Roger Wilco faces his greatest threat yet: INSURANCE SALESMEN!
Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge (also simply known as Space Quest II) is the second game in the Space Quest series, released in 1987. After the events of the first game, Roger Wilco is transferred to Xenon Orbital Station 4 and promoted to head janitor. However, an evil alien named Sludge Vohaul captures Roger for foiling his plan in the first game. Roger manages to escape, but realizes that Vohaul has another plan to obliterate Xenon. It's up to Roger to foil his plan at all costs.This video game provides examples of:
- Anti-Frustration Features: The remake adds a blue dot in the interaction and item icons to let you know where exactly your mouse is pointing.
- Artistic License – Chemistry: In the restroom in Vohaul's asteroid, if you light the lighter there, both the restroom and a large chunk of asteroid surrounding it gets obliterated in a gigantic fart-fueled explosion, killing everyone (including Roger) inside. Despite the Game Over screen mocking you for not "paying methane a little more respect in the future", let's just say METHANE DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY! Unless the aliens also pass gas consisting of hydrogen. Of course, it's played for laughs and a rather humorous way to die.
- Born Lucky: Roger's only real claim to fame. He's unfortunate enough to get the attention of people with significantly more power and anger that want to make him suffer, but he's lucky enough to get a couple of breaks that let him turn things around and succeed, in spite of himself.
- Bridge Logic: How you get across a chasm in Space Quest II.
- Bubblegloop Swamp: You have to navigate one in the game.
- Caught in a Snare: Roger accidentally trips a hunter's snare (at least you can't see it beforehand), and is stuck there until the hunter who set it eventually comes and takes him down, intending to bring him back to his lair as lunch.
- Chekhov's Gun: The random crap in Roger's locker and pockets at the beginning of the game turns out to be pretty useful to surviving on a hostile jungle world, but only because of Roger's knack for lateral thinking.
- Clone Army: Vohaul plans on sending one to Xenon as revenge. An army of life-insurance salesmen.
- Colony Drop: Roger causes one to happen with Vohaul's asteroid, as upon killing Vohaul, the mad scientist decides to self-destruct his fortress, which sends it burning up in Labion's atmosphere. Roger decides it's probably not wise to stay to witness the full impact.
- Conspicuously Light Patch: After the hover craft crashes, there is a patch of grass with a square outline in lighter pixels which hides a Pit Trap. Trying the command "look at trap" will have the narrator tell you to stop being paranoid.
- Dark Lord on Life Support: Sludge provides the page image, being permanently connected to a life support system in his base.
- Death World: Labion, where both flora and fauna are carnivorous.
- Escape Pod: At the end. A crappy one which has barely enough oxygen for a few minutes (due to a malfunction), prompting Roger to opt for becoming a Human Popsicle in order to survive.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: Labion is pretty hostile. Steep cliffs, deadly swamps, Vohaul's apeoid guards, and Roger is on the ass of the food chain. Though there ARE some creatures who will warm up to you if you save them. Then, when you think you were off the Death World, you get summoned to Vohaul's fortress.
- Evil Cripple: Sludge Vohaul has a habit of testing his experiments on himself, and the repeated mistakes have taken their toll. Not quite a full-blown Dark Lord on Life Support yet though, as he is still capable of enough nuisance on his own, and inspires more
Squick than pity. - Evil Overlord: Vohaul is this, with his Doomsday Device, Supervillain Lair, and hordes of Evil Minions.
- Evil Plan: "Xenon's scientific community shunned me and called me mad? They shall suffer the invasion of my fearsome cloned life-insurance salesmen! Muahahaha!" Overall, far less nasty than the Star Generator, but far more horrible.
- Also: "Roger Wilco is making fun of me on TV in front of the whole universe? This Is Unforgivable! Henchmen, Bring Him to Me so I may gloat!"
- Fan Remake: Received one from Infamous Adventures, updating it to have the look and icon interface of later games in the series, as well as expanding on some elements of the original and adding a new minigame. The comic book that came with it about what Roger had been up to between the two games was also reworked into a voiced intro sequence.
- Farts on Fire: The bathroom on Vohaul's asteroid has a lot of flatulence. So much so that if you light the lighter there, you will cause a MASSIVE explosion killing Roger.
- Fat Bastard: One of Roger's nicknames for Vohaul is "His Lardness". Quite justified too.
- Faux Affably Evil: Vohaul does crack a few jokes in Roger's presence, but his harmful intent is quite clear. If anything, he dabs into Bond Villain Stupidity.
- Faux Horrific: Sludge's master plan to get revenge on Xenon is by unleashing a clone army of... door-to-door salesmen. Roger is suitably horrified.
- Final Dungeon Preview: At the beginning, when Roger is captured by Vohaul's goons, you get a sneak peek of his asteroid fortress.
- Glowing Gem: Needed to navigate caves safely.
- Instant Home Delivery: One item you start with is a completed order form for a Labion Terror Beast mating whistle. When you find a mailbox, and put it in, presto — you get delivered the whistle in a mere few seconds.
- It's Personal: Invoked by Vohaul on Roger for thwarting his plans with the Sariens and the Star Generator, though he makes zero effort to kill Roger, opting instead for making him suffer.
- Insurmountable Waist-High Fence: The wild maze full of alien tentacles: if you so much as barely touch one of the tentacles, the head of the alien will come and eat you. Annoyingly, the tentacles are so low to the ground that realistically one could carefully tiptoe over them. You also have to navigate this maze twice.
- Mad Scientist: Vohaul. Inhumane experiments on himself? Check. Cool and Unusual Punishment? Check. Doomsday Device? Check. Actually shunned by his homeworld and called mad? Check. Also see Evil Overlord.
- The Maze:
- The root monster which you must navigate to get something you need. As mentioned above, the biggest issue is that touching any of the roots will get you killed.
- While navigating through an underground cave, you can only see a few steps in front or behind because the only illumination is a gem you carry with you. Take a wrong turn in one particular place and the Cave Squid will eat you. Mapping it out on paper is a must.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Oh, Vohaul. See, he bankrolled the Sariens last game so they could wreak havoc on his behalf with the stolen Star Generator. Wilco manages to survive the assault, stop the Sariens, blow up the Generator, and foul up the plan. Vohaul wants to make sure it doesn't happen again, so he sends the mooks to capture Wilco and make him suffer and be out of the way before he can screw things up...which leads to Wilco escaping via dumb luck, and even when he would have wished for nothing better than to just escape, Vohaul goes and summons him to his base, culminating in not just fouling up Vohaul's plans, but killing the man himself! If Vohaul had just left Wilco alone, then the plan probably would have gone off without a hitch.
- Nonstandard Game Over: You can be fired for wearing your EVA suit indoors, which loses the game but not Roger's life.
- No OSHA Compliance: No matter where you go, there are no railings protecting you from falling. This includes your Orbital station, the shuttle launchpad and Vohaul's fortress. Justified in the last two as Vohaul has a complete disregard for the safety of his henchmen.
- Press Start to Game Over: You can die on the first screen by moving to the right and falling off the space station to your death. Or get FIRED by your rat bastard boss a minute later. Or fall off the elevator in the same screen as your boss if you don't get fired. While you get mocked for the first two, the last one gives a special message if you die ("[X]" is how long you've played, usually one or two minutes):You're into the game barely [X] minutes and already you've nimbly stepped to your death. How far down your family tree did knuckles last play an important role in locomotion? Watch your step next time.
- Professor Guinea Pig: Vohaul used to have a habit of testing his experiments on himself. He's given it up, due to having turned himself into an Evil Cripple, so he's delighted to see the miniaturization ray working properly when he finally gets around to testing it on Roger.
- Self-Deprecation: One of the death blurbs:Another senseless tragedy. You can help prevent this. Vote Yes on Lobotomies for Adventure Game Designers.
- Shout-Out:
- Vohaul's Guards on Labion look like they're from Planet of the Apes.
- The Alien who will french-kiss you and give you death by Chest Burster. The ending, involving a race to the escape pod with flashing lights and sirens and then going into a sleep chamber on the pod hoping to be picked up sometime is all straight from Alien as well.
- After passing out after getting caught in a snare, Roger has a dream where he's Larry Laffer.
- Something We Forgot: Roger can escape Vohaul's fortress in the endgame without cancelling the launch of the cloned life insurance salesmen. Predictably, this doesn't turn out super fun for planet Xenon.
- Speak Friend and Enter: The Labion natives tell you to "say the word" when you're ready to leave for the next area. Yes, you literally have to say "the word" or "word" to move on.
- Squashed Flat: On Vohaul's asteroid fortress, the floor waxer will squish Roger into a perfect pancake. Some falling deaths will do so as well. (One particular death at the chasm will give Roger "the dimensions of a manhole cover".)
- Super Villain Lair: Vohaul's asteroid fortress orbiting around Labion.
- Undignified Death: Vohaul, instead of getting a big confrontation with Roger, dies of asphyxiation when Roger shuts off his life support.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Vohaul turns out to be guilty of this on three counts.
- He decides to have Roger perform hard labor in his Labion mines, instead of killing him. This is what gives him the opportunity to grab the shuttle and leave Labion.
- Once Roger is tractor-beamed in his fortress, he could have sent henchmen to kill him right away. He did not, instead letting Roger muck around and find ways to conquer his numerous death traps. Even the game points this one out after the ship lands.
- In the end, Roger faces Vohaul, and falls victim to Cool and Unusual Punishment with the shrinking beam. However, this is exactly what does Vohaul in, when Roger is small enough to slip inside his life support system, and turn it off!
