Nerds That Geek Game Review – ‘Police Quest: Open Season’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

​When a particularly dark and powerful entry arrives in a franchise that we know and love, I think it’s safe to assume that we often wonder as to whether or not said franchise will take that darkness to the next level. Because to do so risks alienating the fan base and the future of the series since people do tend to gravitate away from heavy storyline after heavy storyline. But when it comes to the next entry in the Police Quest saga, Sierra On-Line saw the opportunity to tell a powerful story and went for broke when they released the supremely bleak fourth entry in the saga, Police Quest: Open Season.
 
Now I suppose in many ways, we should have seen this coming. Because a new gamerunner had taken over the series by way of former L.A.P.D. Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and with his arrival, came his many years of experience and a far more sprawling urban affair for the series. The location was moved from the fictional Lytton, California to the massive megalopolis that is Los Angeles and rather than see further adventures with Detective Sergeant Sonny Bonds we were instead introduced to Homicide Detective John Carey and well, the case that we join Detective Carey upon is quite a doozy to say the least.
 
Because this time around, there’s a serial killer prowling the streets of the City of Angels and it’s up to Carey to bring them down after Carey discovers that this murderer took down his best friend and former partner and well, that ugly setup, is merely the beginning for a gritty and powerful game that has the look and feel of an R-rated movie when all is said and done. In fact, this particular game holds nothing back when it comes to Carey’s job, going so far as to involve gang violence, Neo-Nazis and gore into the story, taking this franchise to a new level when it comes to realism and it doesn’t end with the story.
 
For the graphics in this game also improved to a whole new level, since it featured photographic backgrounds of Los Angeles, immersing the player into this grand and sprawling city and the experience was only further enhanced by the fact that close ups of the crime scenes in question are on display in high resolution and while staged, seeing the corpse of a bullet riddled child definitely gives the player a moment of pause, and there are some other surprises along the way that only add to the immersion factor that I won’t spoil here.
 
Because quite frankly, this game served as the apex for the series. It was bold, and brutal and I commend it for holding nothing back because it makes for one wild ride. But despite the fact that the series had discovered the perfect blend of storytelling and procedure, the gaming world was already evolving, and this style of adventure game was coming to an end, meaning that the series would need to evolve as well to stay viable and what came next was quite the radical, but entertaining departure…

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