Video Game / Police Quest 3: The Kindred

Police Quest 3: The Kindred is the third game in the Police Quest series. The game was written by Jim Walls with production by Guruka Singh-Khalsa. The game was directed by Mark Crowe. It was released by Sierra for the PC (via MS-DOS) and the Amiga.

It takes place in 1991, 3 years after the events of Police Quest 2: The Vengeance where Sonny Bonds was promoted to Sergeant in the Lytton Police Department. But one day, Bonds was tasked to work with uniformed officers in patrol due to staffing problems. While on duty, Bonds was dispatched on check on an incident at the local mall. He finds out that his wife, Marie Wilkins (now Marie Bonds) was wounded in a stabbing incident, but was later in a coma. Bonds gets back to Homicide and investigate the attack with a few other murders to find out that a cult is responsible for it, which is also in the drug dealing business as well.

This game is the last in the series to feature Sonny Bonds, although he appears in the SWAT series as a secondary character. The next game, Police Quest 4: Open Season, takes places in Los Angeles with another protagonist.

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Police Quest 3: The Kindred provides examples of:

• Ambidextrous Sprite: While played straight for the rest of the series, a glaring aversion is with Pat Morales, who always holds her purse with her left arm, and it is reflected as such, no matter the angle.
• Avenging the Villain: Michael Bains is after Sonny and his wife for the death of his brother Jessie. He also takes up his brother's drug trafficking.
• Ass Shove: Implied where the crazy guy in his underwear was keeping his knife.
• Backtracking: At the end of the game, you discover a crack house. No one will answer the door, so you'll drive all the way to the court house to get your search warrant. Then you have to drive back, and still receive no answer. So you drive to the court house again to arrange a raiding, and finally, you can start off the finale.
• Based on a True Story: In the introduction, Jim Walls informs you that some of the events in this game are based on actual events that occurred during his career.
  "I managed to survive them. Let's see if YOU can do as well under pressure."
• Beard of Evil: Michael Bains's partner, Steven Rocklin, has one.
• Berserk Button: Morales doesn't like it when things don't go her way.
• Big Damn Heroes: An internal affairs officer can save Sonny right on time if Sonny requested an investigation on Morales.
• Black Comedy: Leon, The Coroner. He gives the bodies cute names, and, when you examine Steve's body, you discover he has left a note for Sonny on the tag, having anticipated his peeking around when Leon is out.
• Bookcase Passage: A fire place blocks a secret path inside a crack house.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • Pat Morales reveals herself to Sonny at the end of the game that she is in Bains's ranks and decides to kill him! This can be prevented if Sonny managed to get internal affairs involved.
  • The key maker and army recruiting station at the mall? And the reporter that showed up at the scene of the crime? Turns out they will all be a big help to you in the game.
• Connect the Deaths: A Game-Breaking Bug in this puzzle, which was present in the early versions of the game, often caused the game to become Unintentionally Unwinnable and earned it Fanon Discontinuity status with many fans.
• Continuity Nod: You start the game as a patrol man just like the first game, even though you are a sergeant for the homicide department. Justified: LPD is low on traffic cops and just needs Sonny for a day to help out. A couple of the busts are even similar to the first game with minor twists (for starters, most of your offenders not being total jerks).
  • The chief of homicide still loves his ice cream, according to Mike (who had to fix a piece of hardware due to an ice cream spill). You will also hear that familiar tune from PQII the moment you see a picture of Jessie Bains.
• Converse with the Unconscious: Marie ends up comatose, and the doctor encourages Sonny to bring in anything relating to her and interacting with her in hopes that she will wake up (and it also helps a lot if you make sure she's receiving the correct IV dosage). Doing all you can do will eventually wake her out of it, smiling at Sonny. If only it weren't for the fact that you still had a shift to cover...
• Creator Career Self-Deprecation: When you distract Mr. Stumps by shoving a whole roll of toilet paper into the toilet, you can walk back into the men's restroom and talk with him to get this line.
  Mr. Stumps: (in reference to the clogged toilet) Bet it was that Officer Walls again.
  • In the end credits, Jim "Pretty Boy" Walls is part of an electronic terrorist group who inhabit Lytton. Whether or not it's the same Walls that is employed in LPD is uncertain. The LPD themselves are also uncertain if they should even take the group seriously.
• The Determinator: Bains' brother, Michael, attempts to have his revenge on Sonny for killing Jessie (in self-defense, of course). This is inverted however, since he gives up the moment he saw Sonny shoot at his men.
• Diabolus ex Machina: There's a really evil example of this that can occur in PQIII: One of the first actions you do in the game is to evaluate a fellow officer due to her belligerent behavior. If you don't choose to sustain the complaint put against her here, you can breeze through the rest of the game perfectly, only to have her gun you down immediately before the end of the game.
  • It also occurs literally right before the ending in the same game. If you don't bring Marie's inadequate treatment to the attention of the hospital, she remains a vegetable.
• Dirty Cop: Pat Morales, a hot-tempered police officer. According to a police psychiatric report, she hates authority figures in general and has low self-esteem which she tries to cover with a belligerent attitude. She was also suspected by Internal Affairs to have destroyed evidence on three separate occasions, but was let off due to lack of evidence for such. It turns out that Morales is a member of the Sons of Darkness cult, acting as their insider within the LPD. She is also a Functional Addict to cocaine. Morales finally paid for her crimes when she was about to shoot Bonds with a dead cult member's gun, only to be shot in the head by a detective from Internal Affairs at the last second.
• Easter Egg: You can find Jim (also known as James) Walls's name on the computer. He's apparently part of the Designer division of the LPD. He's also lost some weight too. Go Jim! Also, he has the code name Ice Man.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: At the end of the game, Sonny finds out that Marie woke up from her coma and he's told that she's pregnant with their first child.
• Executive Ball Clicker: Criminal psychologist of the LPD Dr. Sidney Aimes has a Newton's cradle on his work desk, which the game mentions is for "mindless executives". Using the hand icon on it makes him ask "Would you mind not playing with my balls, please?"
• Face–Heel Turn: Bains' brother used to serve in the army, but turned to drug dealing and setting out for revenge when he learned that Sonny killed Jessie.
  • Pat Morales has done this some time before the game began.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Morales, according to her file and the complaint made on her. She also demonstrates this when Sonny arrives to learn about the refusal to sign and simply asked about the situation, earning her getting frustrated with him as well.
• Ironic Name: The name Morales, means right and proper, or, literally, morals. Her behavior suggests otherwise.
  • Ironic Echo: A look at her file on the computer suggests many other things...
• It's Personal: Once Sonny's wife Marie is attacked, Sonny is naturally on the case. His internal dialogue shows that not only does he take someone assaulting his wife extremely personally, but he's trying not to become a Cowboy Cop and kill whoever's responsible for hurting Marie.
• Let's See YOU Do Better!: When interviewing Morales and trying to get the truth behind the complaint from her, she'll then tell you to try to be in her shoes before telling her how to do her job. Which you have been. And you did do better, since it got you promoted to Narcotics, then Homicide, then Detective Sergeant. And while you're helping out with the Patrol division, you again do better.
• Mood Whiplash: In PQIII, you can beat the game, all triumphantly going to the hospital to check on Marie. If you haven't been visiting at the appropriate times, the game will cut the ending music and go straight to game over before telling you that she's a vegetable.
• Naked Nutter: Brian Forbes, a guy who's only wearing his undies - and has a knife hidden in them - who's causing problems at Aspen Falls due to babbling about Bathonians, being clearly in a deranged state of mind.
• Naked People Are Funny: Sonny's encounter with the naked Bathonian (and his paranoid delusions) is fairly lighthearted. If he didn't have many ways to kill your character, that is.
• No Animals Were Harmed: The message was displayed in the end credits.
• Pixel Hunt: For a Sierra adventure game, it's inevitable that this will show up, though it's easier to make out compared to other examples. You will need to get batteries for your flash light and use it to find a piece of evidence under the car. Otherwise, it's unwinnable.
• Properly Paranoid: Pat Morales has exhibited aggressive behavior according to a report (which you have the option to interview her) and her file, and will later show that behavior by berating a pregnant woman she stopped on the road, and berating you briefly for not agreeing with her. You will need to make a copy of her locker key to have access to her locker. Inside are some drugs. This is when you know perfectly that this is not going to end well.
• Proud to Be a Geek: The head tech guy, Mike, loves to talk about the technology he can give you. Sonny does not care to hear about this, but ends up having to anyway.
• Religion of Evil: Michael Bains runs it. The killings appear ritualistic and connected to one another (in which the victims have satanic carvings). They also deal drugs too. The only exception is the assault on Marie, which has been done for personal reasons.
• The Reveal: The fact that Morales isn't on the up and up in any way at all. You find bags of cocaine she stole from the crime scene, behavior consistent with the case files against her. Learning about this pretty much makes it inevitable that her pulling a gun on you will occur at some point.
  • Another twist is finding a photo of the Bains brothers!
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Michael Bains experienced PTSD after hearing about Jessie's death, eventually getting discharged due to psychological instability.
• Something We Forgot: Forget to search the "Bathonian" (the crazy man at Aspen Falls) — even if he is in his underwear — and turned him into the jailer? He ends up murdering the jailer, and gets you sent to the game over screen. Oops.
• Super-Strength: The "Bathonian", if he does fight you, will kill you with a single punch, and has the superhuman strength to drown you with ease, likely because he is under the influence of some sort of narcotic. You will have to perform other procedures to subdue and arrest him.
• Tempting Fate: "Thanks Sonny. Hope the rest of your patrol is less exciting."
• Trouser Space: Really make sure you search the (nearly naked) "Bathonian" on your first arrest, or he will do a literal ass pull and kill one of your fellow officers with a super-secret knife. If the knife is found, it is lampshaded by a jail guard:
  "You mean to tell me you fished that outta this guy's shorts? You've got some guts, Bonds."
• Unwinnable by Design: A cruel example. If you don't sustain the complaint against Morales in the very beginning, then at the end of the game she'll shoot you.
• What the Hell, Hero?: If you pull over a black car speeding, the driver will yield but go up to you and inform you that he is an agent that's been pursuing a drug runner, and berates you for stopping him.
  • If you utilize the in-vehicle terminal to identify the vehicle, AND back off, you won't have this problem. Just make sure your sirens are not on when you do it.
• Worst Aid: A near-fatal example: The third time Sonny visits the hospital, he is told by Marie's doctor that all they have for her to come back is hope. You will need to examine the clipboard on her bed, which reveals that her IV dosage is off. Calling the nurse and inform her about it, in which the doctor makes the necessary adjustment and lampshades this trope.
  "I don't understand this at all. I can't believe our staff could make such a serious error!"
• Wunza Plot: Sonny Bonds is a By-the-Book Cop who assesses most (if not all) situations according to procedure and is known for having played a key role in capturing a serial killer and drug runner, and then killing him in self-defense when he broke out, and has gained the reputation of being cop-of-the-year following Bains' arrest. Pat Morales is a female Cowboy Cop who is a loose cannon who doesn't always do things by the book and believes in harsh justice and that her partner is too soft. Sonny fights crime. She doesn't!