• Always play the side games (like Wak-a-Rat and Hiway Surfin’) because you never know what you might get that is useful as a prize. Even if there is no prize, it’s important to keep Max occupied!
• Carry as much stuff with you as you can. You never know what you might need to put together, and it saves a lot of time. Search a new place thoroughly, and take anything that is not nailed down, and maybe a few things that are. Max is especially good getting at those.
• Be willing to talk to weird things. You never know when a cat or a bird or a fish might have something useful to say. Max might not though, but he is entertaining and hilariously uncontrollable.
• Always use Max in a confusing situation. If it seems you’ve done everything you can, grab your lil’ buddy and sic ‘em on the situation. He might be just violent and tough enough to help.
• Often a scene is larger than your screen. Have Sam walk to the edges to see if more of the scene is revealed as he gets to the side of the screen. Some important information and objects can be overlooked if you don’t.
HAVOC
• Save shield recharges until you need them. Don’t waste one of these babies when your shields just need topping off.
• Use the mortar to blow up turrets and key guardians from safely out of range.
• Use the radar to scope out the terrain. White spots are holes that may be difficult to get out of. Darker areas are ridges that you may not be able to get over.
• Blow up everything you can. It will get you points and goodies. Don’t get distracted blowing up unarmed buildings until you’ve cleared out all the active enemies in an area unless you’re getting low on shields. Blown-up buildings sometimes yield recharges, ammo, and better weapons.
Allied General
• Air units should act in concert and overwhelm a sector of the enemy. Bombers should always be escorted until the enemy fighter units have been shot down. Avoid operating your air forces in the face of substantial anti-aircraft (AA) units. These should be destroyed by artillery first. Most importantly, be unpredictable; squadrons of aircraft offer great flexibility and the enemy should always be forced to guess where to place the limited number of AA units.
• The best formation should always lead in the attack. The more experienced or better equipped unit will put a dent in the enemy which will make it more likely that the adversary will collapse under the second, weaker blow. However, if the weaker unit leads, it may suffer a defeat and leave the enemy undamaged when the more experienced unit attacks.
• German U-Boats are particularly difficult to counter, especially due to the element of surprise. Whenever possible, they should be prosecuted by tactical bombers—these may not be able to destroy the submarines, but the threat of it can drive them away.
• Some of the scenarios have vague objectives, or at least, it is unclear as to what time line must be met for victory. The simplest solution is to drive as hard and fast as possible without wrecking your army. Minor victories are occasionally possible even if the enemy still controls some of the victory locations, but in order to get a major victory, ALL objects must be taken several turns before the designated end of the game.
• Each nation has unique advantages that must be exploited in order to achieve victory. The British have an advantage in artillery throughout the war, while the Americans build excellent airplanes of all types. The German armored vehicles reign supreme during most time periods and the Soviets build their tanks for about 20% cheaper than the rest of the nations. Players who ignore these favorable conditions are unlikely to go far against the AI.
Total Distortion
• The Vid Hall is accessible only via a hidden entrance. To find it, videotape the area around the hot door. As you roll tape, you should see a (previously hidden) red button flash by the door; press it to gain entrance.
• You'll need to buy a more powerful guitar before you'll ever have a chance of beating the Guitar Warrior.
• Select your best guitar before you do battle; you won't have time to get select it once you're under attack.
• The fastest way to build your wealth is to sell what's essentially the same video (with a few modifications) under different project names to different producers. Ah, Capitalism!
Dungeon Master II
Starting: The best option when you start is get a party that has as board a range as possible of classes. It is also generally wise that your party begin with all four characters having mage and priest spell ability. You can always earn ninja or fighter ability from experience, and there are more than enough things to fight.
Aliai Mon, Crodain Doawnkeeper, Saros Shadow Follower, Uggo the Mad, and Seri Flamehair are probably your best possible choices; sticking Cordain in the front, and Saros and one other in the back is the best idea.
When starting, go for weapons and food over armour. Most armour sucks for player characters because it is more encumbering than useful, even at later stages. Make sure to learn how to trade in coins to carry the least amount -- but realize that if you have no change, you cannot bargain for lower amounts with a shopkeeper (you cannot offer 5 copper on the table if all you have is a gold or an emerald -- having only the highest amount of cash also means you always pay full price). Get some darts, return to the safety of your opening area, and have everyone throw darts at the wall and doors for as long as they are able. This will cause everyone to eventually go up in ninja levels, very slowly -- but at least you’ll go up a level or two -- getting a little more hit points, and dexterity will go up one hit point per level you increase in ninja skills. Similarly, have some empty flasks to cast healing potions -- by continually cast the healing poitions, not only will you have a short supply of healing potions for battle, but also you can go up levels as priest.
Make sure to examine everything, but most importantly make sure to keep on trying to cast spells. In combat more often than not you have to have the front two folks hack things to death; you might want to rotate folks off the front line continually in order to get all people up a few fighter levels.
Now, don’t forget to check for everything available. By the way, you can drop the stupid painting from the front room -- it isn’t worth squat. One tip: You cannot sell anything to a merchant if he doesn’t have it in his inventory list for sale. So, in the good news / bad news category, you’ll soon realize there are some things that just no one will be willing to take off your hands. Leave them.
Fighting: Pre-cast spells. have them ready with the exception of actually casting them, then shoot them off during combat. Your mana will have grown by then. Holding onto certain items will increase your mama pool over time. A simple staff adds a +5 mana to the top of your pool, but it MUST be in your hands or in your sheath. It is not a bad idea to give each person an item in their sheaths that can boost their mana pool -- later certain staves and other items can also increase mana. (The Rainbow Wand is the only item that fits in your pouch that adds mana, but if you get it use it there). Watch out for Fury -- it is a good sword, but it slowly bleeds off mana from whoever holds it. Watch out for thunderstorms -- lightning will slaughter anything it hits, but in a dire pinch you might get something to get struck by lightning and be able to eat its remains.
Against many creatures, there is an area where they cannot go -- watch for these areas (usually the first few steps where you stand in) and you can hit things and run backwards. Shoot distance spells. The first time you hit a worm or a rhino you are likely to be toast. Using this strategy is always a good idea, and will be crucial later when you face down your worst enemies, such as the monks. Also, when you later can cast minions, standing in these safe areas will be a good idea while you send the minions in to attack.
Food: You can eat a lot of things; dead bats (not so hot), worm rounds (left after you kill worms, not too bad), and steaks from the rhinos. The rhinos are tough as hell to kill, but once you get them dead, the steaks will become your staple diet. All creatures regenerate over time, which in many cases is a pain but in the cases of your food supply is terrific strategy.
Money: Money not only makes the world go ‘round, but also lets you buy nifty-keen stuff you can’t get elsewise. Some areas have slow regeneration of items that are very valuable: All special plants are very valuable -- all but the Bainbloom actually stink in realtime combat, but are valuable to sell. The fairy blooms, the mushrooms found in the thief’s area, all of these are renewable sources of cash. The best, however, is when you fight the giants and grab their axes -- you need to drag those heavy suckers back to the original shop (you will find more after time) -- but the cost is worth it.
Getting around: One of the first things you need to make your life simpler is a techshield; once you have it you may stand on one of the runes on the grouns and teleport -- either to the red symbol in front of the fountain in the main area if from any other symbol, or to the last symbol you teleported from if teleporting on the symbol in the main area. This cuts walking time considerably -- especially since these teleports are located conveniently 1) in front of the giant’s area where you can make money and 2) many places in the castle.
Next month: Very specific apoilers on sections of DM II, how to get around the worst pains in your backside once deep in the game.
