I finally finished the Memorial level:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrgb_p9dHAI
I apologize for the inactivity. I've been busy with my classes and the 007: Nightfire TAS took priority for a little while (no, that project isn't dead. Gamerfreak is working it now).
But I had a ton of free time this weekend so I spent a lot of time on this TAS.
Memorial is a pretty straightforward level. The first 3 minutes of the video is mostly focused on stealth. This saves time because enemies don't spawn and get in my way. You can see an example of losing stealth at 2:25 in the video. This didn't actually cost me time since I was able to get through the group of enemies. However, in most cases it does so I avoided getting caught when possible. Every enemy killed was required to maintain stealth.
Starting at 2:45, stealth doesn't matter anymore. This is because keeping stealth from this point on would be slower than just running through all the enemies. I ran into the building and secured the room as quickly as possible. After the cutscene, I need to complete the first additional objective (higher difficulties have more objectives). I kill every enemy possible and complete this objective. There was one enemy left over but it's not a big deal. Now the Night Vision section begins. The rest of the level, starting here, is easily the hardest part of the entire game. I used to speedrun this game on 007 classic and it wasn't uncommon for me to spend 10 minutes here. This TAS makes this part look like a cakewalk.
The room at 3:45 is a weird one. It's the only room in the entire game that forces you to maintain stealth. If you lose stealth, you fail the mission. After vaulting over the railing, I shoot two enemies to my right who will definitely see me later on. There is some quick body armor I pick up, then I kill two more enemies before completing the next objective. This is where stealth is very important. There is one guard who, sadly, is impossible to kill before getting the armor or completing the objective (without wasting time). This enemy will always see you when you have your phone out because the phone makes noise (but apparently shooting 4 bad guys doesn't). Unfortunately, it is impossible to get past this guy before putting the phone away, so I masked the waiting time to the best of my ability. After taking the picture, i turn around slower than i could have and move to the next area slower so I put the phone away 1 frame before he would have seen me. Looking back, I think i could have done a better job with this by being closer to the objective when i took the picture, but my inputs here didn't lose time so it's not a big deal. When I start putting the phone away, I start moving at full speed again. All that's left is one objective, then a final run to the end.
Overall I think this level turned out pretty good. There are only three levels left now! Jungle, Solar, and Cradle. Jungle is gonna be great because there is a ton of hovering which completely breaks the level. Stay tuned.
