"I intend to infest your planet with thousands of these genetically engineered door-to-door life insurance salesmen. I will at last reap sweet revenge from the scientific community that mocked me."

—Sludge Vohaul, Space Quest 2

Commanders Sure Can Be Mean Sometimes ...

What do you get when you mix a cowardly hero/janitor, overgrown apes, and an evil plot to destroy Xenon with life-insurance salesmen? Why, you get Space Quest 2: Vohaul's Revenge, the second game in the prestigious Space Quest series.

Space Quest 2 thrusts you into the position of the space janitor from the first game. Though the player can choose his or her own name, the default name is Roger Wilco. Apparently, Roger's glory from saving Xenon in the first game has since faded, and after numerous attempts to cash in on his glory, he has taken up a posting as a janitor on Xenon Orbital Station 4. A rather boring post for such a hero. Fortunately, things get a little spiced up for our hero, as he is soon kidnaped by an evil villain named (here's where the subtitle comes from) Sludge Vohaul. Never met him? If one will recall, the dying scientist onboard the Arcada in Space Quest 1 was named Slash Vohaul. Sludge, his evil deformed brother, is rather peeved at Roger for saving the day in Space Quest 1 and destroying his weapon of mass destruction, the Star Generator. He decides to take revenge on Roger Wilco and Roger's home planet of Xenon. The brave (brave meaning cowardly) janitor is sentenced to live out the rest of his life doing hard labor on the jungle planet of Labion, and Xenon is to meet a far more horrible fate--infestation by door-to-door life insurance salesmen! Through circumstances beyond his control, Roger manages to escape. Left alone on a backwater planet, he must find a way to escape and stop Vohaul's dastardly plan. This plot gets an A in my book any day.

Ah, Labion. Sure, it May Be Boring but it Sure Is Purdy!

With such a funny back-story, one would expect the actual gameplay to be hilarious. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The game takes place in three locales, the Xenon Orbital Station 4, Labion, and Vohaul's asteroid. While the section on the asteroid is quite funny, on the planet of Labion the game is boring. Very boring. So boring that you may forget that the game is supposed to be humorous. The game was programmed in AGI (adventure game interpreter) like so many of Sierra's games in the eighties. Movement of the characters is controlled by the keyboard, and everything else is done by a parser (i.e., search man, put gem mouth, etc.) Because of this, the gameplay is quite stable. Adding in the fact that around a half of the game is about as interesting as watching grass grow, I give the gameplay a C-.

Maneuvering Through the Plant of Death. How Fun.

The puzzles in Space Quest 2 are a mixed bag. They range from excellent, brain-straining puzzles (putting toilet paper in a waste basket and lighting it on fire to set off the fire sprinklers, which destroys some killer robots) to monotonous mazes (trying to navigate through a maze of plant tentacles which, if touched, automatically kill you.) Most of the game follows the Sierra standard of "collect everything you see and try to use it on everything." This is quite fine for the game. Of course, the programmers just had to throw in mind-numbingly annoying mazes that could drive even a trained chimpanzee wild. Also, sometimes what you have to do isn't obvious, but that makes the game more challenging and overall more enjoyable. I give the puzzles a B-.

Even a Hero/Janitor Has to Go Sometime ...

Yes, Space Quest 2 was programmed in 1988. And yes, graphics have improved exponentially since then. Thus, the game is quite a pixel-fest in its glorious 16 colors. For the most part, the graphics are sufficient. However, there are several times during the game that the poor and pixelated sprites make the game next to impossible. In one instance, Roger is standing next to an unusual shaped object. It looks like nothing I've seen in real life or otherwise. Typing "look" produces nothing to tell me what it is. What is it? A mailbox. And in the middle of the Labion jungle! Because of this, I give the graphics a B.

You Must Stop the Evil Vohaul from Launching the Insurance Salesmen!

Sound effects? Music? No, Space Quest 2 does not have an abundance of these. The few sound effects, as well as the music, are produced from the internal speaker. Though the songs are few and far between, they sound excellent and have a nasty habit of getting stuck in one's head, even though they are played on the internal speaker. The main theme and Vohaul's theme both show up in the future Space Quests, and they are catchy little tunes. For this, I give the music and sound effects a B-.

Space Quest 2: Vohaul's Revenge is a challenging adventure game that any fan of the series should enjoy. My advice: throughout the section on Labion, keep telling yourself that it gets better and funnier. Keep telling your self that it is so funny you will learn the meaning of ROFL.* Do this, and you should somewhat enjoy this game.

Space Quest 2 final grade: C+

System Requirements:
IBM PC Jr./ Tandy +

*Rolling On Floor Laughing