Reviews

While attempting to teleport out of the Moon Man level the game crashes. Normally in a case like this I’d just use the level skip cheat to bypass the problematic level and continue with the campaign (see my review for Marathon Aeon where just such a thing occurred) but with Operation Tantalus it’s so confusingly nonlinear I have no idea what the next level would be, or how the level progression even works! So I was never able to complete the campaign.

The obvious thing that stands out about this campaign is that it’s non-linear. At the end of the first level you’re given the choice of three different missions/levels to tackle. I chose one, then shortly thereafter I again got a choice of three new missions/levels to complete. Meanwhile, the number of intra-level and inter-level teleports was excessive, so it was very easy for me to get confused about where I had gone and where I needed to go.

I like giving the player meaningful choices. Player agency is good! But the non-linearity of this campaign quickly became more of a liability than an asset. Firstly, it was too complicated, I have no idea how it worked, and it was never explained. Was I making progress going through these levels, or were some of them kicking me back like in Marathon Infinity? I have no idea. I was just making random choices, since plot-wise nothing seemed to make any difference. For example, one time when I was offered my pick of three missions/levels, one of them was to raid an armory. Well that seemed like a good source of weapons and ammo, both of which are in short supply for this campaign, so I chose to go to the armory. Instead, the bad guys intercepted my teleport signal and sent me into an arena level where I had to waste a bunch of my precious ammo fighting tough enemies, and if I chose the wrong exit door the ammo-less level would reset and I’d have to play it again and lose even more resources!!! So my choices seemed to be mostly illusionary, not real. Also, I kept finding ammo for weapons I didn’t have. Presumably, if I had made different level choices, I’d have those weapons, but how was I supposed to know what choices were “best?”

Anyways, the first level starts out with a neat gimmick. You have a tough human marine as an ally to help you kill all the monsters on the level! How the dev got this ally to move around the map and (sometimes) kill things using the primitive Marathon AI I have no idea. Actually your ally will have to kill most of the baddies for the first half of the level, because there are almost no weapons and ammo on this map, which I’m guessing was a deliberate choice to force the player to stick with their ally. Unfortunately, the execution of this was flawed. There are hostile Bobs scattered across the level as a common enemy, and if (when) one of them damages the UESC marine, the marine will inexplicably start shooting at you!

This is a Marathon 1 campaign, so there is no ambient sound. For some reason the dev chose to include no music, either, so many of the levels seemed strangely quiet. There are new sounds for the weapons, enemies, and platforms, but the new enemy sounds were horrible, loud, ear-splitting shrieks that made me want to turn off the sound altogether! Many of the Pfhor enemies enemies had new color palettes and were tougher than their original counterparts, though the hardest part about the combat in this scenario was the lack of save terminals and shield rechargers.

Overall, it’s difficult to recommend this campaign in its current state. In order for it to be playable, the inter-level teleport crashes would need to be fixed. Also, because the level design and progression were super confusing, there needs to be either a hint guide, spoiler guide, in-game terminal explanation, or something similar so the player isn’t constantly lost. If this happens I will re-visit this review.

This is an action-packed campaign, but it has some major problems with the modern Aleph One engine. The biggest problem is that you’re going to have to use the level skip cheat to bypass level 7 (I go into more detail about that in my level-by-level analysis). Though the combat is generally fun, there are some questionable design choices, and Aeon was never finished. On the combat side, most of the enemies have been haxored and sport a new look and new capabilities. Aeon’s baddies present some nice variety; those looking for challenging combat will not be disappointed.

Graphically, Aeon is a mixed bag. In terms of the sheer variety of textures, Aeon is in a class by itself. It uses all the default Infinity textures, plus it poaches textures from a large number of third party scenarios. I don’t know if the author got permission to use those textures; hopefully he did! But the result is a curious and confusing sort of graphical hodgepodge that, aesthetically speaking, doesn’t look so good. In just one level you’ll see Jjaro textures next to Pfhor textures next to 3rd party medieval castle textures; there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, in fact in many cases it just seems to be variety purely for the sake of variety. There are also many, many doors placed in every level, but most of them will never open. My “tab” finger got worn out trying to figure out which doors were “legit” and which were nothing more than window dressing!

In terms of architecture there’s a lot of variation in elevation, and large numbers of polygons are used for even small areas. In some ways you could almost say that the levels are overbuilt, but the good news is that they are simple enough that they can be easily navigated, which is a huge plus in my book. There is some nice looking chapter artwork, and some new sounds/music that I think also came from other 3rd party campaigns. My level-by-level analysis (minor spoilers ahead):

1. Our Lives a Mimicry. At first glance this seems to be a plot exposition level, since you start out near a terminal that will take you to the next level. But if you take the time to explore a bit you’ll find lots of weapons and ammo, as well as some baddies to fight. At first I wasn’t happy about this, because it seemed that people who didn’t explore were getting heavily punished and might end up under-prepared due to their lack of stuff. But it turns out that this campaign is not stingy with either weapons or ammo, so my fears about unbalanced gameplay did not come to fruition. However, I was unhappy that there was one ammo cache in a cage that (apparently) could not be reached by any means. Taunting players with inaccessible ammo caches is never a good thing, though even Bungie was guilty of that sin.

2. Apoptosis. Right off the bat you’re dumped into a massive firefight between Bobs and Pfhor. At first I thought it was a pretty cool set piece battle where I could help turn the tide…until I realized that both sides were having an unlimited amount of reinforcements teleport in, so all my heroism was for naught, and I was just wasting ammo. Once that unfortunate fact had been established, it was a simple matter to explore and complete the rest of the level, which was small.

3. Founder Effect. More firefights. Better firefights! This was an easily navigated level that still provided interesting tactical opportunities for combat. Fighting against the buffed up new Pfhor enemies was fun. There were a few teleport ambushes in which bad guys teleported in directly behind the player, which I don’t agree with. On the whole, though, this was a really solidly designed level.

4. Eternal Lucid Dream. You’re assaulting an enemy base perched precariously on the side of a cliff. I liked the aesthetics, and the combat was intense. New enemy types were introduced, and they were tough! Unfortunately, the problem of enemies teleporting directly on top of the player did recur a few times. At one point the player is given two switches to toggle. One of them opens the path forward, but it is not set to “trigger only once”, so if the player gets confused about what switches they have hit, they might hit it again, closing the path forward. The fact that the other switch uselessly closes a nearby window just adds to the potential confusion. Switches that open the way forward should always be set to “trigger only once”! At another point I found an unmarked teleporter next to a staircase, the sole purpose of which was to teleport me a paltry two meters away if I should happen to wander into the area. I’m guessing that there was some kind of clipping problem with some polygons and so the dev didn’t want me traversing that area. But rather than fixing the problem, the dev came up with the rather bizarre solution of teleporting the player away from the offending polygons!

5. Pfherrous Oxide. A short level in which you’re tasked with grabbing a chip. A rather nasty ambush occurs shortly thereafter, but you’re explicitly warned about it in a terminal, so I’m OK with it.

6. The Rise and Fall of Digit. You’re dumped into the middle of a huge firefight. Hopefully you live long enough to get your bearings and use the nearby save terminal! After that it’s a fight through an impressive-looking river and temple area.

7. The Asphodel Meadows. Oh no! The game crashed on attempting to load this level! Even using the level skip cheat didn’t work. I had to level skip past this level to continue the campaign! After consulting knowledgeable people, I learned that this level will never open in modern Aleph One due to having too many lines/points/polygons/sounds.

8. In our Dreams Awake. Plot exposition.

9. Frameshift Mutation. Apparently some important plot points were revealed in the level that I had to skip, because now I have no idea what’s going on — some Bobs, Defenders, and Pfhor are shooting at me, but others are on my side??? OK, I looked it up, and apparently, some bioweapon was released that’s causing everyone to go crazy. In level 7 you have the choice to side with the infected or un-infected people. By level skipping to level 8 I started on the infected branching path. One last note: there was a big unfilled polygon near the initial save terminal that looks bad.

10. Vae Victis. You board a UESC ship, and it actually looks like a ship if you pull it up on the mini map! That is so cool. Architecture is good. A lot of the combat involves fighting Bobs at long range with pistols, which is a nice change from the normal close quarters combat focus. The biggest problem with this level is that there isn’t a single pattern buffer, and that, coupled with some unfair teleporter ambushes, made this level frustrating. It did have a catchy soundtrack though.

11. Jjaro jjaro Evolution. It’s a Rebellion level, and you start out with nothing but your fists to take on hordes of fighters, as well as a trooper and hunter. Yuck! Combat is absolutely brutal; the only health recharger and save terminal are at the start of the level and quickly become inaccessible. To make matters worse you’re fighting on a series of precarious lava ledges and it’s all too easy too strafe too far in one direction and fall into an inescapable lava pit. Towards the end of the level you end up fighting some extremely dangerous defenders and compilers that will shred your health in no time. With so little cover to work with you have to engage in what might colloquially be described as “door fuckery.” Open a door, take a few potshots at some aliens, close it before their return fire eviscerates you, rinse, repeat. At the end you’re teleported back to the main menu (even though the plot is clearly unfinished) so I guess that’s it for the “infected” story branch!

12. Blaze. The start of the un-infected story branch. Lots of firefights! One time one of the new infected compilers hit me so hard that I got knocked into a rock formation and couldn’t get out!

13. Lapsus Linguae. This level has some really nice lighting effects! Good combat too.

14. Words Which I Command. This is nothing more than a rehash of the level “Vae Victis” from the infected story branch. Only this time you’re fighting Pfhor in vacuum. Although the combat is easier, the total lack of any save terminal or oxygen recharger really sucks. There were a ton of terminals to read but who has the time when the O2 clock is constantly ticking down???

15. Asking A Shadow to Dance. You get a ton of ammo and health canisters in order to take on a huge horde of infected. Carnage ensues. Architecture is really impressive: Much of the fighting takes place on a huge spiral staircase that looks beautiful. Completing the level kicks you back to the main menu, even though the story is not finished, so I guess that’s the end of the non-infected story path. It’s probably years too late to make this observation, as the dev seems to have moved on, but I don’t see any reason why the storyline of Aeon couldn’t be completed just using the existing levels. 90% of the story had already been wrapped up; with just a few terminal re-writes the story could be considered fully completed.

16. More Dakka. This must be a secret level, though I have no idea how to get to it normally. I entered via the level skip cheat. It is identical to level 6, but with a lot more combat. I wasn’t able to beat it though. A telepad took me to a cavern area with a lot of baddies. Once they had been disposed of, I found a pattern buffer, two flavor terminals, a non-functional terminal, a locked door, and a chip insertion outlet. But there was no chip anywhere on the level that I could find, and in any case once you take that telepad you can’t backtrack. The end of the level was probably behind that locked door, but with no way to open it…I had to give up. Perhaps the player was expected to already have a chip with them when they entered the level?

17. Illumination. This is multiplayer version of level 15. It’s based on a big circular arena with lots of opportunities to shoot at people from different elevations, which is good. But it’s a big map that would work best with 4+ players, and finding such a multiplayer Marathon game in the year 2024 is gonna be tough.

This is one of the first third-party campaigns made for Marathon Infinity, and it does some pretty ambitious things as far as architecture design is concerned. I was really amazed by the complexity of some of the maps, and certainly making those maps must have taken a lot of skill. In particular, I want to give the author props for making aesthetically good-looking maps, and for making maps that look architecturally functional (example: a water dam has a pumping station and other rooms you’d expect from such a structure).

Unfortunately, there are some pretty serious gameplay issues that prevent this from being one of the best Marathon single-player mapsets, but if you’re willing to look past some of the rough-around-the-edges parts this might be worth a try. Also, due to the complexity of some of the levels, and the prevalence of switch hunts, I strongly recommend using the Eat the Path plugin (also available from S7) so that you don’t get lost.

Now let’s take a look at the specific levels (minor spoilers ahead):

Revival: This is a short non-combat level in which you’re tasked with thawing out a BoB from cryo-sleep. It’s a pretty unique mission, and although it does require you to find an unmarked secret door, the terminal does tell you exactly where you need to go and what you need to do. It also includes some nice chapter art graphics.

Seeds of Destruction: Here the problems start. There is a graphical glitch with many of the textures on this level that causes on-screen blurring. Additionally, some textures are either misaligned or completely out of place (example: a bright stone step in otherwise dark metal maintenance tunnels). A part of the level requires you to navigate through a very dark and confusing underwater area, where you will be pitted against flickta with nothing but your fists. To make matters worse, there is no oxygen recharger, only a single one-shot O2 canister that’s in a semi-secret area and easy to miss. So you can get soft-locked if you take too much time in the underwater area.

But probably worst of all, there is a pervasive lack of shield rechargers and save terminals on this map. This might not be such a big deal except that the combat is quite difficult. Additionally, this level includes a crusher instant-death trap, and it is quite easy to blunder into this trap without even realizing the danger, and before you’ve encountered a save terminal, meaning that you’re going to get kicked all the way back to the start of the campaign (ouch!). Of course, one of the two save terminals in this level is in a difficult-to-find area that’s directly AFTER the crusher trap, so it’s mostly useless, and in any case a door closes that permanently locks you out of that part of the map so you can’t go back to the save terminal if you miss it the first time. The one good thing about this level is that, aesthetically, the temple area looks beautiful.

Pfhorget About It: The unfortunate pattern of lack of save terminals and health rechargers continues. It wouldn’t be such a big deal except the combat of this campaign is absolutely brutal. In this level you’re fighting in cramped corridors and there isn’t much room to dodge. There are several vicious ambushes in which the game waits until you’re involved in a major firefight, then has a bunch of enemies attack you from behind, and since you’re in tight hallways there’s no way to easily disengage. There’s also a part where you encounter some BoBs, some of which are simulacrums, and since health is so scarce a single simulacrum is likely enough to end you. After a while I just shot all green BoBs on sight, just to be sure.

There was an optional switch puzzle that can be solved with some basic trial-and-error; the reward is an ammo cache. There was also a neat multi-floor elevator which must have taken some work to construct.

The initial terminal for this level was unintentionally funny. It gives you some convoluted directions, then it shows you a map which is unintelligible because it has so many lines crisscrossing it. The gist of your briefing is, “What you need to do should be obvious,” which was a statement so patently absurd I had to laugh out loud at how wrong it was. At the technical level, as a Marathon mapmaker, I was amazed at how this level represents a Pfhor ship that has four separate decks. Piling on all those polygons on top of each other must have taken a lot of work, and pushed the Forge mapmaking tool to its limits. But the level was actually too complex. The auto-map quickly became useless because it was mapping at four different elevations. To make matters worse, much of the texturing of the level was bland, with several areas using the same texture for the walls, the floor, and the ceiling. This meant that there were few memorable landmarks for the player to get and keep their bearings.

Freudian Slip: This a non-combat level featuring an annoying lava bath puzzle. You need to take four lava baths in order to insert four chips, but it’s probably going to take more than that since any slip up on your part will definitely be lethal. And then I got soft-locked!!! After inserting the chips the terminal congratulated me and told me that my next task was to open the reactor door to fix the reactor. But the door refused to open. I had to cheat (level-skip) to the next level just to finish this review!!!

One Damn Mess: Finally, a level that isn’t stingy with the health rechargers! Plus you get some allies too. But on that count it was a bit confusing, since some of the cyborgs were friendly, while others were hostile, and it wasn’t easy to determine which was which until they started shooting! The level is architecturally impressive; it’s a water dam complex that looks functional. Somehow the level features two transparent textures back-to-back, which I thought was impossible in the game engine! Unfortunately, the level objectives devolve into a series of overly complicated switch hunts. There is also a pit that is easy to fall into, but that only be escaped from by using grenade jumping— hopefully you have lots of health and grenades, or you found the level’s only save terminal!

Napalm in the Morning: This is another level that is architecturally impressive. There are several multi-floor elevators, and several times that several floors were stacked on top of each in such a way that you might think you were playing in a true 3D game engine, rather than a 2.5D game engine. I was impressed with the multi-floor dynamics of this level, which I know must have been hard to pull off. Save terminals and shield rechargers were adequate; in fact it was kind of strange because this was one of the easiest levels in the campaign, but it is level 6!

At one point I got stuck, with seemingly no place to go. After wasting much time I located a switch that could be hit multiple times. It turns out this switch opens a door out of line of sight, but only for a brief time, so you have to run to it to get through. These sorts of counterintuitive switch hunts are not fun.

Hey, Whose Side Are You On?: This is a level based on a terrible premise, which is that some BoBs are hostile, and some are friendly, and it’s up to you to figure out which is which! You’re told “try not to kill the loyal BoBs,” but good luck with that! Even the normal precaution of just shooting the green BoBs no longer works, because BoBs of all different colors are now hostile. Much of the level consists of narrow corridors that friendly BoBs love to block, and such blockages are annoying and can often only be solved with lethal force. That, coupled with a lack of shield rechargers and save points, and very unforgiving combat, is going to push most players into a mentality of just killing everyone. There’s no punishment for such a strategy, despite the briefing terminal’s admonition, and from an ammo acquisition standpoint it’s clearly the better choice.

Personally I think the level would have been better if all the BoBs had been hostile, or if the friendly BoBs had something to do besides causing traffic jams. For example, in Bungie’s “God Will Sort the Dead” level there were hostile simulacrums, but the friendly BoBs were actually useful because they would fight the Pfhor as they teleported in, and thus the combat dynamics were fun.

At one point there’s an almost-certainly-lethal crusher trap. There’s no warning whatsoever given about this trap, which I disagree with. Players should never be instant-killed without warning, I think. At another point there’s a puzzle involving hitting switches in the right order, but it was pretty straightforward and a nice break from the BoB slaughter.

Into the Fire: There was a puzzle on this level that has echoes of the infamous puzzle on Bungie’s “Colony Ship For Sale, Cheap.” Why? Why would one want to replicate such an awful puzzle? It involves hitting switches, which raise platforms that are (mostly) far away, and which make a stairway to access the way forward. But you must get the platform elevations exactly right, or else you’ll need to do a lot of tedious backtracking. Ironically, the easiest solution to Bungie’s infamous puzzle, and this one, was to ignore the puzzle altogether and instead engage in grenade jumping. But grenade jumping is a difficult skill to master, so most players will be stuck doing the puzzle. On the upside, I did like the nice variety of enemies to fight, and the interesting combat scenarios — fighting yetis at different elevations, or fighting invisible compilers in the dark.

Near the end of the level I stepped on what turned out to be a telepad and was unceremoniously whisked to the next level. But there was still a terminal I didn’t read, and some rooms I never got to explore! Urgh! So I had to reload from my last save and do a bunch of tedious backtracking in order to fully explore the level. This is why level transitions based on terminals are better most of the time, because the player can press “esc” to abort the teleport if there’s still exploring to be done, and there will be no accidental inter-level teleports.

Station Alpha: This is a level based around a cool circular ring-design. Even just looking at the level on the auto-map you can tell that a lot of effort went into its design. The combat was fun, although not particularly difficult. Really, in terms of combat difficulty, this campaign is all over the place, with some of the early levels being brutally hard, and many of the later levels being fairly easy.

There was one part that required a grenade jump to progress, which I’m not sure I agree with, since many players don’t know about grenade jumping. Overall though, this was a really solid, entertaining level.

Station Alpha the Sequel: The circular ring design is back, but this part of the station has suffered heavy damage and been exposed to vacuum. I liked the dichotomy between the intact previous level and its smashed-up sequel. Despite coming into the level with full oxygen, I almost suffocated before I found an O2 recharger, and I was playing on Normal difficulty. Anyone playing on a higher difficulty level is going to have a lot of problems with this level simply due to O2 scarcity. This level has a lot of plot exposition given on terminals, but in a vacuum level with limited O2 access I’m not sure that’s a good idea; constant O2 concerns distracted me from any emotional plot revelations.

The basic goal of this level was to collect and insert four chips. Three of them were easy to find, but the fourth I just could not figure out how to get to. I could see the chip, but it was across a large chasm that was too big to leap across. I kept thinking I must have missed a switch or door that led to the last chip, as there were several non-functional doors in the area. But no, it turns out that those doors were never meant to open, they were just window dressing for a derelict space station. The actual solution was kind of ridiculous. After wasting much time, I finally turned to the internet for a solution, then realized that there was an official Wanda hint guide packaged with the campaign, and read that to discover that by blasting dual shotguns I could propel myself across the chasm. I have heard of rocket jumping and grenade jumping before, but shotgun jumping, really??? Did the author edit the physics file of the shotguns to make this possible, as I’ve never encountered it before…

All Pfhor One: Holy moly, it’s a whole new tileset, and it looks really badass! The alien ship graphics looked great; my only regret was that the new tileset was only seen in the final two levels of the campaign. I wish we had seen more of it! One thing that could be an issue is that this level has some mandatory swimming portions, but there are no oxygen rechargers anywhere, which could lead to a soft lock if you came into this level without much air (very possible since the last level was in vacuum). Overall, the combat on this level was fun; the fact that you had Pfhor allies was unusual but I felt it synced with the story and provided some nice variety.

Showdown: The final level involves finding four uplink chips so you can destroy Wanda’s core. The new tileset makes this level look really beautiful. The combat was intense, with many ambushes, but the presence of many shield rechargers and save terminals meant that this was one of the easiest levels of the campaign. There was a particularly mean ambush in one area, where the player will go to read a terminal only for the door the close behind them and indestructible turrets to pop out and start shooting. This is almost guaranteed death the first time you encounter it; hopefully you’ll have a recent save! Architecture was great as usual; the southern elevator room was particularly impressive with how it handled two rooms on top of each other. After destroying Wanda’s core you go to the bridge and pilot the ship into a nearby sun, but it all seemed so anti-climactic. The whole level Wanda is taunting/threatening you, but then we don’t even get a final terminal with her, or a big final battle, it all just abruptly ends. You do, however, get a nice endgame picture during the epilogue, along with just enough exposition to conclude the storyline.