I knew my first run through Zero Hour, the returning Outbreak Perfected exotic mission from 2019’s Season of the Drifter, would be unsuccessful. I wouldn’t remember exactly where enemies were placed and how exactly to deal with them quickly. I’d struggle with the myriad jumping puzzles through the desiccated husk of the old Tower, not remembering where certain paths went and forgetting that others led to death. But hey, I’m shaking off five years’ worth of cobwebs. No sweat; I breezed through the Whisper reprised mission. I got Outbreak Perfected back in the day. I got this. I. got…
hey bungie what the fuck why is TR3-VR so fucking scary still? huh???
TR3-VR (pronounced Trevor) is a sweeper-bot with crab legs and a bunch of knives in its vertical rectangular carapace. It moves around the second-to-last area of the exotic mission, a maze where you are supposed to find and flip several switches before being able to open the exit. It moves with incredible speed. You will die if it sees you, unless you’re quick and lucky enough to find a hidey-hole in the walls as you flee from it. The laser scanner it emanates from its single all-seeing eye bathes you in a deep blood red. It is the closest thing Bungie has come to creating a real slasher movie monster. I would be willing to bet that if you put this motherfucker up against the Witness, the Witness might beat it but it would be extremely close.
I am scared to death of TR3-VR, but I also love it to pieces. In a game where your main options to interact with the world are “shoot gun” and “dance like an idiot” I love an enemy you can’t kill, is faster and stronger than you, and doesn’t care about your dance skills. What really makes TR3-VR sing though is the fact that you’re on a deadline here. Zero Hour can only be completed in less than 40 minutes, meaning you have to be good at killing enemies, great at jumping puzzles, and exceptional at finding switches while panicking because our man is on your ass with a paper shredder otherwise you’re gonna be sent packing back to orbit in no time flat.
I don’t know how worth it a craftable Outbreak Perfected is going to be for some folks, but what I do know is that this is a great way to start to wind down the party. Coming back to this mission, to the harrowing scenario of facing down TR3-VR unassisted, I am reminded of how challenging this game has always been, and how dedicated you really have to be to unlock its secrets.