Possibly the best sniping playground in the whole game!

(6:56) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Normal. My last five movies gave a solid introduction to solo tower zone megabattle combat except for one thing: no sniping! Using a new set-up in which I have a sniper rifle, I demonstrate some of the fantastic sniping opportunities this megabattle presents. I've also got a rocket launcher, which makes a great pairing. Four plays here - and a lot of grunty panic!

Released August 17th 2023, gameplay recorded August 12th-16th 2023.

00:02 (Play 1 - Shade plateau) The footage starts from just after my set-up checkpoint. As you can see, the mob has been gathered near the trees on the edge of the main ice patch. Actually they're a little spread out between the trees and the pass boulder, which was deliberate. I thought it might be good to have them spread out a bit. One other thing about the set-up: I made sure to get some yellow-shielded Jackals this time. I namely got two, and they certainly add some welcome variety.

I thought the Shade plateau would make a good first spot from which to do some sniping, and a rather obvious one too. In this particular play there's an amusing bit where I manage to launch a Grunt with a tag and shoot him in mid-air. It amused me at least! When the mob has been dealt with I have some fun with the Grunt manning the front Shade, which I moved onto the ice before he spawned. I thought it might be good to have it over there, given the planned location of the mob.

02:12 (Play 2 - Shade slope fall-back) In this next battle I dismount not far past the ice. After carefully rocketing the Shade's back leg and seeing it fly forwards to splatter one of the Hunters, I wreak a bit more havoc before beginning a progressive fall-back to maintain some distance from the enemy. Some of my subsequent play is a bit scrappy, but basically I chose this play from among several contenders because of the Hunter splattering. I did get a few other splatterings, including one with a red Elite, but this was the best. And if you're wondering what happened to the other Hunter, he was killed by the blast. So that was quite a successful rocket!

03:41 (Play 3 - Bottleneck fall-back) Another fall-back play next. After blasting and ramming the Shade, I land near the bottleneck below the Shade plateau. Some sloping ground there gives you a bit of elevation if you want it. A highlight comes early. After a few sniper rounds to kill the Hunters, my first rocket takes out the two red Elites in spectacular fashion. They happened to be advancing close together.

05:07 (Play 4 - Cosy spot) At some point I realised that there was a very cosy spot to use near the supplies, standing behind a perfect cover rock, ideal for shooting over. I quickly got a fairly nice play for the movie, but later I returned for more play, seeking to do better. In particular I wanted to get the Shade Grunt launched relatively high for the finale, which I realised I could do if I rocketed the underside of the Shade just right. Earlier I'd just been rocketing a leg, and the Grunt wasn't going nearly so high. Another improvement was the use of a more spectacular Banshee flight plan, in which I drop almost to the ground and then swoop off around the overturned Wraith. It took some care to get that drop just right.

As for the battling in this play, I'll just mention one thing. Around 6:16 when I see that a final Elite is closing in, I throw a frag to the left, hoping for it to set off a chain reaction among the loose plasmas I'd noticed building up. It works nicely, killing the Elite even though he dives far away from the frag. Aside from the Shade Grunt, that just leaves a few Jackals and Grunts to finish off, and the three Grunt snipes make a satisfying end to the main work.

A word about that cover rock though. I was fortunate to have it. The game randomizes rocks when you come through a loading point, and I got lucky. I've now done some quick checking and it looks to me like this is the only version of the rock suitable for shooting over. The other versions are all way too high.

Closing remarks If you enjoyed that, don't go away. There's more sniping next movie!

© 2004-2023 by Rockslider