Pathways into Darkness - As Carnby Would Say...

Who even thought this up?

Next level, We Can See in the Dark...Can You? Ahahahaha, oh, you. At first it seems rather mundane, there's a nightmare within visible range of the start, and I take him out no problem...but then rats start flying across the screen. Each time doing damage. This causes me some confusion until I figure out they attack less if I'm on the move. Tried using a crystal while they were on screen, but that does nothing. Near the exit, opposite the only permanent enemy, is a dead German. I manage to survive the onslaught long enough to talk to him. Turns out the rats are attracted to my flashlight. Joy, even shorter visibility.

Could be something there, could not, I'll never know until its too late

This does succeed in making the game more tense to play, but it succeeds more at being more annoying. Have to check the map more. And make no mistake, the game knows this is annoying, because enemies are spawning constantly and its a maze. This level is actually hard to play, because the sound keeps cutting out and you need to hear things in order to just survive this thing.

I'm going to be seeing a lot of these guys

There's a new enemy here, well, new, but I saw them in the other path. The ooze, eh, he just takes a lot of shots. There are two big issues with this map, the first is that I know there's something here I'm missing, presumably some treasure. The second is I know if I want to get it I'm going to have to waste so much time dealing with enemies. So when I see an opportunity to go down a floor, I take it.

You never know how many of these guys are lurking around now

Next floor down has everything I ever wanted. Another dead German who tells me that the MP-41 isn't far from here and a save point. Of course using the save point goes so wrong. Just so wrong. This enhanced respawning rate is annoying, and since by the time I get down here I don't have any sound, I don't know that a monster is attacking me until after I've saved and then immediately get hit. Its so bad that two enemies respawned in the corridor behind me. Aaaaaaaaaagh! This section is really starting to get on my nerves.
Going through the maze again is annoying, but it allows me to take a different route. One which gives me more ammo. That's a plus at least. Its really hard to go back to melee fighting at this point. Funny how in any other game this would be very annoying in general, but its taken this long to be annoying. So what's on that floor? Its another maze of sorts, this time a series of rooms with 2-4 corridors leading out. Even if the issues on this floor were just limited to that and the enemies constantly respawning, its feeling like the game has suddenly allowed the enemies to do Wolfenstein-levels of being able to shoot around corners.

The doors out close behind you, of course

On the east side of the map is a door that closes behind me. It leads to more of the same, except here there's a closed door. What's behind it? Why, the rest of the expedition, including Muller himself. Why were they here? Muller says they were here to get some Mayan artifacts, but another soldier says its really because they were here to get a vial containing a demon. All four of the soldiers here tell me to not step on the arrow here, but as the door closed behind me I have no choice. The reason why is because there are over twenty enemies behind the door.

The most intense fight of the game

Because they had the MP-41, and I have the crystals and a health potion, I have just enough supplies to survive the encounter on my second attempt. What were they guarding? A cloak and some potions, two blue and one brown. The brown one is poison. And...only back out. What's south on the map? Nothing. There's nothing else here. What does the cloak do? Make enemies go faster. Huh...

Another screen effect, this is starting to lose what little charm it had

So I think to myself, maybe this cloak does something back in the maze. I take the ladder back up and find myself in a different maze, this time with these electrical spheres around. You can't stunlock them without using the MP-41 and they take a lot of damage. They deal it out fast, but they're not very hard-hitting. Okay then, I guess the last floor was somewhat pointless? Enemies are still respawning at an annoying rate. You can be fighting one sphere, and another will respawn behind you, and after taking out that sphere, another one will have spawned where the first one was. After a few tries I get down to another level rather quickly. Its a good thing too, because if there's anything here, I don't have the patience to find it.

Some of these names are of Bungie employees, talk about original

Still, at least on the next floor there's a save point and a dead American. Yes, one of my team. Something tells me they're all dead anyway. He doesn't have any ammo, or a gun for that matter, but what he does have is information. There are three beacons and one of the others is carrying it, and the guy who had the bomb came back this way at some point. Does that mean I have to explore the labyrinth on the last floor? Yes, but not because of that, simply because there isn't anything here but a locked door. I'm glad I conserved all that ammo earlier because I would be screwed otherwise.

A completely fair and reasonable level exit

Better still, the labyrinth, that is, the second maze, seems to be randomly generated, even in the same game, so long as enough attempts have been made. It seems to link to three areas, the path I just took, another path up (no doubt linking back to Power Play) and a path down, which is the one where I can't go anywhere yet. It seems that the only path I can take, at least without going back into the labyrinth, is the one going back up. After dealing with oozes, many nightmares, and lowering ammo supplies, I make it to A Plague of Demons. What's here, you ask? Invisible enemies. Not like shadowy ones that blend into the background, but invisible ones. No matter which way I go, I'm going to have to deal with annoying enemies. Ah...

Can you figure out where the enemy is?

As I go through the level, I run out of ammo. There is nothing on this level, no ammo, not even a spare crystal. Oh...good. That's just what I wanted. This is a long, winding level that coils in on itself, and it has many of these invisible monsters. They move fast too, so they're really fun. It seems like going this way is impossible, at least for now. I decide to check the hintbook that came with the download of the game. There's a cedar box on this floor that duplicates items, or at least ammo. If you went down from the other path you'd have an idea of what to do with this.

It occurs to me that only corpses have blood, and there are no blood puffs upon damage

It takes about a minute to get more ammo, but it is worth it. What is with these FPS/RPG games that force you to spend time waiting around. Shadowcaster, Deux Ex (with aiming) and this crap. This drastically changes the way the game is playing. Anyway, once I find the way up, I also find another of my comrades. It seems the way it was intended for me to travel through this section was by walking down, because this guy had infra-red goggles for seeing the invisible enemies. Joy. Also, his M-16 is broken. What, are they made out of puddy or something? Another empty magazine and a 40mm grenade. Something tells me I as long as I have plenty of ammo for the MP-41 I should be getting more grenades. Just a feeling.

Exciting level design!

And yes, both entrances into Feel the Power are full of enemies. Jees. While the cedar box changes the dynamic of the game, its not really changing what I'm doing. In both the current and previous situations I was attacking a few enemies, then resting/waiting. The only real threat is the timer, and even though I'm now on Monday, I've still got plenty of time and having effectively infinite ammo greatly reduces the amount of time I need to rest. Waiting is better than resting, though that labyrinth will still be annoying.

A fat ghost too

On my way back, I finally get to see one of those enemies. Hahahahahaha. They're just ghosts, huh?

This undersells how many enemies are in this corridor

Now that I don't have any concerns about ammo, let's deal with "Need a Light?" properly. Short controlled bursts with the MP-41 work better than just firing non-stop. Even seems like they deal more damage. One of the doors does open, and inside is a long hallway full of enemies. Now that I don't need to conserve ammo, the game is responding likewise.

Did the anti-smoking lobby pay for this?

There's another door at the end of the hallway, and close by is another corpse of my fellows. He's got the grenade launcher. (I love the sound that places when I get points, its so cool hearing it when I get a weapon) All he remembers is burning and searing and fire. Either something hot killed him, or he shot himself with the grenade launcher. Come to think of it, how did they get down here without the pipes?

Every enemy in this game has managed to hit a perfect balance between childish and creepy

And this guy is here. He shoots fireballs, answering my question. I know what to do, I take the grenade launcher and start firing. And you know what? Its underwhelming. Seriously underwhelming. Its practically a shotgun the way it works. Might as well be shooting rubber rounds at this guy. (there are multiple rounds, but I've been copying the HE) I kill him, but it didn't feel like that. Now, to interrogate the rest of my team. Some of them have already lost it. Greg got separated from the team as the door closed behind them, while they slowly got killed off by the big guy. I wonder if his huge amount of health is supposed cut down from what damage my teammates did to him? I get a grand total of 9 M16 rounds from two magazines from their broken weapons. Otherwise I find another brown potion, one red, one blue, and a ring.

These things look like they should have more legs than they seem to have

Last trek through the labyrinth, at least until I've won, there is a violet crystal in the center of the maze, seems to be electrical themed. On the other side is a...your guess is as good as mine as to the name and these spider-things. Clearly, we're entering the Lovecraftian section of the game. Interestingly, there are small recesses in these walls, akin to the ones you'd find in something more advanced. I wonder if there's a map-making program for this game. It would be very interesting.

Why do they look like Egyptians?

While I admire some unusual and alien scenery, this reskinned zombie shows up. He creates earthquakes. Clearly those screen effects are less impressive than I give them credit for if they're showing up this much.

I wonder if they're just trying to make these guys look as out of place as possible, even though they're human

A little ways in I find a velvet bag which acts like a bag of holding. (I.E., they don't weigh anything) Hasn't really affected anything yet, but I'm at about 50 kg and with no signs of that ammo supply getting lower. What's more interesting are these human fellows who have created a barrier in certain sections of the map. As in move through it, you can't, shoot at it, you can't. Meanwhile enemies can attack through it. This cuts off a good chunk of the floor, but there's a way down, so its all good.

This makes me want a war game that looks cute and treats everything like a minor whoopsie

"Watch Your Step", uh-oh. Landmines, or mystical versions. Oh, and frogs dashing across my screen like the rats. I can deal with it, I know what to do...oh, they're not attracted to the light. In fact, in order to shake them off, you have to walk over a landmine. There are a limited number of frog spawns, and you get rid of them by stepping on the violet pods. That's not really the sort of action I expected I would have to do. It feels like the sort of thing you would see in a mod rather than a commercial game.

There's not a great way for these guys to die, is there?

On the south side of the map is a green crystal. Considering the events at the top of the pyramid, its not surprising that I rarely use the things. The green crystal creates earthquakes, and using them on the dudes who holds the barrier kills them. Back a level up I can clear out the rest of the level. There's another potion, and surprisingly enough, another way down. Is it separate from the rest of the level, or is it just another connector? I think that's a question best answered another time.

This Session: 2 hours 30 minutes

Total Time: 6 hours 20 minutes