The Let's Play Archive

Metal Gear: Ghost Babel

by The Dark Id

Part 55: Special Missions - The Brief Failed Bombing Run!

Special Missions - Session 7: The Brief Failed Bombing Run!


Alright. Time for the briefest stage in the entire game. Stage 7 featured the only recorded instance of a Metal Gear actually firing a nuke (even if it was a decoy) in the entire series. And then Snake was bombed with artillery and ran the hell away. Oh boy...




Canyon Intruder (MGS: The Twin Snakes)


Stage 7 - Mission 1!


"Clear this stage in 70 seconds."


Yeah so a minute and ten seconds is sort of tight considering we need to run through a minefield. Twice. And there is really no time to go grab the mine detector. So basically it is required the play memorize the mines' positions on the map and proceed down the path of least resistance without getting blown up. Hugging the western portion of the area is safe all the way up to here and then another bit just north east of there. That's he fastest way I found to make it through the minefield. You've got to stop to crawl and pick up the mine as quickly as possible but it's pretty doable.

Next!



Stage 7 - Mission 2!


"...soldier."
"No items, Fox only, Final Destination. Or... make it through the minefield and hail of artillery without getting hurt. That works too."


So yeah, FUCK this mission. Making it through the first half is easy since crawling everywhere will get Snake past all the mine unscathed.


It's the whole making it past randomly dropped artillery while trekking back through a minefield thing that is problematic. And by "problematic" I mean "hope the game just doesn't go FUCK YOU and spawn an explosion right in your face" definition of the world.

Ugh. One more to go....



Stage 7 - Mission 3!


"...overwhelmingly superior enemy firepower. How long can you evade field artillery attacks?"
"...I never really tried. It has been something I found best to avoid."
"Oh? Well that's no fun. None at all. Hmm... A man of your age and build...?"

"Let's say 60 seconds -- that will be adequate."


So no mines to worry about this time. Just explosives. This challenge is actually pretty simple. We only have this one screen to work with so using the radar to detect where the artillery shells are going to land is actually pretty simple. I completed this mission by simply just running counterclockwise around the parameter of the area, adjusting my path as needed based on blips from the radar.


Despite No.4's claim of a sixty second limit, he actually meant Snake has to survive for one minute. The shelling doesn't end then. Indeed, at the minute mark it doubles in frequency. So how do you complete this stage?


Get Snake blown to bits. As long as he reaches the 60 second quota the mission will be completed.


Of course, he needs to play dodge the explosives for TWO minutes to actually get anything resembling a good rating. Knowing this game, it's probably three minutes to get an Excellent ranking. Or maybe even four. A man with more patience than I can go check that out...




"Chris Jenner and James Harks are attacked shortly after this point... Viper figured that Solid Snake would come to rescue Harks and he'd had Harks' clothes rigged with a transmitter."
"And we all know how that story ended. Snake didn't know this, but Jimmy's rather messy corpse provided sustenance for Slasher Hawk's namesake bird. Sadly, the hawk was perched atop the Power Plant at the time of Snake's demolishment of the structure. Another unsung casualty of war. Quite sad. But back to Viper..."
"Letting Jenner escape was not a part of their plan. Seems Jenner was a much tougher adversary than Viper had anticipated. Parker had made the right call in selecting her to bury the Project Babel evidence for him."