BCM580 - Spiral path megabattle, Ghost grab plays

(6:52) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. Same spiral path megabattle save again. In the last movie I used a bail stunt to grab one of the blockade Ghosts, but actually you can grab one in more routine ways, though it's always rather hazardous. Here are three such plays, in which I also have the goal of fighting the whole battle in the Ghost, which takes some care.

Released August 31st 2025, gameplay recorded August 27th 2025.

Commentary

00:02 (Play 1 - Path top defence) Flying the Banshee in low, I bail so it falls just beyond the rightmost Ghost, to hopefully block a lot of covie fire as I board and get clear, speeding off the cliff. A good grab! The Ghost only lost one health bar, so it's in good shape for the battle, and I didn't lose any health. A couple of Elites got splattered, but don't worry, there's plenty left!

The boys and I prevail in the ensuing path top defence, though I'm lucky the Ghost didn't go boom when I sped through some exploding plasmas around 1:29. Bit gung-ho that was!

02:41 (Play 2 - Cloaked grab, path top defence) This time I make use of the active camo, tagging four covies before grabbing the rightmost Ghost. Driving clear, I hear a second wave of death cries behind me, and soon notice a dearth of attacking Elites. Apparently they got decimated. What happened? If you examine the grab footage, you can see that a couple of plasmas fly into mob area, dropped by two Grunts due to my grenade work. In particular, one of the plasmas comes from the second Grunt I tag, and heads close to the location of the final tag. I assume it hence got detonated; maybe the other one too. At any rate, there was a chain reaction. Unintended, but I'll take it! Incidentally, my final throw tagged a Grunt on his shooting arm, but I was actually aiming for an Elite.

With so few Elites to contend with, the fighting near the path top is soon over and we advance, but there's still danger. My Ghost takes a hit from a beleaguered Hunter, almost destroying it. I'm tumbled out, but before my plasma rifle has time to get toasty, the Marine sniper finishes the Hunter.

04:12 (Play 3 - Cloaked grab, path base defence) Again using the camo, I drop the Banshee to the front of the blockade this time, and try to tag it, but miss. Well, never mind. I grab the leftmost Ghost and start to speed off towards the path top, but when I see the dropship Elite I divert, causing him to dive off the cliff edge, with my Ghost following - and he's soon finished off. It was another good grab. The Ghost lost only one health bar, and so did I.

Defending at the path base, things get a little intense as I keep up a barrage of plasma to try and dissuade the covies from advancing too much. The Marines are rather slow to throw any frags, but eventually one comes (5:14), and then another (5:41), both of which provide welcome relief.

A red Grunt gets through at one point. I saw him but elected to stay focused on the path mob, thinking that the Marines would probably take care of him. However, he's still around after the path threat is over, and his plasma grenade takes out one of the two remaining bozos before I zap him. It's just me and the sniper now. Surprisingly, the Ghost still has six health bars left.

In the final phase I do good quick job of taking out the final Elite fast (the needler guy at the tree), and subsequently manage to splatter one of the Hunters. The sniper gets the other Hunter in the back.

Closing remarks I remember having tried to grab one of those Ghosts before, ages ago, and deciding that it wasn't really viable, due to the fire from the mass of covies. Now that I've given it some further attention however, I see that I was mistaken. It's hazardous and you'll certainly die sometimes, but it's doable, with or without the camo. Fun too!

Of course, I could've saved myself a lot of trouble by having provisioned myself with a handy Ghost in the save, but I didn't. In retrospect that's a shortcoming of the save, because fighting in a Ghost is actually rather good fun. Sometime maybe I'll create a new save with such a Ghost.