After my inaccuracies in recent posts, I decided to replay this level - actually to vid it - the first level in the chapter Cronus Deposed. No film available since I'm too chicken not to use pattern buffers, but there isn't a vismaster rule against PBs, now is there? Although I enjoyed this level very much the prior 2 times I played it, I really liked it this time around. This is one of those levels that is a joy to vid, on a par with Eat it, Vid Boi. There really is no need for weapons at all, although the supply is generous. If anything, this level is more enjoyable by vidding since you don't have to keep repeating the last part of Package and all of Landing until you get it right. Adding a PB at the start should do the trick.
In my prior runs through this level, my approach was to run like hell at the start, dodging all enemies to reach the 2X recharger, giving me the shield strength to deal with the ensuing onslaught. I should have had more faith in myself. The monsters come in discrete groupings and are easily handled, one group at a time. First there are 3 troopers - just remember to circle them in a clockwise direction and they're easy to take out without taking any damage. Too bad that trick won't work in the AO port. There is a second grouping of 3 troopers at the top of the initial stairway. After dealing with them, turn right and head into the long hallway ahead. Upon passing through the 2nd doorway, quickly turn right and take out the invisible compiler lying in wait. After passing through the 3rd doorway, turn left and do the same. Next you will come to a circular room with 3 more corridors branching off, a terminal from Mece and a 1X recharger. Quickly recharge, as you'll likely have fighters and hunters descending upon you. Circle them and take them out. Now proceed further in the same direction, to the east, and activate another group of hunters. Retreat to the circular room where it's fairly easy to take them out. Return to the east corridor when done and save your game. A switch to your left will lower a platform that takes us to our next destination, but let's go get a 2X shield charge first instead.
From the circular room, head north (a right turn when coming from the pattern buffer) until you see a group of projectile fighters coming at you. Return quickly to the circular room and prepare not only to deal with these but also with a pair of troopers. Once they're all dead, head back out the north corridor and head down a stairway that leads to the 2X shield recharger. Now that you've cleared the way to the PB and 2X recharger, take a moment to look around you. This level is long on eye candy. The sky is once again red. There are shear drop-offs all around you but, not that I suggest you try it, dropping off into the void is lethal by design. You can see landing pads, cargo bays and corridors everywhere you look. One puzzle to me is that you have gone from a brilliant daytime level to a nighttime level to a sunrise/set level in a short span of time. Matt, are the days on New Arizona really that short?
Heading down the south corridor, that platform I mentioned will take you to a hallway that leads to a major monsterfest. Here you will encounter fighters, compilers and wasps and a very strange series of moving platforms that can really get in your way when trying to take the monsters out of action. Death is quite possible here, but that 2X recharger is never far away. One bug I encountered here is that the compilers eventually became trapped sort of half way up to the area that overlooks the monster room. Once there, they left me alone, and I left them alone. After ascending those weird platforms, follow the only way out until you come to a ledge with no where to go. Leap across to the stairway below you and take out the compilers lying in wait. If you need to recharge or save at this point, turn around behind you and you’ll see that this stairway overlooks the first stairway where you started out the level. One more thing - look to your left and you'll see a ledge about halfway down to the abyss. This is a major hint as to where to go next.
If you head up the stairway and look down, you'll see a platform below. BTW, Matt, the texture seems to be set to landscape, making the pattern appear to move with the player – is that what you'd intended? Jump down to this platformand, unlike other drop-offs in this level, this one is safe. Head down around and across that ledge you eyed a second ago, and back into the structure until you come to a circular room with two platforms. You know the drill - get on the one that goes all the way down and wait until the other one is low while you're high, so that you can jump across. Follow the next corridor around and save your game at the PB, then drop down and down again. You'll come to a circular room with an alcove and the switch Mece wants you to flip, trapping the Kinetic's occupants inside. Head out from the room, read Mece's long treatise on natural selection and how only he truly understands what must come next - merging human and alien to create "true" life. Exit back into the south corridor.
When you return to the first circular room, you'll find that a new opening has appeared, with a Y junction just inside. Head left first and take out all the compilers and wasps, then head back to the right and up the stairs, You'll find yourself looking down on the room with the compilers and wasps, and there is an opening across from you, high up where you can't reach it. How to get there? Look to your right, where there is a shimmering platform moving rapidly up and down. Behind it is a switch. Fire on the switch and a switch immediately to your left will become visible. Flip that one and a stairway will rise up, allowing you to reach that opening. Follow the corridor on the other side until you come to a dark room with a cool orange stripe. No monsters here, but there is a transport platform in the middle of the floor (I thought the transporters were off-line). Stand on it and you'll be taken to a circular room with large windows and a hoard of wasps just outside the windows. They will be incessantly spitting at you, but they won't come inside and they're incredibly difficult to take out. You could always use the magnum to take them out a few at a time and then go back to save and recharge, but there is a bug - at least there was for me, that obviates the need to do so, but at the expense of an important story element.
What you're supposed to do is read the terminal here, where Shaki tells you to go back and release Mece's prisoners. The instructions aren't exactly clear, as he tells you that the switch was damaged and you need to use a computer terminal next to the switch in conjunction with the switch, but I never really figured out what he was talking about. Unfortunately, the only time you'll be able to read Shaki's instructions is the first time you visit this room, thanks to the bug. Unless you are really good at killing all the wasps that surround you or at dodging their spit while reading a terminal, you need to read quickly. You can leave the room via a teleporter in the center. Thanks to the bug, you apparently don't need to follow Shaki's instructions at all. Just return to the final room as before and the wasps will now be dormant and you'll be able to read the exit terminal message. Then get ready for a raid on The Doctor's labs.
