1. Ribbons. This level was I guess supposed to be a stealth level. You start with no weapons and only a little health. There are no health rechargers or health canisters anywhere in the level, so you die in one hit! This made it the hardest level of the campaign. I just don’t understand where the stealth aspect was supposed to take effect. Enemy triggers seemed to be normal, it didn’t really seem to be possible to sneak past anyone without being detected. There are also two simulacrum Bobs next to some precious ammo. These enemy Bobs have lots of extra health, and while the terminals do warn you about them, it’s quite easy to blunder into them by accident and be instantly killed. Much of the level consisted of wandering around in underwater areas trying to figure out where to go, including one particularly nasty underwater area (“pump station”) with instant-kill platforms. This was my least favorite map of the campaign.
2. Satellite of love. Lack of ammo remains a problem, but at least now we have health rechargers! There’s some good combat, and I liked the circular architecture, which was appropriate for a satellite. Differential shading for this level was great, and helped accentuate the Jjaro tileset. The end has a bizarre gauntlet where you have to run past an un-killable fusion turret in order to hit a switch, which then disables the turret and allows you to proceed.
3. Harpooning. The ammo shortage has been resolved. There is a spectacular 5D space. Basically, there is a portal that starts out closed; it’s basically just a wall in the middle of nowhere. When you activate it, you can step through the “wall” to a whole new area. It’s really creative, and one of the best uses of the 5D space I’ve seen.
4. Melted Wires. Your goal is to activate an engine core that will turn on another 5D portal. There are several battles pitting Bobs vs. Pfhor, but both sides turn out to have a ton of reinforcements so player participation in these fights is actually just going to waste your small supply of ammo. In order to reach the engine core some difficult jumps across a lava lake must be made. The core itself features a decent platforming puzzle.
5. The Rift. Despite being the last level, it features the easiest combat. This is because you’ve got lots of ammo and easy access to health rechargers. Also, there are a lot of enforcers on this level, and they are hostile to the rest of the Pfhor, so enemy infighting is going to significantly thin out the ranks of the opposition. The campaign is unfinished (many of the terminals are missing pictures) but overall Marathon C might be worth your time if you want to see some examples of differential shading done right and some really cool 5D space.
The game is still vastly incomplete, but the maps themselves should work just fine.
Things that are missing: -Logon/Logoff screens -Terminal pictures -A proper intro? (Considering making a neat little 'unplayable' level in the future to kick it off). -The rest of the levels
Things it DOES have: -5 playable maps, including the extra path for failing to be 'stealthy' in the first level. -Physics and terminal text for every map -Use of color tables left untouched in the orignal Marathon Infinity
With any luck, all you'll need to do to run the scenario is download the map, and use all the other standard shapes and images that come with MI, leaving the whole download at just a smidgen more than a megabyte.
If you download this, please try to break the levels in any way you can: grenade hop, launch yourself, take goofy paths, etc. And let me know if you find any bugs. I'm trying my best to make these very high-quality maps, since there are so few of them.
And another thing: I'm holding a little contest. Make a proper Marathon film, and try to beat 'Satellite of Love' as quickly as you can on Total Carnage (bonus points for playing through the first level to get there). I assure you, you'll be in for a challenge: I, the creator of the level, can barely beat it... sometimes. I hope some unfortunate players are prepared to bathe in grenades. :D
Enjoy!