Well, it's been quite some time since we finished the Rubicon Volunteers series and I'll have a couple of additional posts later, but I was playing the Rubicon Level Beg, Borrow and Steal last night and I realized that my original post just didn't do it justice:
Having played this level a couple of times since my original post to the forum back in July, I have to say that I have an increased respect for the mapmaking genius of Tim Thomas. This level rocks! Although it can be completed fairly quickly by following Durandal’s instructions, I now believe that it is well worth taking some time to explore, even though this comes at the expense of your ammo. There is actually a very direct, quick route between one of the two large rooms with a pattern buffer and 2X recharger and the central core of the facility. Finding this route and clearing it of bad guys can make completing the level much easier, and it can give you sufficient health to be able to be more daring in your explorations. If you don’t mind using your fists now and then, once you get that 2X recharge, you can literally clear the rest of the level without wasting much of your ammo. If you can find that secret 3X recharger (I just added it to my Rubicon Secrets Guide, your job will even be easier. Yes, you can easily get lost, but the level is actually fairly compact and you're never far from the central core or from a corridor that will lead you there. If I have one complaint, it’s that the Rubicon Team didn’t hide some secret ammo caches on the level. Although the 3X recharger is certainly worth a little exploration to find, the extra shield strength is not really worth the ammo spent in finding it. The player needs to have a reward for their exploration. Bungie recognized this when they scattered bits of ammo throughout the M2 level, Come and Take Your Medicine.
