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