Part 31: Extras - Hatchat US
Hey, do you remember like, back in the day, when Hatchat used to be on TV and we'd all be like "heeeeyyy HATCHAT!" in the street at each other instead of saying hello or how's your mum been doing? Well, you'll be glad to hear it's coming back, and with a cool new twist you're bound to enjoy if you love the sea, water, air or things!
Cast (that's a sea joke! like fishing!) your minds back to Episode 4, if you would. Now, what's the main gimmick about the episode that you remember? No, not the fact it was almost sisyphean in length, I mean the fact that we got our feet wet! Of course, you wouldn't go underwater without first preparing a special "underwater hat", and the ugly lot on EDNIII are no different. So, to business:
First up, we've got someone that we're incredibly familiar with: the Ex-NEVEC amphibious fella we played as in both Episodes 2 and 4.
Er, first thing you might notice is that he's actually called NEVEC C. No, that's not a typo or terrible accounting error on my part; the NEVEC and Ex-NEVEC costumes all both part of the NEVEC character customisation set, which is actually fairly reasonable. It's not as though the two costumes are all that different, are they? The Ex-NEVEC forces are just a little passé by now, that's all.
Speaking of which, look at the poor guy--they couldn't even afford proper clothes for wearing in the sea! The Soldier Guy Outfitters have just given him any old uniform they had on the rack and told him it was suitable for messing about in the sea in, the poor sod. That's gonna be drippy as nobody's business when he gets up onto dry land; it's a miracle the Carpetbaggers didn't hear them coming..no, hang on, they definitely did, come to think of it. Maybe it wasn't our inherent lack of stealth and over-abundance of clumsiness that alerted those searchlights after all? Look at his poor face in the corner there; he knows he's been sold a right lemon and he's thinking about taking it back but he doesn't really want to cause a fuss because he knows the counter staff will laugh at him behind his back later on and why couldn't he just have gone to a proper shop instead now he'll never be able to infilitrate bases properly
Next!
Now that's more bloody like it! The proper evil forces of NEVEC at least know how to dress for the occasion. A little predictable, maybe, but completely functional and that two-tone look is pretty nice, yeah? Very flattering; looks a little like a big space penguin. As if that wasn't good enough, they've even accessorised with a super-stylish evil space daft punk helmet!
Also, it's worth noting that throughout Episode Four, you'll fight these guys on land as well as in the sea, and they're completely unimpeded by the massive flippers or slightly tight and stiff looking joints of the suit. What troopers! Who's daddy's little brave soldier? On the other hand, -5 scary threatening soldier points for the fact that you can kinda see their bum in it. You know what they say, "no skinny jeans when oppressing the masses".
Rather unusually for NEVEC, they seem to have either allied themselves with a mercenary faction and brought them in as base security for a few places. These lucky few are the Sea Dogs, of whom we saw we've seen a (very) little bit in the last episode. Now, as you might be expecting from a merc faction, the costume is going to be a little bit unusual--and you'd be right! You'd be very right!
Seems to be a bit like an ancient diving helmet & suit crossed with the world's largest rubber wellies with a touch of what I'm going to dub "pipepunk" thrown in for good measure. God, doesn't he just look fabulous, though? Fake pretend plastic leather has always been the most fashionable of all of the wetsuit materials. And look, he's even sewn little pretend laces onto his undersea booties!
He's got a nice glowing hat, too. Reminds me of a mood lamp. A lovely blue mood lamp where the mood is always "I wish we were in the sea".
All over and done with. Let's never look at costumes in the sea ever again. They're all a bit weird.
TopHatGenius posted:
I remember shortly after LP2 came out, that level was the level to grind boxes non-stop. I think there was a point where I did about 5 or 6 games in a row on just that one level.
I think pretty much everybody did at some point! The alternatives to unlocking everything are a lot more unpleasant and take considerably longer--in the case of the 10k slots, I mean--that it's kinda easier just to farm stuff out if you actually want it. Not really any fun at all, though, and in no way legitimises those rubbish slots. At least I've got my lovely party cannon back without having to level the femme fatales!
Deadbeat posted:
Haha, I think every videogamer has done a farming session of some sort or another at some time. I used to farm 4-1 skeletons in Demon's Souls for hours. And I don't even want to talk about my WoW career.
So Dan, how many times have you farmed this level in your attempt at rebuilding your save game file?
I'm not at liberty to say, but only because it's numerous times and I'm not even able to dream up a ballpark figure! Let's go with 10,000 times.