Solution by Daniel Starr

General tips:

*  Alternate two hand-to-hand attacks for best results.  I like Alt-7, Alt-9
or Alt-7, Ctrl-7.

*  Some enemies in the game cannot be defeated by blasters, but can be defeated
in hand-to-hand.  A few special enemies cannot be killed by normal weapons at
all, but must instead be disposed of by special means.

*  If it looks like you should be able to climb into or onto something,
keep trying (walk forward, don't run) and eventually you'll hit the right
pixel.   (Except for the tunnel in the dig, which is sealed 'till you
open it.)

*  If you see something that looks like a monitor, it probably is.  Try
to use it.

PLOT SPOILERS BELOW!

Sorry about all the page breaks, but this is too short an adventure to spoil
unnecessarily.  I've broken up important puzzles into multiple pieces,
so if you think I'm being too cryptic, hit the space bar.
 
 

1.  Get out of your detention cell.
        Read the walkthrough at the back of the playguide.

2.  Get out of the cellblock.
        Use the fork on the electrical panel.  It's in Mr. Blue's room.
(Go ahead and fight him.)

3.  Get out of the guardroom.
        Use the guardroom wall monitors to deactivate cell doors.
Read Dane's logbook (in the cell across from yours) for a security code.
Press the red button on the guardroom wall.  Use the guardroom desk
monitor to move the nursebot; have it pick up Cayman's severed arm and
move it over to the palm reader by the door.  Now use the other desk
monitor to reactivate Cayman's palm's clearance.  Stand on the plate by
the palm reader to open the door.

4.  Evade the robot.
        It's a dumb robot.  Just sidestep instead of moving forward and
you can go right by it into the cryochamber.  Later you'll blow it up from
cover.

5.  Explore the lower tunnel.
        You need to lure the growling beast in the tunnel beneath the
hatch so you can freeze it.  To do that, you need to send someone else
down the tunnel.  The cyberraptor in Chamber 1 will do nicely.

Drain some cryofluid to wake him up.  Go check on his stats in the monitor.
Knock him out with kicks and mid punches.  Make sure the hatch is closed.
When he wakes up, wait for him to come near the hatch, then knock him out so
he collapses on top of it.  Now open it, drop him through, wait for the
fighting to start, and freeze 'em both with cryofluid.  Go through and check
out the right branch.

6.  Prevent those dropships full of marines from arriving.
        Take the elevator up to level 1.  You can take out the probes by
shooting from behind the cover of the elevator door.  Rough up the guard
and he'll rev up the AA gun for you.  Blow up both dropships.  (save, attempt,
fail, restore, attempt again...)

7.  Explore level three.
        Go to level three.  Take out the mecho from cover.  I recommend you
cache your blaster somewhere else now.  Open the door on the left.  Enjoy.
Pick up a healing device, and (optional) a battery from Dane.  Check out the
monitor.  Now go to the far room (retrieve your blaster first, if you
cached it); defeat the marine; read his logbook and the wall monitors.  Get
yourself encased in an envirosuit by the machine here.  In one corner of this
room you'll find the Icarus monitors -- use them to descend to the hangar.
Get a bigger battery from the nose of the Icarus and drop your old one
here -- you'll need it later.  Get the alien cube from the floor.

8.  Stabilize the reactor.
        The reactor guardbot only fires on humanoids.  Anything else would
find it a real pushover.

        Use the forklift bot from the room at the end of the hall to
dispose of the reactor guardbot.  (There's a forklift control monitor in
that room).  Now you can enter the reactor (wearing your envirosuit).

        You can't defeat the alien in combat.  You do need to get rid of
it before you can finish your job, though.

        Go pull one of the two pylon levers down.  Now that the alien is
after you, run back to the landing and knock the bridge out from under it.
Now go back, pull the other pylon lver down and punch in the code you got from
the control room's wall monitor to activate the power-down button on the
reactor monitor.

9.  Explore the outside.
        The security bot is slow, so fire, run in a circle, fire, run in
a circle and you'll be able to beat it.

The airlock code you're looking for is in the logbook of the Marine back in
the level three control room.  You are wearing your envirosuit, right?

"Positive O-Ring" = all lighted except the center.

Take the elevator down to the catwalk.  Run past the droids -- you're
too fast to track as long as you keep moving.

To make headway here, you need the right object and the right place.  The
object should be obvious.  The place is the stone blocks just below the
first turn in the catwalk, not the much larger collection further on.

Use the alien cube to move across the stone blocks, arriving at the wreck.

Hang around in the dropship for a little bit...

... and use the device from the marine you punched out (not shot) to access
the dropship missiles.

Get Big'n'Ugly's attention.  When he goes over to
check it out, give him a second dose.

Using the missile lying on the beach yields a bomb.  Have you found
any obstacles you'd like to blow up?

The bomb will burst open the sealed door on the catwalk if you drop it right
next to the door.  You have to go by the route the alien beast was
guarding, since you can't get back the way you came.  Yes, it can be done.

10.  Explore the dig.
        Kill the small, floating alien.  Do something nice for Escher.

        Use a healing device on her!  Now go check out the writing on three
walls of the Big Sphere Room reached from the large group of stone blocks.
Come back to the dig when you're done, and check out the other room.

        You can't kill the alien, but if you beat it up it will run off and
do something interesting when you pursue it.

        Now pry open that cracked sarcophagus door and solve a small
puzzle to get a device to let you do what that alien did.  With the device in
hand, use the tunnel...

11.  Explore the Phyxx caverns.
        The central column monitor activates the tubes.  Which tube is
determined by the sign in the center of the monitor (match it to the sign
by the tube).

For now, hit the left, right, and bottom tiles in the monitor to activate
the one really useful tube at this point.

Use your gun to give you momentum to put you through the other side of the
zero-gravity chamber.

Another no-guns fight.  Read the writing on the pillars before you
head over to meet him.  And watch your step!

Use his toy to get through the force field at the far end of the room.

Go ahead, solve the puzzle on the monitor.  What?  You want a solution?
Well, try:

Green-Red-Blue-Red-Green-Red-Blue-Green-Blue-Green-Orange-Yellow
-Violet-Yellow-Orange-Blue-Yellow-Green-Yellow.

After that amusing conversation, go back to the central tube chamber and
activate the other two lower tubes.  Now use the control device by the
blinking tube.  Have fun and eliminate your opposition from afar.  (The
same method won't work twice, though, so you'll need to do a different,
obvious thing to dispatch the second.)

Raise the sphere.  Lower it to crush one marine.  Raise the sphere again.
Drop your gun, run over and grab the grenade and throw ("fire") it back up
the tube.

Now go into the remaining tube to fix the gravity ring.

Step on the plates to rotate the highlighted segments into a single line.
Watch out for asteroids.

12.  Escape.
        Make sure your shield is on, then take the Big Sphere Room tube up
to the surface; head for the Icarus.

The Marine's logbook has the information you need to get in the door.

The battery Gen gave you will activate the Icarus if it's still three-fourths
full.  Pick up your old one and use it on yourself to swap out Gen's
battery, then step over to the nose of the Icarus.  Insert Gen's battery
and enjoy.

And if anyone found a medical code, please let me know...

--
Daniel Starr
starr-daniel@yale.edu