Tutorial - Movement

I recognized her voice as the lieutenant in the opening cinematic. My character took her hand to exit the cryo-chamber but immediately fell on all fours.

"Take it slow," said the lieutenant. "You've been in the freezer for roughly six hundred years. It'll take you a bit to recover."

My character's view quickly snapped to the lieutenant upon hearing her words.

"Don't believe me? Take a look around." Sure enough, the quality of the room was consistent with a few hundred years' worths of deterioration.

Suddenly, another shriek filled the air. The other soldiers swiveled towards the sound. The lieutenant cursed.

"Now's not the time for exposition," she continued. "All you need to know is that I'm Second Lieutenant Justine Locke and this is my squad. We woke you because we've got injured and need an extra gun. And unless you want to face whatever made that noise alone, you're with us. Come on, let's move."

Her last sentence was directed at both me and her squad. At her words, they stood and started down the aisle.

Another prompt appeared, pausing the scene. "Use the W, A, S, D keys to move forward, left, backward, and right respectively. The directions will always be relative to the direction of the camera."

I placed my left hand on the keyboard and experimentally pressed W. The game resumed and my character lurched forward a few steps. I held it down and chased after Locke.

As I moved my character down the rows of cryo-chamber, I couldn't help think about the other soldiers frozen in them. Were we just going to leave them here?

As if Locke heard my thoughts, she spoke, "There's no need to worry about the others. Right now, we have neither the time nor the resources to wake them. But they're safer than we are. This facility was meant to survive any preemptive strike. Nothing's getting into the chambers by force and the nuclear generator can operate for another century at least. They'll be fine."

Huh. That was pretty good foresight for the developers to throw that dialogue in there.

We reached the end of the row and rounded the corner. Pipes and ducts leading into the cryo-chambers stood at about waist height. Locke and her squad vaulted over one by one.

When it was my turn, a prompt appeared again. "Press Spacebar to jump." I complied and my character's view shifted upwards a bit while a grunt was heard. The prompt reappeared, reading, "Certain waist-high objects can be vaulted over and climbed. Approach the object and press Spacebar to vault or climb."

I ran my character against the pipes and then pressed space. Sure enough, my character placed her hand onto and whipped her body over like a trained gymnast. The path in front of my character was obstructed by several more waist-high pipes and ducts. Members of Locke's squad were hopping through them. I followed suited. It seemed like the developers really wanted its players to understand how to press W and Spacebar together.

After my last vault, I regrouped with the rest of the squad next to a closed exit. One of them, a woman with short, black hair was tapping away at a something on her left wrist. At her last keystroke, the keypad next to the door lit up green. The pneumatic door raised a couple of feet but stopped after a grinding screech. Sparks flew from the top.

The woman kicked the doorway before turning to Locke. "No use. Mechanical failure. Nothing I can do."

"It's fine, Makise. It's enough," Locke replied. Taking the lead, Locke laid down against the floor and crawled through the gape at the bottom. The rest of the squad followed her example. One by one they disappeared through the gape. When it was my character's turn, another prompt appeared.

"Press Ctrl to lay down prone. While prone, you can crawl through tight spaces. However, moving while prone is quite noisy. Certain weapons will have improved stability and recoil if fired while prone. Press Ctrl a second time to stand back up."

With my viewpoint on the floor, I had my character slither her way through. After my character stood back up, Locke said, "Head to the armory. We need to stock up and get our new friend a weapon. Valdez, Makise, take point again. Degurechaff, handoff McNally to Norris and watch our rear. Sleeping beauty, stay close and do as I say."

Thus, we moved forward, navigating the maze of corridors in the facility. After a minute, we ran into a cave-in.

"The armory is just on the other side," said Makise. She gestured to the door to the left. "We can get there by going to through the barracks."

Locke nodded. "Lead the way."

We entered the barracks. Water had seeped in and puddles covered portions of the floor. Broken chairs and bedframes were scattered around. The lighting was mostly broken, save for some flickering ceiling LEDs. The squad members turned on their flashlights.

We were advancing normally, according to Makise's directions, when Valdez suddenly signaled for us to stop. I didn't understand military hand signals and kept moving a few steps before I noticed everyone else had come to a halt. Valdez crouched and examined something on the floor. Suddenly, he cursed under his breath. "Ferals! Kill the lights!" he hissed while motioning for us to get down.

Another prompt appeared. "Press C to crouch. While crouched, you move quieter and are slightly slower than when upright. Weapons have improved stability and recoil if fired while crouched. Press C a second time to stand back up."

We remained silent, crouched in the darkness. Then, I faintly heard the sound of splashes as something stepped in a puddle. In the hallway intersection, a creature melted out of the shadows as it stepped underneath the flickering light. It was bipedal, but it's knuckles dragged along the ground due to its unnaturally long arms and hunched back. If it stood upright, it'd easily be five feet (1.52 meters) tall. Its skin was a sickly pale white and stretched tautly across its body. However, the taut skin also revealed its powerful muscles on its legs, arms, and chest. The nails on its hands were essentially talons. Its facial features were angular with pointed ears, nose, chin, and teeth. Dark pupils flicked back and forth at its surroundings. Its head was completely bald.

It stopped in the middle of the intersection and sniffed the air.

Makise gestured to the open door to our right. With silent understanding, the squad slowly moved towards it.

A prompt appeared again. "Hold Alt while moving to move as slowly and quietly as possible. This works in any stance."

Holding Alt with my thumb, I maneuvered my character towards the door. I kept the "feral" in my sights the entire time. The room we entered had glass windows, so I could still see it idling at the intersection. There was another open door on the adjacent wall, allow us to avoid the feral.

We filed back into the corridor. The feral hadn't moved. Makise pointed down the corridor. At the end, about 300 feet away (100 meters), was an open doorway.

"Armory" she mouthed. Locke acquiesced with a nod and motioned for us to move.

"KRRRAAAAAAHHH!" The in-game shriek made me jump in my chair. A blonde haired man, Degurechaff, spun around instantaneously and fired a single shot. By the time I turned, the feral had collapsed. Red blood seeped from a hole in its head.

Degurechaff's gunshot echoed down the dark corridor. A second of silence dragged on for an eternity as we all held our breaths. But then, one shriek, then another, then several simultaneously, echoed back.

"Run!" yelled Locke. The entire squad took off sprinting. At that moment, another prompt appeared.

"Hold Shift to sprint. Normal sprinting does not use Stamina and can be activated indefinitely. Sprinting can only be done while upright and activating it when in any other stance will automatically cause you to stand up. Speed at the cost of stealth."

We sped down the corridor. As we whipped by more intersection, shrieks sounded all around us. I could feel my heart pounding as we neared the door.

Makise reached it first, followed by Valdez. She stood by the entrance and immediate started tapping her wrist again. Valdez knelt and took a firing position by her feet, but held fire since we were still in the way. Locke ran in, then Norris carrying McNally. Finally, my character and Degurechaff sprinted in together.

Only then did I have a chance to turn around. The corridor was swarming with howling ferals, bounding towards us on all fours. Valdez squeezed off a few rounds. Several of the leaders collapsed but the other simply jumped over the bodies without losing their momentum.

When they were 10 feet away (~3 meters), Makise shouted, "Done!" With a pneumatic hiss that was almost drowned out by the ferals, the door slammed down.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Three dents appeared on the door.