Your thoughts on SQ6?

[Mop Jockey]

What are your feelings on SQ6?

 

While the game is a bit messy due to its turbulent creation, I think SQ6 is the funniest game in the series, and it has the best atmosphere. I love The characterization of Roger, and the very cynical, jaded grungy sort of atmosphere the game has. Probably borne out of how unhappy a place Sierra was to work at in 1995, it still made for an excellent atmosphere.

 

The narration, descriptions really knock it out of the park, and the art style is pretty amazing IMO. The locations again have that cool grimy, grungy feel to them. Again, Rogers characterization is IMO spot on. I do think the game would've been much better if Beatrice was Stellar, what I mean is, if the game was about Roger having to save Bea.

 

The game reminds me of SQ3 in some ways. 4, 6 and 3 are all tied for Favorite SQ.

 

What's your favorite? What's your feelings on SQ6?

[Troels Pleimert]

I think Josh Mandel is a brilliant writer and it was good to see him and Scott bring back the sarcastic edge that was sort of lacking from SQ5.

 

That being said, I think the game took some liberties with the SQ style that didn't seem to mesh fully with the established structure of previous SQ games. For a long time it eluded me what that actually specifically was, but now I think I've deduced that it's got something to do with the narrative structure itself. Roger and the narrator are more of a team now, as opposed to previous games where the narrator was this omnipotent figure making fun of Roger. And Roger is no longer the path-of-least-resistance character who just wants to get out of the situation he's in, but instead takes an active role in deciding to escape the DeepShip and track down Stellar's kidnappers.

 

It was a different flavor of Space Quest, then -- not a bad one, mind, but still it didn't seem to live up to fans' expectations. Josh wanted to shake things up a bit and not just give fans more of the same, and on that note I'd say he definitely succeeded.

[Mop Jockey]

I'd argue Roger's change is actually a bit of character growth. After five adventures saving the galaxy, maybe he's sort of decided to really be a hero. I mean in 5 we can see the start of that change in his enrollment in the Academy and his desire to become a starship captain; he WANTS to be one of the big boys and be part of the action; at the very least, his ambitions have surpassed simply wanting to take a leisurely nap in a broom closet.

 

Also, in SQ6, the 'mission' is different: he's not saving a galaxy full of faceless millions who have either don't know him or who actively look down in him, he's saving a friend who has gone out of her way to save his ass twice, and who is the only person in the series to actually treat him decent. While Roger is a lazy bum, he's not callous. And it's really not the first time he's shirked doing the right thing. He didn't have to save the Two Guys from Andromeda.

 

As far as the Narrator, I'd say their familiarity adds into the games sense of jaded cynicism. Roger and the Narrator have been through 5 adventures already, maybe the Narrator is coming to grudgingly like the guy. It adds a nice quasi-buddy cop movie feel to the game and piles on the tired, jaded cynicism.

[Troels Pleimert]

I see what you're saying about Roger's character development. You're right; he didn't have to save The Two Guys in SQ3, but he did, anyway. And they left a distress message just like Stellar does in SQ6, so Roger's really just a sucker for those. ;)

 

I will, however, unnecessarily reiterate that SQ5 and SQ6 weren't created by The TWO Guys From Andromeda, and I still feel Roger's character changed slightly - and somewhat unexpectedly - in those games. But, okay, we know from SQ2's comic book that Roger really digs being called the hero, so maybe it's not such a big stretch after all.

 

One thing that does irk me is that Roger and the narrator are now aware of each other in SQ6 as opposed to all the other games where Roger is completely unaware of the narrator's presence. I didn't feel like that kind of fourth-wall-breaking was well-suited for Space Quest. But I might be in the minority there, as evidenced by how there's plenty of fourth-wall-breakage going on in a number of the fan games.

[Datadog]

Wall-breaking was well and started by the time the Two Guys became characters in their own series and Roger started time-traveling through numbered sequels. :)

 

But I do agree the game is probably the funniest in the series. It's one of the few games where I spent ages exploring all the click events for a few extra laughs. Gary Owen's voice-work is amazing, and the narration has a certain "let's jump the shark and never come down" vibe to it. For all the guff given the story, I still think it's one of the more entertaining games in the Sierra catalogue.

[MusicallyInspired]

SQ6 definitely had some of the best laughs in the whole series. It was incredibly funny. I didn't mind the fourth-wall breaking either.

[Troels Pleimert]

"let's jump the shark and never come down"

 

This. Very this. :)

[Caldric]

I'm new here, but I'm doing a replay of the series, and am in SQ6 right now, so I'll chime in.  This is my first series replay, and its interesting what memories get dredged up while replaying.  In the early stages of SQ6, I really didn't like the recycling of characters and ideas from past games.  The rapid fire "Oh look, here's Fester Blatz!  Oh look, here's a space bar!  Oh look, here's Elmo Pug!  Oh look, here's a video arcade!" was offputting, and made me worry that the whole game would be a mash of unoriginal ideas.  Luckily that wasn't the case, but it made for a bad first impression on me.

 

The level of detail in the game is a definite step up from previous installments.  I had a lot of fun clicking around to see what gems the designers buried...I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.  And of course, the return of Gary Owens was very welcome.  I read all printed narration in other SQ games in his voice.  Always. 

 

Regarding narrative structure, I agree that making Roger and the Narrator aware of each other was a jarring change; not something I hated, but something I had to adjust to.  However, I do like exploitation of the fourth wall, and I find the idea of an evolving Narrator-Character relationship (and Narrator-Character-Player relationship, really) absolutely fascinating.  There are so many avenues for interesting storytelling with a less-than-solid fourth wall.  And I'm really a fan of creator-creation interaction (Animal Man #5 is a fantastic example); one of the reasons I like SQ3 so much. 

[JimmyTwoBucks]

For me, SQ6 started off really really strong, maybe the strongest of all the SQ games, or at least

on a par with the openings of SQ4 and SQ3...

When we move to the ship, it was ok too, only a bit of step down from the opening on Polysorbate.

 

But then it all just went awry, in my opinion. The stuff in the computer I found pretty dull, especially the 

filing place.

 

And then going inside the body I found dull as well, I just didn't really like the idea.

 

If we HAD to go inside someone, I thought they could have least made it an alien we had to go in,

so that it would at least have been more alien-like... instead it just reminded me of some kind of biology program used in schools.

It was well executed, I just found the ideas got less and less interesting.

 

I like Space Quest because it's SPACE quest... not "Computer Filing Quest" or "Internal Organs Quest".

[MusicallyInspired]

One of the working titles for the game was Innard Space. Would have been much more indicative of what the game would entail. I agree, didn't like the inside-the-body section either.

[PurpleTentacle]

This is the only one I didn't finish. And I haven't played it at all in many years.

 

I remember it just didn't grab me like the earlier games did, and I didn't stick with it very long. Seemed quite different from the others. I need to finish it.

 

Wasn't another possible title, "Where in Corpsman Santiago is Roger Wilco?"

[JimmyTwoBucks]

I will add that SQ6 was probably the game my computer had the most trouble with at the time,

I think it was pushing the boundaries of what most people's computers could do around then,

so unless you bought a computer just as it came out, you'd get some lagging

and it could get a bit annoying.

 

That did deter me a bit early on, especially if you are stumped on a puzzle and you need to go

back and forth trying everything out, if it's taking a long time to load, it gets frustrating pretty fast.

 

I think the first three games didn't have that kind of problem as far as I recall, though I remember

I managed to make SQ4 crash in several places, mainly in the time pod.

[Troels Pleimert]

Okay, I'll grant you that. SQ6 was, honestly, a bit buggy. If you compare it to the previous games, that is. The most grievous of which being the "ComPost Crash" (or the Error 57 crash), which occurs if you try to use the correct item on the ComPost on a machine that's slightly too fast. But, then again, it was toying with the cutting edge at the time, and there was a lot of upheaval at the company at the time, so it's possible that Quality Assurance just suffered.

[PurpleTentacle]

I am going to sit down and play this all the way through this week. I hardly remember anything from it before, and it will be like starting afresh. I feel like I should play through all of the space quest games again before spaceventure comes out.

 

On repeat play-throughs, I usually appreciate and enjoy the Sierra games even more, especially when playing years later. So much detail and love was put into these games.

[Troels Pleimert]

Let me know if the Datacorder puzzle gives you any shit. ;)