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	Message: : TOUR OF DUTY : 17 – Begging For Mercy Makes Me Angry! : The name. It sounds much more quotable than it apparently is. The Story page : , and the internets in general, give only one source, a Bugs Bunny cartoon : of all things. I’m pretty sure I never saw that one, but I did just find a : sound clip and it really doesn’t sound as angry as I was hoping, to be : honest. Never mind though, we will soon be plenty angry ourselves. As an : alternative level name I suggest: What are you doing, Dave? Of course we : have Durandal’s full permission to destroy his core logic centers ; he : seems better able to handle his own demise than some, although: You’re : not dead, are ya? I mean, you’re dead! But you're not dead dead, because : you’re still here, aren’t ya? : Last time on Tour of Duty we had fun with compilers en masse against a : wonderful toxic waste green and Pfhor red backdrop. We found out more : about the Jjaro, and that Tycho knows what we’re up to and suggests we’re : kind of out of luck. After much carnage indeed, we were asked to destroy : Durandal’s core, whatever that really means for his ongoing survival. As I : said, that was a very open plan level with no prescribed path. This one : could hardly be more different. We haven’t really met its like before: : there are usually options for how to proceed, but not this time. Seven : doors to open, eight switches to hit, and some dumb core logic centers . : ... : I mentioned the PB – exit run on Carnage as being a favourite. The beginning : here is a true trial, but then we’ve kind of been getting used to that. It : is up there though, and things can go bad right up until you action that : first PB! : All is quiet. Too quiet. We start in a roundish room with a central column, : with door textures, and similar sections of wall on the outside, with sets : of stairs in between. Every move we make, they’ll be watching us, and they : could just wake up. The first moments are always tense even when you know : what to expect. At the top of each staircase we get a nice ammo cache of : some sort, and they all come together to form a further ring-shaped : structure. Up one of the staircases, we find a terminal. : : Blake, oh yeah we’ve heard of him. There’s still that nagging doubt out : there that he’s not really real…. : Lister, I’m not really here! I’m not really me ! Don’t you see? I’m a : computer simulation of me. That’s me, there, that pile of albino mouse : droppings. : Hmmm. Well I’m just going to go ahead and take it at face value for the : majority opinion anyway. There are more important things going on here. : Just a jump to the left, or a step to the right, and we risk waking up : Hunters, Troopers and Enforcers … hardly the timewarp we were looking for! : Also appropriate nomenclature for the annoyance of the changing heights : between the tops of the staircases and the rest of the corridor space, : meaning that missiles sometimes fly over the heads of their targets > : we conveniently are with the knowledge that we lose all weapons next : level, there’s no need to hold back, and the SPNKRs are flying. Two : missiles for each Hunter and Trooper, no fewer!, and one for each : Enforcer. : Let’s have a look at the map while we’re killing stuff: : It does look angry, with those big red eyes and large teeth! So yeah, 8 doors : lead out from the big ring. A pair of Enforcers spawns when we get near : one of the doors, and so begins the mad ambush theme of this level. It’s : not just that they spawn around us, but this time they have a nasty habit : of cutting off our escape as well, something I have mentioned before as : being more typical of Tempus Irae; but we don’t have much time to think : about that in this particular context. : The door leading north in the northwest corner is open from the start. It : leads to a large room with a winding path leading up between lava pools : (sorry PS), and more importantly, a bunch of Pfhor coming our way. The M2 : Enforcer’s signature of standing still and shooting after it has spotted : you is a real pain! Not so bad with a SPNKR on your shoulder, but boy what : the vidders go through – just another factor for them I suppose, but : whatever, for me it just makes it all the more enjoyable when the : Enforcers actually die. Once the Pfhor in this room are dead, we think we : can go in and explore, but as we get towards the winding path, more spawn : behind us. Thankfully that is the last ambush for this room, and the : reward is worth the effort, as at the end of the winding path, we find a : 3x recharger, yum! : It’s still easy for things to go wrong though – there are the lava pools here : if we get cocky, and there are more Pfhor outside…. There’s a switch next : to the recharger, and when we head back out we discover that it opened the : first of those core logic centers . A grenade or shotgun in its direction : is all it takes, and destroying that opens the next door in our travels, : diagonally opposite the first one. First, of course, we have to deal with : the guarding Enforcers, and any other Pfhor that remain. : This is one of the ‘teeth’ rooms from the map, and plays very differently : from the previous one: very close quarters with no way out. We enter into : the middle of a long narrow room left to right – Pfhor spawn to our left : and we run back out the door to deal with them, probably having to go back : in for the Enforcer. For the uninitiated, this is hell. For myself playing : it right now for the second time on TC in as many days, I just made it to : the PB and can finally relax and get back to typing :). : Across a small lava river is another long space with ambush, and then a : third. When they are clear we realise that some ends are brighter than : others, and the bright ones turn out to be teleporters. From the first : space we cleared, we access the other two teeth, which brings two : Enforcers and a Hunter spawning right across from us, the last thing : standing between us and the PB we see to the right! And then across the : way is the next switch, and another ambush, naturally. : Two down, six to go. Okay, what is the deal with the triggers in the middle? : There are extra Pfhor, including Enforcers, on the staircases, but they : only show up if I’m shooting on the stairs? SPNKR strategy FTW! Except : I’ve pretty much run out this time around. : The third door gives us another climbing path around a lava pool, with more : Pfhor, as you might expect. At the top we see a platform just above the : lava, a small jump away. We have to go there in order to hit the next : switch, but I’m always hesitant, knowing what comes next. Blasting the : platform switch and letting it come up quite high makes it easier to deal : with the Enforcers that appear back up top. The Trooper has somewhere else : he needs to be – last time I met him again heading to the 3x recharger. He : did seem to need more health. : The switch we have to hit is high up on the wall completely concealed from : the rest of the room and not entirely obvious, but there it is. The fact : that we’re shooting from and being shot on this platform can lead to our : encountering platform-related bugs here: yesterday I got frozen in place : as the platform descended; today I couldn’t stop moving, which is : definitely the more annoying of the two. : True to the pattern the switch does indeed reveal another of Durandal’s : cores, and that in turn opens another door. And after recharging and : saving, that’s where we head. The contents are somewhat tamer this time. A : corridor full of crowding Pfhor just begging to be SPNKRed, and then one : of the ‘eye’ rooms, wherein a platform falls into the lava, revealing the : next switch beneath it, and then rises again. Then we have to hit the : switch on the opposite wall to open the door to get back out again. Yet : another thing that would be more of a pain without all these useful : weapons, although having said that, I guess the Alien Weapon is the saving : grace in this case. : Right now, we go and recharge, as this is our last chance: destroying the : next core deactivates that 3x recharger, and the first terminal it seems, : unless that went earlier and I didn’t notice, because why would I? : Happily, we are about to get our hands on another recharger, but: it is : only 2x, quite a few Pfhor stand between us and it, including a nasty : ambush, and we’re running out of ammo. : The room is, you’ll be shocked, a winding path between lava pools in : wonderful bright red and green with yellow pool walls. New is a pile of : rubble? in blue with black flowing down it, complete with green crackling, : and this seems to be a favourite spot for Enforcers to hang out. There’s : the usual spawn all around on entering, followed by the usual retreat, : wait, kill, lather, rinse and repeat. Then I like to head in to the left : to wake up another Enforcer, just to secure the more important retreat : coming up. This would almost certainly yield death for the new player, and : I look forward to seeing it rampancy style as well. As you approach the 2x : recharger, suddenly there are spawns in front and behind – that’s no good : at all on stairs! If you’re prepared, there’s just enough time to run back : down and leap across the lava before a Trooper cuts you off. Otherwise, : it’s painful. As it is, it seems to be designed so that an Enforcer gets : in the way of the rest of them coming down. I was out of both grenades and : missiles this time, but thankfully a shotgun shell in the face sorted them : out, and all but the Enforcer made it all the way out to visit me … even : if I wasn’t a benevolent host. : So we’ve secured a new recharger. Right now, we go back and save, as this is : our last chance … oh you get the idea. I think it’s a really nice touch, : on a very superficial level, that different cores are actually responsible : for powering different parts of the ship. I guess our door switches are : overrides – this is after all the rather elaborate process required to : destroy (part of) Durandal. Of course in gameplay terms this nice touch is : just a pain. Five down, three to go. : Next is the second ‘eye’ area, very similar to the first but with a MoAH : thrown into the mix. He seems to be content to just hang out in his : corridor – is he too big to come out? – and he dies surprisingly quickly : to fusion. The part with the switch is just the same as before, and we’re : still short a Pattern Buffer! Also, seeing as I managed to die in the next : area just now, I went and tried, and the MoAH takes about 2.5 Alien : Weapons to kill, so it’s not the worst thing in the world for the : scratchstarter … but it probably is for the no ammo player :o. : Next we get a unique sight: whoever is teleporting all these Pfhor down : apparently didn’t know about a pool of lava just through the next door in : our adventure. Indeed, quite a large group arrive, then fall, and then : presumably die, I’ve never gone to check! It was the fact that some also : spawn on the ground just before that pool that killed me just now. I was : thinking about taking a screenshot … nevermind. Around the next corner we : see our replacement PB, the Pfhor we have to kill to access it, and : another lava pool! Finally we have to go swimming in one of the big ones, : as the next switch is down there. We can see it easily enough with : transparent liquids, but it is still an uncomfortable thing to do : optimally. : Last but not least we have the second ‘teeth’ area. It is nastier as the : Pfhor are already spawned all the way across when we arrive, rather than : our having to go and wake them up. This is especially a pain with the ammo : we have left at this point. Anyway, this time the useful teleporter is on : the far side, and it takes us to the final switch, and a terminal! It’s : from Tycho! He’s not happy with us. : : Okay so technically he’s backing up some of Durandal, and, as Durandal said, : he thinks he’s won. Well, it sort of seems like it at this point, as we : head out to blast the last core. Then if we stand still in the central : area, we get teleported out immediately. Otherwise, the lights go down and : we can run around the level and bask in the desolation, but we can’t do : much of use, so we might as well stand still, and get captured – I think : PS is going to do a writeup of the next level, but I’m hoping it will be : another short and sweet one. Sorry about the length and lack of variety in : this one. I’m down for This Side Towards Enemy, so no rest for the wicked : :).
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