Part 10: Operation Lost Tower Part 2

Operation Lost Tower Part 2


Moving on up the tower we come to a floor containing a very special room. A room full of secrets of the past... Well sort of. We find a SPARK, a robotic fighting machine that is not all totally a MEC from the first game except entirely mechanical and doesn't requite the quad-amputation of a soldier. Along with that discovery also comes the idea that the ADVENT MECs are based largely off the captured work of Raymond Shen. And even still more, that Raymond Shen's engineering genius may be more advanced than that of the aliens. His designs may have only been possible with alien technology, but there in the tower stands a prototype that has been sitting for possibly decades, and yet it is still more powerful than any ADVENT MEC produced to date. It would seem even the aliens could not rival Raymond Shen's engineering ability. I always feel a little touched by Raymond's last words to Lily. I'm not a father, but there is something truly moving about facing your imminent demise and only having thoughts of creating something to protect your child, and not thinking of yourself.

And then Guava and I yell at each other for the next ten minutes about Bulwark.

We'll cover that when we get back to base and actually level the SPARK up. It should go with out saying that SPARKs are a lot like MECs of the first game. They are heavy, high HP and armor soldiers that suffer a little bit in terms of Aim score and perhaps situational flexibility. They are a hammer, a big fucking sledge hammer with which to smash into the enemy. SPARKs intrinsically get the shredder ability, making them good as anti-armor, come with a BIT that functions like a gremlin with the addition of the BIT being able to carry a heavy weapon. The BIT can also remote hack objects/lamps like a gremlin, except I've never seen my SPARKs with a particularly good hacking score so they're use in that regard is very limited. Along with all the things we come to expect like SPARKs not using cover, are maybe a few more surprising things such as their vertical mobility. In the first game a MEC needed a skill to gain the ability to scale any vertical wall. Here that ability is built into them and from the start you can have your SPARKs jumping on top of buildings to control high ground that might otherwise prove difficult to put a soldier onto. SPARKs will not be getting additional weapondry like the first game where upgrades were installed as the chassis improved. SPARKs follow the normal rules of promotions, gaining exp and making a choice down the two skill trees which in turn will open up new abilities that might have otherwise been equipment upgrades. The BIT is also customization in what heavy weapon it carries and need not always bring the default rocket to launch.

The best ways to utilize a SPARK trooper is up for some debate, as Guava and I have differing opinions on the subject and will continue to convey such thoughts in polite and elegant discourse in the future videos, as we have done in this video. The short of it may be summed up as a defensive philosophy versus an aggressive philosophy, with skills on either side tailored to allowing the SPARK to either be a shield to keep your soldiers safe, draw fire, and withstand attacks, or to be turned into a hammer to smash against the enemy lines, break their cover, and punch them in the face, literally.