Part 2: Chapter 1, Level 2

And on that note, we've got another update!



"That hurt. That hurt a lot. The last time you blacked out, it was after throwing back nineteen consecutive shots of JoJo's Black Label #47, and even then, you think that your physical proximity to the ice-cream stand you blew up had more to do with it. Ah, well. That idiot vendor shouldn't have pissed you off by putting sprinkles on your Killer Kiddy Kone. Speaking of sprinkles, you suspect it would behoove you to find Gideon and liberally sprinkle him on the nearest wall!"

Now's where the game starts to get comfortable in widening the playing field, giving you part of an actual city to explore with a decent stream of enemies to lead you in the right direction and a few goodies to collect for poking around elsewhere. Also the obligatory sort-of physics show-off with that seesaw at the end; not quite at Trespasser's level but this was still impressive shit for twenty years ago.

I didn't show it off this time, but when I tried to do this game way back in 2009 I ended up going up the down escalator before the first conversation with Gideon, and as such had Caleb slide back down off-screen during the cutscene. Weird stuff, but mostly harmless; there's other bugs relating to cutscenes as well but with any luck we won't be seeing those because they tend to be more disruptive. As in, there's at least one case where an NPC who's supposedly to be friendly just ventilates you with a chaingun if a later cutscene doesn't work properly. And don't even get me started on doors in this game, we'll... we'll get to those.

The Weapons


MAC-10

More bog-standard shit, it'll get interesting soon. Replacement for the the Tommy Gun of old. Primary fire sprays bullets in the general direction you're aiming at, faster but less accurately than the Beretta. Secondary fire unfolds the stock, takes a tight hold of the front strap, and shoots much slower for an accuracy boost, but hell if I could really tell the difference before recording myself testing both modes and rewatching it five times. It's pretty much useless regardless, the pistol is still noticeably more accurate anyway and by a minute into the third level you're going to be using this thing akimbo to get any real use out of it before a later weapon obsoletes it. Uses bullets as well.



Flare Gun

Returning from the first game as more of a unique gimmick weapon rather than the game's stand-in for a pistol, remaining useful mostly because of its ability to deal damage over time and the way the engine handles dynamic light sources (see, LithTech did something right from the start). Primary fire launches a single flare of a random color, which embeds into the first wall or enemy it impacts, dealing continual damage to the latter until it burns out or they burn up. Secondary spins the cylinder to launch a starburst of multiple flares which explode on contact, but due to a bug does not ignite enemies, so it's really only useful if you're a damaged individual who hates when weapons only consume a reasonable amount of ammo (ref whoever designed the Shotcycler-6). Uses flares as ammunition, with Caleb's max being 100 flares, firing one per shot with primary fire and eight with secondary.