Police Quest IV: Open Season, Sierra RRP œ44.99
             (Graphic adventure on PC HD/CDROM)

           CD version reviewed by Colin Campbell

Having played the first 2 games on my trusty ST a number of years
ago I was looking forward to this, the latest incarnation of the
series. And I was not to be disappointed. It has even been
designed by Darryl F. Gates - the ex-Police Chief of LA - based
around some real life LA murders.  So I'm striking LA off my
American destination list for a start.

I have reviewed the CD-ROM version of the game, which contains
speech (and text, should you wish to view it). It takes up a
variable amount of disk space depending on what you want to move
from CD to your hard drive. I moved all the graphics and found
that 20meg had been used up. You can play from the CD alone but it
will be slower.  The minimum spec for this game is 4 meg - but 8
meg is recommended. It can be run from Windows (where you'll need
8 meg RAM (not virtual memory)) or Dos. You also need a CD ROM
(double speed or better) if you want to get the speech option.

In the large box is the CD (or your HD disks), a LA Police
Department Manual, a brief guide to the game and a catalogue
advertising Sierra games.

The plot is somewhat different from the other games in the series
in that you aren't playing Sonny Bonds but rather a guy called
John Carey. At the start of the game you find yourself at a murder
site - and not just your usual LA murder: your partner has been
killed! This is just the first in a series of brutal murders for
you to solve. And if you're not quick then you might be next!

The control method employed in the game is similar to the new
Sierra games coming out. There's no more typing things in and
getting killed because you typed the "wrong" word. All you do is
click on one of the icons and click on an object to select it and
then click on where you want to use it.  Very slick.

The graphics are excellent. Real shots of LA have been mixed with
believable digitised animation to create a real world to play in.
Of course, being a bit of a violent person my first action at the
murder scene is to immediately shoot the suspects. I wasn't able
to do this here. However, for all you Dirty Harry fans out there
you will have the opportunity to shoot people - quite a few people
actually.

There are quite a few locations to visit too: the police HQ (with
its swearing Police Chief), downtown LA (a nice place if ever I
saw one..), a park, the morgue (you'll be there quite a few
times), a pub, a record store and strip club (with real
strippers), parking lots, alleys, stores, a hospital, shooting
range and even a cinema to watch the latest Dirty Harry film in!
So plenty to do and plenty to see everywhere. The characters you
see can be interviewed easily: and the game won't allow you to
question them on things you don't know about. So no cheating at
the back, there.  You can steer the conversations too as in many
cases you get choices of which question you wish to ask.

The sound is good as well. The speech is clear and believable, the
music is, well, typical Sierra music. The music actually gives
clues to whom the murderers are. Radical shifts in music usually
give you a big clue and this is probably my biggest gripe about
the game. Then again the same thing happens in films and on TV.
You can of course turn the music off but then you'd miss the
awesome "Elevator Tune". :)

As a police officer your task is to collect evidence, interview
subjects, follow correct police procedure and conduct yourself in
a proper manner in your quest to apprehend criminals. And in LA
almost everybody looks like a criminal! Then there are also
victims' relatives to console and colleagues to chat to. All in
all it's very intriguing.

Many of the problems in the game revolve around following correct
procedure.  Although you know (more or less) who the guilty
persons are after a few days (everybody in LA is guilty of
something, you know) you can't just barge in and beat a confession
out of them. It's evidence, evidence and more evidence.  So you
must always be looking for clues. You end up being rather
suspicious of every person you meet - even your colleagues!

I'd recommend this game to fans of the series and to those of you
who always thought of yourself as a bit of a dick. P.I., of
course. :)

Graphics:               *********.   9/10
Sound:                  ********..   8/10
Atmosphere:             *********.   9/10
Difficulty:             *******...   7/10
Puzzles:                ********..   8/10
Long Term interest:     *******...   7/10
Overall:                ********..   8/10





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