretend to exist here, the narrator belittling Larry constantly, with Larry commenting back with regularity. I found this banter to be mostly amusing, and I even laughed out loud a few times. And despite using two different actors, this style was copied and perfected for the next and final game in the series. As for the rest of the voice acting, it is capable if not memorable.
Easy, quick, and relatively painless, Shape Up Or Slip Out! cannot be considered a black mark on the Larry series, but is not strong enough to warrant recommendation to casual fans. Those who do play should definitely find the talkie version, as it turns an otherwise lame adventure into a charming gambol.
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