Part 7: Into the Deep

Actually it'll help you spot mines if you have bad eye sight. It more or less makes them pop up if you come close. It's definitely faster than with just good eye sight though.

Small mistake on my part, fixed it in the last update.


Speaking of updates..


Into the Deep








Kind of curious if the translation is accurate in this scene. In simple terms, Akhmet just sent some dude to his death, lied to him and then made a joke about it. Zhirik is a new face, and kind of a dick. He also belongs to Konev's people but will de-spawn from the map in a moment.



Let's take a look at the bunker.





I really like this map. It's not that large but the ceilings are dang high and the overall design is pretty sweet.


The elevators don't work anymore..

..and Akhmet climbed this rusty-ass staircase.

You can actually see the lift entrance and stairs topside. But you have to fiddle with the camera a whole bunch so I didn't show it off.

There are a couple of dead guys on the map.

We'll never know if the Americans killed them on purpose, or if they fell victim to the demolition of this place. Behind this guy is a sneaky locker with some lockpicks, which will come in handy down here.

Off into the tunnel.



Shouldn't there be a corpse here? Oh well, let's just assume that he got gibbed to hell.

And what's behind door number one?



Oh, you think that's not very impressive, eh?




Think again.

This place is stuffed with rows of shelves that have all kinds of boxes. And there are a lot of chests and lockers around.

But before Akhmet can start a looting spree, there are still mines to be removed.

When you have cleared the middle and move in, this happens..




Either Akhmet is paranoid as fuck, or he's smart enough to add two and two together. You decide.
This scene kicks of a hidden event and you really don't have much time to prepare. On my first run through the game this caught me by surprise while I was looting the place. As the following fight is not that large, I decided to cheese it a little.


This cart will make a fine piece of cover. Fighting inside the large hall is not that clever as the place is still full of sneaky mines and offers a lot of cover for your enemies.

Speaking of which..

:"Hey, blockhead! Are you there? Come, I have something for you... Batman, Baggins - find him and bring him here."

Fomenko!

_{What're you doing, Batman? You're supposed to be a hero}

From his cozy position, Akhmet greets the first of Fomenko's minions.


That guy must be coked up as he just shrugs it off.


Welp.




That's how real grenades are supposed to work.

It even got another guy that charged into the tunnel.

The jerk at the end of the bend goes prone..


Akhmet's not having any of his shit.

It takes a moment for the next guys to show up, so Akhmet reloads and moves up.


Right on time.

Aaand here he gets lucky as fuck.

This guy came from the blind spot of the bend and sprayed his SMG down the tunnel. No idea how he managed to miss at this range...


That's how you're supposed to shoot.

As he's afraid that more guys lurk behind the bend, Akhmet crab-walks to get a view of the area.


Fomenko!

Look at this motherfucker..

..wait is that a nade in his hand?

Here I have a rare opportunity. If you manage to hit a guy during the throwing animation, there is a good chance that he'll drop the live nade at his feet.

But, Akhmet misses and blows holes into the concrete around Fomenko.

GET OUT

It's a bit hard to see but the nade explodes next to the corpse, right were Akhmet was standing.

Back into the action.

What?

Okay, Fomenko is the first enemy that wears body armor. While it's not guaranteed to do so, it stopped the slug to his chest. In general you'll either have to use large rounds or whittle down the armor of enemies. There is still a chance to punch through on your first hit with smaller rounds but don't count on it. Also later armors will be completely impervious to 9mm and buckshot.

If you can, it's a good idea to not aim at the center of mass.


Akhmet is in kind of a bad spot here. He ran out of slugs(mistake on my part) and has to use buck. Fomenko has a new SMG and will kill him when Akhmet takes the time to aim at body parts.


Fomenko keeps chucking nades while Akhmet reloads and ponders his options.

Well, he hasn't got any. So he has to Rambo-charge and hope that the buck will stun Fomenko.


GO GO GO!


WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!




:"Talk's over, you bloody Rambo. You wanted to grab everything, but see how the tables turned.. Alright, time to move my ass outta here."


Yeah! I'd say that Maksimych owes us an explanation. Let's hope that he isn't also in on this.

And now it's time to loot everything that isn't nailed down. This mission is the first real honeypot and with a little trick you can maximize your gain.

Let's look at Fomenko's stuff.



The Kashtan is a good SMG, and will make a fine sidearm for any rifle wielder. Ultimately it will suffer from the weak 9mm rounds though. It's a real shame that they didn't include AP rounds like they did for 7,62.

That body armor has sustained little damage and goes straight on to Akhmet. When you want to loot armors don't shoot them that much, otherwise you have to pay the repair bill. As this is a light vest it goes under Akhmet's clothes and won't be displayed. Also the text mentions that it doesn't hamper your mobility. Later armors will say the contrary but I never really noticed an effect on movement.

Time to loot the big hall.


Told you that there are still mines around.


And some of them are placed at dickish spots/angles.


This looks good.

Some food and..

Yes! A new backpack. This one is quite the upgrade from the sack, you'll see the space increase later.

Moving on..




Clearing more mines..

..to not end up like them.


Danger&goodies up ahead. It's mainly ammo and food that you've already seen.

At the end of the aisle...

..you better be careful!


The breakfast of champions.

Time to loot up top..


Another fresh armor and..

That aimpoint goes straight on the Saiga. While the flashlight works in the dark, there are very few opportunities to use it so I won't even bother.

The APB is kind of useless, in the sense that 9mm is weak and full stealth doesn't really pay off. Could be useful if you're playing a char with 100 camo from the start but then again, most missions don't let you play stealthy.


To give you an idea what damage the Americans did before they left..


Monsters!

The safe in this shot can only be opened with picks. Inside..

The Skif is kind of odd. Basically it's a Makarov on steroids but there are just way better side arms. For some reason it also takes a long time till you can buy it.

That poor mangled dude also had stuff..

No idea why they called the vest "Bra" when the real name is "Lifchik". In any case, it will give Akhmet more storage space, so cool beans!

And those grenades are the best ones in the game. You better believe that description as these will fuck you up if you don't move back after you threw one. But I have a special plan for these babies, you'll see. Oh how you'll see!

Almost done with the place..



That mag is sweet as you can put it on any 5,45 gun. It'll add weight/stamina drain though.

With a real medkit you can also heal wounds yourself. Though I think that you need some medical skill to really use it. Never had to dress wounds with Akhmet, and we'll see a medic in a little while.


A new type of mine, and a pretty sweet one! With no directional trigger these things are perfect to place in a doorway or other cramped spaces. And they'll ruin everybody.

While the helmet might be old, it will still offer decent protection up to 5,45 rounds. Don't know why they gave it such an under whelming description, as it saved Akhmet in my games a bunch of times. Head and body shots are the most common so you better suit up!

Before we leave this place, let me show you one of the most dickish mines in the game.

This will insta-kill you when you come up the stairs, no way to spot it if you're not coming from behind.

After packing in all the stuff, Akhmet looks like this.

Finally ditched that damn Hobo jacket.

But he has to leave a lot of good gear behind, and that won't do.

There is a little trick that I use since 7,62.

Yeah, you can carry a filled container item in your hand. Talk about a man-purse, eh?

Time to bounce..

:"So, Akhmetzyanov, how much time are you going to waste like this? - It's better to report to Maksimych."



:"Wait, Maksimych! They almost got you. They could have killed everybody..if I wouldn't have been here."

:"So Fomenko arrived at last."

:"And what did you think?"

:"Yeah. I had his file."

:"So, you were Konev's trusted man. Now I see."

Wait, wait, wait a fucking minute! You knew that Fomenko was a rat and let him come down into the bunker, where only I was?! Fuck you!

While it's never clearly said, we can assume that Fomenko gathered the attackers in the last update to wipe out the rest of the group. And they didn't snitch on him as he could have just gunned them down, and nobody would have believed the word of a dirty Hobo. I tried to hint at this during the last update, without spoiling it too much. During my first playthrough I was a little confused by the chain of events. It's a bit strange that Zhirik doesn't play a clear role in all of this, but that is probably a mistake from the developers as we will meet him again. Seems like Akhmet got played a bit and for some reason he isn't even mad about it. Could be that the fuckton of loot and the prospect of a heavy machine gun quell his anger.

Before leaving the map, I rearrange my inventory with the items that I stashed on this map.

Double hand-sack is the latest in Marauder fashion.

:"So we're moving out?"

:"Yeah."

While Akhmet defaults back to not caring, I'm still angry with you Maksimych. I thought we were bros!

Author's note: I'll end the update here, as this is long enough. Also I want the conclusion of this chapter to stand on it's own as some things will happen that need more words. I'll probably post it around Thursday/Friday.