More fun with the falling hilltop Grunts on the island. In this comedy action montage the gloves are off and it's time to stick it to 'em…

(4:30) Level 4 ('The Silent Cartographer') on Legendary. This is an comedy action montage showing me having assorted fun with with the hilltop Grunts described in Danger! Falling Grunts. Four and a half minutes of grunty grief, with lots of needles and rockets. I hope it'll give you some ideas for things to do!

Released April 20th 2010, gameplay recorded April 9th-18th 2010.

00:02 "Ooh! There!" - yikes, I've been spotted! Not sure I should worry too much though. The movie starts with seven clips showing falling Grunts. In each of the first two clips, a Grunt comes straight over the edge and gives a cry of pain. There seem to be just the two different cries, as heard here. I give both fallers a good smack to put them out of their misery; I'm considerate like that. In the next two clips I don't need to do anything; the fallers die on impact. Next, a faller gets tagged and the bang takes out two additional arrivals, hee hee! Then we've got something a bit special. Two highly trained ninja Grunts come leaping forth from behind their three colleagues, ready to unleash a fearsome grunty attack on my person. Except, they hadn't bargained on my rocket launcher. Finally, another pair of fallers, and this time I dish out some needle treatment.

00:43 That leads us into the next section: eight clips illustrating the delights of needling the Grunts up above. The first is just a gentle opener, partly there for the comedy value of the two Grunts who turn tail to run - "I'm outta here!". Things get more explosive after that. In the second clip a needle bang sets off the target's plasma grenades and he gets a nice boost, and in the third I provide some rocket assistance. The rocket hits the top of the hill face but the Grunt has already started going over the edge there, so the blast shoots him forward.

01:04 This clip starts with a bit of slapstick. A Grunt throws a grenade but another moves in front at just the wrong moment, getting tagged on the backpack. These guys are real professionals eh? I send in some needles and then rocket directly underneath him, sending him shooting up nicely.

01:17 Another stream of needles - not quite a full clip - then a rocket. This time I briefly zoom the sight to help me target the top of the hill. You'll see me doing that with some of my other rocketing too. Grunty goes flying off towards the sea, arms flailing nicely.

01:24 Sending up a high grenade can be fun. Here you can see the Grunt initially looking up at it - and firing on me at the same time! I wait for the right moment then send in a stream of needles so the victim gets blasted just he's starting to go up in a pink bang. Nice mid-air bang too, with excellent pink trails!

01:37 Adding a plasma grenade to the end of your needle stream is a fine idea. My needles provoke this fellow into throwing, which makes him a nice stationary target for the tag. It seems to catch him on the foot. I add a rocket for good measure, and the plasma gives him a fresh boost in mid-air, changing his direction.

01:46 For my final clip on firing needles up, I tag this guy from very close to the hill, then send up a whole clip. The plasma bang sends him up and the needles give chase and pile in, causing two pink bangs near the peak of his trajectory. Nice! And since I've got the pistol handy, well hey, it's hard to resist shooting a Grunt in mid-air, even if he is already dead!

01:58 A two-clip interlude now, showing some Grunts getting whacked in mid-air. You can throw grenades up to make a Grunt dive from side to side, or dive off. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Supergrunt! I got pretty used to their behaviour while recording for this movie, and learnt to anticipate the direction in which they'd dive off. Here I anticipate and move into position to smack him as he comes down. The fellow in the second clip comes straight down, close to the hill face. He gives me the eye and lines up his plasma pistol, but tragically never gets a chance to use it. The one remaining Grunt pleads "No more!" but sorry grunty, I'm not done yet - and here's a rocket for you. "Waaaahhh…".

02:16 That leads us into a meaty section of rocketing carnage; eight clips on blasting Grunts off the hill. Ah, such fun. It's just a shame there's not a never ending supply of grunty reinforcements emerging over the rise, so you could blast them again and again, which is the sort of effect you'll see with these juxtaposed clips. Enjoy the cries of flying and fleeing Grunts. The clip at 02:40 shows all five getting taken out with one rocket, which is relatively tricky to achieve because they tend to stay fairly spread out. For the final clip I throw a plasma first, tagging my victim. He goes shooting off from the combined blast of the tag and rocket, and then gets an additional boost from one of his plasmas going off. That's some serious speed!

02:59 Another short interlude now; three clips showing some mid-air shooting. The first two show headshots (which is actually not as easy as it looks) while the third uses a rocket, fired after anticipating his dive. All fine sport.

03:11 For my last major section we're back to some rocket play, with four clips of launching a faller. In the first I again anticipate a dive, moving around to be behind him. He gets a plasma on the rear end and then gets sent off to the horizon. The next guy falls off while throwing a plasma. I tag him on the leg and rocket the ground beneath him. He gets additional boost from the first of his two dropped plasmas (a second goes off too, but I don't think it's close enough to him). With the next guy I rocket the hill face in order to send him on a low trajectory. He goes flying out over the sea quite beautifully while a colleague up top flees in panic: "Us first, we're smaller, ah ha ha ha ha!". The final victim is yet another Grunt who falls off the edge while lobbing a plasma: "Everybody duck!". He gets a standard launch in the other direction.

04:04 Two little clips to finish off. The first is pure comedy. One Grunt gets stunned by a pip of plasma (an accident, as I was actually just trying to fire near to make him start throwing), and another comes up behind and uses his doubled-over colleague as a throwing platform. So funny. These guys do sometimes jostle over one another, but it's rare and I've never seen it happen this comically before. The final clip again shows a bit of plasma-stunning, but this time I do it on purpose to try to keep the Grunt in place for the plasma grenade about to go off behind him. Sure enough, blam! He sails down to receive a mid-air whack, and I let things fade out on a nice shot of him taking a nap in the shallows. Aw, that's so sweet!

Closing remarks You can have a whole lot of fun at that hill, and I hope this movie will give you some inspiration - or at least gave you a laugh. I think it covers most of the ideas mentioned in my article. So, go fire up the level - on Legendary if you want the full five Grunts and the highest rate of plasma lobbing - and pay these grunty troopers a visit!

© 2004-2020 by Rockslider