Hidden camouflage
Posted March 19th 2011
Early in the level, there's some active camouflage which is so far off your normal path that I don't think I found it for months - or maybe it was years! I think I eventually found it when I was doing a bit of exploring. I'll describe the location.
After fighting your way past a scattering of covies, you come to what appears to be a fallen tree, which you can run along to reach the next area. Imagine you're a short way along the trunk. Face right and you'll see some piping in the hillside. Go up the ridge of ground to the left of that - it's a little awkward - and you can reach a narrow level area. At the end of that is the camouflage, obscured by the undergrowth.
The camo is visible from the trunk, but only faintly. It seems out of keeping with the rest of the game that it's hidden like this, because equipment is generally left in plain sight. Mind you, there's a load of supplies down a hole in the ground near the end of Assault on the Control Room, which I remember took me a while to discover. Also, in The Library there's a shotgun and medkit down a dead end, which I don't think I knew about for years (briefly mentioned here). This camo seems more obviously 'hidden' though, and even getting to it is a bit of a task because you can easily slide off the ridge.
Various uses
Apply the camouflage and you can use it in the next area, where Grunts and Jackals are under attack from some frankly non-existent enemies (you can quickly advance and see that there are no gurgling assailants anywhere!). You'll have enough cloaked time to simply run straight past the covies, or you could use it to give them a nasty surprise or take care of a good number of them by stealth. But remember to have your flashlight off or it'll give you away.
Further uses of the camouflage are described in Shortcut fun, in which you get to approach the earlier covies from above or behind, or be near them as they materialize.
Strange delayed impact effect
While checking things out for this article I noticed something strange. If you fire at the camouflage with an AR, there's a highly delayed impact effect comprising strips of bright pink patterning radiating out. I can't remember seeing that before - but it's not as if I go around shooting camo very often! The delay seems to vary between about 1.6 and 2.1 seconds from when the shot was fired - which is a heck of a delay (I find it very mysterious) - and you can use automatic fire to get a cascade of delayed effects (see pic). There's also a more immediate effect, namely a brief purple flash which quickly follows a shot, but that's not what I'm talking about of course.
I subsequently checked the camouflage on some other levels and it reacted the same way, which is naturally what you'd expect. I also found that you get the same delayed effect with a sniper rifle and shotgun. Those weapons and the AR seem to be the only ones that cause it however. Reminder: on Easy there's a shotgun at the crashed Pelican, if you want to give it a go.