Part 12: Takeover
I can't go to hell, cause I'd take over-- Gangsta's Prayer
Last time, we bluffed our way past the guard and into Capone's City.
That doesn't mean everyone inside the city is friendly now. Not at all: the monsters are as ferocious as ever.
We even encounter a new kind of enemy, ElectroKnights. Thankfully, their Hell Sabres don't really do much damage to us.
In the northwestern part of the city, there are teleporters to Hell's levels one and three. We'll be sure to make use of them later.
Definitely a lot of plants around here. And a little stream. So idyllic.
Taking the eastern path, we arrive to The Fallen Angel Cafe.
The place is lively.
Too bad there are vicious, hostile, Dark Rifle-carrying Hell Captains inside.
We definitely need lots of firepower to prevail against those.
We deal with the Captains, obtaining a couple of Elephant Guns. Elephant Gun is another weapon operable inside Capone's City.
The problem with the Elephant Gun is that it only has one shot, and is therefore of very limited help in combat.
Now that the Hell Captains are no longer a threat, let's chat to the locals.
Interaction with 1 Enchantress'
Mary has a shirt on that reads, "Ask me if I care."
Good thing we do have Bulletproof Suits, eh?
Interaction with 2 Moaners
Eating here isn't a good idea indeed.
Everyone in the party loses ca. 10 HP.
We meet another Enchantress in what looks like the VIP section of the cafe.
Interaction with 1 Enchantress'
Tragic.
(So Mary's shirt reads "Ask me if I care", and Jeane tells us "I can see that you don't care". I wonder if there's a sidequest behind that. If there is, I haven't been able to figure it out yet. I could try bringing Jeane a Care Bracelet from level one, I guess...)
And hey, now we know the Hell Guards' little dietary secret. (Come to the dark side, we have donuts! and all that.)
There's nothing in Capone's City besides the cafe, the teleporters -- and, of course, Capone's mansion!
Turn around and go back home? It's almost like the game was making fun of us.
We equip everyone with the best we have and boldly step inside...
...only to discover everyone inside is friendly, including the arch demon Capone!
Yup, totally friendly.
The Killer at Capone's side is Dillinger. (There was that movie, Capone and Dillinger, but it's from 1995 so it couldn't have been an influence on this game.)
Our high Bluffing skill is as much a curse as a blessing here. On the one hand, we aren't attacked immediately, which would result in sure death (Capone and all the Killers are equipped with Tommy Guns and would insta-kill our party if given the chance to attack first).
Interaction with 1 Duke of Hell
On the other hand, Richard fools Capone and Dillinger into not recognising him and thinking he's a famous bank robber who wants to join Capone's gang. Why is that a problem? Because the way to the Mind Magnifier is blocked and the only way to clear it is by killing everyone standing in the way. Killing friendlies, however, results in karma loss. And, as I believe I said earlier, if your karma is too low by the end of the game, the gates of Hell won't let you out.
There's no way to actually track our karma, by the way, which sucks.
We could attack Capone right away, but in that case we simply wouldn't be able to win the battle. And that's what the Holy Cross is for. It has two uses, and the time to use it for the first time is now.
Bam! No Capone any more.
The funniest thing is, the rest of the gang have remained friendly.
Now we could, of course, use the Red Cape to make an enemy group turn hostile.
But well, the rest stay friendly even after we kill the hostile one, so that doesn't really help. ...Or does it?
Fortunately, there is a way around this situation, and the Red Cape does indeed help here. It's stupid, but whatever. It works.
Have a look at the enemy placement again. Left to right, those are Dillinger, Capone, 2 Devil Daughters, and 2 Killers. To access the bedroom, we must get rid of Capone; and to access the room with the treasure chests, we must do away with the 2 Killer group. Dillinger and the Devil Daughters can stay friendly for as long as they please.
So the plan is as follows: use Holy Cross on Capone and then Red Cape on the 2 Killers.
And voilà. No karma lost ♪
The Mind Magnifier is that TV-like thing in the wall to the northeast.
The game tells us we need a specific kind of item to smash the magnifier, but that's plain false.
We destroy the evil device automatically by bumping into it. Everyone in Gangster's Guillotine must be free of mind control now! Ain't that wonderful.
Eh, Alan can wait. We have some treasure chests to loot!
First comes an important-looking safe containing another of those God-Devil dialogues.
God: In an ocean of darkness, it will be all the more visible. That is what upsets you. You see the match above you, tempting you. That is YOUR torment. Something so small and insignificant with a Pure purpose still foils you... you cannot win as long as there is still even one ounce of Goodness remaining!
Devil: What torments me is the wait, the time until your own creation is all mine! He will fail. Your match will burn out, and leave empty hollow ash behind.
God: Your waves of darkness cannot rise high enough to dowse the flame of Faith and Goodness. It will burn eternally, for there is no limit to its strength.
Devil: No limit!? Look at Man's track record! If your match isn't burning out, why is it getting darker?
Satan's Joke appears as "Lucifer's Joke" in the inventory. It's an item we can use to recruit a certain person in Gangster's Guillotine, as we'll see later in this update.
Before opening the treasure chests, let's have a look around Capone's bedroom.
We grab a Dark Pistol and a Dark Rifle from inside the drawer.
As well as a Tommy Gun from under the bed! Now that's a good find.
And back to the chests we go.
The first one contains a Chainsaw, which we discard. The second chest, however, holds a Book of Death.
Truth be told, this is the first time I've found this item. It only has 1 use, so it must be either a weapon or a consumable.
* The item breaks!
Consuming it does nothing but display a short message about a dark sense filling Blonde's soul. A weapon it is, then.
We can't wield the book, however. Rather, it must be Used from the Status menu when in combat:
And an enemy group is no more. Alright, we better hold on to this book, just in case.
Another intriguing item we find is a Regal Crown.
The Regal Crown can be used in combat to make the wearer invisible. Not too useful, really.
And we're done here in Capone's City. Let's head back to Gangster's Guillotine.
As you may remember, Caesar had been the local boss before Al Capone took over. But the situation has changed now...
Interaction with 6 Hell Soldiers
The rest of the NPCs commend us for what we've done.
Interaction with 2 Moaners
Interaction with 2 Temptress's
Interaction with 1 Moaner
Interaction with 2 Moanings
Interaction with 7 Moaners
Harold tells us to get an UZI at the bank...
...so we do just that.
Back outside, we receive even more congratulations.
Interaction with 9 Moaners
Interaction with 2 Temptress's
Interaction with 1 Singer
Titus is the only one critical of our motives.
Now that we have Lucifer's Joke, we can help poor Frank get a laugh out of the audience.
Frank is, well, a mediocre companion.
He isn't carrying anything special, and the active skills he has are already covered by Richard.
By the way, if we now approach Larry with Richard in our party, he will hand us a Hell badge.
But let's rather stick with our old party for the time being.
Interaction with 2 Evil Womans
Linda suggests we join Hitler.
Apparently, Caesar already did just that. The Devil's Banners are replaced by Swastikas now that he's occupied Capone's vacation home.
Interaction with 1 Hell LT.
Old Julius is in the room to the right.
There's a TV here, too.
We've grown even bigger!
The drawer in what was formerly Capone's bedroom now contains a new revenge note:
I don't think Capone will be back any time soon, though. You could say he was... terminated.
And here's Caesar, looking like an Unholy Monk for some reason.
"It'll get the system moving more smoothly and they'll tell you where to get a Consultant's Badge. You'll need that in the Devil's Fortress. I have the program in my computer."
The courtroom Caesar has in mind is of course Minos' 6th Court in the City on the Edge of Eternity. You may remember that woman there, desperately needing a DATABASE:
Which means we'll be heading back to Hell's level one next.
We grab the programme disk from Caesar's IBM (aka Infernal Business Machine) -- and with that, I believe we're done here on Hell's level two. We'll be recruiting Alan now and heading back to level one, and then to level three.
But who do we take with us besides Alan? Blonde, just for the fun of it? Mozart? Sparticus? Someone from level one maybe, like Ach-chu? Here are the candidates for the third party member:
Ach-chu, karate master;
Billy Bob, arch demon in training;
Blonde;
Dante, poet;
Frank, comedian;
Hamlet, prince;
Horatio, duelist;
John Wilkes Booth, marksman;
Mozart, composer;
Sparticus, gladiator;
Wild Bill, lawman.
Take your pick!