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Studio: |
Sierra
On-Line |
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Designer(s): |
Mark
Crowe |
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Part of series: |
Space
Quest |
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Release: |
February 5, 1993 |
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Main credits: |
Directors: Mark Crowe, David Selle Programming: David Sandgathe Music: Timothy Steven Clarke, Christopher
Stevens |
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Useful links: |
Playthrough: Part 1 |
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By 1992, the Two Guys From
Andromeda were no longer a working reality. In 1990, the ever expanding
Sierra On-Line had purchased the smaller video game company Dynamix, which it
was able to lead into a small golden age of its own (with well-known titles
such as the flight simulator Red Baron
and the wonderful constructor puzzle of The
Incredible Machine). In the process of merging and restructuring,
however, Mark Crowe somehow ended up in Eugene, Oregon, working on Dynamix
projects instead of Sierra proper — yet somehow, he also managed to take the
obligation to produce the next Space
Quest game with him. Space Quest V
is, therefore, a unique project not only in that it was the only Space Quest exclusively designed by
Mark without Scott, but also in that it was the only adventure game in a
classic Sierra series to be designed and produced outside of Sierra itself —
which most certainly left its mark on the game. All of this seems like a
recipe for disaster, but it probably helped that creative juices were
bubbling high at Dynamix around 1991-1992, and Sierra itself was also coming
out of its rather wobbly transitional period from parser to point-and-click.
Crowe himself found a talented working partner in the face of David Selle,
one of the leading designers and writers at Dynamix, and together they
actually wrote a plot for the game which, while far from being totally
original, reintroduced intrigue and tension that were largely lost with the
previous game in the franchise. Among fans and critics, Space Quest V is often called a direct parody of Star Trek; this is only partially
true, because while a lot of the details do indeed spoof characters and
plotlines from the Trek universe, there are also plenty of references to
other sci-fi sources, from Alien to
The Fly, as well as inside jokes
reflecting on Space Quest’s own
history. Most importantly, though, Space
Quest V does feel like a fairly wholesome and well-integrated chapter in
the story of Roger Wilco, so even if it does tend to be more explicitly
parodic of classic sci-fi, fans of the Space
Quest series should still have no problem accepting everything in it as
«canon». That said, even though the
game was a modest commercial and critical success upon release, it has not
really gone down in history as a classic: unlike King’s Quest VI or Larry VI
or Quest For Glory IV, its
contemporary competitors all of which still feature prominently on various
lists of best adventure games of all time, I never ever see Space Quest 5 in there — most likely
because of those two stigmas that became attached to it, namely «how can a Space Quest created by only One Guy From Andromeda be any good?»
and «how can a game whose chief goal is to parody Star Trek be any good?». This attitude seems a bit unfair and
prejudiced because, after all, Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy aren’t exactly
John Lennon and Paul McCartney; also, Sierra’s history in the early 1990s
showed that it actually often helped to bring in new blood for working on
established series, e.g. Jane Jensen’s involvement in King’s Quest or Josh Mandel’s writing for Laura Bow. This is not to say that I want to be controversial and
declare this game a forgotten masterpiece; this is simply to say that I had a
lot of fun playing this game when I was young, and almost as much fun
replaying it upon reaching middle age. So let us take a closer look at its
various aspects — to provide specific evidence for that final verdict. |
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Content evaluation |
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Unlike Space Quest I, II, and IV, where Roger Wilco got into the
middle of hot action right from or almost right from the get-go, Space Quest V prefers instead to
follow the Space Quest III model
and take its time. At the beginning, Roger Wilco is a part-time student,
part-time janitor at the StarCon Academy
(obviously a spoof of the Starfleet Academy), failing miserably at both
tasks, yet still having Lady Luck at his side when a malfunction in the
system ultimately leads to his appointment as captain... on a garbage scow,
of course, because how else would we be able to justify even more of those
janitor jokes? Regardless, the exposition unwinds at a leisurable pace, as
Roger experiences several run-ins with the game’s principal antagonist
(Captain Quirk — har har!) and his future love interest who had been
foreshadowed in Space Quest IV (Ambassador
Beatrice Wankmeister — hee hee), cheats on his tests, mops the floors, and
just generally wanders about the Star
Trek and Star Wars
references-riddled corridors of the Academy. Even after boarding his new ship
and getting to know his merry, racially (or, more accurately, specially) mixed crew, a certain
amount of time is spent simply cruising around and getting into random bits
of trouble before the game’s main mission becomes clear. Much like with Space Quest III, I really adore this model. A lot of time and
care is invested into fleshing out this new version of Roger Wilco’s universe
before the main story begins to distract us from it, yet the story eventually
materializes, and the last several acts of the game significantly raise the
stakes on action and tension, just like in a good Trek episode. All the early-appearing characters have enough
dialog and charisma to them for you to actually care when they find
themselves in jeopardy (like Cliffy the Engineer floating in space or
Beatrice frozen in cryostasis), and there is enough freedom of movement to
soak in the atmosphere of both the Academy and outer space (unfortunately,
once you go out there, the designers made it so that you can never return to
the Academy again — probably one of those budget things). The main twist of the story — saving
the universe from a failed genetic experiment whose results infect people
with a terrible virus and turn them into «pukoids» — is hardly original, but
it is well executed, with a bunch of unpredictable plot devices, a couple
jump scares, and well-thought out juggling of action-packed sequences and
periods of leisurely respite. And since the game is relatively long for its
age (at least two or three times as long as Space Quest III), it feels almost surprisingly complete and
satisfactory, making good use of all of its characters (even Spike, the
cuddly alien face hugger!). Precisely one turn in the story left me
with an ambiguous feeling — the sequence in which Roger is chased down by a
female droid bounty hunter and has to concoct a plan to annihilate the
threat. Although, on its own, the sequence is well realised, and the
underlying two-part puzzle is clever, this is obviously merely a slight twist
on the similar story in Space Quest III,
which gives you the unfortunate impression that the authors may have run out
of ideas and have to resort to pilfering past legacies. Given that the game
has no other instances of such blatant self-plagiarism, I assume that the
character of W-D40 was intentionally written in as a self-homage, as well as
a funny «tough girl» take on the oh-so-very-masculine character of Arnoid the
Droid, maybe even as a parody on the slowly increasing ratio of powergirl
fighters in pop culture. Yet the intuitive feeling is still one of fan
service: «we know y’all are still pining for Space Quest III, so here’s something for ya that will really make
you feel like you’re back in Space
Quest III». I have nothing against the character of W-D40, and later on
she makes a great addition to the crew, but that initial encounter could
probably have been handled better. Speaking of Trek, it is impossible not to mention that one episode here is
well known to be a direct homage to the classic Trouble With Tribbles, replacing the original fast-multiplying
furry creatures with dehydrated Space Monkeys and reproducing the Scotty vs.
Klingon fight with a hilariously inverted twist from the original ("but
captain, he called the Eureka a garbage scow!" — "Cliffy, the
Eureka is a garbage scow!").
The entire episode is an excellent example of a creative, as opposed to
unimaginative and boring, exploitation of a borrowed trope: if you are not
familiar with any of the game’s influences (and, not being a genuine sci-fi
buff, I am sure that I have missed many of those myself), you will probably
never suspect of their existence, so well do the writers work around that
material. Space
Quest V also marks a
first in introducing a romantic aspect to Roger Wilco’s personality — and,
unlike the rather clumsy and corny romance in the next game, handles it
relatively well: Roger predictably starts out as a dork in the presence of
his new passion, then gradually works out a heroic attitude as circumstances
require some damsel-in-distress-saving action. There is very little explicit
romance, actually, which is good (the comedy angle should always come first
in a Space Quest game), but Roger’s
conversations with Beatrice in the cryo chamber still manage to create a bit
of an intimate atmosphere around the general chaos, and do not at all feel
out of place. Overall, I would probably rank the plot
of Space Quest V as second-best in
the series — and if duration, detalisation, and dialog are taken into account
as primary factors, it might even beat out Space Quest III (I just do not think it would be completely fair,
given the huge changes in gaming technology, stylistics, and aesthetics that
took place between 1989 and 1992). Although, every once in a while, it does
tend to reduce its title character to a bunch of Roger Wilco stereotypes, it
more than compensates for it by giving Roger some much-needed extra depth;
and, unlike Space Quest VI, it does
not spend approximately 90% of its running time trying to shove the «Space Quest Legend» into your throat
and make you chew on it, trying instead to expand on that legend and make the
Space Quest universe an even better
place. |
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By the time Space Quest V came around, Sierra designers had largely managed
to eradicate their classic issue of «puzzle deadlock» — being unable to
complete the game after a certain checkpoint because of having missed some
action or object earlier — and Space
Quest V, too, goes relatively easy on the player, since after leaving the
Academy Roger and his ship operate in a quasi-open world environment, being
able to freely move from planet to planet (and pick up forgotten stuff at any
point where it was forgotten). However, the other classic issue, Death Around
Every Corner, has dutifully not
been fixed — much to the fans’ delight, because few of Sierra’s deaths are as
classic as Roger Wilco’s, and Space
Quest V does not disappoint (that said, most of the deaths are almost
boringly logical and predictable). As far as complexity is concerned, the
puzzles of Space Quest V will
hardly raise much concern. Arguably the most «puzzlish» episode is Roger’s
above-mentioned escape from the droid gal, whose solution is nicely and
subtly hinted at during our guy’s test session at the Academy — but whose
difficulty mostly lies in correctly figuring out the sequence of your
actions. Other than that, there is really not a huge lot of thinking you got
to do to beat the game: much more of your time will be occupied by reading,
pixel-hunting, oh, and battling some of the game’s unfriendly arcade
sequences. Unfriendliness of the latter has,
unfortunately, become exacerbated with time, as some of the things you have
to do are directly tied to CPU processing speed and become ridiculously hard
or just plain ridiculous on more powerful computers — for instance, early in
the game Roger has to use a Scrub-o-Matic Floor Scrubber, moving it all
across the dirty floor; on modern PCs, the machine zips through the screen at
light speed, making it almost impossible to effectuate any control. Even
worse is the sequence in the middle of the game, where you have to rescue
your engineer from floating in outer space by pursuing him in a pod and
grabbing his body with a mechanical arm — the time you have to do that is
limited by your oxygen supply, and it is downright impossible to perform the
task on anything higher than a good old Intel 80486. (Fortunately, running
the game with DOSBox solves most of these problems in the modern age). Other distractions are not nearly as
detrimental from a technical side, but can also be questionable in terms of
the fun factor. Thus, at one point you are forced to play a game of «Battle
Cruiser» with Captain Quirk, which is every bit as fun to play as your
regular Battleship — the only piece
of good news is that Dynamix has not trained the AI even one little bit, so,
unless you are exactly as stupid as your untaught computer opponent, you have
absolutely zero chance at losing the game (but it will still take a long time to explode all of Quirk’s ships, so
gird thyself with patience). At another point, you shall have to navigate a
maze (of course!) of ventilation and elevator shafts inside a giant
spaceship, with absolutely no indication of where to go and more or less
random chances of being squashed by a moving elevator every once in a while.
Finally, there is a minor reaction-based sequence which might just gross you
out in Resident Evil-style fashion,
but at least it only requires you to press the left or right arrow buttons
three or four times, nothing more. (Still was enough to give me nightmares
back in my impressionable childhood!). As usual, a few of the actions /
puzzles are optional (you have to perform them to better your overall score);
the only one of these to earn my indignation is the requirement to cheat on your StarCon Aptitude Test instead of
having to solve it on your own. Considering that the Test itself is quite
hilarious ("To ensure that your crew’s microwave meals are heated
adequately you should: ... [e] inject
a radioactive plutonium isotope into each piece of food: when it glows, it’s
ready"), but perfectly solvable on one’s own, I’d have thought it would
be more just to give you more points for solving it rather than for cheating
on it... but, apparently, the designers have such a high opinion of their
players, they think that coming up with a cheating scheme would be below
their adventure gamer’s intuitive morals. And who knows, maybe they were
right about that, too. |
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Playing Space Quest V actually feels good. The introductory part, at
StarCon Academy, is not all that great because you are severely limited in
space, confined to just walking around a small rotunda with a bunch of
scripted events in rooms which you cannot properly explore. But once you get
out there, Space Quest V brings
back that actual feel of, well, space
that was so well done in the third game, yet all but forgotten in the fourth.
You navigate from planet to planet, watch them come into or fade out of orbit,
interact with other ships, even engage in a couple of tense stand-offs — all
in all, spend almost as much, if not more, time in the deep dark void as you
do on lush green planets. And while there is really not a lot to do with your
ship controls, at least you really do
have a proper control interface once again, making you feel in charge and
genuinely responsible for the life and well-being of your morally ambiguous
crew members. Speaking of crew members, this is the
first (and last) Space Quest game
ever where you will spend much of your time with company on your hands — the
Eureka, your trusty garbage scow, starts out with three crew members (Weapons
Officer Droole, Com Specialist Flo, and Engineer Cliffy) and eventually gets
even more populated, which implies the possibility of a whole lot more dialog
than in the previous games, where Roger mostly used to go it alone (you still
do whenever you go on a planetary exploration, but back on the ship, your
crewmates always got your back, or at least pretend to). Most of the dialog is played for comedy — Droole
showing off his first-rate nihilism, Flo gradually developing a crush on you,
and Cliffy making it his life’s purpose to avoid any difficult or dangerous
tasks — but each character is quite well written for 1992, with tons of
personality and charisma that make you explore even the least useful options
on their dialog trees (Droole: "You’ll
have to excuse Flo. She has a bit of a problem dealing with male authority
figures, but she’s really not so bad once you get to know her" —
Flo: "Can it, lobster boy!"). This is probably one of the biggest
stylistic departures from the previous games, where it was almost always
«Roger Wilco Alone Against The Countless Dangers Of The Galaxy»; the most
company you ever had on your ship was a droid co-pilot (well, the Two Guys
did briefly join Roger at the end of Space
Quest 3, but you didn’t even have time for a proper conversation). Given
the abundance of contacts at the StarCon academy as well, or the far livelier
atmosphere at the Space Bar than at Monolith Burger, it feels as if the Space
Quest universe has finally become a more colonized, civilized, and even safe
space — which is, in my opinion, a welcome change from the endless space
jungle-braving affairs of the previous games. The other big departure is the
introduction (under the influence of all those sci-fi shows and movies) of
genre elements which were previously not on the Space Quest list at all — namely, action and horror. Although you
did have to do a bit of space fighting at the end of Space Quest III, it was nothing compared to the lengthy stand-off
between the Eureka and the Goliath, where you have to organise the defense,
plan the evasive action, and then, in the middle of the stand-off, dash off
into space to rescue your careless engineer. This time around, saving the
universe requires almost as much flash and brawn as it requires stealth
(Roger’s traditional weapon), which seems good to me, provided there is no
side effect of actually turning the whole thing into an action game (and
there is none). The addition of (body) horror elements
is more questionable. Previous Space
Quest games did not really make a point of grossing you out, at least not
until it came to all those gruesome death scenes (and vivid textual
descriptions of them) which you were guilty of yourselves. Here, once the
main plot takes off, nastiness — depicted quite vividly and graphically,
might I add — becomes an inescapable part of it, even if you yourself manage
to avoid all the death traps. Opinions will most likely be divided on whether
this choice contributes to the quality of the game or detracts from it. One
certain thing is that, along with the accompanying story of corporate
corruption and catastrophic bioengineering decisions (à la not-yet-existent Resident
Evil), it gave the game a facelift in the «more serious» direction: every
now and then, you get to almost forget that the whole enterprise is a parodic
spoof, only to be reminded of it at the least appropriate moment (for instance,
at the very end of the game when, in a climactic sequence, the W-D40, with a
battle cry of FREEZE SCUM!, begins
shooting liquid nitrogen at the infected Goliath crew out of her metallic
tits). In the end, though, I don’t think I
have a problem with that. Maybe it makes the game less suitable for really
young players (like, anybody under 8 years of age), but I think that the
horror elements serve to sharper emphasize the humor — enduring the pressure
of Droole and Flo’s authority-debasing jokes upon having just escaped the
threat of being «puked to death» somehow feels more fulfilling after the
ordeal. Besides, what might have looked genuinely terrifying in the early
1990s now feels like innocent childplay after the Golden Age of Survival
Horror; other than one or two small jump scares, there is hardly anything
here to leave a lasting disturbing impression on the player. There is enough, though, to make the game
feel significantly different from all the previous Space Quests without betraying the quintessential spirit of Space Quest, and this is what makes it
such a fresh and admirable entry in the series. |
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Technical features |
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Space Quest V was not released during any particular graphic revolution, but
the fact of its being developed at Dynamix rather at Sierra proper certainly
resulted in a stylistic change. The art director for the game was Shawn
Sharp, who had previously worked on the more kid-oriented Adventures Of Willy Beamish, and
before that, in the comic industry; Mark Crowe, despite having been
responsible for most of the art in the previous games, was too busy designing
the story to continue working on the game’s art, though he most likely gave
some directions and supervised the game for artistic compatibility with the
«classic» Space Quest universe —
which is why, in the end, the stylistic changes did not so much reveal
themselves in the actual art as they did in the general approach. Thus, when you look at most
of the backdrops — the interiors of the StarCon Academy, the space fields, the
lush landscapes of several of the visited planets — what separates them from Space Quest IV is mainly an increased
attention to detail, from shadows to small cracks to tiny rocks and plants
peppering the screen in a more consistent manner than before. But it does not
matter a whole lot, to be honest. What does
matter is that, in an intentional struggle to make the game come more alive
before your eyes, Sharp includes a whole lot of (usually animated) close-up
images during character interaction. Never before in a Space Quest game have you seen Roger Wilco that up close so many
times, with so many different emotional states on his face — or, for that
matter, never before have you gotten a chance to see almost all of the side
characters in close-up perspectives (one of the very first images to come up
on your screen is, in fact, the huge mug of the dashing Captain Quirk, whose
facial features formally match those of the stereotypical Hollywood action
hero, but whose expressions clearly betray him as a major villain from the
start). It does not always work
exactly the way the artists (probably) expected: for instance, Roger’s new
passion, Ambassador Wankmeister, looks hip and sexy (a bit Sharon Stone-like,
which is hardly a surprise given that Basic
Instinct became a hit in 1992) in one screenshot, but rather plain and
whiny in another — I suppose that there were at least several people working
on the graphics at the same time. Still, what matters is not necessarily the
quality of the images (no masterpieces of digital art here), but their very
presence, which, in turn, makes the characters’ minuscule sprites look
miserable in comparison. It’s a good thing that such a large part of the game
is spent sitting in the cockpit rather than walking around. |
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Sound There is not much I can say about the
MIDI soundtrack to the game other than it is quite functional. Just like the
classic Space Quest theme (which,
by the way, is constantly played around the StarCon corridors with whistling
as the lead instrument, sounding cute at first but quickly getting on your
nerves), most of the new compositions are given slightly futuristic
arrangements yet are, in general, derived either from military marches (the
Quirk / Goliath theme), from elevator muzak, or inobtrusive ambient themes.
Created moods are well synchronized with the story — the background music in
the Space Bar with its Latin rhythms is lazy and relaxing (this does create a
comical dissonance when the Space Bar begins to be demolished by the freshly
hydrated Space Monkeys), the music on the devastated colony world of Klorox
II is tense and ominous at the intersection of two improperly synchronized à la Steve Reich keyboard loops,
and the music at the abandoned space laboratory of Genetix mixes a little
danger with a little melancholy, as if specially to let you know that you are
going to encounter unpleasant evidence, but nothing specifically
life-threatening at the moment. Overall, the music is decent, the sound
effects are top notch for 1992-93, and the obvious question is — where the
hell is the voice acting? With Space
Quest IV being one of Sierra’s first fully voiced games, and with the
voice acting out there (particularly Gary Owens’ narration) as one of the
game’s chief selling points, one could certainly have expected the sequel to
make some progress in that department. In the end, though, it is all about
the budget, and as late as 1992-93, voice acting for Sierra games was by no
means a guaranteed proposal (see Larry
V, Eco Quest II, Pepper’s Adventures In Time, and other
examples as proof). In the case of Space
Quest V, this is particularly unfortunate, given its propensity for
dialog and wonderfully sharp-mouthed characters like Droole and Flo. There is
so much dialog, in fact, that I am absolutely sure the game was designed and
written with voice acting in mind — until reality stepped in and delivered
its terms. There are a few last-minute vocal
effects, like the yowls of pain uttered by Roger each time he is punished for
a stupid physical action, and the indiscernible mumble of the StarCon
professor during test time (which kind of looks like an unintentional homage
to Charlie Chaplin’s mockery of movie voices in Modern Times), but overall the lack of proper voiceovers easily
puts Space Quest V as the first in
line begging for a remake — which is not likely to happen, since in the past
twenty years the fan community has mainly been busy recreating games from the
studio’s older, parser-era period. Unfortunately, with Gary Owens having
passed away in 2015, even if it ever comes to a fully voiced remake,
perfection is no longer an option... |
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With the game developed at
Dynamix rather than Sierra, it is hardly a big surprise that it has a
somewhat different look from the typical Sierra game of the time. Although
the basic principles of organizing game space and control interface remain
the same, text windows and menus got a slightly more industrial, gray-metal
sheen, and even the classic Sierra fonts were replaced by an all-caps version
closer to the comic book standard (even dialog between characters
occasionally came in the form of comic book speech bubbles). Since there was
no voice acting anyway, this look might seem suitable for the game, even
though it breaks continuity of the series (Space Quest VI would roll back these changes). The main interface,
nevertheless, retains all the standard elements of classic Sierra. The list
of options to choose from includes the obligatory Look, Operate, and Talk
icons, to which the game adds an experimental fourth: Order (replacing the
far less practical, but somewhat more funny Nose and Mouth icons of the
previous game). Unfortunately, the only time that the two have a useful
distinction is in your cockpit, where «Talking» to your crewmates results in
small talk on various subjects, while «Ordering» them to do something
actually gets you moving around space and shooting stuff, if necessary. From
a clean design perspective, I suppose this could have been handled more
pragmatically, i.e. with an extra console on the cockpit screen; as it is,
the «Order» option creates the illusion that you can boss around every single
being in the universe, when in reality your commanding skills are strictly
reserved to your crewmates. As I have already
mentioned, there is plenty of dialog to be had with said crewmates, but this
does not translate to the rest of the game. The designers of Space Quest V did not have either the
time or the budget of the creators of such concurrent games as King’s Quest VI and Larry VI, meaning that approximately 90%
of «useless» point-and-click actions will get a strictly generic response.
You will not be able to talk to trees or rocks, grope random stuff, or even
humorously fail to pick up whatever cannot be picked up; at best, you can
«Look» at all this stuff, but «Touching» it will be fruitless. (Sometimes it
actually works in a detrimental fashion: there are a few instances in the
game where you have to use one object on another so that their invisible
hotspots intersect — otherwise, you get a generic you-can’t-do-that type of
response and may be discouraged from trying out the correct approach). The quasi-arcade sequences
do not present much of a challenge, except for the infamous
get-my-engineer-back-to-safety assignment where you have to guide your pod to
Cliffy’s resting place and then use an extended mechanical arm to grab him.
Even with the CPU speed problem taken care of (see above) this is still a bit
messy and counterintuitive, continuing a long tradition of Sierra’s bumbled
mechanical puzzles (Codename Iceman,
anyone?), and it makes me happy that most of the «action» sequences in the
game still take place in the regular point-and-click mode. |
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As I have already said, Space Quest
V is rarely placed in the upper league of Sierra games, but there is also
such a thing as a nice, solid, middle-of-the-road Sierra game: carefully
designed, intelligently paced, with an interesting, if not outstanding plot
and no particularly noticeable innovations to speak of. This is Space Quest V in a nutshell: nothing
to be insanely proud of and (almost) nothing to be ashamed of, either. It
made good use of all the technological advances accumulated to that point, it
made its protagonist grow up a bit and show a few extra talents, and it
seemed to give fans of the series an assurance that the adventures of Roger
Wilco would continue evolving, retaining the series’ classic humor but also
throwing in bits of action, romance, horror, or whatever other inspiration
might come their way. It is quite a pity that this assurance would dissipate
by the time of Space Quest VI — and
then, of course, be gone for good. |
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