A Granary Adventure: The Underdog Story
On the battle-worn Badlands, the BLU team is quickly being slaughtered by the Clan Stackers, a group of RED killers with no mercy. It isn't long before all of BLU is slain...all but one: a BLU Pyro, who vows vengeance for his friends. Before long, though, he's spotted, and is forced to flee. Spotting a working BLU Teleporter, he rushes over to it, and barely flees in time. The Clan Stackers prepare to follow him to where the teleport leads, a peaceful Granary run by friendly BLUs. The Pyro's gonna have some trouble making it out alive; luck is on his side, however, for he will soon find the greatest help from the most unlikeliest people of all...
So begins A Granary Adventure: The Underdog Story, an interactive Team Fortress 2 machinima by xlr105, the man who brought you A Heavy's 2fort Adventure and El Muchacho, the winner of the 2011 Saxxy Awards. While it is primarily a movie, the viewer is occasionally required to perform Quick-Time Events, as well as many other story-based choices. For instance, when overcome by a Heavy being healed by many Medics, you can have the Pyro either run at him with his Flamethrower, or Airblast away. If you choose to use the Flamethrower, you'll come to a quick and grisly death and be forced to choose again. If you choose right, however...well, we don't want to spoil too much, do we? There are also many forking story paths for you to choose; while none are "right" or "wrong", each one essentially shows you one aspect of the adventure while another is occurring off-screen. For example, you can choose to follow the Soldier's group as they charge on the offensive, or the Pyro's group as they hold down the fort. Both of these choices are "canon", and both have the same conclusion. This is primarily to entice viewers to watch again, so they can see all of the different story paths.
Clocking in at over an hour when all is said and done, this truly is an epic in every sense of the word, with moments that are adrenaline-pumping, jaw-dropping, and even heart-rending. It helps that it uses lots of outside music from Kingdom Hearts, Super Mario Galaxy, Shadow of the Colossus, and many other great scores. All in all, it is a cinematic classic that, if pieced together without the interactive format, could easily make for its own short film (please, xlr105?).
There's a Character Sheet, so don't feel shy about filling it up. If you don't, then Meatloaf will clobber you!
- A Father to His Men: BLU Soldier, very much so.
- And the Adventure Continues...: Once everything blows over, Meatloaf takes a vacation to 2fort, where he made his first appearance in "A Heavy's 2fort Adventure".
- Big Bad: The Clan Stackers, with RED Soldier acting as the leader and general main antagonist.
- Curse Cut Short: The Badwater Brigade leader attempts to scream "YOU BASTARD!" to the RED Soldier after he wipes out his forces with just a few rockets during his charge. The leader ends up eating a rocket before he can finish his sentence.
- Heroic BSOD: The entire BLU Team gets hit with this once BLU Soldier makes his sacrifice.
- Heel Face Turn: Aleks, one of the members of Pyro's group, is resurrected and now fights for the Clan Stackers.
- Heroic Sacrifice: BLU Soldier takes a rocket for the group during the final battle.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Meatloaf, though even the Jerk part is debatable. He's more brash than he is mean.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Both the BLU Engineer that greets Pyro and the Badwater Brigade leader meet their end in this fashion, courtesy of the RED Soldier.
- Puzzle Boss: Aleks the Octo-Heavy and the Mic Spammers took some strategy to put down.
- Taking the Bullet: The BLU Soldier saves the group from a critical rocket, at the expense of his own life.
- The Worf Effect: The Badwater Brigade, despite showcasing their strength alongside BLU Team during the siege on the Clan Stackers Base, are wiped out not too soon afterwards by the RED Soldier, withing mere seconds no less.