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	Re: SoNK Volunteers: Hellraiser
	Posted By: Steve Levinson	Date: 1/14/04 6:59 p.m.
	In Response To: SoNK Volunteers: Hellraiser (Mark Levin) : The last level of the scenario, and it's a bit of a mixed bag. It's got some : great areas and some great ideas, but it makes too many small mistakes and : forces you to retrace your steps far too much. I have to agree. There is a lot of eye candy and you can often see where you must go next, but getting there is another story. You also have to be good a finding locked doors, as these are almost all places you will need to return to. : However, this level has far too many small yet annoying quirks that damage : the experience of playing it. The squadron of Bobs tends to clump up in : the starting hallway, making going in and out of the assault raft : difficult (until, of course, you kill them). Try as I might, I could never get them to where the Pfhor would do my dirty work for me, so kill them I did. BTW, the Pfhor on this level are mostly troopers and cyborgs, making vidding very difficult - definitely out of my league. At least the flame thrower it usefull in vaporizing the troopers - too bad there's nothing equivalent to use on the cyborgs, and you meet them all in tight quarters where you pretty much have to take them out. : Most of the pattern buffers : and shield chargers on the ship can and will be turned off when you least : expect it. There's a recharger near the end of the level that not only : triggers an ambush but instantly shuts down as you approach it. Actually, it stays active long enough to get a 3X charge, even on TC, but if you take the time to charge up, you're toast. You'll be slammed by so much Pfhor ammo that there's no way to recover. For better or worse, you're far better off avoiding the trigger poly entirely - you do not have to go there. : There are a few "bad" switches that don't seem to be necessary and : just set off ambushes. And there's the bridge. I generally dislike : "forbidden" areas since there's no good way to communicate to : the player that he's about to enter one, leaving the player to declare : "I'm not good enough for this" and go exploring somewhere else. : While I'm not at all surprised that FM did this, I did manage to beat the : bridge (using the keyboard, too). I thought I'd be clever and turn off the : power to the gun turrets before reading the terminal in there, but turning : off the power shuts down the terminals too. You actually beat the bridge? It can be done? I was less experienced when I last tried it - I still have my saved game - maybe I'll give it another try. : Aside from that, the combat is usually pretty fun (if difficult). There are : quite a lot of juggernauts, but also a ton of rockets in a secret in one : of the storage bays Actually, there is only one juggernaut that you need to kill. The others are the result of one of those bad switches. Of course you can beat those juggernauts and it can be fun to fight them and all the baddies that hide out with them in their alcoves, and there is that secret reward, but you do not have to unless you want to. Most of us of course did fight them the first time we played this scenario, as we're not used to bad switches. : In the end, some sort of spacial anomaly appears and pulls the ship in. Roll : on Marathon EVIL... I'm already well into the scenario. Let's take the first two levels together in the next post, as not much happens on the first level. There are also some generalizations and some questions raised at the beginning that should be discussed. Until next time . . .

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Replies:

	SoNK Volunteers: Hellraiser	Mark Levin	1/14/04 5:44 p.m.
	Re: SoNK Volunteers: Hellraiser	Steve Levinson	1/14/04 6:59 p.m.
	Re: SoNK Volunteers: Hellraiser	Mark Levin	1/14/04 8:20 p.m.
	Re: SoNK Volunteers: Hellraiser	Todd	1/14/04 10:22 p.m.
	Re: SoNK Volunteers: Hellraiser	Keith Palmer	1/15/04 3:19 p.m.

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