No Relief II [The True PD Savage]

Titles I considered for this scenario:
No Relief 2: The Experience All Over Again
No Relief ][ - It's an all new game...
The Final No Relief Scenario
No Relief 2000
*No Relief 2* A Rock and a Hard Place
No Relief II: Trapped!

I have put a lot of work, experimentation, and play testing into this sequel. This is not just a sequel for the sake of having a sequel - this is a reward to everyone who enjoyed the first RE: No Relief. Hence, I wanted it to be as good as possible to please the original fans. I wanted it to play on the same emotion, but I wanted something new as well. I have done my best to make this one worth keeping... Or at least good enough to replace the old No Relief already saved to your memory pack :).

Major Note: This scenario is no longer meant to be directly related to Resident Evil. Hence RE was dropped from the title. I felt that designing based on another game while still working under the limits of PD's settings was limiting my ability. This sequel is to the original what PD is to Goldeneye. Some things are worse, but most things are better. Moreover, it is an all new game, so don't be disturbed to discover that it does not play exactly the same as the first No Relief scenario. Please give it a chance - I think that you will be doing yourself a favor! With that in mind:

The first thing to fall from Jakob's hand was a single blade. Four other identical knives immediately followed. The ping of each blue steel beauty hitting the limestone reminded Jakob that he owed his life to these weapons.

Collapsing to his knees, he checked his blood drenched leather jacket for holes. Four holes. Two in the left shoulder, one in the side of his abdomen, and one in his right armpit. Jakob could hardly believe that the shotguns and knives had not killed him.

There he sat, bleeding and crying. Although Jakob did not believe in a God, no one can commit as much murder as he just did as not feel bad about it. He had thought that he would finally be happy when the last zombie hit the ground, but now that it had happened, it finally hit him that there was no way out of this place. He decided to not even bother to check - he had already run over 4 miles through this building, and it was time to rest. In the morning he could try to use the bloody knives to climb the limestone towards one of those giant holes in the side of the building. It would be a tough task, given his new injuries, but as he has just discovered over the past hour, a man can do some pretty extraordinary things in the name of saving his own life.

When he awoke, his wounds were gone. The once limestone floor beneath him now felt like cold, smooth metal. "Where the hell am I!?!" Now that he put some thought into it, he never really concerned himself with how he got in that odd temple, either. Things were just getting weirder and weirder for Jakob...

To be continued...

Scenario Specs:
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Scenario: Combat
Options: Display Team, No Radar, No Auto-Aim, No Highlights
Arena: G5 Building
Weapons: Custom
.....1-5: Combat Knives
.....6: MagSec 4
Limits: 25 kills (Team Score)
Player Handicaps: Give yourself 10% (yes, still 10%)
Simulants:
Sims 1-4: Easy TurtleSims. Dress them up with bio-tech white heads, or just however you want them.
Sims 5: Easy KazeSim. Makes this character an undressed Maian (no jacket, no Protector hat, and no Goggles).
Sims 6-8: Easy ShieldSim. Make sure they look different than Sims 1-4.

Note on the difficulty of this scenario: If you find it too easy, make the KazeSim Normal or Hard (I don't think that anyone will be making it Perfect or Dark!). Also, note that it is important to the gameplay that you make Sim 5 a Maian - the other costumes really can be left at the defaults and it will play the same, but not Sim 5...

Teams: 1 Human against 8 sims.

Explanation:
Things have been mixed up a bit this time around, and now half of the Sims move at the same speed you normally do. This makes diagonal running vital to your success. Remember how in the first one, you could just back away slowly, while tossing knives into the crowd? Now you have 1 of two choices:
Turn around and diagonal run like crazy, or have one of them catch up to you (and that can be ugly, when they have 20 times as much health as you do).

So they are faster... What else is new?

Well, the Shotgun is replaced with a MagSec. Two MagSecs on 3 shot burst are about equal to a Shotgun blast, so you are going to really have to fight hard and take some risks if you intend on having a MagSec in each hand - otherwise, you are stuck with half of the power you once had for getting your hands on a gun. Moreover, there is only one MagSec lying around on the floor - so if you want as much power as you possibly can get, you are going to have to kill at LEAST one enemy Sim who is carrying a MagSec. This can be a big problem when he happens to be shooting at you with it.

Do you know the G5 level? Probably not as well as the Temple. Many players do not even know anything about the G5 level's lay out. Trust me though, by the time you play this scenario twice, you will be able to run around backwards without hitting any walls. This scenario forces you to learn the G5 building. It will not take too many times of running into a room full of Sims guarding the MagSec before you know where the gun is, at least.

The KazeSim has been thrown in to add some variety. The reason why I specifically selected a KazeSim is that it makes for the ultimate contradiction: He is the only enemy with out a shield (what a relief!), but he will stop at nothing to kill you (he makes sure that you do not have any relief). Is that cool or what? Anyway, sometimes you will find yourself hunting only for him (easy kill), and other times, you will find yourself running like crazy to escape him (when he has double MagSec 4's). No matter what the particular case is at any given time though, you will find yourself having respect for him as an entirely different enemy to encounter.

The KazeSim can be a major factor in the challenge of this scenario. It is because of this that by simply adjusting his difficulty level (and only his) you can have a huge impact on the challenge. You can directly control how often he will just be an "easy point," or how often he will earn his own team an "easy point." I personally play with him on Easy. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, but it is always a close score for most of the match. Note that it is important for him to be a Maian. This is the ONLY Sim costume that really is important to change. He is meant to be the most difficult to hit with throwing knives (he is short), but the easiest to get a head shot on with the MagSec (due to his huge head). This is to make getting the gun even more important.

The MagSec is found on a blue catwalk in a room that has 4 entrances (a ramp from the bottom, a door on its first floor, and 2 doors on the catwalks). I recommend avoiding this room at all costs. Due to the MagSec 4 being in this room, there will nearly always be at least 1 MagSec carrying Sim guarding this room. However, there are usually about 4 or 5 Sims in this room. If you get your hands on a MagSec, or you just feel like starting some trouble, poke your head in here to get some attention, then back out real quick. Just remember to watch your back for other Sims wandering the building! Also, the door that the catwalk leads to is a dead end - so you will often find yourself sprinting over the catwalk (to get the MagSec), only to end up at a dead end, with 8 angry Sims coming after you.

There is another reason why the MagSec 4 has replaced the shotgun. In the first No Relief, if you killed a Sim and did not manage to grab his shotgun, you just thought, "Oh well, the Sims don't have an ammo problem anyway." Now, if you kill a Sim, you better clean up after him - or his friend is going to end up with twice as much firepower. Remember that Sims play by the same rules you do! If they pick up a MagSec dropped off of a dead body, and they already had a MagSec, they'll have double. This is NOT good for you at all, especially if it happens to be one of the Sims wearing a shield.

Now you will have to think twice before trying to attack a large group of them.

There is even yet another reason for the MagSec 4 being the new weapon. When you pick up a gun, it has 10 shots in it. This was a problem with the shotgun, but it is a MAJOR problem for the MagSec 4. You are left with an uncomfortable decision: Do you use single shot, and make every shot count? Or do you use 3 shot burst, and hope to wear down someone's shields all the way before you die? Experiment with both methods and just try to figure out which is a better plan - I still have not been able to!

Enough talking about the MagSec. Now I am going to discuss why I have changed to the G5 Building:
1. Most areas have low ceilings. The Claustrophobia helps add to the already trapped feel.
2. Almost every room (except the dead end) has several entrances, and some of the rooms even have places for the Sims to look over a rail and throw knives (or shoot) at you. This makes you constantly watching everything around you.
3. You can make some really cool escapes by jumping from one catwalk to another when being chased by Sims. Just don't expect to make the jumps 100% of the time. Just remember that it is an option!
4. The MagSec 4 catwalk leads to a dead end. Since people will tend to rush through this room anyway, often you will not even remember this important fact until you are cornered at the dead end!
5. The odd architecture of this level often causes you to end up on a catwalk, with Sims on both sides of you. Now you get to decide - do you let them kill you and get closer to the kill score limit? Or do you jump over the edge and become one point farther from the kill score limit? Running through the group while punching like crazy ("disarm") is an option, but trust me when I say that it usually will not work...
6. There are few open areas in this map - making it require much more skill to avoid their combat knives.

Quick Tips:
-Stay away from the MagSec room. Don't be stupid and try to go rushing in there to disarm everyone and grab the MagSec - sometimes it will work, but the odds are heavily in favor of you getting your butt shot off!
-Never stop moving in a confined area (like the dead end or a narrow hallway). The Sims have a major advantage in close combat.
-Always know the location of everyone who is in the same room as you. Don't just focus on one Sim, only to back into another one!
-One MagSec 4 bullet, or 1 combat knife (either one) will drop you instantly, even if it hits your arms. You will not get any second chances.
-Never try to just try to "stand up" against a Sim. Toss a knife, then run.
-If you see a large group of the Sims, toss a knife into them at head level and run like crazy. If you see a lone Sim, consider trying to take him on before his friends can find you.
-NEVER stand still. If you stand still, the Sims will never miss you with a throwing knife. Knife throwing is not dependant on their skill level or Sim type - they all throw perfectly. So do not expect to stand still and win the fight, even if they are just EasySims.
-Just because you have the MagSec 4, do not assume that you are going to dominate. It is a good weapon, but it certainly is not a Golden Magnum - so don't treat it like one. Use the same method of fighting that you use when fighting with knives, or expect to die and lose your hard earned MagSec very quickly!
-If you are being chased by some Sims, never forget that jumping from one catwalk to another is often the best way to lose them. Every catwalk has another catwalk that you can jump to, except for the lowest one. Just make sure you know where your feet are, and make sure that they end up on top of the other catwalk when you land!