Looking Back - Wasteland

     1988 was a pretty good year for computer games.  Especially for fans of RPGs.  Back then, I had an Apple //c, and while the following years may have seen a serious decline as the games industry backed off of 8-bit machines, 1988 was a good high-water mark.   There was Ultima V from Origin, Pool of Radiance from SSI, Battletech from Infocom, Bards Tale III from Interplay, and, of course Wasteland, also from Interplay.

     I had received Wasteland for my 14th birthday, and it instantly turned out to be one of my all time favorites, even today.  I had always been a fan of RPGs, but there was an issue I always had with them. I was always some guy with a sword, some guy who cast spells, etc.  I was sick of the dungeons, of the dragons.  Been there, done that.  Wasteland changed that.  It was set in the post-apocalyptic future, something that was mostly new at the time.  It had guns, grenades, rocket launchers, and if you died, you stayed that way.  The gameplay took the best elements of other games, with the top-down movement view of Ultima, and the simplistic combat setup of games like Wizardry.  It was, simply put, fucking awesome.  (It also helped to pique the interest of any 14 year male that the game came with a "PG-13" sticker on the box.)

My original box, booklets, disks, characters, and cluebook.

     Wasteland came out in 1988 for the Apple 2 series, Commodore 64/128, and the PC.  It was designed by Brian Fargo, Alan Pavlish, Ken St. Andre, and Michael Stackpole of Interplay, and published by Electronic Arts.  The game came out to shining praise from magazines such as Dragon, and Computer Gaming World, where it received game of the year.  It actually still gets praise from modern gaming sources even today.

From left to right, Apple 2, C64, and PC versions.

     The game featured a lot of things that were either totally new or rare in use at the time.  It was the first CRPG that allowed you to split up your party in order to get tasks done.  It also used an unusual type of copy protection in the form of "paragraphs"- a booklet that came with the game that you were instructed to read at certain points containing important descriptions and needed passwords.  It also had several bogus paragraph entries to throw off any player who decided to read ahead in hopes of spoilers.  It also had a nifty utility that allowed you to restart your game using the same characters, resetting everything but your stats.  I honestly can't tell you how many times I've replayed this.

     Set in the southwestern US, the plot of the game starts out simple - you're the "Desert Rangers", a group that's pretty much what's left of the military/police of the "old days".  Your mission is the old "go see whats happening because something's up" routine.  You progress through small towns and villages, eventually landing in what's left of Las Vegas.  It's there that you start to find out that something much, much bigger is happening out in the desert.  Crazy robots are showing up, and nobody seems to know what the deal is.

A small sample of the many individuals eager to "air you out".

     After Las Vegas, the game gets crazier.  Secret bases, a compound of religious cultists, a mad individual playing with genetics, it all comes together in a crazy final sequence that, at the time, was seriously awesome.

     As I said, I had played the game on an Apple //c.  Back then, most apple users were losing their eyesight quickly staring at green monochrome screens.  Despite this, even today, I can still bust this game out and play it from start to finish on AppleWin.  It's actually one of the only RPGs I can play, finish, and then play again.  Even better, using a cool program called ADTPro and an actual Apple //e that I acquired off Craigslist, I am able to play with the same characters I created 25 years ago.

At 14, this sight was boner-inducing.

      Just like every RPG back then, it left a lot to the imagination.  It's a good or bad thing depending on where your preferences lie.  True, It's no Skyrim, but I feel that it's every bit as fun, though, this is probably because I'm still seeing the game with eyes "from the time".  I still remember doing lots of dumb random crap, like -

• Throwing myself into the river just to raise the swim skill of all my guys, even though it pretty much knocked everyone unconscious.
• Using a howitzer in one of the towns (Needles) and blowing up a hot dog stand.
• Staging a casino massacre in Las Vegas.
• A showdown with the Red Ryder.
• Wishing I could drive the Regan M3 Tank
• Leaving Danny Citrine or Christine in Base Cochise just to see the cool picture.  Also because I hated them.
• Killing Christine for firing single-shot at death machines, but then going full-auto, wasting ammo, on rats.

      It was also possible to just redo certain areas without totally resetting the story.  For example, by just recopying side 3 on the Apple 2, I could reset the Guardians Citadel.  This would allow me to do things I otherwise could not accomplish in one playthrough, such as getting multiple Ion Beamers, or equipping the entire party with Proton Axes.

Fallout -

     The game directly served as sole inspiration for the Fallout universe, which was also made by several members of the Wasteland team.  In Fallout: New Vegas, the Desert Rangers actually make an appearance, as well as other references to Wasteland.

Wasteland 2 -

     Recently Brian Fargo, now with InXile, launched a kickstarter fund for Wasteland 2.  It turns out I'm not alone in my love for the title, as it met its $900,000 goal in less than 2 days.  At the close of the kickstarter campaign, it ended up raising $2,933,252.

     The new sequel will be a direct follow up to the original, and even better, it's being made by the original 4 former Interplay members who created the original.  You can find out more on that here.

     So, in closing, Wasteland = good.  That's all I got.  If you're a fan of older RPG's there's not a better one I can recommend.  If you're a fan of the PC, DOSBox will help you out.  For the Apple 2, AppleWin is the best bet. For the C64, I recommend WinVICE.

Hahaha!

HuckleCat

Metal Max Returns (Final)

     Finally!

     After beating who I thought was the games "main boss", and then having nothing really happen, my only thought then was that I probably had to wipe out all of the games "bounty bosses".  Only then would I get some sense of closure, or so I figured.  I made my way back to Santa Poco and resupplied and prepared myself for another duel with Rodriquez.

That's right.

     This time I had the guy beat pretty easily.  My soldier ended up taking him out in like 4 rounds, with not much damage at all done to her.  I then sat back and prepared myself for some sort of cutscene or story twist or...  something.   But, nothing. Nothing happened at all.  I checked my main characters stats and I had all the badges for killing all the bounty guys.  I went to a few towns and talked to several NPCs and none of them really had anything to say about it.

     It had to be that last building beyond Hell's Gate.  I made my way up there.

     I was repeatedly blasted with mortar fire upon approaching it, and from the looks of the building itself, I guessed that it had to have an important role.  I had to enter on foot, as the front gate was closed behind a beam fence.  Inside were several computers and they all demanded an ID card.  After searching a few floors I found it, as well as some codes.  I kept looking for more codes... you know, 4 computers..  they'd probably need 4 codes.  On the roof were all the mortar cannons.  You're actually able to push them off the roof to prevent more fire later.

     Once I had all the codes I went back downstairs and played a ton of trial and error, trying to match the codes with the right computers.  Once that was dealt with I was allowed into a room where I found a 3rd lens!  This had to be all of them.  I think.  I was also able to open the front door, and disable the laser fencing.  There was also another lift going down that I activated, but I wanted to see about the lenses with that doctor guy north of Canabelle first.  (Also to resupply the tanks)

    

Bitchin!

     Turns out it was a good call.  Not only did I have the lenses, but it made a sweet weapon as well.  If there was going to be a final boss, this was likely going to help a ton.  The doctor guy allowed me to arrange the lenses in my own order, and I assume that the end result would vary depending on how I chose, but hey, whatever, I'll try it out and come back if it sucked.

     I made my way back to the building and then down a very long elevator ride into the basement level.   As usual, I was attacked an unreasonable amount of times.  The map was easy to deal with, but there were these weird sand whirlpool-type things in some rooms.  I figured it was best I stayed away from them.  Before going down another level, I was attacked by some guardian sentries.  After that it was a matter of unlocking a few more doors (on foot) and then being confronted by this guy:

     It was some sort of crazy big-ass artificial intelligence that went on about how mankind was an enemy of the earth, and to save the earth it had to kill off mankind.  Sort of like Skynet in the Terminator movies, but with an environmental angle.  It asked if I intended to destroy it.  Instantly I said yes.  I was then attacked by series of 3 "cyber walls", each one being pretty easy to kill.  After that, more talk and questions on if I still intended to destroy it.  This time I had to fight 3 robotic statue guys, and they were equally as easy to deal with as the walls.  After that the combat field panned to the left, and then shit got real.

   
     If the game had a final boss fight, this had to be it.  Had to be.  He was kind of tough, and you really have to fight him twice.  The first go round, he was easily dealt with, but the second time he almost totally destroyed my tanks.  Still, I managed to beat him, and then was presented with a cutscene that I won't talk about for spoilers sake.

     After all that though, I just basically appeared by my tanks, ready to go outside.  Still, nothing seemed to happen.

     Was that it?  There were no credits.  No story resolution.  I bummed around for a bit, thinking about what it could be, but then I remembered the beginning.   In the start, your dad kicks you out, but, you can still talk to him.  He'll fix your tanks for free, and also teach you more about repairing.

     He also asks if you want to come home.  So, I tried that out, and that's what did it.  I got the game's close, and had formally finished the game.  I got a talk from him, and the credits rolled.

What I liked: I liked the somewhat new setting (for a SNES JRPG anyway) that it had.  I liked the open endedness of the world.  The art and monsters were varied and cool, and the setup of the characters and tanks was fresh.  I wish there were more games back then like this.  I'm surprised that this game and its sequels (except Metal Saga) haven't gotten a western release.  It was also pretty big, and it made exploration fun.

What I did not like:  The story.  There really wasn't one.  You pretty much had to figure it out.  Mostly the game was all about leveling up and killing off a series of monsters to collect a bounty, but every once in a while I'd be hit with a half story that I just did not care about.  The one NPC, the "Red Wolf" guy, the game made it seem early on that he'd likely be a big deal.  He wasn't.  Halfway through he gets killed by someone else.  Then there was also the main boss "Noah" that seemed to come out of nowhere at the end.  It just seemed so tacked on.  Things like that sort of detracted from the game.
     I also was not a big fan of how often I got attacked.  Sometimes it got so tedious that I found myself fleeing from because it was just such a chore.


     Overall it was good though, and I'd recommend it to anyone that's a fan of JRPGs.

HuckleCat

Metal Max Returns (Part 8)

     Getting closer to the end I think, making good progress.

     Last off, I had discovered a burnt out building after putting out a very large forest fire.  It was near the beginning town so after a quick resupply I made my way in.  As usual, I found myself getting attacked like every 10 seconds once inside, and to make it worse, it was all low-level enemies.  I hate when I feel I have to constantly stop in RPGs to do the equivalent of swatting at gnats.  It just takes you out of it.

     The building wasn't very big, did have some cool tank weapons to sell off, and and I was also able to find another lens, this time a "camera lens".  This makes 2 that I have, and I'm still hoping that I did not miss another, I'm pretty curious what the scientist guy north of Canabelle will make with them.  There was also another "boss guy", who looked a lot like one of the Banana Splits..

     His name was "Salmonella HQ", not leader or anything like that, but this guy was the actual headquarters itself, or so he claimed.  He was pretty easy, as I'm finding almost anything is when dealing with them from inside the tanks.  This makes only 2 main bosses left.

     I left and went back to town.  I had discovered that the cave that used to hold the Salmonella Gang was now transformed into a trader camp, and was able to get all my tanks the best engine, allowing the max armor for each.  That helped a lot.  I got my shit together and made my way to Hell's Gate.

Hell's Gate

     I sort of expected things to get crazy difficult once I passed through the fence, but it just didn't really happen.  The main resistance was in opening the gate, and being attacked by robot police. Even they weren't that tough.  Once through, it was mostly desert, with a building in the middle, and a cave to the northwest.  I figured I'd deal with the cave first, assuming the middle building would basically be the end game.

     It turns out that the cave actually was not as insignificant as I thought.  I wasn't being attacked by random enemies any more, it was all dogs with rocket launchers that were static NPCs.  They were all triggered.  Deeper into the cave I had to set out on foot, and that's where I found the "main" bad guy, "Bad Valdez", surrounded by wolves, and on a throne.  He was assuming that I was the Red Wolf guy who was the previous owner of the red tank that I now had.  I insisted that I wasn't him, but he just wasn't having it, and then uh, you know, he sent one of his butler wolves to bring some lady out?

Here she is, sir!

     She came out and laughed at the guy and then I had to fight him.  I figured I'd be facing a quick death here.  My guys were sort of injured, and I just wasn't expecting to find this guy.  I was starting to think that this was the end of the game, or at least the "final boss".

     In any case, the fight went on for a bit, and he did not do nearly as much damage as I thought he'd do.  In fact, the guitar guy Rodriguez was way more powerful.  I was able to beat him after awhile with no casualties on my side at all, and I was pretty surprised.  Afterwards I got to see a short scripted sequence that I won't go into here for spoilers sake, and ended up back outside.

See that flying boxing glove? That's my soldiers attack..

     I went back to a town and resupplied, etc.  At this point the only "bounty boss" I have left to fight is Rodriguez, the guitar guy.  I also have to see what the deal is with the building north of Hell's Gate, but I have to figure that I'm pretty close to wrapping this up...

HuckleCat

Metal Max Returns (Part 7)

     I still haven't finished it, but I did get further.  Once again, I had to take an extended break to be Dad.  That's pretty much how it's going to be for me every other week.

     Anyway...

     Where was I?  Oh yeah, Eden.  A town south of Sol over some mountains that's made up of railroad cars and abandoned track.  Really not much to see here, just resupply, etc.  I thought there would be more to it, but no.  (It reminded me of a Nomad Camp from the game Wasteland.  In fact, a lot of this game has elements that remind me of Wasteland.)

     To the south was another tunnel in which I found some more useful stuff (I think) and also this guy:

     Once again, in tanks against an armored foe + piercing shells = easy win.  No much of a problem.  The whole tunnel system was sort of easy and linear, and opened up on the other side to a large radio tower on a small island.

     The radio tower was kind of cool.  It seemed like a diversion away from the endless enemy encounters, featuring things like a robot that offered for you to play some sort of game to win a prize, jukeboxes that you could use to change the music, and one floor of  the tower had a series of automated wax celebrity exhibits.  Yes, seriously.

A famous gymnast..

Also -

Michael Jackson, with Romeo and Juliet in the background.

     To get to the top floor I had to figure out some sort of puzzle that involved pushing a lady in front of a wax Dracula, and rescuing a wax Marilyn Monroe for some guy who was squatting in a back room.  C'mon dude, she's wax.

     On the top floor were several elderly people that had walled themselves off from the world and asked simple things concerning life outside the tower.  I also managed to get access to a large laser system that I'm guessing is launched from a satellite.  It was added to my PDA computer-thing, I have no idea how to use it, every time I try it tells me I can't use it wherever I am.  Still sounds cool though.

     I went back to the desert area, hoping to find more of the slow walker turtle guys, and discovered a building to the east walled off in trees, forcing me to enter on foot.  It was like an abandoned factory with several conveyor belts, one of which dropped me several floors down through a chute.  (The game seems to have no falling damage.)  At the bottom, I got attacked by this guy:

     I'm guessing that I was supposed to find this guy earlier on, as I rocked his ass.  Two of my guys were equipped with Bazookas, and the soldier girl was equipped with some ridiculous pair of rocket-propelled boxing gloves.  He was done in a few rounds.  I explored my way back out, found a few more cool things, and went back to the tanks.

     Completely forgetting that I now had the code to open Hell's Gate, I hit up Canabelle next, the town surrounded by water, and bothered all the townsfolk hoping to get a better picture of the buildings to the north.  Someone did tell me that there was another tank up there somewhere, but the real talk of the town was that some kid named Henry sure did like to set fires.  Also, some other kid sure liked to beat him up.  Whatever, dude.  I wanted that tank.

     The buildings to the north were a pain in the ass.  (Or rather, one was.  There are 2 buildings, one of which was walled off.)  I was getting attacked like every 10 seconds and it just became super tedious, I found myself running from more than half the shit due to not wanting to be bothered.  I was able to find sleeping zombie soldiers, and some cool new armor, some kind of tomato gun for the tanks, and, oh yeah, another tank.  It took awhile to find it, and since I had to find it on foot, I had to juggle tanks to be able to get them all back to town.  (I have a tank in tow at all times.  See, the tanks have a computer system that you can turn on to have them assist when unmanned.  In this case I have a backup tank with an "ambush" system activated, and it helps in combat.  It's also helpful for carrying heavy tank equipment that you find.)

The white tank is the new one

      There was an exit just past where I found the new tank that led to the second building.  Inside was a robot, and a scientist guy that offered to make me some kind of weapon if I brought him some lenses.  I hope I did not pass any, I did find one, but that was a while back..  Shit.

     Meanwhile, back in Canabelle, all hell was breaking loose.  Several people were standing about, looking to the east.  While I was away, the forest was set on fire.  The pyro kid Henry claimed it wasn't him, but the bully kid wasn't having it, vowing to beat him up.  I went to investigate, and sure enough...

     I was able to put the fire out by using something called a "hydro pot".  Some sort of device that shoots into the air and makes it rain.  Removing the forest here made a clear path to the beginning city, and also uncovered another warehouse.

     And that's where I took a break.  I sure hope I'm reaching the end soon.  The stats for my character seem to indicate that I only have 3 more "boss guys" to kill.  I know one of them is that guy with the guitar.  We'll see.

HuckleCat

Metal Max Returns (Part 6)

     After taking a long break, longer than I hoped, I finally got back to this.  Last off I had killed the leader of a gang of 50's greasers only to find out that he was actually not the leader.  Instead of making a beeline for the guy I pretty much used the time to just explore the game more, and to grind up and improve my tanks.

     North of Sol I found a hidden trader camp which had some good tank parts, and south of Sol I found a subway ruin which also yielded some better parts.  Going back towards the west, the map was divided by a large canyon which stretched south, making a narrow path.  Each time the path branched out, it led to another town.  A branch off to the east leading to a town made of trains called Eden, and following it to the west led to the hideout of "Gomez" who was the main boss of the greaser gang.  I passed it and headed north and found another town, Santa Poco, which was good stuff for the tanks.

Sol

     Evidently, if you leave your tanks unattended for too long, they get debris on them in the form of either lead mushrooms, or the worlds heaviest bird shit.  This extra weight on the tanks will decrease the amount of armor you can have, as well as on-board tools.  Santa Poco has the only tank washing center in the whole game, so it helped out a lot.  I found myself sort of curious as to why they only included one wash station what with it being kind of important, but oh well.

     The biggest help though, came north of Santa Poco, in the desert.  As with all areas in the game, you deal with random enemies, and it was here that I started to run into these large turtle-like guys with huge cannons.  They were not that hard to beat, and each one gave up just over 15,000 experience points and just over 10,000 gold.  It also helped that they traveled in groups.  I'm not sure if this was a glitch in the game from the start, or something that was accidentally changed during it's translation, but I took full advantage of it.  It wasn't long that I was able to deck out my tanks with the best shit I could find, and went to go deal with Gomez.

     The greaser base was already attacked when I got there.  There were dead bodies all about, and some guy going on about the "Lone Wolf" beating them all up.  The Lone Wolf was the guy from the beginning who helped me beat the first boss, (the dog with the rocket launcher), and got me my first tank.  He was here, in one of the buildings, dealing with Gomez himself.  I thought at first that he'd probably kill him, give me condescending advice, and then leave.  Instead I was greeted by sort of a cutscene with Red Wolf and Gomez talking it out.  Gomez had coaxed Red Wolf out of his big red tank by producing some lady that must have been part of Red Wolfs past. I found myself bored with the games attempt to all-of-the-sudden give me some background on Red Wolf.  I just did not care.  It turned out to be a trick, with the woman being nobody, and Gomez attacking Red Wolf from his tank.  Red Wolf sure is dumb, and was killed pretty quickly.  I wasn't expecting that.  I sort of figured on having to fight Red Wolf myself in some sort of escalating endgame.

     In any case, I then confronted Gomez, and beat him pretty quickly.  You have to fight him in his tank, and then again on foot, from your tanks.  I could tell it was a good idea to level up before this fight, as he did do some crazy damage, but at this point it just wasn't a problem. Afterwards, Red Wolf give you his tank with his last dying breath.  Bitchin!

     I towed the new tank back to Santa Poco and transferred stuff about, and now I had 3 kickass tanks to continue exploring with.

     North of Santa Poco was a large fence with robot policemen called "Hell's Gate".  I needed a combination of some sort to get past this.  To the west of that was another town, "Hell's Gate West".  To t he far south, down the west side, I found a town that was surrounded by water called "Canabelle", it had some pretty good stuff, and another fenced off area north of that.

     The desert area held more bad guys.  While looking for more of those turtles with deep pockets, I came across the ghost of the infamous German general Rommel..

     And also this guy, hanging out in a small building area called "run-down oasis"

     Rommel's Ghost was pretty easy.  As I previously discovered, when fighting armored bosses from the tank, always start off barraging them with piercing shells.  After 2 rounds I was able to completely pacify Rommel, and was able to just blast him till he died.  With Rodriguez I was not so lucky.  First off, I had to fight him on foot, and second, only one of your guys can fight him.  He did insane damage and killed my best fighter in 2 rounds.  I'll have to find better gear and deal with him later.

     When I was done exploring, I went back to Sol hoping to further along any kind of story that I had been neglecting.   In town you actually find another vehicle, an APC, but to get it you have to kill some monster that the townsfolk are all going on about in the sewers.  I dealt with that pretty quickly.  The sewers were not that big, and the giant crocodile that I had to fight was taken out in a few rounds due to being a bit overpowered for this area.  The APC was sort of useless considering the tanks that I had at my disposal, but I still added it to my collection.

My collection so far

     Also in town, just to the north, was a large building that I could not access, at least not from outside.  I had to enter it by going south of town to the ruined subway and gain access through there.  The building was a horrible maze of ladders and elevators.  Tons of them.  This took me way way too long.  The building had like 80 floors, and to make things worse, the floors split into two towers halfway up.  I did fight some other boss "Zeppelin" on the way, but with the tanks he was very easy.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, you can only use the tanks for like the first 15 levels of the building.
     Once you get to the top, you're rewarded with a combination to open the fence at "Hell's Gate".   That's good, I guess.

     I made my way to the train town Eden afterwards.  It has a tunnel to the south of it, and I'm pretty sure I have to deal with something in that area before I head to Hell's Gate.  I'll get to that later...

HuckleCat

Backlog Blowout #2 - Metal Max Returns (Part 5)

     It's been awhile, sort of a long weekend with my daughter, and also shaking off somewhat of a cold.  I did get time here and there to play the game, it's sort of taking much longer than I had thought, and the game is a little bigger than I had anticipated.  That's not a bad thing though.

     Last I left off, I was grinding to deal with a guy named Mad Muscle.  Taking my sweet ass time and going in circles around Freeza paid off pretty quickly, and I was able to get better weapons and level up with ease.  After picking up a few flamethrowers and getting better armor all around I went back and paid Mad Muscle a visit and this time was able to kill him in only a few rounds.  Once he was dealt with I was rewarded with my very own ambulance!  At first it seemed like a light car, and I just envisioned a minivan, but it was actually better than the army buggy, to my surprise.

That's right.

     Back to Freeza, I had more to deal with.  See, the town of Freeza is a set of buildings with the main one being in the middle of a frozen lake.  The biggest pain of it though, is that once you step onto the ice, you and your vehicle spin out of control, causing you to slide forward till you hit an obstacle.  It makes getting from shop to shop sort of an irritating puzzle, just not one that's of any real challenge, which made me question why they bothered with that setup at all.
     Talking with several of the NPCs about town I learned that: A- Some guy and his wife ran off with everyone's explosives, and B- Under the town is a monster.  Some guy was going to have to wait, and I was off to the lower reaches of the main building to find said monster.  Lucky for me, there was an elevator which allowed me to take my tanks downstairs, and I prepared myself for what I figured to be an easy fight.  Searching about there, I found what appeared to be an elephant in the ice.

Tarkus?

     It actually was a pretty easy fight.  I ran back and got my bounty cash and upgraded the tanks some more.  (The tanks really are fun to deal with)

     More exploring, more fighting loads of things.  Loads of things.  It's actually something in the game that I'm not liking so much.  I do realize that it's necessary, but it just gets to tedious at times.  I know I have to level up, and I need the constant flow of money, it just seems that I cant walk 10 feet without being harassed by something.  I was able to find a few more interesting things.  To the southwest of Freeza was an abandoned subway tunnel, and I was able to find some sort of "auto-escape" thing for my characters computer.  I have no idea what it does.  To the northeast I found a series of desert passages with a cave and a supply station.  The NPCs at both locations both went on about a tank in a nearby cave, and that I needed a metal detector (which I had) to find it.  It wasn't that far and I was able to find a new tank, an engine, and a tank computer without much hassle.

Towing the new tank

      When you find a new vehicle, and everyone in the party already has a vehicle, you get the option of actually towing the 4th vechicle.  This allows you to get back to a town where you can drop off a vehicle for later, and outfit the new one.  Pretty cool how they did that.
     After taking care of the new tank, and dealing with the engine and weapons and hauling weight, I went back to the dunes for more exploring and accidentally came across the next "boss".

Volkswagon got sick of the girl-car stereotype

     Beetla was also a very easy boss.  A few piercing shells and he wasn't able to attack me, save for flashing his high-beams at me (seriously).  I'm starting to wonder if I have taken the grind thing to the extreme, as the last 2 bosses were now much easier than both Mad Muscle and Dr Rafflesia.  I'm thinking it's got to be the tanks that making the difference, which would make sense.

     Further to the north of where Beetle was at stood a skyscraper.  I wasn't able to take my tank inside, so I figured the next boss fight would be on foot, and be harder.
     The building had about 21 floors to it, and I did way too much exploring.  There was a girl there who kept insisting that I was there to kill her, but gave that up once I chased her down and found that the game would not allow me to kill her.  It turns out that she was the wife or now daughter (?) of the guy that ran off with all of Freezas' beloved explosives, and that the guy was on the roof.  She also wanted me to help him.  Fair enough.
     Once on the roof, he explained to me that his plan was to use the explosives to blow up the building and cause it to fall to the west, creating a bridge to the next island over. (Made sense, actually)  He said that he needed my help, but all I really did was follow him about.  He told me to go park my tanks outside so they would not get destroyed, and to come back when I was done.  Ok, fine, did that.  I was then greeted with a small cutscene of sorts of the man blowing up the building, die-hard style.

I'm sure nobody was inside.

     Nice.

     After taking the new "bridge" west I immediately ran into the town of Il Migra.  I had collected a large amount of cash from the bounties, and also remembered a building to the east of Audry town where some guy was trying to sell an Abrams tank.  I also discovered that between Il Migra and the building that I just watched blow up was the next "boss".   He had to be easier once I had 3 tanks.  Turns out I was right.  After haggling with the tank salesman over a price, I was pleasantly surprised by its crazy powerful cannon and heavy duty engine.  I went back to Il Migra and just began bouncing back and forth between the town and the "bridge", and realized I had forgotten to stop towing the new tank and drive it.  Then I was attacked by a horn section.

Yes, horn section.

     Once again, easy "boss".

     The game seems to have 2 kinds of bosses.  There's the major ones, that have bounties attached to them, and there are minor ones, that are just parts to small snippets of stories that are parts of different areas.  For example, south of Il Migra is another town, (Junta?), and it has been overrun with bandits that all look like The Fonz.  They also have special attacks like whistling you a tune, and blowing you kisses. (Yes, seriously)   Next to the town is a ferry that will take you to yet another island, but to do so you first have to fight the leader of the Fonz Army..

How the hell is Fonz getting in that?

     If you kill the Fonz, the APC spits out another, clown-car style.  So I had to focus on the Pink APC.  Once again, easy work, especially since piercing shells seem to castrate any armored vehicle.

     And that's where I'm at now.  Killing Boss Fonz allowed me to take the ferry to yet another island, and to the east of the where I was dropped off, was a city called Sol.  I saved my game, and took another break.

HuckleCat

Backlog Blowout #2 - Metal Max Returns (Part 4)

     Grind, grind, grind.

     After yesterdays triumph over Dr. Rafflesia, all I really could do was just explore, which is ok.  To the north of Audrey was another town, Rocco, and to the east was a series of small buildings on some man-made overlooks on the coast.  In one of the buildings I found an NPC who sent me to another room where I had to deal with this:

Wait, what?

     He was actually pretty tough, killing one of my other guys, but after beating him and going back to the NPC, he coughed up a key to the next room over.  Inside I found a device that would unlock locked doors, so that was helpful.

     After that, more exploring.  Just west of Rocco was another hidden camp of vendors with more upgrades for my tank, and to the north of there was an old hospital.  People in Rocco had warned me of the hospital, but I had forgotten why.  Inside was another NPC who kept running away from me, I didn't really register that this was not a good thing, as he eventually stopped and confronted me.

This cant be good...

     It was Mad Muscle, the next monster bounty (In other words "Boss") that I had to deal with.  This guy was pretty damn tough.  Each hit seemed to drain about half the hit points from anyone he hit, and he got 2 hits per attack.  To make matters worse, if you hit him, he fell back into an ambulance where you could not hit him, and healed himself.  After two of my party members got killed I was all like "screw that" and fled.

Just before my ass beating.

     SO, right now I'm just exploring more and trying to level up.  Getting better gear and whatnot to be able to fight this guy without getting trounced.  To the northeast of Rocco on a beach was a cave that is only accessible sometimes (when the tide is out), and from there you can get to another island that's to the north.  There I found another camp, and another town to the north called Freeza.

     Hopefully over the weekend I'll have more time to explore further and deal with Mad Muscle.

HuckleCat

Backlog Blowout #2 - Metal Max Returns (Part 3)

     Dr. Rafflesia is a serious douche.

     Ever play a game where something will come up that's just unusually difficult, to the point where you actually feel as if the game itself is, well, cheating?  It makes no sense, a machine has little reason to do so, but you still feel as if that's the case?  That's where I was at with Dr. Rafflesia.

That's the doctor.

     First off, you have to fight him on foot.  He's located in a bog that your vehicles cannot access.  He's also not in the same place, so you have to randomly bounce about to find the guy.  Second, hes got this ridiculous gas attack, and once you've fallen asleep from it, which is right away, it's open season for him on your sleeping body.  I did have towel items that I was able to use before his attacks that made my team "ready" for the gas, but it did no good, and I died.

     Death is actually pretty forgiving.  What happens is you end up back in the first village, with your father bringing you to some mad scientist guy who shocks you back to life.  That's it.  I didn't seem to lose any money, items, or experience.  That's all good with me.

     After I got my shit back together, I decided to go and try leveling up some more.  Exploring further northeast of where the Dr. was brought me to a field where I was under mortar fire.  Beyond that was a land bridge of sorts where there were 2 big-ass cannons.

Big

      You can load out your tank with "special" shells that will help you with this type of enemy.  Some are blast, poisonous, or in my case, piercing.  That helped out a ton, the piercing shells seem to damage the internal parts of mechanical enemies, causing the cannon to miss many attacks.  This worked out great.  After taking the first one out, I "dogged" back to Pobre Obre and restocked and repaired my tanks and went back for the second.  Why were these easier than Dr. Rafflesia?

     More exploring, winding past where the guns were, and past some cottage of old people that gave me shit about taking out the cannons.  I found another camp called Isaac's Spring, but the people there would not let me in, and suggested that I go north to another town.
    
     Taking the hint, I followed the direction to a place called Audrey, which was made up of 3 buildings.  There I found loads of tank shops, with one allowing me to modify the parts that I had, such as the on-board computer system.

Nice

     I also found a bar that was filled with thugs.  It seems that the town was being run by a crimelord type of dude named Caesar, and he has henchmen running all over.  Also at the bar was a girl who asked me to buy her a drink.  What the hell.  Sure.  At that point she got up and started mocking the thugs, and telling them that I was making fun of them, and that they should fight me.

Great.

     My slow ass then realized that this was the 3rd NPC that would be joining me, so, actually, that all worked out pretty good.  Earlier on my guys had discovered 2 UZI guns while exploring some cottage near Pobre Obre, so we actually killed the thugs pretty quickly.  After that we got thrown out by some guy named "Red Wolf", who happened to be the famous monster hunter guy from the first village, and who helped me get my tank.

     After dealing with that, the girl then properly joined up, vowing to beat up the Red Wolf guy.  I'm getting the feeling that the "end game" is going to involve fighting him.  But screw that.  Dr. Rafflesia was next on my to-do list.  See, Audrey had a vendor there who happened to sell Gas Masks, and I made extra sure to have all 3 get one.  Furthermore, I now had 3 with guns instead of 2.
     Once they were geared up I "dog-systemed" back to Negi looking for the Doctor.  I managed to find him again pretty quickly and this time kicked the living crap out of him, beating him in just 2 turns.  After that, I needed a break.

HuckleCat

Backlog Blowout #2 - Metal Max Returns (Part 2)

     I have to say, I'm really digging this game, even though I feel there's way too much emphasis on grinding away in the same areas just to level up.  I really should go on more about the game iteself before I get to what I did now.

     The Metal Max games started on the NES back in 1991, and are developed by Crea-Tech.   (This one that I have been playing, Metal Max Returns, is actually a remake of the original.)  They also released Metal Max 2 for the SNES in Japan in 1993, and Metal Max 3 (as well as a remake of Metal Max 2) for the Nintendo DS in 2010.

Metal Max 3

      The game is related to the Metal Saga games, and was renamed due to licensing issues.  (I'll probably get to Metal Saga in the future, and will expand more on that then.)

     The game series has switched several hands for publication, mainly due to Data East running into problems that resulted in them going bankrupt in 2003.  (The latest publishers being Kadokawa and Enterbrain.)

     The game really has not seen much in the way of US releases.  The only "love" it seems to get here is from translation groups.  Aeon Genesis ( http://agtp.romhack.net/ ) also translated the original for the NES, and had been working on a translation for Metal Max 2, but it's unclear as to when the latter will be completed.


     Ok,...  where was I?  Oh yeah,

     I left off in MMR aimlessly wandering in order to level up more so that I could face Dr. Rafflesia.  While in Pobre Obre I had given in and actually rented a tank, despite that doing so would take half the gold I looted while driving it.  This actually helped a lot, and maybe too much, as wandering too far on a bridge to the left I actually ran into the 3rd "bounty monster", Dos Piranhas.

Easier than it looked..

     I was actually able to beat him pretty easily.  I guess the trick was to take out the 2 frog guy with him first.  It also helped that I had upgraded my tank with the best cannon that was available to me in town.

     After taking him out and continuing on the bridge I came to a warehouse full of conveyor belts that seemed to have no use whatsoever,  Searching the place yielded me with nothing but rotten fruit (that someone in town gladly bought), and rudeness from these 2 guys that were guarding a buggy "for the CEO".  I'll point out here that translation projects for older games like this are NOT rated by the ESRB....

He makes a valid point.

      These guys were all about floriculture for some reason.  I'm not quite sure what was up with that, but it didn't stop there, as when I finally found the CEO to ask him if I could take the buggy, this was his reply:

Fair enough.

     At first the flowers were not having any of my request, but after asking the same question a few more times they finally caved in and I got my second vehicle, the buggy.

     Once I was done with that I made my way back to town using something called a "Dog System" that you can buy for the tank.  This actually helps a ton, as it will transport you back to any town you have previously been to.  Once there I turned in the rental tank and collected the bounty for killing Dos Piranhas, which enabled me to load out both the tank and buggy with the best stuff available to me.

     Tomorrow I'll actually get around to killing Dr. Rafflesia.

HuckleCat

Backlog Blowout #2 - Metal Max Returns (SNES)

     This is a game that I am actually currently playing through, so this one be in parts as I play through it.  This way I'm hoping it will turn out more "in-depth" as opposed to the one-and-done dump of quick info that I did with Secret of Mana.

     Metal Max Returns is a game by Data East, and was released in Japan for the Super Nintendo in 1995.  Thanks to the totally awesome translation group Aeon Genesis, ( http://agtp.romhack.net/ ), we now have the ability to play this gem in English.  I am playing the game on a PC using the emulator Higan, ( http://byuu.org/ ), which is the best SNES emulator ever.

Yup.

     The game is an "open world" JRPG with turn-based combat, and seems to take place in a post-apocalyptic world.  It feels like someone took the game Wasteland, some things from Monster Hunter, and tanks and threw them all into a blender for a pretty unique experience.  I have to say, I haven't played many JRPGs that are comparable to this one (yet).  I have heard from others that the game is either a prequel to, or is related in some way to the PS2 game "Metal Saga".  I'll probably get to that one down the road.

     It opens up in the town of Leorad with your character basically chilling at home, eating dinner with your sister and dad.  At the table you have a very deep conversation with your father that goes something like this:

     You: Man, when I grow up I want to be a famous monster hunter!
     Dad: You're outta here!

     And so it begins, you're kicked out of your house and are off to...  do something.  Despite the fact that your father has kicked you out of the house for having aspirations, this does not hinder you from going back into the house, talking to your sister, and even sleeping in the house.  In any case, you are now free to explore the town and surrounding area.
     Right off I had to get used to the menu system.  It's pretty expansive, and only gets bigger once you acquire a tank. (More on that in a bit.)  That being said, it's not really that difficult to deal with, so it does not detract from the gameplay.  It helps with local maps, your stuff, and your arms/armor, leaving you to focus more on the ever-constant task of grinding away to level up.

     The beginning of the game is all on foot, with you exploring the town of Leorad and gleaning from the local NPCs a direction to take.  It seems as though there's a famous monster hunter in town, along with others, that are all clamoring about a nearby cave that is rumored to have an abandoned tank in it.  The cave was nearby, so it wasn't hard to find, but I did have to grind a bit to get good gear so that I wouldn't die 50 times.  This involved a lot of walking in circles, fighting stuff like...

A depressed gas tank.

     After getting to the point where I could deal with the cave, and making my way into said cave, I started to become sort of put off by the amount of times I was being attacked.  It seems like you cant walk 10 feet without something else getting in your face.  While I realize it's a necessary evil, it just sort of wears thin, especially later on when you're somewhat strong and you're being harassed by ants.  Literally.
     Once you navigate through the cave you are then greeted by the first "boss" character, which, no shit, happens to be a dog with a rocket launcher on his back.  He's pretty strong too.  If you happen to survive one round of combat with him, the "famous" monster hunter from town shows up in his spiffy red tank and helps you out, only to be all condescending afterwards and leave you with the tank because "it's junk".

     In any case I now had gotten the tank, and felt all cool.  The tanks are pretty powerful, and do help quite a bit, as expected.  As I had said before about the menu system, you have more options once you obtain a tank.  You can now access things about the tank such as its loadout, weight and armor.  It's kind of cool as you get to customize the tanks with better weapons, armor, and even the engine.  With this though you do have to pay attention to the weight.  Different weapons have different weights to them, and different engines will allow you to haul more.  You also need to make adjustments to make sure your tank has a good amount of armor plates.  It sounded like a hassle at first, but it's really not that bad.

     After getting the tank and taking it back into town to fix, reload, etc, you'll start to get other info from the NPCs.  After doing more grinding, and buying better gear, as well as buying some sort of upgrade to my menu system, I was ready to monster hunt.  Around the town there are wanted posters, as well as a "hunter center" where some guy will give you bounties, tell you want is the monster of the week to kill, and then reward you for said kills.  The games plot seems to revolve around these wanted posters, with you having to kill each bad guy, and then grinding away in between them to make sure you're able to kill the next one on the list.

     Traveling north of town to another cave, I got to the next monster to kill, which was literally a pair of monkeys with flamethrowers called the "Salmonella Gang".  I actually beat them pretty easily, mainly thanks to the tank, as without it I would have been toast pretty quickly.  After dispatching them I headed back to town to do the whole restock and reload thing (The tank's man weapon has limited ammo, and must be restocked), and also got my reward from the hunter center.  I also got to bother my dad...

I'm adopted?...

     Now I was able to deck my gear out pretty well, and was able to travel further up north to a huge wall that I guess was sectioning off the lower level adventurer from the areas of the game where you'll be killed in one hit.  Once you talk to the NPCs there you'll be able to have a gate opened so you can see the world.
     I'm going to stress at this point that there's a lot of grinding to be done here.  A lot.  The point of the game seems to be just to kill stuff, and in any order that you're able to.  Doing so raises a "rank" that your character has, which at the start is "disowned son".  I think mine is still at that point.

     Over time spent exploring, I had traveled to 2 other towns, Negi, and Pobre Obre.   In Pobre Obre I had not only found a place where I could rent other tanks from, (which takes half your gold from looting for the duration you have it), but I found an NPC to join me.  (I think you can have 2 NPCs join you.)  I wasn't able to change his name, (it's random), which was a bummer because his name is "Humf".  Oh well.  At least I get 2 attacks now.

Lets rock!

     That's sort of where I'm at now.  I've been able to upgrade my tank more, with both a new engine, and an auxiliary weapon.  In this case, a machine gun, which has unlimited ammo.  This helps a ton when dealing with weaker enemies so I'm not constantly heading back to town to restock.   I've grinded a lot more now too, mainly to get my new recruit up to my level, and to get him good gear.  Once I grind a bit more, and explore, I can then take on my next monster bounty, which happens to be large flower with tentacles adorned with machinery.  He's also got a doctorate in something, or at least I assume since his name's "Dr. Rafflesia".   Can't wait.

HuckleCat