A triple dose of desperate Flood slaying in the corridor of doom…

(6:48) Level 9 ('Keyes') on Legendary. This shows three plays of the Flood onslaught challenge using plasma pistol and shotgun, the strongest combo. In the first I survive but lose some health. In the second I retain full health but take some whacks along the way. In the third I retain full health and also manage to avoid getting whacked. I showed a Legendary play long ago in BCM3, but this time I'm being more aggressive, not defending so deep. Plus I've got my flashlight on for better illumination. All of which makes for better spectacle.

Released June 25th 2014, gameplay recorded June 22nd 2014.

00:02 (Play 1 - some health lost) The Flood onslaught challenge is pretty hectic stuff and not very suited for a detailed commentary (though I managed it for BCM3), so I'll cover these plays in a more relaxed way, with just a few comments about specific things.

I thought this play would make a good opener because there's a funny bit around 0:19 when Cortana starts her series of four lines with "Warning: threat level increasing". Just as she's saying that, a combat Flood leaps at me and takes a shotgun blast. Er yeah, threat level increasing - thanks Cortana, what was your first clue?

I twice tag a Flood by accident, and I was especially careless at 0:48 where it looks like I was actually trying to tag him (surely I wasn't, was I?). It's generally not a good idea of course, because the fizzing grenade can quickly come back your way! Fortunately I get away with it both times.

Around 2:01 I step back out into action with my shield in a poor state, and that's where I lose some health. Luckily there wasn't too much heading my way, or I could've been in real trouble. I think the reason I stepped out was because there were quite a few spores looking for a nibble, and I wanted to get clear of them.

I had 10 of my 25 shotgun shells left after the main attack had petered out, so I think I was too conservative about using them. Should've done more blasting. I threw 10 plasmas and 4 frags.

02:28 (Play 2 - no health lost) This play was done about an hour later than the previous one. Having knocked some of the rust off my technique in the meanwhile, I do a better job this time. Around 3:02 I blast two combat Flood at once; that was deliberate.

Around 3:33 I try to throw a frag down the corridor towards a mob, but it hits a spore. On the positive side though, it does a good job in thinning out the mass of spores. I get most of the aforementioned mob with my next frag.

Quite a nice frag at 4:13, clearing a bunch of combat Flood. After that I back off and manage to get my shield recharged.

At the end I try blasting spores with my shotgun, but after two ineffective shots I thought "Aw the hell with it" and zapped them with my plasma pistol instead.

I had 9 of my shotgun shells left after the pressure was over, so again I think I was too conservative about using them. I threw a similar number of grenades to the first play: 9 plasmas and 4 frags.

04:46 (Play 3 - no health lost, no whacks taken) My earlier plays were lacking any melee, so I started trying to include a bit of spore whacking. This play includes three whacks, including one to finish off (though I like the second one best, around 5:46). Having also had quite a few shotgun shells left over in my plays, I resolved also to try and make fuller use of my ammo; so there's more blasting this time.

Cortana gets to her fourth warning line very quickly in this play, namely about 32 seconds after the first spore is seen. On my first play it took her about 51. I think the triggers for the warnings may be dictated by the amount of Flood spawning so far.

My shotgun ammo was all gone just as the pressure was over; so I think I did a good job of getting the most out of the shotgun. I threw a similar number of grenades to the other plays - 10 plasmas and 5 frags - but I was a lot busier with them near the start, compared to those other plays.

I was happy to get through this play without getting whacked - unlike the earlier ones. And actually I just noticed: my shield never did any bleeping! That's pretty rare. Guess I did a good job of keeping out of trouble.

Closing remarks My previous movie BCM106 took rather a long time to do, involving a lot of playing, and then there was also all the work for researching and writing the related article. As such, I was in the mood for doing something much quicker for my next movie, because I want to keep my movie output ticking along at a decent pace, with at least two movies a month. I forget what brought the Flood onslaught challenge to mind, but it fit the bill nicely. This was one of my quickest movies to do, and I already had a save ready (not that it takes long to create one from scratch). I namely used the same save as for BCM3. I didn't even need to do a huge amount of gameplay to get some plays I was happy with. These were all done on the same day, and they're in chronological order.

Although I showed a Legendary play in BCM3, that was only one play and I was also defending mostly from all the way down the corridor, which was my normal approach. This time I wanted to try defending more aggressively, not keeping so far back, and I wanted to have my flashlight to make things brighter. Turned out nicely I think, doing the challenge better justice. I think it was a bit harder though, fighting closer to the spawning area.

Originally I was just going to do a double play. But with the more aggressive defence, plays seemed to be a bit shorter than in BCM3, and I decided I could squeeze in a third without making the movie too long. That also gave me a chance to work in some melee, and try to get through without being whacked.

Sometime soon, I may try making a movie of the challenge on Heroic with some alternative weapon combos Combos which wouldn't be very viable on Legendary, because it's so severe.

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