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PF Volunteers - Which Switch?
Posted By: Steve LevinsonDate: 7/7/04 6:33 p.m.

A Switch, a Switch, Now Which is Which?

Good question! As you'll recall, when we left off, we had just acquired a computer disk containing the necessary data to reboot the colony's computer network. Mece was good enough to transport us to the general vicinity of the upload slot, but of course what fun would there be if he had just transported us directly there? We start this level in a basement area with a huge elevator platform in the center of the room. This arrangement can actually be quite useful as it provides a somewhat safe vantage point from which to take on the numerous monsters that will soon be encountered. There are fighters, troopers, compilers, wasps and even a hulk to greet us. One approach is to head upstairs to activate the monsters, then jump back down and let the monsters come to you. You can often attack them as they ride the platform down, before they have the chance to attack you.

Once you have cleared out the welcoming party, there is a terminal in a side wall of the hallway that leads to the first pattern buffer. It contains a helpful message from good old Shaki:


Who are you doing this for? Who has put you up to this? You must not reboot the system, the entire colony will die if you do. Doors will lock, air will fail to circulate. All life will cease, including yours. Do not do this, I'm warning you. If you complete your misguided mission, I will have nothing to do with you.

He'll have nothing to do with us? Oh, we're really scared. Life support will fail? Give us a break! Now this level is about a series of progressively more difficult rooms that must be entered, each of which contains a pair of switches. In each case on switch opens the door to the room it's in and the other opens the door to the next room that must be entered. Each switch must be flipped twice so as to lodge the doors open. Thus the object is to hit the correct switch - not that it's a big deal if you hit the wrong one - you just need to hit it twice again. The first room to be entered is the only one with a player-activated door, and the only one with only one switch - adjacent to it is a badly-needed shield recharger. Subsequent rooms open in progression in a 4-leaf clover pattern, each room with more difficult monsters to handle than the last.

After completing the clover, a large door at the other end of the hall opens to reveal a major trap - the circular room appears to be sparsely defended until it is entered, at which time the walls all open to reveal a room full of monsters. A small hidden passage that is easily missed contains a small reward - hardly worth the effort. The more obvious passage off this room leads to one of the more complex room arrangements in the scenario. There is a small room off to the left that opens automatically to reveal - what else? - two switches, one of which opens the door you just came through – not much of an effect since it opens and closes automatically. A switch outside the room is equally redundant. The other opens the door to a very large, very dark room with lots of convoluted walls with alcoves hiding ammo and invisible compilers. This room has three switches - one right by the entrance that controls the adjacent door, one that turns on some very cool lighting and one that opens the door to a small room down a nearby corridor. A switch in that room opens a large door back near the beginning of the level - a door the player might have easily forgotten about by now. That room contains many pillars and many monsters, but it is not all that difficult for a change. Be sure to save your game after clearing out the pillar room, though - it will be a while before you'll have the opportunity again - and believe me, you’ll more than likely be dyeing more than a few times before you reach the next pattern buffer!

Located off to the side of the pillar room is what seems to be an inviting, well-lit triangular room with a small ammo cache. Don’t be fooled - as soon as you enter the center, your way back will be blocked. Tangential to the room is a long dark hallway that leads to hell. The hallway is filled with troopers, compilers, some of them invisible, many wasps and a hulk. The one thing in your favor is that the hulk won’t leave the hallway, helping to block everyone else, but once they are free of him, they will pursue you. I tried a number of approaches and found that about the only way to tackle it is to take it slowly and deliberately, attracting the attention of a few monsters at a time and dealing with them out in the open. Just be careful not to attract the attention of anyone else or you could find yourself trapped between groups of monsters. Once you have cleared the hallway, watch out - there is another wasp ambush ahead. Finally you will descend down into a large pit with a group of hulks – fun! Be sure to make note of the shield recharger along the way. Once the hulks are left to cool in their juices, there is a bizarre terminal down here with a story about a man who taught a group of chimps to communicate in sign language. Well, I think there is a moral to the story, but if you figure it out, please post your response here. In any case, we never learn who communicated this story to us, but I suspect it’s Mece.

To finish the level, we still need to ride an elevator up to a room with some pillars that can be used to jump to a ledge with a teleporter and another group of hulks. The hulks are no problem, as you can take them out by firing from one of the pillars. The problem is that there is a pattern buffer that can only be reached by jumping down off the pillars. There is a platform in the center of the room that can be used to return to the shield recharger one last time and then to head to the teleporter. This will take the player to a small room with the disk slot and a small teleport pad. And so you will reboot the network and all life support will crash and burn. Yeah, right. Just be sure to take a deep breath of O2 before exiting the level.

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Replies:

PF Volunteers - Which Switch?Steve Levinson 7/7/04 6:33 p.m.
     Re: PF Volunteers - Which Switch?mattschenk 7/7/04 7:23 p.m.
     Re: PF Volunteers - Which Switch?Dr. John Sumner 7/8/04 2:34 a.m.
     Re: PF Volunteers - Which Switch?Andrew Nagy 8/19/04 7:15 a.m.

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