Police Quest: SWAT (PC) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
956A playthrough of Sierra's 1995 FMV adventure/simulation game for PCs running Windows 3.1 and 95, Police Quest: SWAT.
This video shows the introductory sections, a small-arms training drill, and the three primary missions.
I didn't include every variation of each of the missions since the game kept crashing on me (you can see evidence of this at the end - I really came to hate that screen!), but I do show the "most" successful path through each of them.
The Police Quest series is known for how well it combined graphic-adventure style puzzles with strict attention to police procedural detail. They were always very difficult compared to the other Quest series, but their realism, attention to detail, and insane plot-lines made them a real treat to play.
Check out the card links for PQ 1-4!
Police Quest: SWAT is the fifth game in the series - even though the game isn't explicitly labelled as PQ5, many references in the game files do refer to it as such, and it is the second game (following Police Quest IV: Open Season) to have Darryl Gates on-board as a director and consultant. Unfortunately, PQ4 was a notable quality dip for the series, but it at least still managed to keep the basic mechanics intact that the series was known for (though it did up the violence quotient significantly - you kill a transvestite with a make-shift flamethrower in that one, for God's sake!).
Police Quest: SWAT is a complete departure from the series as we had always known it. In fact, outside of the game's title and the fact that they everyone calls you "Pup" (remember back in PQ1 when you get called Officer Pup by someone you're arresting?), the only thing that SWAT maintains of its origins is the steadfast adherence to following rules. There is no plot to speak of (you're a newbie on your SWAT team - that's it!), a large portion of the game is consumed with weapons training, listening to descriptions of weapons and tactics, and being yelled at when you didn't follow an instruction that wasn't ever very clear to begin with.
There are three scenarios (they start at 21:16) that you must participate in, and these are by far the best part of the game. Actually, they're the only parts that resemble a game. These scenes look and sound fantastic for 1995 - the game is running on a heavily beefed up version of the SCI2 engine that ran Phantasmagoria and Gabriel Knight 2, and the digitized sprite actors look far better here than they did in Phantas, GK2, and the older PQ games. Unfortunately, whatever fun you might get from these scenes is sucked out by the unforgiving gameplay. Granted, police work is unforgiving, but when it's put into a game and the game never really explains itself properly, things get frustrating, then boring, quite quickly.
Sometimes you're told to cover someone, so you click the arrow, only to find out that the up arrow that you assumed would move you forward for whatever reason put you in the line of fire. Yay, inconsistent and confusing camera angles! Other times, you'll have to use hand-signals, but the game doesn't really tell you if it registered your command, so sometimes you'll randomly fail because of the utter lack of feedback and the inconsistent input window timings. It's fun to run through the scenarios once you know how to finish them, but how many people ever got that far?
I got this the day it came out - I was soooo excited! PQ was always my jam, and I loved Sierra's FMV titles - this would be perfect! And then I installed the game. Ugh. About a week later I sent the game to Sierra (under their satisfaction guaranteed policy) with a letter describing what a scrap heap the game was, and requesting a copy of Torin's Passage to replace it. About six weeks later, Torin appeared, and I was far happier.
This game is a clear marker in my mind of the sharp turn Sierra made around this time. After Phantasmagoria and GK2, they really went into a decline. They had sporadic hits afterward (LSL7, Rama...), but the Williams' departure was looming, and when they went, they took the spirit of the Sierra that I had known and loved as a kid with them.
And seriously, Darryl Gates, Los Angeles wasn't enough for you? You really had to lay waste to one of my favorite PC series, too?
_
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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