A big batch of “Sierra Classics,” including some of the lesser-known games from the studio's glory days like Police Quest, Quest for Glory, and Phantasmagoria, is now available on Steam. Most of these games have been out for awhile on GOG, but if Steam is your virtual place of preference, now you have a choice.
The full list:
- The Police Quest Collection, including PQ 1-4
- Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father
- The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery
- Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
- Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
- Quest for Glory 1-5
- Phantasmagoria
- Phantasmagoria 2: A Puzzle of Flesh
- Caesar 3
- Caesar 4
The games run the gamut from blocky EGA to “lifelike” VGA to the terrible FMV acting and gameplay that plagued the mid to late-90s. It's good stuff all around, but for my money the highlight here is Arcanum. It was Troika's first RPG and really quite good—we included it in our list of overlooked RPGs that are worth playing today—but despite a very positive critical reception it never got the level of attention or respect that was given to games like Baldur's Gate 2 or Icewind Dale. A sequel was planned, but Troika went under before it could happen.
(The other games are good too, though.)
Their age means that getting some of these games to run properly might take a little effort: The first (and so far only) Police Quest review says the VGA mode doesn't work in full screen, while another user says that when he tries to launch Caesar 4 it crashes with a runtime error. Exercise whatever caution you feel appropriate.
