E1M2:
This level starts off much smoother than the first. As most levels will start out in the elevator, this isn't a difficult task. The area after the elevator is no less smooth, a door and a few one way doors. Another interesting choice on the developers part. More in light with a puzzle game than a action game.
I choose the normal door. This leads to what I assume is a office hallway, hence the area's name. The scientists stuck here give me plenty of opportunity to kill them before turning aggro. I even get the first strike on occasion. Enough of that, the outer hallway proves more of the same at first.
Here I meet the first of the middle security range. They have the laser rifles but they don't have armor. He's guarding the wrong end of a one-way door. Strange choice. A computer room and then a big door north.
North is just a swarm of enemies, thankfully all the scientists here are enemies, or I'd be in trouble. To the west, a locked door. To the east, a crate...area. I bet Jim and Mike are glad they beat iD to the punch on that one. Naturally it has the required secret areas, but not as much as they could possibly jam in...oh, that's a pun.
Past some guards lies a key. The first real key, the level key is kinda weird. Two mutants hide out in barrels. This room is attached to a...plasma sphere hallway. Naturally this hides a secret. Revealing the final weapon...The Neutral Distruptor. In practice, this is just the chaingun from Wolfenstein. Given the nuclear option, its not very helpful now.
Before I go check the locked door, I naturally check the walls for secrets. This is considerably easier than in Wolfenstein, as Aliens of Gold's map actually works. Its not long before I uncover a series of secret tunnels, something I actually wasn't expecting. Full of pod aliens and ammo. The pod aliens have an interesting design and the holes in their slimey bodies look nice as they die. Well I say that, but it isn't long before I start encountering gold. And at this point I break the half million mark and shoot up to 1.5 million. Thanks million point bonus.
Further in this secret area there's what I'd call a secret monster chamber. The way these mutant barrels work is that something attacks them, or possibly just moves by, and then they get out. In some cases you can get away with not killing them. As I'm going for 100%, I can't do that. I run out of ammo halfway through. How's that for a sentence, I run out of ammo in the secret room, so I run out to get some. There's nothing actually in there, its just monster killing for points sake.
As I get back on track I enter the locked door. My dear friends alien security are already there. I say I'm not using the space gatling gun, but in practice it doesn't seem that's true. Exit key acquired. That's right, the one-way doors are entirely points related...or more correctly a beginners trick.
Well, I say that, but after killing yet another sphere, these guys are tricky, real tricky, I see a crate. The crate contains a laser rifle, safe, easy to get. Easyish. Good luck killing anything in the red key room on the first floor though. Further there are some mutant guards and drones. The drones are kamikaze enemies, and are probably in some Doom wad somewhere. The whole area is designed to make the lack of secrets obvious.
The next room...is a fun one. Turrets, ceiling turrets to be specific. They're not too tough but they seem to shrug off anything weaker than the laser rifle. And they don't get hit by the PDU. There's the area to the other one way door, but getting back requires a gold key. But first, a secret.
Wow, final boss already. Unlike in some games, where the picture of the final boss is just window dressing, Goldfire's portrait is a terrible sign. Be it that he either watches through it, as some informants say, or just that he pops in, each area its in has Goldfire randomly teleport in. I don't know if there's a limit, I don't really care either.
Taking the door that isn't locked, is just more monsters. More or less every actor has shown his face by now, and its just more funnily shaped corridors and one-way doors. Imagine your office having one-way doors. And secret walls.
The exit route is just some mutants. Speaking of weird job experiences, imagine walking down the wrong door and having to walk past these gents. I'm still missing points and monsters, so I wander around until I find the one monster I didn't kill the first time around. Yeah, monsters are counted under total points.
Ah...peace. The reason why I'm already at 50% completion is because of informants, in case you couldn't figure that out.
This Session: 1.5 hour
Total Time: 3.5 hours
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