History YMMV / PoliceQuest

* 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.]]

* SpiritualLicensee: SWAT 3 and 4 would have made a great set of sequels to ''[[VideoGame/RainbowSix Rainbow Six 3]]''.

* UnfortunateImplications: [[https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/a3n8ea/how-sierra-and-a-disgraced-cop-made-the-most-reactionary-game-of-the-90s It has been noted]] that ''Open Season'' has quite a few of them. The {{Serial| Killer}} CopKiller antagonist also happens to be a CreepyCrossdresser and has no other motive for his murders besides ForTheEvulz, for no other apparent reason than to hammer it home that "that guy is clearly some sort of massive freak" and that the player shouldn't question why the player character finds it necessary to slay him with an improvised blowtorch. There are also other matters, like the game having an extremely unfriendly view on minorities and poor people in general; Hispanics and African-Americans are pretty much all portrayed as hoodlums who speak in JiveTurkey, and AllGaysArePromiscuous is played painfully straight.
-->All one can take from the case in ''Open Season'' is that the killer is "weird," and to be weird is to deviate, and there is no greater threat to the establishment than deviancy.

** ''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 are a generally greater awareness and condemnation of PoliceBrutality and overreach.

** ''Open Season'' easily takes the cake in this department, being full of material that has a fundementally 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 a 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 are a generally greater awareness and condemnation of PoliceBrutality and overreach.

*** 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.

* HarsherInHindsight: There's not a whole lot of games these days that would outright allow you to play ''as terrorists'' as ''SWAT 2'' did.

* {{Anvilicious}}: It '''is''' ''Police Quest'' after all. The law is the law in this game.
** So much so that the game was criticized because 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.

* GameBreaker / GoodBadBugs:

* NightmareFuel: The skull on the game over screen in the remake.

* SpiritualLicensee: SWAT 3 and 4 would have made a great set of sequels to [[VideoGame/RainbowSix RainbowSix3.]]

** 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''

** ''Open Season'' easily takes the cake in this department, being full of material that has a fundementally deeply unsymphatic 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 a older, White, conservative police officer views the world and the people he is policing, which is undoubtly going to rub a lot more people the wrong way in the late 2010s and 2020s, where there are a generally greater awareness and condemnation of PoliceBrutality and overreach.

** ''Open Season'' easily takes the cake in this department, being full of material that has a fundementally deeply unsymphatic 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 a older, White, conservative police officer views the world and the people he is policizing, which is undoubtly going to rub a lot more people the wrong way in the late 2010s and 2020s, where there are a generally greater awareness and condemnation of PoliceBrutality and overreach.

** The soundtracks for ''[=PQ1VGA=]'' and ''[=PQ3=]'' are excellent, due to being composed by Jan Hammer. (Yes, ''[[Series/MiamiVice that]]'' [[Series/MiamiVice Jan Hammer]].)

** 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.''

** ''Open Season'' easily takes the cake in this department, being full of material that has a fundementally deeply unsymphatic 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 a older, White, conservative police officer views the world and the people he is policizing, which is undoubtly going to rub a lot more people the wrong way in the 2010s and 2020s, where there are a generally greater awareness and condemnation of PoliceBrutality and overreach.

* UnfortunateImplications: [[https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/a3n8ea/how-sierra-and-a-disgraced-cop-made-the-most-reactionary-game-of-the-90s It has been noted]] that ''Open Season'' has quite a few of them. The {{Serial| Killer}} CopKiller antagonist also happens to be a CreepyCrossdresser and has no other motive for his murders besides ForTheEvulz, for no other apparent reason than to hammer it home that "that guy is clearly some sort of massive freak" and that the player shouldn't question why the player character finds it necessary to slay him with a blowtorch. There are also other matters, like the game having an extremely unfriendly view on minorities and poor people in general; Hispanics and African-Americans are pretty much all portrayed as hoodlums who speak in JiveTurkey, and AllGaysArePromiscuous is played painfully straight.

* ValuesDissonance: Jefferson, the JiveTurkey-talking black janitor in the first game, would be considered rather racist these days.

* 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 a overdose. [[spoiler: And later, Sgt Dooley informs you that she died.]]

** Playing poker in the first game.

* 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.

* 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.]]

* AnticlimaxBoss: [[spoiler:In ''Police Quest 3'', when you raid the crack house, you shoot a mook and [[BigBad Michael Bains]] immediately surrenders.]]

* UnfortunateImplications: [[https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/a3n8ea/how-sierra-and-a-disgraced-cop-made-the-most-reactionary-game-of-the-90s It has been noted]] that ''Open Season'' has quite a few of them. The {{Serial| Killer}} CopKiller antagonist also happens to be a CreepyCrossdresser and has no other motive for his murders besides ForTheEvulz, for no other apparent reason than to hammer it home that "that guy is clearly some sort of massive freak" and that the player shouldn't question why the player character finds it necessary to slay him with a blowtorch. There also other matters, like the game having an extremely unfriendly view on minorities and poor people in general; Hispanics and African-Americans are pretty much all portrayed as hoodlums who speak in JiveTurkey, and AllGaysArePromiscuous is played painfully straight.
-->All one can take from the case in Open Season is that the killer is "weird," and to be weird is to deviate, and there is no greater threat to the establishment than deviancy.

* UnfortunateImplications: [[https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/a3n8ea/how-sierra-and-a-disgraced-cop-made-the-most-reactionary-game-of-the-90s It has been noted]] that ''Open Season'' has quite a few of them. The {{Serial| Killer}} CopKiller antagonist also happens to be a CreepyCrossdresser and has no other motive for his murders besides ForTheEvulz, for no other apparent reason than to hammer it home that "that guy is clearly some sort of massive freak" and that the player shouldn't question why the player character finds it necessary to slay him with a blowtorch. There also other matters, like the game having an extremely unfriendly view on minorities and poor people in general; Hispanics and American-Americans are pretty much all portrayed as hoodlums who speak in JiveTurkey, and AllGaysArePromiscuous is played painfully straight.

* NoExportForYou: Actually averted and inverted for ''[=PQ2=]''. There is a very rare Japanese release for UsefulNotes/PC98 (that works in [=ScummVM=]!), playable in either English or Japanese or with subtitles, and with a fully functional Japanese parser!

* AcceptableEthnicTargets: Arabs in ''Police Quest 2''. They are terrorists, have a heavy English accent 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.

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