Holdover V: Giving Everything For A Network Room
So, at the end of our last segment the truth behind the situation had started to come to light, and Marie's quest has finally brought her closer to the surface.
I wish I could play you the music right now, because honestly the presence of a new song is so
refreshing. Until now you've had nothing but a downbeat track to accompany you and a nostalgic, music-box like theme for Tanner's transmissions, but this segment has a cheery piece called Message. I can't upload the MIDI, but I can direct you to the
game's home page which has an awesome electric guitar rendition playing in the background.
The best part of this song is that it just represents the feeling of hope that's starting to emerge. At last it's starting to look like Marie might just make it out, and the music reflects that.
That's not to say the game isn't going to challenge you, though. And if you look around here things start to get a little...macabre.
Eep. No guessing who wrote this. *looks at the pile of bones*
HELL YES, ANOTHER NETWORK ROOM! LET'S GO!
...Oh. It's full of...more skeletons.
That's...charming.
Given that you're a pile of bones...apparently not close enough.
That's more like it. Now, we've got our cheerful music, so we must be close to victory-
*Message stops playing*
...Aw, shit.
Well, of course. If the network room was working, there wouldn't be dead bodies in here, would there?
Marie has yet another breakdown. This one's pretty understandable, I'll admit.
So, it looks like that's it. Marie's given up, all hope is lost. Until...
*music-box theme plays*
Tanner...?
DAD SHOWS UP IN THE NICK OF TIME!
AND RUNS AWAY!
Admittedly, though, here he finally explains to Marie that international relations have been declining rapidly since the accident while she was in the recovery capsule.
Think of how Tanner must be feeling as he's recording this. He has to give up on watching over his daughter, most likely forever, as the remainder of the facility is about to get wiped off the map. His last message is one to the Marie of the future, who he's obviously praying will come across it.
I think it's fitting that this has ended up as picture number 100, because it's a very good demonstration of the game's motif in general. If Holdover can be said to have a moral, it's that there's always hope even in the most desperate situations. Marie is struggling to survive, alone in a world she doesn't know, seeking any way to escape. At any point she could just curl up into a ball and give up, but she keeps on going thanks to her father's watching eye, even if his words are coming to her from the distant past.
For such a simple game, it's amazing how much a plot like this can actually get to you. I admit the first time I played it there was Engrish left right and centre, but playing it again with a legitimate script it's actually surprisingly endearing.
And with this, Marie regains the will to fight, and to live on. Almost as a reward, she immediately comes across the key to the infirmary.
So, we leave this room since it's more or less useless and head the infirmary directly beneath. Here, we get the game's last upgrade:
Why this was stored separately from the leg-recovery medicine is beyond me.
And we now have a fully-upgraded Marie, now capable of clinging to ledges and pulling herself up if her inhuman jump doesn't do the job! Huzzah!
Skipping the backtracking, we finally have the bonus we need to make that jump onto the ledge with Network Room B and-
OH FOR THE LOVE OF BYAKUREN, WHAT IS THIS.
Fortunately there's another transmission from the past, courtesy of everybody's favourite self-sacrificing father.
Yes. You read that right. Underground.
It's time for the game's longest backtrack, which I'll be generous enough not to show. One interesting tidbit I'll mention, however: if you go back into the first room of the game, you'll suddenly realise that there's a climbable ledge on the left...
And this will lead you into a featureless room with a single computer in it. Access this computer, and-
That's right, people. It's the obligatory 100% completion bonus. I obviously don't have all the hearts yet, so we'll just move on for now.
Anyway, the FREAKING HUGE underwater segment has one last path for you to take.
But, of course, this is the final, hardest segment in the game. I'll tell you that I have collected
every single heart in the game thus far, and I'm still drowning thanks to screwups.
Like so. >_>
Anyway, this is the game's final platforming stretch, and it's basically where it throws absolutely everything it has at you at once.
Whee, guess who needs to turn off the security again?
But of course, before that we need to sneak through this gap between the laser's that's barely as wide as Marie is, sneak down to the (underwater) terminal, and THEN run back up to the air pocket before you drown.
So, all that effort to turn off the lasers, and what do you earn by taking this new path?
A dead end. Wonderful.
No, as it turns out, you had to turn off the lasers so you could speed through that segment, to make sure you had enough air to get through the rest of the room without drowning. Featuring crouching sections, pixel-perfect jumps, spikes, collapsing floors and of course more lasers (they've turned back on by the time you get to the last segment) this is without a doubt the hardest segment in the game.
And for an added element of sheer, utter evil, if you make it to the end and (as you would logically do) jump to the surface,
the act of jumping consumes so much O2 that you drown before you make it. You actually have to walk to the edge in order to not die, which only makes sense if you properly appreciate the game's sort of strange air mechanics.
Another air pocket, another security off-switch. Why are these things so easy to turn off?
Oh, a nice surprise for you - even though during cutscenes your air meter stands still,
security timers don't.
Cue rushing through the cutscene to get back up before those flashlights turn on again. Technically they can be avoided fairly, but I'm lazy so yeah. >_>
So NOW we find a path to our left which is...an empty room.
Or at least it LOOKS empty, but if you keep walking along...yeah, what else? It's THE MAGICAL TWO-BLOCK ELEVATOR, pushing you up to the 'dead end' we saw in 115.
That's the last stretch of the game finished, but since I was looking for 100% completion this time around I backtracked through the admin segment for the last few hearts. I laughed heartily when I realised the trick with the last one:
I'm not kidding,
you have to jump headlong into those spikes just to get that one heart. Well played, Fox Eye.
So. One final backtracking session to Network Room B, but before that we'll sneak back into the starting room for our little surprise.
And if you look in your Holdover folder after seeing this, you'll notice a little picture called secret_cg has appeared. For the sake of convincing people to play through the game themselves, I'll keep it to myself, but it's a charming little bonus.
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So, that's the last big stretch of platforming done. I'll record the last segment of the game for your viewing pleasure. Probably trying to get through it with as little death as possible. >_>
