Police Quest 2: The Vengeance

The Good
Police Quest 2 starts off with a bang. Jessie 'the Death Angel' Bains escapes from jail & goes on a murder rampage through the city. Sonny Bonds, the player character, has been promoted to detective & must hunt down the murderous Bains & put him away -or down- for good. Many improvements have been made over its predecessor. Graphics are more detailed & the music helps establish that 80s Miami Vice vibe. You even have a partner who cracks wise but essentially does nothing. You must collect all the evidence on your perp. The strict adherence to procedure that was present in the first game has been abandoned. Now you are on your own to act as a homicide detective. Doing things wrong means getting reamed out by your stereotypical police captain or worse, death!

The Bad
SPOILERS This game breaks down towards the final act. In closing in on the bad guy, the story takes a few twists that contradict the series reliance on following police rules. In an airplane sequence you must kill 2 hijackers & defuse a bomb. After that you must corner the Death Angel, who has apparently gone full supervillain, in his hidden underground lair. Once again lethal force is the only solution. This seems strange considering that up to this point the game encourages you to avoid killing by following the proper rules of engagement. The whole hijacker plot seems to be there to pad out the game time as well. These sequences are jarring compared to the rest of the game.

The Bottom Line
Police Quest 2 is a good game that makes players feel like they are in a buddy cop movie but without the real-life routine of a police officer.

The Good
Well the graphics look about the same as they did it the first Police Quest. The controls are easy to use, and it is a good adventure game it true Sierra Style. This is a classic, which doesn't get the credit that it deserves, many people have played the first one, and this one is just as good as that.

The Bad
Come On now, a second police quest, Somebody at sierra must have had a friend in the force.

The Bottom Line
If you have played the First Police Quest, play this one. It is a typical 80's Sierra adventure game that is fun and will make you keep coming back for more.

The Good
I was hanging out for PQ2 to be released, after absolutely loving the first game. And after playing it for a couple of days it was apparent that it was an even better game than the first.

The graphics were higher resolution and a step up from the first game - the EGA version used dithering to give the impression of a lot more than 16 colours. The artwork was great - each location was lovingly put together with a great diversity of styles - from the lagoon/diving section to the sewers to the police station it was excellent for its time.

The sound was a huge step up, being the first in the series to support the Adlib and Roland sound cards - some great tunes and themes. No decent sound effect support, but it still was very good for PC games of the time.

The storyline/plot and puzzles are the best part of the game. Continuing on from the first game it details the events following the escape from prison of Jessie Bains, the "Death Angel".

As before, the plot escalates in intensity, excitement and difficulty to a perfect scale with a great conclusion to the game. The different things that you have to do in the game are great - the shooting range at the PD is cool, the diving section is fun, and having to investigate crime scenes and put all the clues and evidence together (such as dusting for prints etc) to work out what to do next gives a great sense of achievement, as well as being lots of fun.

Whereas, in PQ1 you were kind of led along by the procedures manual and rather obvious clues, this game requires you to do a lot more conclusive thinking for yourself, making it difficult for non-adventure fans, but a truly classic time for those who love the genre. The story is darker and moodier than PQ1, which was kind've light hearted, but is all that much better as a result. There is still a lot of humour in there too, especially from your partner.

The length of the game - from memory it took me several months to finish (I was 12 at the time) without any hints whatsoever. The sense of satisfaction in doing so was rewarding.

The Bad
Playing it in CGA originally some sections were hard (such as the diving) as the colours were all blue and red and some obvious clues were hidden as a result. There's not much else wrong with this game, another true classic for Sierra.

The Bottom Line
A classic adventure that is the best game in the Police Quest series - the subsequent titles were actually pretty average. An engaging story with characters that you believe in and make you want to keep playing just to see how everything turns out. If you love Sierra games, then play PQ1 AGI and this through without walkthroughs, and you'll love every moment!