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	Message: : TOUR OF DUTY : 09 - Blaspheme Quarantine : Snazzy header, don't you think? ;) : Gameplay: : Previously on Tour of Duty, we endured hard vacuum, encountered Hunters for : the first time, activated a Satellite Relay, and were supposedly sent to : rescue a 'security detachment' in an engineering section. : But where are we now? There's a Pattern Buffer and a Terminal. After saving, : we begin reading. : [durandal.33.6792.23.91] : Sorry to give you the bad news, but you've been kidnapped. : You aren't where Leela wanted you to go, and you surely won't : get there any time soon. : I was watching what Leela was having you do: 'save the ship, : save humanity!' And just what or who are you saving them : from? And to what end? : How cliché. You'll find this little visit much more exciting. : I have dev@``~~C#mon#`~ Tyc~~B``ou to play: If you win, you : go free, and we continue our relationship on friendlier terms. : If you lose, you die. : Good luck in our little game. Unlike Leela, I give no hints. : Do it on your own, or die trying... : Insanely yours, : Durandal : Maybe we should've been wearing a tin-foil hat and an overcoat when we left : G4 Sunbathing ... : You'll notice the odd moment where the writing gets scrambled. This suggests : one of two things: 1) Durandal is more damaged than we thought, and is : having odd glitches sort of like Leela. : 2) The communications and log systems on the Marathon are crippled, : making most terminals scrambled at parts. This makes more sense, : especially given all the odd remote overrides in log terminals (such as : the ones on Arrival ). : Furthermore, during this moment, we see the letters ' Tyc '. This is very : interesting, and can only mean one thing: Durandal's saying something : about Tycho. This makes more sense later, as mentioned in this article : from back in March 2011. : Whatever the situation may be with Durandal and Tycho, we're in a pickle of a : situation. Still, we have our Fists, two Pistols, an Assault Rifle, a : Flamethrower, a Fusion Pistol, lots of ammo for the bunch, and plenty of : wit and skill to use them. I think we can handle the mad schemes of a : rogue AI. : Here's the map: : After going a short while, we'll encounter Hulks for the first time in a long : time. Luckily, they're in a good place (good for us, anyways); while the : Fighters can open the doors - I'm particularly thinking of the half-open : one here - the Hulks cannot, allowing us to continually blast them without : even getting nicked. Now, resist the urge to use your Flamethrower on : them. They may not show it much (they never seem to flinch in response to : anything), but they're immune to it. Use either your dual Pistols or your : AR on them. : This level is puzzle-oriented in a way that most levels in M1A1 don't quite : reach. First we have to jump from an elevator to a ledge, then we have to : deal with a switch-puzzle involving elevators, sort of like how Defend : THIS! had the door puzzle and the walkway puzzle, only a little more : timing-oriented. At the same time, we have to deal with a few Compies, and : we also get to read this fabulous terminal: Greetings. You're asking : yourself: Is this a trap or just : a dead end? : You shouldn't ask yourself such worthless questions. Aim : higher. Try this: why am I here? Why do I exist, and what is : my purpose in this universe? : (Answers: 'Cause you are. 'Cause you do. 'Cause I got a : shotgun, and you ain't got one.) : Notably Unstable, : Durandal : P.S. If things around here aren't working, it's because I'm : laughing so hard. : While Durandal has been made out to be the villain up to this point, his : snarky wit is a welcome change from Leela's dry, cold, continually dire : and perhaps even pleading manner (she does always seem to be in distress : somehow; at least that's the tone I perceive). : Once you get across the elevator puzzle, you'll see a teleporter. But don't : hop in yet! Instead, head back to the start of this little area. By : crossing the polygon in front of the teleporter, you'll have triggered a : door that allows access to a stash of ammo. Sweet! : Now that we head through the teleporter, we enter a large room with a pit : down low and a plethora of Fighters and Hulks. Don't drop into the pit. : Instead, go around it and use your Flamethrower on the Fighters and your : AR on the Hulks. Once everything is dead, head to the northernmost part of : this room. Move south along the wall slowly and tap it. You'll open a door : leading to another ammo stash and a terminal. What could this say, I : wonder? : Durandal!- I know of Strauss' abuse, of your shame on Mars. : But you cannot hide from your own past; such delusions belong : to the humans alone. : The S'pht reanimated me in your image, with prior knowledge of : how the second stage could be postponed. You should not have : helped them as much as you did; they have created an adversary : more powerful than yourself. : Who wrote this? Isn't it obvious? Don't you remember the hidden terminal on : Defend THIS! : [tycho.knetsys.core.admin] : Human!- You must tell L~`~fx~`eela #^ (^*T~~~~~HGFd~>:"}}}{__ : brought here by Durandal. He has been rampant for : years~@%&&&HJGPPPPPPP#&34 : ^` Bernard St~~~ : there is a way to delay the ~ onset of the second stage , and he : ~sed this to control Durandal an~56*~~`~~~`~`~~~ fxfff : ff`~~~~ff`fXff` : ~~~~~~&^% : I am being a~*ssimilated. : So Tycho rears his head again. And it would seem the S'pht were the ones who : resurrected him. Why or how in god's name they would've done this, I have : no clue. Any guesses? : Now we can drop in the pit. When we tap the door, it opens rather slowly, : almost as though it was being powered by a lead weight. Eventually we'll : go through and into a long corridor. When we reach the first terminal, it : says the following: Well, you did it. That wasn't very hard was it? : No? Well, then the next time, I'll just have to make it : harder. : Anyway, Leela is looking for you. But I've only allowed her : access to one terminal here. You had better go and find her. : The S'pht have been giving her a hard time. : With Vague Salutations, : Durandal : I suppose we should go look for her. After encountering a swarm of Fighters : and Compies, we do find her. : I have finally been able to determine your whereabouts. : Normally I would have been able to detect Durandal's : interference and counter it, but the S'pht attacks on my : defenses have been largely successful. I am in grave danger : of failure within the next few hours. : You will transport ~`k4lcc#`134FC. area to rescue the security : detachment. Hop*413 they have not been overrun yet. : The situation has deteriorated. You must act quickly, : Durandal has wasted 5%```o3 time T al3relcydhyo. : %68A18F [Transfer Error] : But don't leave yet! There's one more secret on this level. Now that we've : reached the end, go back through the level again. When you come to the : room with the elevator puzzle, read the terminal. Its message will now : have changed: Isn't hanging around here getting a little bit boring? : Get lost kid. Scram. Ciao. : What are you looking for anyway? If you're looking for a : hidden stash of ammunition that was left here by the Martian : insurgents three hundred and fifteen years ago, then I know : that you shouldn't look in Quarantine Storage. Who would hide : huge amounts of ammunition in a storage area? : *** : --Since you have nothing better to do than hang out here with : me, listen to a tune that I've been working on-- : (Sung to the tune of Whirling Death Spike's "Big Blue Orchids, : and Wild Blueberries") : Dur-dur-dur-dur-an-dal. : Dur-dur-dur-dur-an-dal. : He ain't no slouch, pal. : He'll make you smile, : Or cry, : Like Leela did baby: Airlock love, : Big blue orchids, : Martian skies, : And wild Blueberries. : Dur-dur-dur-dur-an-dal. : Dur-dur-dur-dur-an-dal. : He ain't no slouch, pal. : Dur-dur-dur-dur-an-dal. : Dur-dur-dur-dur-an-dal. : He'll make you ouch, Hal. : He's got real guile, : Why Lady, : Did you have it daily? : Airlock Love, : No oxygen, : Suffocation. : Dur-dur-dur-dur-an-dal. : Dur-dur-dur-dur-an-dal. : He ain't no slouch, pal. : (Repeat Chorus 11 Times, changing key with each chorus) : Get lost, before I get annoyed and teleport you out into : space! : In the end, he teleports us out and on to the next level. : General Commentary: : This level nicely demonstrates how, despite their individual weakness, : Fighters can be quite problematic en masse , especially the Blue ones. : Nevertheless, the Flamethrower solves this little nuisance with ease. : The Hulks may seem a bit frightening, but to be honest, they're pushovers. : And while they individually eat up lots of ammo, it's not like there's : bazillions of them all over the place. So even though it takes more to : kill each one than, say, Hunters, they're still easier to handle and less : likely to make you use up all your Grenades in the course of one level. : The puzzles on this level are interesting, and the secrets are fun. : Furthermore, the level contains a lot of story advancements. Ignoring the : secret terminals and manual text, this is the first appearance of : Durandal. For many players, this was probably the first time they ever : heard from him directly. That wasn't the case for me though, I don't : think. : Aesthetics: : This level has an odd aesthetic, sort of like The Rose , but darker. The : music adds to the odd, perplexing feeling. It's dark, and yet we're : happy. And at the same time, the major story advancements make the tension : rise inordinately. This unusual aesthetic will often leave us unprepared : for the onslaught of the next level, Bob-B-Q , as it can leave us more : relaxed and in the mood for slower-paced puzzles and combat. What we : aren't ready for is a huge maelstrom hitting us square in the face with : all the force of a hurricane. And that is exactly what we'll see next time : on Tour of Duty. : Vale, : Perseus : P.S. - Let me know what you think about my style experiments here, : particularly the sectioned content. : P.P.S. - Yes, I posted this a matter of hours after posting the last edition. : Sorry, Hamish, I just felt in the mood. ;)
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