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	Re: Volunteers -- The Rose
	Posted By: Mark Levin	Date: 7/31/01 8:41 p.m.
	In Response To: Volunteers -- The Rose (7revor Smith) This level just flat out RULES, no two ways about it... Plenty of things to kill, interesting if implausible architecture, and a mission that doesn't revolve around finding a switch. Combat on this level is as chaotic as it gets, what with you, the defense drones, and the aliens mixing it up in relatively tight space while dodging the Bobs. If you want to save enough Bobs, your only hope is to run to the windows overlooking the main room and open up with the M-75 at the Hulks. Use grenades carefully, bobs can still be caught by the blast radius (although if they're that close, the Hulk will usually smash them anyway). Don't activate the Bobs in the center of the Rose itself or the terminal secret, they're safe in there. This level could have been much more realistic than it is, the "rose" gimmick makes it look too strange. The service ducts accessible through the crawlspaces near the main terminal are a nice touch, they make the level very connected. Also accessible from here is one of the only "double secrets" I've ever seen, in any game. Firstly, you get a shortcut to the second major combat zone of the level, which dumps you in the middle of the action and gives you a slightly better position (although you are now between the defense drone and the monsters :\). Secondly, you get another pistol, giving you a use for all the pistol ammo you've been collecting so far. Thirdly, behind a secret door in the secret hallway, you get an unnerving message from Durandal, one which will not be elaborated on until Marathon 2. The long dark hallway is another of my favorite spots in the game; when playing on 16 or 24-bit color your enemies are visible only by the flashes of your gunfire as they charge out at you. In here you will find the Mida terminal, poking further into the Marathon's past. Why didn't Mida attack the Marathon? And how does that tie into a certain secret on Blaspheme Quarantine? One interesting feature of this level is dead Bobs with guns or ammo beside them, almost as if they were dropped. However, Bobs don't attack in the game (indeed, they are incapable of it even through custom physics models, it requires a shapes file hack). Why did Bungie disable them? And why create this inconsistency by simulating it? On the other hand, I can imagine Bobs running around in panic carrying guns they have no idea how to use and getting slaughtered. Am I a bad person for not killing any Bobs at all during this run? :P

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Replies:

	Volunteers -- The Rose	7revor Smith	7/31/01 10:59 a.m.
	Re: Volunteers -- The Rose	Sidoh	7/31/01 11:21 a.m.
	Volunteers -- The Rose, Vidmaster's Oath, more...	Grasshopper	7/31/01 2:19 p.m.
	Re: Volunteers -- The Rose, Vidmaster's Oath, more	William Spencer	7/31/01 3:16 p.m.
	Re: Volunteers -- The Rose, Vidmaster's Oath, more	Mark Levin	8/1/01 8:18 a.m.
	Ketchup Bug	7revor Smith	7/31/01 3:36 p.m.
	Re: Ketchup Bug	Sidoh	7/31/01 5:16 p.m.
	Re: Volunteers -- The Rose	Mark Levin	7/31/01 8:41 p.m.

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