Return to Space (Part 5)

Continuing my retrospective of the Space Quest series, we've now arrived at the third entry in the franchise, Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon.  First off, a tip of the hat to John Shaw for making what, in my opinion, is the best box art cover in the entire IP.  "Roger Wilco" becomes the canonical name of our hero (with there no longer being an option to change it).  Also, the "Chapter" label disappears from here on out...possibly because it was causing unnecessary confusion. These little details aside, the general consensus seems to be this is one of the best (if not the best) in the series.  I can see why a lot of people might feel that way.  Roger gets his own spaceship in this one, giving the player an increased feeling of freedom compared to previous titles.  There are some cool action set pieces, and improvements to the game engine allow for better quality music and sound, as well as a higher screen resolution.  Referred to as "SCI0," it's the same engine that was used for Quest for Glory 1 and 2, Leisure Suit Larry 3, and Gold Rush!  One of the biggest quality of life improvements compared to older engines is that it automatically pauses when typing commands into the text parser.  A problem with earlier Sierra adventure games (especially when you're young or are slow at typing) is the inability to enter commands fast enough to avoid a failed state...and believe me when I say there's no shortage of game over situations here.  In fact, Space Quest III is famous for having the most gory deaths in the entire franchise.

As we rejoin our hero, Roger Wilco, we are informed by the text narration that he has been asleep in suspended animation for an indeterminate amount of time.  Much like the beginning of "Aliens," Roger's drifting escape craft is picked up by a deep space salvage vessel.  Unlike that film though, the salvagers aren't human, but rather robots with little regard for organic life.  Jarred awake during the salvage operation, Roger emerges from his escape craft to find himself in a cavernous junkyard.  After a bit of poking around, it becomes apparent that Wilco is in a massive garbage-filled cargo bay with no real way out aside from a relatively intact starship bearing the name "Aluminum Mallard" (no relation to the "Millennium Falcon").  All it needs is a few parts (including an FTL drive) which can be found by doing a little dumpster diving.

Once the Mallard is made space worthy again, the player only needs to blast a hole in the hull and slip out into the void of space.  At this point we enter a non-liner section of the game.  There are three places Roger can go: the barren world "Phleebhut," the volcanic planet "Ortega," or a "Monolith Burger" deep space station.  Not having any thermal protection or money, means that there isn't much that can be done at the latter two locations yet...so, Phleebhut it is!  No sooner has our hero made the jump to FTL than another vessel decloaks off the stern.  Inside, is a droid with only one thought in its synthetic brain: terminate Roger Wilco.

As it turns out Phleebhut is a dangerous place with small, but highly poisonous and aggressive "scorpizoids," huge and hungry rattlesnakes, freak lightening storms and what I can only describe as the barnacles from the Half-Life series.  The only point of interest is a tourist trap, complete with a gigantic, eye-catching statue.  It's actually animatronic, but closed for repairs due to some mechanical issues.  At the base of the statue though is a novelty giftshop, operated by one Fester Blatz.  This country yokel of an alien, tries to sell Roger a variety of souvenirs.  Having no funds though means our hero is out of luck.  However, under the glass case that makes up the store countertop there is a small collection of stones similar to the one Roger found back in Space Quest II.  Since this particular item carried over from the previous game, and is still in Wilco's inventory, it can be sold here.  The cash...excuse me..."buckaziods" can then be used to purchase Fester's wares.  The only crucial item is a pair of thermal cooling underwear (needed to explore Ortega).  Regardless of what Roger purchases, he's ambushed the moment he leaves the store by the hunter/killer droid seen briefly earlier.  Suspended in the air in a vice-like grip, our hero is forced to hear the reason that he is a wanted man.  Apparently, the whistle that Roger obtained by redeemable voucher in the previous game, wasn't free after all.  In fact, due to accumulated interest the amount owed to his previously unknown debtor is far more than he could ever possibly pay off.  As such he has become the target of this robot repo-man.  Weirdly enough the droid decides to give wilco a chance to escape back to his ship so it lets him go and proceeds to count to ten.

In fact, escape from the planet is not possible.  Any attempt to board the Aluminum Mallard will result in Roger being twisted into a pretzel by the lurking droid.  Wilco's only choice is to defeat his stalker by one of two possible methods.  The first is to lure the droid into some machinery found inside the broken down statue.  The other option is to kite the droid into those barnacle creatures mentioned earlier.  Either way the droid is reduced to scrap and our hero can even pick a personal cloaking belt out of the wreckage.

Having both money and thermal protection, Roger can go with confidence to either of the two remaining locations.  One would think that Ortega is the next logical destination, but as it turns out this isn't the right direction at the moment.  Rather the place our hero needs to go next is Monolith Burger.