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 | Tour of Duty - God Will Sort The Dead... | |
| Posted By: PerseusSpartacus | Date: 11/28/13 12:57 p.m. |
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20 - God Will Sort The Dead... Last time on Tour of Duty, we were dropped fresh from prison into a pool of water and forced by Blake to face F'lickta and Troopers with just dual pistols. Our ultimate objective, according to Blake, is to awaken an ancient S'pht AI. Though we may not recognize it yet, we met this AI way back on We're Everywhere. We appear in a small intersection of four hallways. There are four green BoBs sitting around the middle, and the sound of machinery here is quite loud. You may be wondering if any of these BoBs are Simulacrums, and in that case, you'd be on the right track: there's one Simulacrum amongst these BoBs, on the north-eastern corner of the intersection (IIRC). Your first goal should be to head through the east door, where you'll find a room with a Terminal, 1x Shield Charger, Pattern Buffer, Oxygen Charger, a few real BoBs, and a number of Simulacrums. It's best to just shoot any green BoBs that run towards you and/or scream nonsensical phrases. The real BoBs are liable to get blown up before you have a chance to make the mistake of shooting them, so don't worry too much about killing friends and incurring the wrath of BoB. Once you're safe here, have a look at the terminal.
Lovely diagram of what makes a Simulacrum different from a regular human. Lots of subtle details, few of which are nearly as obvious as the fact that they scream "Frog Blast the Vent Core!", never shoot at the enemy, and bleed yellow. Odd fact: anyone noticed that the pose of the Simulacrum in the diagram is a lot like the 'flinch' bitmap for BoBs? Even more strange: how did the humans get to do such detailed analysis of the Simulacrum? Wouldn't the Pfhor just remote-detonate them before they could be dissected? Failing that, wouldn't the bomb auto-detonate when you so much as touched it? Before we continue, let's have a look at the map:
As you can see, this is a pretty small map. It does pack a little punch, and you can definitely get caught off-guard at a couple of points. Just follow a simple rule of thumb: if it keeps running towards you, and it's wearing green, shoot it - fast. I would advise leaving the west side of the map for last; it's the hardest part of the level easily. Instead, head north. Nearly every BoB here is really a Simulacrum, so you can just shoot anything that moves. Once this part is clear, head south. There's something sort of like a ready room here, with some BoBs and Simulacrums. Heading further south, there's a number of Simulacrums cramped into hallways and inside another large, dark room like the one to the north. There's a small nook on the west wall of this room that contains a group of Simulacrums packed together so tightly that killing the front one will invariably set off a miniature chain reaction amongst the ones behind him. Now, return to the pattern buffer and save your game, because this next part could get a little messy. Head through the west door, and you'll find a large room sort of like a lobby. The only Simulacrums are at the far end, near some more doors. Head through the southern-most of these doors. Heading down some stairs, you'll encounter some more Sims running up to greet you. As you move forward, some [?red?terracotta?pink] BoBs will drop down from a ledge above, blocking your path, while some Hunters teleport in behind you. The only way to deal with this effectively is to go rushing down the stairs as soon as the Sims are dead, and get to the end before the BoBs block your path. They'll probably get killed by a combination of friendly fire and Hunter bolts. Once they're dead, you'll need to keep your wits about you, because not only are you gonna have to tackle the remaining Hunters with just dual Pistols, but there's Simulacrums behind you that may activate and ambush you. You may even want to take a brief moment while the Hunters are occupied to deal with the Sims yourself, just to avoid getting caught out by an attack from both sides. Once you've dealt with this potentially-two-pronged attack, you'll realize you're in a very dark room that's semi-labyrinthian, with all these pillar-like squares blocking your vision. Behind many of these are BoBs, most of whom are actually Simulacrums. In the south-western corner of this room is some ammo. Prepare to die a lot trying to grab it, because as soon as you do, some Troopers, Hunters, and Simulacrums teleport in behind you. While trying to get the heck out of there, you'll probably get caught out by a Simulacrum you failed to notice before ending up right on top of him. It may prove useful to have gone back to the Pattern Buffer and Shield Charger immediately after you dealt with the Hunters earlier. Look on the bright side: the level is a bit easier from here. Now it's time to clear the north-west portion of the level. Returning to the lobby, head through the other door. To your immediate left are two BoBs; one green, one pink. Kill the green one, for obvious reasons. This may blow up the pink one, but who cares - it's just added fun while you do your job, right? Around the corner, a bunch of Pfhor teleport in with some Sims in tow. There's some BoBs to help you out, but on Normal or above I think they usually just get wiped out, often leaving you with a last Trooper to kill or whatever. Through a door and down some stairs you'll run into a long, tall corridor to a big room. There's some Sims here, who you will of course want to kill. Don't head into the room yet. Instead, tap the walls until you reveal two switches (point B on the map). These will drop down crushing platforms in the room ahead. The only switch you'll want to use is the left one. Once you've revealed it, run into the room, causing BoBs to teleport in under one crusher and Pfhor to teleport in under the other. Immediately run back to the switch and tap it, crushing the Pfhor. Dead ahead, there is a Shotgun and some ammo - thank god! If you were worried about regaining all the weapons you had before, you should stop worrying; they're gonna start coming back real fast. Now that all the enemies are dead, it's time to return to the Terminal room. Charge up, save your game, and hit the terminal.
Wow, I'm actually starting to like Blake; he hates Durandal too! So at least we know who/what this personality construct is. A little information on the real Thoth, obtained during a brief raid on that nucleus of information known as Wikipedia: Thoth was considered one of the most important deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him. His feminine counterpart was Seshat, and his wife was Ma'at.
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Thoth played many vital and prominent roles in Egyptian mythology, such as maintaining the universe, and being one of the two deities (the other being Ma'at) who stood on either side of Ra's boat. In the later history of ancient Egypt, Thoth became heavily associated with the arbitration of godly disputes, the arts of magic, the system of writing, the development of science, and the judgment of the dead.
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Thoth's roles in Egyptian mythology were many. He served as a mediating power, especially between good and evil, making sure neither had a decisive victory over the other. He also served as scribe of the gods, credited with the invention of writing and alphabets (i.e. hieroglyphs) themselves. In the underworld, Duat, he appeared as an ape, A'an, the god of equilibrium, who reported when the scales weighing the deceased's heart against the feather, representing the principle of Ma'at, was exactly even. That last part, about reporting when the scales are even, will prove kind of important to understand our Thoth, so keep it in mind. Now, if you may recall, we met this Thoth before:
That was way back on We're Everywhere, though a good number of first-timers will probably have missed it, because it's kind of hard to notice that terminal. Then again, Noah Schaubaker points out in the Thoth section of FAPTA... that this terminal may actually be Tycho communicating with us, considering the presence of the out-of-place &ci1lc text. I'll leave it to you guys to work out that whole business. As for me, I'm off to face My Own Private Thermopylae! Vale,
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