War in Heaven - Acts 1 & 2 (Aka: Part 1):
War in Heaven was for me, the pivot that turned me from 'casual fan' to 'HLP Lurker/Future Community Member.'
I still lurking the forums constantly for news about BP. A few months later I decided to venture out to see the rest of HLP.
Soon afterwards, registered and made my presence official.
Because I wanted to share my thoughts about Blue Planet. I wanted to see what other people had pieced together and what other things I could glean from the 'dev' posts.
But I didn't know how to do that, so it was all a long wait until today (Yesterday, if you wish to get technical.)
The campaign started off with a bang and, despite the critical disadvantage of no voice acting, managed to enrapture me with a single mission: 'Artemis Station'
Even though it was not a playable level, it hooked me instantly with an excellent introduction and a well done delivery of the antagonist.
This was not Adm. Douchy McPunk Morrison. This was Admiral Chiwetel Steele, commander and mastermind of the Artemis assault.
From that into, I gathered that Steele was going to be the main adversary of the campaign. And bloody 'el, was I right!
The second mission introduced me to Noemi Laporte, the so called 'Ubuntu Ideal.' Switching to Noemi was... difficult.
I think it was mostly because of the constant chattering that was left unvoiced; Noemi had too much to say and too little screen time to actually say it.
The dialogue window was 1) all the way up to the Left-Top corner of the screen and 2) it all came at the same time as some intense fighting sections did.
As a result, I was constantly fighting with two pieces of myself: The one that was into the story and 'role-playing' as Noemi, and the one that was playing a videogame.
This became a nightmare in later sections, particularly: Saturn, but I get ahead of myself.
For all the praise AoA's infamous 'Forced Entry' had recieved, WiH upped the game-play ante all the way.
Missions were harder, you had no squad members, enemies were smarter, etc.
This made it difficult, but rewarding, to progress in the story. Then came 'Darkest Hour.'
This was another near magical moment for me. The music (of which the battle track is no longer used because of unfortunate legal stuff), the difficulty, the urgency, it all made me feel like this was it.
This was the final battle... and it came after about five missions. Of course, this being Blue Planet, my expectations were subverted again. Simms, who was nothing more than an annoyance that I could not even understand why Laporte would fall for, came with her squad and frigate and 'saved my life.'
After this I lightened up to that character and began to accept the martian firehead behavior. But there were bigger problems, Steele just showed up and was going to kill us... then more backup arrived, and the mission was salvaged.
Or so I though, because the moment Brie told Noemi to open fleet chat, I actually became depressed.
I was so into the whole mission, that like the characters themselves, I was broken by the reports.
Steele had won, he just let me live. I was at an all time low... and it was going to get worse.
Next mission the rescue Op came. The Op that I replayed at least five times trying to save the Navajas. And lost them each time.
In the end, this mission was too good for me, and I lost to one of the fighter pilots in an overpowering vessel. (The Atalanta, I think?)
Surprisingly, the campaign continued afterwards, letting me carry on with the fact that I had failed as a pilot and as a squad mate.
So far, I had actually disliked Simms and had developed little more than a bitter respect for her character. But it was after the Dating Simm (and the briefing after the most grueling mission
I had played so far [guess which one]), that I learned and started to be accepting of the person that was being presented to me. I came to a peace with the NoSi Romance, and started to like her comments when they came up.
Afterwards, I reached 'Deals in Shadows' and... broke-down again. Sergei Gwylim had broken me. And the moment the chance showed up, I was going to break him.
I was affected far more by the destruction of a shuttle (back then, escape pod) in a videogame than by almost every single movie I had watched in my life.
But it was not over yet, now was my chance to make Steele pay for his devilish dealings. Now I had a chance to make a difference. The Carthage had to be destroyed.
It was another 'magic' moment, routing the Carthage to Saturn, the 2nd & 3rd were going to keep the Tevs busy. I was going to be there and burn it down. Vengeance was going to be mine.
I did not care I had missed about half the dialogue of the mission while dog-fighting. I was here for one thing only: The Carthage.
And then... Steele won.
He expected it all. I was hating him so much, I became as obsessed as the characters had with the idea of hitting him back in some way.
But my reward was an ambush.
Simms went back to being her closed, offensive self after that failiure. And I had gone back to hating her character because of it.
And as the Indus drifted into the Sun, the Fedayeen arrived in the first miraculous rescue cliché that I actually applauded, and was followed suit by the ending sequence.
War in Heaven - Act 3:
Well... this one has for a long time proven difficult to summarize. After some though, however, I have come to the conclusion that the only path I can take is through. Sorry it took so long.
Tenebra I can describe with a single word: Frustration.
Frustration against against complexity, against new ideas, etc. It took me a long time to even get past the first mission.
Even following guides I had much trouble playing, to the point I got sick of it and just cheated to kill the stragglers at the end because of all the times I had to replay and got no skip button.
I had even more trouble on the next mission where I had to hack things and escape.
After a ridiculous amount of rage quits, I managed to finish the mission, one I never want to redo in my entire life. I though the worst was over after the next mission with the Custos, which was pretty darn fun. I was wrong.
When I got to Neptune, the rage was reborn. The fact I had to keep tabs on so many bloody things at once turned that mission from an interesting concept into a hate-play. Oh forgot the turrets, Oh forgot the AWACS, Oh forgot the freighters, Oh forgot the AAAs.
By the time I actually did disable the Carthage, I had amassed such hatred I went through a transcendence. I didn't order its destruction, I was beyond it.
It was a strange experience. I didn't give a damn about anything anymore, not all the times I died, not the feelings I had when I first played WiH. I was void of all at that point.
And after a nicely done Tower Defence mission, I went through Universal Truth. At ~11 PM. Half Asleep. After having eaten a heavy meal. You can guess the wonder that did for my sleep that day,
and the following week really. There is nothing I can add to what I have said before: The mission made me **** myself (figurative) and left me disturbed. Without any need whatsoever for some gory bull****. It was just done so well with abstractions, I was shocked to learn there were spider pics in the mod folders!
Now, onto the main dish... tomorrow. (Valve Time)
