Part 5: Down the Rabbit Hole

Update 05 - Down the Rabbit Hole

Welcome back. Last time we met Clinic Chief Lem, who tried to impede our progress by locking down the hospital. We’ve managed to rewrite our security card, so we should be able to continue our escape.



I’ve skipped out backtracking down to the fourteenth floor, since nothing interesting happens on the way. A security guard spawns near the bottom of the stairs, but he’s easily dealt with.





The red light on the door turns blue, and we’re cleared for entry.



We find ourselves in another winding corridor.



The door to Rion’s left leads into a large storage room. There are a lot of goodies in here, but we’ll have to wait to pick them up because walking forwards a bit triggers a scene.



: Rion…? Where are you…? Please help me! Hurry!

: Who are you? Why do I hear your voice in my mind?

: Rion? Where are you?



It seems as if Rion can hear the voice in his head, but the voice cannot hear his replies. Anyway, this room is full of supplies. Checking the various shelves yields vials of Red and Nalcon, some Delmetor and two Recovery Capsules.



The real prize is this, however. Skip is a very rare drug that can only be found in a handful of places throughout the game.



Taking it causes you to level up. See the level indicator next to the charge wheel? You’ll notice it’s at Lv. 2 now. We’ll be seeing the results of that change very shortly.







I exit back to the corridor, run around the corner, then immediately get a face full of buckshot from the riot guard patrolling the section.



After some tactical flailing I manage to retreat far enough to charge up a blast of Red.



Notice how the charge wheel fills up twice over, with the second charge highlighted in green. This boosts our attack power significantly, with the downside being the increased charge time and the fact that it burns through our supply of drugs twice as quickly.



The exchange is usually worth it though. A riot guard normally takes either three blasts of Nalcon or two of Red, but a fully charged Lv. 2 flame blast will kill them in one hit.







There’s another riot guard around the next corner. This time we’re the ones who take him by surprise.



The next room looks like some kind of factory.



Recovery Capsules are always nice. Walking forwards from this screen results in a brief scene.





The camera pans over the dingy room.









Oh snap, it’s a Scopedog!



Meet the armoured trooper. Armoured troopers are tough sons of bitches.



They’re the first enemy type in the game that are totally immune to Red. Using it on them just makes their armour smoke.



They’re armed with a powerful rifle, but it fires slowly and is far easier to dodge than the riot guard’s shotguns. It also has a very obvious targeting laser so you know exactly when you’re in danger.



If you get too close they can grab you, choke you for a while, then slam you into the ground.



They’re also sturdy enough to take a fully charged blast of Nalcon without falling over.



I mess up and wind up letting the trooper beat me around until my HP falls below half. This is a problem, as one of the disadvantages of Skip is that you lose the extra level if your health drops too low.









It takes five or so full blasts of Nalcon before the armoured trooper finally bites the dust. These guys are some of the toughest enemies in the game, and I’m glad they don’t show up more often.





After dosing up on drugs it’s time to head downstairs. We’re getting closer to freedom, but there are still a few trials ahead.





A guard walks out of sight as soon as the room loads. A brief look at the map reveals that there’s a lot for us to explore on this floor.



I get rid of the guard so he won’t be a problem later.





Another guard around the corner suffers the same fate.



The door at the end leads into some kind of futuristic conference room.





There are four strange devices lined up in one of the corners. All four can be read via psychometry.









The images seem to show blocky, rectangular objects in various different places.





A conspicuous picture of a two-headed eagle hangs on the far wall.



Reading it reveals a strange image that resembles the famous Peruvian Nazca Lines.



There’s not much more we can do in this room right now. The other door is locked, so let’s head back outside.





Another locked door. Lem’s doing, no doubt.





This door leads to another save room.





This room seems nice and peaceful. Perhaps-



Damn. The power cuts out as soon as you take more than a couple of steps.





Fortunately we are still free to explore and the lights going off doesn’t stop us from snagging an important item sitting on one of the desks.





Unfortunately the power cut also trips some kind of failsafe, locking the door and disabling the power switch. We’ll need to reboot the system if we want to escape.



Three computers are still active, as indicated by their glowing red lights.



Rion can turn each of them on, but has to do so in a certain order.



Failure causes the puzzle to reset.



A clue to the correct order can be found at the back of the room.





The projector is inert, but reading it gives us this picture. The rightmost blue light is higher than the others, indicating the right hand computer should be turned on first. The one on the left is the second highest, so the leftmost computer must be turned on second. The middle one goes last.





All the lamps turn blue and hey, the projector also turns on. Let’s have a look.











Very interesting. There’s no text, but we now have pictures of Rion’s family and the two others who were mentioned to have vanished, Dr. Pascalle and his daughter Lilia.



Anyway, let’s continue onwards.



The only other place to go is through this door right here, but as soon as we push through we’re hit by a short scene.



Hey, it’s the statue of the goddess we keep seeing.



Wait, is that something on her shoulder?





Oh. Uh…





Well, this can’t be good!



Meet the Rabbit, previously mentioned in the G-Project report we found earlier. There are three in this room, with the other two temporarily offscreen at the moment.



Rabbits are pests. They move quickly and erratically, occasionally dodge away from your attacks and nearly always show up in groups.



Their only attack is to stab Rion with a small knife, but it’s hard not to get hurt when three of them are rushing you.



Being genetically modified for hazardous environments also makes them pretty durable, able to take three charged shots of Nalcon before going down.





It’s a pretty intense encounter, and I blow through a good amount of Nalcon, Red and HP dealing with them.



Luckily I have plenty of brain ‘roids to spare.



The lobby is a big place with lots of doors and exits, but we’ve run out of time to explore them this update. Join me next time as we make a start on the Hospital’s final puzzle and inch closer to the world outside.