History YMMV / PoliceQuest

* {{Anvilicious}}: It '''is''' ''Police Quest'' after all.
** The law is the law in this game, and failing to follow proper procedure ''will'' [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin make you lose the game]]. So much so that the game was criticized because [[UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay players would act the way they saw police officers behave on TV or in movies]]; when in real life, that gets you and others severely hurt or even killed. There were even people arguing why you couldn't just take out your gun and shoot everyone.
** DrugsAreBad. Characters frequently make their hatred for drug dealers very clear. Understandably so, considering [[spoiler:what ends up happening to Jack's daughter.]]

* AccidentalInnuendo: In 3 if you click the hand icon on the "mindless executive toy" in the psychiatrists office he says "Would you mind not playing with my balls, please" (may also double as a reference to Police Academy Citizens on Patrol)
* AntiClimaxBoss: [[spoiler:In ''Police Quest 3'', when you raid the crack house, you shoot a mook and [[BigBad Michael Bains]] immediately surrenders. Pat Morales is also unceremoniously killed by an Internal Affairs agent who had never been seen before provided you reported finding cocaine in her locker to them.]]

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The entire terrorist hijacking scene in [=PQ2=] has nothing to do with the main plot. It just serves to make the flight to Steelton a bit more exciting, and afterwards is never referred to again.
* GoodBadBugs:
** A minor bug in the original game means it's possible to score 246 out of 245.
** In PQI VGA (this probably depends on the version), when you get into a car accident, the game informs you that you died, but instead of a game over, the game rewinds about a dozen seconds prior to the crash.
** In PQIV, it is possible to question the first witness on the scene right before he walks away. The conversation will carry on, even when he leaves the screen.
*** You can point your gun at people for a game over. However, you can aim away from the person and open fire and the game still implies that you shot them. Sometimes your gun will go to the side of the person's face, over their head, or even just bang the gun up the door.
* HarsherInHindsight:
** In ''[=PQ2=]'' when you hit pause you get a screen saying that every cop needs a break now and then. The unpause option on the screen? The words: "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let%27s_roll Let's roll]]!" It doesn't seem like much until you happen to pause the game as you try to defeat the terrorists on the airplane.
** Also, the whole Egyptian terrorists part of PQII would become a lot less cool after the events of 9/11 and the War on Terror.
* HilariousInHindsight: There was an occasion in PQII where Sonny had the option to call a SWAT team to storm a motel room, but the highlight is how Sonny called in a SWAT team at a crack house, just to open the door with a tank, and run in ''by himself'' to disarm the thugs before a SWAT team can get there. In PQ SWAT 2, he has done a much better job in following procedure, and even commands a SWAT unit in 4.
* HoYay: Implied with Carey and Nobiles if you click the hand icon on Nobiles in certain screens.
* NightmareFuel:
** The skull on the game over screen in the remake.
** Any closeups of dead bodies.
** Head in the fridge in 4.
** Most of the game overs in 4 play a short musical sting as the screen turns red before the game over screen appears. Failing to deal with the dog in one of the final areas of the game results in the dog jumping at your character, but instead of the sting, it plays ''fairly realistic sounds of a dog mauling your character and him screaming.''
* OvershadowedByControversy: ''Police Quest IV: Open Season'' is mostly remembered today for its creative direction being heavily influenced by the input of disgraced former LAPD Chief Daryl Gates, who many players and critics blame for the game's content taking a noticeably dim view of marginalised communities and minorities. While Gates was still involved with ''SWAT'' and ''SWAT 2'', those games aren't as linked to him due to his creative input being reduced.
* ScrappyMechanic: Driving in ''Police Quest III''. To accelerate, click in front of the car. To slow down, click at the rear of the car. Each click either increase or decrease speed by 5 mph. Sound easy? At least until you realize you have no idea what's ahead of you. Your car is displayed inside a small square. The rest of the screen is filled with a useless view of you driving, without the windshield. The map only gives your overall position and doesn't tell how close or far you are to a turn. Too often, you'll end up [[GameOver driving off road]] or missing your street/parking entrance. In the end it's better to just drive at very low speed. Have fun!
** Driving in the remake of the first game wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs either.
** The problem isn't so much that it wasn't programmed well (though it could have been like PQII or a later game: PQIV, where you just have to type in or choose a destination, or PQI where you have greater control over your driving), and the music that accompanies the mechanic is quite good. The problem is that it can get quite tedious and boring after a while, and it gets quite droning when you have to go back and forward on destinations. You do have a map system in PQI VGA and PQIII, which does help a little.
*** Averted in the original though, where you had free, open-world-like control over your vehicle. That is, once you get the hang of the fact that your car can turn on a dime. Other drivers don't seem to have much consideration on the road, however, and Marvin Hoffman's car can spawn on top of yours if you're driving on the wrong street entering any sector, killing you instantly.
** In ''Police Quest II'', your inventory screen show a message window with all your items in text and separated by a comma. This can be very frustrating when looking for a specific item. More puzzling is why they didn't use the same improved inventory from ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIVThePerilsOfRosella'' which was released earlier.
* ThatOneLevel: Playing poker in the first game. Being poker, it's a LuckBasedMission and SaveScumming is a must, but can't be done in the middle of the game itself. Fortunately, the remake makes it optional.
* UnfortunateCharacterDesign: It looks like Sonny forgot to zip up his jeans in [=PQ2=].
** Marie has the weirdest, jiggling set of cubical breasts you'd ever see in any graphical text adventure game (at least when viewing her from the front).
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Keith smoking in the homicide office in the second game really sets the game firmly in a period when smoking in a public place was okay.
* ValuesDissonance:
** Jefferson, the JiveTurkey-talking black janitor in the first game, would be considered rather racist these days.
** ''Open Season'' easily takes the cake in this department, being full of material that takes a fundamentally deeply unsympathetic and even outright bigoted view on racial and sexual minorities, and poor people in general, portraying them as freaks and deviants at best and violent, mentally unstable threats to "normal" (e.i. predominantly white, straight and middle-class) citizens and police officers at worst. This stuff was already at least a bit problematic even back in the early 1990s, when the game was released, but in hindsight and knowing much of it was a result of the retired and infamous Police Chief Daryl F. Gates' input on the game, it paints an especially bleak and even damning view of how an older, White, conservative police officer views the world and the people he is policing, which is undoubtedly going to rub a lot more people the wrong way in the late 2010s and 2020s, where there is generally greater awareness and condemnation of PoliceBrutality and overreach.
* TheWoobie: Officer Jack, as he suffers depression for learning that his daughter, Kathy, is using cocaine and his wife is ready to leave him due to his drinking problem. On the day of his birthday no less! He does get cheered up thanks to his friends, but he's even worse later as he learns that Kathy is in a coma for an overdose. [[spoiler: And later, Sgt. Dooley informs you that she died.]]

** In SWAT 4, you can get penalized for shooting suspects if you haven't given them proper warning to surrender or they haven't opened fire on you first. Your AI partners and snipers ''don't!''

** The credits music for ''SWAT 2'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at41MHyG7o0 Just Another Day in LA,]] captures the essence of the game ''perfectly.''

* BreatherLevel: After a tough training level in ''SWAT 2'' and several call outs including one based on the North Hollywood shoot out your element is called out to a airport sniper. Hands down the easiest level in the game, the most difficult part is trying to apprehend the woman who is with the sniper, or whether or not to authorize paying a ransom. Arresting the sniper and clearing the level without a shot fired and top marks is EasierThanEasy. Might be why the opening level to [[VideoGame/SWAT3 its FPS sequel]] is more or less an exact rehash of this one.
* GameBreaker:
** Selling the sidearms of your unused team members in ''SWAT 2'' will solve all your financial problems.
** In ''SWAT 2'', training a terrorist to 100% rifle skill and having him kneel-fire will give him laser accuracy clear across the map. That's pretty handy when about half the missions take place in wide open areas.

** The below bug about selling off sidearms to make a profit became a different sort of humorous when the Los Angeles SWAT team got caught doing exactly that around 2010.
** There's not a whole lot of games these days that would outright allow you to play ''as terrorists'' as ''SWAT 2'' did.

* MoralEventHorizon: There is one level in ''SWAT 4'' that involves a cult. Investigating the basement reveals an underground grave yard for babies! Naturally, they're more evil than the terrorists.

* SpiritualAdaptation: SWAT 3 and 4 would have made a great set of sequels to ''[[VideoGame/RainbowSix Rainbow Six 3]]''.
* ThatOneLevel:
** ''SWAT 2'''s final two missions are one long MarathonLevel. The penultimate mission takes place in a huge open space, making it very hard to spot terrorists incoming, since the levels have several random presets. You will lose men along the way. The final mission takes place at the debriefing for the second last mission, meaning that you must carry over everyone you had left from the previous mission and are unable to bring any more backup, except for The Chief, who just happened to be present at the debriefing.
** Playing poker in the first game. Being poker, it's a LuckBasedMission and SaveScumming is a must, but can't be done in the middle of the game itself. Fortunately, the remake makes it optional.

* TheWoobie: Officer Jack, as he suffers depression for learning that his daughter, Kathy, is using cocaine and his wife is ready to leave him due to his drinking problem. On the day of his birthday no less! He does get cheered up thanks to his friends, but he's even worse later as he learns that Kathy is in a coma for an overdose. [[spoiler: And later, Sgt Dooley informs you that she died.]]

* AcceptableEthnicTargets: Arabs in ''Police Quest 2''. They are terrorists, have a bomb and hijack an airplane so they can have a safe passage to [[{{Qurac}} Bum Aroun]]. The only way to deal with them is to kill them.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment:
** In ''[=PQ2=]'' when you hit pause you get a screen saying that every cop needs a break now and then. The unpause option on the screen? The words: "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let%27s_roll Let's roll]]!" It doesn't seem like much until you happen to pause the game as you try to defeat the terrorists on the airplane.
** The below bug about selling off sidearms to make a profit became a different sort of humorous when the Los Angeles SWAT team got caught doing exactly that around 2010.

** Head in the fridge in 4

** Marie has the weirdest, jiggling set of flat breasts you'd ever see in any graphical text adventure game (at least when viewing her from the front).