Blue Force – Violenza Domestica

by Alex

I have a confession to make. Are you sitting down? Good.

I . . . don’t hate Blue Force. In fact, so far, I am actually enjoying it.Now, this isn’t to say Blue Force doesn’t have its problems. As I will show, if I wasn’t an adventure game veteran who has played plenty of point-and-click Sierra-style games before, and specifically the three Jim Walls-designed Police Quest games, I’d be very frustrated. So please take my praise with a grain of salt.

We left off last time with Jake Ryan having appeared at the Jackson Beach PD for his first day on the job.

First things first, let’s talk about the interface. As the above-screenshot demonstrates, it looks basically like a Sierra point-and-click game from the same era. And it mostly is. You use the mouse to cycle through an array of cursors with the right mouse button, and use the left mouse button to perform the action represented by the cursor.

Blue Force adds a twist where right clicking calls up a menu of all available action icons instead of merely cycling through them.

The icons are “Walk” (legs), “Action” (finger), “Look” (eye), “Talk” (voice bubble)” and “Menu” (the Tsunami logo). This takes a bit of getting used to, but I understand why the developers might have done this: it saves the player from dying in a timed section where you really need to get from the “Walk” icon to the “Talk” icon, for example, and have to click past “Action” and “Eye” to do so. So it’s a minor thing I can’t even call an annoyance.

Two other differences between a Sierra game of the era and Blue Force: The inventory is ever present, as you can also see in the above screenshot, and non-door exits to a screen are indicated by having the cursor change to an arrow.

I like this. It saves on the guesswork or the possibility of missing a screen.

Second, I’d like to talk about the audio. I just get a warm and fuzzy burst of nostalgia at the Soundblaster tones and Ken Allen’s excellent compositions. That, combined with the graphics, gives me the same vibe as Sierra’s best, transporting me back to being thirteen years old trying to figure out games like Space Quest IV and Quest for Glory III. Nothing but good times all around, presentation-wise. I even don’t mind the use of digitized actors—I find them integrated pretty well.

So let’s get on with the game. I spent an hour with Blue Force and came to a logical stopping point, so I’ll walk you all through Jake’s first case. We start at the employee’s entrance to the police station. If you walk around the building to the main entrance, you get to the same place via a different door.

Jake starts out with his .45 Colt and two ammo clips, his handcuffs, and his ID.

Inside Jackson Beach PD, we see the evidence lock-up staffed by an officer named Barry, a bulletin board with a shelf containing a memo basket under it, some mailboxes on the far wall with a gun-cleaning kit on the shelf under them, the briefing room on the north wall, and a hall on the west wall leading to the locker rooms and the main entrance, while the south exit leads to the parking lot.

You can introduce yourself to Barry, but he has nothing useful to say. I check out the bulletin board but see nothing of value, which I’ll discuss later because there are important notices; you just have to pixel-hunt to get them. Ditto the mailboxes.

I walked into the locker room hallway and emerged in uniform. I also snagged the briefing memo from the basket under the bulletin board. Someone named Forest Follet is wanted for questioning regarding a burglary at the Strathmore Military Armory. Follet may be in possession of some stolen ammo. The memo provides the make, model, and serial number.

The briefing memo.

Jake’s mailbox has no messages, so into the briefing room we go.

Now, if you’ve played through the historical canon of adventure games, you’ll notice that this opening sequences bears a strong resemblance to that of the original Police Quest. And you’re right! I chalk this up to Jim Walls being the designer of Blue Force and the fact that there’s only so many ways to introduce a player into the world of a police procedural game. You could start in medias res and fill in the story from there, but I see the merit in giving the player a basic foundation first and then saying “Go on your way.” Also, Jake is supposed to be a brand-new motorcycle cop, so this structure works well enough for my tastes.

Sgt. Sutter briefs the crew about the Strathmore robbery and Mr. Follet, and also introduces Jake. He also admonishers officers going to some place called the “Tower District” to call backup, and even helpfully wrote on the board “REMEMBER TO CALL BACKUP! NO DIRTY HARRY’S!!”

Dirty Harry’s what, he never specifies. I leave it to the reader to figure out what Sutter meant.

He informs Jake that he’ll be on roving patrol, being called to places as needed. So off we go.

I leave and hop back on Jake’s bike. It’s here we have the game’s method of transportation: a mini-map! All right! We avoided a Police Quest pitfall: a horrible driving interface! We just point-and-click, baby. Just point and click.

Jake’s radio is on the left—this lets you select the proper code as delineated in the game’s manual. The brown area on the right is the glove compartment. Inside, you find Jake’s ticket book and Miranda card (a reminder of the full “You have the right to remain silent . . .” warnings required to be read to anyone arrested by the police in the United States). Clicking “Ignition” starts the bike. No key required!

Clicking “Ignition” brings up the mini-map. This screenshot is of the rightmost side. You can scroll further to the left. Visitable locations appear when you hover the cursor over them. I’m assuming more will pop up as Jake needs to visit them, but the available locales are:

• Police Department
• Marina
• Child Protective Services
• Jake’s House
• Jake’s Grandmother’s House
• Alley Cat
• Tony’s (the bar from the intro)
• Bikini Hut (I think this place will require some very deep and serious investigation)
• The Jail/City Hall (very appropriate to have them next to each other—saves time when busting corrupt officials)

With no place called “Tower District” and no indication where Follet might be—heck, with no indication what to do at all besides “ride around”—I head to the nearest spot, the Marina.

I like the game’s use of different “camera angles,” and the graphics are good—bright and colorful and you can tell what everything is.

I’m just doing the standard adventure game thing of scoping out every available location and walking around until something happens, so why not get some sun and check out the yachts I’ll never be able to afford on a policeman’s salary? What could possibly go wrong?

Well, this is an adventure game. So death always lurks around every corner.

No death detected!

Outside of this yacht called Future Wave there’s a fire box. Inside is a telescoping boat hook, which I take because adventure game.

Next, I hop on the boat and try to get in. But instead of opening the door, Jake knocks as if he’s about to make a bust.

Okay, interesting. I wonder if I’m somewhere I’m not supposed to be, but I roll with it because why not? What else am I going to do? This is how adventure games work, right? You are either railroaded in a certain direction, or you’re given freedom to explore the game world. And if you die, you just restore because you can save anywhere. Save-scumming was not a dirty word way back then, and was baked into the cake of adventure gaming from the get-go.

Jake has to knock a few times before the door opens. And once inside, we see someone run into an inner room.

There are signs of a struggle. What is going on here? I load Jake’s gun and click the icon on himself to draw it and not commit suicide (thank you, game), and knock on the inner door.

Nobody answers after a few knocks so Jake takes it upon himself to go in on his own accord.

What am I doing here? What is going on? Why is Jake so jumpy and trigger-happy?

And who just shot him? I demand answers, game!

I didn’t get a screenshot, but the death screen shows a coroner covering Jake’s body with a blanket followed by a death message which I thought I captured but didn’t. In any event, it tells me that someone named “Green” was ready for me, and that I should never barge into strangers houses, guns blazing, without back up. No Dirty Harry’s!

But who is Green? Why was he ready for me? Why’d he shoot me? I’m just an innocent cop barging into random boats with my gun drawn? I thought this was America!

So it’s clear that this was some quest I wasn’t aware of. I restore and just head to Tony’s instead. Maybe I can figure out what was going on in the game’s intro with that crook with the glorious mullet who presumably killed Jake’s father.

Honestly, how could someone with the patience to cultivate such an exceptional mullet be bad?

But when I get to Tony’s, Jake’s radio buzzes. There is a report of a domestic violence incident at . . . the Marina! So I was in the right place at the wrong time. All right then. A minor annoyance, but whatever. I can forgive it. Still, having the Marina be right next to the station indicates to the player that it’s the first place he should go. I wonder if this radio message should’ve popped up right when Jake got on his bike instead. It would cut down on some accidental confusion.

I radio the proper acknowledgement—and get points!—and leave Tony’s for the Marina.

This time, there’s a woman consoling a little boy. Instead of talking to them, I hop back on my bike and radio that I’m on the scene, and call for backup. I then go back to investigate. The woman, Mary Jordan, who made the call informs me that she found a boy named Skip, who’d been severely beaten, crying by Mr. Carter’s (presumably, the Marina’s owner, as it’s called “Carter’s Marina”—I’m an excellent detective).

Mary speculates someone named Bradford Green beat the boy and that this is a regular occurrence.

Few things get me angrier than child abuse actual or fictional.

Jake’s backup, an officer named Doug, just Doug, shows up and tells Jake to lead the way. I question the wisdom of having a rookie cop on his first day on the job take charge, but Jake graduated at the top of his class. So . . . proper police procedure?

I go to Future Wave and snag the boat hook before stepping on the deck, drawing my gun, and telling Officer Doug to get into position.

Things play out as before, except this time I am not going all Dirty Harry’s and am doing things the right way.

Oh boy. We have what those in the business might call “a situation.” Mr. Green, who looks like the lead guitarist from Mastodon, has Skip’s mother hostage with a gun to her head. Talking to him twice does nothing but make him agitated, so I decide to plug this bastard right between the eyes.

Oops

So I confess, I’m not a cop. I know, I know: “Alex, you’ve played so many Police Quest games you might as well be. Don’t you know proper police procedure?” Believe it or not, no. No, I don’t. The Blue Force manual lacks this information so I went straight by my gut instinct, going with the “Draw, Shoot, Aim” approach that somehow, for some reason, didn’t work. How could Jim Walls let me down? With no manual telling me what a real cop would do, I’m left to my own stupid devices. Come on, Jim!

“Cope and seethe, rookie.”

Sigh. It’s going to be like that, is it?

I restore and try talking to Green three times instead of two. After that, cowardly Officer Doug drops his gun and tells Jake to do likewise.

Thank you, Officer Useless

All joking aside, I can’t blame Doug, right? This guy Green has threatened several times to shoot poor Skip’s mom. Wouldn’t a cop try to de-escalate the situation?

BUT NOT OFFICER JAKE RYAN!

Only in death do we learn about proper police procedure.

Okay, I tried the “de-escalate” approach and I ended up escalating a bullet to my midsection. Not the right answer!

I click “Talk” on Green another time after Doug drops his weapon:

This works! It turns out verbally threatening an angry, armed suspect holding a gun to a hostage’s temple with violence is proper police procedure! Green caves, tosses his gun on the bed, and lets Skip’s mom go!

I proceed to cuff Green, read him his rights, and search him, finding his ID and a pocket knife. I wonder if I didn’t search him if Jake would have gotten shanked. Given that this is an adventure game designed by Jim Walls, the answer is “probably.”

I question Skip’s mom, whose name is Laura Dixon. She relates the story that Skip dropped his baseball cards (seen on the floor in the outer room) and wasn’t picking them up fast enough, so Green grabbed the boy and started beating him. When Laura tried to intervene, he let Skip go, who had the wherewithal to leave, and shoved Laura against the table. She screamed, and Green dragged her into the bedroom not for some hanky-panky, but for some physical and psychological terror. What an a-hole.

Lady, please don’t say that to a sarcastic adventure game blogger!

With the situation under control, Doug offers to deliver Green to the slammer, but not before Jake gives him a piece of his mind.

Next, I undertake the booking and evidence submission process, which was way more complicated than it had to be.

First, I called in to let dispatch know the situation was under control. Next, I went to Tony’s, but then remembered other Police Quest games and figured I should give my evidence to Barry. But Barry told me I can’t without an evidence slip. So I restored back to the yacht and realized I never picked up Green’s gun from the bed. It was a bit of a pixel hunt, but I got it.

So I went to the Jail to finish the booking part, looking forward to another round of Paperwork Quest like the one in Police Quest III.

This one wasn’t so bad. City Hall has a lady who handles “Information” and a gentleman who works for the “Hall of Records” and hello!

Is this a Larry game now?

Yup.

Jake’s attempts at flirting with Ms. McCoy go nowhere, but maybe she’ll be helpful later on.

The Hall of Records guy can’t help Jake now, but he sure looks familiar . . .

Why, it’s our old friend Jim Walls! As a fan of gratuitous authorial self-insert, I approve!

Don’t worry, Jim: If I need anything—such as knowledge of proper police procedure—I’ll just holler.

In the jail, Green stews in his cell while the on-duty officer tells Jake he has to fill out the proper paperwork and whatnot. But the officer also looks familiar . . .

Oh, come on!

Not only is the booking officer Barry’s twin brother—a result of the designers trying to be efficient with in-game assets, presumably—his name is Larry. So this is a Larry game. I truly cannot escape Jim Walls or Larry Laffer, can I?

All I have to do is click Green’s ID on the inset showing the booking slips to get my paperwork. I get my handcuffs back from Larry and then it’s back to the station to submit the evidence.

While there, I also decide to clean Jake’s gun, even though he didn’t use it, and . . . uh . . .

I didn’t get a screenshot of Jake shooting himself in the face. It was pretty brutal.

Another reload, and I unload Jake’s gun, clean it, reload it, then pixel-hunt until I find Sgt. Sutter’s mailbox and submit the booking slip.

I’m concerned I couldn’t figure out how to check Green’s gun and ammo against the stolen goods listed on Follet’s rap sheet. I hope I didn’t end up shooting myself in the face—I mean foot—on this score.

I would if I could, my man.

Lastly, my red flags raised by all of the pixel-hunting lately, I check the bulletin board again and find two notices that look important:

• “A formal inspection is scheduled in the parking lot, tomorrow, immediately following briefing.” I wonder if a clean gun is a part of that inspection.
• “TO: Jackson Beach Police Department: FROM: Agent Lonny Forbes, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. SUMMARY: An on-going investigation of Philippine rebel Renaldo Aruna has uncovered gun smuggling activity possibly originating in your jurisdiction. Evidence is inconclusive at this time. Anyone with information contact agent Forbes.”

Whoa. It sounds like this game is going to get crazy. I’m actually looking forward to it.

And so, this is where I ended my session. In retrospect, I think I should have also paid a visit to Child Protective Services. I’ll ride over there when I pick the game back up. In the meantime, I’m having fun with Blue Force. It’s hitting all of the right adventure game buttons for me, the nostalgia switch is cranked to 11, and the puzzles generally make sense. Trial-and-error is an adventure gamer’s bread-and-butter, and I’m a man who likes his bread and butter.

Am I going soft or what? I don’t know. I mean, Police Quest III started out fun enough before devolving into an incoherent plot, myriad walking dead situations, and poorly designed puzzles.

I still haven’t forgiven you for this, Jim Walls.

So there’s always time to disappoint. Yes, that’s a motto for life right there: THERE’S ALWAYS TIME TO DISAPPOINT.

Session Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour

Score: 520

Inventory: Gun w/ 2 clips, handcuffs, ticket book, Miranda card, briefing, telescoping boat hook, ID

Arrests: 1