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