If I wrote up every excuse I have for not posting, then this would be a thread about my excuses and not about Marathon levels. I'll try to be better at posting at least once per week if not much more.
I'd like to say that if you make BQ a rebellion level, my first thoughts playing the level would be "So that's why they gave me so many flamethrower cans on G4, you don't ever get to use them!!! RIP my rocket launcher packs from the secrets!" If you do go this route, then either (1) rebalance secrets to be useful or (2) make G4 have 100 flamethrower cans to rub in the loss. Admittedly, how else are you gonna exchange staffs if you don't have rebellion levels? If you want to please rebellion critics like Ryoko make sure to not slow down the tempo too much the way the M2 rebellion level did (back to the pistols for you is not the most fun idea).
In the time between the Blaspheme Quarantine review and now, I played through Blaspheme Quarantine again and I have this to say about it.
Level 09, Blaspheme Quarantine, Take 2:
Yes, there definitely is a monster pathing issue in the aforementioned spot. Even the fighters seem to have second thoughts about chasing me into it.
This level was so non-difficulty that I still had 40% yellow health for Bob-B-Q.
Level 10: Bob-B-Q
First things first: Has anyone ever killed every single alien and saved enough BoBs while playing on TC? If so, please send me the film.
Tour of Duty link:
http://forums.bungie.org/story/?read=63410How to save enough BoBs E-Z (even on TC):
(1) Rush to the secret charger. Clear all the blue fighters.
(2) Charge and clear a path back to spawn.
(3) Grenade jump up from spawn, activate the platform.
(4) Clear the room with the elevator to the final room
(5) Go to the final room. Clear it out. Go to the terminal. Win. (since you have went in so few areas the BoBs are still alive.)
Why isn't this level an extermination? Admittedly, I'm running the Marathon download and not the M1A1 download so I'm not sure if that has an impact on things, but this definitely should be an extermination level.
That being said...
If this was an extermination level, it might be a little bit hard to save enough BoBs [citation needed].
As it is, the level isn't too hard once you get past the first bit (which is made much easier if you know of the secret health charger; maybe reduce this charger to 1x health). Just whore the 2x charger(s). It's true that both saves are on the upper levels so if you don't know to grenade jump up there you do run the risk of going far back if you die. But other than maybe that one room Perseus struggled with, there's really nothing hard past the beginning.
Then there's the BoB factor. Maybe it is possible to save enough while eliminating all Pfhor and I'm just another spazzeroid. However, many of the BoBs are placed in positions where it is practically impossible to save them. Just look at the two in that little closet in the north side of the map. There's two BoBs sandwiched between a fighter and a hunter at front... how are you supposed to save these?
Assuming I'm not just bad, I'd look at either (1) adjusting BoB positioning to make it more reasonable to save them or (2) maybe add an extra room with a big fight yet savable BoBs. I'm imaging the ideal for this level is "If you run in recklessly with your 2x health, you can save the BoBs (but you have to manage not dying while doing this)", and sometimes the level just doesn't feel that way. I'm imagining this room would look something like this: you enter in the middle. On one side, there's like a dozen BoBs, who may help you since they are armed. On the other side, there's a lot of powerful Pfhor who are gonna steam roll the BoBs if you don't get into the thick of things. Maybe you can even give the BoBs a MADD if you have a really epic fight.
As for the level's aesthetics, this level is one of the more decent looking ones in M1 in my opinion. This may be because the second floor allows rooms to have more depth to them then is the case with many of the polygon-limited M1 rooms. Of course, if you want to do better, remember this is supposed to be an engineering area (from the final G4 terminal), so you can use that as inspiration.