/-/S'pht-Translator-Active/-/


Evil Volunteers: Cryo Me To Sleep/Magrathea
Posted By: Mark LevinDate: 1/28/04 4:20 p.m.

One hundred and thirty-nine years later, you awaken in a cryogenic storage chamber somewhere else in the galaxy. You have yet another new commander, named Felix, and you're going on a brief mission that should be good exercise for the upcoming assault on the Mystics. This ship here has far less to explore than Mangle Him Really did; all you can do is charge up, gather your weapons, and read the briefing. On the way out, take a look at the side of the large rectangle hanging down from the ceiling for a bit of old-school humor.

The briefing, delivered by a person named Felix, mentions "the marine's resort" before going into a bit of a history lesson. We do remember those drones, and they're very near their appearance in the game. The text implies that a great deal has happened between the Humans/S'pht and the Mystics (which is hardly surprising when 139 years have passed), and that we know somewhat more about the Mystics than we do before.

Since that's a very short level, we may as well continue...

Magrathea is not a very advanced level, except for some isolated spots like the "landing" shuttlecraft at the beginning. It was made by the same person who did Ten Thousand Spoons/BWGAPS, and while it's a more expansive and less linear (and better) level it still displays some of the same flaws, and invents some new ones with its "busy" texturing and generally cramped spaces. I did like some of the little touches, though, like the working jacuzzi and the complete luxury suite at one end.

The mission here is to destroy the facility by overloading its lava-powered geothermal generator, wiping out a large cache of classified information, the invading Pfhor, and the last copy of Tycho in existence. The Pfhor here are not the same Pfhor you've been fighting before; the terminal makes mysterious hints about major changes sweeping the Pfhor empire. However, Pfhor military R&D seems as healthy as ever, as they have deployed new types of Fighters, Enforcers, and Juggernauts. The Enforcers use a red color scheme, which was present in the original game but not used, move far quicker than before, and attack you with a flamethrower that fires so slowly (compared to a flame cyborg or the Tozt) that it's utterly useless. The Juggernaut fires fusion overload bolts instead of alien weapon bolts, and seems to have a tiny fraction of normal Jug health. As far as I can tell, the only behavioral change for the Fighters is that their staff bolts emerge from the top of the staff instead of the bottom, allowing them to fire at you when standing neck-deep in water. This is all the Pfhor have to show for 139 years of progress? :) Also, the drones on this level will explode and do damage when you kill them; I personally was surprised that the M2 drones *didn't* do damage since their death animation really looks like they should.

There are a few secrets here. In two places, you will be fighting on areas open the sky. Grenade hop over the low walls to get to ammo caches including a shotgun and 2x and 3x powerups. If you smash the circuits to the right of the westmost switch, you will open a teleporter in the aforementioned suite which gives you a second shotgun and some more shells.

[ Post a Reply | Message Index | Read Prev Msg | Read Next Msg ]
Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

Evil Volunteers: Cryo Me To Sleep/MagratheaMark Levin 1/28/04 4:20 p.m.
     Re: Evil Volunteers: Cryo Me To Sleep/MagratheaMark Levin 1/28/04 4:29 p.m.
     Re: Evil Volunteers: Cryo Me To Sleep/MagratheaSteve Levinson 1/28/04 5:44 p.m.
           Re: Evil Volunteers: Cryo Me To Sleep/MagratheaAdam Ashwell 1/29/04 1:03 p.m.
                 Re: Evil Volunteers: Cryo Me To Sleep/MagratheaD-M.A. 1/30/04 12:05 a.m.
     Re: Evil Volunteers: Cryo Me To Sleep/MagratheaAndrew "Oosha" Nagy 1/28/04 7:17 p.m.
     Re: Evil Volunteers: Cryo Me To Sleep/MagratheaDr. John Sumner 1/29/04 7:43 a.m.

[ Post a Reply | Message Index | Read Prev Msg | Read Next Msg ]
Pre-2004 Posts

 

 

Your Name:
Your E-Mail Address:
Subject:
Message:

If you'd like to include a link to another page with your message,
please provide both the URL address and the title of the page:

Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:

If necessary, enter your password below:

Password:

 

 

Problems? Suggestions? Comments? Email maintainer@bungie.org

Marathon's Story Forum is maintained with WebBBS 5.12.