So, here we are again. Back in 1992, when adventure games were the thing and Sierra dominated the market. When computers were slow and puzzles that depended on the speed of your system were totally acceptable and all the rage. When point and click wasn't hated by biased, untalented writers working for biased, birdcage-lining, gaming magazines and adventures were ripe with dead ends and chances to die. Good times. Also a time when VGA was pretty young, talkies were virtually unheard of, and CD ROMs were considered a luxury. And with the release of the CD version of Sierra's Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers, the company would break ground as one of the first to release a game to pack all of above mentioned features. Voice acting, VGA, and in CD form. Though gamers were wowed by the CD release of SQ4, it would be a year later, when the CD version of King's Quest VI would hit store shelves, and be considered the ultimate revolutionary game.

But today, we'll talk about Space Quest IV. Sure, at a technical aspect, it was amazing. But what about what really matters, the story and gameplay? Was it on par with the classic Space Quest humor and unique puzzles? Very much so.

We rejoin our beloved hero, Roger Wilco, as he returns home to Xenon from another successful adventure, rescuing the two guys from Andromeda. Roger decides to tie one down and treat himself to a little something to celebrate another job well done at one of the many seedy bars in Xenon. Roger does not hesitate to bore a few of the locals with tales of his adventures. They’re happy to listen, just so long as Roger is buying. In the middle of one of Roger’s incredibly exaggerated stories, a couple armed men kindly ask Roger to step outside. Roger understandably agrees and they head for the parking lot. Once there, one of the men pulls out a holograph that flickers on and reveals a very familiar, though not too friendly, face. Why, it’s Roger’s old arch foe Sludge Vohaul! Roger can’t believe how this can be, as he destroyed Vohaul and his evil plan back in the day. Obviously, janitor’s intuition isn’t all that reliable. Vohaul informs Roger that his “future plans” cannot be risked by keeping him alive. Plus, he’s rather upset about Space Quest II still. Just as the armed minions are about to blast a sixth hole into our hero, another pair of armed men spring from the shadows and save Roger from certain doom. Before Roger can react, one of the soldiers grabs him and makes a run for it. Roger demands to know what’s going on, but there is no time for that. The gunner shoots a wall and leaves an opening that leads to what seems to be nowhere. And, without even a goodbye, shoves Roger in it.

Roger falls down, seemingly to never land. Until finally, another opening appears and spits him back out. Roger lands safely… but where? It looks like Xenon, and yet, it looks a lot more… post-apocalyptic. Roger soon finds out that it is Xenon and it is indeed after the apocalypse. He knows now that he must go back to the past and eliminate Vohaul once and for all. What follows is a fantastic adventure, of danger, romance and impossible speed puzzles, spanning from prequel to sequel in SPACE QUEST IV: ROGER WILCO AND THE TIME RIPPERS!

Another overused sci-fi cliché successfully parodied by Mark Crowe and company. In fact, this is easily the funniest and best executed game in the series. Every single frame of the game, every single line of dialog, all of it is just joke after joke. It never lets up and it’s never unsuccessful. The wide variety of jokes is very large as well. Whether it’s a good old cross-dressing joke, an adorable one-liner from Gary Owens, or a parody of the cheese-tastic village-of-scantily-clad-women-who-capture-some-male-space-traveler-and-“torture”-him sci-fi cliché, it never fails to make you laugh. The game its self is sort of short, but if you trigger all the in-jokes, such as traveling to all of the Space Quest prequels, the game’s length is about average. A lot of the game is just the jokes, and some might see that as a flaw, but it’s not much of a problem to me. But I digress. SQ4 is the funniest game in the series, and could very well be the funniest game of all-time.

Of course, I’m sure everybody who plays adventure games is quite familiar with SQ4’s graphic style and of course it was one of the first games to use VGA and we can all appreciate that. Whatever. I won’t ramble on about that. It has historical importants and that’s all I’ll say. Instead, let’s talk about the audio. Thanks to the magic of the compact disc, SQ4 features higher-quality music and more realistic sound effects than what you’d get on floppy discs. That’s all fine and dandy, but you already know that. The big thing here was actual voice work. SQ4 and the games that followed it did away with text and set the stage for voice actors to find work in the world of games. Thanks to Sierra's big budjet, though, the programmers didn't have to do the acting like in King's Quest 5. They were able to hire professionals, and thank god. Every actor in SQ4 does a good job and nobody stands out as annoying or just stupid. Which I think is a huge accomplishment considering how early this game was in that department and adventures are still having a problem with that today. However, the voice acting that stands out above everything else is the one and only Gary Owens as the narrator. I can honestly say that this game wouldn’t be half as good with him. The hilarious one-liners that Owens spits out at rapid fire, in his sarcastic, over-the-top way is done simply to perfection. In over a decade, there has yet to be a better voice actor in a game. That’s not opinion, it’s the undisputed truth.



SQ4 carries the traditional Sierra interface. Toolbar, series of icons, point and click. In range of puzzles, the game falls a bit short. Some are actually pretty clever, but most are very tricky arcade sequences. I usually don’t like to fault games just because they have a different style of puzzle, but some of these sequences are just too frustrating. I can tolerate catching the green goop and killing the octopus, but some I just couldn’t stand. The maze to the mainframe computer and of course the infamous Skate-O-Rama comes to mind. Puzzles that were impossible to play on any machine that was built after 1994 (However, these problems can be solved with DOSBox). I often hear people say that the game isn’t good because of these parts, but if you can’t tolerate these puzzles, what are you doing playing a Sierra game at all? But as much I want to defend the game, I can’t deny that I was agitated by a few puzzles in SQ4 myself.

But with its genius writing and Gary Owens, Space Quest IV simply cannot be ignored and could very well be placed among some of the greatest adventures ever. If you can look past the frustrating action puzzles, then expect a great game.

9.4/10

[samIamsad]

I remember playing this with a friend, but I think we never actually finished it. I still own Space Quest III (English). I soooooooooooo want to get into this game, but I think my vocabulary isn't, er, sophisticated enough for this game. I'm not even able to make it past the scrapyard in the beginning. Too much "tech" stuff to examine, pick up, eat and throw up again. I so badly want to to be able to play it!

Yeah, I remember having a really hard time finding the right words for stuff on that trash freighter.

[eriq]

Wooo! I loved Space Quest IV. I remember exactly when I got it, how I felt, and what I was wearing. It was such a great time for adventure games! This was a really grand adventure. From the ominous opening area to the awesome latex babes.. such a cool game. Great review. Spot on.

[Dasilva]

One of Sierras' finest.

[TheGreyMatter]

it might be great - but impossible to play on modern computer, because of the zombies in the first part of the game (which appear every few seconds)...

Oh cruel fate! why Sierra? WHY? Why must we die in every SpaceQuest game (at least 10 times)?

[Dasilva]

Its apart of the charm, SQ is like marmite, love it or hate it.

Originally Posted by TheGreyMatter

it might be great - but impossible to play on modern computer, because of the zombies in the first part of the game (which appear every few seconds)...

Oh cruel fate! why Sierra? WHY? Why must we die in every SpaceQuest game (at least 10 times)?

Well you can't say a game is bad because it was designed for PCs back in 1994, not 2006. Just use Dosbox or the NRS patches.

[TheGreyMatter]

Originally Posted by Dasilva

Well you can't say a game is bad because it was designed for PCs back in 1994, not 2006.

I never said that... and as an adventure gamer I cannot say such a thing (especially since the golden age of AG was around that time)


What I did say is - just because this game is so great in terms of story and artwork, it is a shame Sierra decided to continue killing the main character every now and then - and it is especially annoying in this game.
but well - it's a common problem with most sierra adventures.

Originally Posted by The guy with the Irish dude in his avatar

...I often hear people say that the game isn’t good because of these [action] parts, but if you can’t tolerate these puzzles, what are you doing playing a Sierra game at all?

...

[avatar_58]

I love space quest, but SQ4 just didn't seem as good as others make it out to be. For me the series best was Space Quest 5, and my personal fav (for nostalgic and other reasons) is SQ3.

I wish I would know what they were planning for SQ7 before it was canned, because SQ6 left us in the dark in the end.....and they hinted at wondering where Bea was....hehe

[Dasilva]

They should gave SQ6 a proper ending, but SQ7.org will clear that up for us giving closure to the series.

[RLacey]

Originally Posted by SamNMax

...

Because the other aspects of the game were none-too-shabby?

Seriously, I like action games as much as the next man, but I'll never understand why Sierra kept making halfway decent games and then shooting themselves in the foot by putting in ill-conceived, badly thought-out action sequences. I wouldn't mind if they were only fun to play rather than tiresome and annoying .

*goes back to his Sierra hating*

Anyway, this game did have some really nice touches. I liked all the time travel in-jokes especially.

[avatar_58]

Played Manhunter? The game was full of action sequences that actually made the game very fun to play. A new game in the same vein as manhunter would be kickass....especially with realistic brutal scenes in place of the EGA ones

[the gnome]

Let me just point out, that SQ4 plays great when you use DOSbox...

[AudioSoldier]

Did anyone else find this intensely frightening? Those zombies....eeugh!

Originally Posted by the gnome

Let me just point out, that SQ4 plays great when you use DOSbox...

Yes. As mentioned above.

[BerserkerTails]

Originally Posted by AudioSoldier

Did anyone else find this intensely frightening? Those zombies....eeugh!

When the game first came out, I was so freaked of those Cyborg-Zombie things. I remember my brother and I were playing the game, and we had left it running because our mom had called us or something. When we came back, there was one on the screen. I was all like "Hey, a man. Talk to him."

Needless to say, he didn't want to talk. My four year old mind was completely scared out of its wits. Needless to say, I couldn't replay that death scene for years and years.

[the gnome]

I 've always enjoyed the Zombie scene ... GREAT graphics and weird sounds made an extra save worth it.

[GoT]

what a great review!! well done, an excellant read and you bought back memories of the only Sierra game that i really go into. I think i bought it because of all the new technology in it and all the AMIGA magazines in australia at the time hyped it up to be better than any other sierra game, so i hide my monkey island boxes and loom box in the desk so that they couldn't see what i was doing (Traitor!!) and i played for hours on end trying to get roger thru this funny ass adventure.. i remember being stuck for about a month on one puzzle and about 2 months on another.. but refusing to accept any hints or walk thrus i eventually finished it and had some fun playing the "flying chicken arcade game" thing afterwards before i put the game on the shelf to gather dust (obviously on the shelf below Monkey and LOOM so they wouldn't feel threatened or left out).

Needless to say its a great game and i liked it so much that i went and borrowed SQ 1, 2 and 3 off my mate so i could play them also.

Go the time rippers!

GoT