Just out of the Academy and on a brief vacation, we heed a distress call from a nearby resort facility. We are greeted by Merlin, the primary AI for Club Med Anteres. Merlin has a rather unassuming login pict - an ordinary bird. He seems to fit the bill of an AI who otherwise has little to do. It's interesting to imagine how this relatively minor figure in DiaBD served as the spark for EMR, but this little bird will indeed become Merlin, the great sage of the Middle Ages when we play EMR. More on that later - much later.
We arrive at club med anteres in a small room with a pair of rechargers nearby - use them, as they'll deactivate as soon as we leave the area. There's minimal ammo available and although the resistance will be light, it will be a long time before we'll encounter a shield recharger or PB again. This indeed is my major gripe with the entire scenario - as in M Evil, ammo is limited, but the PB's and rechargers are often few and far between, leaving only frustration on the way. How many times must you die before you can finally save your game? We'll get an appology later in the scenario, but for now we'll just have to bear it or, if you can't stand it, get some AO help from yourmom.
The level is pretty much a "find switch", explore new area sort of map, with scattered fighters along the way. There are some nice open areas in which you can fist them, helping to save your ammo for later when you'll need it. There is a somewhat tricky platform-stepping puzzle, but nothing we aren't used to. There are a few small secret ammo stashes at various points that require quick action to get to, but there is a major secret on this level that is very difficult to find. There is a big clue in the form of a large room that is just visible in map view, but there doesn't seem to be a way to reach it other than by a rocket launch - too bad there are no rockets on this level. There actually is a switch under the lava in a large lava room (the one filled with the lava f'lickta) - it's behind one of the pillars - and you aren't likely to want to look for it since there's no PB available until much later in the level. The best bet is to leave it until after you've saved your game, then to return straight back to it and make your multiple attempts to find it, flip it and get back out.
The switch raises a set of stairs in one of the rooms from which you can access a badly needed 1X power-up and an elevator up to the hidden room. Unfortunately, that solitary hunter in the room becomes several once you enter it and the extra ammo provided isn't nearly enough to take them out, so you'll likely be making the lava trip a few more times and eventually emerging with depleted ammo and shields (you can try fisting them, but I invariably found myself getting caught among them). Once you clear the hunters, there is a secret terminal offering an official MMMG DiaBD T-Shirt. Anyone know if these shirts were for real? Anyone have one of thes shirts? If so, I'm jealous. BTW, you may wish to return to your saved game after reading the terminal. Although you can play this out as I did, you'll arrive on the next level with depleated shields and quite possibly without a means to recharge them (more on that later).
The major goal of the level is to thoroughly explore it so that Merlin can recalibrate his sensors. Eventually you will come to a security officer behind a force field. Follow the instructions on a terminal nearby to deactivate the force field, allowing the officer to open access to the exit teleporter to you. As far as I can tell, there is only one officer here (needed for accuracy in map view), and it appears that there is a separate hidden conduit to move him from his cell to the exit room. Once you reach the exit room, you'll find a pair of breakable wires that you can smash. Unfortunately, I have been unable to figure out what they do - and I've thoroughly explored the level in gameplay and in Forge to try to figure this out. If anyone knows, I'm curious. You can leave via the exit teminal in this room or, if you're an explorer like me, you can go back to find a new room open near the start of the level with a new terminal revealed. If you go back and read this terminal, Merlin scolds you for not following directions and tells you things will be much harder for you. If you try transporting from either terminal, you may have the impression that they both take you to the same place, but this is far from the truth. More on this (hopefully) tomorrow
