Why do I so dislike this level? I mean, it's action-packed, has lots of opportunity for exploration and a look at Leonardo's ingeneous system of locks. Is it that there are so many ways to die before reaching the first pattern buffer? Is it the low water level that makes it devilishly difficult to get up onto dry land? Is it the false hope of the first teleporter? Is it that there are just too many ambushes? Maybe it's all of these.
The Nardo team I think recognized the frustrations inherent in playing this level and left the player with a secret way out of much of it - not unlike what Bungie did in the M2 level, Ex Cathedra, to allow the player to skip the hated water maze. I dunno - if a level needs a bypass switch, then there's a problem with the design in the first place. And the use of a small grassy patch as the primary trigger for the bypass is, well, a bit too cryptic. And there is something that just doesn't seem right about using a shortcut - even a secret one - to get out of what should be fun.
In any case, the player must survive an onslought of attacks from above and around them as they make they're way down the gauntlet. At the end of the first path, they need to dive into the water (after figuring out which pool of water to dive into while constantly under fire), head through a tunnel and resurface in the area of the locks. Triggering the locks takes some of the pressure off, for a short while, but the player then has to navigate a grassy maze with no less than two major cyborgs and a lot of other nasties before stumbling upon the entry stairway to the buidlings that surround the gauntlet. Finally, there is a save terminal, but watch out for its guards! Once inside, the player must take out all of the nasties that were firing down upon them when they ran the gauntlet. And just when you think it's all over and the exit teleporter lays ahead, you find that you are only transported to another of the buildings, where you have to swim under water some more and deal with a bunch of additional baddies before being allowd to escape to the gauntlet and the now open exit teleporter. Is it apparent that I just don't like this level?
The terminal on this level is another one from Biagio da Cesena in which he notifies the Council that he has acquired Leonardo's manuscript. But not for long ;^)
