Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel

"There's no stopping for doughnuts in this adventure!"

If you are looking for a nice, challenging adventure game, Police Quest may be the game for you. Although the sound and graphics are nothing special, that doesn't stop this game from being a great game to play!

Story
The town of Lytton was once a small, quiet town with next to no crimes but the town is taking a big increase in population and with the extra people comes extra crimes. The crimes are getting out of hand and it is up to you to investigate and solve the mystery of ''The Death Angel''!

Gameplay
What you do in this game is to be a good policeman - go to briefings, follow orders, investigate crimes in order to eventually solve the mystery of all of the illegal drug use and homicides that are occurring in Lytton. You move the main character, Sonny Bonds, around by using the arrow keys when you are at a specific location (for example, the PD headquarters, Carol's Caffeine Castle, or Hotel Delphoria). When you are not at a specific location, chances are you are driving around the streets of Lytton, controlling your car from a bird's eye view (which is difficult to get the hang of). If you want to do an action such as answering a phone or using the radio to inform your fellow policemen of the situation, you must type it! All this typing can get tedious after a while, especially if you have no clue what to do next. As a policeman in this game you will investigate a car crash, jail people, order gangs around, arrest illegal drug dealers, save the city, and more!

Fun Factor
10/10. Everybody's dream at one point probably was to become a policeman and now is your chance to do it! Lots of action = lots of fun!

Graphics
Considering all of the great games with graphics that the PC, Xbox, GameCube, and PlayStation2 have today, these graphics are EGA and not very detailed and therefore are obsolete. However, this game was made in the late 1980s so considering that, these graphics are okay and in a way it makes it a classic because not only is it the start of a series but it is a great, old game.

Audio
There are only unrealistic sound effects throughout the game and the music at the beginning before you load your file. Nothing special here. Kind of annoying actually..

Difficulty
With a FAQ right beside you, this game isn't too difficult, but in my opinion it makes it more fun if you just snoop around and try to figure things out on your own. Only if you're truly stuck should you resort to using a FAQ to help you through. Sometimes it can take a while to figure out what to do and it can get frustrating. The poker games near the end can be aggravating if you do not know that in order to get anywhere you must save every time you win and restore your saved game every time you lose.

Replay Value
In my opinion, it is more entertaining to continue on to Police Quest II and the other games in the series. Each game basically continues from where the last game left off and it is fun to complete each Police Quest game one after another. I do not believe there is a VGA version of this game but I could be wrong. If you see a VGA version, you might want to try that instead of replaying this one again. But whatever you do, you'll probably come back to this classic within 10 years or so. =)

Overall
I give this game a 9/10 because of the fun in a big adventure (much bigger than Leisure Suit Larry or Space Quest) and it is fun to be a hero and save a city using your mad policeman skills!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/30/03