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	Re: Volunteers -- Bigger Guns Nearby
	Posted By: William Spencer	Date: 7/27/01 11:36 a.m.
	In Response To: Re: Volunteers -- Bigger Guns (Hamish Sinclair) Some real nice lighting effects on this level. Maybe that's the only reason for the light switch - it's just there to have more fun with lights. I like the BioCore Vents - the big rooms with the huge "skylights" (and one of the lights in the second room is damaged and flickering) - and the tight winding corridor with the inset lights on the sides that follows. (And then you round the corner and see that compiler in the distance - and he opens fire as soon as you're in sight.) And, of course, the lights around the first terminal, and the flickering glow cast on the ground by the "doors" term. The first room in the level is like a mini-tutorial for the motion sensor. You blissfully walk past that pillar - and the fighter jumps out at you, and you didn't see him because he was motionless. So you shoot him, and that alerts the other fighters, and you watch on the motion sensor as they run around the corner to get you. Smartly done. Speaking of the moton sensor, the compiler ambush is the first real use of the motion sensor to put fear into the player. ("They're coming from all sides! There's nowhere to run!") And, if you're not careful, you waltz out from that corridor and straight into a position to be shot at by the projectile fighters on the ledge by the exit term. Leela warned you: "Alien infiltration of this area is high; proceed with caution." I think by this point in the game, you learn the hard way to be cautious if you didn't take her advice... That first terminal also alerts you to the fact that there IS a world outside the ship itself, although you never see it for yourself. And: The aliens nuked the spaceport?! Damn, they're not holding back, are they? "Ammunition may be scarce for a while, so be prepared to fall back to your pistol." Yeah, now she tells me. Well, at least she said it BEFORE you get the MA-75, so you don't go autofire-happy in the BioCores... Ah, the infamous MA-75. It looks like the pulse rifles in "Aliens", and is about as realistic as the gatling SMGs in "Deep Rising", but what a gun: a melee weapon, a light mortar, and a propulsion device all in one beefy package. Wotta deal. (Speaking of "Deep Rising", you did notice the scene where the hero opens doors by shooting their control panels with a shotgun, didn't you?) I never could grenade hop up into that secret room, though. I could "frog blast" into the passage between the two vent cores, but not up there with those invisible compilers. Wasted whole clips of grenades and many save games trying. Ended up using a flight boots physics model to peek up there. Ah, well. I never claimed to be a Vidmaster. What are these rooms supposed to be, anyway? The green rooms look like waiting areas of some kind - there should be old magazines lying around - but there's no receptionist's desk or back offices...and the BioCore Vents LOOK important but don't do anything...and, yeah, what IS that triangle column, anyway? Maybe Marathon's crew practice some strange religions, concealing their altars from prying eyes in hidden alcoves in the lower deck areas, and this is a center of worship. Nah. A nice moment when you activate the stairs - they come up one after another, as the lights in that room come to life. Subtle, but effective. Gives you a real sense of accomplishment to hear that series of solid kerthunks as they lift into position.

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Replies:

	Volunteers -- Bigger Guns	7revor Smith	7/27/01 9:06 a.m.
	Re: Volunteers -- Bigger Guns	Mark Levin	7/27/01 9:22 a.m.
	Door Technology	William Spencer	7/27/01 10:59 a.m.
	Re: Door Technology	Hamish Sinclair	7/27/01 11:21 a.m.
	Re: Door Technology	7revor Smith	7/27/01 12:13 p.m.
	Thanks (NM) *NM*	Hamish Sinclair	7/27/01 12:30 p.m.
	Re: Volunteers -- Bigger Guns	Hamish Sinclair	7/27/01 11:06 a.m.
	Re: Volunteers -- Bigger Guns Nearby	William Spencer	7/27/01 11:36 a.m.
	Re: Volunteers -- Bigger Guns Nearby	Luke (tm)	7/27/01 7:15 p.m.
	Re: Volunteers -- Bigger Guns	Speaker-To-Animals	8/18/01 5:30 p.m.

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