Guarding The Base
Craig paused the game and opened the inventory. He had just finished a mission and wanted to organize all the new gear he had gained. He changed his weapon for a more powerful one and threw out the basic gun he had with him since the very beginning of this campaign. He then changed his gear for one with better stats, giving him more HP and allowing his character to withstand more damage from certain weapons.
After he was done with that, Craig used some of the experience points he'd gathered to customize these items, choosing different colors and adding two more badges to his profile. He took a moment to look at the avatar standing proudly with his gun in the middle of the screen after all these changes. Damn, he looked badass, Craig thought. He didn't expect to become this invested in this game, but just as his friend said, he was hooked form the start.
He clicked the escape button to exit the inventory view and continue the campaign, but the game didn't react. Craig didn't panic though, his gaming rig didn't have the newest or the most powerful components, so he was used to his computer needing a bit more time to process certain commands.
Then he noticed his helmet turned dark green. Craig leaned in to look closer at what happened, expecting this to be a momentary visual glitch. But it wasn't. And this wasn't even his helmet in a different color, it was a compleletly different one. That annoyed him a little bit, the game just glitched and robbed him of one of his items! He clicked on it to try and get back to his custom helmet but the game didn't react. Of course, it was still processing the command to exit the inventory. Craig groaned loudly. He needed to invest in a better PC - this helmet had such good stats! And it looked cool!
He breathed in, then breathed out. This was just a helmet, noting major that would hinder his progress-- his tactical vest glitched and turned into a different item. What the hell? Craig looked at his compter screen with disbelief. Another part of his character's gear just changed into somethign completely different. He clicked on his avatar to try to revert that change but again, the game did not react.
And it only got worse. One by one, elements of his character's equipment changed from his custom ones into a set of dark green tactical gear he did not recognize, which was weird as he spent a lot of time in the game's item shop. He was absolutely horrified by this sight. After just a minute or two his character was unrecognizable. Gone was his badass soldier, and in his place Craig saw a heavily armed police officer. And it seemed like his avatar was now a bit more muscular?
His screen flashed suddenly and Craig was surrounded by white light. He could not see anything beyond this blank void. He tried blinking quickly but this apparent visual phenomenon did not subside. His eyes were betraying him.
He blinked once more and the bright light disappeared, replaced with a view of a different location form the game than the one where he finished his last mission. Then something dawned on him. He wasn't looking at a screen, he was inside the game! He turned his head and instead of his room he saw the game world turn around him. What was happening? It seemed his mind was playing with him.
Just as Craig began to comprehend what had just happened to him, his body started moving involountarily. He turned towards a path leading to where he was standing and he could now see that he stood next to an entrance to some sort of hidden base. Hidden base? Oh, right, he was transported to Part II of the campaign, he remembered walking alongside this road. Entering the base tiggered a cutscene that led to the player unlocking a few important side quests. Why did the game put him here and why did it seem like he was transported into the game itself?
When Craig tried to turn his head he realized he couldn't. His body was now locked in his current position, holding his gun in both hands in front of him, ready to point it at any opponent in the blink of an eye. He was stuck in some sort of loop, first leaning to the side, then straightning out and checking his gun, then leaning slightly to the side again, and so on.
Suddenly, he saw movement. He couldn't react physically in any way so he just watched as a dark dot appeared on the horizon, then got closer and turned into a soldier running towards the entrance of the base. When he saw the entire figure he realized, based on the look of the soldier's gear, that he was looking at a player. He tried to say something to him but he couldn't. And then the player got really close and Craig felt a weird sting inside his head.
The player came even closer and #GRD0933F automatically moved to block him in his way, initiating a preplanned conversation.
"Stop or I'll shoot" the NPC barked in his low, growling voice. The player stood silent for a moment, giving himself a moment to choose one of a few possible responses.
"I have orders from Agent Dark Wolf" the player said, his avatar standing idly as #GRD0933F replayed his cutscene amination in a loop, his gun pointed at the player.
"Why should I believe you?" was the NPC's response. The player didn't choose to continue the conversation. Instead he clicked on an option to show the NPC an item from an earlier part of the game. The guard switched to another animation, putting down his gun and stepping aside to his previous position.
"Enter now, soldier" #GRD0933F showed the player to move along with his gun and both caracters left coversation mode. The player walked into the base and the NPC was back in his idling loop. Leaning to the side, then straightning out and checking his gun, then leaning slightly to the side again. As a very minor character his programming was very bare bones. He did not have many speaking lines, other than the short conversation with the player and a few grunts. He had only a few animaton loops avaliable to him, the most he could do was to flex his arm if the player chose the most friendly dialog options. No congitive capacity was left for the guard, and thus no real thought crossed his mind as he stood like a statue, making sure the secret base was secure.
Another player came up to the guard NPC, triggering the cutscene.
"Stop or I'll shoot" the NPC barked in his low, growling voice. The player stood silent for a moment, giving himself a moment to choose one of a few possible responses.