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	Message: : : : Tempus Irae 16 You Gotta Sin To Be Get Saved : Last time on Tour of Duty we teamed up to traverse the puzzles of a : rebellion secret. Cosimo had some strange ideas and some concerning : pictures of Pfhor somehow apparently drawn long ago! Enforcers in bedrooms : were really the least of our worries, as we completed a timed switch : puzzle, a timed maze, a switch climb, and I guess a balancing exercise, : and then still had to find our way out! And all that just to end up where : we would have anyway, but with fewer weapons and doubtless some slightly : shot confidence. Good deal! : We start now in front of a locked door, and right behind a Fighter on a ledge : – that’s some precision silent teleporting! He dies and we ascend some : stairs further up the ledge. Some weapons spawn in, along with a floating : cross of shotgun ammo, just in case we had forgotten the religious : components of the scenario. If we jump over a gap with a door that doesn’t : open yet, we come to a dead-end with one that is already slightly open, : but is quite controversial in its operation! We get a very early terminal : in the wall to the left, and Cosimo is still with us, or likely we hear : from him for the first time, if we missed the secret, and we probably did. : Either way, he says that without sin, salvation is meaningless, giving : immediate relevance to the level title, which the spoiler guide says is : about our basic MO in the game, killing things (sinning) until we reach : the end, while also apparently being a reference to a Maria McKee album … : someone of whom I had never heard. And we’re here looking for answers, : apparently, which is no great surprise. : : : : Meanwhile, another Fighter has been taking potshots at us from a lower ledge, : so he dies too … sin! For us there’s not much for it at this point but to : start going down. That Fighter’s ledge has a 2x recharge canister, which : may be handy but could also … be saved. The next level down has the : opening we are actually heading for, but it is interesting to check out : the very bottom of this hole first. There are some Troopers, and a : fireplace, of course, with some fusion ammo, and a shotgun shell that I : guess we have to fall down onto – maybe another time. The opening with a : staircase back up to our ledge also has a little Pfhor cupboard, which : seems to open when we enter the fire – was there a frying pan I missed? : They’re only Fighters, but still an interesting mechanic right here. : The stairs back up are just that, and the door at the top is the one we : started on the other side of. It opens quickly, and then the switch : disengages, which can be annoying for those of us attuned to trying to : prop doors open out of habit – apparently that is a sin as well. There’s : still not much to do up here, so we go for falling again, towards the : ledge with the opening that I mentioned earlier. Kindly it offers up a PB : as top priority, along with a Fighter in a raised corridor – the obvious : combination! Let’s see where we’re at. : : : First of all, the URL for the 3D render made me realise I had the level name : wrong all this time, hence my edit in the header. The entries in the : spoiler guide and the actual list of 3D renders both get it wrong as well, : and “be saved” slips off the tongue far better if you ask me – : interesting. : So far we’ve only covered a tiny fraction in the bottom right – there’s : clearly much more fun to be had! Interesting from the fact that I played : ahead a bit is the reading of 1x shield rechargers over to the left of the : map – while they kind of appear that way, in an Infinity art kind of way, : they actually work as projectile launchers that are not at all friendly! : But we’ll come to that later. The area we’ve just entered loops gradually : back around to near where we started, but that’s cutting a rather long : story short. : First we have to run around the outside of a sewage pool, with a fence : preventing our entering it most of the way. There is an odd room off to : the left early on, with all the markings of a secret except for the fact : that the door is open. There is a little ammo inside, and a 1x shield : recharge canister, and the door actually closes when we enter! Kind of a : reverse secret, but it’s not a trap – that’s only temporary … so why : bother? : In the sewer pool, and in some small raised rooms above it on the inside, are : Fighters, Drones, and Troopers, and as we progress around, there is also : the odd Hunter on the path. Eventually we reach a point where we can get : down into the pool – it’s only shallow, and seemingly a dead-end in both : directions, but there is a sneaky L switch right back just in behind the : Pattern Buffer, along with a 1x shield recharge canister and a couple of : SPNKR rockets, I guess useful if we didn’t take in the secret rebellion : level. The switch opens a passage at the other end of the pool, which sees : us able to rise onto a platform with some Troopers lying in wait. : The middle of this platform is an actual platform, shaped in a 4-pointed : star, and when it rises, we can reach a switch on one side (not actually : sure what it does), a terminal opposite, and a path onward to the south. : The terminal is from Cosimo again, something about a Lamb of God I guess? : Baaaaa. : : : : The way forward leads to the very nasty switch. It opens the door back out to : the starting ledge, and then that triggers the opening of the already : slightly open door that leads to the rest of the level. However, if you : try to deactivate the switch to keep the first door open, you stop the : other door from opening, and the switch cannot be pressed again, so the : level is a write off … and I don’t know about sinning, but if you save : after that, you’re screwed. Except that now A1 seems to automatically save : as a new file, a major departure from Marathon’s having pioneered : “Replace” being the default option in a Mac save dialog all those years : ago. : If we don’t make that mistake, we still have to fall back down into the pit : as the door exits in a local minimum point in terms of elevation. At least : we already know the way back up, and now the way forward! Through what is : still a rather tight fit vertically, we find ourselves in a grassy : courtyard, with a Fighter walking around the top of a hedge wall, just : because he can. There are some pillars about, and one hides a switch to : open the next door, which is actually back down the way we came. A Cyborg : spawned back down there at some point, and now takes full advantage of the : ambush opportunity. : Next we come to another dead-end like place, with walls in an octagon shape : just high enough to stop us jumping off into sewer pools. There are Drones : about, and a Fighter on a ledge up to the right. A similar one to the left : holds a 2x shield recharge canister and also an L switch, which we can : grenade, resulting in the wall sections turning into a series of stairs : enabling us to reach that recharge! We can also miss out, by getting hit : over the edge by a Drone, which just happened to me now, dammit. : Climbing out of the pool we enter a church hall like room – there are even : hints of stained glass in the wall opposite. There are some Pfhor, and : those projectile launcher things I mentioned earlier – they throw F’lckta : like rocks in rather rapid fashion, and are not to be messed with! Up some : stairs, a switch reveals a key slot in the wall opposite, and opens a door : past the right projectile launcher, for our continued exploration. : Things start looking a bit more organic, and we drop down slightly more than : we can climb back up unaided, and then suddenly there’s a Pattern Buffer. : The next area has an interesting mechanic, whereby we have to go around : the back of a house and gain access by throwing a grenade through the : window at the switch by the door. Good security measures I guess! And then : we move on to circle a large open area completely before we find a switch : to get inside it – that seems to open the doors on both sides, and another : one with the path forward, as well as summoning various Pfhor to this : rather picturesque courtyard, I mean, why wouldn’t they come? There’s even : some ammo! : And next we get another terminal – this Cosimo guy is great for getting more : terminals in the game! And the most thinly veiled reference to our : situation – the key to our salvation, nice. : : : : As it turns out, pure intentions come from climbing on boxes and jumping to : other boxes. Doing that by the window over to the right will lower it so : that it becomes a door; the left side one doesn’t seem to have an : equivalent. Outside again, our key can be observed “falling from the : heavens” to land on a small grassy platform, rather impressively. Then we : take in a shortcut back to the house we broke into, which now has Hunters : outside it, and we get back to the Pattern Buffer. Another passage is open : from that room now as well, which takes us on a rather scenic route back : to the cathedral, via paths over sewage pools and then some heavy : underwater action before some stairs carry us back to the surface. : We now have the key and are able to enter … the library! It has more Pfhor : than most libraries, and yet a dearth of people telling us to ssshhhhh! : Especially with all the gunfire, and the Pfhor murmurs, man! This place : also requires yet more sleuthing. I must have figured it out way back but : found I could not this time, even when going on the spoiler guide’s : “there’s a hidden door in the end of the far stack” – yeah, not that : helpful really. There is a Pattern Buffer on one side at the far end, and : a door to the left. We can see the room just beyond over the walls past : these features, but can’t grenade ourselves over those for some reason. : Through the door are more bookshelves, and alcoves with armchairs in them, : but this time the chairs are not where the secrets lie. There is one : conspicuous individual shelf but it shows no signs of being a door. The : “secret” and yet required doors are physically in the -ends- of the : bookcases, which just come across as walls – sneaky, and also I think : different from most libraries :). Behind the scenes are some more little : steps that make me think secret again, and then a larger staircase and an : opening that lets us get on top of the other bookcases – ahhhhh. A switch : is revealed in the wall ahead, and -that- opens the bookcase door that was : the most obvious. : We follow this back passage over to the other side of the first library room, : and find a dining hall complete with fireplace, again perhaps atypical in : a library? A 2x recharge canister appears on the table, and a little : alcove past the end of the table allows us to jump on to grab it. Then we : have to go into the fireplace for the next switch, but seriously, that’s : less of a surprise. And as the floor drops away, we finally gain access to : the massive hall beyond. : The end wall has a hollowed out cross, which is a platform and ledges in our : vocabulary. Pfhor abound, including a Blue Hunter, who fell down right in : front of me when I went to stand on the lift space. Handy I had 2x : shields! This room really is huge, and we do have to stand there and most : likely fusion the L switch way up on the opposite wall – really impressive : scale here. : At the top, Cyborgs try to stop us leaving, as do randomly opening doors, but : we eventually find our exit teleporter around behind at the farthest point : of what becomes a looping corridor. And thus ends a rather long trip, and : VBB is going to be along in a while as we Hang to Dry.
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