I think I'll take a rain check on finding that control room thingy. Today I'm heading back the way I came!

(6:22) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Normal. Here's my exploration of an old trick. At the start of the level you can reboard the Pelican if you're fast enough (which is easy), and go for a ride. Where to exactly? Watch and see!

Released June 21st 2017, gameplay recorded June 18th-20th 2017.

00:02 (Demo and trip) As soon as I start getting ejected, I hit X and reboard. Never even touched the ground! You can alternatively mash X when about to be ejected, but it's not needed at all; there's plenty of time to react with a single press. I subsequently have a bit of fun attacking the covies, though my aiming range is frustratingly limited.

01:06 Nearing the ejection point, I'm looking across the Pelican and I've got the motion joystick forward already. Then when I'm ejected, I hit X to flip the Pelican, and hope for the best. In this case I gain a footing - yay! And as you then see, the Siege of Madrigal Easter egg is just nearby - which I suspect is no coincidence.

02:16 (Failed dismount) Here's an example of a failed dismount. Didn't quite get a foothold. I think it mainly depends on how the flip goes. Sometimes the Pelican gets in your way and you fall.

02:28 (Early bail to see the Pelican) In these three clips I bail early to try and get a look at the Pelican in the vicinity of the platform, to get a sense of what's going on. The final two clips show it vanishing.

02:57 (Reboarding after touching ground) It's still possible to reboard after you've touched the ground, but only if you're very quick to jump back up (a bounce is best), and if you hit X at just the right time, awkwardly soon after the jump. Reboarding this way is needlessly hard but I thought I'd show it anyway, partly because it bears on the question of whether you can take the other seat. I was never able to do that, despite extensive trying.

03:25 (Flight path observed) This clip gives you a look at the Pelican's flight path, which you may not have paid much attention to before. It curves around and then gets very steep going down the shaft (practically vertical), and scrapes the top two rings. But I also enjoy a bit of fun (really just for the sake of movie entertainment), making the Elite rage at me and fall off the edge like a chump, and also shooting a nearby Grunt to prompt him into throwing a plasma grenade, which I casually sidestep.

04:04 When I subsequently kill the Grunts, the frag I throw was actually meant to be a plasma tag, but apparently I fluffed switching grenades. He still got killed in an amusing way though, so that was ok.

04:18 (Other places?) I tried to reach other places via early bailing, but it seems hopeless. You're travelling too fast and can't survive impacts. Here are a few examples, ending with one where my body settles on the top ring. Two of the clips give you a decent view of how near vertical the Pelican is going.

05:13 (Legendary) The higher the difficulty level, the more annoying the enemy fire is (which is why I settled on using Normal), though you seem to stop taking damage when the Pelican is getting near its maximum height. For contrast, these two clips give you an idea of how murderous things can be on Legendary if you get two reds. My death in the second clip provides a bit of comedy, with a chortling Elite.

05:41 (Aborted ride) I had some fun doing aborted rides, bailing just before the Pelican departs. In this example I give the covies a bit of a run-around, and the raging Elite misses three swipes before dying from a tag, hee hee!

Closing remarks This movie is outside my main flow of movies on the entry chamber, because it takes a different starting point, not involving bringing any other vehicle to the chamber. But because of the link with the Siege of Madrigal Easter egg, I though it made sense to cover this trick after the previous movie. I'd already been planning to cover it sometime.

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