Although part of the Police Quest series, Police Quest III: The Kindred was most definately my least favourite adventure of Sonny Bonds.
It was mostly the point and click aspect of Police Quest III: The Kindred that totally threw the whole environment of Police Quest games down the stairs. I enjoy typing in answers, which actually required thought.
The game itself was rather odd. The Lytton Police Building was gigantic.. much bigger than in Police Quest 1: In Pursuit of the Death Angel and Police Quest 2, but I suppose it could have just been the "other side" that was never shown.
The puzzles were bizarre to say the least. Although there was mostly police-work related puzzles, there were a couple oddities such as having to check your wife's I.V. because someone had tampered with it, and having to constantly be suspicious of your partner's actions. What I didn't like was the fact that you couldn't move on before doing something stupid like snatching your partner's key from her purse and making a copy while she's on the phone. Although it turned out to be beneficial in the long run, it probably isn't something I'd do were I Sonny Bonds.
I felt more like I was on a roller coaster, just watching the ride. Although I went through the motions of "playing" and "being" Sonny Bonds, essentially I just pointed and clicked at the right times.
To give the game some credit, however, it has two strong prequels, so people who enjoyed Police Quest 1 and Police Quest 2 will recognize some of the characters. As well, the graphics are pretty well done. When the game first came out, the 'real' scenes (photographs) were impressive because not many games had anything that 'realistic'.
All in all, Police Quest III: The Kindred left me quite a bit disappointed. Die-hard Police Quest fans can probably pick it up in bargain bins for cheap, or get it in the Police Quest Collection Series.
Graphics: Nicely done. The 'realistic' graphics caught eyes when it first came out.
Sound: Full of sound effects, and music. Ambient sounds make the game sound nice - like typewriters in the office (even though you explore the whole floor and see no one typing).
Enjoyment: Truly doesn't belong with the other Police Quest games.
Replay Value: Even less fun the second time around.
The third police quest game opens as Sonny Bond's wife is brutally attacked by the brother of Jessie Bains. Combined with ritualistic killings in the city and his wife clinging to life in the hospital, Bonds must catch the killer and find the attacker of his wife.
You might have thought that all was well now that the threat from the Death Angel was finally over, but peace is rare in these troubled times. Jesse Bains' brother is out for revenge. You took his brother so he'll take your wife! It is up to you to bring peace once again to the city of Lytton, and to bring the criminal behind bars. This episode of the series is dark, mystical, brutal and insane... it will take Sonny everything he has and more to keep him alive.
The rating of four is due to the graphics more then anything else. The game is based on real-life police work, and so they have tried to make the game also look as realistic as possible. It's a great idea, but to my critical eye they have not managed this. The game is still fun to play though and it brings hours of exiting gameplay. As for the controls in the game, it rounds up the quest series with complete mouse control.
Part of the Police Quest Series
Jessie Bains is dead and Sonny and Marie can live in peace again. Sonny has been promoted, they got married and everything seems to be fine. Then Marie gets shot and is in a critical condition. Who's behind this?
The introduction of the point&click interface to Police Quest series. This means easier game play but for some reason the game is quite unstable and likely to crash every once in a while. PQ3 is the most complex in the series and has the best story so far. A true masterpiece.
I still remember playing Police Quest 3 on my 386 computer. I'm not really a fan of these type of games but I still enjoyed it. Back in those days Sierra had some great titles.
Anyway on with the review. Police Quest was released in 1991 by Sierra Entertainment. It was a pretty similar game play as the Leisure Suit Larry series which was a pretty good game as well. Even though I believe the story line is a little bit boring, both the graphics and characters of the game make it worth while playing the game.
Police Quest 3 is pretty much like a re-build of the Police Quest series meaning that the characters from the original Police Quest has been killed off and in Police Quest 3 you start of with new characters. As well the characters, places from the original Police Quest has also disappeared. From this aspect I believe Sierra was trying to attract more people who were not familiar with the Police Quest series, however, from someone who enjoyed the original Police Quest, they should have left the characters and places as it should be.
It is pretty hard at the start of Police Quest 3 which is why I'm not really a fan of the puzzle type games genre. I mean you could really only do so much at the beginning of Police Quest 3 before it gets boring, but after downloading the walkthrough everything actually mad sense. Driving around in Police Quest 3 was also a bit difficult at first but once but you soon get the hang of it.
Did I also mention that the soundtrack to the game isn't that bad. I believe Jan Hammer actually wrote the music for the game, who was also the composer to the popular Miami Vice theme, which leads me to believe that Sierra was trying for a Miami Vice type game.
Overall, I think this is the best of all the Police Quest series. Even though there a few problems I still enjoyed it and it is definitely worth looking at.
How to run this game on modern Windows PC?
People who downloaded Police Quest 3: The Kindred have also downloaded:
Police Quest 1: VGA remake, Police Quest 2: The Vengeance, Police Quest: Open Season, Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel, Space Quest 4: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers, Quest for Glory 3: Wages of War, Quest for Glory 2: Trial by Fire, Space Quest 2: Vohaul's Revenge
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