After some time, the protagonist regained his consciousness.
He realized that he was still in that room and was lying beside the corpses of mutated creatures.
However, the state of his health had improved tremendously. The feverish symptoms that he had after contracting the virus had disappeared.
A little girl was hiding behind an abandoned cabinet. She was staring at him with curiosity and wariness.
The protagonist tried communicating with the girl using various languages. He discovered that the girl seemed to understand Chinese but was unable to respond. She pointed at her mouth and then shook her hands.
“Oh. She can’t speak. Is she a character in the story plot?” Chen Sha wondered.
The plot continued.
The protagonist stood up and approached the girl with a friendly demeanor and tried to talk to her. Through that, he discovered that she was the one who saved him.
The little girl showed the protagonist a special syringe. That was probably a special apparatus developed by scientists in the base and could be used to collect blood and inject fluids into the body.
The protagonist vaguely figured out that it was the little girl’s blood that suppressed the virus he had contracted and cured him. That was why he did not turn into a zombie!
The little girl brought the protagonist to a nearby research laboratory. The lab was in a mess. It appeared that an intense battle had occurred here. There was a pungent smell in the air. The protagonist only dared to enter the lab after wearing a gas mask from the corpse of a soldier nearby.
The protagonist deduced the sequence of events that happened based on the documents left in the lab as well as the state of the place.
This little girl’s body contained an antibody for the virus. Her blood was the cure for the virus. After the virus had circulated in the base, a team of mercenaries was tasked to bring the little girl away from the lab.
However, they encountered a zombie attack in the process. In the midst of the intense battle, the team released a special poisonous gas to kill the zombies. Unfortunately, the number of zombies was still too much for the team to fight against; and they had all sacrificed in the end.
Meanwhile, the zombies that were originally in the base and members of the team that had turned into zombies all died from the poisonous gas.
The equipment was damaged and had malfunctioned. The little girl had escaped. The antibodies in her body allowed her to disregard the biochemical virus and poisonous gas. Moreover, her blood could heal infected persons.
However, a special apparatus had to be used during blood collection. That was the special syringe that the little girl was previously holding. It had to be discarded once it was used.
Because of that, the protagonist brought the little girl along as he searched for the exit of the base.
In the process, Chen Sha encountered even more obstacles.
The map started to become more and more complicated. Sometimes, Chen Sha would have to solve some simple puzzles before he could continue moving.
The difficulty of fighting those creatures escalated. Some zombies started to possess mutant abilities, such as fast speed, tremendously increased health bars, and the ability to turn semi-transparent. The weapons of the mercenaries became more advanced, and their numbers increased.
Other than having to fight these enemies, Chen Sha also had to look for more resources within the map and calculate the ammunition that he had to avoid exhausting it.
Apart from ammunition and medical supplies, the protagonist also had to source for syringes.
The little girl’s blood could not make him immune to the zombie virus permanently. After the protagonist was bitten, he would still contract the virus again. In that event, he still required a blood transfusion from the little girl.
Without syringes, the little girl would not be able to transfuse blood to the protagonist.
Additionally, Chen Sha required the little girl’s help in other areas.
Although she did not have much combat abilities, she could help out in many other aspects. For example, Chen Sha required the little girl to cooperate with the protagonist to solve certain puzzles for specific obstacles. She was tiny, agile, and immune to the poisonous gas and virus. Her blood could also remove the debuff caused by the virus and recover the protagonist’s health level.
Outside of battles, the little girl would help players source for collectible items hidden in the setting.
The little girl could sense nearby zombies. If the little girl suddenly found a place to hide while they were walking, that meant that a battle was about to commence.
During battles, Chen Sha felt that the little girl could affect his emotions.
He would feel extremely proud after clearing an obstacle together with the little girl.
He would be extremely paranoid if the little girl was surrounded by zombies and would wish to be there immediately.
He would be in huge distress after seeing how weak the little girl was after the blood collection. He would scold himself for being too stupid and would wish that he had not gotten injured during the battles.
…
Chen Sha was addicted to the game unwittingly.
Strictly speaking, Ocean Stronghold was incomparable to some overseas Triple-A games in many aspects, such as its game quality (including its graphics, character models, actions, and details) and intricacies of its plot.
Nevertheless, Chen Sha was still addicted to the game. He felt that it was different from other overseas Triple-A games.
The protagonist was a fellow countryman. He was a compatriot from the special forces who snuck into the secret base of a transnational organization in search of the truth. Although he was multilingual, he would often use Chinese to talk to himself when he was resting. He would also talk to the little girl in Chinese. That made the game extremely immersive.
It was common for players to find games attractive when the protagonist was a fellow countryman. Moreover, objectively speaking, it was pretty remarkable for a domestically-produced game to create such an impressive story mode!
Even games such as Counter Strike and Bullet Hole did not dare to include a story mode!
Even though Ocean Stronghold’s story mode was inferior to some classic Triple-A games overseas because of its lack of resources, its quality was not that far off. It could even be considered to be top-notch as compared to other domestically-produced games. The producers should be awarded full marks for what they had done!
Furthermore, it was worth noting that although the game’s story mode was relatively less complex, it still contained the essentials!
The design of the obstacles was reasonable, there was a huge variety of creatures and firearms, and the difficulty level of the obstacles was adequate.
The most impressive aspect was the design of the little girl. It brought life to the entire story mode!
If it wasn’t for the little girl, this could not even be called a story mode but would instead be considered an ‘infinite mode’. After all, all that it included were obstacles and battles with zombies and mercenaries. Where was the plot?
However, with the addition of the little girl, the entire story mode was brought to life!
There seemed to be a soul to the originally boring gunfights. That was because players would invest their real emotions into the game!
Only games that resonated with the players could be considered ‘in possession of a plot’!
At the end of the game, the protagonist braved through all the hardships and made it to the highest level of the sea fortress. He defeated the final mutated boss creature and left the place on an aircraft.
When he was in the helicopter, the protagonist pressed the detonation button. A huge mushroom cloud rose above the sea fortress. The evil virus experiments, the scary mutated creatures, the money-seeking mercenaries and executives of the transnational organization… all of that had been buried under the sea.
As the protagonist flew the aircraft, the camera lens focused on the little girl.
She was quietly asleep under the protagonist’s jacket.
In the middle of the sunset afterglow, above the raging waves caused by the explosion, the protagonist flew away with the little girl. The story mode had ended.
The names of the staff appeared on the screen. To Chen Sha’s surprise, there were only a few more than sixty persons in the production team in total!
Amongst the sixty-something names, only twenty-something were research and design personnel from Tengda. The rest were personnel from various companies that Tengda had outsourced for the job. That included character model designers, game functions designers, voice actors, music and sound effect designers, etc.
Nevertheless, Chen Sha was still shocked. He had not expected that so few people were able to create such a memorable story plot!
Actually, if one was to recall carefully, not many resources seemed to be devoted to the entire story mode. The only memorable character was the little girl.
However, the story mode in Ocean Stronghold was still unforgettable. That proved the capabilities of the designers!
Chen Sha was completely astounded. It took a long time for him to recover from the shock.
He had originally thought that the company would thoroughly embarrass itself with the story mode that it had developed. He did not expect the company to be so competent!
