Now let's get an AR going, and also see how things play with a sniper rifle!

(6:58) Level 2 ('Halo') on Heroic. After enjoying my rockslide romps in the last movie, I needed to return for more hit and run fun. One reason being, I hadn't featured the assault rifle yet! I do that in the first play here, then for the second I introduce use of the sniper rifle. In both plays I also have a pistol.

Released April 12th 2026, gameplay recorded April 10th 2026.

00:02 (Play 1 - AR & pistol) Very nice tail-swipe on a blue Elite as I drive in! I'm not sure what that guy thought he was doing his needler. Then after grabbing an AR from some dead Marines, I surprise an approaching red Elite with a tag before making a getaway - though not without losing a few bars of health. A nice start!

Off in the distance I can hear that my 11-man squad is busy. Undoubtedly they were tangling with the dropship 4 Elite, who runs over to that general area and sometimes spots them quickly. It seems that they kill him at some point, because I definitely don't. I only kill six Elites in the course of the battle, not the usual seven.

Starting around 0:54, I make use of a great defence spot between a huge rock and the cliff wall. It's something I planned for the movie, wanting to highlight it. It's a fine place to get my AR going, and to use a few grenades. After killing some of my pursuers though, I run off before I get too hemmed in, which is a danger there. As I go, I frag a couple of Jackals who'd been heading around the back.

Later on, a red Elite gets distracted by the Marines for a while, and that's the fellow I tag at the end. Made a nice ending, that "Wort wort wort" and the tag. That's one reason I selected this play for inclusion in the movie, out of a handful of good ones I recorded. Another reason was the nice start, with the tail-swipe and tag.

03:23 (Play 2 - Sniper rifle & pistol) As in the first play, I head into the rockslide via what I call the plateau base gap. This time my approach is a little different though, threading the hog past the nose of the lifeboat. Nice way of doing things!

After a bit more driving I'm up on the plateau. Narrowly missing the Marine, who annoyingly doesn't move to give me more space, I send the hog over the edge with a plasma grenade attached. The bang kills a blue Elite trying to dive clear (of either the hog or the plasma), as well as a Grunt, and the Marine says "Boom!". That made for an excellent amusing start, which is part of why I selected this play.

But anyway, the main point of the play was to get some sniping going; so I grab the dropped rifle and get on with it. Turned out to be excellent fun, finding shots to take from a (hopefully) safe distance.

As well as the amusing start, there's another bit which contributed to my choosing this play. It comes around 5:00. After hearing a Jackal fire a plasma ball after me as I run, I do a blind dodge at the last moment, narrowly avoiding it. I was pleased with that; and it was definitely worth the manouevre because my shield was bleeping and I only had four health bars left. Maybe it wouldn't have killed me, but I might have gone down to my last health bar I think.

Not everything goes well. Near the end I try to tag a Grunt, having apparently forgotten that I'd just used my last plasma on a Jackal. As such, I only throw a frag. Silly cyborg! But at least it kills him.

Note: I think I only killed six Elites again. See the blue Elite around 4:33, who I pepper with pistol fire? I think the Marines must've finished him off later, because after my last shot takes down his shield (but which I'm pretty sure doesn't kill him), that's the last I see of him. The later blue Elite that attacks me is a different one, namely having a needler.

Closing remarks Just to mention, it's not ideal that the set-up I'm using has a bunch of Marines in the far area, because they'll potentially distract some covies from coming after me, and they might even kill some. However, I didn't have another set-up handy, and this one was still fine really.

© 2004-2026 by Rockslider