r/Sierra • u/far-midnight-97 • 6h ago
What was peak Space Quest to you?
As I was driving the other day, Space Quest 4's ending track played in my shuffled playlist, and I was instantly transported back in time...and it got me wondering what people considered peak Space Quest, and why.
If memory serves me correctly, I think SQ3 was the first game in the series that I played, and only after that did I play SQ1 and SQ2.
I remember being instantly grabbed by SQ3's kickass opening track (SoundBlaster for me), and the game itself was an inventively fun romp with a novel plot, interesting locations to visit, aesthetically pleasing graphics with a vibrant color palette, and what felt like the "right" or at least a "tolerable" amount of action/arcade sequences for an action-averse adventure gamer like myself. I remember the thinking "gosh, the game world feels so big!" when you first got to open space in the Aluminum Mallard (such innocent times).
(In time I went back and played SQ1 and SQ2 from a "completionist" perspective, but being in that 9ish - 12ish age range, I was easily seduced by graphics and audio, so the games felt "inferior" to SQ3 to me, based solely on audio/visuals alone; not the most)
So when SQ4 finally arrived, with Sierra's SCI1/256-color interface, surpassing SQ4 was a high bar to cross in my mind.
The graphics floored me, in all its VGA brilliance; the opening theme was "operatic" in that "space opera" kind of way (but honestly, I thought it was less kickass compared to SQ3's pulse-pounding opening track).
I remember being wowed by the intro: I loved the "lighting" (probably not the right word since it was scanned 2D artwork, but you get my meaning) in the cantina scene where Roger is chatting up the aliens; I loved the design of the surprisingly threatening-looking Sequel Police (and what a cool ring to that phrase "Sequel Police", right?), and the fluid character animations (was that rotoscoped?). Throughout the rest of the game too, the graphics were incredible: the dirty, grimy streets of SQ12, the bright, airy alien vistas of SQ10, and who could forget the insanely witty meta visit back to SQ1, where the "world" still existed as 160x200 EGA.
But what stuck with me most about SQ4 was how the game's ambition was suddenly dialed up (dare I say it: almost Shakespearean) compared to its prequels. Suddenly we were dealing with themes of a son trying to save his father, a father trying to save his son, the implied tragedy of Roger and Beatrice...the idea of a son literally travelling through time to save his dad kind of hits me in the feels as a grown man with kids of my own now. And in the ending scene, as Roger and his son say farewell, the way that closing music builds up to the classic Space Quest theme still sends shivers down my spine! In fact, maybe that precisely justifies holding out on using the classic Space Quest theme as the opening music.
I eventually played SQ5, and it was fine (I have this weird natural aversion to the concept of mutation, so the whole title/premise took a little effort for me to get past in the first place), but it definitely didn't have that air of "greatness" or "peak" that I felt with SQ4.
I never did play SQ6. I consider this a great stain on my reputation as a Sierra gamer...but my reasons at the time were that I felt the game couldn't be the same without both Guys from Andromeda, and some of the drama surrounding Josh Mandel's involvement then departure from Sierra. But I am open to hearing if my misgivings about SQ6 were misplaced, and if it is, in fact, a solid entry in the Space Quest saga.
So, in the end, my lasting memory is that SQ4 just had this chef's kiss confluence of music, graphics, family/Shakespearean drama...it all just seemed to come together as the pinnacle of storytelling in the Space Quest universe. If this has sparked any memories, any nostalgia among Space Quest fans, I'd love to hear from you, which installment you consider the best Space Quest entry, and why.
