I'm glad that Mark took this one, as I would have missed most of his major points. I'm not a mapmaker, but I love to unravel puzzels and to explore. TI2-TLL offers a lot of this, which I enjoy thoroughly. What Mark failed to mention is that all levles are rebellion levels, which I find incredibly frustrating. This does have the advantage of leveling the playing field as all players start out with nothing, but it really galls me to lose all the ammo I worked so hard to acquire. On the other hand, knowing that you can't take it with you leaves you free to use all those rockets rather than hoarding them for later. And if you just can't make it through a level, you can always skip it and come back to it later, since there is no penalty doing so.
Where TI2-TLL is particularly weak is definitely in the story department. Although it is truthfully a collection of unlreated maps, I like to look at it as truly a set of lost levels - levels that occur at various points in the original TI timeline. With Prison Sex, however, it's hard to figure our where in the world it could possibly fit in. I look at this as a kind of dream level - possibly relating to events in the player's past. After all, what USEG prison would have enforcers and hunters as guards? There is also a subplot here - you are sent to rescue your sister, whom we never actually find. Definitely a nightmare. This is a very difficult level on a par with the secret Aye Mak Sicur levels of Infinity. Everyone is against you and there is almost no respite. Almost, because there actually is a safe haven midway through the level with a pattern buffer and a 1X regenerator, thank God, or the level would be unplayable.
I find that the approach suggested in the Spoiler Guide is just unrealistic. I'm playing on TC, but even on lower difficulty levels, getting to the first pattern buffer is truly the first priority. How many of us can really clear out the initial ring completely without saving our game? After surviving the initial arena (easier than it seems if you just keep moving), I make a bee-line for the switch that opens access to the second part of the level and then head straight for the safe haven, killing only as many enemies as absolutely necessary. Once I have a saved game, I can then go back and tackle all the baddies and collect the ammo. The next part of the level is relatively straight-forward as this level goes, and that secret invincibility makes it a snap to take out the MOAH's and enforcers in the plasma room and to then grab their weapons. An alternate route back to the safe haven rewards the player with lots of ammo, a 2X recharger and another pattern buffer.
The second half of the level is hellish. The monster density is high and there are no pattern buffers until the very end. The rocket launcher is your best friend here, and you should have plenty of rocket ammo to use to take out the large groups of monsters you will face. The best advice is to run like hell and seek opportunities to blast your enemies away. The flame thrower definitely helps near the end to take out the large number of major fighters you face, but just when you think you're in the clear, you'll have to deal with a couple of cloaked S'pht who are determined to keep you from reaching the final pattern buffer and transporters. Now you could simply make a mad dash for one of the exit transporters but, considering the difficulty in reaching a pattern buffer on the next level, it would be much wiser to die at this point and start over than to proceed without saving, which says a lot about the next level :P
