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Volunteers: Sorry Don't Make It So
Posted By: Mark LevinDate: 10/22/01 12:39 p.m.

This level looks very familiar, at least the first half of it. It's been heavily modified over the past seventeen years, but most of the details are still there. I support the first interpretation of the name listed on the Story Page: Captain Picard's immediate reaction upon being beamed into a place like this :P

Normally, this would be your first encounter with the new Alien Weapon ("normal" being if you hadn't found the ones on Ex Cathedra or Come and Take Your Medicine). I found it a bit underwhelming; the weapon has been made significantly weaker than its M1 counterpart. It no longer fires bullets, and fires slower and with less accuracy. It has been changed to do fire-based damage, which means that it can't be used on the Enforcers themselves (without costing you additional weapons). One slight gain, however, is the addition of the secondary "spreadfire" mode; the best way to use this is to go up to a powerful monster and hit both triggers at once, which effectively pours three times the weapon's normal firepower into him. This is also good on crowds, but this level's halls are too narrow for it to be put to good use yet.

The first door you will come across leads to a familiar slime pool from Pfhor Your Eyes Only, and the secret lift is still there as well. However, instead of extra weapons, it will send you to a ledge with an Enforcer overlooking a point much later on. This is a quick shortcut that can get you to the end with very little ammo used, but it costs you the interesting parts of the level.

The first terminal here further explores Tycho's role in the conflict. Is this the first time we hear of the destruction of Tau Ceti? Interesting that Tycho claims to have played a major role in it, or at least not lifted a finger to stop the Pfhor. Those scientists must have really gotten on his nerves. Is it possible that Tycho was not subjected to Strauss's "stable rampancy" technique, allowing him to become completely insane rather than merely powerful like the supervised Durandal?

The first pattern buffer is found underneath a pool of Pfhor slime. Nearby, a hapless fighter is mistargeted by the Pfhor command and dropped into the slime. Don't forget to grab the 3x health and M-75 ammo in this area.

At one point, if you don't take the secret teleporter, you will have to jump into a pool of slime and head south to access the second half of the level. Poke around in the north alcove for a secret flamethrower; it will make the cyborgs and hordes of fighters much easier to deal with.

The second half of the level is made mostly of ambushes. If you step into one, immediately run backwards; otherwise you risk having monsters teleport in on all sides of you and butter your muffin. Don't forget to secure the 2x health charger, you'll need as much health as you can get for the next level. The jumps across the slime are longer than you're probably used to, but they can be made with sidestep-running; remember that this is a low-gravity level. The final term shows Durandal's further decay, and Tycho's approaching victory. Nothing to do but try...

One note about the final terminal: This level has no mission, so if you run into the final room and read the terminal quickly you will be teleported out before the monsters can beam in and fire at you. You wuss :P

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Replies:

Volunteers: Sorry Don't Make It SoMark Levin 10/22/01 12:39 p.m.
     Re: Volunteers: Sorry Don't Make It SoSoapstone 10/22/01 5:42 p.m.
           Re: Volunteers: Sorry Don't Make It Sowhocares 10/23/01 7:37 a.m.
           Re: Volunteers: Sorry Don't Make It So[Tycho?] 10/23/01 12:12 p.m.
                 Re: Volunteers: Sorry Don't Make It SoSoapstone 10/24/01 6:19 p.m.
     Re: Volunteers: Sorry Don't Make It So[Tycho?] 10/23/01 12:16 p.m.
           Re: Volunteers: Sorry Don't Make It SoMark Levin 10/23/01 2:30 p.m.
                 Re: Volunteers: Sorry Don't Make It SoSidoh 10/23/01 4:55 p.m.



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