Return to Space (Part 3)

Considering the development time between the original Space Quest and its sequel was only a little over a year, it's kind of amazing how much The Two Guys from Andromeda were able to accomplish.  Space Quest II: Chapter 2 - Vohaul's Revenge is a notable improvement over its predecessor in a variety of ways despite using the same engine.  It's one of the first video games ever to depict swimming in underwater caverns, as well as one of the first to employ bigger or smaller on-screen character sprites to convey the illusion of distance.  A lot of the pixel art is also quite beautiful with special attention payed to light and shadow.

After the title card and some text filling in events between games, players are treated to a "2001: A Space Odyssey" style shuttle landing on "Xenon Orbital Station 4."  It's here that we find our hero, Roger Wilco in a spacesuit, sweeping the outside of the station's hull with a push broom.  Right off the bat, players are in for an interesting challenge.  Roger gets a call from his boss asking him to come back inside, but the airlock hatch is located on the ceiling in relation to our hero.  The trick here is to simply walk right up the wall and onto the ceiling.  Apparently, Roger's suit has magnetic boots.  Standing on the hatch whisks our hero away to an interior locker room wherein he can swap out his spacesuit for a uniform, as well as pick up a few seemingly unimportant personal effects (more on those later).  Roger then heads over to meet his boss which goes pretty much as expected (given Roger's chronic tendency to slack off at work).  Our hero's next task is to clean up a newly arrived shuttle...which, as fate would have it, is a trap.  Roger is kidnapped and knocked unconscious.  When he awakens he finds himself not only aboard an entirely different space station, but in an entirely different star system as well.  He also finds himself face-to-face with one "Sludge Vohaul."  Players of the first game might remember the name "Slash Vohaul," lead scientist on the Star Generator project.  While never explained anywhere in the Space Quest series, one of The Two Guys from Andromeda has gone on record saying that Sludge is actually Slash's evil brother.  Family connections aside, Sludge looks and acts like a nerdy version of Darth Vader...right down to the life support machinery.  Sludge reveals that he feels wronged by the people of Xenon and is hell-bent on getting revenge.  Since his first attempt using the Star Generator with the help of the Sariens failed, he has devised a new scheme involving an invasion of the planet using a clone army of door-to-door insurance salesmen.  Needless to say, Space Quest II is a bit more goofy than the first game.  Personally, I enjoyed the shift in tone, but I know some fans of the original were turned off by it.

Once Sludge has finished gloating, Roger is taken away from the villain's orbital asteroid base down to the surface of a jungle planet.  There, Wilco is to spend the rest of his days doing slave labor in  Vohaul's mines.  Our hero is delivered by shuttle to a landing platform elevated above the jungle canopy.  Escorted by two ape-men in camo fatigues, he's transferred to a hovering transport that sets off at tree-top level.  After traveling for a few minutes, the engine on the skimmer sputters then abruptly dies.  A brief argument between the two ape-men reveals that one of them forgot to refuel the vehicle, but as the in-game text explains, "the argument between the two guards is cut short as gravity reasserts itself."

Neither of the ape-men survive the crash, although Roger is relatively unscathed thanks to one of the guards inadvertently breaking his fall.  Now, here's where things start to open up a bit for the player.  They can explore the surrounding jungle at their leisure.  Doing so though is fraught with peril.  An emergency beacon has been activated on the crashed transport forcing Roger to play a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with arriving patrols.  Climbing trees results in poor Wilco being trapped in sap and eaten by ravenous insects.  A nearby patch of giant mushrooms will devour him whole if he gets too close, and there's even a carefully hidden spiked pit trap right next to the crash site.  To make matters worse still, there are numerous clumps of paralysis-inducing spore pods found all over the jungle floor.  Weirdly enough, there's also a mailbox/vending machine of sorts.  Using a mail-in rebate he just happens to have on his person, Roger can get a free whistle from this seemingly misplaced dispenser.  It's actually an essential item later in the game, but the act of acquiring it is something that will comeback to haunt Roger in Space Quest 3 and 5.

Another point of interest is what I can only describe as a hairless pink ewok caught in a snare trap.  Letting it down causes it to run off.  However, in a clearing not far away, it's possible to encounter it again picking berries.  Between the berries and Roger is a massive plant with pale, tentacle-like roots.  The little pink creature soon runs off again, but in order for Roger to get some berries of his own, he must navigate the interposing maze of plant growth.  I found this to be a rather tricky part of the game because, unlike other versions of Space Quest II, the Apple IIc port doesn't allow the player to adjust character movement speeds.  As one might guess, it took me a lot of feathered inputs and save-scumming to get through this part of the game.  Any error in movement results in Roger becoming carnivorous plant food, but assuming the player manages to get in, grab some berries, and get out, they'll have what they need to cross the nearby swamp.