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	Message: : TOUR OF DUTY : 23 – Where the Twist Flops : The name. The Story page was quite a surprise when first I read it. This is : not the first potential reference to Miller’s Crossing, and I guess I : really have to check out that film! Prior to reading that, I always : interpreted it as being where a twist in the story, or the chance for one, : was lost or given up on. With that in mind it would make more sense a : couple of levels hence, where Durandal comes back and says “Hi!”. The fact : that it didn’t fit right here didn’t bother me when I didn’t consider : these things so deeply, and/or couldn’t remember exactly where that reveal : came. It still makes more sense to me as a meaningful title anyway! : Okay, Last time on Tour of Duty we played with physics as it relates to : bodies (of water) in motion, and explored a very 3D maze of ledges and : underwater passages, in order to finally complete the activation of Thoth, : this AI keeper of the balance of whom PS has been writing in helpful : detail. His first request was to be left alone, and for us to go to save : humans nearby. : And so here we are. First of all we are treated to a new chapter screen: : Simulacrums! What could it mean?! : : It’s not like this is a heads-up, there were enough to blow up a ship on God! : Enough to drive Narcogen and Blackstar down a zero tolerance for BoBs : path. And the chapter title suggests we should expect more sims, well ... : here goes. : The level start is an M1 classic, with our own personal pattern buffer and : terminal. The terminal is a Thoth one, and about as short and sharp as it : could be. : : So balance demands that we kill more Pfhor. And we thought things were : supposed to change! Well no, no one knew what to expect from Thoth’s : awakening, and from our point of view this is just yet another master – we : seem to be cut off from Blake, although rumour has it that he is actually : represented among the -real- BoBs here. : Moving out of the start area we see a bunch of green BoBs, but despite the : chapter name, yes they’re real, and they’re spectacular. : Hunters show up to cut them down, and on TC they do this easily unless we : step in. Which I do. And then the Hunters die easily. : I always group this level with God in my mind, the same theme of killing : sims, the same kind of textures and structural feel, to some extent, and : the same feeling that we’re being diverted from our main aims. Also, : reasonably uninteresting levels. Hence my leaving them to PS in the : original plan. But in the interests of getting M2 finished this year, here : I am :). Sorry if you prefer his style. : Before I forget again, the map, and I should mention, these maps of PS's are : awesome compared to the polygon views of the MSG - I'm really hoping PS : can pull off similar for Infinity ;). : : The way things fit together on this level is among the most confusing in M2, : kind of like with Nuke and Pave, there are cases of surprising connections : between the parts of the level, and it can play quite differently : depending which way we go. With this level, I’ve always felt there was : just something missing. : From where we are on the west side, the next thing we see is a pit full of : sims, trying not to fall into lava, at point A on the map. Don’t ask me : why they’re down there! I only kill Pfhor here. But I can never resist : trying to chain kill those guys. I’m guessing they were rounded up by the : real BoBs and tossed in there, somehow, without letting them blow, before : we, and the Pfhor and S’pht, arrived. Complicated. : From here the path splits three ways, although two of them lead to the same : result. I don’t think I’ve ever decided on the way I prefer to play this : level, but as we have the pattern buffer sorted out, but don’t yet have : access to a health charger, I’ll take us on the path of least resistance : to one of those. The model of advance a bit and then return to save works : much better when you are not so vulnerable! At least I had 2x coming in : from KYT. : And that path would be to the north. As we round the corner we see compilers : shooting at BoBs, and then shooting at us. So we shoot at them. There’s a : lava pool here, and we notice something surprising in it, against the wall : at point C: a terminal! Now, reading such while in lava is not fun, and : the fact that there is an invincibility powerup on the ledge by the : terminal doesn’t even help with that. We still have to tab incessantly as : we get kicked out each time we -would- take damage. This made my job for : the tour of screen capturing every terminal page equally as annoying, with : the print screen key thrown into the incessantly pressing mix … but I got : it :). At least this was on Windows, as pressing cmd-shift-3 incessantly : would have been even harder! : : Clearly this was going to be a flavour terminal rather than a story one. And : I don’t have much to say about it, other than that there’s a similar one a : few levels hence, without the hassle of lava. : There’s an opening on the other side of the lava pool. And I forgot to : mention that some of the BoBs weren’t really shooting the compilers, : because they were really sims! Big reveal huh. Through that opening, we : can go right to kill an invisible compiler, and left down some stairs to : an ambush of Hunters and sims. More health suckers, especially if you’re : not forewarned (have you done this one yet, Narcogen :)?). Beyond these : guys is a big dropoff. So we drop off, and immediately we find ourselves : being shot at again! There’s one invisible compiler at the end of this : area, and by the time we get to him, as many as three more might have : noticed us from the next level down, and the sight of half a dozen green : homing balls of … electricity? is a bit daunting. Convenience of : conveniences, there’s also a 1x charger here! And to make a bit more of : the connectivity of this level, I’m going to take us back to the sim pit : area at this point, and we’ll find ourselves starting over. : We get there by way of a switch right next to the charger, which reveals part : of the wall to be a platform. It only stops at the roof, so don’t forget : to get on, and don’t forget to get off! Then, to the south, across from : the lava terminal area, we find another lava pool – if we approach around : the right side, it all seems very quiet … too quiet. The left is similar, : but towards the end we trigger more compilers and a Hunter around the : pool, and it’s best to run away. The BoBs in the middle area are : surprisingly alert to such attacks, but they’re probably already dead with : the way we’ve gone. Next we find a door around on that left side of the : south lava pool. It leads to a circular room with oddly shaped large : central column. Teleporting in are some real BoBs, careful, and the usual : compilers and Hunters. Careful also of Hunter shots hitting you through : the open parts of the central column. A door leads to another room that is : pretty much identical, but you can get through the parts you need to : without causing more Pfhor to spawn. If you don’t manage that, this time : invisible compilers join the mix, and they’re more annoying in this dark : environment. Okay it seems like not making more spawn is the exception : rather than the rule, and that the trigger points are set for the other : entry to this room, straight from the sim pit area, that third split path : I mentioned earlier. : The next room is the biggest flashback to God moment, as it closely resembles : that level’s starting room: a crossroads with BoBs and sims. I think this : time there are more sims than BoBs here … but this time I just ran at the : first one, who was in the way and turned out to be a sim, and this caused : the rest to throw themselves in the air and spread themselves over a wide : area. : Continuing the theme of going after health chargers, the door to the right of : where we came in is the way to go. Another large empty room, yeah right! : Venturing in a bit spawns Hunters all through the place, and they are best : handled from the crossroads room, with judicial opening and closing of : that door. Once they are dead we head in to find a 2x charger, that’s more : like it! But I hope you can see why I went for the 1x first … fewer : Hunters :). There’s also one more Hunter in here, so be careful where you : tread. And the room ends in another oddly shaped column … okay I could : probably start calling them diamond shaped, well a diamond on top of a : circle. : Heading back to the crossroads, the next door to the right leads to another : corridor with a door at the end, and a Hunter. This one takes us to some : BoBs fighting some Hunters, and some sims heading towards us. Then there’s : a nice breadcrumb trail of shotgun shells, which lead to … a whole bunch : of them, on the opposite side of the diamond on top of a circle we just : described. : Back towards the crossroads we also notice a raised area, which is not : particularly interesting. The last door from the crossroads leads to a : room with a few partitions. Several Hunters teleport in as we venture : forwards, and again, the crossroads is the best graveyard for them. To the : right, stairs lead up to the raised area we just saw, which is indeed : empty. To the left, there’s more ammo of various sorts, and a shotgun! : Then around the corner we fill up on magnum ammo, just what we’ve always : wanted! : Before we get there though, we see openings to the left and right, well, more : like lift shafts – so you can guess where we’re heading. Because only we : would survive the fall? Firing a shot or two into those openings will : start BoBs, sims and Hunters moving on the radar, and then fighting. Then : we can drop down into the middle of that. I just now managed to get an : exploding sim to finish off a Hunter down there, which I wasn’t even 100% : sure was possible, so that’s good news. : If we manage to keep the BoBs alive, we notice one blue one among the green, : and this is the guy we think might be Blake. If that is the case … I guess : he’s dead now, as he was when I got down there this time around. This room : does seem to be some kind of human resistance control room though, with : those columns that could be something computery given half a chance. This : would make sense based on the Blake’s recorded message on KYT – they were : retreating further underground, and I guess this could be the last stand … : it’s just not very dramatic. : And of course there’s a lava pool. More conveniently, there’s a 1x charger : tucked away down a corridor underneath where we dropped down. And then : there are stairs leading up. To a door! And behind the door is the level : just below the first 1x charger we found. This is certainly an easier way : to approach the area – always use the approach with a door :)! BoBs fight : it out with Hunters and compilers before they all come to see us, and die : from it. There’s a switch in here that brings down a platform that takes : us to that 1x charger. As it comes down we can go and collect magnum ammo : from the dead BoBs. And then we’re done. : In my messing about games to remind myself of things for this writeup, I : realised this must be an elimination level, as I couldn’t leave after just : doing the crossroads side of things. I guess it’s obvious, I mean the : terminal states it, and it couldn’t be anything else … I guess that’s just : what happens – interesting with some of those triggers if every enemy has : to be killed though. Anyway, another thing that just happened was that a : Hunter ended up down in the sim pit – no idea how – and they weren’t dead : yet…. : So, when everyone is dead, the start terminal lets us go with the message: : Thoth realises what we’ve been up to, describing it of course in a new and : novel way. I’ve only just looked up ansible for the first time. That’s : shockingly interesting! I’m not sure if it helps with interpretation of : that last bit, and it turns out that it is a bad idea to search the : Internet for destroyed by the threes :O. Volunteers didn’t go into : detail here either, so I’ll just leave it there and see what y’all have to : say! : Next up we have another filler-like level, with more crypticness from Thoth. : Probably the highlight is the very large central secret ammo room, which I : explored for the first time a few months ago.
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