Part 5: The Raid - Part 1

The Raid

Briefing



So, our first real mission is mainly about reconnaissance and scavenging. Both are good ideas, since we're not really established at this point. But of course, we also have to ice some Slingers on the way. The briefings will always give you some initial goals and a rough direction. I say that because missions are generally way longer than what the briefing may suggest. A lot of objectives will develop out of the flow of the mission in question, so you need to leave some room in your plans.

Right now, we don't really have many vehicles or soldiers at our disposal, so setting up for this mission is rather basic.

I just equip everybody as best as I can, and stuff some 7,62 rounds into the Humvee. But I want to point out that Akim brings the bolts, because he'll get a Crossbow during this mission.



This mission starts out with a short conversation...

"One more thing, before you set off. Since it seems that no one so far has been interested in the cause of the major disaster, we should try to find out why all those people died. There must be some clues around. So keep your eyes and ears open and talk to people. Maybe you'll learn something."

"Understood."

Finding the cause for the SGDS disaster will be one of our major plot points for quite a while. Jolinzky is especially interested in it, since he's a scientist and all. But the chances that some random schmuck knows about such things are rather slim, so it'll take a while till we can shed some light into this matter.

Anyway, down to business.

We start in the vicinity of the town that we have to search. Don't worry about the Blips, they're just cows that happen to chill in the forest. And since this is a more "realistic" approach to the post-apoc genre, there won't be any mutated murder-cows. Sorry if you expected otherwise.

Since the mini-map is of no use to you, I have to give you a grasp of the area through screens and words.

This is an aerial shot of the town. Our objective points to the middle, so that's probably where we can dig up some gear. Coincidentally, there are also some warehouses there. But there are a lot of ruins around them, and I'm sure they're not as deserted as they look.

My first action is to split my group into three parts.

The Humvee will hang out in the forest for a while, since I really have no good use for it right now. Akim goes on a solo mission towards the little train station ahead. Aside from doing something there, I also want to have some eyes on the area. Proper spotting is really important in this game, but I'll detail that later. The rest of my soldiers will make a wide flank, and sweep the left side of the ruins.

Akim's scout mission quickly produces results.

Two patrols in the left area, and one near my objective. But it shouldn't be a surprise that there is more opposition lurking in the town.

Now I have to explain something slightly complicated to you. See, at the beginning of this mission is a timed event that you can't know about in advance. But since I do, I want to prevent it from happening. Let's take a look at the center of the town...


See that Jeep next to my cursor? I want to have it! Trouble is, after a little while one of the Slingers will drive off with it, and iirc, you can't get it after that. And even if you could, getting it now will make traveling on this map much more painless. It took me a while to figure out how to pull this off, and the most important aspect is speed. This basically means that I have to perform the following events in one fluid motion, with very little room for error. Let's get to it!


My flank squad ambushes one of the patrols when it passes this ruined house. This draws the second patrol into the same ambush, nice and clean. After that, they quickly make their way back over to the right and link up with the rest of the group.

By now, the countdown for the timed event is rolling...

See the guy next to my cursor? This is the fucker that will drive away.

He will walk back and forth between the warehouse and his car exactly twice. When he reaches his car for the second time, a small scene will trigger and he drives away. He basically is inspecting the area and wants to report back to another base. I need to rush into town, and kill him before he can get in his car. Because once you alert him, or the guys next to him, he'll make a beeline for the car. This doesn't sound too troubling, but there is a twist to it. I have to pull it off without alerting the Slingers that are past the warehouse area. Because if I alarm them, another event will trigger and possibly fuck up this whole mission. As said, this is a bit complicated but I think you got the gist of it.

Anyway, while my flankers murdered some mooks, Akim reached the train station.

And he picked up a new toy!



The Crossbow is a really good weapon for the first half of the game. It's also a sniper weapon, which means that Akim will never miss a shot. Oh, and it's silent and kills normal mooks in one hit! It's main drawback is that you won't see many bolts for it, so you have to make the best of your ammo. There is a bit more to say about this weapon, but I'll do that when the game gives me the right example. With this, Akim will do some serious commando actions in the near future.

By now, my group is linked up and good to go.

Charge!

My infantry sprints forward, while the Humvee provides covering fire. But I take care not to advance past the car, because of that second event I mentioned earlier.


The mooks in the area fall victim to the Humvee, and my soldiers gun down the jerk just in time. He seriously was a few pixels away from his car before they got him.

Afterwards, I quickly evacuate the area, since the commotion attracted one of the patrols.

They are exactly in the right range to trigger that dreaded second event, so I evade them. Also sorry for not saying what kind of event it is, I'll explain it in a bit.

When the patrol turns back around, I have Akim stalk them...

...and he nails them in the back.

Might seem like a waste of bolts, but I wasn't sure if they'd walk far enough away again to kill them with bullets. Better safe than sorry, as they say.



Kinda weird that this scene plays here, since I still have to kill some guys before I can search the town.

Also, some of you may have spotted something during that scene. There was another Jeep in it, and it's connected to the second event. See, there is a Slinger behind a little roadblock, and if you alert him he will also drive off. But he will alert another place on this map, which possibly makes this mission unwinnable for you. Or at least it becomes really fucking hard. You really don't want to alert him! I can't go into too much detail without spoiling the later part of this mission, so just trust me on this one.

Akim goes on a wide sneak, and plugs him from behind.

I really love doing stuff like that, and it also got me the second free car on this map.

There still are some guards at the end of town.

But since they won't turn around without being alerted by something, I can basically sneak up to them and gun them down from close range. Yeah, the early enemies in this game aren't the most attentive ones.

With the town cleared out, it's time for lootin!




Aside from making my group faster, the first Jeep also has some gear. It's not much, but those Molotovs can be especially handy, depending on how you want/have to tackle the end of this mission. Again, I really don't want to spoil it, since it's quite cool.





The other Jeep is empty, and pretty much an early loot-mule. But we'll get something better for that job soon.

The warehouse area isn't much to look at, so let's just get down to what I find there.

• Two boxes of 7,62
  
• A shotgun with some ammo
  
• Twelve Crossbow bolts
  
• A pistol with some ammo
  
• Two heavy vests
  
• Three medkits
  

Not that much, but the vests are nice. And the bolts are freaking awesome! But at the same time, they're probably my only supply of bolts for the whole game. Bolts are very rare, and the chance that Wlad will have some is really tiny. Even if you groom him as best as you can, you'll probably never see more bolts. I'm pretty okay with that though. As said, the Crossbow is very powerful and regulating it this way is fine with me. Otherwise players would probably just ninja their way through every outpost.

With that done, we're ready to leave this shitty place. But hold on! You weren't thinking that you could just jump into the cars and drive off, were you?

Because that gets you killed

The main road is mined, and luckily the signs warn you. Minefields will be marked for the most part, though there are a few sneaky ones. But there is no reason for paranoia. They will always be close to some kind of outpost, and there are no dick moves on a random road. Mines will instantly wreck light vehicles, and even a heavy tank can't stand more than two hits. But they won't trigger for soldiers, so no worries there. The devious part about mines, is that you can't spot them while being in a vehicle. You need to have boots on the ground. That is another reason why proper spotting is so important, and I'll turn one of my soldiers into a dedicated scout in the near future.

Boris can easily take care of this field, and the method is quite neatly designed. There is a context option that tells a soldier to pick up all the items in his near vicinity. So Boris will automatically pick up all the mines with a single click, as long as he has inventory space. And I can reuse the mines afterwards, if I want to. And I will, though much later in this mission.

Well, now we really leave this place and drive our new convoy towards that radar station.

While scaring the shit out of some wolves.


The road in front of it, is blocked by barbed wire. Sadly, you can't drive over/through objects, but you also want to approach this station with stealth. There are only two guards here, but they'll call for backup if you alert them. I never had that happen, but I assume it has the same result as alerting the Slingers in the town has; Really bad times



"Take them out as quietly as you can before one of them calls for backup!"

The game even warns you about it, so it's probably a good idea to heed that advice!


Akim does more stalking and snipes one of the guards. Since they're placed at opposite ends of the station, the other one doesn't notice a thing. Then I have Prof. Petrow sneak up and feed the other kill to him. See, I really want him to level up fast so that he can become my scout. No real reason to choose him over one of the other guys without skills though. I just enjoy to have the oldest member of the active group as my badass scout.



Now you can understand why I said that objectives will develop during missions, and that the briefing is mainly an initial guideline. We're only at the halfway point for this map! But I won't cover it all in this update, and we're almost done for now.

The station has no loot that is worth mentioning, so our convoy drives towards the new objective.

But instead of following the main road, I decide to drive through the forest. This allows me to approach the town from a hill, giving me a good spot to scout from before going too close.

On the way, our squad stumbles upon a lone guy...




Great, it's another nutcase! First there was the guy who was talking about ghosts, and now it's demons? There must be something in the water around here. I mean, I could understand it if they ramble about mutants or something like that. But ghosts and demons?