Monday 9 March 2015

Game 51: Rise of the Dragon - And dead are you (AKA Won!)

Written by Ilmari

Blade Hunter’ secret diary, part 5: KARYN, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Last time Karyn had been kidnapped by the Chinese mafia and I was a bit stumped, with nothing obvious left to do. I regret to inform that it turned out I just had to wait for something to happen. After another day of staying near my un-wireless vidphone, Jake finally called.


Couldn’t be me they are looking for. I’ve been in my apartment,
waiting for your call, for a couple of days.

Unfortunately, Jake didn’t really have anything to say - he just told me to meet him in the warehouse I had demolished at 8.30 PM. What I was supposed to do for another 8 hours? Eventually I just went to the warehouse and started waiting. Meantime, Deng Hwang made an ultimatum for the citizens of L.A. He wanted the mayor to resign and also demanded 500 million dollars in diamonds and platinum. If his conditions were not met, he would release his drug to water supplies.

When the time of our meeting had arrived, it became very clear that Jake had managed to get himself into some serious trouble.


No, never seen him in my life. Say, did you happen to find a candy bar, when you searched him?


Look, if I had wanted to play a shoot’em’up, I would have chosen Ikari Warriors

Yes, it was time for a minigame! I must confess that I didn’t even bother to look at the manual for the controls and so I never found out such essential things as what button made Blade jump. Thus, it was impossible to get through the tanks full of toxic waste, which melted Blade into goo. My excuse is that I was just waiting for the next screen.


Adventure game producers: this is a feature that should be included in all minigames

Having (apparently) killed all the bad guys, I could release Jake, who at once told me that Karyn was being held in Deng Hwang’s headquarters. He also gave me an ID to get through the security.


And I got this

I got easily past the front door of Deng Hwang’s with my new fake ID. In the main lobby, the way forward was closed by a laser field, but there was also a door leading to a security room. I talked a while with the receptionist, who surprisingly was revealed as an old schoolmate of Blade.


Blade used to catch up goats

I suggested I could go on a dinner and a movie with her, if she just let me in the security room. Reluctantly, she opened the door, but just if I promised to be quick, as all guards happened to be on a break, but would come back soon.


So this is the security room. I wonder what is going on in the break room?


Guards really don’t like me interrupting their break

Learning from my mistakes, I reloaded and left the break room door alone. Instead, I checked the computer. Before I could really do anything, the computer asked for a proper authorisation. There were some colored buttons, and I instantly remembered the code I had seen in the fortune cookie. It of course worked, no matter how little sense it makes. I then closed down all the security systems, lowered the laser field in the lobby and locked the guards in the break room. Time to move on!


Backdoor to a multimillion security system sold in Chinese restaurants?

The receptionist was getting a bit doubtful about letting me in and threatened to call security - Blade noted that he’d cut off the alarm and warned his past schoolmate to get the hell out of here. Going through the now defunct laser field, I found the room where they kept Karyn. I have no idea what I should have done, so the results were sad.








Can Karyn be saved? I don’t really care, since this is so dramatic

Vowing to kill Deng Hwang, Blade ran to a convention of all the bad guys and started to clear his way through Deng’s henchmen. The big boss had still a surprise up his sleeve.


He can turn into a dragon!

At this point it was expected that a new minigame would begin. I did try to make it a bit more nearer to the end this time, but I got quickly stumped and decided just to move forward.


I can deal with the bad guys, but what should I do to the pipes that shoot fire?

Apparently I had been able to kill Deng Hwang, AKA Bahumat. And then it was all over! Blade got himself out of the building, where mayor was waiting with some policemen. Blade and mayor had a friendly chat, Blade accusing mayor for conning him into a case in which Karyn got killed and mayor caring not a whit.


This was very satisfying




Sequel, sequel! No? Drat…

Considering that most of this post has just been waiting around and skipping action sequences, the ending came really fast. I am sure the Final Rating will reflect that, although I do have a positive view of the game. See you next time!

Session time: 0.5 hours
Total time: 6.5 hours

4 comments:

  1. That was even shorter than I remember. I think there was another fight scene at an alternative path to the bad guy's lair, which you bypassed.

    You can see how Karyn is rescued in this playthrough.

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    Replies
    1. I kind of liked the "worse" ending better:

      1) It makes no narrative sense that Blade would go to a storage room, when his girlfriend is in deep trouble
      2) Since Blade doesn't now have a motive to go against Deng Hwang, he and Karyn just stumble to the wrong room...
      3) The discussion with the mayor doesn't have the same punch, when Blade cannot accuse him of Karyn's death.

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    2. Also the old Chinese scholar's prophecy involves the hero "sacrificing everything." It makes less sense if she survives.

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  2. Waitaminit. This is not how I remembered. I've never seen those cutscenes before!

    Weeeiirrd...

    Laukku's link is more similar to my recollection but... still a little different. Maybe I mixed it up with another game.

    Also, I definitely recall not pimping myself out to my ex-classmate. That's just sad and demeaning. XD

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