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PF Volunteers - Pesticides With Chicken | ||
Posted By: Steve Levinson | Date: 8/13/04 12:22 p.m. | |
Yum yum, what a delicious sounding recipe! Well, it's been a while since my last post, so I'll briefly recap where things stand: Living on the fringes of society and as an act of desperation, we attempted to land on a distant human outpost, reaching the New Phoenix colony on the New Arizona moon in the Roman system of stars. Upon our arrival, however, we found that all the colonists were dead and that the colony was overrun with unknown aliens, known to us as the Pfhor, but unnamed in this scenario which appears to take place outside the Marathon Universe. Although the colonists had all been murdered, we did find that the colony's 4 AIs were only slightly damaged by the alien attack and were soon all online. Two of these AIs are class 5 AIs and capable of the full range of human emotions. They are both certifiably rampant. The first of these, Shaki, seems to have frightening plans and it seems to us may have been involved in bringing the aliens here in the first place. The other, Mece, aka The Doctor, is very unstable and has just completed having us get a communications array online so that he can send a message to Earth in the hopes of getting more humans to come to New Phoenix so he can perform experiments on them. And we helped him? What were we thinking? The other 2 AIs are only class 4s and barely capable of independent thought. Osinder is hell-bent on saving the colony at all costs, clearly in line with his programming as the primary security AI, but illogically so since there are no colonists left to inhabit the colony. The communications AI, who has no name, is certifiably insane and follows no logic, but we're done with him in any case. And there seems to be a 5th entity that is trying to communicate with us.
Uh Oh. As John will point out, there is a very high likelihood of dying early in this level and the only PB in the second part of the last level is non-functioning, at least for now. Still, I find that even on TC, it should be possible to reach Pesticides with nearly 2X health. There actually is a pattern buffer very near the starting point of the level, so this isn't all that big a deal, but going for the PB right away can have consequences. Also, did I mention that this is a vacuum level? There are basically 2 strategies for reaching that PB alive and having a playable saved game. The one thing you don't want to do is to exit the entry room and then retreat back in side. You'll be pursued by troopers and compilers and overwhelmed in no time. You can either deal with the monsters yourself right away, or try to get them to deal with each other. John, true to form, prefers the latter, but then he seems to be immune to grenades. I on the other hand tend to be a pragmatist and would rather waste plentiful ammo than play and replay a level over and over until I get it right. My strategy is to exit with both magnums drawn and turn immediately left, taking out the troopers and compilers running toward you before they can get close enough to do much damage. Because they will be on a ledge, they will stick to single file, so that you need only handle them one at a time. Once you're done with them, you can recharge your shields using a 2x recharger just ahead, on a pillar on your left. Don't jump into the pit just yet, no matter how tempting the PB may be, as you need oxygen. Instead turn around, head the other way, activate the monsters in the other pit below and take them out with your magnums, backing up if necessary to avoid taking damage. Be sure to watch out for compilers from the first pit, however - they can be lethal, but will generally attack you only once you jump down there. Once the second pit is cleared, jump down and use the O2 recharger, located on the southernmost pillar, to fill your tanks. Now that you have both shield and O2 rechargers secured, you're really home free - unless you f**k up on the next step. Head out of the second pit using the provided stairs and jump down into the first pit. You will immediately be accosted by compilers, which is why it's best not to go for the PB right away. If you do try to save your game at this point, you will turn around to find about a dozen guided compiler bolts heading straight for you. Your chances of survival would be slim (except perhaps for John and me) and you might find yourself with an unplayable saved game. Instead, round up those compilers now by circling until you have them all inside the circle. Taking them out is then standard procedure and you can then save your game. A cycling platform will take you back out of the pit. From here there are a variety of things that must be done. First of all, there is a switch at the far northern edge of the map, located down in a pit and deeply recessed. It is distinguished by being next to a 3X shield recharger that you can't reach, but you can activate the switch with your magnum and then exit via a teleporter. This switch activates the next switch you must flip, which is located in a circular room off the pit with the O2 recharger, in the southwestern portion of the map. It is reached by a circular staircase, lined with troopers and compilers. This switch activates entrance to the next area that must be visited - a large, dark, circular room located in the map's southeast quadrant. Go back to the large pit with the PB and off of this is a small circular room A passage from this room leads to another area that we will discuss last - don't go there unless you want to see a lot of action. Located high up on the walls of the circular room are 3 switches that must be hit with the magnum in a sequence that is fairly obvious. The door to the large circular room should now be open. The large circular room contains a couple of switches that need to be activated to grant access to the final area of the map. There is also a PB here, which is fairly obvious, and an O2 recharger that will be visited shortly. One of the switches to activate is located high up on an overlooking ledge, and it can easily be shot from below. I have not found a way to reach that ledge thus far. At the distant end of the room located behind a circular alcove with an invisible compiler, is a switch that will lower a platform located back near the entrance to the room. Unfortunately, the platform can only be raised by hitting this same switch from a distance, using your magnum. It's a very distant shot, but doable with practice. The platform takes the player to the second switch, and an O2 recharger. By quickly side-stepping around a pillar, the player can reach another ledge with a nice grouping of ammo. The final area of the level is reached by heading back to area overlooking the pit with the switch next to the 3X recharger. Continuing along the ledge and through some doors, the player will eventually come to a T-intersection and, by heading left, will come to a control room overlooking the large, dark circular room. A pattern buffer here will be seen as most welcome after the next sequence. An exit from the control room leads to a small air lock with a 2X and O2 rechargers, but these only work the first time they are encountered, so charge up now - they'll be useless later. The player next continues down a long corridor that skirts around the perimeter of the final room, located at the eastern edge of the map. Finally, the player ascends an elevator and drops down into a large, bisected, brightly lit circular room with lots of troopers, some fighters and a few compilers. Coaxing them to take each other out is simple, but O2 consuming, and a compiler will invariably be blocking the elevator, making return to the initial O2 recharger somewhat difficult. Once the room has been cleared and the player has gone back to recharge their shields and O2, they should return here to an alcove with a PB and the exit terminal. Osinder has finally "found" you and has a new mission for you - you are going to go exterminate the alien's "overseers", more commonly known as enforcers to Marathon fans, creating chaos among the alien rank and file. You may be curious as to why we haven't discussed the large area in the very southwest corner of the map. The reason is that this area is a trap, filled with monsters, that is very difficult to clear and that has no real rewards other than some interesting terminals to read. There is absolutely no reason to go there other than to read these terminals, and gameplay will not be affected in any way by skipping this area entirely. If you do go there, however, you will be rewarded with a couple of terminals of interest - one from Mece that discusses the difference in the way you and he were created, and the other with a rather amusing short story about Maria. Ok, let's go kill some overseers! On to chapter III, Assault - on to The Gray and the Red. |
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Replies: |
PF Volunteers - Pesticides With Chicken | Steve Levinson | 8/13/04 12:22 p.m. | |
Re: PF Volunteers - Pesticides With Chicken | mattschenk | 8/14/04 7:19 a.m. | |
Re: PF Volunteers - Pesticides With Chicken | Steve Levinson | 8/14/04 3:55 p.m. | |
Re: PF Volunteers - Pesticides With Chicken | Andrew Nagy | 8/14/04 7:27 p.m. | |
Re: PF Volunteers - Pesticides With Chicken | mattschenk | 8/14/04 7:50 p.m. | |
Re: PF Volunteers - Pesticides With Chicken | Steve Levinson | 8/14/04 7:50 p.m. | |
Re: PF Volunteers - Pesticides With Chicken | mattschenk | 8/14/04 7:56 p.m. | |
Re: PF Volunteers - Pesticides With Chicken | Dr. John Sumner | 8/15/04 1:06 p.m. | |
Re: PF Volunteers - Pesticides With Chicken | Steve Levinson | 8/15/04 1:25 p.m. | |
Re: PF Volunteers - Pesticides With Chicken | Yossarian | 8/15/04 1:47 p.m. | |
Re: PF Volunteers - Pesticides With Chicken | mattschenk | 8/15/04 3:38 p.m. |
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