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 Winback is a third person shooter originally created for the N64. A year later it was ported to PS2, and many years later was brought to PSN. Winback is heavily inspired by Metal Gear Solid, and bizarrely enough ended up influencing Metal Gear Solid 2, namely the laser sight reticle and the cover shooting mechanics. The story follows Jean-Luc Cougar and his team as they try to win back (GET IT?!?!) the control center for America's orbital ion cannon. I love this game a great deal. It's a stretch to say it's a GOOD game, but I absolutely adore it. Keep spoilers to a minimum. Winback isn't exactly a master work of writing, but tag any spoilers if it hasn't been in the game yet. If it involves any twists in the third act (you know the one), don't mention it at all. I'll be showing off the entirety of the game. Updates! Prologue: Meet the team! Update One: Poorly Named Government Agencies Update Two: Crate Zone Update Three: The Wrong and Right Way To Use a Machine Gun Update Four: Office Base Update Five: The Human Bruise Danaru fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Oct 21, 2016 |
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Aug 27, 2016 09:12
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Prologue: Meet the team! Jean-Luc Cougar Jean-Luc is the babyfaced hero of the game, and the player character. The game refers to Jean-Luc as the leader of the team, but it also refers to Dan as the commander of SCAT. SCAT's rank hierarchy is all kinds of messed up. Jean-Luc's handgun originally belonged to his deceased brother, a member of the Navy Special Forces. Said handgun also has infinite ammo during gameplay. I'm not saying these facts are related, but I'm not discounting any ghost bullet shenanigans.  Daniel Stewart Commander of SCAT and no doubt hater of filing clerks considering they spelled his first name wrong. Dan created the plan for Operation Winback, which essentially amounts to "Get in there and start smashing poo poo". He probably came up with the operation name too. At one point, Matt refers to him as "Daredevil Dan" since he's a ballsy bastard.  Steven Legal Vice-Commander of SCAT and an ex-spy for the British Navy. Steve takes care of training recruits and runs the tutorial I probably won't show off since it's boring. Probably gets pissed if anyone calls his hair gray and yells "IT'S PLATINUM, IT'S NOT GRAY".  Lisa Roberts Former member of the  Jake Hudson Resident smartass that joined SCAT at the same time as Jean-Luc. The bandanna doesn't give him infinite ammo. Reliable and skilled when he's not mugging for the camera.  Mike Hawkins SCAT's bomb expert. Wears his sunglasses at night no matter how much the team tells him he looks like a jackass.  Thomas Smith Communications expert and all around smart dude. Solves all the problems that can't be solved by shooting at it harder. There aren't as many of those problems as you'd think.  Law Bruford Ex-Air Force and Boxer who could kool-aid through a wall without too much effort. Seriously, that gun he's holding in the picture is the same gun that Lisa and Jake are holding. Go scroll up and look at them. Law is loving enormous.  Matthew Brown Ex-Marine that joined SCAT. His animation is him rapidly shadowboxing, which immediately endears him to me.  Keith Birdy Newest member of SCAT and the team medic. He tries.
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Aug 27, 2016 09:12
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Update One: Poorly Named Government Agencies Our story begins with a panning shot of a generic looking office building.  Which is IMMEDIATELY beset upon by guys with guns! No one could quite figure out what kind of camouflage to wear. Desert wouldn't have been my first pick.  The security team gets to work shutting things down   It goes about as well as you'd expect for a group of identical NPCs.   Still, for a group of identical NPCs, these dudes have balls. They're taking pot shots at a bunch of incoming trucks with handguns.  I said they had balls, not brains. Our boys are a tiny bit outgunned here.  This guy looks a lot like Liquid Snake. He is nothing like Liquid Snake because Liquid Snake doesn't suck. One bizarre difference between the N64 and PS2 intro is that the N64 intro showed a couple of the boss characters shooting up the place. On the PS2 version it only shows this loser strutting about, and the boss man himself.  Speaking of which! El Che here has the fanciest coat, therefore he must be the one in charge.    "And time. How'd we do?" "Ten minutes, sir." "Ten minutes? I feel like we might have over prepared for this." "I'm pretty sure they only had like, seven guards. Most of our men were just shooting the walls." "Well regardless. Let's get to it." "Yes sir!" "It's asking for a password." "Try 'Password' " "Rejected." " 'Password1' " "Wow. We're logged in." "Sad, isn't it."  So here's one thing that puts these guys above almost every single video game bad guy group ever. After taking over the secret badass super weapon, the first thing they do?  Test that sucker out.  We cut to the office of the Secretary of Defense, who as you can imagine, isn't super happy.   "The center for Space Development... Destroyed in an instant..." "We detected a strong energy flow seconds before the blast itself. On-site reports describe a bright light from high in the atmosphere." "What?! No, it couldn't be..." "Right away, sir."Just to make things a little more clear, since this game isn't always the best at clarifying, the facility we just saw getting hijacked was the Westham Control Center. The Center for Space Development got crater'd by the Ion Cannon.   "We've just received word from the terrorists. I'll set it up so that you can view it in here." Bad news. Westham has a real bad gunman infestation. You're going to have to fumigate.  "Well, that answers a few questions." "I want to make sure you understand your very precarious position. You must follow our instructions perfectly and immediately." "Where the hell is Sarcozia?" "It's one of the small nations we assisted through a civil war." "Who can keep track of all of those?" "...I mean you are th--" "Wait, he's talking again." "Crimes?" "I believe he's referring to the military intervention on behalf of the Sarcozian government, sir." "Where's my flask..." "Well that one seems simple enough." "We do have a treaty with Sarcozia." "So what? Once this moron is buried just outside a black site, we can issue a statement that says 'April Fools'."  "Did you get the zoom?" "Just like you said" "Awesome." "Failure to comply will invoke dire consequences. I am certain you know what I mean. Your unholy weapon of destruction serves our purpose well. Make your decision quickly." In the N64 version, Kenneth does a badass dismissive 180 turn on this line, but he doesn't in the PS2 version. He only starts turning right as it fades out   "Sarcozia..." "I want to say... Eastern Europe?" "Central America... I believe." "See? Even you're not sure." We fade out and back in to the Secretary of Defense just kinda hanging out. "Well, have you located the satellite's present position?" "I'm afraid not, sir. The satellite control center was destroyed with the Space Center" "drat! Well, that rules out our new anti-satellite missiles..." "If anyone says that eggs in one basket cliche, I give you permission to shoot them." "They'd never make it in time. Those drat "Flying Lions" would hit us before we even got moving!" "I believe it was the "Crying Lions", sir." "The Sega Con--" "No, no, they changed their name but kept the acronym after that incident with the... I want to say vampires." "Augers." "Right, Ogres. Why did I think vampires?" "I'll send word right away!" "You do that."  SCAT stands for "Special Covert Action Team". I can think of three games off the top of my head that use this acronym and I'll never understand why.  Here we finally get to meet the team. By the way, their commander has the same name as me, and as a ten year old, that's a pretty gently caress yeah moment     "As you know, the Space Center has been completely destroyed." By the way, the Ion Cannon is called "The Gulf System". That sounds stupid, so I'm going to keep calling it the Ion Cannon.  "So, basically they've called us in to penetrate the Fortress at Westham, and take back control of the satellite from the bad boys." Winback doesn't really have a complicated set up. "I can't believe they made such a crazy weapon in the first place! Then to have it stolen by a bunch of terrorists. What a joke!" "Shut up Jake and let me finish!" "Save the Banksy crap for after the mission." *laugh track*  "Our illustrious intelligence agency tells us this thing has an unlimited power source." "U-unlimited??" "Calm down, they just mean it's solar powered. They're just being overly dramatic." "Why did we need our intel agency to get information on a weapon our country designed?" "Did no one catch the sarcasm when I said 'illustrious'? Anyone? Moving on." "That gives us time before they fire again. And they will fire again! You can count on it! We've got to hit them and hit them hard. If not... well, you saw the footage of the space center." "No pressure though, try to have fun out there, kids." "The control center is hidden beneath an old factory. And there are only two ways to reach it. The first is a high-security express elevator in the main office building. The second is a large freight elevator located in the northwest section of the complex." "They didn't think to build a staircase?" "I am legally allowed to smack you with this clipboard you know. Seriously, I checked.." "That's why our main target is the express elevator." "I want you three to secure the freight elevator."   "You guys all acknowledged that, right? I can't see a drat thing in this helicopter." "Yes sir" "That's right" "Yes" "Okay good. I'm getting a crazy headache trying to read this drat thing." If we can't afford decent lights in the helicopter, there's no way we can afford radio encryption. SCAT has rampant budget problems. "So just to recap: Team Enormous will secure the freight elevator. Team Other Losers will head to the express elevator. I'll provide support fr--" Suddenly the helicopter lurches and nearly knocks everyone over! "What the...?!" "Straighten this bird out!" "drat! Listen up! Scrap the rendezvous at the drop point. You're on your own. Find a way in and carry out your orders." Suck it, Kenneth. You're not the only one with the power of cool poses.  "You better hope I don't land near you or you're getting SUCH a clipboard beating!" Everyone runs to the back of the chopper, conveniently out of frame so they don't have to animate anyone actually jumping.   "Yeah. Yeah, it's nothin'. See you on the ground, Jean-Luc!"  "Feels like there's something I forgot to do here."  Welp!  There's actually a blink and you miss it frame of Jean-Luc jumping off the top of the fence, but I prefer imagining Jean-Luc leaping parachuteless out of the chopper and just really nailing the landing.  A perfect ten! The crowd goes wild!   Against all odds we managed to get onto the facility grounds! Team Status:       Mission Time: 0:00:00
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Aug 27, 2016 09:12
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Special
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Aug 27, 2016 10:12
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"Hello, I am Jean-Luc Cougar of SCAT... where's everyone going?"
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Aug 27, 2016 11:05
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Hey so can we vote on which team member you will inevitably leave to die? Because I vote for Steven
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Aug 27, 2016 18:39
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Yay, another Danaru SSLP! Looking forward to this, the premise looks promising. I have never heard of this game before.
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Aug 29, 2016 17:51
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Here's a preview of the next update, should go up overnight tonight or tomorrow  https://twitter.com/HetzerGonnaHetz/status/771775116124549120 Jean-Luc is a master of Combat Squats
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Sep 2, 2016 21:41
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Haha I like the concept here. Winback''s plot is earnest but extremely mockable so this should be fun.
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Sep 3, 2016 01:28
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I think I said it in another Winback thread, but for some reason as a kid Winback, Syphon Filter, and Metal Gear all occupied this weird nebulous "mature, nuanced games for mature, nuanced adults" category that intimidated me too much to even try playing them. I thought it'd be all politics and intrigue and other high-faultin' stuff, so I stuck with my marios and jrpgs and such all through the n64/playstation generation. If only I had known.
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Sep 3, 2016 04:08
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Update Two: Crate Zone So before we get started on the gameplay, let's talk about Jean-Luc's loadout. SCAT might have went with the lowest bidder on helicopters and radios, but at least SCAT sends their people in with guns. I'm looking at you, Campbell.   The first and foremost is Jean-Luc's handgun, which as I mentioned in the character information, is from his deceased brother. It's plain and simple, but the most important thing is it can reload forever. The other guns you find are fancier, but nothing is as reliable as this fella. Pictures here without full ammunition because I plugged half a mag in captain brown shirt behind us before realizing I should show off the guns.  Most SCAT members, and also Crying Lions members are carrying an MP5. The MP5 has the best range and a much better fire rate, but you can only hold a certain amount of magazines at a time, and when you reload, anything left in the mag is dropped. This doesn't sound too annoying but you're pretty much encouraged to reload all willy nilly with the handgun.  Our third weapon is the shotgun. The shotgun is badass and can be super useful since Crying Lions love to group up on you. the scatter is usually enough to kill whoever you're aiming at, and wing everyone around them. Shotgun ammo reloading is based on shells, so when you reload from the pool, you don't lose anything. Shotgun is pretty awesome. Ammunition for the MP5 and the Shotgun are common enough that you can use them fairly regularly. Don't get caught up in that "What if I need to plug three magazines of MP5 ammo into somethin later??" mindset  We're playing the PSN version of this, which is the PS2 version made to look decent at higher resolutions. As a result we don't have to worry about interlacing, but the game is still weird about in-engine frame blending  This makes things look wonky at times. With that said, the game also makes itself look wonky at times, so it's not totally out of place.  Winback is also a game mostly about oddly placed crates. You may notice that one crate has a warning label on it.   I hope explosive barrels and crates never stop being a video game staple. In one of the shipping crates we can find a secret stash. Inside is a box of shotgun shells, an MP5 magazine, and...  A silenced handgun!  The silenced handgun does less damage, has less magazine capacity, and only has one magazine of ammunition before Jean-Luc throws it in the trash where it belongs. The only advantage you have is that it doesn't alert anyone when you fire it, in a game which is basically just running from ambush to ambush. There's almost nowhere in the game where this is useful.  Most encounters go like this, once you enter a certain area, a bunch of dudes will jump in and start shooting at you. The game is VERY rigid in this regard since a group won't respawn, and if you have to back track through an area, a new group will generally try to ambush you. This sounds lovely but it's actually a good thing since some of these levels are super dickish, and seeing new people to shoot means you're going the right way  This guy tries to get clever and hangs up on the roof to take pot shots at you. The Crying Lions are very well trained at shooting three round bursts, so you can roll between cover once you hear the third shot.  Inside the building behind the truck is a very unfortunate man, as well as one of the more important items of the game.  An ammo pouch! This lets you carry more magazines and shotgun shells at one time. I want to say there's five total in the game, so just imagine Jean-Luc carrying five backpacks full of bullets as well as a handgun that magically always has ammo.  Winback is all about cover since you can't shoot and move at the same time. This is also true of the enemy, sometimes to really goofy extents. Fortunately cover shooting feels super good in this game. You hit square to rub up on a wall, then when you're near the edge, the aim button has Jean-Luc pop out real quick and lock on to an enemy. When the button is let go, he ducks back. it's responsive enough to thread the needle between bursts.  Up ahead is... a game mechanic that feels way less good.   When the Crying Lions moved in here, their swarms of electrical engineers swooped in and slammed laser defenses EVERYWHERE. Jean-Luc isn't kidding, if you so much as brush your pant leg against that laser, you drop dead instantly. Unfortunately Jean-Luc filled his jump quota when he jumped out of the chopper and nailed the landing, so he refuses to even lift his leg high enough to step over any of them   We can shut down lasers by shooting the control panel. This one is easy, but later ones can get... goofy.  There, Jean-Luc. God forbid you just hoist yourself up that waist high wall to get around it.   Medkits are found around the facility. Jean-Luc will immediately rub them all over himself, so if you're not hurt, just leave them be and remember where they are.  Jean-Luc actually has one more attack besides his arsenal he's carrying. If he's close enough to an enemy, he can do the world's slowest kick.  Meanwhile, the enemy will proceed to repeatedly bash Jean-Luc's skull in with their gun. You're no Big Boss, Jean-Luc.  Something I never noticed before, the laser actually has a finite range. You can clearly see the laser ends right on this doofus' head, but...  That white dot is where it hit.  " " Over here is the... Westham Center Open-Air Sewer and Arboretum? Where the hell ARE we?  The blue lasers here are slightly different. They don't kill you instantly but they tend to activate something lovely, like red lasers or a really unfortunate ambush. I honestly can't tell you because I didn't even remember blue lasers being in this game.  The tight corners in this area accentuates a big problem Winback has, namely the camera. When you aim at stuff, it'll prioritize whoever's closest to the center of the camera rather than whoever's closest or whoever Jean-Luc is facing.  The problem here is, sometimes the camera can't look at the enemy you need to shoot. "Just hold on, I almost..." "I almost-- Just don't move okay" "Dude, get it together man." "Look, I'm-- poo poo" "Augh!" "There! I got... did I get you? I can only really see the sky down here." "Come ON!"Enemies can carry shotguns too, and they can hit you fast enough to clip you a few times before invincibility frames kick in  It's rude. Destructible crates (the lighter coloured ones) sometimes have stuff in them, in this case a medkit for Jean-Luc's newly destroyed spine.  And that's the blue lasers down!  So this right here is a good example of why you should never trust the MP5, and also why you should take the time to completely kill everyone. I ran past a dude in the water below because I thought gently caress that guy, then I got pinned by these two douches up top. Without any cover to hide behind as I reloaded...  Operation Winback fails, America gets clowned on by their own ion cannon a couple more times before the US army gets off their asses and kills everyone. Whoops! What can I say, I like most of your guys' country, and even the parts I don't like I don't wanna see vapourized from orbit. Let's give this another shot.  We get through in a lot better shape this time, although maybe not perfect.  I also find some of THIS! We'll get to that in time though.  "Not so tough this time around, are you?" "poo poo, poo poo, just ignore them we're almost there." "poo poo"I decided to run past a couple dudes shooting from where we first jumped into the water, turns out these three thought ahead and moved some boxes down once I shot the laser grid!  Unfortunately for them, I decided to rely on the shotgun instead of the MP5 Shotgun will never let you down. "Just a bit further now, good thing the gate is still u--" "" So then we went in a really roundabout way around the gate. We shot some dude, had some laughs, it was great. Moving on.  You might be suspicious of this area right away because there's very clearly laser emitters that aren't on here. Well now you're about to see some Sarcozian ingenuity!   "He's in position! Hit the button!" "Hes falling for it? He's falling for it!" Suddenly the lasers turn on! The bottom one makes it so we can't turn back, and the top one slowly moves across the area so if you're standing up, it kills you! "I can't believe he fell for this!" "I can't believe they installed the motor in the emitter so fast! Those tech guys are good!" "Here's some cover, guys!" "Don't push that down! That's the box we put in front of the panel!" "Oh uh, whoops." "You rear end! Do you know how much lasers cost?!" "AUGH HE SHOT OVER THE COVER!" Mercifully, during this sequence the camera is fixed in a position where you can see everything. Those white corners signify the fixed camera.  I almost feel bad shooting this guy, he basically saved us. Oh well.  Through the door next to him is...  The end of the stage!  Stage 2 is much like the first, we're still in like, the loading bay/parking lot area of the facility. A lot of this area is pretty similar to before so I'll be cutting out parts that are just "Then I went over here and shot a guy".  I love this one guard, winner of the "not my job" award of the year.  Next to where that now dead guard was is a locked door. This is actually where we need to go next. Jean-Luc isn't much of a door kicker, so we're going to have to hunt for the key.  The most obvious starting point being the big-rear end building that most of the stage takes place in.  Inside the building is a small hallway with two inconsequential rooms to the side. Past the hallway is this room, featuring three conveyor belts that just move boxes from one end of the conveyor belt to the other end, then it reverses. The boxes don't actually go anywhere. Your tax dollars at work.  Naturally the place is full of rude men. You'd think the crates would help you not get shot but really it just makes aiming a pain in the dick.  When you get to the end, a laser turns on, because gently caress you. Just out of frame to the right is a switch. It doesn't turn off the lasers, but it does turn on the conveyor belt beside us.  With the conveyor belt on, it moves the box that was blocking the panel! But... how did they turn on the laser right as we arrived though?  To the right is a room with like, three dudes and a single medkit. Not worth bothering with.  Outside, a cutscene takes over and moves Jean-Luc behind a box, this generally indicates a trap!  "Hitting the switch!" "Not yet! Not yet!" "rear end in a top hat" So yeah, not much of a trap, but it does completely block access to the rest of the level. Where do you even buy lasers in bulk? Well we explored the entirety of the building, and the only section that could have the key is blocked off. How are we supposed to get over there now?  "OH YEAH!!" "OH NO!!" So for whatever reason, that one Crying Lion blew up the wall and allowed us to progress  I aint arguing. I also popped through that door to the right to snag a medkit. So... You might be wondering why there's three soldiers running around like a three stooges skit, and why Jean-Luc has apparently decided to try shooting down the Ion Cannon from here. One of the hardest things to do in Winback is to hit a moving target, since lock on will always shoot at where the enemy is and not where they will be. You can try aiming manually but, well, it's a PS2/3 controller you're flying with. It ain't easy.  It's a lot easier to just wait for them to bunch up like usual, but it's nice being able to kill an enemy BEFORE they start shooting at you.  The camera suddenly switches to a fixed view, and all your weapons become hilariously long range so you can have a rooftop shootout with the people below. You can 100% skip this with no repercussions, but I still like to pop off a few shots just to make sure they know I still mean business.  On the second floor is a conveyor belt, it also leads nowhere, but it's a really LONG conveyor belt to nowhere!  The goal is to hide behind the box and get past these two guards. If you get caught, a whopping TWO more enemies will enter the room.  I somehow get caught here because they didn't really try with the stealth engine.  Somehow I still manage to survive this tragic failure.  These pipes make for hilariously good cover because they specifically cover the center of mass of both you and the enemy. You can manually aim and get some head shots, but at the right angle you can just narrowly hit them in the chest if they're not recoiling. It also means if you're ducking, the enemy is completely helpless because they can't aim at your feet.  "Oh god! My face! Why didn't they give us helmets?!" Down below we can smash these lasers, this means once we get the key we can scoot through the conveyor room and be right at the end of the level.  By the way, in case you forget, enemies will absolutely use explosive crates against you. Getting too close to an explosion can easily crank off a third to a half of your health bar. It's no fun.  A bit past the explosive party is a man who immediately runs away from us.  As we sneak up on him to take him and his buddy out, he does the absolute rudest thing anyone has ever done to me.  He shoots an off-screen explosive barrel and kills me instantly.  But the cherry on top of this five layered cake of rudeness?  The last checkpoint was just before we got to the roof!  gently caress stealth  gently caress this thing  gently caress this really obvious ambush point, dropping C4 right on their asses.  gently caress you guys  gently caress explosive barrels  This guy didn't even do anything, I just don't like his steez.  And hey look at that! Just what we needed!  "Seriously dude? He put a BOMB in there." "You don't know it's a bomb." "It's red and blinking. It also says "C4" on it." "Pshhh, maybe it stands for "Coward 4" because y'all are wu--" "Jackass." "If it detonated though, good chance that dude with all the guns is nearby." "...poo poo." C4 is pretty great. You simply hit down on the D-pad and Jean-Luc will plant the bomb. Hit down again and it explodes. You can also pick it up again if you placed it wrong or just don't end up using it.  The sprint through the building is pretty uneventful besides having more people to shoot.  Behind door number two?  The end of stage 2! 22 minutes is pretty drat good I'd say  We're almost at the actual building now!  "Feels super cutscene-y all of a sudden... Better keep an eye out..."  "Jean-Luc! Finally good to see someone who hasn't immediately shot at me." "I know the feeling. Has there been a lot of lasers on your route in too?" "Don't even get me started." "I haven't seen anyone else yet..." "It'd be easier if any of our drat radios worked. I didn't even get a battery with mine, you know that?" "Why? What happened?" "By the time I was ready to jump, the chopper was completely out of control. I was barely able to get out myself. When I looked back, it had burst into flames." "And Dan was still inside..." "You remember that incident at the marshmallow factory? If Dan could survive that he could survive anything." "Urh... I forgot about that... That's really not a sight I want to be thinking of right now..." "I still can't believe Steve came back to work, especially after the ENTIRE--" "Please... No more... hurgh..." "Don't worry kid, this mission will be different." "Well, at least things can't get any worse. Not after the start we've just had. Honestly Jean-Luc, I didn't expect there to be so many of them." "I must have killed like, eleven or twelve people so far. How about you?" "Eighty Seven." "Good lord." "Yeah. It's been a really long day." "Alright come on dude, I know you love making fun of 80s movie tropes but now you're just tempting fate." "It won't help to think about it. There's only one way out." "I guess you're right." "Now you're talking. Let's go!" Hell yeah! Time to wreck up the place!    Oh no  This prick again! Not only is he a lovely Liquid Snake knock off, but he dares to SNIPE one of our comrades! Jean-Luc conveys as much emotion as the PS2 will allow before...  ...aggressively flopping behind cover.  This rear end in a top hat doesn't even stick around to finish the job! You're not even good at being a bad guy!    And with that, Matthew Brown is the first casualty for SCAT An honourable punchman cut down by a cowardly sniper. The whole Ion Cannon thing was bad enough but I'm not about to let this fly.Team Status:   Mission Time: 0:21:58 Danaru fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Sep 18, 2016 |
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Sep 3, 2016 06:12
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Ugh, that came from all the way out of left field
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Sep 4, 2016 05:18
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And like many 80s movies, the token black guy dies first. Don't expect much divergence from the formula. One thing I really do like about this game that you haven't mentioned yet is the dynamic music that gets used; when your health goes to yellow/red the music speeds up more and becomes more actiony which, if the game did not rely so tediously on cover mechanics and ambushes, would enhance the "oh poo poo" feelings from needing health badly in the middle of a gunfight. It's a bit awkward at times but this is another thing that can be traced to this game as a pioneer on (goofy as it is).
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Sep 5, 2016 07:36
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Ignatius M. Meen posted:And like many 80s movies, the token black guy dies first. Don't expect much divergence from the formula. That's something I keep forgetting to bring up, the music in Winback is loving rad as hell. I'll give it a mention and some links in the next update
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Sep 8, 2016 14:10
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 Update Three: The Wrong and Right Way To Use a Machine Gun Alright time to move. We're not about to let Matt's death be in vain. We're right outside the office where the express elevator is, we just gotta get inside!  Unfortunately the Sarcozian Elite Technician Force has made it through here before us, forcing us to immediately turn around and take a different turn that we didn't see because the cutscene moved us past it Before we continue, I haven't mentioned the music before, but the music is really dang good in Winback. The music was also redone and remastered for the PS2 version! This is what plays during the area we're in now. Each area has their own theme music. The song changes depending whether you're in yellow health Or in red health. Despite the fact that they're labeled "Grounds - Low Health" and "Office - Low Health", these two always play during yellow or red health, regardless of location. The N64 music is labeled the same way and I've never understood it.  In any case, this helpful group of soldiers guides us towards where we need to go. It honestly sounds annoying to be constantly beset upon by soldiers, but it's honestly very helpful considering how cute they like to get with their level design.  Whoever this guy was decided to run up to me and crank me in the face with his gun. It worked, but only once because the camera did this to me again.  "Over there! Start shooting!" "Which one is it? Is it that that skinny kid with the glasses?" "Naw, blonde haired baby face." "Isn't that the guy who dual wields shotguns and SMGs?!" "You KNOW that's bullsh--" "Hey! Why'd you stop shooting?! Are you still over there?!"For whatever reason, the soldier on the left suddenly ran away before I even got a shot off, and I never saw him again. In his defense he's one of, maybe two people who survive this chapter.  The bottom laser is down, and fortunately Jean Luc has no problem DUCKING to avoid lasers. The panel for the top laser is just behind the box it's planted on. So great, you might think. Laser's are taken care of, we can move on!  Surprise! Those lasers we destroyed were different lasers from the ones we originally came over here to get rid of! If you're not looking for another panel to destroy, you might just run right back to the beginning, see the lasers are still there, then trudge back and shoot the panel for real.  With that taken care of for real this time, we can move forward only to be immediately blocked by a poorly parked truck and an inconveniently placed cargo container. I can only pray this stuff was placed after the invasion, and some poor office drone didn't have to go through every single room of the building to take a leak because office policy meant all cargo had to be placed in the least convenient area.  It's easy to miss here, but there's a clear shot to the courtyard/parking lot here.  Then these rude jerks drive up  "Well poo poo, no way I can get around that. That's completely impenetrable. Gonna have to go around." While running through the area, I came across this oddity. I had been running through guns blazing being as loud as possible...  But this guy just was not moving. I killed like three of his friends while in range of him. I even bumped into this guy and he still didn't do anything.  He is summarily dealt with.  I'm cutting out a lot of the murder since most of it is the same as we've seen before, but now we're going to get introduced to something new!  The Sarcozians have a new trick up their sleeves besides lasers and annoyingly placed crates.  A goddamn machine gunner's nest!  And in front of the machine gun, a poo poo ton of cover that completely negates the machine gun! For real now, if you're moving even the slightest bit, the machine gun will never hit you. Also if you're behind one of these boxes, it can't hit you. The only time it CAN hit you is if you stop moving between the boxes because you feel bad for the gunner, or if you decide to go for that first aid kit, of which there are several others in the level that don't have a machine gun pointed at them.  Seriously, the Sarcozian obsession for liberally placed boxes and crates is screwing up all your trap. Crate responsibly, you fools.  Slightly past the world's most ineffective machine gun emplacement is this small area. There's not much over here, but there's a good reason to come over here.  Shazam! We didn't even see the lasers this was powering! It was a pretty solid guess, there's never really skippable parts of these maps.  There's also a ladder here we can't get up, so we'll definitely be coming back.  "Lay off man! I didn't choose this location! Running past the laser we just disabled, we discover a brand new gimmick. Electrical fences!  They do very little damage if you're dumb enough to bumb into them, but as long as the current is on, you can't open that door. Fortunately the power box is just slightly blocked by the door frame in both of those shots.  And somehow this shot where I'm actively shooting it  "Hmm... A tiny area gated off by an electrical fence... There's gotta be..." "A dude! I knew it! Or wait, there's..." "A key! I didn't even know I was looking for one of those!"The game throws us a bone because even they realized that would be a pretty douchey spot to hide a key. We actually already passed the door it's used for!  We actually have a straight shot to the front door, but we know better than to just rush in by now.  This is actually the small shack we were behind earlier, where that ladder was. We just have to push a button in here and...  "I could go into the building now... But if I learned anything from the incident at the Marshmallow Factory, it's that I should always check for roof treasure." A quick jog around the level gives us a nice view of the area, really showing off just how awful that machine gun placement is. More importantly, on the other side of the roof...  "Holy poo poo, JUST like the Marshmallow Factory!" "You guys hear any more about the team attacking the place?" "I heard Chuck on the radio saying there was an eight foot dude with a ponytail that beat a man to death with a car." "Cecil managed to bag one of them. I'm pretty sure it happened just over there." "Anyone else find it uncomfortable that he killed the black guy but not the white guy?" "He probably couldn't hit the white one, come on dude." "Yeah but like, from what I heard he just left right after. I'm all for the 'death to America' thing, but not like tha--" "HOARGHH!" Running back to the main entrance triggers these lasers, as is tradition at this point. We just have to find the box and... Wait, where's the box?  ...Oh.  ...Oh...  "At least it's good cardio." Another short jog and back later we can FINALLY enter this drat office building.  I'd say about three minutes of this time was me running back and forth from that one roof top   "Oh my god there's even crates inside too. I just don't get it." "Ughhh... Alright, we just have to find that elevator. Maybe the rest of the team has already found it."   "poo poo poo poo"  "God dammit what is it NOW" "It was difficult enough to get in this way! How did YOU get in?!" "The underground parking lot out back has street access. It didn't even have a door, just one of those swinging arm gates." "I hate this god drat facility." This picture of reasonable sensibility is Lila. She's also our first boss of the game! She brings with her the gift of Boss Themes! "I don't know where you think you're going..." "...Was that the end of that thou--" "Come out, come out, wherever you are... So I can fill you full of lead!" "God, I was not ready for today..." So it's boss fight time! You might be tempted to whip out the heavy guns, but... don't. Bosses are different from normal dudes, where they have the same invulnerability frames as Jean-Luc. You can try using the SMG or shotgun on her, but it's going to do the same two pegs of damage that the handgun does. I'm pretty sure we can do more damage with the rocket launcher, but we're not using the loving rocket launcher on Lila.  Lila also has precisely one soldier that comes with her. He tries to flank you so that either he or Lila has a clear shot at you. By killing him right away we pretty much neuter this entire battle.  Lila runs around like a moron shooting straight ahead until she finds a nice spot to stand. At that point she'll fire off bullets in a semicircle a couple times before she runs to a new spot. She'll also run to a new spot if you hit her. Also remember that the SMG has a farther range, the handgun couldn't hit her from here.  Once you get her pattern this fight is really hard to lose. I didn't take a single hit   And now she's dead. Sorry Lila, you had guts, but dang your sense of strategy sucks.  That fight took a minute and eleven seconds and that's mostly because she has invulnerability frames and you can't really hit her while she's running.  Jean-Luc walks towards the elevator, but doesn't even try hitting it. He knows drat well he's not going anywhere without there being a dozen laser traps.  A shutter opens and some dudes are behind it, no doubt knowing Lila is dead because that's the only time the shooting stops.  For... Whatever reason, Jean-Luc decides to just blunder up to them.  Somehow this didn't work out  Oh snap! Someone else wearing blue is here!  And they're pretty okay at shooting people!  "Jake! You're all right!" "Did you just pronounce 'alright' as two words?" "Blow me, it's been a crazy day." "I guess not." "Any news on the others?" "Ma... Matt's dead... I haven't seen anyone else." "Let's be honest, him, Steve, and Law basically carried the team." "What about you? Did you see anyone else?" "Yep. Law was with me up until a few minutes ago. Now he's headed for the freight elevator." "How's Law holding up?" "He's fine. Some guy tried to run us over and Law just straight up flipped the vehicle. Landed on some other dude, it was crazy." "Alright then. We'd better get a move on. We've got to secure that express elevator." "Oh hey, you said 'alright' correctly this ti--" Suddenly we come under attack! Is it another boss?? Is Lila back??  Oh it's just four guys.  "But..." "It's... Only four dudes. I've killed a hundred and twenty nine so far, including the machinegun lady." "Stop blabbering and get the hell out of here! I can handle these goons by myself!" "Of course you can, it's FOUR dudes!" "Come on man, Law and I got in through the parking garage out back, and Law got all the kills. I'm not going two missions in a row with a single digit kill count!" "Don't worry! I'll find you! Now get outta here!" Now that we've finally breached the office, we can get a move on this elevator business. We also get a spooky-rear end theme that makes me expect Dracula to show up at some point. Team Status: Mission Time: 0:36:44 Danaru fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Sep 20, 2016 |
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Sep 19, 2016 04:42
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 Jake is too good for this game.Also I really didn't expect the PS2 remastered music to be noticeably better than the N64 originals, wow. Props to the team that made this.
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Sep 19, 2016 05:40
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Danaru posted:Slightly past the world's least ineffective machine gun emplacement is this small area. There's not much over here, but there's a good reason to come over here. So is that supposed to be least effective or most ineffective? Anyway, this is a fun LP to read, so thanks for doing it, and props to that one soldier who realized what was happening and just got the gently caress out of dodge.
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Sep 19, 2016 15:05
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Talow posted:So is that supposed to be least effective or most ineffective? Whoops, fixed I words good
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Sep 20, 2016 00:24
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Update Four: Office Base Time to take on the Office! Just like outside, the place is absolutely lousy with gunmen, surprise surprise.  When we get halfway through the hall, the camera pans back to the door we came in through as a dude wanders in behind us. Thanks a lot, Jake This also sets up the very rude scenario where we have someone in front and behind us shooting, and we only have cover for one direction. Liberal application of shotgun can solve this pretty quick though. Buddy behind me hasn't even made it to his firing position.  Down the stairs is a medkit and a doorway to the basement. If I were to guess the location of an elevator to a secret underground base facility...  In this room is, bizarrely enough, a second medkit off to the right here. There's also two doors, one of them is locked. Now that we're in an actual building, there's a ton of doors, and almost all of them will unlock and relock depending on where you are in the game.  Through the only available door is... more sewage  This laser here is on the fritz, so you just have to wait for it to flicker off then run through. Meanwhile rude men will continue shooting at you, and there's almost no cover facing the opposite side of the canal.  It's also super difficult to see down here. Later on some enemies do have flashlights mounted on their guns, bizarrely enough only when they're in fairly well lit areas. Using this button here...  Opens the grate next to us and a box comes out! You can see it, right?  The worst part about this sewer area is that people will spawn in like usual, but unless they actually run to their position, you can't SEE them spawn in.  This whole area is twice as difficult as a result, but we're almost done.  After running through both sides of the gauntlet, we get to this button which extends a bridge over to this section which was blocked off by a grate.  And get the hell out of this place. Finally   In the next room over is a couple of dudes hiding in some narrow corridors. The only cover that you can use has the nasty distinction of being at the exact right angle that the enemy can sometimes clip your arm and knock you out of cover. We could just run in whole hog with the shotgun, but we're also real low on health. Fortunately there's an alternate, albeit extremely rude alternative.  There's a slight gap between these two bits of equipment. The enemy will try to shoot you through it, but with little success. One thing you DO have a clear shot to is a conveniently placed explosive crate.  Vengeance!  To the right, there's a door with a keypad. Doesn't look like we're getting through here for a bit. Let's just continue on in the direction of the now blown up enemies.  We're dumped into a long room with a couple dudes in it, but that's not what's real interesting.  This big elevator-ey door warrants further investigation.  Sure enough! This level is super short if you know what to expect, it's main difficulty is the fact that enemy spawns almost always pincer you between two ambushes, creating cover issues. If you're paying attention, or just dumping buckshot down the hallways once in a while, it's a quick, if painful jog.  In any case, we found this drat elevator. In the architect's defense, an elevator in some random-rear end storage room behind a boiler room would actually be a sufficiently hidden spot. The open sewage nearby was unnecessary, but I'll give them this one. "Well, how's it look?" "The hand on the hip makes you look sassy and fierce." "Thanks, I've been practicing. I meant the elevator door though." "It won't open!" "poo poo, somehow I didn't think about that." "Me neither, kinda seems obvious in hindsight." "I think you're right, Jean-Luc." Tom's alive! And just happened to show up when we need an IT expert! "May I?" "Now what are we supposed to do? "Can't you like, hack into it or something?" "No, that's not how hacking works." "I could just shoot it." "Don't shoot the keypad! If it breaks we're NEVER getting down the elevator!" "Dammit, that was my next idea too." "And you've got an idea on just how to do that?" "There's a security room on the third floor. All the high-security locks should be accessible from there." "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" "Guarddutyonetwothree Not it!" "Not it!" "Not-- Dammit!  "What's his problem?! He never listens to me!" "I'll go and backup Tom. Jake, you stay here and keep an eye on the elevator." "I don't know how I manage to keep falling for Not It" "Sorry dude, Not It is legally binding." "Thanks Jake. And don't worry about Tom. I'll watch his back." "I guess I'll just sit here and check twitter until you guys get the code." "You're getting a signal down here? I haven't gotten a signal even when I was outside." "The WiFi password is "Balls". Capital B. Found it written on a sticky note in one of the offices." "Sweet." "I also found some gum if you want some." "Oh hell yeah." You didn't honestly think we'd get to the underground base without meticulously scouring the entire office building, did you? Also Tom managed to slip out just as the entire building repopulated with guards. Dude's got impeccable timing.  Heading all the way back up, we're back in the lobby. They moved MORE crates in here, but they also made another addition.  Machine gun in the elevator! If you guys would have thought of this before the Lila fight, I would have been hosed.  On the other side, we see a dude running out of the hallway, clearly indicating where to go.  We deal with him swiftly. The last machinegun was a complete joke, how does this one fare?  JESUS CHRIST!   So yeah, unless you want Jean-Luc to get folded in half and turned into mulch, a frontal assault is inadvisable. We COULD use C4 or our rocket launcher (I found more C4 in the sewer) to kill the gunner, but I have a more frugal idea.  It's called "go around the room". They put so many boxes in the lobby that the MG doesn't even try to shoot you, since it can't see you. Once again the Sarcozian love of crates ruins their day again.  This shutter got blown up, so we can go through here now. There's a locked door to our left, and on the right is a door to...  Outside! The second floor is blocked by a laser that could be easily crawled under, and the control panel is behind the far wall. A lot of this game's conflict could be resolved with a pair of high voltage gloves and a wirecutter.  Just past the opening we find what will soon become a fairly common obstacle. A laser that moves up and down.  They don't impede you much since you can walk under them at the top of their height, but the problem is the janky controls and terrible camera might screw you if the camera bumps into level geometry. The best thing to do is  A thrilling gunfight ensues.  Followed by a reminder on why shotgun dudes are so dangerous  That guy destroyed over half my health bar with one buckshot to the back. "I really gotta rethink my career choices." Seriously, where is all this water coming from? Where is it going to? Why is so much of the facility dedicated to water and sewage?  In any case, we finally made it to where that laser panel is. Just destroy this box...  "Surprise!" Head back through the level, including that one swinging laser that you can easily accidentally clip and have to do all this over again...  And up the stairs. Now for floor 2   But first, a results screen! We haven't broken an hour yet so we're still doing pretty good. While the grounds were pretty linear and easy to navigate (by Winback standards), you can get kinda lost in the Office, and they get a little rude here. It's no speed run but we're making decent time.  "Alright, gotta keep my guard up, they could and... probably are everywhere." "Balls" "Dude, quit pointing that at me" "shhh!" "Quit pointing that at me!" "What are yo--" "shhh! listen!" "What?" Behind the shutter, we hear...  This rear end in a top hat. "Lieutenant Carlyle, the explosives have been set in 5 locations, just as you ordered." "Yes sir." "Er, sir, before I go, some of the other soldiers were talking about when you killed that one enemy in the courtyard..." "What about it?" "...uh, nevermind. It's nothing."  "Yeah. It sounds like they're ready to blow this building sky high!" "Awesome!" "No, not awesome! Even if we weren't INSIDE the building, it would get rid of our way down to the control center!" "This isn't good, Jean-Luc. Not good at all." "I'll take care of the explosives." "I guess that seems to be our best course of action. Watch your back, soldier!" "I plan to, Tom. You too. Let's move out." "I might not be useful when it comes to computers, but punching bombs is something I can do." "Not even responding to that one." "Oh! I almost forgot. Here, take this." "What's this?" "drat dude, you just carry around a bomb detector?" "After the Marshmallow Factory incident, I can't believe you don't. Also don't lose it, it was really expensive." "And the plastic explosives?" "So that's what made the hole in the shutter downstairs." "Yep. Now let's get a move on!"Tom runs offscreen, I'm not sure exactly where though since the only thing that way is a locked door.  "Turns out you're also kinda a nutjob." Jean-Luc drops some plastic explosive off here, since the C4 we're carrying just wouldn't do the trick.  Unfortunately, Jean-Luc severely underestimates the blast radius of plastic explosives, and has all of his internal organs collapse, killing him instantly. The end.  In actuality he's fine, since this game has a tenuous relationship with physics At the top right of the screen is Tom's bomb scanner. It'll blink red and say "WARNING" when we're in a room with a bomb, so it's pretty hard to miss.Team Status: Mission Time: 0:51:40
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Oct 2, 2016 19:11
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Does Tom have stealth camo or something?
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Oct 2, 2016 20:04
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Nah, more like plot armor. It's the cheapest bidder brand though as we'll see.
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Oct 2, 2016 22:45
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bunnyofdoom posted:Does Tom have stealth camo or something? I haven't played more than a few hours of this game ages ago (never saw the first boss fight), but I figured he was trying to flee off screen as soon as possible. "They can't kill me unless it's a cutscene they cant kill me unless it's a cutscene GO GO GO! "I bet he forgets you can die mid radio call or something.
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Oct 2, 2016 22:55
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Update Five: The Human Bruise Time for a bomb hunt! This feels a little bit like padding considering we're on borrowed time, but we can't really do dick until Tom goes all Uplink on the system anyway. Winback tends to make you feel like the other sections of your team are working separately on other aspects, even though it's really because they don't want to program friendly AI.  I also start playing a little more fast and loose because, to be honest, I got drunk off a bunch of cider and ended up playing these office updates all in one night. Not even just for the LP, I just really wanted to play Winback.  This also results in Jean-Luc getting shot in the dick more often than usual, but he's a strong guy, he can take it.  "One of those special forces guys are here! Shoot!" "Hold on, I finally found a movie that isn't one of those old-rear end workplace safety videos." "Repositioning!" "Oh man they've got Airplane! Wait, this is a VHS but they only have a DVD player." "If we survive this I'm shooting you myself!" In the closet behind the theater room is, naturally, crates. But also the control panel for that douchey laser that impeded our progress right at the beginning.  Also there's a fairly rude new game mechanic. You may notice the really obvious unlit laser emitter there.  Shooting the panel turns it on. We could have used the rocket launcher or C4 to blow it up and skip the blue laser, but it's honestly not a big deal.You may remember we saw a blue laser before, out on the grounds. They don't kill you but they do trigger some sort of trap. This can mean turning on a red laser somewhere, triggering an explosion...  "Eyes open, Jean-Luc. That blue laser could trigger any sort o--" "Oh it just causes more dudes to flood in. Pfff, no problem."So yeah, for the most part don't feel too scared to blunder into blue lasers.  With the way cleared over here, we can head over to the other side of floor two. Also those people I ignored are still here and shooting at me. I've realized during this recording session that medkits are actually surprisingly common.  Another laser situation impedes our progress on the other side. The camera also pans through the right wall to helpfully tell us where the panel is. There's only one door we can go through, so it didn't really need to tell us, but I still appreciate it.  Okay so, in this room is an electric fence. There's no door into the observation room to the left, or past the electric fence to our right. The open air sewage system, alright maybe they know something I don't, but what the HELL is this room about?!  The only way through this room is to smash this window. Sure that laser wasn't there normally, so people could get in through the other side, but why even have the electric fenced off section of the room anyway  In any case, that's not the interesting room. When we step into the next one, our bomb scanner goes off!  "I honestly figured this thing wouldn't actually work." We swiftly dispatch the goons hanging around guarding the bomb (Easily the worst posting) and start searching for the bomb. The way the room is laid out is that three quarters of the room is open, while the last quarter is blocked off by various crap. The only way in is through a small gap which has an indestructible crate blocking it.  This is also the only part of the game that I remember where you can destroy an indestructible crate with an explosion. That's pretty rude.   "Man am I glad a crate of high explosives detonating next to it didn't set it off. What do they have this cased in?" "Maybe I should move it away from the open flame, but... I mean I already bent down once... It'll be fine." So that's why that one laser was there, to prevent you from skipping past the room with the electric fence They made all these rooms and dammit you're going to see them.So at this point we've cleared the second floor, but the last door at the end of the hall is still locked. You might be a little confused on where to go.  You actually have to head downstairs since we still have the bomb situation to take care of. It's a pretty good reason to backtrack, but justified backtracking is still backtracking.  This room was actually locked before. Someone stuck a laser in front of the shutter Tom blew up, so they unlocked this place to make up for it.  We also go through the world's most comically large and short air vent Seriously it's basically a giant hole in the wall, what's the point. Synchronized flinching! Also god drat I should probably slow down before Jean-Luc turns to jelly.  We find ourselves back in the lobby. You can see the rude-rear end laser, as well as a bunch of gunmen up top, waiting to rain down on us. They also for some reason stuck a bunch of explosive crates on the walkway.  Before I even get a chance to move, one guy shoots the crate he's hiding behind and kills himself This makes getting through the lobby pretty easy, but it's still cathartic to blow everyone up   Why bother?   This is a previously locked room near where Jake had his amazing shootout with four dudes. It appears to be a furniture storage room. More importantly it has another massive vent that leads to...  The men's washroom! Note the guy staring at a urinal without actually doing anything. More importantly, note the bomb detector!  I just notice these stalls have no doors on them, and that bothers me on a deep level.  The camera pans through the wall to show us the laser panel is behind the wall.  It took about ten seconds to get here and shoot it. Again, not really sure why. Poor technicians, they had to drill through the wall and run a cable through it, and Jean-Luc broke their poo poo as a minor speedbump  "Man I am good at this. It sorta feels like putting an "off" button on a bomb is a design flaw though." We might as well check downstairs for bombs. Worst case scenario we can shoot the poo poo with Jake.  Unfortunately for us, the basement made sure to one up itself when it comes to assholishness.  So you may notice this room is completely filled with explosive crates. Here's the deal. This room has a couple guards in it, and every box is hooked up by wire to a button on the other side of the room. If an enemy detects you or hears you shooting, they'll run to push the button and you'll be consumed by the ensuing hellfire. Or you'll tank the first explosion and the rest will harmlessly go through your invincibility frames. I didn't bother to find out.  This trap counts on you trying to avoid blowing everything up. If you shoot one of the crates and back off...  The explosions will all harmlessly explode each other, since explosions can't go through walls or doors  This does, uh, lead to a really bizarre cutscene. It turns out the guards I mentioned don't actually spawn until you fully enter the room.  Nothing odd here, eh fellas?  When you get to the other side, these three spawn and run in to ambush you, but if you just continue heading for the door, the level will end without them having the chance to do anything Later dudes. Took a little more damage than usual  "It's not sci-fi, it's a thriller." "He can call his support staff using robots in his blood. That's sci-fi." "Well okay there's that, bu--" "And that's not how genetics work." "Alright let me start over, during the Cold War--" "Oh thank god." "Lisa! You're all right!" "Of course. It takes more than a crashing chopper and trigger happy terrorists to kill me!" "How many are you at?" "Flirting with triple digits. You?" "...I honestly lost count, I'll go through the results screens next time I see you." "That's... kind of a weird thing to promise." "Well before that, I promised my Criminal Psychology degree would lead to a nice safe office job, so... Negotiation was involved."   "...No wait what DID that mean?" "Maybe next time we do training, I get a little too caught up in the action and accidentally cru--" "Hey, I almost forgot. How's Tom coming along?" "Tom and I split up a while ago. We ran into a slight snag..." "What kind of snag?" "Which means they plan to blow the place if they think they're in trouble." "Exactly!" "Hey maybe Mike will be able to get a win. We haven't had a mission involving bombs in forever." "...I wouldn't count on it, I've already disabled 40% of them." "Aw, poor guy." "Tom went on to hack the code. I'm taking care of the explosives." "Guarddutyonetwothree Not it!" "I'll stay here. Someone has to protect this position." "Dammit!" "If those eyes aren't looking above my neck in the next second, I'm taking them out of your skull." "She was jok... you WERE joking, right?" "Hm." "Oh, well. He can take care of himself. "He's still under double digits, isn't he" "I... think he has at least four. He's trying."  Team Status: Mission Time: 01 : 05 : 53
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Oct 21, 2016 06:36
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Those updates are really amusingly written! Keep it up SCAT squat!
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Oct 21, 2016 09:45
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Man, I just wanna see the goon whose name I forgot die. The dude with teh shades, and rattail and chub, which I think means he's a hacker?
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Oct 21, 2016 15:11
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bunnyofdoom posted:Man, I just wanna see the goon whose name I forgot die. The dude with teh shades, and rattail and chub, which I think means he's a hacker? Mike? He's actually a bomb disposal guy. Fortunately there's never any need for that as the terrorists are dumb and only capable of making bombs a simple hack doohickey can turn off (or that go off immediately). It will take a while before we actually meet up with him again though. We should really have had a poll on who we think actually survives this whole thing at the very beginning. But hell, only one person's bit it so far - choose three members of SCAT you think are going to make it out alive!
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Oct 22, 2016 17:55
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Update Six: Rude Escalation So apparently there's just a secret back exit that no one will tell us about, since once again one of our friends managed to get out without any of the enemies noticing  The important thing to notice is this time around, that door with the keypad is open!  Inside the room is a switch and not much else.  Once pressed, the water level in the sewers. You know what that means  The worst part is this giant middle finger of the most easily surmountable obstacle we've seen yet, but because of reasons, we have to backtrack around the ENTIRE sewer system, including the section that was previously flooded.  Luckily for you, this is an SSLP, so I can just completely cut out that entire rehashed chunk.  We take out our aggression on this guy and head into the door to get our bearings. We've cleared the first and second floor of bombs, so we just gotta get to the third level.  I loving hate this facility. This is the drat open-air sewer we saw last time when we were trying to get to the second floor.  Since the water level is down from us hitting the switch... a full floor below here, we get to explore more sewer sections.  There's also yet another machine gun, but considering we need to get across this bridge, it's actually fairly well placed.  As a result, back into the sewers to go below and around.  The machine gunner objects to our secondary route, but without a giant plate of steel in front of his face, he's a bit easier to fight.  Also yes, we can use the machine gun! There's no one to shoot, but it's still cool. [img]http://lpix.org/2620383/Winback_6.mp4.Still020.jpg/img] Behind the machine gun is a small shed. A laser halfway in blocks us from crossing over.  We can just walk slightly past it and completely negate it  I don't get it either. This button RAISES the water level! Did you know we wanted to raise the water level? Does anyone else remember when we were searching for bombs?  At the very least, this spawns a hilarious amount of dudes that we can mow down with the machine gun. This chapter might be a crock of poo poo but at least they let us have this  The raised water level makes a crate bridge that we can walk across and continue our backtracking. In case you're wondering, the normal route upstairs was locked suddenly, and that's why we had to take the world's least convenient route upstairs. Rude.  We finally make it to the second floor. Also it makes us go through the theatre room and the room where we found the first bomb. I'm skipping past it.  This hallway was blocked off by a shutter before, which was conveniently open this time.  Fortunately this guy turns off the electric fence, otherwise we'd be completely boned. Thanks buddy!  We head into a new room which will once again solidify this chapter's reputation of being rude as hell.  First off, this guy locks the door behind us. You think we're headed for a trap?  Inside the room is a standard ambush surrounded by explosive crates. Do not shoot the crates. That big rear end cylinder is full of some poison-rear end gas which will fill the room and quickly drain your health. Not only that, but an ambush of Crying Lions will run in with gas masks! It's honestly a pretty clever ambush which can be completely neutered by just not blowing everything up. A difficult instinct to overcome.  Afterwards is a ladder upwards. We're making progress!   We get the standard welcome, but more importantly we're on the third floor! It's all new content from here!  Only one way to go.  "Swear if this purple gorilla doesn't shut the gently caress up I'm going to deltree this entir--"  "Christ dude, how many energy drinks did you chug before the mission?" "I've shot six dudes that blundered in here already. You can't blame me for being paranoid." "They've got this thing wired like a christmas tree, but I think I can crack it. I just need more time." "You wouldn't believe how this network is laid out. This system is so obsolete it's still running on 98." "98 whats?" "Come on dude, you've used a computer before. Anyway..." "I haven't found them all yet." "Good point..." "Then go already. It's hard enough to concentrate without you looking over my shoulder all the time!" "drat dude, you feeling alright?" "You wouldn't believe half the poo poo on this system, it's like herding ancient cats. It doesn't help that a device called 'JSnake420' kept connecting from the basement and hosed up the bandwidth by streaming from... crispyroll or something, I forget. This should be a secure system dammit!" "I don't really know what's going on but I'm gonna go shoot some more dudes." "You do that. I'll let you know when I'm done... this."  Well that coulda gone better. Tom's got a point though, we're still 2/5 on bombs and time is getting a little tight. The right hall's blocked by lasers, so we'll have to head left. This button turns off the electric fence door, but also opens the shutter. You just know those guys were behind the shutter giggling to themselves.  Other than that, it's a pretty straight shot to the panel.  The third floor is fairly sparse, and there's really only one way to go.  Uhhhhh okay this is new. Maybe he's a friendly.  "poo poo!"  "About time, too!" "You're camping out on the top floor of the building! Hell, one of us are right across the hall and you never bothered to look!" "Oh really? Then I know my next quarry!" "...Ah poo poo I should have kept that to myself."  So, uh, Leon. Much like Lila, he has randos that will try to flank you. Leon was smart enough to bring two, though. More importantly, there's a bomb in the room!  With the two randos dead, this fight is... honestly possibly easier than Lila's. With Lila you had to at least run around. With Leon, you just have to keep ducking and shooting. You'll want to move quick since his shotgun can chew through your cover.  I was a little slow on the shooting, so he managed to hit me. That's at least something "Pitiful... the hunter became the hunted!" Well, that happened.  Oh hey the bomb was right over there, good thing it didn't get hit by a stray bullet.  That's three down! Only two left!  Suddenly our radio beeps. We definitely had that this whole time.  "Luc-man here, what's up?" "Jean-Luc! Let's make this quick. How many did you find?" "Three altogether." "Ok. Added to the ones I found, it looks like we got 'em all!" "Good. That's one less thing to worry about. I'm going to check on Tom." "Right. I'll go keep an eye on Lisa." "Yeah I bet you will, just don't let her notice you doing it." "We'll be back as soon as we get the code. "So where are we meeting again?" "Down by the... ohhh I almost fell for that!" "Ahhhh you got me! Haha!" "Hahaha!" "Heheh, oh you guys." Alright, let's head back and tell Tom the good news, maybe it'll chill him out a bit.  As we get close, the shutter starts closing!  Jean-luc is too quick for that poo poo though, and rolls right on through.  We just barely catch a glimps of someone leaving. It looks like a SCAT uniform.  Well whoever it was, they locked the door behind them. Rude. Tom will know who it was, let's just ask him.  ...Aw gently caress.   As we move over to investigate, we notice something on the floor.  Well he found the code at least...   We need to keep moving though, we've got the code to get down to the control center, and I'm not about to let Tom's death be in vain  To cap off this update, I want to show you one of the rudest puzzles in the game.  So with this setup, the laser on the right is blocking a door on the far end, while the left laser is going up and down.  Hitting this button turns off the laser blocking the door. If you forget to hit this button and make it to the end, congratulations! You have to go all the way back and do it again.  Just because I feel like it, I'm going to put down some C4 here.  Every time the laser hits the top, you have a split second chance to roll through. Normal crouch walking tends to be too slow. Also if you're slightly too early or late on the roll, you die instantly.  You have to do this four or five times, while an ambush team attacks you pretty much after every laser. It's a pain in the rear end. But that's not the worst part.  3/4ths of the way through, This guy runs in and reactivates the laser blocking the door. Normally you'd have to roll all the way back, kill him, then roll all the way back through. Failing at any point starts this entire thing over.  Fortunately, you can activate C4 during scenes like that! The unbelievably rude man is dead before he can push the button. You can still be easily killed by the laser since you still need to roll through a few more sections, but still.  After all that, it's a short jog through a boring small room to the end.  God drat.Team Status: Mission Time: 01 : 27 : 48
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Nov 6, 2016 11:09
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 13:43 |
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This game (Insert obvious Leon - Leone from Metal Gear Acid joke here.)
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Nov 6, 2016 12:18
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