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'|' .||. ||. 7K@@@st@R ( (Q@@R@Q76 ( @O ~ %@@t~/ (((t%(O3%366/ /(73%777((t7// tt%77%C66Cs3Ct(/ ^ (/COGeGOC%/ 3C6C6sQK#@@K( (GR@R#R#SGOOOOC3~^ 6OSQQSSQKQeB@@@@R% 7#@@@@QOOssKQQGC7/ %GK#RQ7 (R@@@Ot sCOt ^C@@@S/ C@@@#7 /%/ ~CO63~ /(CeKQ( ^/S@@@Gt(7((((~~(~/~^ 6QG%(77t7%7sK@@@@S 6@@@R/ (///( / tQsC7 /(6GO^ /#@@@#eKR###KQSS#O/ S#R####RRR@@@@@Q~ %@@@Q^ /^/^~ 3Rees %sOC~ ^ G@@@s// GQQ%/ ^^^~3K@@@S^ /@@@@( //(// /e@##6 C%((t%CC%CG6~ ^7R@@@ROs3%%7t((%/ R@@% Q@@@% ~S@@@@KO%67CS#@@BR% sOeGOGGSSeSC~ /7CGGGeSSSSQO/ Q#et (G#Qs/^ ^(CeKRRRQOC~/ ^ ^ ^/^ (Thanks to PirateoftheFAQs for the ASCII art) FAQ/Walkthrough by Dan Van Kley aka BudFutlacker Version .50 e-mail comments, suggestions, and snide remarks to dvankley@gmail.com -- TABLE OF CONTENTS -- Legal, Revisions I. Introduction II. Basics III. Weapons IV. Mission Walkthroughs (incomplete) To come: Multiplayer analysis and FAQ -- Legal -- This was written completely by me by myself on my computer on my own time etc. etc. all rights reserved. Currently gamefaqs.com, cheatcc.com, cheathappens.com, and neoseeker.com, gamerhelp.com are the only sites allowed to post it. You can e-mail me to ask permission if you want but at this point I don't really want to allow many more sites. Unauthorized reproduction will result in my lethal lawninja hunting you down and stealthily incapacitating you with a subpoena to the spine. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. Use of this guide on any unauthorized web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. If you see this document posted on an unauthorized site, please notify me immediately. -- Revision History -- Dec 8, 2005: First revision submitted to GameFAQs. Consists of basics, weapons, and first two missions Dec 12, 2005 : Updated some weapons, corrected some errors, revised Nightclub|Stakeout and added Subway and Rooftops Jan 16, 2006 : Various updates and revisions, added co-op mission info, added Mansion and Laboratory -- I. INTRODUCTION -- So I've played video games for most of my life and of all those that I've played, Goldeneye 007 and it's successor Perfect Dark had probably the largest impact on me as far as first person shooters go. To my mind, Goldeneye was the first real FPS. Before it... there was Doom. And that was about it. Goldeneye redefined the genre and got me hooked. Many a happy day was spent in my basement blasting the crap out of my friends and running around with a live grenade hoping I could find someone to kill before my head exploded. Good times. Anyway, I didn't play Perfect Dark until fairly recently (2003 or so) and even compared to shooters of the time it was excellent. The storyline, control, gameplay, depth, style, everything was done right. So naturally when I heard Rare was finally making a sequel (What took so long? Seriously.) I was pretty fired up. Fortunately I was able to get my 360 and PDZ the day they hit the shelves and dive in. Although some have given it lukewarm reviews, I personally am a big fan of this game. I love the graphics, the feel of the game, the challenge, the sound, it's all great. Except maybe the storyline and Chandra's voice. Those both need some work. But when you boil it all down, an FPS is about shooting things, and few other games make shooting things so much fun. This is the first FAQ I've ever written, so don't expect a whole lot. The main reason I'm doing it is because GameFAQs doesn't have any up yet, so I feel I need to step up and do my civic duty to the gamer community. I've got finals looming on the horizon so the first revision will be a pretty basic "how to get through every mission alive" guide, and later when I have some free time I'll break down all the weapons, missions, and techniques in more detail. Onward! -- II. BASICS -- Seems like everyone I meet who plays this game keeps comparing it to Halo. I suppose the comparison is unavoidable, but regardless I feel the need to say THIS IS NOT HALO. I played a lot of Halo, and this is definitely a different style of game. If you're a Halo junkie and you just started on this game, it's going to feel weird. Mess with the sensitivity and take some time to get used to it. If you're looking for a new Halo with better graphics and a new storyline, then you're going to have to wait for Halo 3, 'cause this ain't it. If you played a good bit of Goldeneye and Perfect Dark back in the day and are ready for a next-gen game that feels like them, then this is your ticket. Shooting enemies is a considerably trickier proposition here than in Halo. The autoaim is far less active, enemies move around randomly a lot more, and the guns become considerably less accurate after sustained fire. Give it some time and you'll get used to it. Use the AI to your advantage. PDZ's AI isn't terribly brilliant. While they're usually smart enough to find some cover and take potshots at you, occasionally even flanking you, many times the AI will charge right at where they last saw you, often through a doorway. If you're ready and waiting with a shotgun or something similar you can whittle down the odds pretty quickly. Reload. Constantly. The only time your gun should not be firing, reloading, or full of bullets is when you're waiting around a corner and don't think you have enough time to reload before an enemy comes for you. If you've played many other FPSs, you've probably already got this down, but it's critically important in this game due to the generally long reload times. Although the animations do look really cool, they take a while, which is a big problem if people are shooting at you. This is especially true of the shotgun, which takes a loooong time to reload. You should always reload the shotgun when you're not firing it because you can fire it in the middle of the reload animation if necessary. Also remember you continue to reload while rolling, so start tumbling if your clip runs dry at a bad time. Reload whenever you get a chance and don't waste your ammo and you should be fine. Know when to fight and when to move. Much like Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, there are some segments in this game where enemies don't stop coming. Since it's hard to tell where these spots are, I will just advise you to keep moving whenever you can. Getting bogged down in a firefight with an unlimited number of enemies isn't going to help you out. Thankfully these unlimited enemy sections aren't too bad and pretty much just serve to keep you moving along rather than employing the "kill everyone everywhere" mentality. The net effect makes for a more interesting play experience as you can never really feel safe. Bring the right tools for the job. With the addition of the nifty armory feature, PDZ lets you use any weapon you've brought back from a previous mission (other than the first simulated one) in any new mission you start. This is huge when you play on Perfect and Dark Agent. Make your choices wisely. Early on before you get the fancier weapons, I recommend the shotgun and either the P9P or the DW-P5 if you have it. With those two weapons you'll be ready for pretty much any situation, including stealth missions. Later on feel free to mix it up once you get a feel for the missions and the weapons. Just remember that your starter ammo won't last you long, so if you bring a SuperDragon to one of the earlier missions don't expect to get a lot of use out of it. Shoot enemies in the head. This is pretty obvious, but worth mentioning. Anybody who takes any sort of bullet to their bare noggin is going down. Unfortunately shooting enemies in the head only really works if they don't have helmets. If they do you have to shoot off all their armor before you can headshot them, which kind of defeats the point. Also bear in mind silencers make weapons more accurate, but less powerful. They're a good choice for head sniping. As long as nobody's looking at your target you can kill with impunity. Use cover and roll. A lot. These two new moves take a little getting used to, but they will soon become second nature. Cover is a little finicky, but extremely effective if used right. Find a flat surface and face perpendicular to it and you should get the prompt. Make sure nobody's flanking you and you can sit back and engage the enemy at your leisure, at least until they get tired of shooting a wall and try to get up close and personal. One thing to remember about roll is that you can reload while you're doing it. It would take some crazy coordination to do this in real life, but it works in the game so use it. If you empty your shotgun at a bad time, start rolling around like crazy and before you know it you'll be ready to start blasting again. Use stealth to your advantage. As long as no enemies can see you or any dead bodies and you don't fire a loud weapon, you can move around without anyone noticing. This technique is essential on some levels. This obviously requires silenced weapons, but you also need to be careful where you kill enemies so patrolling guards don't walk over them, and make sure you take out any cameras before they see you. Also remember that scientists will make a run for an alarm the second you stop pointing your gun at them, so knock them out with the butt of your weapon once you got whatever you need out of them. -- III. WEAPONS -- The accuracy, damage, and range ratings are not directly out of the manual, these are based on my impressions from my experience with the game. As such they are not guaranteed to be competely accurate. The weapons are grouped as they are in the armory screen. The "First Encountered" line is the first level you will be able to pick up this weapon and bring it with you. As such, the Datacore|Demolition level is not included because you don't get to keep weapons from that level. Pistols -- Pistols are your standard low-level utility weapon. On average, not real powerful or accurate, pistols are still effective if used right. They can also be dual wielded with another pistol, a grenade, or a riot shield to increase their versatility. All pistols take up one inventory slot and except for the psychosis gun and magnum use the same ammo. The magnum and psychosis gun both use completely unique ammo. P9P Accuracy: Good Power: Fair Range: Good First Encountered: Starting Weapon -- A solid all around pistol for pretty much any situation. You start the game with it and will probably get a lot of use out of it, so take some time to get familiar with it. The P9P offers silenced, scoped shooting in a small package, but has a small clip and fairly subpar stopping power. Use it primarily for silenced head sniping and you'll be alright. Falcon Accuracy: Very Good Power: Poor Range: Fair First Encountered: Nightclub|Stakeout -- The successor (or technically predecessor, this is a prequel after all) to the original Perfect Dark's Falcon 2, this gun is carried by most of the early enemies in the game and as such is quite easy to get ahold of. Although fairly weak, this gun is quite accurate and has a large clip making it fairly effective in a pinch. I wouldn't recommend it unless you have no better options as its versatility is a bit lacking. The secondary fire tosses down a clip which then fires off all rounds in sequence. You can actually get some decent casualties in singleplayer doing this, although it's pretty much just an annoyance in multiplayer. As an interesting side note, if you look closely at this gun's grip you can see a Carrington Institute logo on the side of it. This makes me wonder how all the goons early on got ahold of Institute hardware. DY357 Magnum Accuracy: Poor Power: Very Good Range: Poor First Encountered: Rooftops|Escape (in a locked case) -- An old-fashioned six shooter with massive power and not much else. This gun has bad range, bad accuracy, a clip of only six shots, takes forever to cycle between shots (unless you're only holding one and firing it fast) and takes a while to reload. It's salvation comes in its power. Anyone that gets hit with this thing more than once is almost guaranteed dead. Fun to use because of the animations, but not all that effective, especially against multiple targets. Secondary fire is a goofy and almost useless silenced delayed detonation shot. Good luck finding a use for that one. MagSec 4 Accuracy: Fair Power: Fair Range: Good First Encountered: Mansion|Infiltration -- Weird futuristic pistol based off the MagSec from the first Perfect Dark. In practice functions pretty much the same as a P9P except it doesn't have a silencer. Only real advantage is its secondary fire that allows it to shoot around corners. The hit detection on these ricochet shots is pretty forgiving so don't hesitate to give it a try. Just be careful you don't bounce your shot back and hit yourself. Psychosis Gun Accuracy: Good Power: Very Poor Range: Fair First Encountered: Trinity|Infiltration -- Goofy tranq dart gun. Primary fire is a slightly damaging and highly annoying tranq dart that makes the vision of human players go really blurry for a few seconds. It doesn't seem to affect AI enemies much aside from minor damage. The secondary fire makes enemies see their friends as targets, making for some fun situations with large groups. This can cause some serious carnage in multiplayer, including lots of swearing and teamkilling accusations. Just remember that the target will still see you as an enemy in single player, and will fire at you given the opportunity. Also, in single player the secondary fire uses a whole clip, so be careful when you use it. Submachine Guns -- SMGs are some of the most commonly seen guns in the game, as most enemies will carry one of these. Because of this, ammo is usually plentiful, so you'll find yourself relying on at least one of these primarily. On the whole SMGs have decent accuracy, excellent firing rates, fairly large clips, and good stopping power. Good all around weapons. All SMGs take two inventory slots, and some can be dual wielded with others of their type. UGL Liberator Accuracy: Very Poor Power: Fair Range: Poor First Encountered: Nightclub|Stakeout -- Basic Uzi knockoff. The UGL is the first SMG you'll run into, carried by many of Killian's goons in the second level. Not very powerful or accurate, the UGL can still spit out a lot of bullets in a short time, making it useful at close range or for crowd control. Can also be dual wielded for even more bullet spraying fun. Secondary fire discards the gun and activates it as a proximity mine. This is really effective in most cases as you probably won't have a strong desire to hang onto the UGL and the bomb it becomes is very powerful. Also lots of fun in multiplayer. DW-P5 Accuracy: Good Power: Good Range: Good First Encountered: Subway|Retrieval -- Pseudo-MP5 with unnatural accuracy at range, especially with the silencer. This is an all around excellent gun with silenced capability, a scope for sniping, and good stopping power. Until you get your hands on a rifle or RC-P90, this is a good gun to stick with. CMP-150 Accuracy: Very Good Power: Good Range: Fair First Encountered: Trinity|Infiltration -- The CMP-150 is a compact machine pistol with a really high rate of fire and good stopping power. Shoot this thing at anybody's head and they'll go down quickly. It's main drawbacks are its massive ammo consumption and limited range, so you probably won't get a whole lot of use out of it. It's mainly carried by dataDyne security in the later levels, so you'll run into it fairly often later on. The secondary function projects a hologram of you nearby which theoretically confuses enemies but also slows you down. In my experience this isn't really effective but the tradeoff in speed is minimal enough that it's worth it just to annoy your opponents. RCP-90 Accuracy: Fair Power: Good Range: Good First Encountered: Jungle|Storm -- Goldeneye/PD veterans will recognize this bad boy immediately. One of the most effective SMGs, the RCP-90 fires fast, hits hard, and has a good range. Add this to a huge clip and two extremely useful auxiliary functions, and you have a great weapon. The secondary function takes all the color out of your view but outlines all enemies and anything else that might pose a threat (mines, turrets, etc.) in red and all friendlies in green. Essential to getting through the Jungle level in one piece. The tertiary mode allows you to reprogram mines, sentry turrets, cameras, and the like to your side. You don't need to do the normal tertiary command, just aim at the target and hit A. Heavy Weapons -- These are the big boys. The heavy weapon class includes two sniper rifles, a heavy machine gun, a rocket launcher, and a weird plasma rifle. Every one of these guys takes up three slots, slows you down a good bit while carrying them, uses their own ammo, and causes some serious pain. Some can be mounted on turrets, giving them unlimited ammo as long as they're on the turret. M60 Accuracy: Very Poor Power: Very Good Range: Poor First Encountered: Rooftops|Escape (it's found in an isolated room, unconfirmed if you can actually bring it back; thanks LunarHawk99) -- Your run of the mill bigass heavy machine gun. Lays down a lot of heavy fire for a long time, but is really innaccurate and takes forever to reload. In my mind its usefulness is mainly limited by the scarcity of ammo for it. If you run into one, feel free to pick it up and fire it out before retrieving whatever you had before and moving on. Can also be mounted/taken off turret emplacements. Secondary fires little electronic caltrops that don't actually hurt enemies walking over them, but instead slow them down to a crawl. Useful in multiplayer objective games. Plasma Rifle Accuracy: Poor (Projectiles move slowly) Power: Excellent Range: Fair First Encountered: Temple|Surveillance -- Fires balls of death, has unlimited ammo (kind of), and cloaks you. For my money, doesn't get much better than that. Only problem is that it's pretty hard to hit mobile enemies with the rounds. You don't have to hit them directly though, as the plasma balls cause splash damage. Remember that fact when you're trying to fire past a corner or railing or you might fry yourself. If you get the hang of the aiming this gun will quickly become a primary weapon for most close to mid-range work. Secondary cloaks you while not firing or hitting someone. This eats up your battery pretty quick, even faster when you're moving. Also cloak will not work immediately after firing the weapon. Bear in mind that the recharge has kind of an acceleration to it. The longer you wait, the faster it recharges. Can be mounted/taken off turret emplacements. Rocket Launcher Accuracy: Good (Depends on mode) Power: Excellent Range: Good First Encountered: River|Extraction -- The big boy. The rocket launcher is capable of firing four rounds in quick succession, in either dumb fire or guided mode. Anything that gets hit or almost hit by one of these rockets is toast. Devastatingly powerful, but very rare and can only be fired four times. Secondary allows you to guide a missle to it's target. Bear in mind this missle moves much slower and has a much shorter range than the standard warhead, and it also leaves you extremely vulnerable while flying it. Can be mounted/taken off turret emplacements Jackal Accuracy: Excellent Power: Excellent Range: Excellent First Encountered: Rooftops|Escape -- Your standard sniper rifle. Is pinpoint accurate, has a ridiculous range, and does insane amounts of damage. Only real drawbacks are the space it takes up and the extremely slow firing rate. The weapon is bolt action and each round must be manually loaded, forcing the user to wait a long time between shots. If you get your hands on it, take a second to see if you can hit anyone from afar and save yourself trouble later on. Secondary fire is an EMP marker that scrambles enemy radar and paints the target in friendly radar, but can only be used in multiplayer. Shockwave Accuracy: Very Good Power: Very Good Range: Excellent First Encountered: Bridge|Assault -- The spiritual successor to the original PD's Farsight, a high tech particle beam sniper rifle equipped with x-ray scope. Although it doesn't seem to be quite as powerful or accurate as the Jackal, the Shockwave still does some serious damage. While it can see through walls, unlike the Farsight, it cannot actually fire through them. Use the x-ray scope to keep tabs on enemies and make sure you don't get surprised. The rifle will overheat Halo beam rifle style if you fire it too quickly. This is very easy to do and you must be careful to let it cool properly or you'll end up with a useless gun during a firefight. Close Combat -- A variety of weapons suitable for use at close range. DEF-12 Shotgun Accuracy: Very Poor Power: Very Good Range: Very Poor First Encountered: Nightclub|Stakeout -- Standard combat shotgun with a six round magazine. Takes two inventory slots. Simple, but effective, the shotgun should be taken along whenever possible to complement any long range weapon. This gun will absolutely tear enemies to pieces at close range. Even if it's not fatal, a blast is usually enough to stun enemies so you can smack them or blast them in the face. Obviously does not work at range, and every round must be reloaded, which can take a long time. This can be done at any time, so reload whenever you're not actively firing at someone. Viblade Accuracy: N/A Power: Good Range: N/A First Encountered: Mansion|Infiltration (inside the laser grid) -- Samurai sword with goofy secondary shield function. This weapon is really odd and can only be found at one point (that I know of) in the game. Given its limitations, it's really not all that powerful. The shield function is handy, but doesn't last real long or protect your rear. The attack is pretty nasty but leaves you open to being shot in the face. Takes up one slot, so could be useful if you're carrying a sniper. Not recommended unless you know how to use it. Combat Shield Accuracy: N/A Power: N/A Range: N/A First Encountered: Mansion|Infiltration -- Collapsable riot shield providing immunity to melee attacks and decent protection from small arms, at least for a while. Useful in certain situations, limited by the fact that you can only use pistols, the UGL, and CMP with it. Can stop most bullet fire, but numerous hits will crack and shatter the polycarbonate. Takes up two inventory slots. Assault Rifles -- An assortment of guns with good power and good range. All take up two inventory slots and use the same ammo, except for secondary functions. Laptop Gun Accuracy: Fair Power: Fair Range: Fair First Encountered: Trinity|Infiltration -- Direct copy of the original PD's Laptop Gun. It's power and accuracy are relatively low compared to the other rifles, but it's main usefulness lies in its secondary ability to deploy as a sentry turret on walls. The sentry only fires for a set amount of time and is fragile, but packs quite a punch. Not recommended as a primary assault weapon, but if you find one, toss it into a rough area for some help. Note that RC-P90s can reprogram the sentry turrets. KSI-74 Accuracy: Fair Power: Good Range: Fair First Encountered: Laboratory|Rescue -- Knockoff of the AK-74. Has decent power, but bad accuracy for a rifle and no scope. You're better off using the ammo in a FAC-16 or SuperDragon if available, but if this is all you can get it's decent. Secondary fires the attached bayonet, allowing for silent kills. The bayonet is powerful but can only be fired once before you have to find another. FAC-16 Accuracy: Good Power: Good Range: Good First Encountered: Trinity|Escape (if the trooper carrying it dies) -- Knockoff of the M-16 and its many variants. Good all around weapon, strong in all areas, also has a tertiary silencer and secondary grenade launcher. A good choice for almost any situation, but not advisable for early missions because of the lack of rifle ammo. Grenade launcher has a short range and must be reloaded after each shot, so use wisely. Silencer increases accuracy but decreases power, good for quiet heashots. Fires single shot in scoped mode for increased accuracy. SuperDragon Accuracy: Fair Power: Very Good Range: Good First Encountered: Mansion|Infiltration -- Powerful assault rifle with semi-automatic grenade launcher. Has a small clip but uses it well. Has a built in scope, but isn't very accurate at range so use is limited. Also fires full auto in scoped mode. Very good weapon if you can get your hands on it, a few well aimed shots can take down fully armored opponents. Grenades bounce off any surface but people and the ground, so be careful. Tertiary mode activates night vision. Thrown Weapons -- Thrown weapons consist of a couple basic grenades, a versatile mine, and the quirky "death frisbee." All take up one inventory slot. Multimine Accuracy: N/A Power: Very Good Range: N/A First Encountered: Temple|Surveillance -- A combination of the old Goldeneye proximity and remote mines in one package. Mines thrown with primary will explode when someone (including your team) walks near them. Mines thrown with secondary will explode when you hit the trigger to detonate them. Very powerful and extremely useful in Onslaught and CTF games, or anywhere else that requires defending a specific area. Can be reprogrammed by the RCP-90. Frag Grenade Accuracy: N/A Power: Very Good Range: N/A First Encountered: Nightclub|Stakeout -- Your basic hand held explosive. Can be dual wielded with a pistol or small SMG and cooked by holding down the trigger. The grenade's timer will appear in the center of the display. Unlike in Goldeneye the grenade will not detonate in your hand if you cook it too long, it will just detonate on impact when thrown. Flashbang Grenade Accuracy: N/A Power: N/A Range: N/A First Encountered: Trinity|Escape -- Extremely annoying, but mostly harmless hand held stun grenade. Doesn't actually cause any damage, but if you're looking at it when it goes off you'll go blind for a few seconds. Plenty of enemies will use it in single player, but their aim usually isn't real good, so it won't be a big problem. Not a real popular weapon but can be handy if you put forth the effort to use it right. Hawk Boomerang Accuracy: Wacky Power: Very Good Range: Very Good First Encountered: Trinity|Infiltration (inside a box near your starting position) -- Probably the weirdest weapon in the game, the Hawk is a sharp, spinning disc that bounces off walls and kills people. Anyone without armor will die in one hit from this thing, and it seems that one hit on an armored target knocks off all their armor. So say two hits max for a fatality. The trick, of course, is hitting people with it. It doesn't travel anywhere near as fast as a bullet and is pretty hard to aim, but even if you miss it'll still probably hit someone in close quarters. Be very careful with this if there are friendlies in the area. If you hold down the left trigger and point at someone the Hawk will lock onto them, which somehow increases the probability of them catching it in the face. I'm not really sure how the lock on affects its motion, but it usually seems to hit the target if you're not in an open area. The Hawk's main drawback is that you have to wait five seconds after throwing it to get it back (unless it physically comes back to you) and while you're waiting you're defenseless except for punching people. Secondary fire projects a shield that deflects rockets and grenades, which can be useful in multiplayer. -- IV. MISSION WALKTHROUGHS -- Although the storyline's a bit weak, the game's mission mode is a lot of fun, especially in co-op. The level design is varied and challenging, the enemies aren't terribly bright but are well armed and never seem to get boring, and the game is only as hard as you want it. Agent is nearly impossible to screw up, Perfect Agent requires excellent combat skill and an in depth knowledge of the level layout to succeed, and Dark Agent requires the ability to get through the level taking only a few hits. I mean that literally. Three hits is pushing it. The game also has a nice little feature that draws blue arrows directing you where to go next if you take too long. Remember that while the arrows show a way to go, it usually isn't the only way to go. The level design usually offers you a number of ways to get where you're going, so if you think your way will work, don't turn around just because the arrows say so. I played through all the missions initially on Secret Agent, have finished them all again on Perfect, and am cracking away at Dark, so I'll offer tips on whatever I know about these missions. I don't know what objectives aren't in Agent, so I'll just mention how to accomplish all of them and you can decide whether or not you want to. The game's storyline is pretty much just a pretext to shoot different people in different places so I'm not going to stress too much about spoilers. If you're really hardcore on experiencing the story for yourself then you're probably good enough to get through the game without my help, so go do it. Now. DATACORE|DEMOLITION -- The game's first mission's first half consists of instructions on how to play and throws you straight into some pretty intense action in the second half. Not a cakewalk by any means, but easily doable if you take your time in the last big firefight. Recommended Loadout: If you're playing through for the first time you won't have a choice, but the P9P will be more than sufficient until you pick up the rifles before mission's end. If you've got a full armory it's pretty much up to you, I stuck with my trusty FAC-16 + DEF-12 combo. Co-op: Same thing as single. The co-op player plays as Chandra and follows Jo's path exactly. Probably more enemies, but it's hard to tell. As the mission begins you'll be given instructions by Chandra on how to get through security, so I won't bother insulting your intelligence with a walkthrough for that part. Once you're flying the CamSpy you need to fly forward and then take a left and follow the vetilation passage you find. Keep going forward and down until you run into a laser grid. Fire your primary weapon at the circuit boards behind the grates to the left and right of the laser grid and continue onward and downward. The next laser grid's controlling circuit is in the ceiling of its passage, back near the last vertical section. After that, drop down, fly over to the big glowing column and hit the right bumper to blow the bomb. This will make the spiderbots go homicidal and start killing everyone in the facility, which naturally causes all the personnel to freak out. After a cutscene Jo gets up and you're tasked with getting off the platform before you get eaten by spiderbots. These little guys aren't much of a threat, except the yellow ones that go off like a bomb when hit. Head down the hall and into the next room where you'll find a scientist in a box covered by spiderbots. Despite the scientist's paranoia these things aren't a threat, so take them out with whatever seems most expedient to you. After you take out all the bots the scientist will open the door and take off. Follow him into the next room and then take a left (he'll pointlessly go off to the right, but you ultimately need to go left), shoot the spiderbot off the door control, and head on through. When the corridor angles off to the right look on the left wall for weapon racks with FAC-16 assault rifles. I highly recommend picking one of these up for the rest of the mission. Take off down the corridor and follow the helmeted scientist, ignoring the guards firing at spiderbots, until you dead end at the elevator shaft. Grab some Laptop guns off the weapon racks on the right wall and use the secondary fire to set them up as sentry turrets (or hold onto them if you prefer the Laptop to the FAC-16). Once they're set up look back at the corridor you came though. Spiderbots will drop down from above and later come through the corridor itself, so hose them down. Don't sweat it too much if your guy working on the elevator bites it, as Chandra will hack the elevator for you. After you get on the elevator an announcement will come over the PA about you being the bomber. From here on out anyone other than Jack Dark (your dad, the guy on the left as the elevator reaches the top) and the scientists in the elevator with you needs to be shot. There will be an intense firefight on the surface, just remember to use cover and shoot any red barrels you see to soften up the DataDyne troops. Also take note of the two powerful SuperDragon rifles in a cabinet to the right of the door to the surface. After you clear the deck head to the big platform in the center, and hit A when you and Jack are on it to get it moving. At this point you'll start getting hit by jetpack troopers and the occasional dropship. Don't bother with the dropships, you're not packing enough heat to take them down and they're not a big threat anyway. Concentrate your fire on the jetpacks. They can be taken out with a single headshot or a lot of body shots, so aim carefully. They're very hard to hit but will occasionally hold position for a second or two which is when you need to hit them. Once the platform reaches the top follow Jack onto the catwalk leading to the center structure to complete the mission. Surprise! It was all just a simulation... all that really means is that the guns you brought back from this mission don't go into your armory. Sorry. NIGHTCLUB|STAKEOUT -- Your first "real" mission requires some stealth in the early part (how much depends on the difficulty level) and a boatload o' killin' in the later part. Can be a little frustrating if you're not very subtle but on the whole not a real tough mission. Recommended Loadout: You're going to need some gun with a silencer unless you've got a Plasma Rifle and really hate silenced guns. If this is your first run the P9P will be all you have but it's good enough. If you've got your choice I'd recommend a DEF-12 and a FAC-16 or DW-P5. You can take a Plasma Rifle if you want, but as you'll find out if you're new with it, it's going to hurt you a lot more than them if you don't know how to use it. Co-op: Pretty much the same thing as single. Only real difference is if you're playing on Secret Agent or above each player will have to scope at least one enforcer because of a shortage of memory on the audioscope or some such. You start out the mission on a pier facing a row of boxes. There's always a guy sitting on the other side, so move around and carefully shoot him in the head with a silenced weapon. There's usually a guy patrolling around the corner to the right as well, so if he's there take him out silently too. Then head back left of where you started and climb up the ladder to the helipad. This should give you a good view of the front courtyard. You can pop the bouncers at the doors in the head if you wish, they're easy to hit and no one usually notices. You need to get in close to the enforcer in the center and scope him (On Perfect or Dark, at least. On the other difficulties you can just skip this and kill everyone in the area.) I find it's best to sneak into one of the corners of the stone wall that surrounds the center and scope him. It's kind of hard to find him through the leaves but just look for a bit of green and aim for it. Once you've scoped him you can either start firing and kill everyone and then move on, or attempt to sneak past the guys near the Hummer H12s down the right alley. Either way, get to the door up the stairs to the right of the club entrance. You can also blow the wooden wall if you have a demo kit, but be warned everyone nearby will notice. Sometimes going this way first can make your life easier, as you get a good vantage point of the boat and its surroundings. This door up the stairs is locked, and can be unlocked with a Locktopus if you have one and want practice with it. Otherwise just shoot off the lock with a silenced gun. As you step into the next area you'll see a bunch of goons patrolling, but the only one that matters is the one that patrols the catwalk to the left of you and the interior of the room in front of you. It's best to take him out before you attempt to scope the enforcer through the window, but it is possible to completely avoid him if you're timing's excellent. Either way, move into the next room and scope the enforcer sitting on the boxes outside the window. Once you've done this you can again kill everyone as loudly as you wish, including blowing up all the explosive barrels in the area. Be aware there are two guards behind the glass of the structure across from the enforcer. There is also a key in that structure that will let you through the locked door near the enforcer if you don't have a locktopus. If you're playing on Perfect you'll also need to take out Killian's powerboat, which is simply a matter of walking over to it and wasting it with your demo kit (or anything else with enough firepower). If you lack the proper implement (which can happen), melee some nearby explosive barrels down near the powerboat, pop them from a distance, and watch the fireworks. The next area has one random goon that might see you as you come through the door, so be ready. Across from the elevator is a grate that may or may not have a grenade in it. You can go up the elevator and scope the last enforcer if you need to, otherwise just head down the stairs and get ready to rock. The first guy is sweeping with his back to you and can be beaten senseless easily. The two guys in the next room will usually notice this and attack you. Be careful, as some civilians might also show up and get in the way. There are two grates in the room with the two guys that will have a grenade in them if the grate near the elevator earlier didn't. After cleaning out the basement move upstairs and go down the hall to your left. If you walk through the door on your right you'll set off a metal detector and complicate matters. Holster your weapons before you go through the door down the hall and the goon inside will just ogle you instead of attacking, allowing you to beat him senseless. The glass surrounding this room is bulletproof, making it a good place to wait for enemies. Hitting the switch in front of the goon deactivates the metal detector, allowing you to go go onto the dance floor without alerting the enemies if you wish. This has limited usefulness because the guards won't let you where you need to go unless you shoot them anyway. Smack the fire alarm near the door in the glass room to clear the civilians out of the place. Once all the civilians are gone you're clear to fire with impunity. From this point on anything that moves, dies, and dies loudly. There will be at least two guys immediately outside the glass room's door. Both are bartenders, one 90 degrees to the left and one straight ahead. There's also a good number of enemies up above firing over the railing. Take them out as you see fit and move up the staircase past the statue, then turn back and continue up the staircase behind you. This will lead you to the first dance room. There will be at least four guys in the room with more nearby. There's no real trick to this, unless you want to bait them and wait by the door. The shotgun or UGL are quite useful for this part. Kill them however you wish and move through the door at the back into the next room, or the door on the second level if you find that easier. Most of the enemies in this room are above you, so get up the stairs to the left as soon as you can to level the playing field. After you take them out go through the double doors on the second level and immediately look to your right for two guys on the stairs. Once you take them out you can lock the door behind you if you have a locktopus (it's a weird interface, hold the left stick in a direction and hit A) or just cautiously proceed up the stairs. Crouch and move slowly up the stairs because a sentry gun will see you as soon as you pop your head above the stairs. If you're careful you can probably see it before it sees you and take it out without incident. If not you're going to have some pain on your hands. Once you take it out you have either the option of manually blowing up the rest of the randomly placed sentry guns or simply deactivating them from the room on the left. You'll probably get shot at as you go for the left side door, but once you get in front of it you should be out of the line of fire. Hit the console inside to deactivate the guns and complete your last objective. There are two goons in the opposite room if you're feeling especially homicidal. Once you're done, follow the corridor around to the elevator to complete the mission. SUBWAY|RETRIEVAL -- For this mission you'll be heading through an old warehouse and a subway to pick up a briefcase that your new friend Ziegler thinks is important. The enemies you'll face later on in the level are well armed and often armored, which will be a bit of a surprise to you if this is your first time through. Pretty basic level, not too difficult or complicated. Recommended Loadout: You don't really need a weapon with a silencer for this mission, but one can come in handy if sneaking is your bag. Most enemies carry SMGs, so the RCP-90 is a good choice if you have it. Even if this is your first run you should have a shotgun, which you should bring along. The other weapon is pretty much up to your discretion, as you'll be picking up a DW-P5 soon. Co-op: Same thing as single. Probably more opponents in the later parts, but again I'm not entirely sure. This mission starts off with a bang, surrounding you with angry bikers in a parking garage. Although it looks bad, these guys are pretty easy to dipose of. Dive behind the Hummer to your left and start firing at the red barrels in the area. If you run out of red barrels, start shooting the cars, as they're quite flammable too. Usually all the explosions will take out the bikers, but you might have to clean up a few manually. The last one you kill generally drops the keycard you need to get out of the garage. Otherwise if you've got a Datathief you can just hack the gate control. Once you get outside, go into cover on the corner of the building in front of you and take a look at the next area. The area in front of the warehouse is watched by a bunch of randomly placed cameras and usually patrolled by a guard or two. The cameras are easy to spot because they all have bright lights attached to them. If you're playing on Perfect you'll have to be quiet because you need to persuade the guy working on the lifter. Otherwise you can start firing wildly if you wish, but you'll be better off silently dropping the enemies and methodically taking out the cameras. If a camera sees you it will alert any enemies in the area and dispatch a small squad of UGL equipped goons to get you. It's worth noting that cameras take only one shot to disable if you shoot them from the front (i.e. in the glass) rather than five or so from the side. If you're playing on Perfect you'll need to silently take out the patrolling guard and the nearby cameras, holster your weapon, and go up to the guy working on the lifter in the garage. This is the first of numerous "conversation" situations you'll end up in. If the person you're talking to seems friendly, use Charm. If they're confused, such as thinking you're someone you're not, then Bluff. If they're nervous or scared, use Threaten. It's usually pretty obvious which one to use, so think about it for a minute and you should be alright. If you successfully persuade him, he'll send the lifter to open the door to the warehouse, at which time you can club him in the back of the head. After you've got the lifter going if you need to, either head down the alley to the warehouse, or use the ventilation shaft that starts back towards the parking garage you started in. On the right side of the warehouse entrance is a bunch of shipping crates. One of these has a DW-P5 in it, which you're going to want if you don't already have one. If you used the lifter the main door will already be open, otherwise you'll have to pick the door's lock. The warehouse is packed with enemies in different locations, so use cover near the front gate and work your way through slowly. It's usually easier to go up the stairs near the main gate and go across the catwalk as it affords you a better shot at the enemies near the armory at the back of the warehouse. Work your way across the catwalk and into the armory once you've eliminated all the enemies in the warehouse. Grab some frag grenades and/or a shotgun if you want them, then toss a frag grenade in the room with the shotguns and get out of the armory as fast as you can. The grenade will set off a reaction which will blow the whole armory and complete your objective. Get back down to ground level and head to the gate near the armory ladder. This gate leads into a small area with a handful of guards patrolling and more inside the building at your 10 o'clock as you face through the gate. Take out the ones foolish enough to run outside first, then pull out your shotgun and head inside. Be careful, because some guards like to hang out inside with shotguns and ambush you. There is one guy in particular who always hides in the room just to the right of the safe door with a shotgun. Head upstairs to pick up some body armor and the code to the safe if you want it. Otherwise you can hack or blast your way into the safe and nab the briefcase. Once you've got the case, head to the subway entrance adjacent to the safe building. Make your way down the stairs carefully, and be on the lookout for a guy on a pay phone ahead of you discussing the new arrivals. Pop him in the head (silenced or not, the next two guys will see him drop) and cover up against the next corner. There will be two goons hiding behind concrete blocks with UGLs. Take them out and slowly approach the big room. Chandra will tell you about the two groups of enemies and tell you to try to divert them. To do this you need to kill someone without any other enemies seeing you. You can do this with a grenade if you've got one (just toss it over) but if not, look carefully for a guy wearing a red headband in a tunnel on the right. You should be able to line up a shot (silenced, just to be safe) on his head and drop him without anyone seeing you. This will cause the two groups (the suits and Killian's men) to fight to the death, usually leaving you with just a few stragglers to mop up. If you mess this objective up somehow, everyone downstairs will come for you, which can lead to some unwanted complications (i.e. sudden and painful death). Head down to the main level via the big tunnel and clean up any leftovers. Then head into either tunnel downstairs. There will likely be a handful of suits in this area of the subway, in various areas. Move slowly and cover around corners to make sure you don't get surprised. Once you see another stairway with escalator, head down about halfway and wait for the guard to come into view at the bottom. Try to take him out silently if you can, but if you can't enemies will start running through the wrecked subway cars to get a shot at you. All the enemies in this area are in the subway car, out the other side of it, or on the wrecked walkway above, although these last guys won't usually have a shot at you. Be careful in the subway car as there's no real good cover and maneuvering is tough. There are at least three guys in the next room with shotguns, and many of them are content to watch their buddies die in front of them so that they can get an open shot at you when you come through a door. Be very thorough in sweeping the small room and stairs before you move on or you'll get a shotgun to the back. At the top of the stairs you'll see another handful of suits, finish them off and you're home free. Head down the stairs on the opposite side and walk on down to the elevator to complete the mission. ROOFTOPS|ESCAPE -- This marquee level was featured in many pre-release demos and trailers because of its nifty co-op gameplay. It's the first level that will completely split up the two players if you're playing on co-op. If you're not, then you'll play as Jo and have to escort Jack. Don't worry, he's pretty durable. This mission is pretty fun in my opinion, and the environment looks absolutely beautiful. The end battle with Killian's gunship is a toughy, especially if you don't know how to take it out. Get to know the enemy locations in this mission (most are always the same) and you'll have no trouble with it. Recommended Loadout: If this is your first time through you should be good with the DW-P5 + DEF-12 combo, although you may wish to pick up a Jackal sniper rifle during the mission to help out Jack. If you've got a full armory you might want to take advantage of the checkpoint before the battle with Killian and the fact that you get the weapons you started the mission with back when you load a checkpoint. Killian's PT is not designed to withstand multiple rocket blasts. Obviously this doesn't work on Dark because there are no checkpoints. On Dark I went with an RCP-90 and a shotgun and was able to get to the gunship fight numerous times without taking any hits. Co-op: Probably the most interesting co-op level as both players will be completely split up for the duration. This means if one player dies, the mission is over. No revival for you. Whoever plays as Jack gets to see a bunch of the level from a different perspective as single player and gets to do everything you saw Jack do. If Jack takes it slow and uses cover he can get through the first part very easily, but the fight in the sewer pipes can get rough. If both players help each other out (not just when the game forces you to) this level is a lot easier. Jack can accomplish the "Jam Enemy Comms" objective very easily by hacking a panel on the wall near the big black radar tower near the beginning of the level. Jack can also head into the area where you have the final fight with Killian beforehand to scout it out or blow up boxes to make Jo's life easier. Jack can also take free potshots at Killian's PT during either two encounters as Killian will never fire at Jack. As soon as you start you'll be looking at an enemy sniper in the building across from you at the top of the stairs. There's also another sniper at roughly your two o'clock, and another on the walkway you'll be heading to soon. Take out the two distant ones as soon as you can so Jack doesn't take too much damage, then head to your right and kill the other sniper on the walkway. None of these snipers will likely fire at you as long as you take them out quickly (i.e. don't hit them in the toe and then leave them alone). Grab the rifle leaning up against the wall near the sniper you just killed (make sure you don't toss your weapons off the scaffolding) and take out the goons Jack is engaging. Once they're down, grab your guns again and head up the ladder. Be careful, often there will be a helmeted enemy with a pistol waiting for you at the top of the ladder. If he isn't there, then he'll be around shortly. There are two stationary enemies around the corner after you go up the ladder, so use cover and take them out carefully. Once they're gone, head down the stairs in the middle one story, then look through the glass for an enemy at the bottom. Shoot him in the head and make your way back up the stairs and onto the next building with the round black things. As soon as you head up the stairs onto the top of the next building two enemies will come around the corner and start firing at you from the building across the street. Use the stairway for cover and take them out. If you wish you can blow off the coverings of the black things, which on Secret will complete your "Jam Enemy Comms" objective. If you're on Perfect or Dark you'll have to take out many more black things in odd positions about the level. Since I'm not even sure if that objective does you any good, I'd say don't worry about it. Help Jack out if he needs it and head toward the big concrete pipe. As you approach the pipe leading to the next building look towards your 11 o'clock for another sniper. He will be actively shooting at you, so roll if it looks like he's about to fire and drop him while he's working the bolt on his gun. Once you exit the pipe you'll see four glass panels, look carefully into them for two more enemies. One will run away almost immediately, but the other will shoot you as soon as he can. Take it slow and shoot him in the head before he can hit you. Move forward and keep your eye out for the helmet guy that ran away. He usually waits for you at the bottom of the ladder leading to the top of that building, so get out your shotgun and take care of him before you drop down. Once you're down, use a sniper rifle or whatever else you're carrying to take out the guys in the Hummer and the two other helmeted guys shooting at Jack. Once they're all dead, Jack will enter the building below you and hit the fire alarm to allow you to continue. Head inside the building with the four panel glass ceiling and run through the now open fire door. Follow the path down the hall and through two doors to your right and out onto the roof where the last sniper was. Grab the sniper's rifle, or failing that, a DW-P5, and look back to the building you were just on. There are three levels that Jack has to go through, each with enemies that show up as Jack nears the level. Three on the first level, two on the second, and four on the last. Use your rifle to drop them as quickly as possible and minimize damage to Jack. If you fire at an enemy and don't kill him, he'll likely start shooting at you. Once Jack makes it to the top and starts complaining about a cleaning rig, take the zipline over and hit the switch on the top of the next building. This will allow Jack to head down the sewer and will trigger another appearance by Killian. As soon as you hit the switch for the cleaning rig, ride the zipline down and cover behind the big metal thing to your right. Killian will show up and start firing at you. He can't hit you while you're in cover, so pop out and light up one of his engines whenever he relocates. Don't get too agressive or he'll ream you with his machine gun. If you're playing co-op Jack can take care of Killian as he only fires at Jo. Once you hit one engine enough he'll take off and you'll complete the "Nullify Killian" objective. There's no obvious bonus to this, but it probably just makes Killian easier to take out later. After he's gone, head up the stairs in front of you. The enemy positions in this next section can vary, so stay awake even if you've been here before. If you're playing on Perfect you'll need to open the floodgates, which can be done by simply shooting the rusty part of the water tower above the big glowing sensor. If you'd rather you can also hack the sensor, but that's harder and doesn't really get you anything. Once you're done there, move up the stairs attached to the next building and look for enemy heads on top of the next building (much easier with the RCP-90). Shoot them if you want, but be careful as they might chase you if you make too much noise. One way or another, keep moving across the rooftops and clearing out the enemies. Once you find a four glass paneled roof check it for enemies and hop down. Head down the stairs, crouch and walk through the big tube, and finally drop down next to Jack to finish the main part of the mission. The next part has caused much frustration and cursing among even the best players, so be ready to try it again (the whole level if you're on Dark). You'll be facing off pretty much alone (Jack will be there but won't be directly helping you) against Killian's PT gunship. Make sure you've brought some pretty heavy hardware or at least a lot of ammo to this fight, as your supplies will be limited. After the cinema you'll start in an open area below Jack near your starting point. Immediately run forward and slightly to the right to the big concrete thing. You can use this to shield yourself from Killian's attacks while you reload or figure out your next move. Be aware that he'll move around different sides of it, so don't actually cover against the side. Killian has three attacks: slowly aimed machine gun, rockets that cause massive area of effect damage, and torching you with his engines. The first two can be avoided by either moving or keeping something between you and him. The third... well, just kill him before he does it. There are two main approaches to taking out Killian, the mobile and the stationary. Both are just different approaches to shooting one of Killian's engines as much as possible, which is the overall objective. In Secret and Perfect I went for the stationary approach: hiding behind the concrete thing and shooting Killian and his goons whenever he made a dropoff. It also helped that I had a rocket launcher in Perfect, but that's up to your discretion. In Dark I had an RCP-90 and a shotgun and actually found it more effective to run towards Killian and keep laying into one of his engines as much as possible. If you keep moving Killian has a hard time hitting you with his rockets and machine gun, and if you take him out fast enough he won't have a chance to do the flamethrower thing. The big problem here is all the boxes and ice cubes that get in your way. You can take them out if you find it easier, or just be careful to move around them. Some boxes also have SMG ammo in them if you need it. Regardless, keep nailing one of his engines as hard and as fast as you can. It will go from light smoke to thick smoke to slightly on fire, to really on fire, to completely on fire. When you get to the last stage (billowing flames) Killian will stop his normal movement pattern, slowly move up into the sky, face you, and come right for you. Don't freak out, he'll always explode right before he hits you and cause no damage. Congrats, you won! Then a cinema shows Chandra grabbing Jo and for some reason abandoning Jack who's about four feet away. Told you it didn't make sense. MANSION|INFILTRATION -- This an interesting and rather short level that encourages stealth, but doesn't require more than a little to get through. If you're careful and stealthly you'll only have to fight about ten enemies or so in the first half. The second half consists of a simulated fight to the death with the evil guy's evil daughter who's wearing less clothing than I thought physically possible. I guess it's glued to her or something. ANYway... Recommended Loadout: The first part is really short and it doesn't matter what weapons you're carrying for the second part, so pick whatever you like here. If you want to get through with the minimum amount of pain, bring a silenced gun for the first part. I'd say DW-P5 and shottie if this is your first time, or FAC-16 and shottie otherwise. Co-op: First part is the same, although there might be a few more guys. In the second part you'll face twice as many Mai Hems and duplicates, but the same number of clay golems. You can revive your partner during the deathmatch, although it can be hard. The best way to do it is to kill all but one golem whenever you get a chance, then lure him away from your partner's corpse, put away your weapons, and run back as fast as you can. You'll start out the mission in a picturesque overlook next to a waterfall. It looks really cool, although everything does seem to be unnaturally shiny. Make your way up to the little portal leading into the outer courtyard and take a look around. There are three guard towers, each with a sniper on them. The one on the right also has another guy with an SMG. Despite their attentive look, these sentries won't notice you unless you fire a loud weapon or let a guard get off a radio message. Don't worry about them for the moment. The patrolling guards are your primary concern right now. Take out your silenced weapon, hide behind the large rock to the right, and wait for a patrolling guard to cross the two nearby bridges onto your side. Once he does, shoot him quickly and quietly in the head before he can call for help. At this point you need to grab the radio he dropped and use it to call in, but while you're doing so it's likely another patrolling guard will stumble on the first one's dead body and blow the whole thing open. It's a good idea to wait for at least one more guard to come over toward you and take him out as soon as he sees the body. Once you've done so, take out your radio (hit either side of the d-pad), hit A and do the standard charm/bluff/intimidate thing. Charm and intimidate are pretty obvious, only use bluff if the guy on the radio thinks you're maintenance or calls you by name. Once you've done this correctly head snipe all the tower sentries and head for the big wall. If you haven't fired any weapons toward the wall or blown up any of the towers (yes, you can blow them up) the guys on the wall will not be expecting you. You have two options here, depending on your equipment. If you have a demo kit you can blow through a grate at the base of the wall in the center to get to the other side. As soon as the demo kit goes off all the guards will know you're there, but it does give you a good angle of attack. Otherwise you have to head up the stairs on the left and make your way across the top of the wall. This approach forces you to engage the guards on or near the wall, which is somewhat exposed and can lead to painful complications. Either way you need to clear the wall and inner courtyard of enemies. The guards carry either MagSecs or M60s, so be careful. If you don't have a M60 yet feel free to pick one up. You also need to activate the satellite dish power which is at the far right side of the wall, from the perspective of where you entered the area. Once it's powered up, go hack or turn on the sat dish control panel on the other side of the wall. Beware of a guy who likes to hide in the small enclosed area below the panel and take potshots at you while you're using it. Hacking the sat dish allows you an extra weapon in the upcoming fight. Once you're done with the sat dish head into the inner courtyard. Before you walk up to the door shoot out the camera above it and to the left. If you don't the guards will see you every time you try to enter and send more goons after you. Once the camera's down, walk up to the intercom on the right and do the standard conversation routine. The tone of the guards is pretty much the same as it was on the radio earlier. You can also pick the lock on the left side of the door to open it and skip the dialog. Once you've got the door open, put your weapons away (up on the d-pad) and head inside. Once you're inside you've got a few options on how to get to your objective, which is a guarded door exactly opposite where you entered the mansion. The goofy arctic tank top you so cleverly chose to wear on an attack mission now comes in handy as the guards won't shoot at you if you don't have a weapon or do anything suspicious (like smash a window in front of them or pull out your audioscope). The way I like to do it is to head to the left as soon as you enter the mansion and punch through the first window at the top of the stairs (don't worry, no one will notice). Head inside the case room towards the door with the camera at the far end. These cameras are part of the dumbest security system ever. Instead of alerting someone or even locking the doors when they detect an intruder, they just temporarily close the door. Time your movements right and slip under the cameras and through the doors. Alternately, if you're impatient, you can pull a silenced gun and just shoot the cameras. Be careful if you do, as there are guards everywhere and they might notice your camera shooting shenanigans. Once you get past the two camera doors take a right and follow the walkway past a guard. If you want you can punch him in the back of the head, but it won't do you any good. As you follow the walkway down the stairs you'll come to a room full of lasers. Turning 180 degrees and walking underneath the stairs leads you to a small armory with M60s, Jackals, and MagSecs. If you don't have any of these in your armory, grab one now. You won't need to use it for the rest of the mission and you might as well get it in your armory. If you feel so inclined you can also pick your way through the laser maze and retrieve the Viblade on the pedastal in the center. This is your only chance to get it aside from the last mission, so you might want to take advantage of the opportunity. Once you're done in that area, walk over toward the center of the area. If you're not playing on Perfect or Dark you can just walk through the door with the two guards and move on. If you are, you need to use your audioscope to get a reading on someone's voice to use as your entrance identification. The best place to do this is in the long hallway underneath the room with the camera doors. Run over there, pull out your scope, lock on to one of the whiny women, and slowly walk forward until you get in range. Make sure none of the guards are close by or they'll raise the alarm. Once you've done this, head over to the door with the two guards, say anything, and head inside. As an interesting side note, you can also scope a guard. If you do, when you talk to the two guards at the gate you'll have the voice of the guard you scoped and they'll bust you. It's hilarious, but probably not worth going through the whole mission again. Once you step inside the door you'll go through a short cutscene putting you in a fight with the impossibly scantily clad Mai Hem (Mai Hem? Like mayhem? Get it?) This fight it pretty tricky, but at least you get a checkpoint on anything short of Dark. If you're on Dark then you're pretty much hosed, but you obviously know how to play the game anyway. No matter what your health or weapon status was going into this, you'll get full health and armor and a single MagSec. Mai Hem has an M60, which may not seem fair but at the beginning it actually gives you an advantage. She'll start out confined to the walkway on the other side of the arena. Squat next to a pillar and stay positioned so you can just barely see her. This way hardly any of her shots will hit you. Don't waste your shots trying to hit her while she moves, just wait 'til she stops and fires and lay into her head. A good clip to the face and she'll disintegrate. After she's toast, Chandra will call you and give you the option to choose a weapon. This only happens if you've hacked the sat dish and haven't loaded from a checkpoint. Your choices are M60, Hawk, and Combat Shield. The M60 is alright, but the ammo won't last for long. The Hawk is almost useless. The Combat Shield comes in very handy due to it's guaranteed "100% protection from melee attacks." You may not think this important, but the clay golems you have to fight may make you think otherwise. They mean 100% protection literally too, you can just stand there with a shield and let the golems wail on you for as long as you want and you'll take no damage. Got to love it. After you've picked a weapon (or not) the first golem will come at you. These guys can be really annoying. They'll always run straight at you and start swinging whenever they get in range. All their hits do only shock damage, but a lot of it. The best way to kill them is (surprise!) bullets to the face, but body shots and whacking them with the shield will work too, it just takes longer. Sometimes one will lose it's head and keep coming, but that's rare. After you take out the golem you'll face the first mobile Mai Hem session. She'll be moving around now, so stay on your toes and try to keep some distance between you to make her M60 less effective. If you run below a clip of MagSec ammo a box of ammo will spawn in the center. After you take her out again you'll have to face a pair of golems (see a pattern here?). Same drill as before. Once they're down you'll face a big melee with Mai Hem and a bunch of weird staticky duplicates. These chicks all carry SuperDragons, but will only inflict shock damage. They can actually help you out a lot because instead of disintegrating like the real Mai Hem they fall over and drop their guns when you kill them. Make it a point to take one of them out early and grab their Dragon. Since so many enemies carry them, feel free to go to town with the grenade launcher and rifle ammo alike. The grenades are especially effective against Mai Hem if you can land them. Focus on taking her out again and you'll eventually spawn three more golems. This time you'll have to fight them and Mai Hem at the same time, but on the positive side if you can kill her one final time, the golems will collapse and you win. Good guys one, punk ass bitches zero. LABORATORY|RESCUE Casually walking out of the deathmatch room after maiming Zhang Li's daughter, Jo makes her way past the apparently oblivious guards and down to the super secret laboratory. This level can be almost impossible (especially on the harder levels) if you don't execute properly, but actually fairly easy if you know what you're doing. Recommended Loadout: If you want to save yourself a lot of grief I highly recommend a silenced weapon here. Because of all the guards packing KSI-74s the FAC-16 is a good choice as you'll have plenty of rifle ammo. If you don't have the FAC I recommend going with the DW-P5, at least at the start, to keep things discreet. Stick with the old reliable shotgun for your second weapon. Co-op: No real differences. You start out in a unoccupied corridor with the body of the guard you kicked in the cutscene having magically disintegrated. Put on your silencer and make your way down to the door and into the main hub of the area. You'll be coming through this area a few times so take a second to get a feel for it. There are four guards standing in front of the four doors of the area, one patrolling guard, and two scientists in the center. None of the guards are wearing helmets, so you can easily and silently take them out with silenced headshots. Just make sure you kill the roving guard in an isolated area before he runs into a corpse. The fourth guard is in front of the huge gate which is just below and to the right as you enter the hub. Be careful, as he will see you if you make yourself too obvious. The scientists won't do anything as long as you don't make any mistakes, so don't worry about them. In fact, if you listen you can hear one of them talk about how the rock he's studying says "Maian (yes, I spelled it that way on purpose) but it came from Africa!" Those PD veterans out there can probably figure out what he's talking about. Anyway, clean out the hub except for the scientists and head for the door roughly at your two o'clock as you enter the hub (it's the only door you can open anyway). Be ready as you open the door as there will sometimes be a guard right in front of you. Once you clear the door, feel free to go nuts sans silencer as the designers of the building apparently felt there was no need to put an alarm in this area. There are a decent number of guards all packing KSI-74s in the large room but the exploding barrels should give you a hand. If you're playing on Perfect or Dark as soon as you go loud in this room the area will flood with gas. This has no effect on guards, but will slowly do shock damage to you and will knock out all unsuited scientists in the place. You shouldn't have taken many hits, if any, at this point, so there's no hurry. There's also a pair of night vision goggles on a crate in the room, but they're not really necessary even if you elect to drop the power generator. There's a locked ventilation shaft that requires a datathief to access. All it leads to is an opportunity to eavesdrop on an amusing conversation, so don't sweat it. Clear the room and head down the little hall to the power generator. There are two guards near the generator, but neither should present a problem. Once they're down you face a decision. Dropping the power generator makes it hard for enemies to see you, but also makes it exceedingly obvious you're here. The upshot of this is that dropping the generator will trigger the endless stream of elite Magnum-toting female guards in the main hub. While they won't be able to see you as long as you stay in shadow, there's no real way around them without being seen. As such, I recommend you leave the generator alone (you don't actually have to drop it) and move on through the ventilation shaft behind it. Follow the big tunnel to the ventilation shaft at the opposite end. Leave the spiderbots alone, they won't hurt you. Once you get inside the next lab, run up to the one remaining scientist with your gun out. This will force him to shut off the gas, after which you can knock him out cold with the butt of your gun. Grab the silver keycard from the desk on the left and head out the door up top to return to the hub. If you've followed my instructions well thus far the hub should be quiet and unoccupied. Make your way across the room to the silver keycard door and head inside. As soon as you get inside, find the suit wearing scientist and knock him out. He's usually in a little glass room off to the right as you enter. If you don't knock him out he'll set off the alarm and ruin all your fine work up to that point. With him out, you're free to roam the laboratory without being bothered. The gold keycard is on th desk in the big glass room in the center. You should also follow the stairs up around the room and back behind the server room to an open room with a console and goofy green things on the ceiling. If you have a datathief (which you probably won't) you can just hack the thing, otherwise you have to shoot out the green things. This disables the tracking system, which surprisingly doesn't alert the guards. Head out to the hub again and make your way to the huge door on the bottom floor. Hit the keypad near the door to open it and quickly hide behind the boxes in front of you. If you're playing on co-op both players need to simultaneously hit the two keypads, regardless of what keycards they're carrying. The next room consists of a huge scaffolding structure in the center with bridges at the top and an elevator off to the side. Try to take out as many goons as you can with silenced head shots (none have helmets) but don't be surprised when someone notices you. It's pretty much unavoidable. Your objective here is to get to the elevator, which is off to the left side from where you start. Once you take out most of the goons you're probably ok to make a run for it, as once you make it to the elevator you should be screened from most of the enemy fire. Take the elevator to the top and make your way to the central structure, hitting enemies as you go. If you're playing co-op you'll have to leave your partner behind. Once you hit the switch up top a ladder will drop allowing them to climb up. Be careful of the two MG turrets to the right as you head to the center. Also note that enemy reinforcements MIGHT (I'm not really sure why/how) show up on the bottom floor and take potshots at you, so be prepared. After you clear out the area and make it to the central structure, take out the guy at the top and take a look at the consoles. There are two switches, right and left. The left one switches the cell camera view and the right one opens the cell in question. If you want (and you have a demo kit) you can blow the whole thing to hell and open all the cells. Otherwise you can cycle through the cells and check each one for Jack. It's easier to find him in the prison structure if his cell is the only one with the door open. Once you've got his cell open, head across the bridge to the MG nests and get ready for your last fight. This fight is pretty tough, as you have limited cover and you're up against a lot of enemies. You can try to use the turret to help you out, but it can be kind of hard to use it effectively. Slowly and carefully make your way into the prison and use cover as much as possible to whittle down the enemies. You don't actually have to kill them all, you just have to get to Jack's cell. That's almost impossible to do without killing them all unless he's in one of the front two cells or you have a plasma rifle, but it's your call. Once you find him and hang out in his cell for a second you complete the mission. -- More to come soon. Cheers! - Dan -- Copyright 2005, 2006 Dan Van Kley, All Rights Reserved