Duration: 9:11

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Okay, so having sampled all the mission types, I will definitely say that the "defense" mission types are much more challenging than the others. I mean, you're suddenly forced to defend a much larger target than just yourself, and you're vastly outnumbered...so you can't exactly pick off the enemy at your leisure, because you're no longer their primary interest. Granted, you can usually distract them for a little while by shooting at them, but that's not really going to save you when the swarm descends upon your objective...

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Mission 5: Defend the Base

Anyway, this is a pretty "straightforward" mission in that as soon as you start it up, you will face your enemy...and you will not stop facing that enemy until eight minutes have passed...so...good luck, Levin!

So this mission is in the same vein as Mission 2, but there are some differences to be aware of:

First of all, the space is different...whereas the previous mission was about a long and narrow stretch of land, this one is not nearly so bottlenecked. You have to be aware of a full range of area that the enemy can use for its approach, and you definitely can't keep an eye on it all at once, even if you never have to turn to face a distraction that's about to slip through your defenses. An awareness of the whole map and what's approaching is definitely key to managing the attackers as they try to overwhelm you.

The topography is no longer to your favor...so you can't just enjoy your little perch and pick off the enemies from relative safety and laugh as they struggle to get at you, mostly unconcerned with their actual ability to do harm to Levin. While most waves will be good enough to "announce" their emergence with the very distinctive sound of cyborgs leaping out from under the ground, there are also hives that will periodically release new enemies back behind rock formations where you can't see.

This stage introduces the game's assault vehicle, the (uncreatively named) BKD-G9. There are a few notes to take in about the BKD itself. While you're on it, you won't take damage, but the vehicle itself will...when that runs out, it will explode in short order. The guns on this thing are ridiculously powerful...any target will crumble quickly before the bullets it dispenses. Beware, however: the ammunition it carries is very finite. You don't need to reload while manning its guns, and it doesn't use up your own personal stock of ammunition, but once it's gone that's all you're getting from those huge mounted guns.

Don't fret, though! The BKD-G9 is far from useless when it runs out of ammo. It is of course still a very effective form of transportation. You can still run over enemies with it, although this will damage the vehicle somewhat. You can set it out and leave it behind someplace where enemies will be drawn to it as a distraction. My personal favorite use is to activate its one final feature: you can set it to barrel forwards without you and self-destruct. The tutorial box is surprisingly silent about it, but it is listed among the controls, both on the in-game menu and the actual operations manual for Onslaught. My only complaint is a basic design flaw when mapping the controls...your fire button is the B trigger, sure...makes sense, but the self-destruct is the A button in the very same vicinity. I have pressed A by mistake once or twice, looking to shoot, but instead activating the self-destruct sequence...which cannot be canceled. I want a refund for my expensive armored personnel carrier and its spiffy rotary guns!

There will be a brief "intermission" of sorts near the end of the mission. Excelion will ask aloud whether or not it's her imagination that the numbers seem to be decreasing...which you may or may not notice, as the basis for saying this isn't really established until the current wave of enemies are all dispatched... but anyway, around that time, no new enemies will spawn, giving you some free time to prepare for the onslaught to come.

I will confess to having "cheated" in one little excursion, using my foreknowledge of the stage's layout and the fact that there would be a pause in the action. The first stop is a little cluster of crates next to the base...it contains a nifty little upgrade to the Assault Rifle, a very welcome addition to the arsenal and a much-needed improvement over its predecessor's ammunition capacity.

On the way back, I took out a very particular hive, home to explosive wasp enemies...which didn't appear at all up to this point, but would definitely emerge and make themselves a thorn in my side when the intermission was over. Why they didn't deploy sooner is beyond me, but Levin and friends will be very much glad to be rid of this menace. If one reaches the base before you take it out, the resulting explosion will actually damage the target we're trying to defend...a definite slap in the face on any defense-based mission.