Police Quest IV: Open Season

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Police Quest IV: Open Season

Developer(s)	Sierra Entertainment
Publisher(s)	^NA Sierra Entertainment
Designer(s)	Sierra Entertainment
Release date(s)	^NA 1993 (DOS)/(WIN)
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: T (Teen) USK: 16+
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Microsoft DOS
Media	1 CD-ROM (WIN)/(DOS)
System requirements	20 MHz Intel 386 CPU, 4 MB RAM, VGA video card, mouse, 4X CD-ROM drive, Microsoft DOS (DOS)
Input	Keyboard, mouse or Game controller

Inside the LAPD's Parker Center, Police Quest IV, 1993

Police Quest IV: Open Season (Informally known as PQ4) is the fourth installment of Sierra Entertainment's popular Police Quest computer game series. Released in 1993, it was created by retired Police Chief Daryl F. Gates after his retirement in 1992. He replaced ex-California Highway Patrol officer Jim Walls as the designer of the Police Quest franchise.

Unlike the previous three games in the series, the player is portrayed as homicide detective John Carey, rather than officer Sonny Bonds, and rather than being set in the fictional city of Lytton, California, the game now took place in Los Angeles. Also for the first time in the series, Police Quest 4 was created using scanned photographs as backgrounds and live-action character development, rather than less conventional methods such as painted scenes. As the game uses scanned photographs, the locations depicted in the game are actual, most notably the Parker Center, which has remained virtually unchanged as can be seen in the game compared to its current state. Written text is replaced by audible narration and dialogues on the CD version, released in 1996.

Inside coroner's office, Police Quest IV, 1993

The entire game, like Police Quest III and the 1991 re-make of Police Quest 1, is based off a mouse-controlled user-interface system. Icons such as "walk", "speak to", "touch", "use", and "look at" are used rather than the less-conventional text-interface system used in the first two games, as well as many other adventure games during the 1980s.

The game starts in a South Central Los Angeles alley at around 3:00 AM. Carey finds his best friend, Officer Bob Hickman, murdered on the scene, alongside eight-year-old Bobby Washington. The seemingly random string of gang-related murders continues along, providing Carey with clues to find his killer(s).

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

After 5 people are murdered, mutilated and found in public places, Carey finally closes in on the killer. He stumbled across the proprietor of a second-rate movie theatre, who has a stuttering problem. The owner offers him some tea and invites him into the theatre to watch a film. Carey passes out and hallucinates that the proprietor is the cross-dresser seen near the body of Hickman. The owner wakes Carey up and throws him out of the theatre. Carey finds the killer's house (led there by his dog), only to find a severed head in a fridge. Carey finds a hidden passage that leads back to the theatre, and finds a woman passed out in the seats. When he returns, he sees the owner dragging the unconscious woman into a back room. Carey is subsequently knocked unconscious. However, Carey manages to scrounge up some hairspray and a lighter, finds the woman covered in blood with the killer looming over her, and torches the killer. Although the woman is limp and covered in blood, we can assume that Carey saved her because the mayor mentions that only 5 people were killed, as he presents Carey with the Medal of Valor.

Talking to a secretary, Police Quest IV, 1993

The game's gritty realism greatly emphasizes a homicide detective's line of work, requiring the player to follow standard police procedures and thoroughly investigate crime scenes to every extent. As such realism is presented in the form of working to find and link clues, the game also depicts a gruesome photo-realistic nature. At the beginning of the game, an eight-year-old boy is found murdered from gunshot wounds in a dumpster, close-ups of Hickman's body are revealed, and towards the end of the game, the player will find a severed head is in a refrigerator before ultimately stumbling upon the killer, who is fondling one of his victim's corpses. It is believed the killer in the game is based off of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, noted for keeping body parts from his victims inside his house. The game is also notable in the fact that the main character can be killed by many hazards, as well the game can be ended if a player constantly harrasses female employees at the parker center.

The same year Police Quest: Open Season was released, ex-Police Quest developer Jim Walls released a very similar game called Blue Force. Although Blue Force is graphically more identical to Police Quest III, the storyline and completion time are shorter.