Didn't I Say Drop IT?! Let's Play Police Quest 2: The Vengeance

Welcome to another Sierra On-line Let's Play! This time we're returning to the gritty, crime filled streets of Lytton as Police Detective, Homicide Sonny Bonds! You might remember Sonny Bonds from such Let's Plays as Drop it Dirtbag! Let's Play Police Quest.

Police Quest 2, as the name implies, is the sequel to Police Quest. The game picks up a year after the events of the first game and players once again take on the role of Sonny Bonds who has been promoted to a Homicide detective and begun dating former prostitute Sweet Checks Marie. This idyll is short lived though as Jesse Bains, aka The Death Angel escapes from prison and vows revengeance just revenge.

Introduction:



Front Box:



Back Box:



The Manual:

Police Quest 2

yessssssssssssssss

> bring sexy back_

mmmm, supports Tandy graphics

The game can't possibly live up to that box art so I should just stop now.

I am so fucking in. Sierra 4eva, Lucasarts never

The scuba diving scene was in this game? Huh, I thought it was in Police Quest III. And man, this is the game where you have to calibrate the sights on your gun after target practice or else, way the fuck later on, you'll miss all your shots during a shootout with some criminals. Fucking Police Quest.

That's why we love Sierra games!

There's two main issues with the sighting problem:

1. It's not really well-clued in-game. As a kid, I was able to work out most of the puzzles without any problems, but there REALLY isn't a clue to this one other than just poking around the police station and figuring out what's wrong. If memory serves, there's a line somewhere that Sonny hasn't been keeping up on his shooting scores, but there's no real way to go from that to adjusting your sights.

2. The first one isn't even all that bad - you walk into Bains in the park, get shot, and then presumably restore pretty quickly. The SECOND one, on the other hand, gives you little hint that your gun's working and comes at the end of sitting in an airplane for about 10 real-time minutes, making it likely that if you're only playing with one save game it's been overwritten (I'm almost certain that if you rely on ScummVM's autosave, you get screwed).

My other main issue is that the game never tells you about the CSI kit in your trunk. Which might be a good thing, because then it turns into an OCD display of opening the trunk, removing the kit, dusting EVERYTHING for prints, replacing the trunk, and closing the hood... at every fucking location. Inexplicably bad design.

Aside from that, the game is remarkably improved. New engine! No annoying driving! Otherwise streamlined procedural stuff! A plot seemingly stolen from every bad 80s cop revenge movie (which, in this case, is a massive positive)!

It's like someone at Sierra was actually... listening to the players!?!

Also: are you going to be showcasing the bizarro-world Japanese version?

I hadn't planned on it. But if I can find a copy I might? Though I don't know how I'd be able to progress through it.

It's mostly in English with in-game Japanese subtitles, if memory serves.

HG101 has a few choice screenshots if you want to know what type of weird, probably racist, stuff you're in for.

That, that is an amazing picture

They didn't just restrict it to the cutscenes - they went back and even changed the shot of Marie in Sonny's locker NO SHE'S NOT BEING RAPED BY A TENTACLE GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER

Anyway, looking forward to this one, since this is one of the Sierra games that I can play from memory without a problem.

Okay, beat it while commuting today. Turns out I have the game memorized, but not perfectly so - I only got a 285 out of 300. I know I messed up on the mugger in the park in Steelton (drew my gun instead of calling Keith on the radio, so I think that's at least two scoring opportunities gone), but I think I missed something else on the way as well.

Can I say again just how much better the engine is when the game pauses while you input commands?

I also spotted a MASSIVE plothole that I never caught onto as a kid, but I'll let that come up naturally during the course of proceedings.

But before we get on with the game we're going to have to deal with one thing...

The copy protection:



So, pull out your Police Quest 2 manuals and look for the name next to the picture that best matches our big face friend over there!

If you don't have a manual then clearly a thief! Also, probably a communist and maybe a sexual deviant! Turn yourself in to the proper authorities now!

If you did have your manual and you did type the name in you may continue reading this LP!

The game begins with our protagonist pulling in a tiny subcompact pulling into a parking space:



This can't be Sonny Bond though! Sonny Bond drives a groin-achingly manly corvette!



See! It isn't your some sissy blonde in Police Quest 2. Let's get a look around



Lots of people have "sports cars" and partners named "Marie." This could be anyone!

We pull the keys from the ignition and open the glovebox, remember this is a Sierra game so we will be opening everything! Not only things we can see but even those we can't!



A business card! That should clear everything up! We grab it and the registeration (probably needed for some sort of obscure DMV puzzle later on):



NOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOooooooooooooooO!

I can understand keeping the hair blonde, it's fabulous and Sonny looks great with it. But, the "sports car" too?! Not the "sports car!"



To add insult to injury the damn registration isn't even used for anything... Welp, time to go to work, I guess... If there is even a reason to ever get out of this car in public where people might recognize you...



Unable to bear facing his co-workers Sonny walks out into the street:




I guess saving face isn't an option... Into work we go:

That's the main lobby. If we go over to the right we see:



Before we dig in to this let's take a look again at what we got!




Not much to go on with our inventory... Let's check out the Lockers?



Sonny tries a couple of the lockers but doesn't know his combination... Maybe its written down somewhere? Maybe at his desk? If you recall from the intro Sonny is now homicide detective so we should head over there:



How quaint a single computer for the entire department... As we make our way to the desk:




"Indeed! How dare our court system have measures to ensure a fair trial! What a terrible waste of resources!"

Sonny takes a seat at his desk and start looking for a clue as to what his locker combo might be...




"and you mine!" Sonny says loudly hoping everyone in the office will overhear it! Nothing in the desk... Maybe in his inbox?




But your partner just told you about it!

Despite searching through the desk we don't find anything that might tell us what our locker combo might be...

As Sonny leaves the office:




"God damn it! God damn our nation's attempt to ensure a fair trial for everyone! Why can't we just lock up/kill the people we tell them to?!"

Out in the foyar, I begin to panic and go through all my items again looking for something that will tell me how to get into Sonny's locker... I look at the business card again, try and open the wallet and then finally stumble upon the correct phrase to look at the BACK of my business card:



Huzzah! Into the lockers! Sonny's is the first one on the left hand wall:




"heh, heh, everyone is fooled"

Sonny grabs all his gear and leaves:



All right! We got all of our gear! Let's go do something...? Sonny isn't getting a lot of direction here... Hrm, what to do!

Wait!

I know.

Let's shoot things!



We ask Ken for some ear protectors and heads in:




We fire off a few shots and check our work:



It does look that way, yes:

Uh, okay. What the hell does this do? I guess we're just supposed to randomly push buttons here? Then shoot some and see if that works? Thankfully I know that you need to use the arrow keys. Also, because it told us low and to the left I know to hit the up key and the right key a random number of times and then re-shoot, so I do that.

We put in a new target, push it back, raise the gun, shoot some, push the button and check the target:



We adjust the sight again, pushing the right arrow key a few times and then do it all again:



Yay! If you've been reading the thread you know this is important. Cause, later on you can lose the game because you didn't do this. The game will never explicitly tell you to do this, nor will it explicitly tell you this is why you can not beat the game.

They were still working out adventure games at this point, right?

Sonny walks out of the shooting range his pants a little stiffer, guns will do that to you, and gives the protectors back to Ken:



Ken also gives us some ammo to top us off. On our way back to our office we stop at this desk:



Yeah, this one. The one you can't really see!

We open our bin and:



Why wasn't this in our locker? Who knows? That makes too much sense. Why was it here? hidden away where no one is likely to find it? Who knows?

In other news, can you believe Jim Wall's kickstarter campaign failed?

Yeah, I totally can too.

Anyway, the kit is full of important stuff we need to solve crimes:

We walk back into the Homicide department:



"I did not see this obvious and poorly telegraphed story twist at all!"



"I can't believe it?!"



*faints*

"Um, boss. I know this guy just escaped jail, and he took one of our own hostage, and you've put me in charge of the manhunt. But, can I root around on your desk for a second?"



"Thanks boss"

I forgot to do it our first time in so we check the back bulletin now:



(That's the only hint you get that you should go to the shootng range and use your gun)

We grab some keys and then head over to the file cabinet:



We grabs Bains file and then a pic from the file:



We close the file and head back to the Captain's desk...

What happens next? Find out next week! When hopefully this game gets interesting!

Don't hold your breath...

I'm curious how you horribly die if you don't put on the ear protectors.

Guess, I'll have to find out

So is the score thing like a completion rate, or something?

Obviously, you go deaf, don't hear a fellow officer telling you to get out of the way of his target, and get shot to death.

I notice the name you used for copy-protection is also the name of Bains's murder victim. Coincidence, or does it always use the name rolled for copy-protection?

*sigh* Kids these days...

The best answer is "kinda." You can certainly beat the game with a lower-than-perfect score (as I mentioned above, I beat it last week with a 285/300, which probably should have been about a 295 had I not been a moron), and it doesn't tweak the ending.

In fact, if you never pick up the field kit (which, to this day, I remain absolutely convinced has NO clue in the game, unlike even the completely vague hint to go to the shooting range), you can probably beat the game with a score that's roughly 200 / 300. It's scripted well enough to not screw you over completely if you don't notice it, which is a positive in its favour (other Sierra games would almost certainly have done so).

I bet there's a few King's Quest games where the ONLY way to win the game is with a perfect score*, but that's not the case in this one.

* - Although there, you usually can lose a perfect score but beat the game by resorting to violent means to solve problems.

Nope. There's roughly 16 different mug shots you can get. That being said, Bains and Tasselli do seem to turn up more than most. We always thought it had something to do with where you hit "Enter" during the opening sequence, but I really doubt that had anything to do with it.

It's amazing this series' would-be spiritual successor didn't attract enough fans. Actually, no, it's not.

Also, my recent reading of Michael Connelly books suggests Captain is WAY too high a rank for supervisor of a small town Homicide desk, that really should be a Lieutenant. Just out of curiosity I checked the org chart of Riverside PD, a city the fictional setting of Lyton wouldn't be any larger than, it looks they don't even have an exclusive Homicide unit. Better yet, the intro movie states the Lyton drug trade was obliterated when Bonds arrested one drug dealer. Oh well, that's what you get when you have your game about serious police work made by one of the CHPs. Jackoffs.

We last left Sonny in his office where he had just learned that Jesse Bains, Lytton's drug lord that he sent up river a year ago, was back in town for a re-trail! If that isn't bad enough turns out Bains has escaped and taken a jailer hostage! He's got to find him and quick!

But first let's see what happens if you practice shooting your gun without wearing ear protection:



Sonny fires off a few more shots...



Yup, five shots fired without ear protection will permanently damage your ears and force you to retire. Who knew? Back to our story in progress:






First stop? The jail:











Damn! did he just say "s#!*"?! What's the rating on this game?




I hope you like radio chatter. You're going to be reading a lot of it! We show up at the Jail and Keith goes off to smoke while Sonny goes into to ask some questions:

We get buzzed into the jail and before we can een say anything the jailer blurts out:





"Tell me about the car"



"Tell me about the escape"





"No, you dirtbag! Tell me about the escape by Bains!"





Sonny tries to ask him a few more questions but Saxton doesn't seem to know anything else. He goes back to the jailer and asks for Bains' file:






"I'm shocked Bains was never in a hair metal band..." Bonds grabs a copy og the mugshot and returns the file to the jailer. He next asks for the correctional officer's file:





After looking it over he hands it back, goes back outside, retrieves his gun, and gets back in the car:






With no other leads Sonny heads back to the office: