Back in 1991, former employees of Sierra On-Line decided to jump ship and form a company of their own. This new game studio was called Tsunami and by all counts, they were little more than a knock off Sierra. From 1991 to 1996 they published adventure games and simulators, of which perhaps the best-known ones are the two Ringworld titles based on the books written by Larry Niven.
Tsunami did manage to poach a couple of known Sierra developers under their belt. The best known of them was Jim Walls of Police Quest-fame, who did Blue Force, a game that like all other Tsunami titles, feels a bit cheap Sierra knock-off. The game spares more than a few similarities with Walls' own Police Quest titles, but at the same time feels like a game that ran out of budget and had to be finished before they had time to put in all the stuff that actually made Police Quest games work.
As a side note, Jim Walls left Sierra somewhere around 1991, a bit before Police Quest 3 was completed. Police Quest 3 was led to finish by Mark Crowe.
The intro movie paints the background story. In 1984, John Ryan with his partner tries to arrest a criminal, who manages to escape them. A couple of days later, an unknown assailant kills John and his wife Jackie at their home during the night. The crime is witnessed by Jake Ryan, their son. 11 years later, Jake has graduated from the police academy with high marks as stated by the newspaper on a very slow news day. He then steps into service at Jackson Beach PD.
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| First day at the office |
You take control of Jake on his first day in the force. After a mandatory morning briefing, Jake heads out with his police bike. Some driving around later, he gets a call to the local marina because of a domestic dispute. He finds a kid there with a black eye. His mother is held at gunpoint on one of the boats, so like a good cop, he calls in for backup.
Some police procedure later, Jake has managed to make his first bust, book the evidence and take it to the evidence locker. Things are looking good. After the first day is over, he has made three arrests and introduced himself to criminals he has to keep an eye on, as firearms have been stolen from a local National Guard garrison. Jake's grandma also hassles him to give some additional aid to the kid who was beaten up earlier, so he proceeds to invite him and his mother to dinner at his grandma's house, where Jake also lives.
The next days takes Jake through busts to a hospital, when a car hits his motorbike. There ends the first half of the game that has the most in common with Police Quest. It's a shame, as the game feels pretty good to that point and after it, there's a feeling of it being incredibly rushed towards the end.
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| The town map |
In the first half, you have the same "fun" of following the police procedure as you have in the PQ series. You have to make your radio calls, relying on the game manual to call in the right codes. You have to make the right decisions in making the arrest, remember to search the perps and book them right. It's not as involved process as it is in the Police Quest games, but there's a similar charm to it. After that part is over, the game turns to be just another mediocre adventure game.
Unsurprisingly all the arrests Jake did on his first day are connected to the murder of his parents 11-years back. What a co-incidence! Yeah, the story really isn't the strongest part of the game. With his father's friend Lyle, Jake ends up arresting the criminals who stole the National Guard weapons as well as the perps who were responsible for his parents' death.
From the getgo, it's evident that Tsunami was filled with former Sierra developers. It looks, feels and plays very similarly with Sierra games, it just lacks the finer polish that comes to art and animation. Frankly, the game just is plain ugly. Interestingly enough the UI has more common with the verb-coin from Lucasfilm games. With a right-click, you can open an action menu with commands for commands you can use, i.e. taking and talking.
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| Hostage situation. Do it by the book or die. |
The way Blue Force has been made makes it feel pretty cheap. It starts by playing the beats that made Jim Walls known among the adventure gamers of the era and when it's doing that, it feels like it works. But then it does an abrupt turnaround by turning into a two-bit PI-game where you even have to throw a hand grenade to a sniper in order to proceed. If Police Quest games were his A-games, Blue Force is closer to a B-game made on a budget.
Blue Force is also a very short and easy game. It's easy and short in the way that makes me feel a lot of it was cut out, as it barely elaborates the story beats it has. The game happens during 4 game days, you make a couple of arrests, investigate a couple of clues and then it just kinda ends.
After Blue Force, Jim Walls left Tsunami and had his name in three other games, one of which was Blade Runner, surprisingly enough. After 2002, he tried to dip his feet in crowdfunding with a failed campaign for another police game, Precinct in 2013. That was an odd and terribly managed campaign, that ended up trying to gather money through their own platform after the Kickstarter failed. That, too, failed and the project was buried.
As far I know, none of the Tsunami games are sold in any digital store. You can, if you want, play at least some of the games on modern OS by using ScummVM, if you own the game or manage to find it from somewhere. I just don't know if it's worth the trouble.
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