Midwinter: Empire Now

I regret picking up this game opposite Galactic Empire. With two very similar weird, early FPS ancestors its hard to muster up the energy to alternate between them. Two people won't make the game go any easier, but hopefully I can get a car this time...again.

Okay, last time I found another member of the...guard force? I guess that's what it is. Doughty gives some helpful hints on who he can and cannot recruit. Some guy named Courtenay considers him to be a "noisome troublemaker". A very British way of saying things. This game was designed by the very British Mike Singleton, known for Lords of Midnight and the Indiana Jones game no one remembers. The one people say no one remembers, but they vaguely know what it is, not the actual one no one remembers*.

My plan for this session is to have the guy I just picked up go around south and pick up some other people, while Stark goes north, gets a buggy, and pick up some people, and his girlfriend. I fail to see how this can go wrong.

The new good friend heads south to a cable car station, because I plan on going over the mountain. This seems to go along without much incident. I figure the flashing thing and the sound are some kind of radar, not the actual sound the enemy equipment is supposed to be making. I get some good fortune in knocking out an enemy snowbuggy.
Stark, meanwhile, encounters nothing but some smooth skiing. I just had Doughty draw them off, didn't I? Well, he's be okay. He looks like he's having a good time.

Situation report, 1 down against...a lot. Joy. That's another two hours, but this time it felt a lot shorter. They all feel a lot shorter now. I think that's because I know what I'm doing.
This time I go with Stark at first. He's got a snowbuggy now, and driving at 30 MPH seems to be a safe bet. No thought yet as to how this is going to handle when the fighting goes down. At the first of my next new friends, we'll see how that goes at the end of this phase. Doughty still has a bit to go before the cable car station, he only reached a supply depot. His journey also turns out smooth, and I learn something regarding skiing movement. It actually functions semi-realistically. I say semi, because I don't imagine most people are going to be capable of going 14 MPH in the snow in full military gear. In mouse mode, I move up and down to control walking speed, and when he starts going down, the mouse doesn't really control the speed anymore. Like skiing. Hence why at times it can suddenly stop for no reason despite being otherwise fine.

My luck slightly changes for the worse when the local guard, named Grice, tells me to stuff it. There's always one of those. The manual helpfully tells me he's bitter and has no friends. Specifically, bitter about Stark getting promoted above him. I'll have to send Courtenay, the only person he respects, back to get him. So far, he's looking like the only guy who's capable of using explosives on something. Yeah, plan for this one, go north, get PC Flynn, have him get Courtenay, have Stark go east to his girlfriend and have her pick up some others. Things are looking up.

I gotta get a better shot of these missiles

Even an encounter with another snowbuggy does nothing to screw me over. A little bit of spinning then one missile out. If I ever catch it, you'll see its nothing special, just flies away like a rigid body in zero g. Two down, this is going really well.

Doughty starts off easy as well, I made it to the ski lift last time, so I start him off with a ski lift. Its not very impressive, but its nice just not being shot at or having to navigate. Up here, I can hangglide. Ha. Even if I could, Doughty is crap at it. I see no way just skiing down to the other side could go wrong.

Its more intense in motion.

Its quite intense, but thankfully nothing goes wrong. The little bit of climbing up I have to do is offset by managing a lot of distance downhill. I'm still quite a ways away from the village proper. But I'm getting there as he starts to run out of health. This ends up being a double time for ol' Doughty, as I must have went way over time moving around as Stark. So after a brief rest, I make it to where I wanted to be.

Leading to another fun dialog where a PC refuses to join. His little profile in the manual says he was nearly thrown out of the force for being suspected of stealing. Real winner here. If I have the time for it, I'll get him, but otherwise Doughty gets a meal. There's a garage here, but Doughty's driving skills are below par. I don't want to know how bad that'll be. This is fortunately, a relatively recruit rich area. And what do you know, Muller, one of his friends, is near.

Also, they put him in a sleeping bag for some reason

Then, suddenly this gets bad. Stark is captured...somehow, and when I reach Muller, the area is also held by the enemy. There doesn't seem to be anything I can do to make it unheld. I unwisely choose to blow up the heat mine here. That does nothing. At this point, I think I'm going to restart. Call it gaming the system, but I think its best if I start off in a village that has a buggy to start with.

This Session: 1.5 hour

Total: 4 hours

*This would be the Indiana Jones text adventure. Yes, that is real.