Part 39: Episode XXIX: Elevator Egret
Rex's Lair (Metal Gear Solid)
Welcome to Floor B50 of Galuade's Underground Base. Ah... The early 8-bit days where nobody batted an eyelash at underground bases with hundreds of floors of basements for no particular reason. How far we've come.
Anyway, as soon as Snake exits the elevator, he spies a soldier taking a most peculiar snaking path across the room.
A quick peak at the radar with the Mine Detector equipped reveals that the entire floor is a massive clusterfuck of explosives. Since 500 feet underground is definitely the best place for a minefield. Anyway, Snake can follow the soldier's trail or...he can just do the sensible thing and crawl straight through.
While he's doing that, let's hear from the gang again. Only a couple more times after this that we'll get the chance to do so.
Camping with Campbell...
s
"Hurry!"Illuminating as always.
Saving the game with Mei Ling...
"Mei Ling, you still won't tell me about yourself?"
"...No..." "Why not?" "It can be a little... frightening." "What is?" "To reveal myself..." "Is it because I'm a trained killer twice your age?" "...Well, that certainly doesn't help. But..." "I don't have your confidence, Snake... I'm sorry..."Time for Weasel Backstory Part II...
"...him?"
"Are we on my dead brother again...? Do I bug you about killing your ex-commander/clone dad back in Outer Heaven?" "Not much to that story you can't read in a book." "Tch. Right. Forgot you're the 'Legend'." "Are you making sarcastic air quotes while saying that?" "Perish the thought, 'General'. Tch... Whatever." "Don't know. Just started going around. But I guess I've always been pretty good at making enemies. If I had to make a list of suspects, I'd be counting till Judgment day." "That's hte way rumors are." "Yeah... But this one killed at least one person." "...?" "My mother -- she committed suicide. Heard that her boy killed his baby brother." "....." "So she died... and my old man came after me with a knife. ...That's how I got this scar above my right eyebrow. ...It was stupid of the old man. To try his luck against an active mercenary at his age..." "So your father...?" "There was a bit of a struggle after he stabbed me. Guess I didn't go easy enough... He's still in a wheelchair." "Get enough blood on your hands and it's kind of a "....." "...I haven't had anything to care about since, but I'm still alive. Can't figure out why..." "Maybe so you can keep asking yourself that till there's an answer..."So, suicide and a father attempting to stab his son to death (and subsequently getting crippled.) Suitable for ages six and up!
Have a McBride for the road...
"...after World War 2. The Brazzaville Convention of 1944 under De Gaulle's Third Republic set the colonies on the road to independence. Inequalities such as the lack of right to French citizenship were later removed by the Overseas Territory Law, and Gindra achieved full independence in 1962."Fascinating. Right then, let's take a gander at the second half of Stage 11...
So our ultimate goal is another elevator to the far western part of B50. The problem is it is locked with a Level 6 Card and we've just only gotten Level 5. So in order to remedy this fact, we're going to need to make a big long tedious loop around the rest of the area to progress.
Fun events along the way include a medley of laser grids (with security cameras occasionally lining the walls.)
Noisy grate panels in tight corridors coming out the ass. Gindra is just bloody terrible at storage.
Oh and of course who can forget pit traps. Plus random walls that need to be blown open. Oh and everything takes place in pitch darkness.
On top of all that, explosions in the large northern pitch dark area with random weak walls will cause an Alert. Snake is safe to camp out in here until the all clear is sounded. However this room twists in and out of side areas that are full of guards. So basically every time Snake blows up a wall he HAS to just stand around and wait for 30 seconds or else guards will instantly spawn and shoot him as soon as he sets foot in another area.
Toward the end of the loop through the area, there is one final electrified floor with a panel that can use a missile in its grill. The course is fairly simple. Just immediately turn 90 degree angles only until at the target.
The issue is that, once more, the explosion will trigger an Alert and spawn a mess of guards. The problem is that there is basically zero cover in the area to hide. The best I could manage is immediately running around a corner and jumping into a box. If a guard spawns to the south, you're still fucked since they'll immediately be suspicious of the Snake in a Box. Good luck getting a Great ranking on this level. Though I think that goes without saying at this point.
Anyway, once all that crap is dealt with we are free to collect the final ID Card of the game and head west to the elevator leading further into deepest, darkest Africa.
Once more the elevator ride is...
...very...
...very...
...VEEEEEEEEEERY...looooooooooong! And it only goes down to Basement 98 of 100. This is really not a particularly efficiently engineered path. Imagine what the guys that have to come here to work on Metal Gear need to do. You've got to walk about a good football field, down a flight of stairs through the B1, another flight of stairs upward to the elevator. Ride that down fifty floors. Transverse a fucking mine field. Walk another lengthy stretch to another elevator, then ride that down 48 floors.
All just to get to frikkin' Metal...
...Gear...? Oh hey, look what we found! Metal Gear "Gander". I've played ahead and finished the game and not once do they refer to it by its "proper" name. Probably because "Metal Gear Gander" sounds like some Engrishy giant robot anime title.
There is nothing much to see on B98 other than two side rooms jam packed with Nikita missiles, Grenades, C4, and rations to top off all of Snake's supplies. And hell if we aren't going to need it all.
Same deal with B99 as well. Though this catwalk has a guard slacking off patrolling the area.
There is a bit of an anomaly on the western part of the catwalk. There is clearly a Ration and a guard standing watch by it. But there's no way at all to get to either of them. Knowing Gindra's design MO, that is probably intentional.
In any case, the final elevator of the game takes us down to the 100th floor Basement of Galuade. There are two doors in the lobby going east and west. The eastern door is the way we need to progress. However, there is an Easter Egg over to the west.
This part of the area is in rather shabby disrepair. Probably because it hasn't been touched in around seven years. Heading north from here and we find...
The original TX-55 Metal Gear from the Outer Heaven Uprising. Or what's left of it. Poor little guy. He's been retconned into like the third or so nuclear equipped giant robot in the series. Calling up Campbell here will result in one of the very few times he actually remarks on anything happening in-game outside of a boss fight.
"Yeah. I remember." "The wreck of that Metal Gear you destroyed in Outer Heaven..." "I just said I remember, Colonel Exposition." "Like -- some sort of a monument..." "To an evil past." "It ends right here this time."
If you say so, Snake. Returning the way we came Snake will find himself in a massive empty hangar with a sprawling runway type area behind it. Certainly not the future battleground of a Metal Gear battle. Don't be silly.
A bit of a job later and we finally come to...
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Rival snake wrasslin' coming atCHA!