Free in your browser · Story and run · Solo and co-op
Critical Response
A fast ASCII shooter set in Liminal Protocol's Sector 7, drawn by my own game engine. Play Act I of the story, or the run: calibrate three Transmit Nodes, put down what guards them and reach the hatch before the carrier runs out.
The story is a solo campaign of handmade levels at the run's pace. A room seals at its threshold and opens once nothing in it contests it, and while the crowd keeps coming the rooms ask for other work: live fuses carried to their sockets, valves thrown in the order a board gives, relays reached one at a time before their windows close.
Act I runs five levels from the dark ring to the hatch, a level at a time or straight through. The Shaft drills each doctrine's heavy weapon, and once it is cleared every level starts with one. An operative who is PURGED is re-projected from the last copy on file.
I-1Insertion
I-2The Shaft
I-3Reactor Hall
I-4Cold Storage
I-5The Hatch
The run
How a run works
A run is ten minutes on the carrier clock. Three Transmit Nodes stand between the ring and the hatch at the top of the plant, and each one calls a guardian when its calibration is half done. With all three calibrated, the hatch opens in the hall farthest from the last Node and the Warden steps through. If the clock reaches zero first, the link is lost.
Kills leave residue, and residue patches the operative with new powers, modules and weapon upgrades during the run, so each run builds differently. Between runs, the Service Record pays out Data Cores for requisitions, Records posts three orders every week, and each doctrine climbs its own five BREACH levels. The weekly operation has a public board. The camera sits behind the operative; first person is a key away.
Operatives
Three doctrines
EXCISION
Blade, Edge Fan and Thrown Edge.
Four dashes. A caught edge parries, and its phase is a lunge.
SUPPRESSION
Carbine, pump shotgun and Rivet Driver.
A Psychic Aegis takes most of a wound, and its phase is a shroud.
CALIBRATION
Carrier Lamp, Node Lance and Signal Decoy.
Calibrates Nodes twice as fast. Unlocked by a first extraction.
Every doctrine runs, dashes, slides, slams, wall-jumps and phases out of the lattice.
Bosses
The guardians
The LiningLashes out of the ring's wall, then lies open.
The SoundingPuts out every light but its Node's, on a beat.
The SpecterTakes half of every wound until light finds it.
The ChoirGuarded in front. Strike from the side or behind.
The Sentinel FramePlated in front; launches Stalkers from its dock.
ReclamationGrows from every kill near it.
The WardenSteps through as the hatch opens.
The ring's Node calls one of the ring's two, and the plant's Nodes call from its four. Pictures from the in-game field manual.
Screenshots
In the facility
The Choir at a Transmit NodeThe Warden at the hatchA crew of four in the plantFirst person in a crowdAn operative and the crowd
Screenshots from the build.
Free to play
Play in your browser
No download or account. For co-op, open CO-OP on the title screen and send the room's link to up to three other players.
