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Rubicon Volunteers - Exit Door Leads In
Posted By: Steve LevinsonDate: 7/26/02 12:15 p.m.

The Exit Door Leads In is my favorite level in Rubicon. Many of you may wonder why. After all, it’s a fairly compact, symmetric level that is very unlike Chris’ most highly regarded sprawling asymmetric levels. There are no real innovations here, and the mission is fairly simple. Terminal dialog is quite spartan, with only 3 unique sets of terminal text and no new term picts. And this is a rebellion level – the player starts the level out with no weapons and minimal shields. Unless you can fist some fighters, your Rubicon experience ends here.

To me, Exit Door Leads In exemplifies near perfection in map design. The monster density is just right – the level is difficult, but very playable. It is challenging without being redundant or taxing the way that Bump and Grind was. There are a lot of places to explore, and more secrets than on any other level, as detailed in the Rubicon Secrets Guide. There is some excellent eye candy, too. This is a level that can be played over and over again, taking a different approach each time, and still seem fresh.

BTW, according to the Spoiler Guide, this is the oldest level in the entire scenario. The title comes from the title of a short story of the same name by visionary science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, who is perhaps best known as the author of Blade Runner, and has had a profound influence on Hollywood, including the current film, Minority Report. Unfortunately, I have not read the short story Exit Door Leads In and am unsure of the connection to this level. The story is actually one of Dick’s latter short stories, having been written in 1979 for publication in the short-lived magazine, Rolling Stone College Papers. If anyone has read this story and could enlighten us, it would be appreciated. In any case, the meaning of the title is obvious in terms of the goal of the level – to reach the exit door to ultimately gain access back to the Salinger.

As you’ll recall from 10001 Nordic Nerds, Lysander decided to deal with our unwanted intrusion by having us rot in prison. He apparently does this by transporting us directly to the brig of a nearby Pfhor vessel. This in and of itself raises some interesting questions. For example, how could he transport us onto this ship when it was surrounded by a magnetic field that prevented Durandal from transporting you out? Was Lysander working with the Pfhor? If so, then why didn’t he just bypass the Dangi Board and give the formula for the Achilles virus directly to the Pfhor? We’ll have more to say about that later.

So here you are on brig of a Pfhor ship, protected by a force field. Interestingly, although the force field will throw you back against the wall if you try to run through it, your fist will penetrate it just fine. The Pfhor staff, however, apparently will not. I guess this is a fluke of the Marathon engine, but it does make it possible to punch the guard outside your cell while you wait for Durandal to lower the force field, which he will do shortly. Pfhor fighters don’t seem to like being attacked without being able to attack back, either, and by punching this guard, you can get him to attack and kill the guard in the next cell. One less guard to kill! There really isn’t a lot to tell about the level itself in terms of it’s significance to the overall plot. There are many different ways that one can approach the level, but the basic goal is to flip the right switches and find the right path to the ship’s bridge, where destroying a set of wires opens the exit door. There’s plenty of ammo to be had on this level, easily making up for the loss of what you had – just be sure to look for it and don’t be afraid to jump into places that look unpleasant. Also, there are 2X and 3X shield regenerators as well, so long as you find the right secrets.

One interesting aspect of the ship’s design itself is the stern of the ship, which has 3 large rooms stacked on top of each other. These are grand rooms whose height seems to exceed the spacing between the levels of the ship, resulting in an almost surreal effect. The lowest of these is truly surreal – a definite must-see, even though it is difficult to reach and filled with invisible S’pht. One interesting aside – it seems that even the Pfhor can’t escape those ubiquitous disks offering a free trial of AOL.

As previously mentioned, the terminal text is fairly meager. Prior to smashing the wires on the bridge, most of the terminals read with the following message:

Rogue conditioned unit has escaped with assistance from artificial intelligence entity. Patrol units 45 & 46 have been subjected to (granted?) partial dismemberment in accordance with penal code subsection 2827-A3 of the cruiser guard unit conduct chart . . .

Once you succeed in smashing the wires on the bridge, this changes to:

Currently at large rogue conditioned unit . . . has damaged (abused?) shipwide computer interface. Offensive (irritating?) artificial intelligence entity has assumed partial control of Khi'Prih internal ship network. . . Unless rogue conditioned unit is apprehended, Khi'Prih Guard units 13, 17-23, 25, 29, and 80-93 will be summarily reassigned (?demoted) to Ship Waste Disposal Unit 8, rank management.

However, on 3 of the 7 terminals, you’ll get a message from Durandal instead:

. . . Find your way to the lower starboard airlock. It will take you to the exterior of the ship, where you can locate and disable the wiring that enables the magnetic field. . .

It’s interesting that there is no communication from Durandal until after you have completed the mission of the level. In other words, you have to discover your mission on your own based solely on the layout of the level. Thanks for all the help, Durandal. In any case, he goes on to give you detailed instructions for the next level, which is a good thing since it is played entirely in vacuum and under fire with no other useful information available. It’s on to A Long Walk off a Short Pier.

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Replies:

Rubicon Volunteers - Exit Door Leads InSteve Levinson 7/26/02 12:15 p.m.
     Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Exit Door Leads InBen A. Potter 7/26/02 4:32 p.m.
           Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Exit Door Leads InC Lund 7/29/02 4:29 p.m.
                 Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Exit Door Leads InSteve Levinson 7/29/02 5:05 p.m.



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