Part 2: Backstab

Backstab

With the scuffle at the military base behind him, Akhmet moves out and towards the meeting place with Valek.

When he reaches the main roads again, a dilapidated bus stop catches his attention.


Somebody left his luggage there.

Inside, he finds a fresh Ushanka to replace the damaged one. And..


Medkits heavily rely on your medic score. So this half-used kit will not heal much with Akhmet's low skill. But it's still better than nothing.

Time to move on.

It pays to be careful when moving up a hill, who knows what may be lurking at the top?





These are former cops but they have a new job, as it seems.

Akhmet can't sneak by them as they are dead ahead.


But he can sneak up on them.

Also he loaded his gun with slugs for better ranged performance.


Here you can see the effect of the collimator scope, and it's more than just visuals.

The game will actually aim at the red dot and then calculate the deviation, if any happens. While you can freely aim at any body part without a scope, in full aim, this makes placing your shots a whole deal easier. It's also useful if enemies are in partial cover or if there is stuff in the line of your shot.

You can aim anywhere you want.

But that wouldn't be very effective.


Much better.

These guys are scripted to flee, once you kill one of them. But Akhmet still has a slug in the chamber, and more loot is always nice.


Dang, he survived. I aimed at his head, but the slug landed in his lower back. Deviation can be a bitch sometimes.

I'm a bit pissed by that and tell Akhmet to just magdump his pistol, hoping for a lucky hit.



This was enough to make him bleed to death on the cold and dirty road. A fitting end, I think.


This entry looks a bit different because it spanned over two pages. I'll have to do this a couple of times and can do nothing about the look. Sorry!

Before checking the bodies, Akhmet takes a look at the construction site behind him.


Ah, lock picks. You can stack up to ten of them and they are single use items. Doesn't matter if you crack the lock or fail, one will be consumed. They rely on your engineering score and some locks can only be picked, the crowbar has no chance on them. With that said though, the devs were nice enough to hide some picks on maps which have such locks. So I don't need to bring them.

That kettle is a bit special. It is of no use to us, but the description hints that somebody can still use it. Just know that I'll hang on to it at any cost, you'll understand later.

Repair kits are important items. You'll need them to repair your stuff and they are quite expensive. There is another method of repair but it's even more expensive. So every free kit is a treasure, and they are a handy way to grind the engineer skill later on.

On the bodies Akhmet finds another shotgun, which is a waste of space and some ammo. The guy we killed last also had this..


The Kedr is a shitty SMG, nothing special about it. Okay, it has a folding stock and automatic fire but it's still a terrible gun, if you're not really close. Also it's totally broken.
Dropped weapons will be in a random condition, but they're usually pretty damaged. There is a way to fix guns that are totally broken but it's real expensive and a waste of your money.

After stowing his loot, Akhmet gets back on track.

Instead of taking the road, he decides to move through the graveyard.


New mechanic time.

If there are items placed on the map, you have to find them first. I told the game to pause when that happens and the item will flash blue till you leave pause again. Handy!





That's Valek's car, but he seems to not be around. Better be careful..



Akhmet is a pretty paranoid guy, but this stinks.



Time to be sneaky.


Contrary to what Akhmet believes, you can check out the car and won't get shot.

:"Hmmm....loot is hidden, and the car is a lure."
Okay that settles it, Valek wants to screw us.


This side entrance looks good enough.

Now, here is something lame. The game is supposed to play a scene when you open the door but it didn't. I can't say why!
I've played this game several times and only saw the scene twice. The camera will pan into the staircase and show a guard upstairs, taking a leak. Akhmet will then say that it's a good idea to get the drop on that guy. On the other hand, without the scene he won't alert everyone in the building with his shot.

Lock and load.

Another neat thing here.

The game will automatically remove certain windows when you're inside a building. While you, as the player, can't see through some glass textures, Akhmet sure can. And he can fire through them. A useful fact in some situations.


Knock knock, motherfucker!

He had a sawed-off shotty, but Akhmet had his gun already raised which gave him an edge.


I don't like moving down a straight hallway, so I choose to move through the rooms on the left.


That's how it's done!

This enemy was facing the other way when Akhmet came in the room. He hugged the corner to ambush me if I would have used the other door. Didn't work that well for him.

He somehow survived. I want to keep moving but also don't want to take any chances, with him in my back.

It's pretty much a mercy killing. He would probably have bled out, but why take the risk?

There's some commotion in the room at the end of the hallway.

Two guys in one room is a bad thing. I could grenade and clear but I have a better idea.


Akhmet gets ready near the door and then makes some noise to bait them into the hallway.


Works like a charm!

The blast spun him around, but he did survive somehow. Buckshot has kind of irregular damage and I really should have fired both barrels. But a second shell finishes him. I shot him in the butt, if you care.

Also Valek is here. Who's the idiot now, fucker?


I'm sure that he's hugging the corner, ready to jump in my face. This is a pretty dangerous moment.
Enemies are clever enough to use several tactics in such a situation. I guess that he wants to hit me when I come through the door, which is faster than shooting. Melee combat is kind of broken, in the sense that whoever lands the first hit will pretty much win, due to the stun mechanics. And you can hit people with the butt of your pistol/rifle for extra damage. So you don't even need to switch to a melee weapon.

He could also jump into the hallway and shoot me while I still reload. I take the risk here, as I wan't to finish this fast. If I would move away to reload, he might think it would be a good idea to hunker down behind a desk and aim at the open doorway. Than I would have to waste a grenade on him, and I really don't want to.

But he stays put and the smart move is to sidestep till I can see into the corner.

He also gets spun around by the impact and tumbles into the room. It helped that he tried to jump me with melee while I wasn't in range.
It's pretty cool that the AI will sometimes act on a hunch instead of following set guidelines for each scenario.



Harm set, harm get.

Akhmet leveled from the fight and I spend his first point on a stamina skill.
:Your stamina has increased. You can run, run and run. And run even more.

This will give him 25 points to his stamina score. Pretty cool and useful when he will handle heavier gear later. Several skills work like this, and that's why I said that you can fix some mistakes you made during creation.

Time to loot the bodies and more importantly the building.

Take a look at this in the meantime.

This is a second entrance to the building. You can sneak around and get on the roof to climb down this ladder. But the door has to be picked and I never managed to not get heard during this. Also it kind of leaves you in a bad spot, with Valek+buddy close by.


Dang, that's some stuff you got there!


Medicine is pretty valuable but you can't use it to heal. The mines may be primitive but I'll hang on to them for something that'll come up soon.
The remote is much like the kettle, with another hint in the description.


Food can be used to restore a tiny bit of health, but it's better to sell it. Also glorious smokes!

I'm not going to take it with me, but have a look at the sawed-off.

It does make for a decent back-up weapon, but I'm going to get something better soon.


Yeah, that was a rough day.

Akhmet still has more work to do before he can take a nap, but for now...


:"It's time to get back home."