/-/S'pht-Translator-Active/-/

	Rubicon Volunteers - Bump & Grind
	Posted By: Steve Levinson	Date: 7/2/02 8:30 p.m.
	As Durandal told us in Rozinante IX, we’re here for a bit of subterfuge. Ostensibly, we’re still helping Tycho by clearing out a Pfhor vessel for his own personal use. In reality we’re helping Durandal to eliminate Tycho whenever he so chooses. All we have to do is to install a chip, which will upload a virus to do Durandal’s dirty work. Of course we don’t want Tycho to suspect a thing, so we must do both - what fun! Actually, I didn’t have much fun with this level. Is it just me, or did everyone else find this level laborious. First of all, you are under attack from the moment you land. Before you can even orient yourself, you are under assault by troopers, hunters and lookers. True, the S’pht’Kr are there to help, but on TC it tends to be too little too late. There is a pattern buffer and a shield regenerator nearby, but it’s very hard to survive long enough to reach it, and there are still enemies – fighters, lookers and wasps – that will try to take you out in the process. Durandal has a terminal near your entry point, but even if you do manage to clear out the area, there are troopers overhead that will still be after you, so it’s almost impossible to read it until much later in the game. I hate to admit it, but this just isn’t good level design (sorry Rubicon Team). Once you do finally manage to read the terminal, Durandal tells you: Tycho has begun releasing portions of the Pfhor network, and I plan on assuming full control of their homeworld shortly. . . Strive to kill more now than you have ever before . . . Make your existence justified. Make our existence justified? That’s a pretty tall order! And what would Durandal do if we failed? The interesting thing is that this is not an extermination level. You don’t have to kill everything – you only have to visit the bridge and insert the chip. It’s hard to imagine not killing everything just to survive, but it is possible to avoid some carnage if you so desire – nutcase. One of the most difficult things that you need to do is to pillar hop from one platform to another in order to get to the bridge. This is one of the more difficult maneuvers in Rubicon, and it stretches the limits of what ordinary players should be expected to do – it can be done with simple jumps, but strafe-running is almost essential. There are a couple of important secrets on this level, so if you need to, do check out my Rubicon Secrets Guide, which will tell you how to get to that tantalizing 2X recharger. There is also a hidden 3X power-up, but don’t use it on this level! Wait until the end and save it for the Ascension Factor – you’ll need it! Tycho has a surprise for us in the final act, however: origin: far, far away from here destin: unintelligent recon unit ref: deceptively smart and good looking 686F6E6573746C792C20796F75206D7573742776652 07365656E207468697320636F6D696E672E Note the origin – Durandal will explain that to us later. Suffice it to say that we’ve been duped and Tycho isn’t here. By the way, the hex code here translates to “honestly, you must've”, followed by some gibberish. Tycho then continues: It's a shame things had to work out the way they did. . . you foolishly insisted in devoutly following that foul creature Durandal. . . Not that it matters now. I have what I wanted from the start, no thanks to you. This is my grand farewell . . .Durandal thought he buried Tycho on one of Lho'won's moons so many years ago. Would a simplistic clone have been able to outsmart him some 49 . . . Check and mate. Hand me my victor's crown. The one and only, Tycho. The logo that Tycho uses for his sign-off is a solid red Marathon logo, symbolizing I presume his freedom from the Pfhor. The fact that Tycho found a way to outsmart Durandal shouldn’t be a surprise – after all, they’ve been at this game for a long, long time. What’s particularly uninteresting is that he claims not to be a clone, as Durandal had thought, but the real original Tycho. This is uninteresting because one would have presumed that the original Tycho was installed on Pfhor prime. But why would Tycho say that Durandal only thought he had buried Tycho on one of Lh’won’s moons? Remember, that was in the M2 time line – the time line that lead to the W’rcacnter’s release and the destruction of the universe. That time line was a dead end. In the time line that allowed the successful conclusion of Infinity, Tycho had abducted us and we served him before we ended up helping Durandal. Tycho even alludes to this earlier in Rubicon. So why did the Rubicon team resurrect the previous destruction of Tycho? Is Tycho playing mind games with us, since he knows that we are aware of the existence of the other time lines? And whatever happened to the chance Tycho told us about in the Frog levels when he would allow us to abandon Durandal to join him? It would have been interesting if the Rubicon team had afforded us such a chance – a decision that would have undoubtedly lead to our destruction. But we will never know these things. Well, it’s time to dream again. After another Things May Happen level, it’s off to the Ascension Factor.

[ | Message Index | Read Prev Msg | Read Next Msg ] Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

	Rubicon Volunteers - Bump & Grind	Steve Levinson	7/2/02 8:30 p.m.
	Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Bump & Grind	Inverted Sock Puppet	7/3/02 7:02 p.m.
	Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Bump & Grind	Steve Levinson	7/3/02 8:23 p.m.
	Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Bump & Grind	Inverted Sock Puppet	7/4/02 12:33 a.m.
	Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Bump & Grind	Steve Levinson	7/4/02 9:21 a.m.
	Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Bump & Grind	Inverted Sock Puppet	7/5/02 3:18 a.m.
	Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Bump & Grind (Spoiler)	Steve Levinson	10/6/02 7:03 p.m.

Problems? Suggestions? Comments? Email maintainer@bungie.org Marathon's Story Forum is maintained with WebBBS 5.12.