Part 20

'Cause breaking up is hard to do.


[ Hosted / Viddler / Blip ]



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"Using retro-gravity technology, Baa'Els Gnash is a heavily armored ballistic platform. The ferocious plasma cannons mounted under the chassis can tear through any known material."

The Baa'Els Gnash has its good sides and its bad sides. The best part of it is that its plasma cannons are virtually the most powerful weapon you can have in this game, as they knock out Seeker shock troops in one blast. It also has the ability to boost up into the air for a short time to avoid fire or wiggle its way through obstacles. Though not as good as the Scythe at vehicular manslaughter, the Gnash--when not overwhelmed--can deal with enemies ranging from simple grunts to heavily fortified turrets with ease.

On the flipside, it doesn't have much health. Or rather, every place it appears is littered with half a dozen other tanks that rip holes in yours so fast that there's hardly any warning before it explodes. Worse than that, though... it is soooo sloooowwww. It may not seem like it at first, but maneuvering from side to side or reversing direction is an absolute nightmare, and when you're trying to avoid another set of lasers besides your own, it becomes infuriating--particularly at a later point in the game.

One of the aspects of the Seeker Tank that's overlooked is its ability to break outside of the environment in ways not intended. There are a couple of tricks to its hovering jets that allow you to work your way up structures and over barriers, if you're persistent. There isn't one part of the game with a drive-able Seeker Tank that can't be broken. I'll go into this more in a later video.

In many of the beta shots, the tank was shown holding four Seekers inside. Obviously the Gnash still has the space outside to carry three extra soldiers, but you will never see more than one Seeker on top of it.



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Level one: 1 [can place one shield]
Level two: 2 [two shields]
Level three: 3/2 [three shields]
Level four: 3/2
Level five: 3/2 [four shields]

"Gideon can psionically generate a series of standing waveforms, which can be held in front of him as a moving shield or placed as cover. While held, the waveform will unravel violently upon touching any foreign biological tissue. The waveform can be bent back upon itself to form an aural sphere."

Negate is your standard movable cover system. Each time you activate the power, you can hold onto a shield that's about the length of Gideon's body or let go of it to use it as a stationary barrier. Each of these shields will deflect all incoming fire and serve as a physical wall against enemy attacks. Negate also does minor damage if rammed into an enemy, but it's far more useful to shoot through your own shield with an actual weapon.

Unfortunately, when Negate is used on the PC version, it's kind of like daring the game to crash. There's something about generating a shield (especially in first-person) that just doesn't jive with the game's programming.

Its secondary fire is Sphere, which forms a body-encompassing barrier around Gideon and prevents him from receiving any damage at all. Of course, there are a few minor limitations: you can only walk while using it, and you can't jump or dodge. Unlike its primary fire, Sphere doesn't need to directly connect with an enemy to do damage to them. Instead, any enemies in a rather wide radius are pushed back and damaged. On top of this, you can stunlock an enemy by pushing them into a corner and slowly whittling away their health (which causes a lot of awkward and loud thumping noises). And finally, you can use the weapon or power in your other hand while using Sphere, just like Negate.

Negate was originally simply called "Shield."