Design of War Ender - Level 3-2
Originally published November 1st, 2020
A new faction enters the battle.
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At this point, our protagonist is just having a bad day. Last time, we got introduced to a large new enemy, the helicopter, as Red began making his way to the Outsider headquarters. But as soon as he reaches the end of 3-1, he's attacked. In the next level, Red awakens to the sound of someone giving a kill order. This someone is the leader of the Detractors of War. And who are they, you might ask? It's kind of in the name. They're not too fond of the battle going on between Cycorp and the Outsiders, believing that the war will ruin The City. Thus, they aim to bring an end to the urban warfare by force. Basically, they're fighting fire with fire. I'm sure that won't blow up in their face at all.
Level 3-2 isn't really doing anything new. At this point, you've met all but one enemy type and, if my memory serves me correctly, all the different traps, obstacles, and platform objects have been introduced. At this point, the only thing left to do is to start taking all those ideas and begin throwing them at the player in different ways. The very first enemy encounter, for instance, has several enemy types in the game. All three different turret types, some robots, shooters, shielded soldier, and the recently introduced helicopter. Shortly after comes a short platforming challenge involving moving jump platforms. Okay, I suppose those are kind of new, but that's just combining the attributes of the jump and moving platforms.
The next part is more vertical. Once again, the idea is to remix what had come before. Rocket turrets sit on moving platforms on the far wall, attacking the player with homing rockets. Meanwhile, the player has to watch out for the shooters and turrets down below as well as some torches. Using the previously mentioned moving platforms, the player will climb up but then...uh oh...a pyro on the far side of the screen making it rather tricky to get on the next part of the stage without damage. Time your jump right, and then you can take care of him proper. Climb up a little further and behold a large field of mines with a couple turrets blocking the path as well. Here I'm telling the player to climb up onto the moving platform above and use it to progress. It's much like the platforms they just used to climb up, but it's coming at them in a different way. Of course, there's nothing stating they aren't allowed to blast the mines away.
A diagonally moving platform will carry you into part three, where the player must fend off another wave of enemies before the Obsessors come in. War Ender is very much about target prioritization. In this case, it's recommended to get rid of the turrets and pyro first before dealing with the Obsessors. Doing it the other way around will make the combat much more difficult to manage. The level will repeat this battle towards the end of part three, but first the player must make their way through a plethora of enemies and obstacles. Again, the theme now is to change the context of the enemies and obstacles that the player is so familiar with as much as possible. A stream of mines means some platforming is required to avoid taking damage. Torches are placed near Obsessors to make them dodging them slightly more difficult than before. Turrets are starting to move thanks to the assistance of the moving platforms. Game design is like cooking – a game is a combination of ingredients. The ingredients can be used in different ways to make different gameplay experiences.
Our final section has the player descending as opposed to climbing. Almost everything is brought out into this climactic last act of the level. I think the only things missing in this part of the level are some moving platforms and jump pads. One of the first enemy encounters encourages dropping down into a space below and attacking them from a safe elevation. Another encounter later on encourages careful dodging to avoid the pyro's firewalls. But easily my favorite part of the level comes towards the end, when the player is placed in some tight areas and asked to fight their way out of it. As a pick me up, a health pickup is given to the player before the final dash to the finish line.
And that final dash is a fun one! I believe at no other point before this does War Ender have you quickly make your way across a bridge of destructible floors with rockets and fire coming at you at the same time. See, in most situations involving the desctructible floors, a skilled player could theoretically jump and shoot-float at just the right time to stay in that one position forever. This area doesn't give you that luxury. If you're going to make it to the end, you have to move. There's not much time to slow down either, making this feel like some grand escape before the level ends. A few enemies are fought after the bridge of death, and your victory over level 3-2 is claimed!
In the story, Red has only just begun his escape. There's another level inside the Detractor base to get through, followed by a boss fight against an experimental soldier at the end. So our protagonist can't rest easy yet. But in the meantime, the player can at least pat themselves on the back. This is the first level where War Ender begins to truly remix its gameplay elements. There's one enemy type left to find, and that's all there will be for recurring gameplay elements. War Ender's remaining runtime after that is dedicated to squeezing every possible ounce of gameplay out of its mechanics.
Until next time!
-Lance T.
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