Marathon 2 Durandal: Total Carnage Full Gameplay (No Mid-Level Restarts)
So apart from the Aleph One source port, the other addition I've made to my playthrough is the "Feel the Noise" Plugin: A fan-made soundtrack for Marathon 2 courtesy of Talashar. If you want it for yourself or you if want the full deets, you can grab them here:
Steam Workshop - https://steamcommunity.com/app/239849...
Simplici7y - https://simplici7y.com/items/m2-fan-s...
YouTube (give the guy some love) - • Feel The Noise - Talashar (2024) Marathon ...
I don't do nearly as well at uncovering secrets here as Marathon 2 happens to be... uh... arcanely straight-forward. Although the level size and complexity is several notches above the first game, I remember only having an issue staying on the critical path on just two levels, those being "Six Thousand Feet Under" and "Feel the Noise". These levels are so freakin' big and exploring every nook and cranny will drain your resources.
It's kind of incredible how many of these levels you can absolutely bust by either knowing a few secret doors or with clever use of your AR nades. So much so that I'm torn between beating a level optimally and wanting to show the intended path. I go with the latter option for the most part, but it does make things harder on myself. "Ex Cathedra" and "Nuke and Pave" are good examples here.
Marathon 2 definitely harder on the combat front. Some of these encounters are simply bonkers. Take the end of "Feel the Noise" for example. Dropping 2 'Mother of all Cyborgs' and 2 'Mother of all Hunters' at the very end is just cruel. I'd had to play through that entire level 8 or 9 times because of my insistence of not using mid-level saves so I can hide all my deaths behind the loading screen of the previous level and at least pretend I'm good at this game.
Ok, Cool! Now to get to work on Infinity.
Chapter list:
0:00 Intro (Rocking out to that title track)
1:59 Chapter 1 - Lh'owon (The chapter art from Craig Mullins in this game is phenomenal)
2:07 Waterloo Waterpark (Excellent! *Electric Guitar Riff*)
9:49 Slings And Arrows Of Outrageous Fortune (To punch or not to punch...)
15:57 Charon Doesn't Make Change (This one is designed to look like a S'pht homestead. Well, if you squint....)
22:22 Chapter 2 - Volunteers
22:47 What About Bob? ("Death Therapy Bob!" Very combat heavy.)
32:36 Come And Take Your Medicine (The one where the critical path takes 10% of the level)
37:05 We're Everywhere (Where the upgraded Fusion Pistol becomes your best friend)
48:29 Chapter 3 - Garrison
48:37 Ex Cathedra (Trooper overload makes this the first true pain in the butt level)
59:57 Nuke And Pave (A quote from Nixon, referring to Vietnam. This one is also a PTA if you don't cheese it.)
1:12:18 Curiouser And Curiouser (A very open-ended level. Lots of cross fighting between the Pfhor and Fl'ickta)
1:25:53 Chapter 4 - Citadel
1:26:22 Eat It, Vid Boi (Bungie being Bungie. Another combat centric map.)
1:37:29 The Hard Stuff Rules (Created by Greg 'fifty-five-polygons-per-square-world-unit-all-overlapping' Kirkpatrick)
1:46:27 Bob's Big Date (No Bob's here is deliberate, Bob is late for his big date.)
1:57:49 Six Thousand Feet Under (That drop-off side route is probably the reason most players will get lost here.)
2:08:05 Chapter 5 - Durandal
2:08:18 If I Had A Rocket Launcher... (A Bruce Cockburn song when proxy wars were in vogue for the US. Coincidently, there is a SPNKR here...)
2:12:54 Sorry, Don't Make It So (A remake of 'Pfhor Your Eyes Only', The one Pfhor level from M1 that translated to M2 cleanly.)
2:23:12 For Carnage, Apply Within (The two certain death traps at the start is a bit much.)
2:31:20 Begging For Mercy Makes Me Angry (Why yes, the music is reminiscent of the Pfour levels in M1. Nice touch)
2:47:54 Chapter 6 - Captured
2:48:17 The Big House (Jason says it took him weeks to make this map.)
2:49:29 Chapter 7 - Blake
2:49:39 This Side Toward Enemy (That is Jason Jones as Blake. The very first map made for M2, and it shows...)
3:01:19 God Will Sort the Dead (Everyone is dead? Great work! *Thumbs up*)
3:08:44 My Own Private Thermopylae (Till now, M2 has been mostly free of M1's platform nonsense.)
3:21:09 Kill Your Television (Puzzle maps like this one were real snoozers at the Bungie office.)
3:34:02 Chapter 8 - Simulacrums
3:34:24 Where The Twist Flops (Gonna have to freeze frame to read that terminal.)
3:43:01 Beware Of Abandoned Rental Trucks (The enforcers and cut escape routes can make this one a bastard)
3:53:50 Requiem For A Cyborg (Pity I ballsed up the secret, the hidden terminal here is pretty funny.)
4:04:14 Chapter 9 - S'pht'Kr
4:04:27 Fatum Iustum Stultorum (Jason Jones is working that Latin again...)
4:15:44 Feel the Noise (I'm not still bitter about this one. No sir-re...)
4:25:44 All Roads Lead To Sol (Does this make up for 'Colony Ship for Sale'?)
4:45:05 Ending
4:48:44 Developer Terminal (I'm going to have to do the VidMaster levels now aren't I?)