The Let's Play Archive

Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter

by Tin Tim

Part 25: Info Dump and Music List

Races of the Vagner system

Since this game doesn't have a lot of lore inside or outside, I'll pretty much copy the short descriptions from the manual and add a few lines from me. It isn't much, but it should give you a better picture.

Human Settlers - Nearly all humans who come to the Vagner System do so with the same goal: make a new start, forge a new life, and find wealth. Most have little fortune but their skills and grit, and find a place mining or farming for one of the large corporations. Dress in the Vagner System is mostly plain and functional - there is little room for luxury in their lives. With their technical know-how and willingness to tackle the toughest challenge, human settlers tend to work in the engineering side of the colonization effort.

Most of the humans that we'll meet, are either hard workers in this new space frontier, or vile mercenaries/bandits that shoot at us. We'll also meet a few powerful and rich individuals, but the majority honestly fits in one of the former two categories. Humanity as a whole, is also pretty much at the top of the galactic chain. The High Senate is based on Earth, and that's where the decisions are made. The Senate does employ members of all races, but humans still seem to call most of the shots. Another part to this is that they invented the warp drive, and kinda educated the other races. So it's a bit like Mass Effect in reverse.

Jaldari Settlers - Significant numbers of Jaldari have made their way to Vagner from their home planet of Datrakan, in the Hasali system. Physically they are much stronger and hardier than either humans or Valleakans, and accordingly they are usually employed as manual laborers. Despite their natural size and strength the Jaldari are not naturally aggressive or warlike, although when roused they are fearsome. On their own world, the Jaldari live in sparse rural settlements, and even in the mines and grubby spaceports they walk with the quiet dignity of a proud, independent people. Their culture is a spiritual and mostly peaceful one; in the Vagner system they have grown fond of human beer and classical music.

The manual tries to paint the Jaldari as gentle giants, that are a bit primitive and in tune with nature. So they're basically Native American monkey-bears in space. But that doesn't come across that well in the game, because you mainly interact with hostile Jaldari. And those guys are quite brutal and like to fuck shit up. There is one particular mission, where you can see them do things that go against everything that the manual said about them. To be fair, there is at least one example of a friendly Jaldari, but the description in the manual is kinda bullshit.

Valleakan Settlers - Travellers in the Vagner system may frequently see a Valleakan handling scientific or financial affairs. This small, agile species originates on the planet Y'trage in the Dela system, where they dwell in small communities in the wetlands. Among spacefarers there is admiration for Valleakan technology and intelligence, but little respect for their ethics - trickery and shrewd trading are valued among the Valleakans in ways that other species (particularly the Jaldari) find difficult to understand. Despite their size, no one should underestimate Valleakean ferocity - these are natural carnivores, and are capable of aggression in both word and deed. In the chaotic, every-humanoid-for-itself Frontier, the Valleakans are thriving.

This description is more or less spot on. Valleakans are pretty much cunning space lizards, that like to make money. Moscone is a good representative of his species, in the sense that he values business but probably shouldn't be trusted beyond that. Valleakans are almost as common as humans, and they also frequently accompany mercs or bandit groups. It's all about the cash, remember?

Wildlife

Arachnids - No one ever properly named these loathsome spider-like pests, and no one knows their exact place of origin. It must lie somewhere in the Vagner system, because shortly after mining began, settlers began discovering them in every ship that traveled in-system, like rats on old sailing ships. Even full depressurization won't always clean a ship out. Their sole virtue is that they feed on cockroaches.

Space spiders are jerks. There really isn't more to say about them.

Spearlegs - Three-legged beings are relatively rare in explored space, but the spearlegs have proved highly successful in their native biosphere. Moving very quickly on three legs, they are capable of outrunning most prey on the wide-open plains. Their staple diet is a small rodent-like creature that moves among the grasses and burrows in the soft ground, but even a lone spearleg will not scruple to prey on humans, which is one of the reasons Gado ranchers go armed.

Also jerks.

Gado - Since ancient times, the Jaldari have bred and eaten Gado on their homeworld in the Hasali system, and generations of domestication have made them the perfect cattle. Each of these beasts weighs seven tons, and nearly all of their body mass can be eaten or utilized in some other way, as their skeletal material is extraordinarily strong. Most of their energy and intellect goes toward eating enough grass to sustain their enormous metabolisms. They are now cultivated on dozens of planets and planetoids. Gado ranching requires fast reflexes and strong nerves - even on a good day, their sheer size and clumsiness makes them dangerous, and a panicked gado could easily lay waste a city block.

Pretty much the future alternative to cows. Aside from looking like a cross between a turtle and a giraffe, their main feature is that they're kinda cute.

Ice Beast - On Korath, the Ice Beast fills roughly the same ecological niche that a polar bear does on earth. These nine-foot-tall shaggy bipeds hibernate throughout most of the day, emerging from their caves to feast on Korattan snappers or any other small prey they can find. On the hunt an ice beast is virtually invisible, and they have been known to pull an ice miner from his post without leaving a trace, beyond a flicker of white motion on a security camera. Their pelts are much prized, but only the bravest will hunt them on the ground.

Not to much to say right now, because the one we saw was caged. But maybe, just maybe, we'll get to see a free one later on

It was disappointing.



I'm going to link the songs used in the LP in order of occurrence here. But I guess I should mention that I often do a tiny bit of "remixing" to them, so they fit the videos better.

Action Jackson - Start
Vestron Vulture - Elizabeth Shaw
Bourgeoisie - Industrial Sector 3083
Tommy - High Fidelity
DJ Ten - Electric Airglow

Forgotten Illusions - Crystal Contour
Futurecop! - Maladaptive Daydreaming Note: The version used by me, was a promotional WIP mix that has since been taken offline.
Lost Years - Red Horizon
DJ Ten - Zioneon

DJ Ten - Midnight Drive
La Mer des Possibilités
Cartridge - Donovan

Highway Superstar - Halogen City
Analogue Clones - Drifter's Theme
Sellorekt - Systematic

Mulperi - Maximum Velocity
Dynatron - Pulse Power Note: I "missnamed" this one in the credits, because my media tags lied to me.
DJ Ten - Zarnold Choppanegger
Mega Drive - Chemical Plant Zone (MegaMix)
Monomer - Fight of Flight

Drifting Dreamer - Runaway
NIKY NINE - Ozuwara Theme
DANCE WITH THE DEAD - Thrasher
Ice Palace - Reruns

Hugo Rancho - Quattro
Stellar Dreams - The Getaway
Solaris Sound System - Everlasting Glory Note: I restructured this song rather heavy.
DiGERATi - AutoRun IIIkg

Droid Bishop - Nightland
Epoch - Zeta
Vector Hold - Interstate
Amazing Police - Speed In Reverse Note: Another song that I remixed a little bit.

Azure Crime - MPH
Danger Mode - Burning Rubber
Midnight Heir - This Is Vengeance
Dance With The Dead - Only A Dream (demo)

Zombie Hyperdrive - Skylight
Le Matos - Overdog
Shyguys - Journey

Renegade - Convict
Bestrack - Workout 2000
Ryan Riot - Loading Procedure

Perturbator - Miami Disco
Lazerhawk - Fight To The Top
CARPENTER BRUT - SexKiller On The Loose

Evanton - Melody Of Life
WARD IZ - The Chase
Sayak Striker - Hot Run

Miami Night 1984 - Reflex Training Note: Another heavy edit of mine.
Perturbator - She Moves Like A Knife
KN1GHT - Hawk Road (Original Mix)

Mitch Murder feat. EEL - Galaxy Train 1989
Vector Hold - Dangerously Close
Swagbot - RockNRolla
Ward Iz - Let's Roll!

Thomas Barrandon - Feed To Kill Note: The next of my edits.
Le Matos - 58 Minutes pour vivre
APEX 86 - Hot Nights
Kruiser - Before Midnight

Airglow - Cepheid Disk
Ex-Machina - Cyberpower
MK Ultra - Redline Hero

Myrone - The Pump Master
Mr. Flash - Payback
No crAss - Nova
Phaeleh - Should Be True

Daniel Deluxe - King Cyborg
City Project - Dirty Workout
MUSCLE - Steamrollin'

Mega Corp - Last Level Last Life
S U N G - Way Farer
Myrone - Heating Up
Game Of Thrones - Super Audio Time! 1986 Remix
Mowelan - Desert Drift

Jungle Fiction - Transhuman
NightStop - PoWer Prostitute
Tokyo Rose - Zender Overdrive
LA Dreams - When I'm With You

CASTROE - R3303V5000
Scattle - Bloodline
DANCE WITH THE DEAD - Andromeda

DANCE WITH THE DEAD - Invader Note: The last of my edits.
Niky Nine - 909 & Heartbreak
Two Door Cinema Club - Sleep Alone (Chainsmokers Rmx)