Anachronox #9 - Red Light District

So we're back at Sender Station Station. From here you can choose to either help Grumpos find more information on Mystech on a planet called something like Haephestos or help Rho find more information on why planets get blown apart. I choose to help Rho first simply because I like her better. Also, her cause seems a tad bit more urgent.

Time for some more mini-games while we relax.

Rho needs some pieces of equipment to continue her research, and to get one of them we need to head down to the Red Light District on Sender Station Station. Remember when I mentioned that a few posts back? Probably not. To get to it we have to run through the pump station tunnels and I swear this game must be reading my blog posts or something because since I complained mentioned the difficulty level of the combat in my previous post I can almost physically see how the game rolled up its sleeves to open a can of whoopass on me. I've gone from not having any trouble at all to actually having to act quite carefully in combat. While I have yet to have anyone die, they get down to red health now and I have to make sure I equip the right trinkets (bracelets in this game though) so I don't get "winky'd", which I think is the equivalent of "confused" in every other game ever. I don't know what the status "nuts" does either, but it ain't good.

These guys got really difficult suddenly.

Did I also mention that you level really quickly? Because that's not true anymore. I actually have to grind a bit and get some new gear before I feel like I can venture further down the pump station tunnels but it turns out there aren't very many enemies down here fortunately. It does help that Grumpos has an aoe full heal at his disposal, though you have to wait a while to use it which puts my character dangerously low on health. It's all about tactical choices, and it's quite fun.

I find these anthills everywhere but don't know what they do.

And then I get to the Red Light District which is exactly as tragically decadent as I assume every Red Light District is. You're going to have to suffer through a whole lot of wanking euphemisms before you're done in this area so buckle up.

Nothing is subtle here.

In one of the pubs there is actually an opportunity to earn some cash by doing some sexy (?) dancing. I was immediately reminded of Cloud in the Honey Bee Inn and the gameplay is very similar. I do it a couple of times to try and nail it but I keep getting the same part wrong... I know I am actually horrible at rhythm games so maybe it just wasn't meant to be, sorry Boots for making a fool out of you.

Of course I needed a copy of "Deus Sex".

Speaking of something completely else though, I haven't had to use my camera for anything since I left Anachronox. But now that I mention it here I am sure the game is going to pick up on it and have me use it for something in my next play session. That would be extremely creepy. This game is definitely weird enough to be its own sentient being.

But you don't have to get naked.

I go into another bar and see what must be my next team member dance around for a bit. Then she makes a magnificent leap through the air and assassinates some thug-looking people standing in a corner (I know they are thug-looking because they look like the guy who beat the crap out of me in the beginning of the game). Boots seems to know who she is and calls out "Sarah" after. She basically says "oh hai" as she walks past him and runs out of the bar. The main reason I suspect that she is another team member is because she on the box art.

That just leaves one more team member to find, which must be the other dude on the game box. Interesting that the last two members for your team are the ones on the box art, nice way to spoil that!

As dangerous as she looks.

We're still not done on Sender Station Station though, now I need to figure out how to smuggle myself into the Tech-Museum to steal an item I need in there. I'm pretty sure I need to go through the vents but I haven't really figured out how yet. Maybe this Sarah person can help me with that?