Wow - what appears to be a real live walking talking NPC. In early FPS you are always alone, and always need to shoot everything that moves. But so far these NPCs are still largely scripted and moving on track; they're not really interacting much with you yet. More interactive NPCs in this type of game are still a few years off.
You know you're doing the devil's work when your goals and Shodan's are aligned.
Finding a recording, I am reminded that I am supposed to be an amnesiac. Another character was told of an armed and equipped UNN operative on board the ship. I guess that's me, but when was this particular recording made? Am I supposed to be right on the heels of other survivors?
The ambient noise in the casino is creepy, but not they way they intended; it sounds like the fake laughter in a carnival haunted house.
Sim-Love... really? I feel like I took a wrong turn and ended up in Duke Nukem.
I could be taking more screen caps, but there's nothing really pretty here to look at. Most of the good stuff comes out of the net result of the atmosphere they are creating, not the visuals.
Anyway, back to my OS upgrade. If I could play through again, I wouldn't take Pack Rat, now that I know what's good, and I can see that cacheing items in a safe place is no big deal. Then I wouldn't have to be choosing between +35% melee, +15% firearm, or double cybernetic implants. If I could have the melee bonus but on firearms it would be a no brainer, but for that little bonus neither looks good. At least double implant sounds interesting, and I've got a whole bunch of implants to choose from now.
You can not equip duplicate implants! That sucks.
Finally, a recycler, been waiting for this one. Well, its not that good. But at least I can recycle some of this crap I've been hauling around.
Now what is this section supposed to be. It's the same old square everything space, but everything's green and squishy. Is this supposed to be some sort of garden? I guess so. It doesn't work for me.
Oh cool, you can recycle booze. Now I finally have a use for it. Like most things, the conversion rate is poor, but its something. And I'm really cleaning up this messy boat.
I'm really picking up the pace, just running through areas, almost recklessly. Kill enemies, loot them, shoot out the defenses, hack and repair everything, keep moving. The game really likes to let you enter a new and interesting room, get distracted by a psionic ghost show or something, and then have enemies spawn right behind you. Wasn't that already a cliche, even in the late 90s? It destroys atmosphere, and that's always unforgivable.
Advancing now to crew quarters. I have more cyber modules than I know what to do with, but I'm starting to run low on ammo. I can always backtrack and buy more, if I need to.
I meet my first Rumbler; he falls easily to rifle anti-personnel rounds, but I think I got lucky. I'll take a point in heavy weapons. Actually, its really cheap, I'll take 3 levels. Now my inventory is full of grenades, but I need to know what works.
Why am I restoring the lights to the basketball court, while the fate of humanity hangs in the balance? Oh yeah, have to turn on this transmitter and warn humanity. I like this the more I think about it. Between Shodan's commie hippy daughter, and momma Shodan herself, I don't think anyone on this expedition has much time left. Best to warn the folks back home.
I've collected the codes from various paintings, not sure what order to enter them, I try a few variations. I could spend an hour wandering around the ship for more painting clues, or I could check for an online hint... ah, I did miss one of the 4 codes. I don't feel bad for avoiding busy work at all. Its still a risk that I might spoil some story element though, so I really shouldn't have gone there. But it turned out OK.
It feels like I'm near the end. Big decisions are being made, over who will live and who will die. I buy a shit load of bullets. But I don't spend my last nanites on this; who knows where we're going. Maybe I'm going to have to go through a whole series of levels on the next ship.
Later...
I'm in the game now. I'm thinking about it even when I'm not playing.
I can also feel we've crossed a line. It's not just that the self-destruct sequence has been initiated. There is this overwhelming feeling of collapsing possibilities. Decisions are being made, actions are being taken; this is going to have to end soon. Chess pieces are being swept off the board with increasing speed.
On a practical level, there is this feeling of not having to hold anything back. There's no later to save up for. It's time to use anything and everything you got, or lose it all. This is a credit to the game creating a sense of urgency, something very difficult to achieve in a game where you can save or pause anywhere. I feel like I have to hurry, and it feels real.
I hardly ever noticed this UI element consciously, but when you open something your mouse pointer is automatically moved to whatever items are in that container. Its appreciated.
Found a couple of crates that require Hack level 6. I would buy the skill if there were any stations nearby, but I'm not backtracking now. I do wonder what is in them.
I have crazy amounts of cyber modules. I'll max out Energy Weapons. And Heavy, too, why not. And I'll drop my last weapon upgrade on laser pistol.
Its weird to be backtracking even a little bit, now that I've gone so far.
Its not efficient to carry the shotgun anymore. I'll drop it off at my weapons cache. More backtracking, as Shodan is having me go all the way back to Engineering.
OK, so I'm at the engine core, at Shodan's behest, but I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. I found a huge cylinder with keypad, tried every code that seemed reasonable, still nothing. Time to check hints. OK, didn't have to go far to reveal my laziness - there's a place to climb down that looks empty, but has a tunnel. No, that's not it, either. It has to be the tower with the keypad. I must have forgotten which keycode to use. Back to hints... OK, I got the code. I probably should have paid better attention to the codes, but the in-game notes have done a good job so far remembering them for me, and now it got a bit confusing. Laziness as a form of cheat.
Yet another message and... of course, pride was at the center of the fall in this expedition.
Shodan's to-do list never ends. Blow up some shuttles, kill all the black pods, go get my dry cleaning, etc. I'm in the game, but not so much that I can't stop. Time to call it a night.
