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)

Suspense and adventuring in a concise form

The Good
Following the footsteps of its seminal predecessor, Space Quest II borrows its template for a linear, yet dynamic and energy-loaded adventure. It multiplies the hazards and increases the danger, resulting in an interesting example of an adventure game that comes very close to conveying the emotional tension of an action title.

The gameplay of Space Quest II is fluent, uncomplicated, and just right in terms of difficulty and pacing. Some of the puzzles in the game are, in fact, quite imaginative and elegant. They mostly serve as elementary protections against death. For example, you enter a swamp and get eaten by a monster; so you have to figure out how to avoid this. Some puzzles still belong to the good old epoch of text input, and would be hard to recreate in games with modern interfaces. Such puzzles are simple, but not always obvious to figure out, and require real imagination instead of mad clicking on everything you see. I remember how I was constantly dying while attempting to dive and didn't think of a simple solution: what people usually do just before they dive?.. Such realistic, extremely simple, yet interesting and even (in their own way) challenging puzzles ceased to exist after text interface was replaced by point-and-click.

Space Quest II is built like one big trip through a hostile environment, sustaining the feeling of danger from the beginning to the end. There's little in games that can be compared to the feeling of being lost and trapped among hostile creatures and other hazards. There's hardly anything that stimulates the player more to keep playing. Every time Roger dies you are interested to discover what could have prevented his death and what other terrible encounters will happen. The nerve-tickling, tension-loaded atmosphere of the game curiously reminded me of a later masterpiece that is not exactly dissimilar to it.

Yes, you die too much in this game, but this creates tension that contributes to the realism of being unwelcome in a strange, alien world. In fact, dying is the whole point of the game, which is about surviving. And what could have suited the game's plot and setting better than the constant mortal risk? The whole story of the game deals with Roger's attempts to escape from Vohaul and his henchmen. He is in an unknown, possibly dangerous world, where death lurks at every corner. I find it fascinating how the game always requires you to be careful, using this to immerse you into its world.

All this makes Space Quest II the most intense, atmospheric experience within the series. When you are always near death, you start paying attention to everything - every stone, every tree might contain possible danger. You walk around carefully, trying not to step on suspiciously looking plants or come too close to dangerously looking bizarre alien organisms. The game has two main locations (planet surface and Vohaul's asteroid), both very detailed, both full of traps and hazards, and both menacing in a strange, alien way, perfectly fitting the sci-fi setting of the game.

The Bad
Space Quest II can be an exciting game, but it doesn't feel like an exciting Space Quest. The first game wasn't exactly a hilarious comedy, but it did have Ulence Flats. This is just the kind of thing missing in the sequel: a nice little area with funny establishments and creatures. Otherwise, the game is very similar in structure to its predecessor (up to the division into planet-exploring and enemy base-infiltrating parts), but it lacks the one relaxing, humorous segment needed to make up for all those dangers.

This is manifested in the gameplay as well: there are no friendly areas in the game, no "civilized" locations at all; it's either hostile wilderness or equally hostile enemy base. Even the latter is underpopulated compared to the Sarien dreadnought of the first title. Though the Labion-exploring part is reasonably large, it occupies more than half of the game; the somewhat underwhelming asteroid section follows right away, concluding the game. Space Quest II is actually smaller and shorter than the first episode, which is not a good thing to say about sequels.

You also die a bit too much here, and much of the gameplay is based on dying. When you perish, you usually receive messages such as: "You are beaten again to a bloody pulp. Will you never learn? Come on, other people are looking at you and seeing what a bad player you are". I know it was supposed to be funny, and it really was the first couple of times, but since you die so many times in this game and receive similar messages every time you do that, it can get on your nerves.

The Bottom Line
Space Quest II is certainly not as charming and humorous as the other games in the series; combined with short length, this makes it the generally least beloved installment of the floor-mopping, planet-hopping tale. That said, its suspense, atmosphere, interesting puzzles, and a genuine feeling of adventuring do a good job compensating for its flaws.

DOS · by Unicorn Lynx (181780) · 2014

A worthy sequel. Another of Sierra's high-quality games.

The Good
Very humorous. The different locations were well designed, and the game was easy to lose yourself in.

The Bad
Two things:

  • There's this maze that you kind of have to explore, and there's not really any kind of map (so in other words it's very likely that you'll die a few times before you find your way out).

  • I finished it in one day, and I'm not all that bright. I can't tell if the game was supposed to be longer, or if I just got a burst of divine insight.

    The Bottom Line
    Worth playing, but if you're not familiar with the story from Space Quest I, you'll probably be quite confused.

DOS · by Mirrorshades2k (274) · 2000

Roger Wilco Returns to Clean up Space

The Good
Another Sierra game with all the jokes & frustrations that entails. Sludge Vohaul kidnaps Roger Wilco, space janitor, in revenge for defeating his evil plot last game. Evade traps, beasts, guards & finally Vohaul himself to stop an army of door-to-door insurance salesman clones from ruining your world forever. By this time Sierra had the presentation of their games down pat so they are instantly recognizable by anyone who ever played one. This is not a bad thing since they are good by 80s standards. This time around the puzzles & game play are well done so it provides a fun experience with several references for sci-fi fans. Everybody should know not to be kissed by the alien!

The Bad
Some of the solutions to the puzzles rely on typing the proper action in the exact way the programmers want. This can be very frustrating if you use a different word than what is required. Semantics can be annoying in real life & in games apparently. The sound effects are not the best from Sierra when compared to their other games from the same era. Several items can be missed & since there are points where you cannot go back to previous screens this can make the game unwinnable.

The Bottom Line
A fun sequel to a fun game even though it is just more of the same. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

DOS · by Grumpy Quebecker (612) · 2023

[ 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.