The mission will have to wait. I'm going down to the ring to explore!

(8:22) Level 10 ('The Maw') on Heroic. Did you know you can descend from the ship at the very start of this level? Check out my off-script adventuring and admire the views in this jam-packed tutorial showing an easy way down (and see also my new article on the topic). I'm using PAL Xbox as ever. Not sure if the method works on NTSC/PC.

Released May 7th 2020, gameplay recorded May 1st-6th 2020.

00:02 (Arrival and failures) To set the scene and begin with some humour, I've used a 12-second bite of the opening cutscene. After showing how you can use the talk-end checkpoint to set yourself up for descent attempts, I give some amusing failures (of which I got through plenty when looking for good ways down). In the final one, some dropped grenades get detonated by the fire! First time that happened I was like "Whoa!" After that I did a lot of takes to get a relatively good one.

01:12 (Easy method) Now here's a demo of the method I found for descending very easily. And then I step out onto the main area to look around.

01:46 (Invisible wall and more) After a spot of fun at the ship wall I point out the invisible side wall, and get some good footage of AR shells bouncing off it, having angled the AR to get them cascading across my view. When I step onto a side slope though, it's too steep and I slide to my death, visiting the bottom corner for the first time in the movie. At the end, you can see my weapons spinning there (there's also a frag).

02:43 (Steepness on the left) Gets too steep over here too. As I slide down to the bottom wall, I throw a plasma at just the right time that I'm travelling at about the same speed, thus keeping pace with it, which is a novel effect. That needs very good timing though. I did a lot of takes to get clips in which I did a good job of that and also got relatively good death footage.

02:59 (Other landings) Other landings are viable, but it's a dodgy business. After two successes, the second of which is especially nice (I'd more often go down to a single health bar when trying that), the third clip shows an example where I'm not immediately killed, but I skim across the main slope so fast that I can't get traction to stop. That's quite a hazard actually.

03:32 (Checkpointing outside) Now here's a demo of how to checkpoint outside, for having fun. Very easy. The clip also introduces the apex of the negotiable ground, a key feature.

04:07 (Sliding shells) Sliding AR shells are fun. The first slide is fairly short, but for the second I start higher up the groove so the slide lasts much longer. You can see them narrow to a concentrated stream. After it shoots over the apex, I give chase and there's a change of tone when I overtake them.

05:04 (Corner grenading) Now three clips of corner grenading, which needs a rather precise throw. What I eventually did, was set myself up with a checkpoint in which I was at the apex and aiming in approximately the right direction. It wasn't quite spot on, but all I had to do was move slightly to the left, and then throw. That made it much easier for me to get good clips (with good death footage). The second clip was produced like that, but the other two were obtained earlier.

05:41 (Rubble fun) Some picturesque rubble, for rubble fans (like me, for example). Lovely stuff. In the second clip the lighting is different and the rubble appears black.

06:21 (Flares) Now three pretty flares set off on various slopes. The side slope in particular is very steep, yet surprisingly still works!

06:46 (Other weapons) After a short clip illustrating getting other weapons from Flood, there are a few clips using such weapons. To get these clips I used various set-ups in which I'd checkpointed outside. With a plasma pistol I make a bit of rubble and do some long-range firing at the ship. With a pistol I get a zoomed view of AR shells cascading off the apex (I fired almost two clips, to get an extra big stream). With a needler I bounce some needles around and watch the last ones expire above.

07:53 (Graffiti) Here's something more intricate you can do with a plasma pistol. Graffiti! It's not easy though. and I did a lot of takes for this (and turned vibration off, which helped I think). Often I wasn't satisfied with the quality of my lettering, and sometimes I didn't even finish in time before the 'M' was starting to fade out.

08:09 (Explosive end) Figured I'd end with a bang. One plasma tags me and the other lands on the slope, at almost the same time. The first kills me, then the other detonates my loose grenades. This is yet another clip I did a load of takes for, to try and get a relatively good one. On many takes the loose grenades scattered too far away to get detonated.

Closing remarks For a topic which was initially only given two sentences at my site (in an old article now replaced), this sure ended up giving me plenty of material to cram into a movie. It was quite a bit of work, especially in view of how many takes I did for some of the clips. Definitely worth it though, and hopefully it did the area justice.

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