Impressions on Descent: Insane, cold start, no-death, 100%

[TRUEpiiiicness]

Hang on... I have descent maximum on PlayStation but in the video that you (Alter-fox) linked, the doors open and close with all their frames, but on mine they only have three, which was the fully open, fully closed and half open states.

[Alter-Fox]

The level names were different in the conversion? I thought they were the same. Destination Sony, Cyberyne Operations, Badabingbadadoom and such

Well, take a look at the videos...
...or if ya prefer photographic evidence

Hang on... I have descent maximum on PlayStation but in the video that you (Alter-fox) linked, the doors open and close with all their frames, but on mine they only have three, which was the fully open, fully closed and half open states.

I think he mentioned he was playing the game on a PS3, maybe that has something to do with it... but watching it again now I can see that some of the spinning powerups are missing frames.
If there ever were a person to ask about that sort of thing it most certainly isn't me

[Xfing]

Ok, so which are the true names of the levels? I'd like to see some footage from that version you're talking about.

Though to be honest, the better question is: how am I gonna beat Final Frontier with only 3 Shakers available...

[TRUEpiiiicness]

I have no idea which ones came first but here are all the psx names for reference.

Zeta aquilae
1. Petra
2. Agartha
3. Reuchlin
4. Ako
S1. Sibilant station

Quartzon
5. Lilofee
6. Lomonosowa
7. Ausonia
8. Xosa XII
S2. Echo base

Brimspark
9. Sinha
10. Orlock
11. Fuld
12. Thraen
S3. Cragg centre

Limefrost spiral
13. Widorn
14. Ate CXI
15. Rog
16. Eilers
S4. Refractory factory

Baloris Prime
17. Porphyro
18. Rosalinde
19. Efremiana
20. Semele
S5. Epiglottis shaft

Puuma sphere
21. Eurykleia
22. Nipponia
23. Taranis
S6. The subtle body

24. Shajan

[Alter-Fox]

...they all sound like they should be names for Aphex Twin songs.
Either that or very sketchy over-the-counter medication...

[Xfing]

...they all sound like they should be names for Aphex Twin songs.
Either that or very sketchy over-the-counter medication...

That reminds me: Mechina - Empyrean sounds like a pretty cool list of titles for Descent levels

[LightWolf]

Either that or very sketchy over-the-counter medication...

I've got your order of Porphyro ready.
(Level 17)

[TRUEpiiiicness]

Though to be honest, the better question is: how am I gonna beat Final Frontier with only 3 Shakers available...

That depends on whether you get there. Level 23 has the most evil room I have ever seen out of the missions made by parallax. The small room directly after the blue door.

[Alter-Fox]

Ooooooooooh yeah. Certainly some luck involved there.
I've done a continuous run on insane and it's somewhat doable that way... I wonder if there's any spot earlier in the early part of the map where you can get an omega cannon. Would probably be the best bet.

Part of the challenge with playing through Maximum on insane was how the big dangerous robots still tend to show up a good deal towards the end, but since there's a lot less space on the maps for placing weapons and powerups, you don't tend to find as many. Ends up weirdly making the first half or so of the game feel a good deal easier than Counterstrike, but then from around level 12 or 14, it gets much harder.
And hey, X, are you using the D2 PSX track order? Always kinda felt order of the songs on Descent Maximum's levels worked better than the original D2 CD's tracks on the main campaign.

[Xfing]

And hey, X, are you using the D2 PSX track order? Always kinda felt order of the songs on Descent Maximum's levels worked better than the original D2 CD's tracks on the main campaign.

Neither, my rip of Maximum apparently has no music in it at all, so it just plays the default 4 tracks in a loop, like in the base game.

I'm up to level 12 already, I'll post my impressions once done. The tight boss arena is ridiculous in general, gonna have to make use of both those invulnerabilities for sure!

[TRUEpiiiicness]

There are three invulnerabilities in the level, one in the boss arena, one in the big room after the first blue door under the lava and in the room after the second blue door also under the lava.

[Xfing]

There are three invulnerabilities in the level, one in the boss arena, one in the big room after the first blue door under the lava and in the room after the second blue door also under the lava.

Nice, that may actually help, I wasn't aware of the third one. Too bad all of them are pretty far and finding the boss tends to not be that quick

[Xfing]

Alright, I've got quite a bit of progress to report here. Been waiting on beating level 12 before I did, but I was able to just the other day. Beat 13 too while I was at it, easy. So here goes:

Level 7: Symmetric, but also an example of a textbook Wentz dark level, with dim lighting and all that stuff. Nice bit of verticality as well, and not extremely difficult. The most noticeable thing about this level is the abundance of Omega mine layers (which is something of a break in consistency, as base omegas were introduced much later in CS). They lay only regular proximity bombs rather than smart mines, which is a small mercy. Hunting them all down to get 100% kills is a bit of a hassle with no remaining robot counter to help you, but it can be done (Vulcan helps). I like the multiple goodie caches this level has, the one with the smart missiles is quite fun, also the entire area of the chamber right before the one with the reactor that you unlock with a switch by the reactor itself. Taking care of the Lou Guard guarding the area beyond the waterfall when you first go down is probably the most stressful part of this level, but what also adds to its difficulty is the fact, that you've got to economize energy. You only get the Vulcan and an energy center past the red door (the latter in an area you need to first unlock, no less), and until that you're forced to rely on energy boosts. In my demo you'll see me managing some sections of the level with nothing but secondaries (ain't that fun!), but after getting the Vulcan it's all smooth sailing, fortunately.

Level 8: The Quartzon boss level! I do remember it giving me pause for a while, but after a few practice runs it became not that hard. You will immediately notice the layout gimmick used, which borrows from Vertigo's level 4 (just as level 6 of this does, only different sections), with the flowing channel-like corridors with a pipe running through the middle. You will notice however that texture-wise, this level feels almost un-Wentzy, not featuring almost any of his favorite, go-to textures, instead it fills in with ones you'd be more likely to find in D1. This level is quite devious with the many traps it has mostly containing Diamond Claws coming out of ceilings, but not only. It also features many scenarios where you have to fight Diamond Claws with energy weapons with little room to dodge, due to the tight corridors - requiring some practice and skill. The latter part of the level is fortunately quite merciful with lots of health power-ups, so even if you go down on shields early on, you have the opportunity to replenish them (as I demonstrate quite tellingly in my demo, going down to 8 shields at one point). The boss is as tricky as it always is, with its mercury missiles and all, but the arena is actually quite roomy and that helps a little (more so than the lvl 4 one, and much more so than the lvl 12 one). You are provided with one cloak and one invulnerability as well, which should give you enough time to take the boss down if you fire at it with the Plasma and unload your Megas. I was quite lucky to dodge its first volley of Mercuries with only 23 shields, and it apparently teleported away before I got to the invulnerability, otherwise this run may have failed. Even after you beat the boss though, your struggle is not over, since the way to the exit is rather lengthy, and there's yet another Diamond Claw waiting for you there - sometimes he will not come out and you might be tempted to fire a homing missile into the exit tunnel to flush him out, but missiles are coded to automatically detonate while crossing the side of the segment where the exit begins, so if you're low on health you can screw yourself over by forgetting that. At any rate, it's a bit unfair but a bit of luck is indeed required to be able to dispose of that final Diamond Claw and fulfill the 100% criterion.

As for Quartzon in general - The level design is definitely good, just as good as with Zeta Aquilae and even more interesting in places. The texturing is different than what you'll see in Counterstrike, but the same is true for every other system as well. The difficulty was doable, the length of the levels definitely contributing.

In terms of difficulty, I'd probably say 6 > 8 > 5 = 7 or so. Fun system overall, not bad at all! Next post will cover the Brimspark system and everything else, including a link to the demos.

[Xfing]

Level 9: Brimspark ups the ante when it comes to level design quality immediately, you see it right away as level 9 starts, and it only gets better from there. In level 9 you are first presented with the Gauss in this mission - though for the less astute it might be a bit tricky to unlock it. But when you do, the rest of the level is pretty much a test drive for the Gauss - I don't need to even say out loud how easy and pleasurable it makes smashing robots. Unfortunately ammo is appropriately restricted, so it's actually best to save it until the reactor room. The most important thing aesthetically is that the overwhelming reds of Counterstrike's Brimspark are replaced with brown, natural rocks again - once again something that will prevail for the entirety of the system. Difficulty-wise the level is OK, containing mostly low-tier robots, not particularly hard - you even get an invulnerability in the reactor room to handle the hornet swarm that pops out on you when you bust the reactor. The geometry throughout the level is very interesting, of particular note is the pentagonal tunnel that leads to the reactor chamber - probably the only pentagon in the officialy made missions - really impressive. But the entirety of the level feels very well made overall, with some of grated tunnels, passageways hidden behind lava falls and overall a nicely thought out layout.

Level 10: Easily the best designed level in Maximum so far, with some really, really impressive geometry and devious gameplay requiring both skill and foreknowledge. As for the layout - in addition to featuring the most and largest open spaces thus far, it features two symmetric winding tunnels that must have required some amazing precision to make. Again as well, there's comparatively little red textures and naturalistic browns define the visuals. Most of this level's difficulty comes from the exit sequence, in that sense making the level very unique compared to any other - without precautions there's no way you're getting out of the level with 100% kills (or possibly at all). Not only is the way to the exit so long that on Insane you'll make it with only a few seconds to spare, but there are 2 cloaked diamonds jumping at you right when you blow the reactor, 2 more waiting in the large chamber beyond the red door, and two more beyond the previously locked grate that leads right to the exit. The last two mentioned you need to dispose of at your leisure before going anywhere near the reactor, sometimes they can be lured out, sometimes a smart missile can help. The ones that jump on you in the reactor chamber need to be taken care of right away, and the ones guarding the exits from the red area would ideally be dealt with using smart mines (you do find a bunch in the level). Beginning to think this wasn't designed quite with Insane in mind, but it is quite possible to beat regardless, though it might cost you a lot of time and create problems with making it to the exit. For this reason this level is so interesting.

Level 11: An interesting level in that it has the most extensive optional areas so far, with puzzles the likes of which a Counterstrike secret level wouldn't be ashamed of. Aesthetically it looks a lot like CS' Baloris levels due to the texture selection, though it does feature some of the Brimspark reds in the reactor area and the chamber leading to it - that entire section being somewhat reminescent of the area from CS level 10 where you pick up the hostages by the red key. But there is also that beautiful, wide and flat tunnel encircling most of the level that you have more than one way to get inside, containing tons upon tons of goodies (also some robots to keep things funny). Large secret areas like this are always something that makes exploration more exciting, and this is by far the nicest example of that in Maximum thus far (and possibly in all of it). The difficulty of the level is not particularly high though, at least compared to the ones before.

Level 12: The boss level! Not only does it pit you against the notoriously tricky Brimspark boss, but the arena is also extremely tight, meaning there is no way to get out of the way of its Mega Missile blasts, making the fight really precarious. The level itself though - it's very interesting in that it combines some admittedly very rudimentary, D1-like architecture with some quite advanced one, creating a rather unique mix. The starting area in particular consists of very basic geometry, though it rapidly transitions to more elaborate chambers - the most impressive example being the area beyond one of the blue doors, that mixes ingenious geometry with clever texturing to create a hexagonal, alien-like wall. Of note is heavy use of D1's "martian" red textures, something the opportunity for which was sadly missed in CS. It's easy to overlook the Gauss, and you'll absolutely need it for the boss - it's beyond one of the yellow doors in this level (leading to two separate areas just like the blue doors). As for the boss fight, yeah - the arena is super tight, and there is a luck factor to the fight as well. There are two hidden invulnerabilities, both below the lava floors of the two blue door chambers. You'll need to have either active while going into the boss arena obviously, and the distance between the two invulnerabilities and the arena is quite long - the boss can sometimes be quite tricky to find due to the geometric intricacies of the arena, which makes this fight luck based (you need to find the boss fast to make the best of your invulnerabilities). There's one extra invulnerability plus a cloak in the boss arena which can bail you out, but in my experience, efficient use of all three invulnerabilities is necessary to beat the boss before they run out. That's what made it quite tricky to do this. Still, compared to the number of tries I needed for this and some CS levels, this is nothing.

Brimspark overall difficulty:
12 > 10 > 9 > 11

Design-wise the best, most diverse and interesting system so far - which was indeed quite a surprise considering how fatiguing Brimspark is in CS (perhaps in part due to less red textures used).

Level 13: The first Limefrost Spiral level brings the expected high design quality, though it isn't super memorable - more in Counterstrike style whan Wentzian looking too. This is the first level where you get the Helix cannon, immediately from the robots that drop it, and it'll carry you through the entirety of the level. The difficulty is nothing particularly noteworthy here, I got it on the 2nd try I think - it does demonstrate that Sniper AI ITDs can be a bit of a hassle. Aesthethically the level is nice and mostly white, though it uses some Wentzian textures (to a noticeably smaller degree than the other systems though), overall a nice introduction to Limefrost, but nothing extremely memorable.

Here are the demos for levels 7-13: https://www.sendspace.com/file/7dizyd

[Xfing]

Ok, in the meantime I made it through Limefrost. Can't say it was very hard overall, especially compared to Counterstrike. For bite-sized levels that Maximum is, though, gotta once again laud Dan Wentz for the design, these levels are really good. One thing to notice is that the texture choice generally matches what we saw in Counterstrike much closer than the three previous systems. There is very little of Wentz' favorite textures such as rock356 (justifiably so, but he still managed to cram in rock326 here and there). One thing that deserves praise though is the ballzy use of Rock 335 (the weird, purple and blue twisty-patterned texture), which seems risky, but worked very well here. Brings back some of those D1 vibes with all those wild, flashy textures used only for very small, often closed-off sections).

Level 13: An adequate level in its own right, though probalby the least remarkable one of all four. The most conservative one texture-wise as well. It didn't impress much in terms of difficulty either, though the Snipe mode ITD chases were definitely annoying. The layout has a nice bit of verticality to it thanks to the central hexagonal chute that connects the exit to the reactor room. A big point of praise is that even with how small these levels have to be, up to now the temptation to make them gimmick-based was resisted entirely. The levels still usually have a naturalistic structure, which is great.

Level 14: Much prettier than the previous level, but equally easy, perhaps even easier. The large foyer you enter from the sloped tunnel you spawn in already charms with its creative geometry, and the level provides more interesting locales such as the yellow key area later on. Since you receive the Gauss here, this level is not hard - even though the Thiefbot chase might be a little bit annoying due to a dearth of dead ends to trap him in. There are some traps at the end that require caution, but it's nothing compared to those pesky Brimspark levels in this regard. Overall probably the spaciest level of Maximum - even though the levels are meant to be small, in this one you sometimes forget that. The wide spaces make maneuvering around the Diamond Claws in this level much easier too.

Level 15: Harder than the previous two levels, since it introduces the Seeker (while in Counterstrike those got brought in as early as level 7). It also features several Bulk Destroyer traps that are hard to deal with without losing even a bit of HP. The hardest thing by far about this level though is the reactor room - the reactor is hidden from sight and there's little room to dodge its widely dispersed fire, and there are two matcens that regularly spawn ITDs (not sure if Diamond Claws too, or if those were pre-placed), which can block your movement when attempting to circle the reactor. Most deaths I suffered were from the reactor's fire in fact. It's comparatively hard to go get the hostages, clear everything out and bust the reactor before getting worn down. I'd say this level iss considerably harder than the boss level actually. Appearance-wise. it features interesting alien-like geometry reminescent of honeycombs or some such here and there, and texturing on the darker side that makes the level look pretty, but show a rather different facet of Limefrost than we're used to. Very nice level as well.

Level 16: Probably the first gimmicky level so far - a long, climbing spiral encircling an inner pillar. Works well as a boss arena though - at first it might seem overwhelming and the hardest one so far, but once you find and make use of the abundance of secrets it has, it's trivial. The insertion hatch is openable with no switches required, and it hides an earthshaker. I didn't know that and found out about that by mistake later, and I was still able to beat this thing even without the extra shaker after a handful of tries. There are ample cloaks, 2 invulnerabilities, an extra Shaker in plain sight, a Mega - the list goes on and on. The uppermost matcen spawning ITDs is inconsequential, though the two Seekers stationed in the boss room could cause trouble, so it's probably a good idea to get rid of them from behind the forcefields. Much easier overall than the Brimspark boss, took me less attempts than the Quartzon boss as well.

Limefrost Spiral difficulty:
15 > 16 > 13 > 14

Easy system, good design-wise as well.
Demos for all four levels: https://www.sendspace.com/file/6aofnj

[Xfing]

Holy moly, guess I went and beat Baloris as well! What an interesting system. While in Counterstrike most players consider Baloris Prime the "breather" system after Limefrost Spiral, in Maximum it's much harder than Limefrost all the way through. In fact it's been the hardest system so far in terms of general gameplay, with the toughest fights and traps out of any system thus far. I definitely have a lot to say about it - the first thing a player will notice is how full of twists and turns this system is. Winding corridors, spirals and loops form the basis of all but one of the levels. When just looking at these levels in the editor and not playing them properly from beginning to end, this might make the levels feel gimmicky and console-ish, but despite the wild geometry the larger chambers are always kept parallel to the starting point, and even more importantly - the gameplay is top notch. Brimspark didn't have any Red Fatty Jrs in Maximum, so this system is where they make their grand entrance, and they hit very hard. Overall a very interesting system.

Level 17: With its two spiraled hexagonal tubes on both sides of the initial chamber, this level demonstrates some really unorthodox geometry, with gameplay to match. It's shockingly hard when you jump in unprepared, but fortunately it's quite easy to get used to the level of concentration required to beat this level.There are plenty of BPERs to fight here, and you're generally at a disadvantage fighting those with lasers. The central matcen will have them greet you in large numbers after you break the switch at the end of one of the tunnels, and without keeping your head down, you'll have lots of trouble coming out of the fight in good shape. It's also good to take care of the two Diamond Claws that open up when you get back from the red room before you actually break the reactor, as otherwise you'll have too little time to destroy them if you're aiming for 100% pre-placed kills. Of note is the reactor room, which is one of the best-looking-on-the-automap locations in Maximum so far, if not THE best. Typical Wentz, 'nuff said.

Level 18: A bit easier than the last one, probably the easiest level of this system, especially once you get the Gauss. The floor texture brings the Mercury levels of D1 to mind, but otherwise it's just your regular, orange ice cream level. The wide tunnels still spiral and wind, the walls open up to prevent backtracking, and the keys are held by robots - in addition to the usual smart mine omega guppies, the red key is held by a particularly nasty surprise of a robot. Running this level for the first time is also a bit tough for the fact that you never see an exit in plain sight, further adding to the stress of the exit sequence. It's best to save up some mercuries to clear out the exit entourage after that section opens up when you blow up the reactor. I lost like 10 seconds trying to clean up the pre-placed mine right before the exit, but I still managed to escape the mine before being vaporized. Lesson learned - never underestimate the shaking of the mine when trying to pick off small targets, especially with the Gauss!

Level 19: This one reminds me heavily of a smaller version of Vertigo's level 17 because of its layout, geometry and the way walls keep opening many times throughout. There are quite a few Red Fatty Jrs, many also placed in precarious positions, which makes it even harder by the level's rather tight quarters. The sheer number of enemies here could make the level hard, but fortunately the tight quarters can work to your advantage - you aren't exposed to this many dogfights with BPERs. When taken slow and with caution, this level can be even easier to handle than 17, but it does require some foreknowledge in regards to the traps and robots hidden behind corners that lie in wait. The texturing of this one is more reminescent of Counterstrike's own levels, most particularly 18, which brings a bit more variety to an otherwise rather monotonous system.

Level 20: Yet another level that goes ham on the twisting and winding tunnels, probably to the highest degree so far in fact - while still keeping it neat for the automap by keeping all key locations to one plane. All the keys are once again held by omega guppies, and the level is unorthodox in that it uses the colored doors as checkpoints that unlock further sections of this linear level. Dan Wentz has shown to be quite fond of using switches right behind doors as a pacing mechanic, he's done that several times throughout Maximum. The level itself is not that hard, with plenty of BPER clones providing you lots of Guideds that you can use to soften up the resistance from afar. It doesn't feature any Red Fatty Jrs either, but it makes up for it by including a very annoying Thiefbot that gets set free after you open the red key forcefield. The tricky part of this level is managing your cloaks to hunt down the boss, which you only have Plasma to do - a weapon with reasonable DPS, but it's no Helix. None of the 2 Megas and one Shaker you get in this level will help in any way against the boss, but these can be used to make the Thiefbot die faster, though they pretty much require sacrificing a cloak. You get three in total, two out of cloaked Diamond Claws, but one will be quite far away from the boss arena, so luring the lifter close to at least the crossroads (right below the exit) will allow you to get more mileage out of that cloak. There is also one invulnerability, which is optimally left either for last, or for when your shields get so low that you've got no other choice. In my demo I played quite suboptimally, wasting quite a few seconds ofthe invuln by rushing in while only having 50-something energy, but I was still able to get the job done, fortunately. Overall this boss battle was still better than the one in Counterstrike's level 20, where the not-so-flashy "lurk behind the red door and shoot Phoenix" strategy was employed instead. Good thing this arena actually allows at least a little bit of room for maneuvering.

So yeah, in terms of difficulty for Baloris Prime: 20 (with the boss) > 19 = 17 > 20 (without the boss) = 18
Demos: https://www.sendspace.com/file/a9428h

[Xfing]

Though to be honest, the better question is: how am I gonna beat Final Frontier with only 3 Shakers available...

That depends on whether you get there. Level 23 has the most evil room I have ever seen out of the missions made by parallax. The small room directly after the blue door.

That room was no problem whatsoever. All you gotta do is take care of the spiders from outside the blue door before it closes on you - which is exactly what I did. Already beaten level 23 btw, I'll start taking shots at the final level soon, and I'll post my impressions of the whole system afterwards. Sad to say, kinda scared about facing the boss with only three shakers and limited invulnerabilities. I do hope I'll get some smart missiles at least. Guideds can make a difference too ofc.

[Xfing]

Aighty, the boards are back, time to wrap up Maximum. I was able to beat it all, somehow. The boards were down for a while but now they're luckily up again, so I can wrap this thing up.

Level 21: The introduction to the Omega System in Maximum is neither a very pretty nor a very hard level - the introduction of Spiders requires caution here and there, but unlike in CS, BPERs are used rather liberally throughout this level (and the entire system). You get Plasma and Gauss early on and there are no Boarsheads, though Spawn ambushes can be a bit tricky and require some skill to get out of (I died there a couple times). By now the Wentzian layouts have stopped being impressive, and this level feels "just OK" - not badly designed though by any means.

Level 22: And here's where things change. It's called "Nipponia" in the PSX version (an allusion to Japan?), but in the PC rip I played, it's called "Alien Nation" - and what a fitting level to convey that vibe. This here is peak Wentz, with some really amazing geometry and eye candy that might be the best of this entire mission. The difficulty is pretty similar as well, but the beginning is a bit tricky if you don't rush for the Gauss right awya, that is probably the best chance to get out of the early fights. Still no Boarsheads, but there is a good number of Spiders here, which need to take priority. Robots holding two keys is a nice and welcome mix-up too, though they're not by any means hard to deal with or hunt down (they're not the usual speedy but fragile Omegas). What's funny is that this level is probably the one with the most noticeable differences between the "fixed" and initial releases of Maximum - the matcens spawn different robots. In my version the early matcen spawns BPERs while it should be spawning Diamond Claws, while the matcen at the red key spawns Diamond Claws, while it should be spawning Spawn in the fixed version. Still, I suppose that does actually make the version I played somewhat harder, so I'll count my beating of it as legitimate. And yeah, did I mention eye candy? The see-through tunnel at the beginning of the winding passage, the outside of which holds a Shaker is an amazing sight for one. Yep, this level really rocks.

Level 23: Something that in terms of difficulty (and looks, due to a larger-than average amount of brightly lit areas, which is not so Wentzian and resembles Counterstrike more) actually even remotely resembles a Puuma Sphere level. I can understand how the first area beyond the blue door frustrates speedrunners because yeah, flying in there will probably get you killed 99/100 times on Insane - fortunately you can handle the spiders from outside the room, which completely trivializes the area. Otherwise the level is probably the hardest out of the bunch - with many traps and the introduction of Boarsheads, some of which rather nastily placed. It's a rather good-sized level for Maximum, making you almost feel like you were playing one of those later Vertigo levels, which were on the smallish side. The layout and the reveal-backroutes-as-you-go gimmick do remind of Vertigo's own level 17, making it a more gameplay-oriented level than one focused on pretty looks, but good gameplay it does provide. Of note is the reactor room, which is probably the single most heavily guarded area in the entire game: 2 boarsheads, 2 Lous, 2 spiders beyond opening walls and some random PESTs here and there - yeah, you're going to be softening that stuff up with Guideds from a save vantage point. There's even a Lou trap during the exit sequence so yeah, this level does indeed try to pull out all the stops on you as the penultimate challenge. Still not remotely comparable to the hardest parts of CS in terms of difficulty, but this here was actually somewhat challenging. The thief is also going to be very hard eliminate due to his high health if you're unable to trap him somewhere (I wasn't - enjoy the red room even more, lol). Overall a nice level for sure!

Level 24: This level is basically a smaller, darker and more Wentzian version of Tycho Brahe - rather easy up until the boss, even though there are four Boarsheads - those are placed so that handling them is not a big problem - otherwise there are some Diamond Claws, BPERs and a good number of mine-laying Omega Guppies, but with Gauss (which you get right off the bat) none of them are a serious threat. There is a max health thief here though, and I was very lucky to be able to trap him in the corridor leading to the exit in my run, otherwise he's a major, major painto hunt down due to an almost complete lack of dead ends in this level. The level contains three Earthskaers and three Megas, all of which will be indispensable against the boss - it was hard enough to beat him with five shakers in CS, here you've only got three. There are four invulnerabilities available and three static cloaks - though if you're decently lucky the two cloaked Diamonds will drop two more cloaks for you (at least one is pretty much guaranteed). After that, with some luck some more cloaks can be produced out of the boss itself via the Diamonds it spawns, but it's hard to pull off and requires luck, so you'll have to make do with what you have. Obviously at least one or two cloak/invuln combo will be required to unload your three shakers and megas into the boss' rear, but you won't be able to sneak behind him without being cloaked to fire some Plasma into him. I was very lucky in this run and had him spawn with his back exposed right beyond one of the doors at one point, so I was able to give him some primary fire - otherwise I've noticed that he doesn't fire when he's trying to rotate and face you, which can be a huge boon when firing primaries - the Shaker impact even if it doesn't damage you, can completely disorient you due to the tremors, and that's something best avoided. I may or may not have missed one of the Megas here, but I'm sure primary fire is what made a world of difference, so the biggest takeway from this fight is that you shouldn't worry about the boss immediately cloaking and teleporting away and/or shooting when you shoot him with primaries - he tends not to do that and try to rotate towards you instead. Another point of interest are the two matcens in the tunnels where you get the megas, cloak and invuln, on one side of the boss chamber - those will spawn Spiders that are coded to drop shields on death, so it's possible to replenish here if you're in a more protracted fight - though that should be a last resort, since getting a direct hit from even a single Shaker bomblet spells doom anyway... So yeah, I was somehow able to beat this thing and am I happy? Hell yeah!

Omega System difficulty: 21 ~ 22 < 24 (not counting the boss) < 23; swap 23 with 24 if you count the boss.
DEMOS: https://www.sendspace.com/file/a239ty

Overall impressions of Maximum? It's good, real good. I was a bit afraid of the Wentzian design for 24 levels straight, but even despite his serious biases towards low lighting and some particular textures, he otherwise really pulled off an amazingly laid out mission. It's like playing Vertigo trying to be downsized Counterstrike and thereby providing some really memorable and fun moments. The difficulty is not as high as CS, which can be a good thing - the missioncan serve as a bite-sized playthrough to warm up before something bigger, and some of the levels are among the most beautiful in all the Parallax missions. Definitely recommended!

Next stop: Vertigo!

[Xfing]

Ok, it's been a while but I actually went and tackled Vertigo lvl 1 in the meantime. I'll put up demos when I've beaten several levels, but I can give my impressions. Oh, it's worth mentioning that I'm playing this via DosBox now, so as not to have any distortions of the experience introduced by source ports.

LEVEL 1: So yeah, this is by far the hardest level 1 out of the main missions, but it's also the best in terms of geometry and overall look. What strikes immediately is Dan Wentz's unorthodox and elaborate architecture that was ahead of its time and made the levels feel modern and fresh - the staple of Vertigo, as is the black "obsidian" texture that Wentz uses in every single level simply because he apparently can't help himself. But yeah, after the break I took after beating Maximum even level 1 of Vertigo was definitely a reality check. There are ITDs apparently in snipe mode and numerous ITSC's who can wreck your day before you get the Vulcan. After that it definitely gets easier, though the reactor door is also troublesome if you don't know how to avoid activating the matcen (yep, this is also the only level 1 with a matcen as well). So yeah, took me many, many tries to get this one - hopefully the next one's easier.