Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel (also known as Police Quest I or simply Police Quest) is a 1987 police procedural adventure video game developed and published by Jim Walls and Sierra On-Line. Police Quest follows police officer Sonny Bonds as he investigates a drug cartel in the town of Lytton, California.
First released in 1987 as a command-line interface game built on Sierra's AGI, Police Quest was remade in 1992 using 256-color VGA graphics and the SCI engine and used point-and-click gameplay. Designed to effectively be a police simulator, Police Quest features relatively simple puzzles, but relies strongly on strict adherence to proper police procedure, as detailed in the game's manual.
Police Quest was a moderate critical and commercial success, spawning the successful Police Quest series, which later evolved into the SWAT series of shooter games. A direct sequel, Police Quest II: The Vengeance, was released in 1988.
Gameplay
Police Quest: In Pursuit of The Death Angel, is an adventure game whose gameplay is centered on interacting with the environment to resolve a series of scenarios. These largely revolve around typical police work, such as securing crime scenes and recovering stolen vehicles, plus some important duty procedures. The original release of the game required the player to type in the desired actions, such as opening doors, pressing buttons, or firing one's gun, while the remake allows the player to use the mouse to select actions from a menu and objects in the environment.
The game is the most realistic of those developed by Sierra in the late 1980s (when compared to Leisure Suit Larry, King's Quest, or Space Quest). The lack of "traditional" puzzles made the game stand out at the time of release. Unlike many games of this genre, the style of play depends largely on a strict adherence to standard police policy and procedure. Proper policy must be followed and individual actions must be performed in order (e.g. Sonny must draw and aim his sidearm before firing, or he will shoot himself in the leg). Failure to abide by proper procedure typically leads to the player being penalized points, or having Sonny killed; for example, if Sonny does not store his gun in a gun locker while detaining a suspect at the jail, the suspect will immediately steal it and shoot him, resulting in a game over.
Plot
In the mid-1980s (early 1990s in the remake), the city of Lytton, California experiences a rise in crime, most prominently drug abuse. Officer Sonny Bonds of the Lytton Police Department is assigned to traffic duty by his supervisor, Sergeant Dooley, and is told to look out for a stolen black Cadillac (Mercedes-Benz in the remake).
During his patrol, Bonds responds to a single-vehicle accident and finds the driver of the crashed car, drug dealer Lonny West, dead of a gunshot wound to the head. Bonds hands over the investigation to Sergeant Dooley and returns to patrol, ticketing a speeding motorist, handling some bikers who are troubling a bar, and arresting a drunk driver. In the bar scene, Sonny encounters "Sweet Cheeks" Marie Wilkans, a prostitute who was once his high school crush, who supplies him with information on a violent drug ring infiltrating the city. After his shift ends, Bonds visits The Blue Room, a café frequented by off-duty police officers, where he talks with Officer Jack Cobb about Cobb's daughter Kathy, who is addicted to drugs. The next day, Bonds locates the stolen Cadillac/Mercedes-Benz (now painted light blue) and, with help from Cobb, arrests the driver, Jason Taselli. Bonds finds drugs in the trunk of the car and a .45 Smith & Wesson handgun on Taselli, linking him to West's murder.
Due to his work on the case, Bonds is promoted to detective, assigned to the Narcotics Division, and partnered with Detective Laura Watts. Investigating Lytton's drug epidemic, Bonds arrests Kathy's dealer Donald Colby, but learns from Cobb that Kathy has fallen into an overdose-induced coma with no chance of recovery. He also learns Taselli has escaped from jail, but patrol officers later find him drowned in the river. Bonds identifies the cause of the drug crisis as Jessie Bains (Jesse Bains in the remake), nicknamed "The Death Angel", a drug lord who is involved in an illegal gambling operation at the Hotel Delphoria.