Much Games Offical Strategy Guide Advent Rising Written by John Mclean --------------- Legal Notice --------------- This strategy guide is an offical Much Games strategy guide and is legal copyrighted materal of Much Games. This guide may not be reproduced, redistributed or appear on any otherwebsite with out the express written consent of Much Games. See http://www.muchgames.ca/index.asp?action=copyright --------------------- Table of Contents --------------------- 1. Introduction 2. Weapons and Powers 2.1 Weapons 2.2 Powers 3. Walkthrough 3.1 Prologue 3.2 Chapter 1 3.3 Chapter 2 3.4 Chapter 3 3.5 Chapter 4 3.6 Chapter 5 3.7 Chapter 6 3.8 Epilogue 4. Cheat Codes ----------------- 1. Introduction ----------------- Welcome to the Much Games offical strategy guide for Advent Rising. In this guide you willsee a complete Walkthrough and extra details on finishing. -------------------------- 2. Weapons and Powers -------------------------- ---------------------------- 2.1 Weapons ---------------------------- H.A.Z.E. Blaster A basic pistol, the H.A.Z.E. is a fairly powerful weapon. Its prototype plasma rounds are able to inflict more damage than conventional metal rounds. * Level 1: Base power * Level 2: Increases damage and accuracy * Level 3: Enables alternate fire mode (grenade launcher) * Level 4: Increases damage from grenades * Level 5: Increases damage from grenades and standard fire Faust C-41 Another basic pistol, but one that's much weaker than the H.A.Z.E. The Faust should only be used if no other options are present. * Level 1: Base power * Level 2: Increases damage and accuracy * Level 3: Enables alternate fire mode (burst fire) * Level 4: Increases damage and accuracy of burst fire * Level 5: Increases damage and accuracy of burst fire and standard fire Rockwell-Young XJ9 A fully automatic assault rifle, this is a great weapon in the early parts of the game. * Level 1: Base power * Level 2: Increases damage and accuracy * Level 3: Enables alternate fire mode (grenade launcher) * Level 4: Increases damage of grenades * Level 5: Increases damage of grenades and standard fire Talmage 50.08 The classic standard rocket launcher. No other human weapon has as much power, but you'll have fairly limited ammo with it. * Level 1: Base power * Level 2: Increases damage and accuracy * Level 3: Rockets become self-guided and will track the target * Level 4: Increases damage and accuracy * Level 5: Increases damage and enables alternate fire mode (player guidance) D'Nex Talon This is a strange pistol that fires balls of stuff, as opposed to rounds. It fires a little slower than other weapons, but is fairly strong. * Level 1: Base power * Level 2: Increases damage and accuracy * Level 3: Enables alternate fire mode (ricochet) * Level 4: Increases ricochet damage and adds one bounce to ricochet shots * Level 5: Increases ricochet and standard fire damage and adds another bounce to ricochet shots G'kol Acolyte The Seeker version of the XJ9, the Acolyte is an automatic rifle that fires pulses instead of metallic rounds. * Level 1: Base power * Level 2: Increase damage and accuracy * Level 3: Enables alternate fire mode (energy ball) * Level 4: Increases damage of energy balls * Level 5: Increases damage of energy balls and standard fire Darkfire Another automatic rifle, the Darkfire unloads its clip a little faster than the Acolyte. * Level 1: Base power * Level 2: Increases damage and accuracy * Level 3: Enables alternate fire mode (grenade launcher) * Level 4: Increases damage from grenades * Level 5: Increases damage from grenades and standard fire Discord Similar to the Impact Hammer from Unreal Tournament, the Discord is a short-range weapon (almost a melee weapon) that causes extreme damage. * Level 1: Base power * Level 2: Increases damage and range * Level 3: Enables alternate fire mode (full radius) * Level 4: Increases damage and range for full radius attacks * Level 5: Increases damage and range for full radius and standard attacks Kaull Firelance Another rifle, one that isn't really anything to scream about. * Level 1: Base power * Level 2: Increases damage and accuracy * Level 3: Enables alternate fire mode (energy-burst) * Level 4: Increases energy-burst damage and accuracy * Level 5: Increases energy-burst and standard fire damage and accuracy Gnashbone Fury The Seeker version of the rocket launcher, it's no different than the Talmage for all intents and purposes. * Level 1: Base power * Level 2: Increases damage and accuracy * Level 3: Rockets become self-guided and will track the enemy * Level 4: Increases damage and accuracy * Level 5: Increases damage and enables alternate firing mode (player-guided rockets) ShadowStalker What shooter would be complete without a sniper rifle? None, I tell you! The Stalker is a very powerful weapon with slow firing times. Of course, you'll be able to do some great zooming with its scope to increase your accuracy. * Level 1: Base power and a 10x zoom * Level 2: Increases damage * Level 3: Zoom becomes 20x * Level 4: Zoom becomes 30x * Level 5: Increases damage Grenades Grenades are not upgradeable, but there are two distinct types of grenades. * Human Grenades: Damages targets in a radius, and explodes when it touches an enemy or after a short duration * Seeker Grenades: Same as human grenades, but it seems to do a hair more damage. ---------------------------- 2.2 Powers ---------------------------- Melee At first, your punches are not that powerful. As you level up, however, your punches will begin to do some serious damage, to the point where guns may no longer be needed. * Level 1: Base power, punches * Level 2: Increases damage, adds kicks to combinations * Level 3: Increases damage, adds punch insta-kills * Level 4: Increases damage, adds kick insta-kills * Level 5: Adds Seismic Pound, adds stealth insta-kills Jump Jumping in and of itself isn't that grand. ("Yay, I cleared a rock!") However, as you jump, you start gaining special additions to your dodge button. Upgraded dodging allows you to pull a Neo (or Max Payne) on fights. In addition to being really cool to watch, it can give you time to plan your next move. * Level 1: Base jumping * Level 2: Enables slow-motion dodging (a.k.a. "bullet-time") when doing a dodge whilst locked onto a target, enables charge jump via pressing and holding the dodge and jump buttons simultaneously * Level 3: Enables cartwheel dodging * Level 4: Enables ledge dodging * Level 5: Enables flip dodging Lift Lift is a great power and will be useful to you deeply into the game. Multi-lift will allow you to lift a bunch of things at once, to really cause some chaos if facing a large group of enemies. You cannot lift heavier objects, so you'll have to take down large enemies another way. * Level 1: Base power * Level 2: Reduces energy drain * Level 3: Reduces energy drain, enables alternate fire mode (multi-lift) * Level 4: Reduces energy drain, increases damage from multi-lift * Level 5: Reduces energy drain, increases damage from multi-lift and standard lift Surge Surge is probably the least useful of the powers. Standard Surge allows you to knock light enemies backwards and off their feet. The alternate firing modes allows you to steal your target's weapon, leaving them defenseless (not to mention netting you some free ammo). * Level 1: Base power * Level 2: Reduces energy drain, increases damage and radius * Level 3: Reduces energy drain, enables alternate fire mode (weapon steal) * Level 4: Reduces energy drain, increases damage and radius * Level 5: Reduces energy drain, increases damage and radius Negate A purely defensive power, Negate allows you to carry and place shields. Sustained Sphere allows you to hold your sphere shield for a little longer even after you release the power button. * Level 1: Base power, allows placement of 1 shield * Level 2: Reduces energy drain, allows placement of 2 shields * Level 3: Reduces energy drain, allows placement of 3 shields, enables alternate fire mode (sphere) * Level 4: Reduces energy drain * Level 5: Reduces energy drain, allows placement of 4 shields, enables sustained sphere Aeon Pulse The first projectile power, Aeon Pulse is a decently powered attack. Conventional weapons and Lift are probably more effective when you get Aeon Pulse at first, but as it builds up, its power (especially its alternate fire mode) exponentially increase. * Level 1: Base power * Level 2: Reduces energy drain, increases damage * Level 3: Reduces energy drain, enables alternate fire mode (radial flare) * Level 4: Reduces energy drain, increases damage and radius of radial flare * Level 5: Reduces energy drain, increases damage and radius of radial flare and standard fire Timeshift Timeshift is a fairly strong attack, but it's a little easy to get carried away and Timeshift to the point where you lose track of yourself (making for an easy demise). Far more useful is its alternate firing mode, which allows you to slow everything else down while you still move at normal speed. This is a great defensive maneuver, although its offensive potential is also quite high. Similar to Negate, level 5 of Timeshift opens Sustained Time-Damp, which means your Time-Damp will hold a short time after the trigger is released. * Level 1: Base power * Level 2: Reduces energy drain * Level 3: Reduces energy drain, enables alternate fire mode (time-damp) * Level 4: Reduces energy drain * Level 5: Reduces energy drain, enables sustained time-damp Shatter Shatter allows you to throw balls of ice that is as cold as absolute zero (which is pretty damn cold at -459 degrees Fahrenheit and -273 degrees Celsius). This power is far stronger than the standard Aeon Pulse, although the Radial Flare beats this one. The alternate firing mode allows you to freeze enemies completely, but it has little practical use. * Level 1: Base power * Level 2: Reduces energy drain, increases damage * Level 3: Reduces energy drain, enables alternate fire mode (freeze) * Level 4: Reduces energy drain, increases damage of freeze and standard fire, increases radius of freeze * Level 5: Reduces energy drain, increases damage of freeze and standard fire, increases radius of freeze ---------------------------- 3. Walkthrough ---------------------------- ---------------------------- 3.1 Prologue ---------------------------- Advent Rising opens with a short scene where you see three green humanoids standing around a glowing thingy. A fourth humanoid joins the other three, and soon the glowing thingy blows up. Huh. I guess that will make some more sense as we go along. Now we see our as-yet-unnamed hero flying along in a spaceship. As he banters with his brother through a comm channel, you discover that your avatar is here to investigate a very freakin' large alien spaceship. His control panel shows a scale model, as it displays his little shuttle, compared to a space station, which is further compared to the alien craft. The thing is larger than any alien device in Independence Day, that's for sure. Your current mission is to safely land inside the nearby space station. As the two brothers wrap up their conversation, the view switches to a locked external view behind the shuttle. GAME TIME While you hear more radio chatter and view the names of the voice actors, you'll have manual control of your shuttle. Take this time to figure out how it all works; it may take a little getting used to. You can increase your throttle, but you can't decrease it past a slow drift. The large purple vessel to your port side is, obviously, the alien craft. Ethan, your brother, warns you not to crash into it. If you're bored (or just feel like swallowing a cyanide pill), you can crash into anything without TOO much problem. That is, the game autosaved just before you took control, so you won't have a complete game over already if you're feeling suicidal. If you're not comfortable with the controls, you can pause the game and select "Options" from the pause menu. Inverting the flight controls feels a little more natural to me, but of course your options are… well, your options. Once you're set, head toward the large ring-shaped space station to starboard. If you were paying attention to the pilot's monitor in his ship, you'll know that the hanger is in the dead center of the ring. Fly either around the ring to the open spot or just over it, and center your ship on the flashing lights. Like runway lights, they will guide you into the hanger. As long as you're close, the game has a little tolerance so you can bump a little into the metal near the hanger. After a quick load, you'll be inside the station itself. Helpful on-screen text will inform you that you need to meet Ethan in the hotel lounge. As you walk around, helpful space valets will point you in the directions you need to go. If you wish, you can hang around near anybody you see to eavesdrop on their conversation. You'll find that all the people in the station are a little antsy for some reason. The military is apparently planning something big; it's so high-priority that everyone's security clearances are going to be rechecked. You'll find Ethan hanging out by a door after crossing over a long wooden path and heading past a small fountain. Once you see him, a cutscene occurs. STORY BREAK Ethan buys the hero a drink, and finally addresses him by name. You are Gideon Wyeth, and Ethan is a long-time war hero. After discussing the events of the alien spaceship and a couple space legends, a marine comes up and shoves Gideon for no reason. Neither Ethan nor Gideon want to play nice, so a fight ensues. GAME TIME This amounts to the tutorial to fight. The pop-up box can teach you the controls better than I can, so read and memorize it. Lay the smackdown, and try not to die. STORY BREAK The fight is interrupted by a girl named Olivia. She sexily shows off just why girls who kick ass are so much more attractive than girls who just stand around and look allegedly pretty by giving the last standing marine the mother of all nut shots. After the mess is cleaned up, Olivia and Gideon give the entire base a PDA (Public Display of Affection), and she subtly tells us players that they are engaged. Aww. She then proceeds to call Gideon and Ethan stupid (just like my girlfriend does on an hourly basis), and takes her leave. Ethan departs too, and leaves you to your own devices. GAME TIME Run through the halls, following the guards' directions when appropriate. Listen into the conversations if you wish, but don't screw around too long. You'll eventually find a firing range, where you'll learn how to shoot sidearms. Do that, then go into the nearby elevator. You'll be taken to another training room where you'll deal with being shot at. Nearby are two panels on the wall, each with a red cross; these restore your health, which you'll need to do in a moment. After receiving your instructions, head into either door. At the end of the small hall is a place where you can equip one or two pistols. Might as well get double the ammo, and double the fun. Enter the next door after arming yourself. Trace your way through the catwalk, and you'll find another gun rack with automatic rifles. Yeah, baby! Again, you can use two weapons, so you can go with two pistols, two rifles, or one of each. As you move on into a big room, a bunch of holograms will appear and open fire. Use your flick targeting and triggers to take them out. After clearing it, you'll be asked to return to the original room, but you can hang out and blast some more digital baddies to get comfortable. Once back in the first chamber, heal up, and you'll be informed that the marines you fought in the bar are back. Ethan has joined you, and this will be a fight to the… stun. Go back into a hall, arm yourself with stun guns, and proceed into the big room again. With Ethan's helped, you'll completely trash the living marines. Bud, the leader of the little squad you beat, is a sore loser. He thinks everything is a conspiracy against the grunts, and feels like blowing out Ethan's brains to prove it. A fight, of course, ensues. Bud dropped a pistol, which you can use to attempt to kill him. You also have your stun gun still, so do what you can. If your health gets low, use the medical panels; Bud is not very aggressive, so you can probably just stand in the open and heal without too much worry. As Bud gets hauled away from your victory, Ethan will lead you to the next objective. After some more corridor walking, you'll find a hanger with a fairly large ship. ----------------- 3.2 Chapter 1 ----------------- STORY BREAK Ethan and Gideon board the ship, where they meet an ambassador. They receive some nifty pistols, but are told that if anything bad happens, their mission is to fire up the ship's engines and get ready to get the hell out. The ambassador, Gideon, Ethan, and a guard land peacefully onboard the alien ship. They are tall, fish-looking things called Aurelians. They offer little glowing balls to the four humans. Gideon goes first, sticking one ball in his ear. It's a universal translator, which seems harmless enough. The ambassador and the guard take one too, but Ethan declines. The four are taken to a chamber in which an elder fish expresses his happiness for meeting them. In their society, the human race is revered and almost legendary, and it's taken generations of their people to find us. This would be cool, except that the overgrown tuna informs us that another race called Seekers despises humans, and is on its way here to obliterate us. I think I speak for Gideon when I say, why did I get up in the morning? Anyway, with that helpful information, and the warning that we'll be attacked in two days, it's time to depart. As Ethan and Gideon fly back toward the space station, ships appear out of nowhere and open fire. Man, 48 hours isn't what it used to be. Gideon whips out his best evasive maneuvers, and ends up smashing the ship into the space station. The guard and ambassador make it out okay, as does Gideon, but Ethan's injured. Gideon helps him out, and they find themselves in a corridor with a bunch of smoke and debris. GAME TIME Alarms are going off, and there's nothing Gideon can do to help the chaos. Guards are running around putting out fires, but Gideon can only assist his brother. Only one door is available to you at the opposite end of the hall. Take it, and head inside the large observation deck. Ethan takes Gideon's gun, and a ship appears carrying Seekers. After making sure they're among humans, they flip and just start going all WWE on any humans they come across. Not wanting to lose their faces to the metal floor, Gideon and Ethan decide to keep moving. The path is linear here, and you'll find yourself going under the wooden path you had taken to the bar. Trace your way through the halls and around the courtyard to find another door. Eventually you'll find a pistol near the ground of some dead soldiers, and a docking point that the Seekers probably used to get inside the station. Take the gun, but keep moving past the docking point through another conventional door. Now you'll come across some Seekers themselves. Several guards in the area will automatically attack them, as will Ethan. Fight as little as possible, because you won't be able to take too much damage. But, also don't be a pacifist, because as you fire your weapon, you'll gain some experience points in using that weapon. Information on experience points and weapon levels (called "Mastery Levels" in AR) can be found in the Game Basics section of this guide. Okay, now follow the path as you can, and only engage when a Seeker is in your way. The guards in every room will cover you, but no matter how much they ask for help, do not stop moving just to blast some aliens. Once you reach the escape pods, Ethan will sit in a comfy chair and return your hi-tech pistol. Olivia is not around, so Gideon decides to head back for her. Ethan meanwhile will wait for you, and keep at least one escape pod held back for you. Before leaving, you'll see a small glass case that holds a few rifles. Grab one, then enter the small door to the right of the case. This will lead to small deck with a swarm of continually coming Seekers. Blast the crap out of them, and look for a small panel to your right on what looks like the remainder of an elevator lift. Activate the panel, then proceed to the end of the deck to find a door. Enter, and heal up with the medical panel on your left. You can also recover your ammo with the nearby case, provided you're still using conventional weapons and not what the Seekers dropped. Following the marines into the next room, and you'll find them challenged by Seekers coming in from two docking points. You need to blast the Seekers for awhile, and soon after the marines will open the next door. Enter this (taking out the Seeker just on the other side), and follow the hall. You'll have to painfully ignore the screaming throng to your right. Be sure to heal up, and continue on. As soon as you're through the next door, a Seeker will jump you from above. Fight your way though him and the others that come from the far door, and go into the next area. Run along the catwalks, and you'll get a cutscene as you move into the next area. A random scientist is panicked, telling Gideon that the Seekers are scanning and killing all the scientists they see. He hasn't seen Olivia, but fears for her life. Gideon watches as some Seekers and marines go at it, and he decides that he wants some action too. Round the corner and blast away. Get past them, and you'll enter a small auditorium. Clear it, then take the other door inside to move on. More Seekers await you in a large room, but the marines will help you out. Ascend the ramp, and follow the path as it goes left. You'll find yourself in a small hall with couple of living quarters. The near one contains a healing panel, and the far one contains a hole in the wall to lead you on. Follow it, and you'll find a small room where the fighting really picks up. Clear the baddies, and a guard will tell you that Olivia is in the next room. The problem is, there are two doors leading out. If you're facing the Seeker docking point, you'll want to take the door on your right. This leads to an elevator, which you need to ride to continue. At the top of the elevator is a single large room. Clear it, then climb to the top. Inside the upper deck is Olivia, who issues the standard "You shouldn't have come back for me!" line, and worries that we won't get out alive. Luckily, we know that a 40-minute game wouldn't be very fun, so getting out must be in the cards. After the cutscene is over, a few more Seekers arrive to play. Shred them, and you may want to consider picking up their weapons for each hand if you're running low on ammo. Drop down near the ramps and you'll find some more pistols, as well as a healing panel. Heal up, then walk toward the door. A Seeker general will arrive and insist that he's going to be walking out of here with your head on a stick. You can silence him pretty easily, however. If you just try to directly fire at him, he'll bring up a shield that will deflect all shots from all weapons. However, by now you should have picked up at least one grenade. Simply lob a grenade at him, and the force will knock him off his feet. Fire your weapons at him until he gets up, and repeat. Once he's down, head to the door. You'll see a cutscene that shows the absolute destruction going on outside, including the large purple vessel being destroyed. This takes out a chunk of the space station, and it certainly doesn't look like anything is going to stop the violence. However, the task at hand is to get Olivia and yourself to the escape pods. The way back is linear, and there are no surprises aside from a couple blocked passages and the insane Seekers everywhere. Simply blast away, and run through the battle sites as fast as you can. As you near the escape pod room, you'll get another cutscene, which shows a lot of the escape pods being shot from the station. Uh oh. Run through the next area and you'll see some seekers fighting holograms. The holograms do no damage, but are a sufficient distraction so you can roast the Seekers yourself. The holograms will shoot at you if you get too close, but again, they ammo they're firing is virtual and won't cause damage. Get around the shooting range table. If you need, there's a healing panel near the fires on the far side. Enter the nearby broken set of doors when you're ready. The fighting picks up like crazy again, and you'll have to make your way across the catwalks in the direction the enemy is coming from to proceed. Ramps will lead you up to the next floor, and then a lift will take you up again. Turn left as you step off the lift, and run away from the Seekers coming from behind you. (The marines should cover you well.) As you near the ramp leading up, stop, and turn around. You'll see a healing panel on a pillar. Heal as necessary, then head up. Take the first door on your left. When you pass the marines, do so slowly. Inside the nextroom is a ton of Seekers, and if you just pull a Rambo and charge in, you will get your face handed to you. Shoot as many as you can, then proceed into the room. A cutscene shows Olivia hurting, and Ethan still being cool and relaxing in the same chair. Well, by "relaxing," I mean killing a bunch of Seekers, but you know. Now, Ethan tells you to get Olivia in an escape pod, and Olivia tells you to help your brother. Decisions, decisions… For the purposes of this guide, I say blood is thicker than breasts (not to mention I have an ex in the real world named Olivia), so I chose to save Ethan. No matter whom you pick, simply bump into your chosen victim, and you'll assist them as you did Ethan before. Walk toward the nearby escape pod, and don't worry about laying down covering fire. ----------------- 3.3 Chapter 2 ----------------- STORY BREAK With Ethan safely in the pod, Gideon tries to retreat and help Olivia. As they get near each other, the escape pod door slams shut. A Seeker pins Olivia to the metal by her throat. The Seeker scans her as the escape pod bursts from the station. It enters the atmosphere of the nearby planet, and crashes into the ground. Ethan and Gideon survived the drop, but Ethan is still too wounded to be of much help. In the distance is a building that may house some vehicles, so Gideon takes it upon himself to head there and grab some wheels. GAME TIME With nothing but rocks between you and the building, it's time to start walking. As you get close, you'll see some fighting between some Seekers and others. Engage them, and fight to the glass doors. These doors won't open, but if you turn left, you'll see an ATV of some sort. Run to it, and a pop-up box will tell you it's called a Scythe, along with the controls to drive it. Jump in, and drive back to the crash site. You won't be able to fire, so you'll be a bit vulnerable to fire initially. Still, you can do some vehicular manslaughter if a Seeker is in your way. Once back near Ethan, he'll jump in by himself. He takes the gunner position, so now you have some offense. Now you need to drive back to the large glass doors, which will open for you after a second. Then, just drive on into the tunnel. A small cutscene will show that the Seekers completely overrun and fill the area. Going back is certainly no option, so proceed through the small tunnel. As soon as you're through, you'll come under fire immediately from above. Ethan becomes a backseat driver, but since he's the one with the gun, I suppose it's not good to argue with him. Drive on, and follow his directions as he gives them. A few times during this drive, you'll encounter some jumps. When you press a particular button, you'll fire a quick boost out the back of the engines. You need to hit the boost when you're about a half-car length away from the top edge of your given "ramp." The first couple jumps are over solid cliffs, so if you come up short, you'll be able to drive up a hill and try again. One of the last jumps is over water, and falling results in checkpoint load. Still, it won't send you all the way back or anything. After you follow Ethan's directions long enough, you'll find a road with a couple other Scythes. Ethan, after some persuading, goes with the guards to get some medical attention. One guard takes his place as your gunner, and your vehicle's health is "restored" (probably because you switched Scythes?). You are now on the fringes of Bahr Han City. Follow the road as best you can, but prepare for a drop because the bridge is out. You'll fall into a canal, but that's okay. Follow it around, and you'll encounter some lasers and Seekers eventually. Your gunner (and front tires) should be able to take care of any resistance without too many problems. Keep driving and you'll find a small tunnel that leads to the sewers. Follow the sewers as far as you can, and eventually a hole will be blown through a wall. Jump out of your car, and enter this hole. You'll have to cut down a few Seekers, but you'll find an elevator. Forget the guard who was assisting you, and ride the elevator up. You'll find yourself in a building, and you'll encounter no resistance as you exit it. Once on the streets of the now-demolished city, you'll have to make your way through the debris to get to yet another building. It's tough finding your way because of the mess, but the path is actually linear. Just turn when you bump into a wall, and shoot anything that moves that's in your way. The only part you may have trouble at is two areas where about ten Seekers of different flavors will jump you at once. The first time this happens, you'll just be on the streets. The best way to deal with them there is to turn tail while chucking grenades. Just past them, you'll have to make another turn, and then you'll see a door with red lights over it to your right. Ignore the doors and follow the road instead. Now you'll encounter the second point where you're going to get jumped. Seekers will flood the area, and you'll be told that you need to defend the area until the elevator arrives farther down the road. Blast away, and use your grenades as much as possible (especially against the Seekers with shields). Keep an eye on the upper-left corner of the screen, and when you see that the elevator has arrived via the objective update, forget fighting and head for the lift, which is in the huge building on the other side of the area. Simply stand in the center of the large brown platform for a couple seconds, and you'll be on your way up. ----------------- 3.4 Chapter 3 ----------------- GAME TIME (con't) The fighting has reached the rooftops, and to make it worse, Seeker ships are coming in. It's too much for Gideon to deal with on his own, but until reinforcements arrive, he needs to whack as many baddies as possible. Make your way along the roof until you see a ship that's hovering fairly low. To its left and right are turrets that you can man. Jump in either, then blast away. As you blow up one ship, another will be spawned nearby. Take them out as they appear; you're relatively safe behind the turret. After taking out the third ship, the fighting subsides. Whew. Near the left turret, a Scythe will arrive. Get near it, Gideon will start chatting with the soldiers. They're on their way to the command center, which is where you need to go too. Jump in, turn around, and drive through the tunnel. This leads to a skyway, which is linear. Follow this entire path until you come to a thin skyway bridge. The AI takes over control here, and as the Scythe creeps across the bridge, a ship will come out of nowhere and smash it. Everyone is okay, but the car is trashed, and Seekers are coming to your position. The marines know of a big gun nearby to take out the ships, so your job is to defend the area until they get access to it. There are turrets flanking the door that the marines need to unlock. While they talk, jump in either turret and get ready for a fight. Like last time, prioritize taking out the ships as they appear before worrying about the Seekers. If a ship fires its purple missiles at you, you can shoot them down with the turret's rounds. Once the marines get the door unlocked, run through it and heal up at the convenient panels. Drop down to the next door, and continue through the large courtyard. Turn left at the end to find another door, which leads to another drop. Through the next door is a new enemy, called Seeker Shock Troopers. These guys are mechanical, so be sure to stay away from them after you take them down, or you'll be caught in their explosive demise. Once you're clear, turn right and take the far door. Inside the next small room, you'll be jumped by quite a few Seekers. They don't repeatedly spawn, so toss a grenade and clear out the rest to free a path to the next area. Follow the hall from where the Seekers came from to find another elevator. Trigger a panel near the door to ride it up. This is the launch deck, a wide open area with plenty of room for strafing. Although large, this area, like many others you've dealt with, is linear. The Seekers are numerous, but not quite as much so as before. Fire and strafe, and you'll be able to take them out without any problems. As the path takes a right turn, you'll get a ship attacking you from the left. Ignore it, but tap your dodge button so it can't hurt you with its missiles. Eventually, you'll find another pair of Shock Troopers to take out. Finish them and clear the area they were in, and you'll find a healing panel on a wall near a dip in the floor. Heal up (you'll probably need it by then), and continue on. Again, the path with take a turn, and you'll have to take a small ramp to your left to proceed. Past the top of the ramp, a lift will come down that carries a Shock Trooper. Don't get too close, as it will fry you with its missiles. Concentrate fire on it, and if you run out of ammo, retreat; there is a steady spawning of Seekers behind you, so you can refill your ammo. To the right of the lift is a dead end, but there is a healing panel behind one of the pillars. Use it, then take the lift up to the next area. Back on the roofs, you're close to the control tower where you need to be. Turn right and follow the ramps down, then jump in the nearby turret to take out the Seeker ship. This time around, that's the only one you have to deal with. Finish off any remaining Seeker scum, then jump out of the turret and take the next lift up its ten-foot path. Approach the next door with caution, because a few Seekers (the kind with shields) will jump out. Take them out, and continue on. Finally, the skyway bridge to the control tower! Head across it… and scream as a ship destroys the bridge and sends Gideon plummeting. He survives, but is understandably frustrated with things. There's a healing panel on the wall behind you; use it if you need to. Move in the only direction you can. You can pick up a pair of Talmages (a.k.a. rocket launchers) if you desire from a weapon locker. Eventually, you'll drop down to an area of light fighting. Ignore the bloodshed and instead walk into the building. This is the command center! At the back of the command center is yet another lift. Ride it up, and you'll find Admiral Torn. STORY BREAK Gideon reports what happened back on the space station, and Admiral Torn only seems mildly interested. Torn gets a call during the conversation and it turns out that the biggest weapons they have are all destroyed. Torn ends his call, then warns Gideon to leave the planet now, but insists that he will stay to watch the carnage. You can't leave without Ethan, so we need to pick him up. GAME TIME Take the lift back down, and get out of the command center. The Seekers are gone from the courtyard, and there is a Scythe sitting near the door. Jump in and drive it forward, in the direction of the ships that are departing. Drive it as far as you can, and a cutscene will eventually interrupt you. A storm of large bombs have started peppering the city and all its buildings, which is certainly not a good sign. Keep driving, and you'll find a ramp taking you up. It's pretty linear again here; just keep going in a generally upward direction. You'll come to a courtyard with some trees, and Ethan will hop into the Scythe as you get there. He tells you that the military ships will be occupied, so we'll have to go to a civilian sector and pull a Grand Theft Auto on someone. Drive on, and again take any ramp you can. You'll eventually have to make a right turn, as the left path is blocked by a ship husk. Follow the road, and the bridge in front of you will be hit by a rocket. At that point, you'll have to make a HARD left turn, and basically try to out-drive the falling bridge. If you can get to the other end of it, you'll be safe. Turn right, and then right again when you can. Then make another hard left, and you'll see a tunnel. Drive in to trigger another checkpoint, then head through it all the way. This is the civilian flight deck, but the ships we encounter keep getting destroyed or lifting off. Head to the very end of the deck, then turn around and you'll see a tunnel behind you. Take those ramps downward, and you'll see a ship that is protected from the chaos going on above. ----------------- 3.5 Chapter 4 ----------------- STORY BREAK As you approach the ship, you'll see a blond woman going domestic on a couple of other guys. After Ethan takes over explanations from Gideon, she introduces herself as Captain Marin Steel. She seems a little hot for Ethan—well, as hot as you can be when faced with imminent death—and allows him on the ship. Which is a good thing, because the bombs are still coming down, and are close to obliterating the rest of the buildings. Marin gets the ship going just as large asteroids, what the Aurelians warned us about before, come down and start nuking the planet. With Gideon's help on the guns, Marin gets through the enemy armada despite a deluge of enemy ships and tired clichés. After getting into space, an extremely large comet nearly clips a wing of the ship, and carves a hole in the planet below. After a moment, an internal explosion rocks the entire planet, turning it into nothing but a flaming crust bereft of life. Marin desperately checks all her communication channels, but finds no humans. Gideon, however, hears the voices of the Aurelians, who ask for any surviving humans to come to them. Marin is skeptical, but Gideon tells her trust them since they really don't have a choice. Onboard the Aurelian ship, the welcoming party apologizes for the lack of the universal translators that were destroyed when the previous large purple monstrosity was taken down. Gideon says that since he already has one, it's no big deal, and will act as translator for both parties. Gideon alone talks to the senior alien some time later. The Aurelian says that there are hidden powers within all beings, and he hopes to teach Gideon some of it. Gideon thinks that this power, which is described as being able to bend the will and power of the stars, is a weapon. The Aurelian makes a minor comment about it, but says nothing. To demonstrate the power, the Aurelian mentally lifts a small shell off a table without touching it, making it hover a few feet in the air. It drops after a few seconds, and he says that he is not normally able to sustain the power for much longer than that. Gideon becomes a believer, and the teaching begins. A musical montage shows life aboard the Aurelian ship. Gideon spends his time training and learning the power. Marin seems to be learning about the ship and studying things in general, and she seems to be catching Gideon's gazes now and then. Ethan doesn't seem to be doing much aside from watching space go by and biding his time. After an unknown amount of time, Gideon is ready to complete his training, and you get control back. GAME TIME The water-looking thing in front of you is a portal to the halls of the ship. Go through it, and explore the ship at your leisure. A medium-sized room with a fountain is the dojo, and the nearby Aurelian will teach you how to select and use your new levitation powers. To test your powers, some hothead Aurelians will be summoned to fight you. Instead of duking it out, use your power to levitate the Aurelian off the ground, then use flick targeting while releasing your attack button. This will fling the alien across the room. A gentle toss won't do anything, as they will simply land on their feet. A long throw, especially against a wall or a pillar, will cause some damage. NOTE: Not only do you have the Lift power now, but you gain something more important that the game doesn't bother telling you about. You may have noticed that if you ran low on health, a small amount would automatically recover if you managed to avoid being hit for a short time. Now, your entire bar will refill if you can stay safe for a few seconds. Remember this, as the fights start getting really violent from here on out. Anyway, keep throwing your enemies against the walls until you're allowed to leave. The objective text will tell you to make your way to the bridge. To get there, exit the dojo, turn right, and follow the hall until you go up a small ramp. Turn left at the top, and the next portal leads to the bridge. Marin greets you, and the ship goes out of hyperspace and slows before a planet. This is the home world of the Aurelians, and they're ready to land… except a Seeker ship appears and is readying weapons. Knowing they have no chance to defend against the Seeker firepower, the Aurelians decide to take the fight to the Seekers' ship instead. You, of course, are joining the assault team. From your starting point, go forward and take the little red platform up. A few Seekers will challenge you, but it's time to show them the fun parts of being human. You may want to pick them up and fling them against the walls instead of out i nto space, simply so you can collect their weapons afterwards. With the weak wussies down, continue up another little platform. Now you'll be going along the side of the ship near the guns. This is dangerous, and the Seekers running around can't help matters. This time, go for quick solutions by throwing them over the sides of the ship. When you reach the end of the bridge, there will be a large gun in front of you with an opening in the railing. You'll need to jump from the bridge to the gun, and then jump again from the gun to the ledge on the far side. Mis-time it, and you'll be caught up in the blast of the gun. Follow this narrow path around, and keep going. Ignore all the doorways you see; just stick to the external paths. Follow this path until you see a glowing panel. Activate it to create a bridge leading on. This path eventually comes to a doorway, one which you can actually enter. You'll see that the Seeker destroyer succeeds in wiping out the Aurelian ship, but we don't have time to worry about it. Proceed into the door, and again follow the path around away from the ship. You'll have to jump on another gun to get to the next path, but it's dormant now. Round the corner and take the platform up, then enter the doorway to your left. Take this lift up, and fling the few Seekers into orbit. If you want to have a bit of pointless fun, there's a turret up there too that you can jump in. There's nothing really to shoot, but firepower is always fun to screw around with. Once you've blasted as much as you care to, look at the nearby door with the green light over it. There's a chasm blocking you from getting there, but at the corner of near wall is a panel. Activate it to make a bridge and open the door. Go to the end, turn left, and ride the next platform up. Go forward, turn right when you can, and drop down. You'll have to make two more leaps to guns, although the paths are close enough together that you may be able to just jump over the guns entirely. Follow your current path as you go up another platform, and you'll find another panel to form another bridge. As you cross it, you'll be attacked from the far side. Don't stop to use your power from the bridge, though, because it will retract after a few seconds. Take the damage, get across, then distribute justice once you're on the other side. Once you're there, turn left, and take the lift up to the next level. Follow this path to a courtyard of sorts, and a cutscene will stop the action. A Seeker twice as tall as Gideon will taunt our hero. Afterwards, Gideon will automatically gain a new power called Surge that will basically knock an enemy off his feet. Despite having Surge, Lift is still the best way to go. Just keep throwing your foe against the walls and other architecture, and he'll be gone before too long. Once he's down, Seekers will pour into the place. However, you'll get some help from Ethan, Marin, and your Aurelian mentor. Don't think, just kill everything you see. Surge becomes a little helpful here, as it might knock over multiple enemies if they're in close. Still, rely on Lift and your guns to get you through. After they're all clear, you'll be told to proceed to the bridge of the ship. A door on the large wall is your key. Enter, and corridors and doors to the next areas. You'll eventually come to a lift, which leads up to a large hallway. This is the bridge, and Seekers will come from absolutely everywhere. Try to fling Seekers into each other to disrupt them, which will at least give your buddies time to open fire. With all the Seekers dead, the other three will hold the bridge for you. One of the Aurelians, Endrym, needs some assistance back at a hanger. Turn around, and head back down the lift. Retrace your steps the entire way, until a cutscene showing the carnage occurs. At that point, a new door becomes unlocked in that room, while the old door you had taken locks. Take the new one, kill the baddies in the next room, and proceed into the next hall. Wipe out that measly resistance, then prepare to deal with a fairly long fight. In the next room—which is quite a large one—are a bunch of lowly Seekers you've fought before. Nothing new or difficult there. However, there are three Shock Troopers roaming the room too. These guys are a pain, particularly because you can't Lift them. Fling the smaller guys into them if you can. Once it's just you and the Shock Troopers, bring out your Surge power. Unlike Lift, Surge does do damage, but it will be a little slow going. Once those three are down, you'll get a checkpoint, and then be jumped by a few more Seekers. A door will soon open, and two more Shock Troopers will give you some grief. These fire missiles, which means you won't be able to get close enough to use Surge. However, there's another way we'll deal with them. Nearby on the pillars of the room will be some weapons holders. You can pick up a weapon called the Fury, which is the Seeker rocket launcher. Using that, you can start blasting the Shock Troopers from a distance. Blow them to hell; just be prepared to use a good two dozen rockets before it's over. Now you'll be free to proceed. Enter the room from where the last two Shock Troopers stood. Go through there to encounter your next challenge: two taller Seekers with long spears. They're tricky, because they can deflect rockets and other rounds, plus move too quick for grenades. Also, the room you fight them in is too tight to simply strafe all day, so you can expect them in your face from the moment you start to the moment they're dead. You really have two options here. You can equip your Surge power, charge it, wait for them to approach, then execute it. This will knock them back, and possibly give you time to get off one or two shots. Or, you could go with Lift, and keep trying to fling them into each other and the walls. The problem with Lift is that you constantly have to re-target, and with the few boxes around, you might end up grabbing a box instead of an enemy. Still, if your Lift power is already at its maximum level (which it should be given how much it can be used since you got it), it may be your best bet. Taking down those two will result in a checkpoint, as well as opening the door to the next area. You'll come to an unguarded armory, so stock up on ammo if you desire. The next small hall has two minor Seekers that you can take out with ease. After that, you'll come to a room full of lasers and a few more Seekers. Hmm… Lasers… Seekers… Your Lift power… need I say more? Get around the lasers, and trace your way through a few more halls. Without too much more trouble, you'll get to the hanger, where basically a stalemate has happened. A Seeker holding a bomb is blown away, but the bomb was active, and explodes shortly after it's dropped. You have no choice: turn around and run back the way you came. With the ship starting to fall apart, there is no time for thinking. Just run, and look for any door with a green light. There is no resistance, so just keep moving through the chaos. You'll eventually take a turn where you see an Aurelian get blown away (literally), and in the next room, you'll see an Aurelian holding on as the room collapses. In this room, wait until the room starts falling apart, because the floor will partly disintegrate too. Waiting allows you to line up your jump. STORY BREAK After going through the armory again, you'll find a small doorway. Enter, and you'll trigger a cutscene. The nearby metal is sheered away, and though Gideon tries, he is sucked out of the room and falls. As he gets through the clouds, nothing but an ocean greets his eyes. Panic-stricken, a power activates itself and wraps Gideon in a shield of light. He smashes into the water, forgetting to yell "Cannonball!" at the top of his lungs. He's knocked out, but alive. After waking up, he surfaces and gasps for air. A nearby piece of sheet metal is floating, so he grabs it for support. With lungs still filled with water (and probably a body still in pain), he passes out again while clinging to the metal. He wakes up again some time later. He has drifted to a section of the husk that is pulling a Titanic. Gideon swims over to it and jumps down the hole, looking to find any survivors. GAME TIME The ship husk is taking on water fast. The path is fairly linear, and there's a gun not too far from the start. Take it, and equip your Lift power in one of your hands. (Your powers became unequipped after the crash.) There's no resistance at first, so make your way forward. After a couple minor scuffles, the real test comes in a deep room. Drop down to the water, and start throwing all the Seekers against the walls. This isn't too tough of a challenge, so it should take long to clear the area. Once it's clear, look around at the bottom for a ramp that leads up to a small hall. Although your instinct is to jump into it, the collision detection seems a bit off here, so you may have to dodge forward in order to get inside. Once you are in, go to the end of the hall. STORY BREAK Ethan, Marin, and Kelehm (the Aurelian) are trapped behind a glass panel that's filling with water. Gideon uses his powers to get the glass open, but only Marin and Kelehm get through. The glass panel snaps closed, and despite Ethan's and Gideon's physical attempts, the water fills the chamber too quickly. The glass chips a bit from the pressure, and Ethan gets overwhelmed. Kelehm leads Marin and Gideon out, and they swim up to the surface and find a beach. Kelehm and the other Aurelian you know discuss whether to give Gideon and Marin some time to come to grips with everything. While they do so, Gideon has flashbacks of Ethan and Olivia, and contemplates how much he lost. He gets to his feet on the beach, and declares that they need to find cover before anything else. The Seekers would have seen the ship smash near the beach, and will overrun the area soon. On cue, they do so, and Gideon flips out. He says that he hates to have people die for him, and he's looking for some revenge. A new power opens up, and a fight naturally breaks out. GAME TIME The Seekers are very weak, especially considering that you have three allies helping you. Go through them, then bear left and go up the grassy hill. Drop down off the cliff, take out the few other Seekers, then hijack their tank. Drive it forward, and use it to take out the enemy vehicles ahead and to the right. Follow the chasm in your tank, and you'll come to a grassy hill leading up. Follow that, and you should see a narrow grassy bridge over the water. Hop out of the tank, and cross the bridge to enter a cave. Inside, the enemies are turned down a notch and should not present a problem. Once through it, things are picked up when about four ships all open fire on you. You can't fight back, but this is a scripted event. Take cover behind some rocks, and throw up a shield or two if you can. Simply stay alive, and the Aurelians will contact their city and convince them to attack. The ships will be taken out in short order. Return to your Aurelian friends at the top of the hill on the beach to trigger the next cutscene. ----------------- 3.6 Chapter 5 ----------------- STORY BREAK At the city, Kelehm is addressing the council. He asks that the Seekers be destroyed, as they have proven themselves to be murderous and insane. A couple dissenters from the council say that the Seekers should be left alive… because they have given a lot of resources to the city and to Aurelians in general. Huh. Kelehm tries to talk reason into them, but is killed. So is the other Aurelian, which leaves Gideon and Marin by themselves. Gideon angrily screams, and learns a new power called Aeon Pulse for his trouble. GAME TIME Aeon Pulse allows you to throw energy bolts at enemies. It's a good power, but when the scene opens, there are too many enemies around to use it effectively. Instead, equip your Lift power, and start another game of throwing Seekers into each other. When their numbers are thinned some, then switch to the Aeon Pulse to start building up its level. Once the room is clear, a single Seeker named Kchell will remain near a watery portal. This is the one who initially argued with Kelehm. Pursue him, and he'll lead you to a hall with a bunch more of the same type of Seekers. Again, as great as the Aeon Pulse is, there's just too many to use it right. Throw down a shield in the middle of the hall, then start turning the Seekers into bowling pins and bowling balls with Lift Chase Kchell through the hall, and in the next room, you'll enter a cutscene. Kchell says that he is actually on Gideon's side, and wants to introduce him to powerful creatures that will be his friend. Gideon hesitates at that, giving a new creature time to appear. This thing looks like a cat possessed by Satan, and speaks in a language not picked up by the translator. Gideon attacks it out of fear, and it attacks back. The objective screen calls it "Barrakka Bahma," which will hopefully make a little more sense in a moment. This battle is what I like to call a "gimmick battle," one that involves more than just pure beat-the-crap-out-of-the-enemy mentality. And it's a tough one, too. First, equip your Negate power in one hand, and your Aeon Pulse power in the other. Then, crouch, and crawl forward with a shield out. Right before you run out of power, stay crouched but stop moving. If you stand with the shield, then some of his shots actually get under the shield and hit you. By crouching, the shield goes partially inside the floor, and prevents damage. When you get across the bridge to the small circular area, he will try to engage you personally. His most dangerous attack here is when he backflips and uses his tail as a spear. He tends to use that one several times in one combination, and if you get caught up in that, you're finished. If you see him bust it out once, run away as best you can, because he'll chase you to do it a couple more times. His other fairly strong attack is when he crouches and charges his rocket pack. When it goes off, he takes off into the air and create a large fire around him. It seems that the closer you are to the point of the explosion, the more damage it does. If you dodge as the explosion happens, however, you will completely avoid damage no matter how close you are. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for his bloody backflip. Those two attacks strike worst when you're in close, so try to stay away from him by a few steps. Constantly move with the dodge button, and press your attack button while in midair from a sideways dodge. This will make Gideon lunge forward with his fist out. Once he makes contact, she'll be pushed fairly far, where you can follow up with a couple punches. Stay on the move, because it only takes about two hits from her backflip to kill you. Keep going until he falls off the platform. Now he'll magically jump on a small ship that looks like a steroid-induced version of what the Hobgoblin from the Spiderman world flies around on. His opening is to bombard the circular area with bombs, so immediately run to the larger area back across the bridge where you started this mess. He'll pop up to the right of the bridge now. He'll fire a machine gun at you, pause a moment, then fire extremely powerful lasers at you. If you're not behind your shield when the lasers start going off, you will die. During the time that he's visible, target the engines of his ship/skateboard and throw Aeon Pulses at it. Stay behind your shield when he starts firing his lasers, though. After he does, he'll dive back down, then pop back up on the other side of the bridge with the same firing pattern. When the skateboard drops, he'll fly back over to the circular area and repeat his first pattern. Again, use your shields from a crouch to get to him, then try to knock him off the platform. Once he falls, he'll yet again take to the sky, but only the other engine is active. Take it out, which forces him to return to the little platform. The fifth phase is identical to the first and third. Use the shields from a crouch, and knock him off the little platform. Cross the bridge back, ready your shields, and await the skateboard yet again. This time, instead of targeting an engine, you need to target the gun. It's easier to take out than either engine, so this part should be a breeze. STORY TIME The weird creature takes a mask off, which allows you to understand what he's saying. Problem is, he's talking a little cryptically. First he lays down a "Freeze or I'll shoot" threat, then says that he now understands why "they" fear you. Does he mean the Seekers? The creature then says he wanted to take Gideon alive, and proceeds to fire some sort of magic or electric power that zaps our hero. The creature comes back down, plants a foot on Gideon's chest, and contemplates the bounty to be had from delivering his corpse. With the timing of James Bond, however, our favorite Aurelian comes by and saves him! Back at the council chamber, this Aurelian (who is apparently named Enorym; thanks, instruction manual!) mourns our old pal Kelehm. He gives a guilt trip to the rest of the council, telling them that if the Seekers bring their entire armada, their world is done for. Luckily, most of the Seekers' communications come via a large tower called Ancible, and Enorym plans on destroying it. Meanwhile, Marin can't keep her hands off Gideon. Somewhere in the universe, Olivia's corpse clenches its fists. Later that evening, a transport ship carries Enorym, Marin, Gideon, and other Aurelians. Enorym lays out the plan: some Aurelian spies have already infiltrated and executed a preemptive strike against Ancible Tower. The strike force in the transport ships will be dropped in a valley near Ancible. From there, they will quickly (but quietly) proceed through some tunnels to the Temple Annex, which is a well-guarded and well-armed area. Once they have the area and its guns, the rest of the Aurelians will come and reinforce them. Sounds good, except that our side will be outnumbered and outgunned. At least they don't have a superpower-wielding hero on their side. So the ship lands, but Gideon is preoccupied. He looks over the prototype pistol he had received way back on the space station, and just reminisces. Marin tries to play the distract-the-sad-guy- with-humor card, and asks if he forgot how to shoot. Gideon just simply says that the gun is the only thing he's got left from his home, what with Ethan and Olivia being whacked and all. Marin replies to this with "What, you forgot to pack underwear?" Bitch. I'm not prone to violence against women, but if I was Gideon, I would have gone Soldier of Fortune on Marin's cute little butt. But, Gideon has the patience of a saint, and tries to dissuade her from risking her life for this mission. He argues that if he snuffs it, she will be the last hope of humanity. Surprisingly, she buys this, and decides to stay out of the fight. Huh. Enorym pops up and is impatient, wondering why the humans were not locked and loaded. He then back-peddles and blesses Gideon's wisdom in keeping her away. An Aurelian captain named Banath reports that the Seekers are swinging back around to attack them. Enorym orders him to take his two best fighters and escort Marin back to the planet. Although Banath flips and protests, he follows orders, and readies to leave. With that, Enorym says it's time to go. Gideon looks ready, steps off camera, and it's on. GAME TIME The valley is pretty large, and almost entirely without resistance. Follow your Aurelian allies, and you'll have to deal with a small skirmish about halfway to the tunnel entrance. Shoot up the baddies, then keep following your friends to find the entrance. The tunnel is short, and also without resistance. This is suspicious, which Enorym even comments on. Once out of the first tunnel, you'll be able to see the Ancible off to the right. It's a very pretty view, which is why I chose this particular moment to shoot a couple screenshot (taken in first-person view so there is no Gideon in the way). Partake of the yummy environment… Proceed a little farther, and walk past your allies. Down below, you'll some rather huge creatures that look to be all muscle. Hopefully we won't have to fight those things. The brown platform nearby seems to do nothing, but you can grab some weapons and ammo from the other side of it. Turn around and face the area from which you came. The path to the right is the tunnel you took to get there, and the way forward is a path to the left. As you take it, your Aurelians will join you. One Shock Trooper and a few other rather strong Seekers will challenge you here. The Shock Trooper is not a wuss, but the rocks can be used as great cover. If it starts shooting at you, just hide behind a rock and let your friends attack it. If it focuses on them, pop out and shoot or throw Aeon Pulses to hurt it. Just past that battle are two large creatures, but they can be lifted and thrown around like standard Seekers. Although a little on the strong side, you'll be able to take them out easily. Hop up the cliffs to encounter another cool view of the Ancible, and a cutscene. The spies in Ancible report that the tower has already recovered from their preemptive strike; shortly after that, the communication goes dead. Uh oh. Enorym decides to call an audible. He's going to take a couple guys and go to the tower now, while Gideon and the rest try the stealthy way through the Temple Annex. An unnamed Aurelian shows Gideon the path, and warns him that we have to leave no survivors. Just how I like it! From the initial drop, move forward slowly. A couple weak Seekers are hanging around, but they're with the big guys. The big ones can kill you in two punches; needless to say, you do not want to be around them. Attack from a distance using guns, Aeon Pulses, or Lifts. Clear the area of any stragglers, then move on. Turn left and start heading up a hill, and prepare for a fight. Put your Lift in one hand, and your Aeon Pulse in the other. A Shock Trooper and a ton of weak Seekers will appear to give you grief. Try to focus on the Shock Trooper by constantly dodging and throwing Pulses. Then, when it's down, use your lift and start flinging Seekers into each other. Behind this battle site is a door, which you may notice opens now and then to send more guys after you. If you stand way back on the grassy plateau, then the stream of Seekers will never end. You need to thin the numbers a bit, then run toward the door. As long as you're close to it, it will not open, and no enemy reinforcements will come. While standing on the blue area in front of the door, eliminate the rest of the Seekers, and a cutscene will give you a break from the action. This one is short, and simply informs you that this temple is a holy sanctuary for the Aurelians. You'll learn that the Seekers' playbook calls for the desecration of holy sites in all the worlds they conquer as a first step in demoralizing the enemy. The Aurelians are pissed, naturally, and after a quiet moment of contemplation, they enter. The halls are tight in the temple, a stark contrast to fairly open valleys you have been fighting in. Well, almost… your first fight takes place in a rather large room with a canyon in the middle of it. My favorite and recommended way to eliminate the baddies whenever there's a bottomless pit around is, as always, use your Lift power to fling them into the abyss. Ah, sweet, sweet release. Now, the challenge is to actually get across the thing. You'll have to back up, run, and take a leap of faith from one section of the bridge to the next. Timed right, Gideon will grab onto the far piece of the ledge and haul yourself up. Timed wrong… well, the last checkpoint wasn't too far back, was it? Once across, take a left turn. Some Seekers are at the far end of the hall, but they're easy enough to take down. The path is linear now, and involves a couple funky camera angles. The first one is a sharp drop down that you'll barely survive if you choose to just fall, and second one just after that is a cool view as Gideon heads down a short spiral of stairs. Once at the bottom, you'll get a cutscene. A bridge to the next area crumbles a bit, and a large Seeker appears to taunt you and your Aurelian ally. A horde of Seekers comes on you fast, and you won't be able to kill them all, so your ally suggests you get to the next door and go through. Sealing it behind you will protect you, hopefully. This is relatively simple. First, jump over the gap so you have some room. Then, start using Lift to keep disrupting all the Seekers coming down the stairs. You merely have to wait, and after a few waves of Seekers, your ally will be at the door and the words "Objective Complete" will appear in the top-left corner. At that point, forget the fighting and just get through the door. STORY BREAK Gideon walks with the Aurelian into a large chamber. A gray statue stands proudly in the center, catching an overhead ray of sun. The statue is in a human form, and it's posed the same way as Gideon does when he unlocks a power. After Gideon and his ally discuss it, he walks forward into the light and finds himself drawn up to the statue's head. The statue levitates him to the other side of the room, where he is gently placed on his feet. The next door opens, and a tiny golden pyramid that is giving off a holy light spins gently in the air. Gideon takes it, and the door closes. The Aurelian asks "wtf," and Gideon somehow knows that the room and that artifact had been waiting for him. The artifact gives him a new power called Timeshift, and the Aurelian suggests that while this was cool and all, it's time to focus on the enemy again. GAME TIME Timeshift is a really cool power that is more defensive than offensive. In its first mode, it becomes a really fast charge attack. Target an enemy, then execute the power to make Gideon pierce through the air and damage the target, knocking it back too. You'll get to test this power out quickly, as several Seekers infiltrate the shrine and engage you. Use this power against everyone you see, and it will quickly level up. Once it gets to level three, you unlock the REALLY fun thing about this power. The alternate firing mode of Timeshift starts something called Time-Damp. This makes everything else slow down around Gideon as he moves normal speed. Here's an example of why it's defensive. If you're jumped by several enemies (as you are now), enable Time-Damp. Now their shots are extremely slow, so you could step out of the way of the lasers. While things are slow (because you're still holding the trigger), you can pull out a gun or just use punches. Your attacks are super-quick to the enemy, which damages them quickly and reduces or eliminates the time they can use to retaliate. Laying the smackdown, indeed. Have fun with your new power to clear the room. I recommend that you use only Timeshift so you can get it to level 3 at least. When it's clear, look near the door that led to the little pyramid. You'll see a path on an adjacent wall where you can take a path. Follow it, and you'll basically wind up behind the little gold room. You'll now go through some ruins of the temple. Between your Aeon Pulses and Timeshift, Gideon so obnoxiously powerful that guns are no longer an issue. In fact, if you use your punches enough to get them at least to level 3, you'll pretty much be unstoppable without needing a firearm. Just remember to whip out Timeshift if you run low on health; pun not intended, but it will buy you some time to recover. The ruins of the temple are nothing to scream about. You'll encounter a set of three of the really big guys at one point, but Timeshift will allow you to completely decimate them. That alone will prove just how insane your strength grew with one additional power. You'll eventually come to a hole in a wall, which leads to a metal grate. Gideon gets all Professor X on it, and soon he and the two Aurelians find themselves inside a metal monstrosity. The door to the next area is blocked and cannot be opened with Gideon's powers, but he volunteers to flip the switch to open it. The panel to open the door is below you, and you'll be jumped from all sides by Seekers. However, again, with Timeshift and Aeon Pulses, fighting is a breeze. Just be sure to avoid the large generators in the room (the black things with electricity playing at the bottom and shooting out of the top). These will kill you instantly, which is not a good way to start the level. Once you hit the switch, a door on the other side will have an elevator lift lower itself. Ride that back up, then follow the path around to where the Aurelians are hanging out. A door with a green light marks your next path, but equip your Lift power instead of Timeshift before going through. You'll be fighting on some catwalks high above the ocean, and near the Ancible. Across the chasm will be about three Seekers who try to shoot you. Fling them to their demise, then run all the way to the next door. Its light is yellow, and it won't open. However, when you turn around, a ship will appear and jump you. (If the ship doesn't spawn at first, just run around the catwalks until it does.) You'll have to take it down to unlock the next door. Although you could blow it up with only Aeon Pulses, it's much faster to use a conventional weapon also. Once it's down, reequip your Lift power, then proceed. The next small hall is nothing but glass, and using Timeshift is too dangerous because the panels will break too quickly. Instead, just throw Seekers around into each other. The panels will shatter, but you'll be on solid footing the whole time. Proceed when it's clear, and ride the lift up. Again you'll be high above the land and ocean, but you're a bit safer this time. Take out a few Seekers, and you'll trigger a ship to come after you. Take it down like before, and keep exploring the area to find a few Seekers come riding up on a different lift. Kill them, and another large lift (a cargo elevator) will come up carrying one Shock Trooper and a few minor Seekers. Like with the ships, it may be easier and faster to use guns (like the nearby Fury rocket launcher) than pure Aeon Pulses. When it blows up, you can then ride the cargo elevator down. You'll soon find yourself in a large room with Seekers coming out of every door. This is a kill-everything-for-awhile moment, and Timeshift regains its usefulness here. Fight around near the door on the level below where you came in, and eventually it will open. The next area, the hanger proper, is a fun, wide open area. The first challenge is what to do with the three Shock Troopers hanging around. Equip Timeshift if you don't have it, then enter Time-Damp. Run across the open area, and you'll see three Seeker Tanks. Jump in one, and be ready for the fireworks. The tank can take out the Shock Troopers in three shots, so that should be your first focus. Then, take out the automated turrets on each side of the hanger (the ones that fire blue lasers). One side will then spawn a ship. Take it out, and turn around to engage a second ship that spawns on the other side. During all this fighting, do not stop moving; just fire and strafe continuously to avoid too much damage. After that, a few Seekers will start coming up around the tanks. They may jump in, so blow up any tanks still standing. When it seems relatively clear, go the end of the hanger that is near a ramp. Drive your tank up it, and go to the end of the catwalk to the door. One Seeker and a Shock Trooper will greet you, but since you're in your tank, they'll be easy to eliminate. Jump out of the tank now and enter the door beyond the Shock Trooper. Go down the next halls and fight your way to another lift. You'll get some rather scenic views of the Ancible and its surrounding area on your way up, but there's no time to sightsee. The next room is extremely large as well, with several of those generators that shoot out light. The Aurelians speak here, but it's hard to hear them over the music and sound. The gist of their dialogue is they want you to flip switches on the generators to reverse their polarity, and this will somehow help them hold the Seekers from following you to the next area. Use either ramp on the sides of the room, and climb up to the next level. Near each red pillar of light is a panel; simply activate it to reverse its polarity. During this minor mission, Seekers will continually swarm you. It's really not worth your time to take out anything, so just ignore all the baddies unless they are standing directly in your way (in which case, a simple Timeshift through them works wonders and doesn't slow you down). Once all four switches are tripped, a door on that floor will open to the next area, and only one of your Aurelian buddies will stay behind to fight. The next area is unnecessarily dangerous. You've got a Shock Trooper on the right, and two auto-firing turrets on the left. The crossfire is damn near lethal, and to make it worse, if you hang around too long, more Seekers come into play. The best way through is to enter Time-Damp and forget about fighting. Just sprint across the room to the three doors on the far side and stand in front of any of them. They'll open REAL slow when you're in Time-Damp, but it can't be helped. Now you'll be able to go into the next hall. Three pathetic Seekers are in your way here. Take them out, and head to the far door. Cross the grassy bridge here to enter the small building, which seems to be like a very small radio tower or defense post. Using Lift to whip your enemies off the cliff is, as always, the fastest way to get things done. Once inside the building, take the small lift up, hop over the hole in the floor, then activate the panel. This will realign a laser satellite in space to target the Ancible, destroying it. The game informs you that your next objective is to survive until the Aurelian fleet comes to finish the job. This implies that you'll be attacked, but in reality, all you have to do is hang out inside the building for a minute. A Seeker ship circles the building, but don't worry about it. STORY BREAK The Aurelian fleet arrives to eliminate the last remnants of resistance from the area. Gideon, Enorym, Banath, and the others are in a transport ship celebrating their victory, when one of the minor Aurelians gets a call. The capital of the Aurelian planet has experienced a coup d'etat… wonderful. When Enorym tries to figure out who staged it, Banath stands up and kills the Aurelian who tattled. Gideon doesn't know when to shut up, and challenges Banath when Banath says they will all be handed to the Seekers with apologies of being violent. This results in Banath's bodyguards smacking Gideon from behind, knocking him out. GAME TIME Gideon is weaponless, but was left alone in the capital of the Aurelians. Move forward with Timeshift or Lift on, and kill anyone standing in your way. You'll have to take out roughly a dozen guards before the next door unlocks. In the next hall, you'll have to again whack several guards to proceed. This area is a little more dangerous because it's tight, so remember to just go into Time-Damp if you need to recover health. Take them all out, and go into the Senate Chamber. In there, Enorym is on trial, and the new leaders insist that giving the Seekers anyone who stood against them will be the way to peace. Marin has already been turned over (good!), and they plan on giving up Gideon. Gideon takes this moment to announce his presence, which irritates Banath and everyone else on his side. He challenges Gideon to a fight, but Gideon gets a new power for his troubles. Your new power is Shatter, which is similar in execution to Aeon Pulse, but with a couple better features. First, it tracks your target, although it's like a missile and has a wide turning arc. That means it can't track a target that's moving around like a Mexican jumping bean, but it can nail someone who's merely trying to strafe. Also, it's like a sticky bomb where, after its initial impact, will explode after a very slight delay. Equip Shatter and Timeshift, and do your thing against your enemies. This is a straight-forward fight; just dodge, strafe, attack, back off, attack, and so on until Banath snuffs it. After the fight, Banath tries to explain that he traded in Marin for the good of his people, but Gideon doesn't want to hear it. Enorym still is alive and on your side, though, and he knows where to go. When the game gives you control again, you'll be in a hall where you'll be swarmed yet again by guards. If you can, use Shatter against one or two enemies to start building its level up. If more than that challenge you at once, you may want to use Timeshift or Time-Damp to clear a bit of room. ----------------- 3.7 Chapter 6 ----------------- STORY BREAK Finish off all the enemies in the hall, and a small element of Enorym's allies will join you (albeit after the fight). Proceed through the watery door to get a cutscene. Enorym worries that the guys coming through the door are against him, but they report that Enorym's strategies have paid off. The rebel Aurelians have been pretty much beat down, which is a minor victory. Enorym reminds us all, though, that until the Seekers are completely extinguished, it's not over. Presumably hours later, Gideon is riding along in a ship as Enorym addresses his troops. They are all going to converge on the main base of the Seekers on the planet, which results in a really cool sci-fi version of D-Day. Gideon hops off his ship, ready to fight. GAME TIME The one thing the Allied soldiers of World War II didn't have was Time-Damp, and using it here will make your survival chances almost guaranteed. Run up the beach until you find the elevator next to a large metal structure. It's guarded by about five Seekers, but you'll want their guns anyway, so kill 'em all. Ride the lift up to the next level. Inside this control room is a mess of enemies, and a panel you have to activate. Clear the room and flip the switch, then walk back outside. Don't take the lift back down just yet; first, make sure you have Time-Damp ready as one of your powers. Take the lift down, and immediately activate Time-Damp. Turn right, and you'll see two Shock Troopers opening fire on you. Just past them is the newly opened gates that the switch activated. Under Time-Damp, run past the Shock Troopers and into the gates. Don't bother taking them out. As soon as you're through, you'll get a short cutscene. Afterwards, go through the next set of gates, and follow the water in the canal. You'll come to a fork with a turret pretty much at the intersection. Make sure to take that out first, then take the left of the fork, still following the water. You'll soon see two turrets in the short distance. The nice thing here is that your Shatter power fires from outside the range of the turrets, so you can just sit back and keep throwing ice at them. Destroy them both, then follow the water either left or right (doesn't matter which, they circle to the same area). You'll come to a shooting gallery of turrets and Seekers here. There are no surprises, though, as long as you remember to focus on the turrets first and attack from outside their range. Continue to follow the water, and you'll come to a Shock Trooper. Shatter is powerful enough against it (provided it's at least to Level 3 by now) that you may not need your guns. Past it is a big building with two turrets and a bunch of Seekers. Yet again, this is fairly straight-forward, although the flick-targeting doesn't seem to want to target the turrets from outside their range. You could go into first-person here, or just run forward and risk being shot. Using Time-Damp and Shatter in tandem will work, but will drain power pretty quickly. Destroy the turrets and Seekers, then, climb up the structure to enter it through the large doors. The next bit of combat will be on catwalks. This area is linear, so you won't have trouble finding your way around. Just be careful not to Timeshift too much, else you'll freefall to your demise. Eventually you'll come to a hanger. There's a lift in the back that will take you up to the next part. Now you'll have a surprise: three Shock Troopers. Your Shatter power can take care of them, especially with the help of the other Aurelians up there too. Strafe and fire, strafe and fire, and you'll be able to take them out after a couple intense minutes. When you pass through there, a Seeker ship will get up and close personal with you. In addition to firing missiles, it will drop off about four minor Seekers that are easy enough to take out. The ship is a bit of a problem, but if you've still got guns from the beginning and have some ammo, it won't be an issue. Get through that, and trace your way through the remainder of the catwalks. The path is linear, but you'll have jump here and drop there to get through. Nothing but weaklings are in your way; rip them all new ones, and proceed into the small hanger and then through a door. As Gideon goes through the door, he starts getting lightheaded. This is probably important, but is barely glossed over. When the next door opens to a lush, rocky area populated by a few Seekers, he has more important things to worry about. The few Seekers don't present as much of a challenge as the next part. After hopping up the ledges on the other side and activating a checkpoint, another ship will appear and drop off some Seekers. The ship, its Seekers, and other Seekers in area all have fairly good accuracy and will run your health meter pretty low. You have to continually dodge while shooting or using Shatter. Remember that if your health gets too low, enter Time-Damp and run around until you auto-heal back up. It's messy, and there's no good strategy to deal with it. Dodge and fire, and you'll be okay eventually. Once you're clear, head along the cliff the only way you can. At the top of the next hill is a Shock Trooper and a few more Seekers to deal with, but by now even Shock Troopers should be fairly easy to you. After a cutscene, you'll be in another hanger. Clear the area, then jump in either Seeker Tank. The next area is almost entirely vehicular combat, and it's as fun as anything has been up to now. Floor it, and follow the linear path through the hanger and into the canyon. You'll come to another door eventually… there, hop out and run into the chamber to go to the next area. Now you're in another tight area with many, weak Seekers. Things heat up when you take the next lift, because you'll have to fight a pair of larger Seekers with twin-bladed staves. Simply use your Lift power and keep chucking them into each other and the walls. Pass through that area, and you'll have to pretty much have a vertical fight up through the next room. Things eerily quiet down, even without music. After the next few fights and halls, you'll come to a large dome with lava. Like Mario, Gideon will instantly if he touches. But, so will the Seekers, so Lift comes in handy here. First, you have to cross a retractable bridge to get the central island. Be sure to get inside the transport ship that's over there, or Seekers will constantly spawn from it. Clear the entire island, then look near that ship for a couple rocks that lead to a sparking panel. A bridge should be there, but with the panel destroyed, you'll have to find another way. About halfway between the ship and the broken panel is a set of fallen rocks bridging the lava. You'll have to hop across those, then bear right along the path. You'll find a large door, your next target. A cutscene later, you'll be in a large room with a bunch of weak Seekers. Blast away, then take the rightmost door on the other side of the room to continue. After crossing a glass bridge, you'll come to the cellblock. Take either path flanking the panels, and you'll be told to defeat the cell guards. Your job is eased, because Marin is there helping you with a pistol. They don't get a tender loving reunion, because a giant beast called Skinwalker appears. It snatches Marin in its hand, then hangs around destroying things. Just dodge, don't bother attacking yet because you can't hurt it. When it busts through a wall, follow it, and then you'll be able to engage. This is another gimmick battle, and even though Marin is running around firing a pistol, she does no damage. This fight requires quick switching of your powers and good timing with Lift to survive. Skinwalker is very strong, and basically has two attacks: he'll try to punch you, or he'll pick up a rock as a result of his punch and throw it at you. One single punch probably won't kill you. However, bumping into him will give you a minor amount of damage, and a punch directly after that will kill you. Plus, he'll be constantly chasing you around the "arena" where you have your fight; you'll have to avoid his charge while simultaneously getting out of his punching range. Here's what you have to do. First, put Shatter in one hand and Timeshift (in Time-Damp mode) in the other. Target Skinwalker, then run away from him constantly; that is, force him to chase you. When he catches up, activate Time-Damp, and move out of his way when he punches. Every so often, shoot him in the face with Shatter; it won't cause damage, but it seems to anger him enough to try a vertical punch. When Skinwalker finally busts out a vertical punch, he'll hit the floor (whether or not he hits you too) and will bring down some rocks. He'll grab one large rock, hold it over his head, and prepare to throw it at you. While he's in this state, replace Shatter with Lift, and enter Time-Damp so you're sure to target the rock he's holding. You can't Lift it at all when Skinwalker is holding it, and in fact you can't lift it like a standard object anyway. But, once he throws it, if you quickly hit your Lift power and flick your targeting stick, you can at least "push" the rock one way or another. Your goal is to stand there, and as soon as Skinwalker throws the rock, you "push" it into him with Lift. This will stun him. He'll drop to his knees and flash a dark purple color. Quickly replace Lift with Shatter again, and start throwing all you have at him. After about six solid hits, he'll get back up and repeat. It took me three waves of my attacks to take him down, but my Shatter was up to level 5. If you have a weaker Shatter or you can't get off six hits per attempt, it may take you longer. No matter what, though, Skinwalker is not vulnerable unless he's on his knees and flashing after being smacked by the rock. With Skinwalker dead, Marin and Gideon start to leave. They get a call from Aurelians, who report that seismic activity is rocking the base. Their transmission cuts out, and Marin helpfully suggests they leave via the ships nearby. Run forward and hop across the remains of the bridge. Turn right, and use Shatter to kill the Seekers and Shock Troopers nearby. Then, turn around, and look for a Seeker Tank. Hop in, and get ready to drive. This part is fairly simple, but pretty fun. Turn left and follow the lava as it takes a path through the rocks. If you're going the right way, you'll encounter some resistance. Shoot the crap out of anything that moves, and strafe as you do so to avoid damage. The only really tough parts are when you encounter turrets, as they may fire from outside your flick-targeting range. However, you can fire at them even if you're not locked on, so dance like a butterfly and sting like a laser bomb as you do with anything else. At the end of the "track," the music will fade, and you'll be able to safely hop out the tank. Head up the little ramp, and enter the door. A couple normal Seekers are there, but they're joined by two Shock Troopers and one of those tall Seekers that deflect projectiles. First, dance, dodge, and use Shatter to eliminate the normal Seekers. Then, equip Lift, and throw the tall Seeker around until he dies. Finally, use Shatter again to take out the Shock Troopers. On the other side of the room is a door that leads to the outside. The enemies here have a rocket launcher-type of weapon that may instantly kill you if they land a shot. Keep moving (or use Time-Damp) and throw Shatter at them. You could drop down to continue, but it may not be the best idea. Turn left on the catwalk, and take the lift you see up. Then, turn right and follow the catwalk as it curves left. Take that lift down, and hop into the Seeker Tank. You'll be driving again to get through the narrow canyon. You won't be facing turrets, but there are other tanks you'll have to contend with, and you won't have as much room to strafe. As you near the end, you'll see a tank and two Shock Troopers guarding the cave mouth. Take them all out from a distance, then drive into the cave. Another underground cavern filled with lava awaits. Hop out of your tank and hijack another one here if yours is damaged. Continue along the lava, and take out the tanks as you see them. At one point you'll have to deal with two turrets and a tank. Take out all three targets, and bear right at the split. It's linear from here on out, and there are no surprises until close to the end. You'll pass under three electric generators, then head up a ramp and go into a large metal room that has several large fires going. This room contains a bunch of Seekers and Shock Troopers, and the fighting will get pretty violent. Although I've been advocating strafing and dancing to fight up to now, this room requires the cowboy approach. Drive directly up the ramp into the middle of the room, then fire your lasers constantly at absolutely everything. You'll see bodies go flying, and then fly again as the corpses get caught up in an explosion. It's a cool effect, but be sure to keep your weapons trained on any Shock Troopers that make an appearance. There is a finite number of enemies. When the room is clear, hop out, and the music will fade as before. The closed door in this room is locked, but the wreckage against the wall has a hole large enough to walk through. Head through there and the next empty room, and take out the few enemies there, then walk a few more steps forward. ----------------- 3.8 Epilogue ----------------- With the Seeker base demolished and the Aurelians victoriously heading back to the capital, Enorym stands outside the burning wreckage, waiting. Gideon appears through the fires, surrounded by a spherical shield (the alternate mode of the Negate power). He holds Marin's limp body, but at the moment we don't know if she's alive or dead. At the capital, the Aurelian fleet returns home. Gideon and Enorym get a standing ovation… Walking with them off the giant transport ship is Marin, who seems alright. Later, she stands overlooking the city as she wears a positively intoxicating white dress. Gideon drools on her, but they have no chance for a romantic interlude. Enorym joins them on the balcony, and says that he's heading away from the city to keep an eye on other races, to see if the Seekers are truly the worst of the bunch. After saying his goodbyes, he leaves. Marin and Gideon speak about leaving themselves, and the former demonstrates that she too has discovered the gift of magic or whatever you wish to call it. As her hand glows with pink fire, we see an external view of the planet. A single transport ship is seen flying away, and the credits roll. As the credits conclude, the ship lands on a distant planet. Enorym addresses the galactic senate, and accuses the Seekers of demolishing the human race, a race long perceived to be myth. As the senate debates, Gideon (looking quite scruffy) and Marin walk into the chamber to testify. The senator of the Seekers is indignant, but the speaker of the Senate requests rebuttal testimony before passing judgment. And then, from the entrance comes a demonic human figure with an arid voice. Gideon somehow recognizes this bald, floating chick to be the one and only Olivia! She declares (by thought alone, choosing not to speak) that she is returning from the shadows of power to unite everyone by force to worship her. She will kill anyone who disagrees, and demonstrates her power by throwing Enorym and Gideon across the room. must say, this is a twist. I've played games before where there's stuff to do after the credits roll, but a boss fight? Who the heck saw that one coming? Olivia (or Ethan, depending on who you left behind on the space station) stands majestically at one end of the long senate hall. On the other side, Marin hides behind a pillar and frequently (and pointlessly) throws fire now and then. This fire cannot hurt you, but it doesn't help you either, so don't worry about it. First, some information on Olivia's attacks. He most disrupting is a wave of power that emanates from one side of the room. This one is coming if one side of the hall lights up; if it does, run to the other side. It seems the closer you are to the wall where the wave emanates from, the more damage it does. She normally does this attack if you're standing at a wall, so you may find yourself running from one wall to the other, just to run back to the first one. She won't do this attack more than twice in a row, but try to stay on the central brown stone to keep her from doing it at all. Her second attack is to throw rocks at you using Lift. These are easily avoided, whether by dodging or using Time-Damp. Her third attack isn't really an attack at all, but rather a shield. If you get too close to her (say, within melee range), a force field will hurt you and drive you back. Definitely you'll want to stay away from that one. Her fourth attack is a black ball. This thing hurts, passes through all the obstacles, and tracks you. You can avoid it with Time-Damp, but it will hit you if you try to dodge it with your dodge button. You'll not want to avoid the black sphere, though, as I'll mention in a second. This thing hurts, so try to be careful when you see her ready to throw it. This is a gimmick battle divided into three phases. At the outset, a few Seekers with guns will run around. You'll have to engage them with your powers, because if you whip out a gun, Olivia will use a power to take it from you. Use Shatter, Lift, or Aeon Pulse at your discretion to get rid of the minions. When it's just you and Olivia, target her cute little green eyes, and just stand in the middle of the brown stone. If she tries any attack other than the black sphere, just dance and dodge away. Don't bother counter-attacking, because you can't hurt her. When she readies a black sphere, equip your Lift and Surge powers. When the black ball is unleashed, wait until the ball is about halfway between the two of you, then tap your trigger for Surge. You'll launch the ball back to her, but she'll catch it. She'll then throw it back to you, and you'll have to Surge again. She'll catch it a second time and throw it a third time, so Surge once more. Finally, she'll pull a Jose Canseco and take the ball in the head. She'll stop hovering and fall. A few yellow rocks will come crashing to the floor. Pick the brightest one, lift it, and fling it at her. She won't appreciate that, but it drains her health. Now, the second phase is pretty much the same as the first, with a few more Seekers joining the rave. But now, Olivia has added a new attack. She can use a very large flare to basically ignite the entire room in a firestorm. This will take about 98% of your energy if you let it hit you… not a good idea. Cowardly Marin has the right idea for dealing with it. Olivia advertises that she'll do it when a large, bright, red fireball appears near her. As soon as you see that, run to Marin, and hide behind the pillar beside her. If you are entirely behind the pillar, the firestorm will be blocked. To attack Olivia in the second phase, repeat the triple Surge when she whips out the black ball, then fling a yellow rock at her. The third phase is identical to the second, so you shouldn't have a problem. Olivia taunts Gideon, but Gideon is prepared. In his right hand is a new, unnamed power. Simply use it, and Gideon crushes her. After Olivia dies, a portal is opened and begins to suck in everything around. Gideon is dragged in, and we see Marin weep for the loss. Gideon is not dead, actually, but finds himself shivering in a snowfield. Pieces of the senate hall fall all around him, and he looks around, trying to figure out how to survive. You'll get control here, but don't worry about it. Just stand there and let your health drop. Have faith, my friend. As Gideon stumbles through the snow nears the white "wall" of the area, he collapses from cold. He drops in a heap, but a weird horned creature comes from the light. He looks at Gideon, and says, "Come with me. There is much work to be done." He shields Gideon's head as the light expands, and… To be continued? To be continued??? I want the sequel now. You hear me, Orson Scott Card and Glyphx Games? NOW!!! -------------------------- 4. Cheat Codes -------------------------- All levels and FMV sequences At the main menu, choose the "Play Game" selection. Choose the slot you wish to play, then press Black, White, Black, White, X on the next screen to unlock all levels and FMV sequences. Bonus Boss battle Wait until the credits end to face another Boss in a bonus battle. Cheat Menu Pause the game, then use the D-pad to enter Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, White, Black, X. This must be done again to enable multiple cheats at once. Defeating Ethan When facing Ethan in the bonus battle (if you took Oliva), he will start charging the black ball above his head. Equip the Surge power. When he tosses it, you can knock it back. He will catch it and throw it back three more times. After the third time, it will hit him. He will then fall to the ground and three gold colored rocks will fall from the ceiling. Use Lift to pick them up and throw them. Repeat this about four or five times to kill him. You and Ethan will then get sucked into a warp hole and get dumped in a snowstorm. Your health will drop very quickly. Walk to the top left and a strange figure will find you. Easy kills To get easy kills, max out your Aeon Pulse to level 5. After doing so, switch your Aeon Pulse so that you will be able to do radial flare. Because your pulse is maxed out, it usually kills in one hit. It will also kill most everyone that is in the room you are in. Escape pod choice After you return to the escape pod bay with Olivia, Ethan tells you to take Olivia and run to the escape pod while Olivia tells you to take Ethan. At this point, you may choose either one depending on who you walk towards. If you walk towards Ethan, you take him to the pod and see Olivia get scanned. If you walk towards Olivia, you take her to the pod and see Ethan get scanned. Additionally, at the end of the first chapter, you will choose who gets to come with you on the escape pod. This choice only affects the banter between your character and the one you save. After the credits end, you will play the epilogue, and the person you left behind in the first chapter is who becomes the final Boss in the game. Secret Super Mario Bros. pipe in Chapter 1 After Ethan and Gideon are at the escape pods, Ethan will instruct you to find Olivia. You will eventually reach a large room where you can see ships flying in space when you look up, and people running below. Normally, you would go to the right and follow the balcony to get through this area. Instead, go left, and look at the slanted wall behind you. Jump over it. Behind it is a walkway. Walk to the end of the walkway, then look towards the ledge that looks like it can support you that is in front of you. Jump out towards it, then use Time Shift in mid-air. You should fly and either grab the ledge or land on it. Note: You must enable the "Cheat mode" code to get Time Shift in this part of the game. Once on the other side you can find a pipe that resembles those from Super Mario Bros. Climb into it to warp to a Mario-style cave, where the music also changes to match that of a classic game. Jump across the platforms and reach the end of the cave. Once there you will find three more pipes. Each one of them will warp you ahead to a farther point in the game. The pipe on the left advances to the intermission sequence showing Marin, Giddeon, and Olivia taking off from the planet in Chapter 4. The middle pipe warps you to the top of a building in New Bahn. The pipe on the right warps you to the escape pod intermission sequence. Note: To reach the secret Super Mario Bros. pipe without cheating, you must first find and use six hidden buttons in this level. To find the first button, repeatedly hit the locker in the first room until it disappears. To find the second button, look behind the pillars to the left of where you start in the first room. To find the third button, exit the first room in the direction you entered this level. The button is located near the door with the fire in front of it. To find the fourth button, look behind the left locker in the second escape pod room. The fifth button is found behind the pillars in the second escape pod. The final button is located on a door on the first section of walkway overlooking the large room with people running below and ships flying in space above, as described above. Once the final button is pushed, simply turn around and follow the now open path to the secret pipe. Secret Super Mario Bros. pipe in Chapter 4 Find and use the six hidden buttons in level B of this chapter to get to the secret Super Mario Bros. pipe. To find the first button, when you first start destroy the black object in the wall in front of you. After you pass under a large gun and you will walk into an open area with three more black objects. Destroy the black object in the corner opposite the entrance to the area to find the second button. Then, go up the small ramp and wait until two bridges appear, on one side of another large gun. Use a charged jump from the bridge to reach a platform above the large gun to access a hidden room with the third button. Proceed through the level until reaching an area with three doors that enemies are appearing from. There should be two small doors to the right and a large door under a turret farther back (which leads to a tunnel that contains the fourth button). To find the fifth and sixth button, get to where you must use a switch to create a bridge. Do so and start crossing it. While walking across the bridge, look to the right to find an alcove with two large explosive objects in it. Destroy both of them to find the last two buttons. Note: Use the button closer to the start of the bridge first or the secret pipe will remain locked. After all six buttons are used in order, the locked door at the end of the bridge can be opened, leading to the secret Super Mario Bros. pipe. Use the Timeshift power early Note: You must have at least a level 2 jump. When your stomach is close to facing up in the middle of a front slow-mo dodge, use your melee attack. You will stand and anything that was in front of you will fly forward just as if you used the Timeshift power. You will not go as far as the Timeshift power, but it is just as powerful.