Space Quest II: Chapter II - Vohaul's Revenge

aka: SQ2, Space Quest 2, Space Quest: Chapter Two - Vohaul's Revenge
Moby ID: 128
DOS Specs

Description official descriptions

The ace janitor Roger Wilco thought he'd seen the last of Sludge Vohaul. However, like every evil scientist is supposed to, Vohaul returns with an even meaner scheme. This time he intends to infest the planet Xenon with thousands of genetically engineered door-to-door life insurance salesmen. The last thing he wants is Roger messing things up, and so the brave janitor is captured and brought to the planet Labion to spend the rest of his days working in Vohaul's mines. Fortunately, the shuttle that takes him to the mines crashes, and Roger is the only survivor. He will have to survive the dangers of the jungle planet Labion, and eventually stop Vohaul from executing his mad plan.

Vohaul's Revenge is the sequel to The Sarien Encounter, and the second game in Sierra's humorous Space Quest series of adventure games. The player navigates Roger Wilco around with arrow keys, and interacts with the world by typing commands. Like in the previous game, there are many ways for the player character to die. Much of the gameplay is dedicated to avoiding the many traps and hazards Roger will meet on his way. Some actions must be performed quickly in order to prevent Roger from getting killed.

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Credits (DOS version)

6 People

Game by
  • Two Guys From Andromeda
Design
Programming
Graphics
Game Development System

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 69% (based on 15 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 106 ratings with 8 reviews)

15 hilarious ways to die

The Good
Um, replace that one-line summary with a quote from a song you (or anybody else in the world) actually KNOW. I'm just trying to get the concept across here - there's nothing else to this game than dying. You get a funny comment every time you do so, and every time you do so you will also gain the knowledge of how NOT to die. Which is the purpose of the game in fact, so it's kinda self-defeating since you essentially have to solve a game by methodically taking all the steps which are antithetical to its basic premise. If that sounded too pretentious to you, then basically the only way to solve most of this game's puzzles is by dying repeatedly and thus becoming aware of how to stay alive. That's learning how to survive the hard way, eh? For example, in one screen you have a very vaguely drawn rectangle on the ground - when you step on it, you fall inside a trap and you die. When you reload the game, and type "look at trap" in the parser, the game responds "What trap? I don't see any trap! Hey guys, do you see any trap here? Nope, no trap here!" It IS funny, yes, but it's kinda sad that the only means for these folk to do something creative and involving in this game was by thinking up of funny, unexpected ways to die and then writing humorous little good-bye messages (many of which, btw, were quite surprisingly derisive towards the player - not that I was offended, which I easily could've been, I'm just wondering whether that sort of slipped by the Sierra Quality Assurance there a bit).

Aside from that, this is just average Sierra adventure fare. Most probably one of the other guys who reviewed the game was right, it was probably a bit of a cash-in for Sierra, slapped together with no idea or original conception. I remember enjoying the first game in the series (some years ago), but this one just seems so dull, so totally regressive - even in the intro, it just states, "well, in the first game you became a hero, but now you're back to being a janitor". This is already well past the line dividing irony from total cynicism, in the wrong direction. I didn't get very far in the game (I stopped in the maze with the ladders), so maybe I missed out on something, but I doubt it: a bunch of screens thrown together with the usual suspects of man-eating mushrooms, hostile swamp creatures, goons, people with clubs and little innocent creatures you have to "help" does not give much promise for any later sections. The puzzles sucked, stunningly being incredibly obvious and mind-bogglingly illogical at the same time - like a dead tree just by the side of a canyon I have no way of crossing. No no, you don't have to PUSH it, or kick it or shove it. You have to CLIMB it. A dead tree, obviously liable to break at any moment, precariously positioned right beside a bottom-less pit. Climb it. What were you expecting to do at the top of it, TAKE IN THE SIGHTS?

And what about other characters, or an interesting setting, or a plot, or - hey, an explanation for there being an underwater cavern beneath the swamp in the middle of nowhere with a glowing gem in it. Nah, don't bother. Space Quest 2: the pinnacle of that philosophy of "ironic" game design where the game being crap was in fact considered to be the most sophisticated of all jokes.

The Bad
Er, was that the "good" section? Sorry.

The Bottom Line
imitates staring morosely and dull-ly at a computer screen, only to be distracted by a passing fly or a speck of dust falling from the ceiling, or ANY INCREDIBLY UNINTERESTING THING AT ALL

(Explanatory note to Moby readers who have never written a review here: this section is currently being hyped to me as my answer to the question, "How would you describe this game to others?", despite the fact that it appears under a different heading currently as you read it. Therefore the seeming discrepancy between what you expected to read and what I in fact have written there. Much like, to get back slightly to the original topic, this very game: you expect to find something entertaining, but instead you get something which was originally, in some bizarre historical context, supposed to be "hip" and "with it", and, not coincidentally, totally fails to be entertaining.)

DOS · by Alex Man (31) · 2003

Hysterical follow-up to another great game

The Good
This is just a darn funny game. You have "planet of the apes" moments, "alien" moments, and "star wars" moments. You even have a brief cameo by a "Tasmanian Devil" type creature. The list could go on forever.

The Bad
Some tedious sections, like climbing through tunnels with a glowing rock in your mouth, come to mind.

The Bottom Line
A very funny space action game.

DOS · by ex_navynuke! (42) · 2005

Fair but very average sequel in the series

The Good
Well, any Space Quest is good Space Quest (even though my critique of this one may seem to suggest otherwise!). As always, there’s some good challenges mixed in that will make you think to solve them, and everything has that “heyday of Sierra” feel about it.
There’s good use of solving puzzles by manipulating objects in a certain way via the text input. For example (SLIGHT SPOILER), at one stage, you’re crawling in a dark series of tunnels, where you have a glow-in-the-dark gem to see but need both hands to crawl; the solution is to "hold gem in mouth". Exactly the sort of puzzle that would be lost when the “point and click” (no typing) interface took over in later Sierra games.
It’s also quite satisfying how you can complete puzzles and the game, but not using the best or full solution, leaving you short of points and giving you something to go back to and try again – much better than several later Sierra and LucasArts games, where everything was pretty much linear and there was only one way to do everything.
Whilst having played the first game will help get the full grasp of things (such as just why Vohaul wants you captured in the first place!), there’s no real need to have played the first one to get into this one – it stands up on it’s own.
Oh, and one other thing – the comic that came with the game. Ahh, for the days when wonderful extras like this were thrown in. Maybe not in the same league as the later LucasArts’ classic Sam & Max comic manual, but still really good, and a welcome extra.

The Bad
Well, a few things didn’t quite click for me with this one. I did like this game, honest! But…
Being released a mere few months after the original Space Quest, there are maybe a few signs that this was a somewhat rushed sequel.
The graphics and interface are virtually identical to the first one; normally in Sierra adventures, there at least some small tweaks between games at least. In fact, the initial opening screen is identical to that in Space Quest 1 – when I first played it, for a moment I worried that I’d somehow got a copy of SQ1 by accident!!
The sound is average to what you’d from the era, but it did seem to me to be very sparse in places.
My main gripe is that there are only two real areas to explore – the jungles of planet Labion, and Sludge Vohaul’s asteroid base. Much of the enjoyment of the original was that there was much leaping from planet to planet. But in this one there isn’t really much of that, making it seem rather limited compared to just about every other SQ instalment. Being stuck on a single jungle planet for much of the game is rather static for a Space Quest outing; and the majority of it, to me, felt like it could just as easily have been out of one of the ‘Kings Quest’ games.
The other key SQ ingredient – lots of bizarre, strange beings to meet and interact with, is also notably lacking in this one. And what few characters there are, are basic compared to those that grace other entries in the series.
There are some good puzzles, but most of them are overcome with one single action, and seem rather undeveloped.
This game is definitely the most humour-light in the series – aside from having the odd quip here and there, much of it is pretty ordinary, with no real laugh out loud material like so many other SQs in the series. (Much of this is to do with the lack of characters to interact with). Oh, and Vohaul’s plan to fill planet Xenon with evil clone salesman – (semi) amusing maybe, but it’s never strong enough nor developed enough to hang the entire plot on.
There’s no glorious ending with this one – it leads well into Space Quest III, but on it’s own it is pretty flat, with the adventure finishing quite abruptly (I actually re-played the ending over several times, thinking I’d missed out something. I hadn’t).
The original had so many great little bits, such as finding the best spaceship to buy, and then the best robot to co-pilot it; SQ2 has no really nice touches like that. Thank goodness the designers flair returned in SQ3, which was much closer in concept to the original.

The Bottom Line
This game is too good to associate with the word “weak”; but if I had pick the weakest instalment of the Space Quest series, this one would probably be it. It doesn’t really have anything to make it instantly memorable. After all the planet hopping and crazy situations of the original, the programmers seemed to run a little short of inspiration on this one – thank goodness it returned in Space Quest III, where the series really came into its own!
But all that said, don’t think that Space Quest II is BAD – it’s still a good game in it’s own right.

DOS · by Jayson Firestorm (143) · 2002

[ View all 8 player reviews ]

Trivia

Astrochicken

The back of the (original release) box said that Vohaul is "...madder than a drenched Astrochicken". An intriguing phrase to use, as Astro Chicken hadn’t yet been seen in either of the games - it would make it's debut appearance in Space Quest III.

Buckazoids

Space Quest II is the only Space Quest where you do not use Buckazoids (the Space Quest intergalactic currency).

Character name change

For some unexplained reason, Sludge Vohaul's name has mysteriously changed from Slash Vohaul in the first game. (It's not really known why - maybe Sierra thought "Slash" could be taken to sound a little rude for a family game?) Either way, it would remain as Sludge Vohaul for the rest of the series.

Extras

The box included a comic book named "Space Piston" to acquaint newcomers to Roger Wilco, the ex-janitor which became a hero in Space Quest. In the comic book, Roger Wilco is shown as having blond hair, however in the game he has brown hair. Budget re-releases of the game had a copy of the in-box comic in black and white instead of the colour original (well, it was a *budget* re-release!).

Graphics

While it is mentioned on the box that VGA and MCGA are "supported" (they were introduced the same year as this game), they are not "used". The game still used AGI's 16 color low-res mode.

Hidden message

When you select About SQ2 from the Sierra menu after you die, you'll get a message that says We hope you're not looking for someone to blame just because you died rather than the usual message.

References

  • The game contains allusions to the Larry series. When Roger is caught outside the swamp and thrown into a cage during his unconsciousness he dreams about being a character named Larry and having some incidents with women.
  • Sludge Vohual is of course a spoof of Darth Vader from Star Wars, and the monkey guards are a spoof of Planet of the Apes.
  • When you're inside Vohaul's asteroid, go to the bathroom on the 4th floor and enter the booth that isn't occupied. Close the door and type:

READ WRITINGS

Among the responses (just repeat the command a couple of times to read them all) the game gives you there's this one referring to the hero from King's Quest:

"Sir Graham Cross Dresses!"

Another one is:

"Ken was here! (So was Al, but we had to repaint afterward.)"

Ken & Al are of course Sierra developers Ken Williams & Al Lowe. * In the decontamination area (this is where you change your clothes at the start of the game) open your locker. In your locker there are two objects you can take but there's also this joke. Type:

GET CONDOM

The game will respond with:

Sorry. The used Nancy Reagan autographed "Just Say No" condom had to be removed for the shipping version.

Information also contributed by Gothicgene, Jayson Firestorm, *Katakis*, Ricky Derocher, and Roedie

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Related Sites +

  • "Roger Crawling" screen saver for Windows
    Figuring out how to convince the parser that you wanted to hold the glowing orium gem in your mouth was the hard part! Now enjoy the fruits of your labours as Roger kicks in with psychedelically-illuminated wanderings (and a relevant, toggleable MIDI soundtrack) through Labion's caves (including squid!) on your desktop to save your monitor from the anachronistic plague of burn-in. From Chris Geroux, as "ScumSoft".
  • Hints for SQ2
    These questions and answers will help you solve the game without spoiling it for you.
  • ScummVM
    supports the DOS, Macintosh, Amiga and Apple IIgs versions of Space Quest II: Chapter II - Vohaul's Revenge under Windown Linux, Macintosh and other platforms.
  • SpaceQuest.Net - Space Quest 2
    Extremely comprehensive site about Space Quest 2: Basic game information, hints, documentation, downloads and behind the scenes stuff, for example a downloadable PDF manual, scans of the official hint book, easter eggs, fun facts, cancelled stuff etc. etc. etc.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 128
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Olivier Masse.

Amiga added by POMAH. Macintosh, Apple II added by Terok Nor. Apple IIgs added by Scaryfun. Atari ST added by Belboz.

Additional contributors: Roedie, Jeanne, Jayson Firestorm, tarmo888, Alaka, Pseudo_Intellectual, General Error, formercontrib, Macs Black, mailmanppa.

Game added May 22, 1999. Last modified January 20, 2024.