I remember now where I left off. I'm fighting the enemies big guys now, rumblers and heavy warbots, at the same time. First encounter I got lucky and killed a warbot which exploded, nearly killing the rumbler. Then I made some mistake before saving, so I had to go back. Now I'm trying to reproduce my beginner's luck, and its not going so well. Oh well, time to spend some ammo.
Interesting, going back through some logs, Shodan says "you are my avatar". I wonder if that's going to mean literally.
More logs... Delacroix is trapped in Cargo Bay A. I guess that means back in the Von Braun? I don't know if I can even backtrack to there. Getting lost, not sure how to even get back there. OK, it looks like I need to head for the shuttle bay. Wait, no, there are two cargo bay A, this can't be it. But the Rickenbacker map doesn't show any cargo bays. I try to read hints, but I can't get much out of it without getting near spoilers. Oh, ok, I've already found D's body, and read her warning. Reloading to where I was.
Another weapon upgrade - again I'll put it on the grenade launcher.
Another security box for Hack level 6. Where are the upgrade kiosk's on this tub?
Game says go to Pod 2. I follow Pod 2 signs on floor. I've been here already, nothing is different. Checking hints... its the torpedos? And there's a puzzle to move them? What? Oh crap I see it now. There's a corner with a ladder sign, and a broken ladder on the floor. I already played with the torpedos before, and found that the buttons raised the torpedos. I should have seen this, feel stupid, solve puzzle.
Shodan is getting creepier. I think she likes me.
Finally, a tech station. I can upgrade Hack to the max. I'll also take a point in Cyber affinity. And I'll take a point in Agility. And its cheap, one more point of Cyber affinity. And maybe some Endurance.
I found a shotgun; might as well keep it for clearing garbage enemies.
Gravity is reverse; the floor is now the ceiling I love it right away. Why haven't we seen more of this by now?
Well, at least I know for sure now why Polito/Shodan could see through my eyes - she had my memory wiped, and cybernetic implants emplaced.
Shodan's threats and promises are fun, but it would have been nice to see her take a more direct hand in my progress. Like, for example, hacking turrets and bots ahead of me as I go, taking out masses of enemies, etc. A few fun examples would have gone a long way towards making me feel like I need Shodan more than I do now, and explaining why my character is so compliant. Basically, make me need Shodan more viscerally.
The Many have grown around the two ships, preventing them from separating. A biological species with a super-intelligent center, rapidly breeding itself through space. Well, this explains where the Zerg came from.
Last OS upgrade machine. I'll take ranged weapons.
And for the last part of the game I'm in some alien environment. Like Half-Life.
I'm really in it now. There's no way back.
I like seeing the Von Braun being digested, so much worse than just being destroyed.
Who thought I would ever see a working recharge station again. Its almost certainly the last. And one last vending machine, selling both kinds of long gun anti-personnel rounds. Time to stock up.
Last chance for upgrades, might as well up my fighting stats.
That's it. I'm all in. Spent my last cyber modules, and all my nanites on bullets.
Oops, I soon find a locked crate, but I can't hack it without nanites. Oh well.
A psi reaver? Why did it reincarnate after I killed the nearby brain? Or maybe I'm thinking of psi projections. Anyway, I hope it stays dead now.
A corpse that spawns an infinite amount of wasps? Cheap.
I'm lost. Hints... Looks like I missed an exit in the radioactive pool.
Ooh, platform jumping, my favorite.
Wow, killed a rumbler with nothing but shotgun pellets. Thank you little air puffing thingies.
Well, that's it for my EMP rifle. Not enough repair skill to fix it.
Why is the game still feeding me cyber modules, at this late date?
I'm in the land of giant annelid orifices - where to?
OK, found the brain. Killed the little brains. Ran away to reload - now I'm stuck in a wall!
Tried again, running in circles using speed boost, trying to get out so I can killed the floating brains. Then come back and finish the job. Keep making mistakes. I'll try again later. This is clearly the spot I saw in an early cut scene.
Got frustrated. Real life called me away. Trying again.
OK, I'm going to rewind a bit, back to the point before I jumped down into the big pool. I've never had to use key binds until now, but I think they could help. When running around in a big circle, I don't have time to look in my inventory. Use medical hypo/kit are bound to h and Shift+h, that's fine. I need to bind speed booster, can't bind to function keys, so I'll use the g key. I know even looking at this list causes a bug, so off to the Mod program to fix.
Time to use those batteries I've been hoarding to charge up my armor and implants. I take stock, have plenty of healing, but only 10 speed boosters. The speed is what will allow me to run rings around the central brain, while lobbing whatever I can into it. But first I have to make a run to take out all the sub brains, before I can kill all the floaters. I need to ignore the two rumblers, because they will just make more; ideally I should kill one and leave the other wounded. I tried doing all this on 10 speed boosters and didn't make it.
It also turns out incendiary rounds work best. But I haven't focused on collecting those; I didn't know. So, I'll give it a decent try or two, but if it doesn't work, I'm going to use the cheats to give me more fire rounds, and/or more speed boosts. I didn't come all this way, just to have to go back hours in gameplay to have the right equipment.
OK, no problem, strategy mostly worked, except I wasted a fair bit of ammo. Interesting - usually when you kill a boss, and especially the end boss, the minions stop coming, but here they ramp up fast. I jump down the hole, to Shodan's sudden but inevitable betrayal.
Finally, done. I got the chance to use up those ICE picks I've been saving.
Of course, I expected Shodan to make counter-offers at the end. But I did not expect the ''it came from the 80s'' type ending.
Time to reflect now, and then later to review.
