Nerds That Geek Game Review – ‘Space Quest II: Vohaul’s Revenge’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

​If there’s one thing that science fiction has taught me through the years, it’s that, every good hero needs a true nemesis. The kind of villain that knows how to get to the hero and rattle them in incredible fashion and challenge the hero and push them in ways they never thought possible. We’ve seen it in Star Trek since Khan was able to get the best of Kirk from time to time and heck, even the always logical and collected Picard had the Borg around to bring him to his proverbial knees.
 
But what matters more for the sake of today’s review, is that the Two Guys from Andromeda (Scotty Murphy and Mark Crowe, the creators of this beloved saga), understood the importance of having this kind of villain in the Space Quest series and rather than draw out the introduction of a powerhouse monster of the course of a few sequels, they dropped a nasty villain right into Roger Wilco’s lap right away since the second entry in this magnificent saga, Space Quest II: Vohaul’s Revenge, saw Roger facing off against the man that would make his life hell on several occasions over the course of the series.
 
Yet, what makes this first encounter between the two of them so incredible, is the sheer fact that it was all handled in epic fashion in this game. For this one picks up shortly after The Sarien Encounter and it doesn’t take long to see our titular hero kidnapped by some mysterious men and accidentally deposited on an alien world and that’s where the fun begins since Roger is forced to use his somewhat dim wits to survive this environment and escape this planet and once he does, we finally get the showdown in question when Roger and Sludge Vohaul, the man responsible for the Sarien incident, face off at last with the fate of Xenon in the balance.
 
However, what’s equally impressive is that the game finds a way to up the ante as the story progresses and that extends to the showdown in question since it’s handled in tense and ultra-creative fashion and even after said showdown comes to a close, there’s still more danger and intensity to be found as Roger has to work to escape Vohaul’s asteroid lair and well, I simply loved every single second of this game because it was just so incredibly unique to say the least. After all, most adventure games like this want to show off all kinds of incredible locales and offer up a grand and sweeping story along the way, but this is awesome thanks to its simplicity.
 
We only have a handful of places to go to, the plot is laser focused on a cat and mouse game revolving around Vohaul’s vendetta and my goodness, is it a blast to play. Because it really is intense and entertaining and to top it all off, it stays true to the franchise’s roots by offering up some wonderful sight gags that pay homage to the sci-fi genre as a whole, and the ones that stand out in my mind, are the Alien references that show up in the third act, specifically the xenomorph with lips that loves to deliver a deadly kiss and well, when all is said and done, this was just a wonderful entry in a wonderful franchise. Because it’s hard to make a computer game that feels like an epic film, but this one pulled it off, and the saga wasn’t done with wowing us just yet since the next entry in this series, had more surprises up its sleeve…

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