Inca II: Won

The spot Eldorado was taken to is some kind of crater. A remote crater divided into three screens, this one has a "stele" and three pillars...

...This one has some scepters and one part (that I didn't get) that needs a keystone. The first part of this puzzle I just stumbled upon without realizing it, just by mousing over stuff, proving that having words pop up over interactable items isn't always good design. The two scepters can be picked up to open a door to an interior area with a casabash, which I get by cutting it in half. Just by messing around I figure the scepters go into the pillars, and the split casabash should go into the keystone, but I can't do the latter yet.

And it turns out that the other half of the casabash goes on the pillar. Okay. This allows me to deposit the first power. We are teleported back to the native, who tells Eldorado to not worry about the Mangroove demon, the crocodile settled his dispute with him, before laughing ominously. Off to the next place.

A third there, with Eldorado hoping the other two are easier. Another space section, this one hardly worth putting in. Guess he was right. Afterwards, Eldorado gets a message from Kelt, one of Aguirre's squadrons is going after the in-construction Boomerang flotilla, could you kindly take it out so we don't have to? Maybe I haven't been hard enough on Kelt, after all, there must have been a reason why Ataluapha got on the council. I get the choice, and frankly I'm starting to wonder if the final battle is against the asteroid and these side-trips are increasing its strength.

Still, I go for it. 5 bombers with 20 fighters serving as an escort. Wow, they sent a lot here, didn't they? How am I going to deal with this one, you ask? Same as always, luck, half-remembered stuff from other, better games, and now I know that you can speed up and down with the + and - keys. In the end, it's just luck with the nukes weapons, killing enough before they branch out to be able to reasonably deal with. The game suggests you use the Tumi's superior speed to swoop in, which is horrible advice, you can't really swoop in on enemies.

Back to the goal of placing Eldorado's power in various places. It's a desert with a purple atmosphere, where we're here to travel to the something or another of the three dreams in the most remote corner of the empire. Here I find someone who looks like he should be playing a German SS soldier, apparently under rubble. It's another find your way to the dream world thing. This leads to a series of screens which just involve clicking once and then climbing something.

Now we're here at a...puzzle in which I have to remove this big rock. I think. There's a big rock here and a small rock under it, holding it in place. There's also above, which has a tree branch/root sticking out. What the game wants me to do is not clear, I can use the ballasted thread on the tree branch, then use the rope on that when I look back down. Then I just get lucky and find out that the peg is used in a hole in the rock, at which point I hammer it in, then attach the end of the rope to it. Not entirely unreasonable, but with this game you never know what you're going to get.

Then we get this hilarious guy, who seems to be invoking a Buddhist monk. He'll take Eldorado to his destination, but first we need to pray for the gods help. Yeah...I don't think this guy is the type to do that.

"Find the best prayers to win the trust of the gods!" Remember when I said this was more mundane? At first glance, this is not just confusing, but outright non-sensical. There are ten scrolls which shoot out energy which disappears after a few moments, you can click on all ten without incident. There is nothing else and no indication that any particular scroll is special. Some turn to the left, others to the right. Well, it turns out that this is the way to solve the puzzle, hitting the ones that turn in one direction but not the other. This gets me...a conch. "Keep it Eldorado, the gods never give useless presents."

He takes me to a "sacred place", which is...uh...this place. This is another one of those "why did you bother" puzzle rooms which seem so confusing. So, here there's an opening, with a chain, a point and a grindstone. The answer is to use the chain on the point, which attracts a lightning strike, which somehow creates a shield which I can use a crowbar to free.

We're closer now, and many things are hidden beneath the ice. This is another non-puzzle puzzle screen, in that you have no choice but to guess what item the game wants you to use, since you can only interact with the "Lama". I use the conch which turns the Lama solid and then creates two new items, a log and snow. From here, I just sort of stumble onto using the log on the snow, then the strap and finally the shield, making a gong. This, and the Lama playing the conch, shatters the ice, revealing a temple.

This puzzle at least makes some sense. We have icicles, a ray of sunlight, a waterskin, along with a crystal egg I have to breech and a bowl I can pour things in. Hammer, icicles, then melt them in the sun and pour them into the waterskin. Using this on the bowl, the egg freezes and shatters, allowing Eldorado to place the second power.

Off for the final power, and that means more space sections. No news from Kelt, and we're surrounded by Aguirre's armies again. We even get a shot of Aguirre himself in the flesh. Anyway, just three fighters. This isn't very difficult. The game then gives another cutscene of the horde of Aguirre, but then the Boomerangs arrive to drive them off. Glad I spent the time earlier. Kelt says that the whole thing is a trap, that there's a mole in Eldorado's forces. He says Angelina left and kidnapped Eldorado's wife, which leaves little doubt as to who it was.

Kelt has a plan to distract Aguirre's forces so Eldorado can charge in and save his wife, but it doesn't entirely work. Another space section. This one doesn't go so well. It doesn't matter that I have speed now, because I can never get enemies off my back, worse yet, luck in this case is going to be non-existant because the game isn't giving me more than one nuke. Honestly, I think the AI might honestly be too damn good for even a game that had a competent design for its space sections. I just can't shake off enemy planes.

There's probably some trick to this, but I also start to not care. The flight model frustrates me more and more I learn about it, you seem to move in strange ways if you go up or down and after a few tries I decide to cheat. Just giving myself infinite nukes via Game Conqueror. I do better upon starting this. I also realize the problem on my first try, these guys are turning on a dime! No wonder I can't seem to win when they gang up on me! Still, I don't even need to cheat to win...somehow I manage to win just by shooting most down, not even using the nuke.

Midway through the fight Eldorado contacts Kelt, inquiring about the rest of the battle. Chaotic, basically. After winning, there's silence, before Eldorado does an approach on the asteroid. Aguirre can't believe it. He seems to have the same voice as some other character, but I can't figure it out off-hand.

Another adventure sequence. We've got a hatch and a guard who is unconscious through some method. The puzzle here is one of those, yeah, might as well do that kinds of puzzles. Click on the guard, use a knife to break his necklace and steal the symbols on him, then use the crowbar on the hatch to reveal holes you can put the symbols in. You have to hammer these in, and inside is a weird puzzle where you press buttons to light up parts of a key. Which seems to be more complex than it really is, the problem is that what it solves is on the other part of the screen, creating another opening. It eventually closes again. The solution is to use an item to prop it up, then take the three pieces from the other section.

This reveals Eldorado's wife, who tells him that Aguirre knows of his plan and has placed an army there. Instead, he should place his power inside the asteroid, this should destroy it. The next section's save? Maze. Yippee. This is weird, because you're going down endless tunnels with no indication that anything is happening until it does.

The first room I find is filled with Maoi heads, who in turn, are filled with diamonds. Well, that was something.

Secondly, I find a room full of paintings of the game's characters. This is uhm...something. Eldorado says that objects brought in from the real world have become virtual or something. That's an assumption I don't quite get where it's coming from. At this point I get lost and end up at the statues twice, so I look up a map.

With a map from the hint book, I find my way to a room of mirrors. This more or less causes things to fall into place. With the diamond, I can cut the mirror to get a piece of glass. With that, I can cut a picture of Atahualpa in the painting room. Why the shard of glass and not the diamond? Dunno, but it gets me a music box. Back to the statue room, getting very lost along the way, I put the music box on one of the statues for some reason, which creates a ball called a rock of light.

This brings me...uh...here, in an endless void of flowers. I can move forward, which just brings me to another flower. This game is feeling very Japanese in this last third, minus the space sections, just by how it seems to be missing anything resembling logic. At least the original had an internal logic to it, this just seems like a fever dream. I can click on a flower to open it, where I can use the rock on the pedals to turn them blue, or take the pollen and use it on the flower to cause it to regrow.

After some wandering around some, I discover that not every flower turns blue or uniformly blue. Sometimes they don't turn, sometimes they turn yellow, and sometimes not all pedals turn. If I walk away it turns back to red, so what I'm trying to do is beyond me. And then I win by accident, discovering that it was a mix of pedals I wanted, because using the pollen on a yellow flower created a tricolor flower.

We get a cutscene of Eldorado putting down his last power. Then, we get this, explaining that Wiracocha came back and the game ends. What the hell was that ending? I don't understand why that happened at all. I don't understand a thing. Why did the ending cause something to happen that wasn't even implied before the game ended? What happened to the asteroid and Aguirre? I'm not getting any answers. The funny thing is, this was added in the CD release, the floppy release had none of this, and the branching story I mentioned? Not really that important, it seems.

This Session: 3 hours 00 minutes

Final Time: 5 hours 20 minutes

Xenomorph: Won-ish

I have no idea what's going on with the ducts by the end of this, because what I'm looking at is clearly not possible with what I've drawn. Either I've made a horrible mistake or there is a spinner somewhere in this game. The worst part is the ladder down to the other ducts is in this confusing mess...and then I go down and find an entirely new section of the mines/caverns. I'm just astonished by this game, every time I think I might get put into an unwinnable situation the game pulls the rug on me. I'd say it was well-designed if the game didn't have insane mazes.

My map starts going south. Whoops, I put a path one tile to the left, I'll just fix that. Oh, a side path is too far down...wait, now it's too far up? Now the entire path, which I actually got correct, is going to cut into another passage it doesn't even touch? In this mess, I find two more batteries. I have fifteen. I had to drop some grenades for them. I don't need grenades, not when my primary weapon is so destructible and so powerful that Doomguy wishes he had it.

I nearly fear this is the end of the area. Yeah, it'd be real fitting for this game to screw me over that way, make me go through all this just to have to go through the slimes. Oh, another battery, sixteen now. I double check, and that's it. I cannot just be the purpose of this level, to give me more batteries. I cannot lose in a regular fight anymore, and frankly that was the case before this level. Man, how did the game that seemed easier than Rejection turn out to be more difficult?

I'm just going to gamble on the slime pathway and hope that I'm not about to be put in an unwinnable situation. Recharge the batteries, and I'm off on a potentially one-way trip with a powerful weapon. I'd feel badass if this game were slightly better balanced. Oh, and I forgot my card in the machine again, oh, well, at least I have another. I'm a badass...

Here, I used the laser to kill the slime, it'll be back.

The area is large and confusing, with dozens of tubes lined up against each other often for little benefit. However, at the end of one tube, left from where you enter the area, is the rocket launcher. There are now two thoughts in my head. MUAHAHAHAHA, and, can it kill a slime dead? No, I fire off two rockets at one, so no. At least, the green tutti fruiti and the helmet ones can't, anyway. Time will tell if the other flavors work, but I doubt that.

While filling out the inescapable ducts, I discover that the game has pits at least, I randomly teleport to a completely different area. If the last area had a lot of tubes by tubes, this makes the last area look like an open landscape. Only, as I finish exploring it, I find out that it leads back to the exact tile I got teleported in on. This potentially presents a problem.

I explore the rest of the level. The north half goes on for much more than I was expecting, including an unnecessarily long, snaking tunnel at the top. Logically, this should take me to more ducts. I still have one section to clear, but this should lead to another duct which may or may not be on the last level...

...Ah. Good. I wasn't expecting the game to pull this. There's a worm. Well, I'm on a timer now, depending on if that is another slime enemy. I don't start off mapping this section, we'll save that for when it turns into a maze. There are a lot of these worm guys and this area is quite open, they might be able to get me the only way they can, by ganging up on me. Their non-combat sprites are tiny if even visible. I haven't spotted them.

I round a corner and find this tank, manned by something I haven't seen before. How am I ever going to deal with this? If only I had a rocket launcher...oh, wait, I do. Kills it, and four worm monsters. I take out a few more, but they drive me back a level. When I return, I kill some more but get driven back again. Primarily because my grenade wasn't working properly. On the third try, I kill the last one and discover that yes, they stay dead and I am safe.

This is honestly a pretty tense area, because I don't know what's lurking in the shadows and most of these guys are well-hidden. I keep searching and finding nothing and it's worse than finding something. What is the game planning after all this time? You haven't offered a real conflict in hours, and now you do? It's not just once. When you finally see something, you wonder, was it a trick of the mind or was it really there?

But, after a while without these things, you start to wonder what the plan is. Enemy behavior so far has been pretty consistent, if you get into their path and they notice, they go after you, otherwise they probably won't. My initial encounter didn't go that way, are things returning to normal, or am I just missing them by cautiously exploring the cavern via edges? It doesn't help that the next one I encounter is just randomly hiding out in a niche.

Just as I'm about to say I've gone in a circle and start mapping, I discover more of them. Right next to where I came in, all along. Right, well, I either have to hope I missed something in the corridors or start mapping. Eh, I better start mapping. As soon as I find my way back. Oh, a treasure cache, another battery, some mines, more bullets...and more needle magazines?

As I finally make the map I should have started with, I notice that here the walls are all tile. A flexible approach. This reveals some juicy stuff, I find two floppies hidden in a tunnel inside the big outer area. Unfortunately, this is all of what's left, this area has nothing else of interest. Which means I have to go back up, through the slimes. Sigh...

At this point, I look up a walkthrough or a LP, there's the latter. He also has a map. I find out several things that were not clear to me, namely, that this is the end, I've found everything I can on the lower levels, specifically these floppies. There's another fuel source and the boards, of course, but otherwise I've basically won the second I get past the slimes. Oh, and bullet guns can be "recharged", rendering the entire question of surviving moot. After all, why worry about ammo when apparently everything is in unlimited supply?

It's easier and a little more difficult than I expected. I think they have some range at which they stop aggroing, at least, when I drew out the first batch from the tunnel they were in they didn't seem to catch up despite ample opportunity. Harder because you have to get in their path. After that, it's just long and tedious.

I bring the final piece of antimatter to the engines, and then put the two floppies into the computer. Now I only need to get the chips for the computer...but I don't see a point in doing so, since it's just busywork and the ending is the same picture as the intro text, just with the player blasting off into space. I'm not going to spend more time just to get something that basically says "YOU WIN!" It's a bit disappointing, because it seems we never find out what happened to last survivors, though we can guess, or what the deal with the monsters were. Still, I'm glad to see the end of it.

This Session: 6 hours 00 minutes

Total Time: 20 hours 50 minutes

Inca II: Anywhere in the Galaxy

Locking someone on the bridge of your ship seems like a foolish thing to do, but then again Eldorado did just put Atahualpa on the council. The screen here is odd. It looks like there are three usable items here, but there are actually only one. The throttle lever on the right. Not that turning it does anything. Despite more interesting stuff, you turn in a complete 180.

There's an airlock, locked, and this control panel. I can interact with anything, until I put in a code, and I don't know the code, so I just put it in randomly. Kelt calls Atahualpa telling him he's screwed up and lit the base up like a Christmas tree. (An Incan Christmas tree?) He deactivates the security system so we can fight back, but the only thing I can interact with is broken, literally, in-game, the turret is busted. I try a bunch of stuff, but the door is unlocked now.

Vodka? Wait, am I on Kelt's ship? I mean, I guess this is only confusing because I played the prequel...which I was likely to do. You can't pick it up, the game just says "Oh, no, Atahualpa." It turns out I needed a crowbar to open it. There's enough spirits here to perk up the spirits of a whole army battalion. I then use it on a nearby hose, which allows turning up the throttle to heat up the turret.

Combat. It's basically a turret section. I say basically because the only difference between this and the regular space sections is that I'm slower turning around and don't move. It's really, really boring. Really, really boring. It takes FOREVER to swing the damn thing around. FMVs break up the battles, more ships coming my way. The last one is interesting, because it's just one ship constantly swinging around and I fail to hit it. Shocking, I know, without a crosshair or anything to base it against. Atahualpa supposedly dies. A cutscene happens in which Eldorado's actor does a poor job of acting while attempting to be sad for his son's death, and then Kelt goes off in a tail spin.

I actually get to continue. Normally, I wouldn't do this, but I'm curious to see where this goes. Am I going to see a campaign where my actions matter? That would be pretty cool, even if there's not a lot that could be interesting with this game. This is where the grappling hook is required, though it comes off as pretty lame.

Kelt enters the Tumi with Eldorado, and takes over the controls. I, being Eldorado now, get to navigate. I feel a lot better being the gunner, but this is fun. Follow Kelt's directions to put down directional markers. Less graphic adventure and more children's game but amusing. Even though it had be do it twice for no apparent reason. This is apparently on Earth, since I see Australia.

We get a neat cutscene of us traveling through a valley, but crash before we can reach our destination and have to travel the rest of the way on foot. This is a cutscene, because designing gameplay around two days of blazing hot weather is probably not fun. Narrated, by the guy who narrated the items in Jagged Alliance for some reason.

There the duo meet with one of Kelt's friends, a scientist who observes the stars named Yuna. Eldorado tells Yuna about the asteroid and how Aguirre intends to take over the world with it. This leads to an easy puzzle in which I have to move a dot on three poles. We're doing this to find the asteroid's weakpoints, as it's in a rapid evolution phase in which it gathers energy for Aguirre's purpose. To destroy the asteroid we need to lay down "great energy" at three planets which we'll know about in two weeks.

She has her computer, looking suspiciously like something out of Galactic Empire, and then Kelt and Eldorado talk about getting the Tumi working. Oh, Yuna just happens to have a rail engine around. What is this, Atlas Shrugged? This is another adventure section, firstly, there's another crowbar. I'm starting to get the feeling they were running out of ideas here. I use that to get a lever off the tower.

Next, I enter the engine room. This is another rousing game of find the object, then the use will become rapidly clear. There's a peg in the forward/reverse controls, and a leather strap. An ignition controls the fire, but something is missing, and that valve turns, but it's purpose is a mystery. I go back out, realizing that I wasn't just supposed to take out the lever, but use the oil on the nearby and somewhat hidden pulley, then use the lever to pour in water.

This is enough to activate the train for reasons that escape me as someone who doesn't understand trains. We get a neat cutscene and then, uh oh, they're under attack. They say to flee, but Eldorado does...nothing but stand at the front.

Another action sequence. You know, maybe if they spent less time designing HUDs and more time designing other things we wouldn't have had to use a crowbar with two separate characters in two separate situations. It's another turret sequence and it runs too fast in DOSbox. I had to slow it down. I'd complain about it, but considering I half-assed it and still somehow won, I'm not going to beyond it being pointless.

We've driven them off, but they'll return, hey, a cave, we'll be safe in there. Yuna says she longed to explore this, and Eldorado for some reason says that gold prospectors are squatting here. They should split up. Suckers. As I write this and see the next save, the sound has gone mental and just has a loud squarewave for some reason.

Ah...this is finally a reasonable adventure section rather than one that seems like it was put in because you expect Coktel Vision to put in an adventure section. There's a drawer I can't open, rope around it, a safe I can't interact with, and a chest with a half dozen things in it. A shaver, some ballasted thread, a mallet, an old key behind the thread, and mercury in a wine bottle for some reason.

So cut and get the rope with the knife, use the key, only its rusted, good thing I have the oil...oh, I can't use items on other items. Huh. Turns out there's a sand item I have to use. This reveals a file, which is a blueprint for a ship, and the code, 183. Okay, cool, except...I can't use the safe. Oh, that's what the mercury is for...for some reason.

Inside is a device that shows the ship, called the Boomerang, which Eldorado calls slightly archaic. Kelt says he can build it in two weeks, while they repair the Tumi. Two weeks later, Yuna has the location of the planets. The rough location, because we waited all this time for imprecision. Eldorado wants Kelt to give a letter to the council, telling them that Eldorado is appointing Kelt as leader of his armys, so he can build many Boomerangs.

I get a screen in which I'm only allowed to flip a switch. Then I put a crystal in a slot and select point A or point B. I question the purpose of this, then another space combat. Eldorado briefly mourns his son again. I get the intention, but the voice actor for Eldorado is given absolutely terrible voice direction. Anyway, this fight is against the guy who killed Atahualpa. I end up using some missiles, but the fight's still not very troublesome.

His ship is only damaged and he flies off. THEN I GET A CHOICE. Ohohoho, the story does branch off. Do I go after him and weaken Aguirre's armies or do I go after the points and speed up the destruction of the asteroid? I decide it's probably best to weaken the armies first, saves me a nasty fight later in the game.

It's still a nasty fight, because the game promises a great horde of ships from three stations, which require me to use the heavy weapons. Specifically the torpedoes. I think. The game proves to be very troublesome in this regard, because I don't know how close I have to be, and naturally I am surrounded by enemy ships.

This is where the game proves to be difficult to play as a space simulation, for the simple fact that it is poor at doing so. When faced with serious, unending opposition I have no real tactical ability to fight back short of turning and hoping I can safely turn fast enough. Which doesn't work. My tactic in Red Baron of doing this while playing with speed to get better turning arcs doesn't work here, because I cannot control anything beyond my ability to turn, shoot and aim. So the strategy isn't anything wise, it's go berserk and hope that my supply of weapons will replenish the next time I need it. I don't win because of my skill, I win simply because I got lucky.

Anyway, this takes me to an adventure section, a nice looking adventure section. This is honestly a kind of pointless one beyond just the awesomeness of the graphics. You click a few things, things happen, and then you're in another place, not even a puzzle, I'm just along for the ride.

Then we get a "puzzle". Because I don't understand it at all. You get an oyster, crack it on the rock and then throw it at the Ibis, the bird. I guess we're going to the bird's nest? This brings down an ape, which I then repeat who then scares off the bird. This reveals a jade egg and then the Jagged Alliance narrator says "Don't be in a hurry, Eldorado." It turns out I wasn't cracking open the oysters, because I have to use the mallet, revealing a magic pearl. Still can't take the jade egg.

It turns out I have to put the pearl in the egg, which then reveals a demon. So much for this game being the normal sequel. Seriously, this is something out of Dark Seed or a game going for Satanic vibes, not the charming trip through Incan space. He then says the trip through the forest is treacherous, but with the egg and the pearl I can safely go through and back. He also says if I come back without it, he'll take my soul.

We then meet a native of this world, who told me he foresaw my coming in the magic smoke. He'll help me, but I need to give the crocodile what the demon stole from him. Well, there are only two things I can interact with, the crocodile's eyes, so it isn't much of a shock that I need to use the egg and the pearl. This satisfies the native, and he takes Eldorado into a trance to find the spot he needs to use his power. Which is where I shall leave for the time being.

While this isn't bad, blogging about it feels like blogging about a movie, you're stopping so much just keeping up that actually enjoying it feels difficult. This game is really committing to being an interactive movie, but at the same time the player is not really allowed to fail. I really don't know what to think about this.

This Session: 1 hour 20 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes

Xenomorph: Endless Pain

I start off with the ducts, which I guess is the last level of the spaceship before we enter the caverns/mines. Level design has been good enough for a game using block design, but now we're entering an absolute maze. I'll take the old standby of following one of the walls, in this case the right wall. My armor protects me at least, and I now feel confident enough to use one of my cards for food/drink.

Interesting, a ladder down, where does this lead? ANOTHER duct system? What? Okay, now I'm going to be two layers deep in a maze, sure, let's try it. Only one path out, bit twisty...

Screenshots this session won't always line up perfectly, sorry about that.

Oh, good, big slime. I'm going to not fight here just yet, given my experience on the last duct level. It's a gamble I'm going to wait on. I return to the level above. Continuing on the right, I eventually find a big open space with something that looks like a magazine, but is probably a mine of some sort.
 

I don't have a screenshot of the "gravity" mine, but the triangle on the right is another kind of explosive close enough.

This gets into a problem this game has, in that not having in-game descriptions of anything and having the player guesses only works when the player can figure out what these items are. I assumed what I'm using right now is a bullet gun, not a needle gun because I didn't care that much about weapons when I can kill most enemies with a laser gun. My character has an in-universe reason to know what armor does what, since they're supposed to know this crap.

Further making this question pointless, I find two more higher end batteries. Which gives me ten in total. Assuming ten shots per battery, that's a hundred shots, which if my encounters with the chestbursters are any indication, means I can kill about 50 enemies between recharges if I don't miss. Think about that. Think about that very hard. I have regenerating health, heavy armor, and a heavy-hitting weapon which can go about 100 shots before needing to get recharged, which means unlimited ammo. This in a game where I'm supposed to be soiling myself in terror. Of all the survival horror-related games I've played, this, if I were to call it that, would be the least survival horror. There is just no balance here, I might as well burn up my other gun, not like I'm going to need to save it.

Another ladder down. What's with this section? This is the proper path down to the caverns, which is helpful to know. What's with the other section then? Then I spot it, the big gun, which I think was called a particle accelerator. Whatever the name, it uses batteries and it promises to hit like a truck. Now, to find that slime and test it out on it.

It works pretty well, but this section really is another layer to the maze. A dozen of these slimes, and just nothing worth coming down for. Only a single rocket, oh, and the particle accelerator doesn't permanently kill slimes, only temporarily, like everything else. Down to the mines.

It starts off in an area with glass dividers over a big area. A nice big mine, though I can't see the bottom. I don't remember what they were mining, but I presume it isn't these red rocks. Three paths, great. Well, one is a long catwalk, and it is the leftmost one, so that one.

I didn't realize this as I was screenshotting it, but check out that thing in the middle, possibly an appendage shooting out like a stinger.

Hey, these guys aren't the other guys I saw. Probably because I'd remember something this nasty. They're not that hard though, I just kind of overreact to them. They are nasty looking. Another magazine for the needler, all right, we're focusing on that one for the time being. And then I return to that fork, it was just one long catwalk for one magazine. Oh, well.

The needler takes about half a magazine of green ammo to kill one of these things. I can confirm it is in fact, kill, not stun. This explains why it tripped up the slime. Does that mean there is no real stun ammo or that the red ammo, against typical logic, is the stun ammo? Either way, the needler is looking like a weapon I should not have saved for this point. And a grenade with a green button on top is looking like it's going to be useless.

Then there's a freaking glass wall maze. Oh, joy! At least it isn't technically an invisible wall maze? Two more fruit flavored rockets and a random helmet. Okay...The worst thing is that this doesn't seem to lead anywhere, and an item that seems to be hidden in the maze is actually outside it...and it's another green needler magazine, which at this point is less interesting than a battery.

This whole area is weird like that, I can see quite a few enemies before I ever come close to them. It's not like I care if we fight or not, because there are zero consequences for a negative combat. In a sense, this makes it closer to RPG game design than it was previously. Most RPGs, especially of the branch this game was removed from, generally don't have negative consequences. Loss of health in an action game removes limited resources, loss of health in a RPG is expected and mathematically weighed. That's actually it, the ladder down is in an area I wouldn't have found if I didn't spot an alien walking back and forth.

I'm guessing the evolution of these creatures is the egg, facehugger, then the things in the cocoons, this, then the ones in the earlier screenshot.

I think I spotted the blue ones before, so everything is as it should be. Guess the game has a number of half levels which go into the whole ones. There are a lot of blue guys here, they're weaker than the other guys, it takes less than half a mag to take them out. Let me tell you, this area is another maze. It's getting very obvious what they're doing, unfortunately it's working very well, because I have no earthly idea where the hell I am. My main computer is working again, so I should probably make a map. Sigh...I'll do that whenever I find a ladder.

Based on magazine size, it looks more like .50 cal/12.7mm

Soon enough I find that 10mm rifle. I assume it is. With a magazine that is empty. I guess the way this game is designed, items can't be inside other items at the start of the game. I'll have to figure out how it works later, though it does answer why I don't just use the 10mm rifle over the 10mm pistol, incompatible magazines. There are some floating amoebas nearby, I'll let them live.

Well, I can confirm that this floor is the one I found previously, meaning there are four enemies on this floor. Considering that most games of this type didn't have that many, impressive. Makes sense as to why the loading times on ladders are so long even with DOSbox naturally shortening them. I did not remember spotting the amoebas though, although it doesn't matter because they die easily, just like everything else.

I find the other ladder. Now I can begin mapping. This makes everything 100x easier. I can see for four tiles, and having the map is just so much easier because it's just tiles and stairs, I don't need to worry about placing items, well, unless I need to. Unlike Rejection, because I'm constantly using the mouse I'm not switching between things constantly.

Pardon the poor cropping, it isn't a very good map to begin with.

My completed map. It's 32x32, and despite mostly following the usual rules, is edge walled, not tile walled. (Which is much clear later) Oh, and there is no ladder down. Blast. Let's just try the other half of the mines first then. Surely I missed something there? Please let me have missed something there, I don't want to go back into the ducts. Oh...no...it's as I feared. I didn't miss anything in the mines. So, that means I need to check elsewhere. Well...that means I only have one choice, check the ducts. Man, I hate this.

There's something about having to map an area with very little in the way of distinct landmarks that has a way of driving people crazy. We got endless corridors, endless edge walls, and eyeballing it is difficult. Man, no wonder I thought that bumbling around was better. This is probably because this is the game sitting in the corner and flipping you off. At least I found another battery.

I leave you this session, lost and confused. This is one hell of a challenge to map and I wasn't up to it. I made mistakes that make the whole thing physically impossible. I found one ladder down, which also confuses me, because it goes to where I came up in the mines, that is, the ladder leading directly to the base. Either my memory is failing me or the game is screwing with me. If all else fails, I'll try to go past the big slimes, but it's looking like the game is about to place me in a position I might not be able to escape from.

This Session: 4 hours 00 minutes

Total Time: 14 hours 50 minutes