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RED Volunteers: Need more Duct Tape...
Posted By: Mark LevinDate: 3/28/04 10:04 a.m.

RED lets your head above the water for a moment, then shoves you back down again in an even more difficult third level. There are regenerating Beasts and Beetles here, only 1x health, and a very long time before you find a pattern buffer.

Read the terminal, and see what happened to the scoutship and the rest of your team during the 2 days while you recovered. The terminal trails off in a string of garbage, containing the important but barely recognizable phrase "too late JOSHUA ALREADY HERE". But the shit really hits the fan thanks to a Tag section hidden in the terminal- The Organics have contaminated your own ship, and there's nowhere to hide. Grab what you can carry and get out! (In the RED demo, which was released before tag sections were discovered, the terminal did nothing, and attempting to open the door was what triggered the attack. There's still a leftover switch inside the fake door, and if you press it before reading the terminal the attack happens). Leave the room through the hole in the wall and kill the Organics (a few Beetles and a Beast) waiting in there. This level is extremely dark and startling, with ambient sounds formed from pasting together normal combat sounds, giving a very good impression of being surrounded by battle. Some of these sounds are very similar to monster activation sounds; depending on how you look at it these make the level even more tense and frightening or they're just annoying and violate the consistency of the game.

Since I forgot to do this on the last level, we'll take a moment to look at the Beast. The third form of Organic development, these guys run just as fast as you do, with a four-legged motion reminiscent of a big cat. If they get close to you, they bite hard and fast. Take them out with the pulse rifle at long range and the flamethrower close up. As John Sumner noted, they can be beserked, use this to your advantage whenever possible.

When you leave the relative safety of the medical area, you'll be charged by a group of Beasts roaming the hallways. Take advantage of the fact that they don't like to follow you into the hole in the wall to kill them with the pulse rifle. Then, start circling the level counterclockwise. The first stop is a very nasty trap in the lounge that used to contain the marine- Tab the door, and a huge firefight will break out inside and send exploding Beetles flying out at you. Take out any beasts roaming the halls and head into the second crack in the wall, in the south.

In here we encounter another unfortunate bug in the Marathon engine, as the transparent textures will block your shots sometimes. There are a few Beasts, Beetles, and even a Turtle down here, so move slowly until you see what's ahead. Eventually, you come to a sort of blob in the far south which is actually another door. In this room is a huge pile of Beetles- mercury them, then take out the Beast and the Turtle across the room (be careful not to go near him while fighting the Beast, or he'll kill you from behind before you realize what happened) and hit the narrow switch nearest the door. This will raise a "flat screen" terminal near the door you entered by. Ian is not having a good day; your ship is in as bad shape as the Pfhor scoutship. Your mission is to destroy the ship by overloading the power core, which you'll do over the next few levels. Next, hit the switch to the right of the window, then turn *off* the one to the *left* of the window, then hit the one near the door to exit the room.

I had a lot of trouble doing the next step, because I got the switches wrong- Head out through the opposite side of the room and enter the backup power control station. In here are two of a new enemy: A gold Beast that spits fireballs and is immune to the flamethrower. Kill them, and hit the large switch to activate the backup power unit. Lights throughout the level turn on, the switch to the Hydroponics section is activated, and a... thing becomes visible in the reactor core. The radiation in there should be enough to kill anything alive, but whatever it is looks almost... human.

I don't know why Ian decided to keep the terminal and PB here deactivated, since a pattern buffer would be reaaaally good right about now.But, no, you've got to do more work to get it. Head back out to the hydroponics area, being careful not to get ambushed by any golden beasts that may have run off when you opened the control room. (You may want to drop back into the medical area and pick up another red health).

In the hydroponics area, you're greeted by a few Beetles, some much-needed ammo, a pair of switches, and 2 terminals (the panels on either side of the thing in the center). The right terminal records a failure to purify the ship, aborted by Science Officer Joshua Rillings. The left terminal records the suspicions of Rillings' assistant and the infection of the ship. The switch that can be tabbed opens the door to the hydroponics section again; the one that must be punched serves 2 purposes. It opens the exit of the level (so you can skip out right now if you want), and it also opens the door to the cargo bay where Ian briefed you on the first level. In this area is a huge pile of Beasts and a few exploding Beetles; kill everything and pick up a large amount of ammo and an uplink chip. Head back through the catacombs, plug the chip into the control room, and finally recharge and save your game (it took me at least 5 tries to get this far). The terminal in this room is odd because it gives you instructions for a task you had already performed by the time you were able to read it; perhaps Ian felt the level wasn't hard enough when you had proper instructions and a pattern buffer.

Jump in the elevator and pull out your flamethrower, you're going upstairs...

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Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

RED Volunteers: Need more Duct Tape...Mark Levin 3/28/04 10:04 a.m.
     Re: RED Volunteers: Need more Duct Tape...Ernie 3/28/04 11:03 a.m.
           Re: RED Volunteers: Need more Duct Tape...Steve Levinson 3/28/04 11:13 a.m.
                 Re: RED Volunteers: Need more Duct Tape...Andrew Nagy 3/28/04 3:21 p.m.
                       Re: RED Volunteers: Need more Duct Tape...Mark Levin 3/28/04 3:49 p.m.
           Re: RED Volunteers: Need more Duct Tape...Elliott 3/28/04 12:04 p.m.
                 Re: RED Volunteers: Need more Duct Tape...Mark Levin 3/28/04 2:39 p.m.

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Pre-2004 Posts

 

 

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