Part 9: Rock Falls Part 1: Rocks Fall, Every Raider Dies

Crouching is rarely dignified

Also, how easy is it to change character portraits? Do you have to apply the green yourself?

Post 9: Rock Falls,. pt 1: Rocks Fall, Every Raider Dies



Off to a good start, I see. Three raiders already punched dead!

If you squint, you might see that PISTON FIST has teeny tiny spikes on top. I bet they feel a lot bigger when you get piston'd in the face.



Stitch gets a level! It goes towards topping off his existing skills to over 100% levels.



Another raider trio is reduced to a duo and a heart stricken desert bandit breaks the fourth wall out of grief.



Depending on you religious views, you may or may not be doing much feeling in the morning, bub.



Now, to the general North-West/Up-Lefts is the main compound door, guarded by many raiders. We're not going there yet!

Also, is that raider just paranoid or just not totally deaf, unlike other characters in this game? I remember when "enemies are totally deaf" was a criticism leveraged against Urban Chaos, but it's probably necessary here, otherwise the game would devolve into a lengthy, Silent Storm style shoot out with EVERYONE.



This could have also gone south, yet Flashman managed to kill the raiders before they sounded the alarm. Likely because none of them had the chance to panic and run away. I guess raiders only sound the alarm if they're losing bad. Otherwise the reinforcements would mock you, pee on your head and put you down their pants.



Flashman casually strolls into a killzone and promptly takes a heel turn to stroll out of there. He's not too proud to call for help.



Ice starts a pitch dark shooting match with the raider sniper.



I kind of drags out, and most of the team catches up with them. Stitch is gonna stitch a bitch.



Raider's romantic proposal goes to waste as the squad medic fills him (or her? some of the large raiders have female sound bites) with buckshot.



The last raider (camping behind the near wall in the previous shot) is taken out, and Flashman goes forth to check out what they were guarding.

It appears they were tasked with securing the most useless loot of all: nothing.

And while I understand that these raider were supposedly guarding the east side of the base wall, the level design places them as if the only attack would ever come from the south.



'course, raiders never truly end (the most plentiful renewable resource in the wasteland, them and radscorps), so there's one hiding behind sandbags. Rage can guess that she's there, but not shoot. The solution to that problem is as elegant as it is simple.



It's PUNCHING TIME!



See, the raiders were supposedly guarding this unclimbable hole. But game design required them to be looking the opposite direction, and so they did.

Also, is there any reason why such a wall would have existed in a pre-Nuke America?



Now, to deal with the main gate. Can't shoot from here, tho.



Nope, still too far.



Fukken finally! At least he'll shut up about his imaginary dog!

Seriously, one dog in the entire level, and it's nowhere near here.



Of course, the raiders that didn't get outflanked don't really think it necessary to get in the fight, so we're shooting up the place piecemeal.



That is, of course, before Flashman stirs the hornet's nest... which was full of raiders, for some reason. Cheese it!



Of course, once their point-buddy is ripped apart by bullets, the rest of the raiders become less enthusiastic about head on assault.



But if you're not attacking, you're defending, and if you're on the defense, Flashman is coming to punch you. The white blip on the radar is our pugilist extraordinaire, while the raider at the center of the view is one that ran away so far, he dear damn exited the level.



Having a short attention span, Flashman went after him.

When you're being chases by Flashman, people you can throw in his way act as flares for IR missiles.



WILL YOU SHUT IT ALREADY?!



Raider pictured while getting up to run away and get shredded by automatic fire.



Yeah yeah, and you'll carve my hear out with a spoon, because it hurts more that way.

Corpses have to be spotted like live ones, so most of those dots have an expired raider nearby.



The box near the door has some 9mm hollow points. Nobody wanted to waste them on Scorpios, tho.



Apparently, pick-nick spots can survive nuclear apocalypse quite well!



OK, let's assault the trench!

and yes, it's a small trench that's supposed to guard the west side of the base from whoever comes from the south. Raiders don't really know much about defense, do they?

The blood is Rage's, since I did send the whole squad up front, thinking it was but a trench leading to an underground door. I was mistaken.



Employing tactics spacing and tactical Flashman.



Getting high in a fight only ever worked for Tony Montana and it didn't really end well for him, either.



A tactical withdrawal to patch wounds. Flashman regrets not knowing much about first aid.



Another raider gets punched while on the ground. Kicking enemy while he's down seems to be the preferred tactic of our squad lead.



Rebecca shoots the raider guarding the gates, he invites some buddies. Rebecca gets mauled a little and Flashman is deployed for clean up.



Running in to secure the compound, Flashman sees a raider on the wall, but can't reach him. The raider could shoot him, but he doesn't see.

And they say that people benefit from having more than PE 3. Pffft.



The box in the tent hides some anticlimactic loot. Then again, this level in general has some "eh" level loot.



Flashman spends some time appreciating the beauty of rusting American made vehicles.



Passing through the main gate, the crew exchanges fire with solitary patrolling raider, gets mauled a little.



This raider has fallen to a disease that plagues video game guards: staring at wall and doing nothing.

Small surprise, she gets punched.

Somewhere, Anita Sarkeesian sheds a tear.



The body isn't even cold, and Flashman is already looting what he can. There's nothing that interesting.

.

Unlike Daisy the Raider, who appears to be a female raider leader, and a straight female rapist to boot.

Flashman gets shredded in the prepared killzone and I have to hit <<.



This time, punching out the, uh, big boned raider attracts three of her buds, who are content with just standing in the doorway, taking shots at Flashman. Rage sets the AK-47 to full retard (well, burst fire) and takes down two of them. The third one is used for hollow point trials by Mandy.



The shouting raider here gets punched, naturally.



What is it with people and carrying around AK ammo? IT'S NOT THE SUBWAY, AMMO ISN'T LITERALLY MONEY!

Anyways, time to come up with a crafty plan to take down Daisy.



Now, in some other game, say, one about people who kick doors, you might be able to safely toss in a grenade or something to either stun or kill the raiders, and only then rush the room. Now, we only have the option to slowly inch into the open door way, maybe switching to crawl when things start hairy.

Video games discourage getting out of death funnels like doorways by increasing enemy accuracy at close range.



Of course, it all comes down to Flashman. He doesn't particularly enjoy violence against women.



Rage here gets a level and I accidentally dump points into Energy Weapons. The blue threw me off track.



Mandy also leveled and I gave her Swift Learner. Useful, seeing how she's continuously outranged by the rest of the team.



Now, to save poor Nanuk



Poor guy is thankful for being spared death by snu-snu. Eh, we all know at least one girl like that.

Nanuk then bolts to nurse his "little tribal" back to health.



"Careful positioning of snipers" serves to drag out a few raiders outside. Ice nearly kicks the bucket.

I'm just blazing through First Aid kits.



Luke the Raider gives us something that is likely a reference to a children cartoon. Ugly as sin, that guy.



Dead as a doornail, that guy. Rummaging through his stuff, we find a punch gun. You punch something, and a shotgun shell fires.

Weapon experts can feel free to sperg out in the thread.



Flashman gets mauled, but we've killed all the raiders that were hanging around here. Hooray, half a base left!



Raiders are strict believes in "more is more" design philosophy, one that was followed by ancient game designers. Some say that some of the more zealous ones put so many corpses in ancient hologames like Singularity and Metro that it ruined any sort of impact those corpses were supposed to have.



SKULLS FOR THE PILE NEAR THE WOOD THRONE!

Next Time: Rock Falls, pt. 2: The Scourge of Medkits