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	Tempus Irae: Evil So Singularly Personified
	Posted By: Mark Levin	Date: 12/14/03 9:12 p.m.
	The second half of the engineering area of the Pfhor ship picks up right where Vendetta leaves off, as you teleport across a blue grid much like the one already encountered in the optional area off to the side of the previous level. On a modern computer, loading the next level is essentially instantaneous, further blurring the gap between the levels. The place you emerged from is quickly sealed up; I'm guessing this was considered preferable to simply not having a teleporter spot there and violating the consistency of two-way teleports across blue grids, but I wish the door was a bit more elegant. After surviving the ambush (surely the Pfhor by now would have realized that two Hunters is not nearly enough to stop you?), sneak up behind a Pfhor and read the continuing saga of Har'ar. He's about to be executed, and one of his co-conspirators is preparing to save him. Unfortunately, that conspirator is now lying behind you in a cooling pile of fluids. This level consists mainly of an enormous stairway, with a number of what can only be described as set pieces to visit on the way down. First, there's a small passageway that leads to a window overlooking some sort of ceremonial chamber. And here Har'ar's story ends, in a blast of Enforcer fire. There's a secret here that's best gotten much later in the level, so we'll return to it later. Secondly, there's a small room overlooking a vast hangar area containing several super-Juggernauts. They can't attack you through the glass, but they seem to be pretty worked up about something. Thirdly, there's a small room containing a terminal and further instructions (you'll have to wait a few seconds, and fight off a drone ambush, before it appears, or you can just tab the west side of the indentation in the ceiling to cheat). I always miss the "and return here" bit, and wander the level in confusion for a while after completing the objective. Fourthly, there's a hallway running around the perimeter of the huge hangar from before. The place is even bigger than it appeared, and the S'pht'kr have arrived and are taking on the Juggernauts. They can usually kill all of them with minimal casualties, as the Juggernauts fire much slower than the S'pht'kr and have trouble hitting anything right in front of their noses as their weapons are in the wrong place. There's also a terminal here in which a Pfhor armorsmith explains the design of the Juggernaut fail-safe feature, which lets them slow their fall to the floor and emit a warning tone when heavily damaged. Finally, you reach a very slow-moving platform which leads to the engineering spaces. Start the platform going down, then go back and hit the secret. This lets you use the invulnerability in the upcoming fight, instead of watching it burn off while the elevator descends. This secret is actually mentioned in the nearby terminal. As I kep saying, the high-tech environment allows flights of architectural fancy that Earth does not, and the mapmakers really went to town here. These three maps (Vendetta, Evil, and the upcoming I Haven't Killed Anyone Since 1485) successfully convey a sense of wandering around inside a truly enormous spaceship (helped by the "height compression" trick detailed in the spoiler guide). I realized long ago during my mapmaking days that the best way to convey size in Marathon was to place the viewpoint a large distance from both the ceiling and the floor, a concept which is used to great effect here. Don't forget to go into the optional area up the stairs at the very end, which lets you look out over some sort of computer core and play with a nifty airlock.

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Replies:

	Tempus Irae: Evil So Singularly Personified	Mark Levin	12/14/03 9:12 p.m.
	Re: Tempus Irae: Evil So Singularly Personified	Steve Levinson	12/15/03 6:51 a.m.

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