Moving Through Subterra Bravo

I ended up playing a few more games of Level 7 over the weekend.  We have been going through, one level at a time, trying to beat them missions before moving on to the next one.  With seven missions in the game, plus one in the most recent No Quarter magazine, we have a total of eight missions to climb through.  To keep the suspense, we’ve been holding off reading the new missions until we’re ready to play them so they’re all new to all of us.

We started with Level 5 this time through.  We had four players, the maximum the game allows.  During this mission, we had to find suits from guards and use those to bypass the security checkpoint to escape.  The only way we could get suits from guards was to have the Hybrid aliens go to town on a couple of guards, then sneak in afterwards and hope the suits were not too ripped or bloody to use.

We started by splitting up to try to explore as much of the board as we could.  Laura managed to peak ahead and find one of the Hybrids early in the game but was in a tight spot.  The Hybrid was being escorted by two guards, and unless the Hybrid got jacked up on Fear, it wouldn’t try to kill the guards.  Laura pumped her fear up high, but that also had the unfortunate side-effect of luring a Clone right on top of her as well.  The Hybrid went crazy and killed the guards, triggering Lockdown.  Meanwhile, Laura fought back against the Clone in her corridor.

We tried to get to her to help her, but weren’t able to do so.  Laura ran in to grab the two suits and found only one was useful still.  Before she could use it, though, she got cornered and mauled.  As Lockdown had already started, she was out of the game.  Mary was still recovering from being sick, so she bowed out and let Laura take over her character.  We had three characters left to get off the board.

We started exploring farther away, trying to build out the facility a bit more and get a useful network of vents.  Brian discovered a second Hybrid and it killed off its two guards as well, dropping two more suits.  Rather than run for the suits, he jumped into the vents and ran to a far side of the hall and let the Hybrid start hunting the guards and the rest of us.

I took a trip through the vents as well, dropping in behind the first suit and grabbed it, pumping up my speed to get back into the vents after grabbing it.  Fortunately with my Flashlight I wasn’t afraid of the vents and my fear stayed under control.  I dropped out back by the elevator and escorted Laura off the map (each suit could account for two characters).

Alone, now Brian had more activations between the Hybrids going and could more easily lure them where he needed them.  He ran along, dragging the Hybrids after him, until he found a vent and jumped back to the two suits that had dropped when he unleashed the second Hybrid.  One of them was safe and he dove back through the vents and found his way to the elevator up.

Three survivors out of four.  Not too shabby.

We racked up another game, moving on to Level 4.  This time we had finally moved out of the lower levels where the aliens were more powerful.  Here, the guards held the advantage, but at this point they were already wary of the attacks going on below.  It seems the guards and aliens were already going to start by attacking each other.

We had to explore the facility to find the way to the Incinerator Control Room.  Unfortunately the Control Room was not attached to any of the rooms we could find.  The only way to reach it was through traveling through the vents.  We had to find a map of this level of the facility and use it to drop into the Incinerator Control Room and use that to activate the Incinerator room, opening the shaft there to allow us to reach the next level.

To make matters more interesting, as we went through the facility, Hybrids would be coming up from the lower levels.

We were lucky in that the Clones were not quick in coming out, and in how quickly we were able to find the map.  Shortly after I grabbed the map, a guard found me and started shooting.  I ducked away and jumped into a vent to escape.

I used the map to get to the Incinerator Control Room while Laura found the Incinerator itself.   She got cornered by a Hybrid and a few guards.  While the guards and the Hybrid were fighting each other, she snuck away and joined me in the Incinerator Control Room.

I tried to flip the switch to turn on the machine, but with seven dice, I couldn’t roll six successes.  Laura tried and also failed.  Brian jumped into the vents and joined us, finally flipping the Incinerator on.  Lockdown was triggered, and the vents became a dangerous place to travel.  Every time someone went through the vents, they took two dice of damage.

I looked at my hand – I had three cards and one armor.  The only way I would die going through the vents to get to the exit (the Incinerator Control Room was not attached to the rest of the board, so I had to go through the vents or spend a long time trying to link up the parts of the map) was if I rolled two double-fists.  No problem.  I picked up the dice and tossed them… bringing up the exact roll I needed to kill myself in the vents.

Laura and Brian were better off, both heading through the vents and dropping into the Incinerator and escaping that way.

Two survivors out of three.  Not bad.

I’m getting a little nervous about the game’s replayability.  There are eight missions (including the extra one from No Quarter) and we’ve successfully finished four of them.  While it would be fun to redo some of the old missions, my favorite part is coming in to a mission blind and trying to feel out how to solve it the first time.  It fits the feel of the game to be coming in to these missions blind, and I’m worried that once we get through all the missions, their appeal is going to drop.

I hope they continue to release new missions from time to time.  There’s a lot of potential with this game.  Atmosphere-wise it’s fantastic.  The game-play is pretty high too.  Just need more missions!