Friday, September 25, 2020

Return to Space (Part 4)

Coming to this flooded part of the map after witnessing the little pink creature picking berries results in it making yet another appearance.  This time it's rubs something on its body before entering the swamp water and swimming away.  Roger needs to do likewise since there is no other way out of the area.  Unsurprisingly, something hungry waits in the shallows for our hero.  What it is exactly is never revealed.  All players ever see is a pair of eye stalks poking above the surface of the murky water.  When Wilco wades into the swamp this monster is quick to catch him, but if he's covered in berry juice the swamp dweller will let him go.  The player can now make their way through the swamp unmolested.  Curiously, there is a section of it that is so deep Roger must swim to cross it.  Diving down here is actually essential because there is an air-filled chamber underneath containing a glowing gemstone.  It's an item that comes in very handy (both in this game and the next).  

After leaving the swamp behind, Roger crosses a chasm by using a rotten tree trunk as a makeshift bridge.  On the very next, screen he's caught in a snare trap very similar to the one that snagged our pink hint-giving friend.  The hunter planting all these traps is actually a big grey-skinned humanoid intent on eating our hero.  With a little determination and ingenuity though Roger is able to escape, and he even manages to steal a length of rope in the process.  This rope is then used to descend into the chasm.  After playing a game of Tarzan versus King Kong, Wilco discovers a village of the little pink creatures at the bottom.  It's actually possible to get this far without helping the one that was in distress from before.  If so, these ones will kill Roger with slings and stones on sight.  Otherwise, they will let him stay as long as the player likes.  There not being much to do here though means that most players will soon leave via the only exit; an underground passage.  Next, Roger must use his recently acquired glowing gem to navigate a dark maze-like section which emerges into an underground river.  These rapids fork in two directions: a waterfall of death and a whirlpool that dumps Roger out the mouth of a massive statue.  This rock carving is covered in overgrowth and perpetually spewing water into an above-ground pond.  At this point Roger is fairly close to the elevated landing platform and shuttle he arrived on.  Unfortunately, the route forward is blocked by a rather huge boulder.  What's more, the way to overcome this obstacle is very unintuitive.

The whistle picked up earlier in the game is actually a "Terror Beast" mating call.  Blowing it, brings one of these small, but ferocious creatures straight through the rock.  Next, the player has to have Wilco toss a puzzle toy he got out of his locker way back at the start.  This distracts the beast such that Roger can move on via the newly created hole.  A common criticism leveled at point-and-click adventure games is "moon logic," in essence, a game that requires the player to make some rather drastic guesswork in order to hit on a solution.  Personally, I think the fundamental issue is simply a lack of hints.  There's no indication that there's a Terror Beast within earshot or that said creatures are naturally curious rock burrowers.  The next challenge is also an odd one, but at least it has two possible solutions.  Part of the support structure for the elevated landing platform consists of a raised walkway.  On this patrols an armed ape-man.  When Roger enters the area, the guard doesn't notice him behind the bushes.  The player can neutralize this threat by slinging a stone at the guard's head with an athletic supporter (another early-game item found in the locker room)...moon logic indeed.  The other solution is to sneak underneath where the guard patrols, then throw a stone to create a diversion.  Either way, Roger ends up riding the elevator up to the top of the landing platform in order to get on the shuttle.

Upon blasting off into space, Sludge Vohaul notices what's up and seizes control of the shuttle remotely.  The shuttle is then guided into the asteroid base where, much to Roger's surprise, no welcoming committee waits to greet him.  In fact the entire station is strangely deserted, aside from some occupied bathroom stalls and prison cells.  In actuality, this final section of the game turns into a house of booby traps.  Roger must disable the robot guards by triggering the fire suppression system, avoid a pool of acid in the floor by clinging to a smooth wall with a toilet plunger, and abstain from coming into contact with an embryo-implanting xenomorph by running away.  After all this our hero is able to confront Sludge Vohaul in his lair...only to be immediately shrunk down to the size of a mouse by an energy beam device hidden in the ceiling.  Trapped in a glass container, Roger is surprisingly undeterred.  While his captor puts the final touches on the immanent invasion of Xenon, Wilco cuts a way out of his glass prison and slips through the cracks of a nearby cooling vent unnoticed.  Inside, he finds some of the life support equipment used to keep his nemesis alive.  By deactivating the equipment, he is able to put an end to the evil scientist (for now).  Making his way over to a keyboard, Roger plays a short game of hopscotch in order to reactivate the beam and enlarge himself back to normal size.  Finally, using a code written on the back of Sludge Vohaul's hand, he is able to set the asteroid base on a de-oribit trajectory.  It's a maneuver that will destroy the station and clone army by burning them up in the planet's atmosphere.

At this point the player must guide our hero to an escape pod and make a break for it.  Unlike Roger's previous two escape vehicles though, this one is awfully barebones.  With no means of navigation and a very limited supply of air, Wilco has no choice but to climb into a stasis capsule in the corner and take a long nap.  Here ends Space Quest II.  As the Space Quest Historian astutely pointed out, it's a conclusion that bookends nicely with the beginning of the first game in that it started with Roger Wilco waking from a nap and ends with him going back to sleep.  Little does Roger know that when next he awakens he'll be in a whole new graphics engine. 

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