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Re: Siege of Nor'Koh Volunteers: Nor'Korh Compound
Posted By: Steve LevinsonDate: 1/5/04 2:34 p.m.

In Response To: Siege of Nor'Koh Volunteers: Nor'Korh Compound (Mark Levin)

: The readme reflects FM's trademark confrontational style, and
: provides a bit of story background. One important story item to notice for
: later is that the player apparently is not the Marine from the original
: games.

Funny - I never got that part when I played the scenario previously, but maybe I never read the readme in detail before. Actually, although there is nothing to suggest that the player is the same marine from the original Marathon trilogy, there really isn't anything to say that the player isn't the same Mjolnir Mark IV cyborg either. You certainly have all of the same "superhuman" capabilities so, if you aren't one and the same, there either must have been more than 10 Mark IV's produced, or maybe you're a Mark III or a Mark V. If our player in SoNK is indeed the same marine who goes on to play Evil, then at least there is nothing to refute the possibility that, having survived the Marathon, liberated Lh'owon and restored balance in the universe, you chose to volunteer for this critical mission rather than to retire gracefully.

: Fortunately, I am playing on Normal, not a "sucky looser difficulty like
: Kindergarten". I'm also, in the interest of accurately reproducing
: the scenario, using the original Marathon 2 version of the scenario, not
: the Infinity version, and the modified Shapes file I used for the M2
: Volunteers run.

And I'm playing on TC as usual, and I'm using the Infinity version. I've played it both ways multiple times and there really is no comparison - we may all love M2, but the textures really sucked.

: Another important thing to remember about this scenario is that it's a
: product of its time. The maps aren't going to be as complex as the ones we
: just finished in Tempus Irae. The views are simpler, there are fewer
: details, and so on. Of course, the gameplay is the important part.

And Frigidman will keep us busy!

: A very commonly used trick on this level is hiding switches behind slightly
: darker panels on outdoor walls.

I hated this - the first time I played I just couldn't figure this out - I spent days searching for a missed switch that would let me get past the first step.

: One area I
: especially liked was the "overpass" inside the compound, where
: the player must climb into a tube running over a large area while fighting
: off enemies in the area below.

Ahem - some of us are a bit more methodical - clearing out the enemies before entering the tube in the first place, then going back down to clear out the new ones that appear. The visual effect is very nice, though. There are a lot of enforcers on this level with limited ammo at times - dual magnums are the best!

One of the more interesting things I had never realized before is that it's possible to gain access to that secret cave area early in the game through an easily overlooked secret door. I had hoped that this might actually provide a bypass around the entire task of clearing the underground areas but, alas, apparently not. Which is just as well, as the player encounters one of the neat tricks introduced in this scenario - the cavern layout changes partway through so that the player cannot return the way they came. If this was not the first time this was done in a scenario, no one did it as perfectly before - I honestly couldn't figure out what had happened the first time I played since the transition occurs so quickly without a hint of what was before. I also like the way, at the end, the player is denied access to the computer network until they have smashed 5 circuits, at which point access is granted. I guess the Pfhor computer or AI finally got the message.

Frigidman definitely has a weird sense of humor. In the upper cave area with the lava yetis, there is a termianl that is visible, but not accessible. It looks like the player should be able to reach it, but there is just no way - no secret path leading to those closed doors. In Forge, you can see Frigidman's response to this - scribbled by the terminal is, "Ha Ha".

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Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

Siege of Nor'Koh Volunteers: Nor'Korh CompoundMark Levin 1/5/04 11:13 a.m.
     Re: Siege of Nor'Koh Volunteers: Nor'Korh CompoundD-M.A. 1/5/04 12:15 p.m.
           Re: Siege of Nor'Koh Volunteers: Nor'Korh Compoundelliott 1/5/04 12:46 p.m.
                 STILL NOT WORKING! HELP!!!D-M.A. 1/6/04 5:17 a.m.
                       Re: STILL NOT WORKING! HELP!!!elliott 1/6/04 7:23 a.m.
                             Re: STILL NOT WORKING! HELP!!!D-M.A. 1/7/04 11:42 a.m.
                                   Re: STILL NOT WORKING! HELP!!!Steve Levinson 1/8/04 4:37 a.m.
                                         Re: STILL NOT WORKING! HELP!!!D-M.A. 1/8/04 6:25 a.m.
                       Re: STILL NOT WORKING! HELP!!!thermoplyae 1/6/04 11:22 a.m.
     Re: Siege of Nor'Koh Volunteers: Nor'Korh CompoundSteve Levinson 1/5/04 2:34 p.m.
           Re: Siege of Nor'Koh Volunteers: Nor'Korh CompoundMark Levin 1/5/04 2:42 p.m.
                 Re: Siege of Nor'Koh Volunteers: Nor'Korh CompoundSteve Levinson 1/6/04 5:34 p.m.
     Re: Siege of Nor'Koh Volunteers: Nor'Korh CompoundKeith Palmer 1/5/04 3:12 p.m.
     Re: Siege of Nor'Koh Volunteers: Nor'Korh Compoundelliott 1/9/04 8:20 a.m.

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Pre-2004 Posts

 

 

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