Police Quest III: The Kindred is an adventure game produced by Jim Walls

Jim Walls

Jim Walls is a retired police officer, who in 1971 joined the California Highway Patrol. He retired after 15 years on the force after a shooting incident that left him traumatized....

 for Sierra On-Line

Sierra Entertainment

Sierra Entertainment Inc. was an American video-game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams...

, and released in 1991. It is the second sequel to Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel

Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel

Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel is an adventure game produced by Jim Walls for Sierra On-Line, and originally released in 1987 built on their AGI.It was remade in 1992 using 256 color VGA graphics and the SCI engine....

and is part of the Police Quest

Police Quest

Police Quest is a series of computer games produced and published by Sierra On-Line between 1987 and 1993. The original series was composed of four adventure games, the first three of which were designed by former policeman Jim Walls, with the fourth title designed by former LAPD Chief Daryl F....

series.

Gameplay

Sierra's standard point and click interface is used in Police Quest III. The manual driving sequences from Police Quest 1 return, albeit with an updated interface.

Plot

Sonny and Marie got married following Bains' death. Promoted once more, Sonny now has to deal with rampant crime as a drug cartel begins operating in Lytton and evidence of a satanic cult starts to appear. When Marie is stabbed in a mall parking lot, Sonny's police work becomes personal.

Sonny must deal with Pat Morales, his new partner who displays some questionable ethics and may be hiding something. He must also find patterns in a growing series of crimes to find his next lead. The Bains family also plays a role in this game.

Development

Released in 1991

1991 in video gaming

-Notable releases:*Microprose creates Civilization, Sid Meier's most successful game .*Electronic Arts releases James Pond 2 and Road Rash for Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, starting a series of games that were popular in the 1990s....

 for SCI

Sierra's Creative Interpreter

Sierra's Creative Interpreter is the scripting language created by Jeff Stephenson of Sierra On-Line for its adventure games after the older AGI, and the runtime environment for such adventure games....

 version 1, PQ3 is completely mouse-driven. It was only released for the IBM PC

IBM PC

The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...

 and the Amiga

Amiga

The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...

. During the late development stages of this game, Jim Walls

Jim Walls

Jim Walls is a retired police officer, who in 1971 joined the California Highway Patrol. He retired after 15 years on the force after a shooting incident that left him traumatized....

 left Sierra for reasons that have still not been publicly explained. Sierra employee Jane Jensen

Jane Jensen

Jane Jensen is the game designer of the popular and critically acclaimed Gabriel Knight adventure games and author of the novels Judgement Day and Dante's Equation....

 finalized the writing for the still unfinished Police Quest 3, and SWAT

SWAT

A SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in various national law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...

 founder Daryl F. Gates was named to take over of the Police Quest

Police Quest

Police Quest is a series of computer games produced and published by Sierra On-Line between 1987 and 1993. The original series was composed of four adventure games, the first three of which were designed by former policeman Jim Walls, with the fourth title designed by former LAPD Chief Daryl F....

series.

Copy Protection

In order to progress in the game, the player is required to navigate their vehicle around the streets of Lytton (eg, going from Lytton Police Department to a crime scene). A printed map is provided in the game's manual with all the street names shown in order to accomplish this task. In addition, when arresting suspects a five-digit "offense code" must be given correctly which is also available in the game's manual.

Reception

The game was reviewed in 1992 in Dragon

Dragon (magazine)

Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...

#178 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 2 out of 5 stars.