Police Quest 2: The Vengeance is the second game in the Police Quest series. It was released in 1988 for the PC (via MS-DOS) by Sierra with the story written by Jim Walls. It was later released in Amiga and the Atari ST. The game was exported for Japanese gamers via NEC PC-9801, complete with a Japanese translation and reanimated sprites in anime style.
The game takes place in 1988, a few years after Police Quest 1: In Pursuit of the Death Angel. Sonny Bonds is now a plainclothes officer working in Lytton Police Department's Homicide Division. He also began to date Marie Wilkans, a former prostitute who helped him and the LPD arrest drug dealer Jessie Bains.
However, Bains escaped from jail and takes a jail guard hostage (who he later takes out). Later on, Bains startst to target anyone who got him in jail. And this also includes Bonds.
Police Quest 2: The Vengeance provides examples of:
- 100% Completion: Getting all the points in the game requires you to go out of your way to do things completely unrelated to your investigation, most notably accessing confidential personnel records with your captain's login information to find out that a colleague is under investigation by Internal Affairs and letting him know, so that he can go into rehab instead of getting fired. There is no hint in the game that you must do this for points.
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Featured in the endgame. It's played down as the air is less than fresh. There are pockets of methane gas in some sections that kill you if you stick around too long. And the gas isn't visible, only the messages about teary eyes and difficulty breathing let you know of its presence. One of the pockets is too large to navigate safely, and will suffocate you if you can't find some way safely past it.
- All There in the Manual: Going through the personnel files on the police station computer is not necessary to complete the gamenote , but it does tie up loose ends from the first game, including the identity of the Gremlin.
- Ascended Extra: Keith, a minor character from the first game, becomes your partner in the second.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Bains really wants to kill anyone that helped put him behind bars. He succeeds in killing the bartender from the Hotel Delphoria, Woody, as well as Donald Colby.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: You can call Sierra customer support and let them know that you'd like help. Then the guy on the line will inform you that it actually isn't a support line and tells you to use a real phone instead.
- You can also attempt to call the BBS line, which then tells you to call this number in real life if you actually have a modem to learn about Sierra products and promotions.
- Buddy Cop Show: This game has shades of this, though it's downplayed.
- The Cameo: Larry Laffer is waiting in the airport, just past the metal detector.
- The Chase: Downplayed. After getting ambushed by Bains at Cotton Cove, you have the option of rushing to your car to chase him down. The chase will quickly go south, given that you lost sight of Bains before you even started the engine, but it does count as informing dispatch to be on the lookout for Bains car.
- Immediately after your investigation at Cotton Cove is completed, you overhear another chase happening, when a patrolman runs across Bains car. Bains loses him in traffic, but it's enough to point you to the airport, your next destination.
- Chekhov's Skill: You are required to attend to the firing range and practice shooting and making sure your gun is aligned. You then engage in a couple of gun fights that require you to have those sights fixed before hand, especially the last one with Jessie Bains."It appears that all the firing range practice has paid off."
- Interestingly enough, at the beginning of the game, Bonds actually has less-than-acceptable firing scores, which is what necessitates the shooting range practice.
- Cold Open: The game starts with another normal day at the office. Bonds shows up, gets his stuff from his locker, and works on his weapons training in order to pass his upcoming competency test. He's also told that Bains somehow managed to get a retrial, and he spends some time reviewing the file in preparation. Then Bains escapes, and the chase is on.
- Covers Always Lie: The cover has Bains holding Mary hostage and he has a full-beard, but in-game he only has a mustache.
- Creator Career Self-Deprecation: The opening has creator Jim Walls wanted "for excessive verbosity".
- Cultural Translation: The Japanese version has a closer to manga art style.
- Damsel in Distress: Marie is kidnapped by Bains halfway into the game. It's possible to not notice this (although the game won't properly progress until you do).
- Death by Irony: Try going through the metal detector at the airport while drawing your gun.
- This is if you don't show the guard your badge, of course. If you do, then he will let you through and allow you and Keith to keep your guns, apparently confident that cops won't try to hijack the plane.
- The Determinator: Jesse Bains will make good on his end statement in the original PQI and go after everyone involved in his conviction. Including Marie. His having gotten shot at the end of PQI won't stop him at all.
- Sonny is essentially the Light Side mirror of Bains in this department. Based on the narration and his few spoken lines, Bonds is methodical, professional, and properly detached throughout the entire game, but he will not stop for anything to bring Bains down and protect Marie.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The events take place over two days, with Bains breaking out of jail and escaping on the first day, and his Roaring Rampage of Revenge happening on the second day until Sonny guns him down.
- First Day from Hell: Luis Pate, a correctional officer who recently started working at the Lytton jail. He had the misfortune of being Bains' Human Shield and means of escape. He then gets killed off, as Bains assumes his identity in order to rent a car and catch a flight.
- From Bad to Worse: It starts bad when the chief of homicide informs you that Jessie Bains has managed to get a retrial based on an appeal about improper jury instruction. It gets worse when he informs you that Bains has escaped from prison and taken a correctional officer hostage. When driving to the jail house, Keith laments that "s#!* has hit the fan."
- It gets even worse as the dead bodies pile up, Marie gets captured, and you learn that Bains has a hit list. Bonds is the last name on the list, presumably because Bains wants Bonds to suffer.
- Goodies in the Toilets: One of the toilets at the airport has a gun in its tank that Bains discarded after he used it to assassinate a few victims. It must be found and picked up as evidence.
- I Have Many Names: Jessie Bains has many alias including: Death Angel, Frank Magpie, Frank Sloan and William Cole. He adds "Luis Pate" - the jailer's name - to the list to try to throw Bonds off his pursuit.
- I'll Kill You!: You can find a note in a trunk that contained the corpse of Woody from the first game that says "You're a DEAD man, Sonny Bonds!"
- Inspired by…: According to various PC gaming magazines in the 1980s, the case of going after Bains was based on the escape of a felon who got away from police custody in 1988.
- It's Personal: Clearly, Bains feels like his quest to kill everyone that testified against him is this. And while he's a Silent Protagonist, Bonds feels the same way in trying to stop him, especially after Marie is kidnapped. However, the game makes it clear that Bonds needs to not succumb to this in order to succeed: he needs to be methodical, meticulous, and most important of all, he needs to act only in self-defense, because if he makes it personal, Bains will get away or Sonny will go to jail.
- It's Up to You: Your partner Keith doesn't do a lot except for smoking and following you around. The worse offender is when you decide not to stop the terrorists - you get a message chewing you out for doing nothing. What about Keith?! He was sitting next to Sonny and didn't pull his gun either!
- Somewhat a theme of the whole game, really. Sonny does rely on other people, but ultimately, it's up to him to find the evidence in the river, to go into the hotel room after SWAT gasses it, and to take down Bains in the end.
- Last Lousy Point: Pretty standard for Sierra, and there's a number of things you can miss: most easily, you can incorrectly gather evidence, or miss evidence entirely (the scene at Cotton Cove requires so many different pieces of evidence to be collected and processed that you'll definitely miss at least onenote , and the trip to the airport immediately after is even worsenote . However, there's an incredibly minor subplot involving a Narcotics detective that's under investigation by Internal Affairs for drug use, which requires that you, without any prompting whatsoever, break into the personnel records for the department, find his file and learn about the IA investigation, and then warn him about it so that he checks into rehab at the end of the first day, instead of getting fired. The morality of this action (actively interfering in a criminal investigation) is never examined, and you'd damn well better do it if you want all of your points.
- Leitmotif: Bains has his own leitmotif that plays whenever he's around or you discover something bad that he did.
- Middle Eastern Terrorists: Sonny has to take out two Arabs who are trying to hijack his flight to Steelton in order to flee to Egypt.
- The Stoic: Bonds is completely unflappable, through vehicle dialogue with Keith will imply that Bonds is either fuming with anger or scared for Marie. Even at the end of the game, after fatally shooting Bains, the first thing he does is slowly and carefully check the body for a pulse, though the narration notes that his hands are shaking.
- Oh, Crap!: When Bains escapes and starts targeting people involved in the case from the last game.
- When looking at a certain note: "This is definitely NOT Marie's handwriting!"
- Oral Fixation: Your partner Keith smokes constantly while the captain of the homicide division keeps slurping ice cream. Pistachio flavour, specifically.
- Oxygen Meter: There comes a part where you need to swim underwater, and use proper equipment too. You also need to check the oxygen tanks to see if they're full of air before going under water, or you'll automatically surface and leave your diving mate alone, thus missing some evidence. And yes, you do have limited air, so save beforehand and act quickly!
- In the sewer, walking into an area filled with methane will generate a message stating you are having trouble breathing. Then a second warning says your vision is starting to go out. Soon, Sonny passes out fatally. Concentrated methane really IS that dangerous.
- Rage Against the Legal System: Bains wants revenge on those who put him in jail, namely Bonds and the three witnesses who testified against him.
- Real Men Wear Pink: At the airport, there's a woman with long golden hair wearing blue jeans and a pink jacket. She has her back turned away from you. When you talk to her,
you find out it's actually a bearded man and irritatedly ask you: "What's your problem man?!" Or, if you type "look at man", he'll turn about and actually turn out to be a woman. The character is a linked joke to Larry Laffer, who is sitting nearby and comments on the character. - Red Herring: When the clues point you towards the airport on the second day and you start checking flight passenger lists, there's a listing of Jessie Bains going to Houston, Texas. It's a trap: the actual name you need to look for is "Luis Pate", the correctional officer that Bains killed on the first day.
- Even earlier than that, the first day will have you follow Bains to the airport and find the car that he was using, implying that Bains may have hopped on a plane and flown the coop. But a quick check with the booking agents will reveal that no one using any of his available aliases or looking like him booked a ticket. He went to the airport to dump his stolen gun and rent a car.
- Reliably Unreliable Guns: Sonny's sidearm seems to needs its sights adjusted on a daily basis. Which is probably why he's switched sidearms again for the third game. There's several possible reasons why, but given the action of the second day, it's logical to assume that the sights get knocked out of whack a couple of times and need to be readjusted.
- Revenge of the Sequel: Police Quest 2 - The Vengeance.
- Romance Sidequest: Marie will ask Sonny to meet her at a restaurant. If you accept, you will gain points, and have an opportunity to earn extra points. You can play off the date casually for the maximum points, or kiss Marie three times to have them ditch the place entirely for some private time together, but you won't get the max points. You do need to kiss her twice for an important clue later, however.
- Say My Name: Before Metal Gear Solid, there was one game over that involved Sonny getting run over by a car and Keith shouting to him.Keith: Gee, Sonny, did YOU see THAT?! Sonny. Sonny? SONNY?!
- Steel Ear Drums: Big aversion. Always wear your ear protection before you fire your gun at the range. Otherwise, Jim himself will shout at you as to why he has to shout."FORGIVE ME FOR SHOUTING-"
- Summon Bigger Fish: When you finally manage to track down Bains's base of operations in Lytton, you call for backup, which brings in two SWAT officers armed with heavy weapons and tear gas. The fact that Bains isn't in Lytton anymore makes it a Negated Moment of Awesome.
- SWAT Team: A LPD SWAT team is called in when you call for backup to raid Bains' motel room.
- Take Your Time: Played With. The game starts with you showing up at work. You don't have to go right into the station. You can actually get in your personal car and drive to anywhere in the game you want before you even need to go there. Eventually a patrol car catches up with you and tells you to get to work.
- Taking You with Me: After Sonny guns down the terrorists, one of them activates a time bomb before dying.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": The captain's passwords to his secured computer files are named after ice cream and their related flavors. He really shouldn't put them down on a piece of paper so everyone can see them on his desk.
- Too Dumb to Live: Donald Colby. Good job getting into witness protection! So what's your new name? Oh, same as your old name? Well, at least you're not making a big deal of it. Oh, you started a new business? With your name? And sent business cards and advertisements to the city where the guy who wants you dead is located? Huh.note
- Trigger-Happy: Averted. Even if you know that Bains is about to ambush you at Cotton Cove, you cannot fire first. Bains has to shoot at you first, and then you can return fire. If you shoot first, Bains will end up killing you with his second shot. If you wait until Bains shoots first, he'll miss with the second shot and you'll scare him off with your return fire.
- Trademark Favorite Food: The chief of police love to eat ice cream, even at work.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Steelton's geographic location is not made clear. The Police Quest Casebook says that it's in New Mexico while the the VGA version of Police Quest 1 says that it's somewhere in California.
- Wire Dilemma: PQII has a plane hijacked by terrorists who claim to have a bomb on board. After dispatching them, you are then tasked to defuse the bomb. Thankfully, it isn't that well made, considering the manual you can get from one of their bodies titled "BUILDING YOUR OWN BOMB."
- Witless Protection Program: Escaped convict Jessie Bains is getting his revenge against the protagonist Sonny Bonds, the cop who arrested him, and the three witnesses who testified against him. One of the witnesses, Donald Colby, is under Witness Protection, and Bonds even gets a warning to him and the police of the city Colby is in. Nevertheless, Bains manages to kill the witness. Of course, it didn't help that Colby still used his real name and even opened a business under it, allowing Bains to easily track him.
- You Are Too Late: Sonny didn't make it to Marie's home on time to save her from Bains...
- Subverted with one of the witnesses. Sonny DID warn him about Bains, and can even call the local PD to keep an eye on him and tap his phone in case Bains calls him. The witness reassures you that he's under a witness protection program and is well hidden. Bains still got to him, unfortunately.
