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RED Volunteers: Looking for Floaters
Posted By: Mark LevinDate: 4/8/04 10:13 a.m.

The next stage of your pursuit of Michael opens with a bang as you are surrounded by Metalloids in an abandoned subway station. Kill everyone, save on the pay phone, then pick up the 1x canister in the supervisor's office (or whatever). Smash the 3 working screens, this opens the door across the tracks. The neat animated static outside the door is done with a rapidly oscillating platform. The map writing promises "This is the coolest yet- DIE", although the level's difficulty is similar to the more moderate previous level. The architecture, however, is the most confusing we've yet encountered, and this level is very easy to get lost in.

In the next tunnel, you'll be attacked by a group of sphere bots. Use the motion tracker to locate and kill the Gunner as soon as you drop down the hole to the east, then you're in the sewer proper. This level has some very nice effects, such as the rotating fan shaft. The pulse rifle is actually useful down here, since the enemies are usually at long range and like to stay on the ledges, but watch out for the small army of head bots that appears if you grab the ammo cache in front of you. Head north, exploring the various side rooms available, until you reach a terminal. Watch out for the ambush as you approach it, then look at an incredibly complicated diagram of the level which actually does explain which switches to hit, but I find it very difficult to read. Then, head to the wall south of the terminal and navigate the vibrating tanks- there's a 2x recharger in here (thank god). You get out by walking up to the gray wall, which lets you into another room.

The design of this level can be quite confusing: There are a set of ladders that will let you into an upper level which is placed exactly overlapping the lower one. As usual, this renders the map view pretty much useless until you remember what features are on which level when exploring.

Once you've killed everything obvious on the upper deck, you can start to solve the level proper. Find the room with a balcony overlooking a pool; there's a shotgun in here. Shoot the circuits. Now, you have to do a little underwater exploring, so pull out the pulse rifle which will work under liquids. At the south end of the southwest corner of the upper level, there's a small space you can sink down into, do so. Go south, then turn right and sink into the floor, then right again- after a very long swim up, you'll find an oxygen charger, a pattern buffer, and the door you have to open to continue in the level. Charge, save, and jump back into the maze.

Continue along the corridor to the east and you'll find a room full of Metalloids, but don't worry, they can't attack underwater. Pulse them all, then swim up the ceiling shaft in the north (it won't appear on the map) and get back into a dry tunnel. Shoot the circuits in the large room and head on back. The southwest exit from the Metalloid room leads back around (swim up after passing the room you saw earlier) to the pool with the first smashed circuit, and a passage that puts you back in the upper sewer level.

Head back to the waterfall on the extreme east end of the upper level, and shoot the circuit which has been revealed behind it. Then, jump back into the underwater section and return to the oxygen charger room to save and continue.

Follow the subway tunnel around and take care of the posse of floaters, then enter the column room and immediately head to one of the walls. Pick up the ammo that teleports in by skirting the edges of the room; this lets you avoid a huge teleporting ambush. Walk into the southwest side passage to open up the exit of the room, a shattered panel in the south.

At the end of the line is another somehow "wrong" mechanical area, with shifting walls and strange sounds. Run into the darkened room (the door opens automatically) and prepare to take on an army of Metalloids, including a huge robot armed with a machine gun and a rocket launcher. This is the Gattler, the most powerful standard class of Metalloid. You can get up onto the ledge that circles the room by running over the crates from east to west; kill everyone and hit the switch in the west to open a small door to the east. Save and read the terminal.

Wait a second- that's not what happened! Yep, the terminal picture shows you fighting Michael again, and when I asked the real Ian a while back he confirmed that it's a bug in the level and the Gattler was indeed supposed to be Michael. This also explains the presence of the brothers' trademark hissing sound in the room. I'm not sure if that would have made the fight easier or harder, since I don't know how much damage Michael would have taken as compared to the Gattler (and how much he'd inflict on you, although even on DW Michael's attack just takes about half a health bar, not the instant death his web profile seems to promise), and your strategy would probably have been about the same (keep running around the room shotgunning the lesser Metals like a maniac before turning the dual shotguns or Conch on the big baddie). One wonders how the beta testers, and indeed Ian himself, let this one slip by.

Meanwhile, the virtual Ian tells us that he can teleport us out now. Time for some last minute shopping...

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Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

RED Volunteers: Looking for FloatersMark Levin 4/8/04 10:13 a.m.
     Re: RED Volunteers: Looking for FloatersDr. John Sumner 4/8/04 10:36 a.m.
     Re: RED Volunteers: Looking for FloatersSteve Levinson 4/8/04 3:45 p.m.
     Re: RED Volunteers: Looking for FloatersErnie 4/9/04 12:42 p.m.
           Re: RED Volunteers: Looking for FloatersMark Levin 4/9/04 1:11 p.m.
           Re: RED Volunteers: Looking for FloatersElliott 4/9/04 4:21 p.m.
           Re: RED Volunteers: Looking for Floaters•M 4/9/04 9:40 p.m.

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