Cyborg versus bouncy barrier. Place your bets folks!

(7:20) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. Still on the theme of the entry chamber, this movie covers about three hours of adventure when I tried out an idea for getting below the bouncy barrier in the shaft. See how things went!

Released April 21st 2017, gameplay recorded March 14th-15th 2017 except for two intro clips at the start.

00:02 (Introduction) This opening footage is just a bit I recorded post-adventure, to remind you of the barrier and set the scene. It harkens back to around 6:49 in BCM223. The barrier - or more specifically the level at which the Banshee rests - is at the height of some ledges. Maybe I can drop from a ledge to an alcove? Trouble is, I go splat on impact!

00:41 (Thought) However, from bridge descents I'm plenty familiar with getting cushioned by things to soften a fall. In this 2015 clip from around 3:38 in BCM136, I get cushioned by a Shade.

00:48 (Shade moving begins) So, if I can get a Shade down to the alcove, maybe it can cushion me enough? Gonna take some work though! To start with I blast one down to the annular plain and then to a ledge in the shaft. It was a bit cavalier going for that second step, but thereafter I got more cautious and started checkpointing, getting a handy delayed checkpoint for making tries at each tricky new phase. The movie doesn't show the checkpoints, or the detail of getting them, but captions indicate the phases - so you can tell where I checkpointed. Usually I got a tunnel checkpoint, after flying to trigger it in a separate Banshee kept on the bridge.

01:17 (Phase 2) Making tries at getting the Shade down further, I eventually got this success (this was about 30 minutes after the preceding footage). In fact, it travels a nice long way, ending up in an alcove below the middle ring. I subsequently move it nearer the edge, ready for the next shunt. I've represented that adjustment work with just a very short clip of the final touch, but actually I was fiddling around for over a minute, including dismounting to try and flip it upright. My first flip didn't work and almost caused it to go off the edge! In retrospect most of this fiddling around was unnecessary, and I didn't need to be so neat.

Incidentally, a few minutes earlier I had a different and even more spectacular success, when the Shade fell all the way to the bottom ring and settled there at a wonky angle! That seemed pretty freakish and I elected to dismount onto the ring and try to board the Shade for fun, but I messed up and it quickly toppled off. Possibly you might see that footage in a 'freakiness and fun' movie some day.

01:34 (Phase 3) Here's how I got it down further, about 10 minutes later. For this phase I inadvertently got my checkpoint while still distant from the Shade, which is why you see me firing from a long way off. After the blast, I corral it down to a ledge. Then after pushing it slightly closer to the corner (not shown - about 20 seconds are cut), I risk a second shunt without checkpointing. That was a bit gung-ho but it pays off. I get the Shade down to an alcove, then fiddle around getting it to the edge.

02:03 (Phase 4) About 13 minutes later, I got it down to a ledge as shown, and pushed it close to the corner, intending the next step to be a shunt into the alcove below.

02:18 (Phase 5) However, I had trouble with that, and it felt easier going for a more distant alcove instead. This was the success I got, about 50 minutes later. However, the Shade didn't settle upright. I wanted it upright for the appropriate cushioning, and also in a suitable place for dropping down to of course. So, some adjustment was needed.

02:26 (Phase 6 - remote adjustment) After checkpointing I quickly achieved a pleasing adjustment using four fuel rod blasts, the final two of which are seen here (the first two were similar to this; I was just blasting it back and forth). This phase was thankfully quite easy. Could've been a right pain!

02:41 (Phase 7 - descent to the Shade) My checkpoint for the descent phase wasn't ideal, partly because I wasn't sure how the descent would go exactly. I got it with the Banshee backed up against the wall, above the Shade. If I recall correctly, I'd been thinking maybe I could then just dismount (onto thin ledging) and drop almost vertically to the Shade. However, that didn't work, so I made attempts from the nearby ledge instead, and happily it wasn't long before I succeeded. This was just after midnight - about two hours since the adventure started. After a spot of Shade fire I go to the edge and eventually drop down, but I die as expected. Looks like my alcove is the end of the line!

04:04 (Rocketing the Banshee down) But then I thought, maybe if I rocket my Banshee into the alcove, I can descend to it then fly to the bottom of the shaft! So that's what i started trying. Happily I got the Banshee and myself down very quickly; barely took a minute! However, as soon as I board the Banshee, I'm violently forced upwards. Apparently that's how the barrier works; the game applies upwards force whenever you're in the Banshee and below the barrier height. Dang! Plan thwarted - and I do some firing in protest.

Incidentally, the rocket launcher is something I fetched at some point after phase 2. I think I may've got it for phase 5, thinking I might rocket the Shade down to the alcove (but I ended up using a fuel rod blast).

05:04 (Trying to resist the force) I thought maybe the force could at least be resisted if I had the Banshee deep in the alcove. I might be able to hold it in check against the alcove roof; or perhaps something interesting would happen. So I tried that a bit. As you can see though, I get forced out.

05:43 (New checkpoint and another try) It was becoming a pain to have to keep getting into position for rocketing the Banshee (which I often had to do multiple times per success), so eventually I got a more convenient checkpoint, ready to rocket it. You see me playing from that checkpoint in this second example of trying to resist the barrier force. Again I've got the Banshee deep in the alcove, but this time it's facing outwards. Still no good though - that force is demonic! Gave up on the resisting after that.

06:21 (Using the force) However, I had an idea for some fun. Namely, using the force to launch me up the shaft! This play was almost right after the preceding footage. I let the Banshee slide out, then I board it late (not wanting to end up clunking the alcove roof) and get boosted. Dismounting in mid-air, I end up on a ledge adjacent to the bottom ring. When I look up I'm surprised not to see the Banshee, but when I look down I catch a glimpse of it disappearing into the mist. Must've been just outside my field of view when I looked up earlier, that's all.

I can't recall for sure, but this may've been my only such launch at the time. I recall feeling that I'd latched onto sometime which could merit a whole new movie, but I put that project aside to pursue later. It's already taking shape now though, so watch out!

Closing remarks My adventure lasted a little over three hours on the night of March 14th, going into the 15th, part way through a period of days when I was working on BCM223, my first movie on the entry chamber. I used the save seen created in that movie.

When I started out with blasting that Shade down, I didn't really have a movie in mind. I was thinking more in terms of some rough exploratory play which might or might not lead to anything; and then if it did, I could record neater play for a tutorial later. However, I recorded my gameplay anyway, just in case anything interesting happened. Even after getting below the barrier though, I wasn't sure if I'd use the footage; and actually I only saved the highlights anyway, because I was low on disc space. There were a few places I wish I'd saved a bit more footage, and in some places my gameplay was a bit messy or inefficient. Now in April however, I realized I could make a decent movie out of what I kept; and by using that footage rather than starting afresh, I could pitch the movie as an adventure, which is nice. Of course, it also doubles as a tutorial, despite a lack of focus on efficiency, and not going into any detail on checkpointing.

With most or all of the phases there were multiple failures, but I kept hardly any footage of those, so that's one reason you saw hardly any in the movie (only a failed descent to the Shade). But even if I had the footage, I think I probably wouldn't have used it much. In the interest of brevity I've done my best to condense the Shade work as much as I reasonably could - subject to still showing the whole journey.

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