Starting off this session, I did something I really should have done when I first started the game years ago. Last time when I said there wasn't a side-step option, I was just working off memory. Which happened to be wrong, because I simply never used it back when I originally played the game. Nor the whole rebinding keys thing. Since the side-step is tied to a key which toggles left and right from turning to walking, I simply rebound the key to one near the movement cluster and now I can side-step. This doesn't make things perfect, but it does mean I can handle a bit more than I could previously. Assuming I can remember to do it every time I start the game.
The fourth mission's briefing has the black major dude tell me how he wishes he was here to join me in the assault. I have to disable the security system, in fact, the same kind of Watchdog system they keep disabling on our bases, at a work camp the evil AI has in its grasp. This, so that the actual forces can later assault and free the prisoners. To this end, they've given me the codes to two elevators I will no doubt be forced to use. My secondary objective is to find a radioactive isotope, one that only my armor can survive. Why I have to do this in the middle of a firefight is best left up to your imagination.
Right away, the mission lets you know how it's going to go. Stay still near the entrance to the level and enemies will spawn in. Not Resistance members you can accidentally kill and who might be mixed in with a few T-800s, straight up enemies. Go east and you'll never get enough spare time to avoid getting gunned down by the respawning T-101s and walkers in order to start taking out enemy defense. Go south and...the game crashes. Say what you will about how casualized Bethesda became since, but better to have an easy barely functioning game than a hard one.
The path forward is easy, likely to just rush past the guard towers and head straight for the elevator. Running and hiding has proven to be the most effective method yet, which makes me wonder if there's some secret path I'm supposed to have been finding to avoid enemies. Because I apparently found it when I got into the bunker, it was relatively quiet until I got near the watchdog system, at which point some, not an insane number, of enemies started popping up. Once I cleared them out, it was now easy pickings to use...ten grenades to take out the system. That left my secondary objective, the rock. Which the in-game orders implies is actually non-optional. Fine.
This is harder. There's only one entrance into the area it's in, and you better believe that they're spawning in a good number of enemies now. Most of these aren't wide open areas, so it's actually easier than it has been. The question is...how do I get out? And I look for a second elevator, since I know the first doesn't have the location I want. There is one...which actually takes me back to the first area and I should be headed for the second. A few close calls and I manage to make it to the designated area. Huh...that was...I think I only actually died once. That's suspiciously easy.
The end briefing has everything be a-okay. The base has been cleared out, the prisoners are free. One of the other units took out a bunch of Hunter Killers transporting superconductors, which I heard about in the opening briefing. Between that and the radioactive isotope I found, they've managed to discover that it's the same time of stuff that Skynet used to make the time travel device. (well, TDE, don't know what the initials are for) They're going to send someone else back in time. Bethesda managed to figure out the plot to almost every Terminator movie sequel just after the release of T2.
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| Yes, the green line does keep going in on itself, this is supposed to indicate where I'm going on a mission, for all that matters. |
It takes a few steps before I get a new enemy on-screen. Sure. New enemy, but the only new weapons I get are improvements to my grenade carrying capacity. They're quite nasty, but the game's strategy has hardly changed. Avoid anything that I can get away with, rush the objectives. And with that in mind, this level is a literal breeze compared to past levels. I barely had anything happen on the surface. The game gives you the password as soon as you hit repair, so basically, get damaged, then advance.
The enemy base doesn't add in anything new. I forget that on my first objective that I need to use a recorder on the communications array rather than grenading it, which costs me four grenades. I'm really not having any trouble now, well, I'm not getting killed. I guess I've managed to build up a nice little loop of managing damage. Even the target I have to destroy only gives me trouble because the way I approached was the wrong way to attack. It's just navigational issues overall. I make it through the entire level without dying once. Which is...suspicious.
The end briefing, after congratulating me, tells me that the enemy is building some serious hardware. Forgive me for not quoting the exact details, but they're throwing around some sort of fancy X-rays and frozen hydrogen as equipment. I suspect that the writers know as much about it as I do, but it sounds cool, and that's what's important. Whatever it is, they're building up something, and it's building up to an epic battle here in DC.
It's time for another defense mission, in fact, the very base I'm supposed to have been in all long. No build-up, only Major Merlin talking to me. Talk about serious. I haven't been dreading another mission like this, simply because I didn't anticipate that there would be another one like this. There's also something about a spire I need to take out, which I didn't realize until the actual mission started was something I needed to do.
There are a lot of enemies on this level and a not very favorable layout for reaching the objectives. It's a literal up and down zig-zag. The sort of thing you'd design as a joke in an intentionally unpleasant level. To say this gave me a worse feeling about the level is an understatement, I fear another endless session of death and...well...dying.
This causes trouble in multiple ways. I don't exactly know where I'm headed and the objectives are in three different sections of the level, and one of the sections you go through is just there to screw with you. Oh, did I miss something? No, it's one at the start and one in the fourth section, then you go to the surface. Still, at least this mission is only hateful in that the enemies constantly murder you, not that they force you to juggle with non-hostiles who sit around and do nothing. Seriously, the defense targets are right next to section transitions, you can just exploit how these despawn enemies when you move between them and allow you to instantly repair your armor.
On my third attempt I make it to the surface, where the target I have to blow up and my extraction point are. It's a dense section, with plenty of cover. Unfortunately, the game also decides that here it was playing fair before, and now just spawns endless hordes of enemies even if you think you've gotten to a safe enough spot. Run far enough away that the old ones despawn? That's nice, new ones will spawn in when you get out of range of the old ones. Run back, new ones spawn in place of the old ones. And the game is stopping the run past and repair when you can strategy, by having so many enemies on-screen that you can't just run past them.
I dislike blaming failure on the game itself, most of the time. Because there's always some method to beat a game, the developer had to, after all. Even in the cases of absurdly hard games and mods designed for people who think Dwarf Fortress is for babies. This does not feel like that. The game is cutting off every reasonable avenue of dealing with the difficulty, past a certain point, you just have to get lucky. There are certain points I can breeze through now with zero damage, but others I'll get horrifically damaged on. I'm not even sure there's a way to get through those without getting damaged.
If the intended way of getting through the game is to stop for every encounter, then take out the enemies, the high rate of spawning enemies is detrimental to that. If running past them is, then the high rate of spawning enemies is also detrimental to that, since enough spawn that you can't get past them. It's starting to feel like I was right with the whole right path which doesn't spawn as many enemies I thought of earlier.
My successful attempt doesn't really go as it logically should. In that, I really only win because I took advantage of how my grenades work. They have an arc, and a wall which normally blocks shots...doesn't block grenades. Lob them over a wall, and the tower doesn't know what hit it. Don't mistake this for being anywhere near easy, not dying was a nearly impossible task, and it wasn't helped by the sound suddenly getting staticy. I swear this game just gets more and more unstable as I go along it.
The end briefing expresses some relief that I was able to handle it, they thought that they wouldn't be able to defend the base. The reason for the assault? The technician with the thin shirt thinks that it could track the armor thanks to it being built by Skynet. Either way, we've lost the element of surprise, but hopefully that won't cost us the war.
Next mission is about heading towards a shipment, believed to be a Cyberdyne computer chip, a group of HKs dropped in a radioactive area. They're concerned that what they're building, which could result in the total loss of forces in the area. My objective is one of support, I have to open up the bunker for the nearby group of soldiers being sent to recover the believed chip. Unfortunately, I have to wait for them to send me the access codes to the watchdog system. Once that's done, I have to grab any resistance who got hurt by the radiation, all in a neat little sixteen minute timer. No pressure. No pressure at all.
There's new equipment, I'm shocked. Nobody mentioned it in the briefing. First, armor, which as I remember from last time, is not very useful. Then, a laser heat sink, useful, but I feel like I have a better option. A target tracking system. The little bit of info makes it sound very helpful for the inevitable battle, and I really only need one grenade launcher when I'm packing twelve grenades a launcher.
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| For the record, this is almost right after I started the mission, note the heavy damage on both arms. |
And you know what? It's very useful, it even tells me if something is an infiltrator or a resistance member. Which would have been useful LAST MISSION. Since this one is just a timed level in which you have to go through ten thousand enemy units, but at least now, some of them fly instead of sticking to the ground. This is not all useful, because the game also expects you to go to a communications array which is guarded by a tower which takes twelve grenades. Oh, and when you step next to the tower to use your keycard, a million enemies spawn. I swear, the game just arbitrarily decides that you should be damaged more as the levels go by.
Once I get inside, it's not much better. There are turrets on the ceiling which I feel no desire whatsoever to destroy, but damn if they don't hurt to get shot by. There's one survivor of the friendly squad, and I now have to pick him up. Somehow. See, the area in the bunker doesn't seem to have any side pathways, it's just one straight shot upwards. Which would be fine if this lead to anything but a random piece of equipment I have no reason to destroy. I actually got annoyed enough at this point to see if there was a walkthrough for this game online...and the closest thing I found was my post from last week. Sometimes I really hate being the guy who uncovers a game.
The next day, after I've had some time away from the game, I manage to get it right perfectly. A stroke of luck, I'd say, because I don't know if I could do it that well again. See, what I've been assuming is that my orders are giving me the location of the last guy's body. They aren't, they're giving me the same extraction point I've had since the beginning. The guy is literally just on the ground in front of the random piece of equipment. Part of this the issue this game has is that it's simpler to just have your eyes glued to the radar and the minimap rather than actually looking in front of you.
Another mission completed, another end briefing where the briefers express relief that I made it back alive. This time, Technician Sterner is informing me that there was nothing I could do for my fellow soldiers. Since I wasn't the guy who shot them this time, I believe her. I'm going to stop here, since I'm in a good mood for once and leave the final...five missions for the final entry.
This Session: 4 hours 10 minutes
Total Time: 8 hours 40 minutes
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