Part 16: Submachine 6: The Edge

Part 16
Submachine 6: The Edge

Alright, let's see if we can get out of this dangerous place. Last update ended just after we disabled the secondary defense system and shut down all the turrets.


We take the 'horizontal button elevator' back to the other section, which we tried to visit last time, only to find out we were blocked from continuing there.


RTL
The entrance area hasn't changed.


But disabling DS2 turns off the electrical barrier up the ladder.


Up on top we have direct access to the mainframe. We're getting close! Let's dive in.




We can click the middle dot here to change the direction we can travel in. First of all, there's an interesting area if you go down. I almost missed this one because I assumed it was the way back out. I don't think it's actually possible to leave the mainframe at this point.


Down here are these folders, each one clearly referencing one of the Submachine games, including Zero and FLF. Clicking on one shows a string of binary. Each one apparently spells out the name of the game it's referencing.


To the left of the intersection is this puzzle. Moving the mouse along one axis (horizontally) moves the right dots up and down, while it rotates one of the left dots around the other. Moving the mouse along the other axis moves the left dots up and down, while rotating one of the right dots. The goal is to connect the dots, as you can see on the right. This will lock them in and make some binary code pop up.

It sounds more complicated than it is. In practice I find myself moving the mouse around slowly until I hit the sweet spot. It can be a bit finicky but it isn't too hard.


Solving this puzzle makes a connection appear in the top section. We need both connections to continue, though, so let's go right from the four-way intersection.


A closed gate, with the switch to open it right there. Nice and simple.


We hit this unlabeled toggle and the way forward opens.


This dot takes us to the next part of the mainframe System.


This time it's a 5-way intersection. Things are definitely getting tougher near the end!
Up is the 1-0 gate. Murtaugh told us that's the mainframe itself, but we can't access it because the primary defense is still online.


To the right is the gate to the primary DS settings. To open it, we need to active the three lights. Guess what the three other directions of the intersection are for.


To the bottom right is this strange part. Once again, we need to connect the dots. This time, we do so by dragging the filled-in dots with the mouse. The top left one is our connection to the intersection and is stuck. The others can move 'freely', except that the connection lines can't get longer. So you need to disentangle this mess carefully.


Once you got it right, everything clicks in place and another binary message appears. It seems most of these longer strings of binary spell out a word or something, but they aren't very interesting. This one just says 'locked'.


It doesn't get any simpler than this 'puzzle' to the bottom left, which is just a toggle. To the top left is another mouse movement based puzzle.


In this case, horizontal movement moves the left dot right and left, while vertical movement rotates that dot to the right. Connect the dots... and that should unlock the primary DS gate.


> reset


I'm not completely sure how this is supposed to work, but resetting the human recognition pattern turns off the primary defense system entirely. Does it think we're one of its service robots now?


You want assistance? Let's give you some assistance.


Hell yeah, I'm sure.


And it turns off like an old CRT TV.
It's weird to think about how long CRT screens have been out of production now. There's already plenty of people around who don't even remember what a CRT TV was like. Aaaanyway, it isn't quite over yet.


Murtaugh? What do you mean by that? MURTAUGH? MURTAUGH!!!


He ejects our Pod, making it fall all the way down. He also disables the wall socket so we can't plug it in again.


The lights are out. Even the elevator is completely dead. We seem to be stuck. Murtaugh is trying to kill us.


The good news is that we're now able to remove the cover of the fan in the left room.


We take the fan out and struggle our way up the ventilation pipe.




It's a long way up but we manage to reach the light at the end of the tunnel.


RTL
There doesn't seem to be much here, though. The left is just a dead end. There seems to be something to the right, though.




Crap, it's another dead end... wait, did we pass something on the way here?


Good thing we brought the Connection Pod, these original Portals don't have the human-friendly interface.


When we hit the toggle, the Portal immediately activates...


And that is it. I think the Edge is an interesting game. There's a lot you learn about the history of the Submachine in this game, and the "exploring computers to hack them" mechanic is quite fun. The only thing that doesn't sit quite right is the fact that you're clearly supposed to feel scared, because a lot of people died here. Yet, you're never in risk of being shot by the turrets. The only one you get to see is on a computer screen. Any tension falls a bit flat. Then again, I'm not sure if it's possible to get that quite right in this kind of game.

Before we go to the Core, there's one more side game to see. So join me next time, when I'll play Submachine: 32 Chambers.