Grunty corridor fun

Posted August 5th 2007

After crossing the first of the twin bridges and tackling the patrolling Elites in the room beyond, there are some supplies including a pistol and rocket launcher, then there's a long narrow corridor. Just as you approach the right turn into the corridor, you trigger Grunts and Jackals and you get a handy checkpoint which is ideal as a save point, not just for having some repeated fun here but also for proceeding on later to have fun in the glorious seventh room. I keep a save for this checkpoint on Legendary, where you get the highest enemy numbers. On Legendary the corridor holds 6 Grunts plus 3 Jackals; on Heroic it's 5 plus 2. Here's some of the fun you can have with them.

Listening

If you wait out of sight, you can enjoy listening to the Grunts as they toddle around, snuffling and snorting intermittently. It's a really excellent spot for listening. Everything's nice and quiet - no music - and the atmosphere is great. It's all so peaceful. Or at least, it is for a while…

Try firing a shot into the air. You'll probably hear a Grunt jump in surprise ("Whoa!"), then hear an exchange of grunty bravado such as one guy saying "Back me up!" and another replying "I'm goin' with ya!". Or another example, "Watch this!" followed by "I'm with you!". All hot air of course; these guys pretty much stay where they are and you can continue to listen from around the corner. If you wait for a minute or so after alerting them with your air shot, you'll probably hear a cute line such as "Where did he go?" or "Can't find him!", two of my favourites.

The Jackals are audible further off and you'll probably hear them do that rising growl of unease they do, as if sensing that something is wrong and the enemy is close. They're not wrong either, heh heh.

Grenade bouncing

While remaining out of sight, try bouncing grenades off the corridor's left side so they land near the Grunts. You'll hear their amusing grenade alert lines crystal clear. "Wha… grenaaade!". Often there's a Grunt down in the sunken track on the left, but you can get him by bouncing a grenade off the first support pillar.

There's scope for making a little challenge out of this. See if you can kill all the Grunts with grenades without ever seeing a single one of them; or at least without getting spotted. Poor dumb critters; those incoming grenades must be quite a mystery! Where are they coming from?

With grenading in mind, try to be fully stocked as you reach the corridor checkpoint. Bear in mind that there are no frags in the nearby supply pile, so you'll need to have saved them from quite a way back.

One by one

Armed with a pistol, see if you can pick off the Grunts one at a time by briefly stepping out, taking a headshot, then stepping coolly back out of sight again. Often you can do this without even getting spotted, as enemies are looking the wrong way or are down in the sunken track to the left. This can get quite funny; the poor Grunts are dropping one by one and the rest of them must be wondering what the heck is going on.

If you have a sniper rifle you could extend things further by using it to get the Jackals one by one in similar fashion (headshots with a pistol would be trickier than with the Grunts due to the distance, but it's not impossible). I like to edge out slowly with the sniper rifle already zoomed. A Jackal comes into view - maybe facing the wrong way to begin with - and eventually he spots you and goes into his pointing routine. Enjoy the amusing animation and let the beaky idiot point; it's going to be his last. Just as he's about to finish, pop a round through his skull. Comical stuff.

A challenge to try: see if you can get everyone while remaining undetected - or at least without taking any fire.

Friendly fire

These covies are idiots and you can have fun dodging around at your end of the corridor trying to make them shoot each other in the back. Plenty of comedy potential there. It's quite hard to make a Grunt take a plasma ball in the back from the Jackals because you're a lot taller than the Grunts; but if you duck down fast after the shot is released, you may be able to engineer it.

One thing I like to do is step out and let myself get spotted, then step back under cover. Some fin-backed fool will probably raise the alarm with a phrase like "There ya are!", and a minor storm of fire is unleashed your way, often accompanied by spiteful cries of "Get him!" or suchlike. Already under cover, you can watch the fire sailing past and listen to enemies taking some of it in the back. These guys don't have much self-control, and in their blind enthusiasm the fire sometimes continues for comically long after you've stepped back out of sight. Like I said - idiots!

Having said that, sometimes an unusually courageous Grunt will actually come right to the end of the corridor where he can get a decent shot at you. Clever little grunty - maybe he suddenly remembered something from combat training. "Lesson 9: Try to have da enemy in sight when shooting." Of course, it's still not going to do him much good, and a few shots will probably send him running off screaming. So much for that plan!

Hide 'n seek

After wiping out all but a single Grunt, have fun using the pillars to hide from him as he toddles around looking for you. He may well end up facing the original corner you approached from, as if waiting for you to appear. A fine opportunity for a bit of mischief I think. Creep up on the grunty nitwit and fire a shot past his ears to give him the fright of his life.

Survival in the open

Here's a pretty good challenge. Step out from cover and oblige yourself to remain there in the open. You can dodge but not hide. See if you can kill the enemies and survive. On Legendary this is good fun with a pistol; you'll need to do some pretty fast shooting to stop the initial storm of fire. Much harder with a plasma weapon.

Suicide

On Legendary in particular, it doesn't take long to get killed if you just stand around. You can have fun just letting the enemy kill you, and hearing their amusing reactions. Mind you, the Grunts are so idiotic that they'll often get killed by a massive chain reaction set off by a mass of their own incoming needles - which is good for a laugh.

More challenges

I've mentioned a few challenges but there are lots of others you can make up. For example, see if you can kill all the Grunts and Jackals by tagging. Or maybe get them one by one with explosive blasts from a needler. See what else you can think of.