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	Message: : TOUR OF DUTY : 14 - If I Had A Rocket Launcher, I'd Make Somebody Pay : Last time on Tour of Duty, we encountered numerous F'lickta whilst : wandering through a lava-filled ravine surrounded by dozens of little : tunnels, along with forgetting to bath a bunch of Cyborgs in lava ( : *stares at Martin intently* ). : Before teleporting out, we learned of the S'pht'Kr and K'lia. We were also : told by Durandal that despite dealing heavy damage to Pfhor Battle Group : Seven, he was eventually overwhelmed, and that Boomer has crash-landed : on the second moon of Lh'owon, Y'loa. : We now find ourselves-- WHAT THE F'LICKTA?!?! : : Meet the horror that is the Pfhor texture set. The first time you see it, : some medical condition you never even knew you had will kick in - you'll : begin convulsing, fall out of your chair, froth at the mouth, and bleed : out of your eyes, before finally dying as your brain disintegrates and : turns into smoke that comes out through your ears and nose. The military : will then begin using images of the Pfhor texture set as a weapon . : Alternatively, you may blind yourself like Oedipus, or immediately smash : your computer to bits, or maybe, just maybe, you'll simply walk outside : and look at flowers to convince yourself that pinks, reds and blues are : not inherently disturbing. In any case, the chances are you'll never play : Marathon 2 again. : But if you do play Marathon 2 again, then this is what you'll find: : Immediately we realize this [?capsule?pod?ship?shuttle?monstrosity] : contains two 3x Shield Chargers (woo-hoo!), a Pattern Buffer, two Shotguns : (the first ones you'll ever have if you didn't find the secret Shotguns on : ' Waterloo Waterpark ', ' Curiouser and Curiouser ', and ' Eat It, Vid : Boi! ') and a Terminal: : Oh we shall indeed. That is, if we don't get our bones shattered within the : first few seconds: as soon as you teleport from this terminal, you are set : upon by a mass of Troopers and some... green BoBs? Why are they not : shooting the-- not again! : *BOOM!!!* : Yes, again. Remember the shock you had way back on Habe Quiddam with that : first Simulacrum? Well guess what? They're back! And now, rather than : pouring out a message of gratitude for your mere existence, they simply : cry out random gobbledygook, including the iconic "Frog Blast the : Vent Core!" Some of the things they say are also quite disturbing, : such as "Kill me!" or "No, help!" And then of course : they often try to explain their not being able to shoot the Pfhor by : saying "I'm out of ammo!" Of course, they don't really say much : if you put a pistol round into them. : The first thing you need to do on teleporting into this Trooper-infested hell : hole is run forward and punch the switch in front of you. The second thing : to do is grab all the Shotgun ammo on the floor. The third thing to do is : kill the Simulacrums, preferably in such a way that their explosions deal : damage to the Troopers. Fourth, rip out your Shotguns and start blasting : those Troopers to oblivion. All the while, you're waiting for the switch : to finally start opening the really slow blast door that is your exit. At : the same time, you don't want to grab the 3x Shield Canister on the ground : in front of you; you want to save that for just before you leave this part : of the level. Furthermore, you want to be careful of berserking Major : Troopers; they can be an asset if they start shooting their comrades, but : if they focus on you instead, they're a nightmare. : Before we continue, let's take a quick glance at the map, shall we? : : We're currently at point A. Most of the corridors and tunnels here are : inaccessible except by grenade or rocket jumping. Our goal is to head : south, east, back south, and then west, all the way to point C, where an : unexpected gift awaits us... : Eventually, the blast door will be all the way open, by which point : everything in this part should be dead. Heading through, you'll find a : number more Simulacrums, along with some Troopers on a ledge. If you take : a detour and head east for a moment, you'll find a Pattern Buffer. Be : careful, though, because it's guarded by a bunch of Simulacrums and a : group of Troopers on a ledge. Heading further south, you'll eventually : come to point B, where there is another blast door, a bunch of AR ammo and : grenades teleporting in (though these are useless if you're : scratch-starting the level), an oxygen charger, and a bazillion Hunters : teleporting in. : This part is a little scary, especially if you're running low on shotgun ammo : and/or are playing on a high difficulty level. A whole bunch of : Simulacrums teleport in, which can be either a hindrance or a help. In the : midst of the Hunters, there's also a large blue one. This is the Mother of : all Hunters, or MoaH. : : No, not Moa, MoaH! There's an 'H' on the end, for crying out loud! Anyways, : this Mother of all Hunters can take a lot more hits than its brethren, and : will always explode when it dies, even if you kill it with a Pistol (not : that you'd want to, mind you, it's just that situation could potentially : arise... maybe... or not). It's explosion is also larger and more : powerful, so it can be a hazard and a help simultaneously. If things don't : go quite right, there's also a 3x Shield Canister in the middle of this : area, if I remember correctly. In any case, this part is usually over : pretty quick, mainly because you will probably die a horrible death or : manage to blow the Hunters into little tiny pieces. It also helps that the : blast door here seems to open faster than the first one. : Before you keep moving on, though, pause your game and take a moment to : ponder why there was an oxygen charger in that room. That question has : been pondered before, first by Aaron Freed, who wrote the following: Do : you know if "If I Had A Rocket Launcher, I'd Make Somebody Pay" : was originally supposed to be an vacuum level? With the exception of the : Bobs on this level, there are only Hunters and Troopers, which are vacuum : enabled aliens. There are lots of oxygen rechargers on the level. And : Boomer had crashed onto the moon of Lh'owon, which doesn't appear to have : much of an atmosphere. Durandal gives us a pair of shotguns at the start : of the level and a ton of ammo for it. : In addition this level (unlike most of the levels on Boomer) is not : low-gravity, and it isn't magnetic. My guess is that Bungie thought it : would be too easy if it was just possible to grenade hop and skip most of : the level (it still is possible to skip most of the level). I would guess : Bungie made this an oxygen level because of its Rocket Launcher theme. : This would make sense given that Durandal said a lot of damage had been done : to the Boomer ; he even said that life support had failed in most areas. : Curiouser and Curiouser... : Heading past this second blast door, a group of BoBs will teleport in behind : us. Three of these are green, one of them is blue. Your immediate reaction : might be to just blow away all the green BoBs, but as it turns out, none : of them are actually Simulacrums. Nevertheless, I usually just punch all : of them to death, simply because they serve no real purpose other than to : fool you and/or provide pistol ammo for you. Moving further on, you'll : find some more Hunters teleporting in. If you're scratch-starting the : level, you won't really have the ammo necessary to deal with them. : However, if you happen to be masochistic or simply prefer playing through : every level in order, then after killing these Hunters, you'll find a : Pattern Buffer and a Terminal here. Reading the Terminal gives you : something interesting and new: : Meet Tycho. The last you saw of him was way back on Welcome to the : Revolution , when he made clear the nature of his rivalry with Durandal. : Now, he is on the side of the Pfhor, helping them in the annihilation of : Durandal. Usually you might not see this terminal, as you have probably : elected from the very beginning to just run helter-skelter through the : gauntlet and fight only when you have to. In any case, it's not : particularly high on your priorities to read it. : Heading west, we come to a fork. Left or right? Heading left is a dead-end, : while heading right will lead you into a mass of Troopers teleporting in. : If you have enough ammo, you could fight them from here, but if you're : scratch-starting, it's a lot easier to just run past them, up the stairs, : and head to point C, where a Rocket Launcher, an infinite amount of Rocket : ammo, and a 3x Shield Canister, all await you. With this, you can take on : the hoard of Troopers easily. Just be sure that as soon as you have the : Rocket Launcher, head past point C and hit the switch to start opening the : final blast door. Alternatively, once you've killed off most of the : enemies here (I say most because they seem to continue spawning : indefinitely), you can do a careful backwards rocket jump to the northern : ledge, allowing you to wander through the ledge systems connected to the : earlier parts of the level. The 2x Shield Charger next to the final blast : door switch helps with this, so that even if you mess up and hurt : yourself, you can recharge and continue trying. : Surrounding point C, there's a pool of red slime. This is M2's version of the : green slime from the first game. Mind you, it no longer hurts you if you : simply jump over it, but it still deals more damage than lava. For that : reason, it's not really very fun to swim in; but you already knew that, : didn't you? If you're feeling masochistic, however, you can jump in this : slime and head for point D, taking you up into the southern ledge. From : here, though, it's a bit of a dead end, forcing you to jump back down to : the dry area around the slime. Why Greg included this, I honestly don't : know. Probably just to tease us fans, but still, it's a bit cruel, don't : you think? : Whenever you're finished having your fun, head for the final blast door, hit : the switch, wait for a while, then go on through. There's some AR ammo, a : Pattern Buffer, and of course an exit Terminal. After the carnage-filled : hell hole that is this level, it's nice to be able to just relax for a : moment before we jump back into the fight. At this point most people will : be adrenaline-filled wrecks with half as much ammo as they had going into : this (assuming you had any ammo). Greg himself had this to say: This : level is the only one I ever thought that I actually had to prove that I : could do it on Total Carnage. The rest were cake. It was actually toned : down for the game, too. : Toned down? Are you serious?! Yes indeed. If I remember correctly, the : reasoning goes something like this: in the original Marathon 2, there were : limits on how many monsters could be activated at once; going beyond this : caused issues. This forced Greg to get rid of a number of the baddies he : had originally put in there. In other words, if he had had his way, this : level would be something more on a par with Acme Station ; as is, it's : still quite a gauntlet. All the more reason to get out of here. : : Great, looks like we've still got more to do. : Jason: Oh yes indeed; more than you realize... : Us: What?!?! : And then we teleport, before Mr. Jones can even get out an evil laugh. And : then maybe you'll return to the final Pattern Buffer here. Again. And : again. And again. And then you'll be sorry you ever laid eyes on this : game. But then again, Sorry Don't Make It So . ;) : Vale, : Perseus
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