Part 3: Chapters 6 & 7: The Pit/The Battle - "Everyone Hates Freebird"

Part 2: Everyone Hates Freebird

Chapters 6 & 7. First off, the Freebird section is annoying the first time you encounter it. Your initial reaction will be to run like hell immediately, but this is wrong. For some reason, lots of people, myself included, run into, well, I dunno if you could call it a bug, but if you start running the instant you get the chance, you wind up getting cut down by gunfire. So you think, okay, maybe I'm supposed to hide behind the scenery and make a move when I get the chance? Well, surprisingly, YOU ARE WRONG AND YOU WILL BE SHOT IN THE HEAD FOR THINKING SO! The trick is to wait a second or two, then run. It's weird how it affects some people, but not others, but there you go. Also, as I mentioned, this is a perfect example of why you'll love and hate Radioman: he's taunting you left and right, but at the same time, his singing along to Dies Irae is fucking hilarious!

The various CIA spooks we've met so far are interesting: Gould seems like a genuinely honourable man, which is probably why Walker's so quick to throw his lot in with them, while Castavin came across the kind of guy who thought he could've done the whole Bay of Pigs thing right. And then he got shot in the head. Oh well vv As for Daniels, well, he spent most of his screentime either being tortured or dead, but I like to think he was the optimistic rookie of the group, going in, saving some lives, then going back to his best gal, Charlene. They're getting married in the Spring, you know. Wanna see a photo?

You'll notice that at this point, the characters start looking pretty cut up. It's a really nice touch that the models start looking more and more haggard as the games go on. Keep an eye out for it, there's some excellent detailing at work here. Speaking of details, again, the graffiti is excellent. 'DUBAI DIED SCREAMING' could easily have been the subtitle or cover copy to this game, and coming from that tunnel to see corpses strung up from lampposts against a beautiful blue sky is another one of those subtly unnerving moments the game does so well.

Last thing I want to mention is the WP section. There's a bizarre, almost hallucinatory feel to it, with the sound becoming muffled with added reverb, as an unearthly figure stumbles towards you with the promise of death in his hands. Of course, it's just a soldier wearing EOD armour, but, come on, the guy's about seven foot tall and eats bullets like popcorn! Whatever that thing is, it's not to be fucked with, as we'll see later on. Heavies are often the most difficult foes you'll encounter, and usually wind up making prolonged firefights that little bit hairier. If you weren't running low on ammo before, you will be once one of these guys shows up.

And finally, in case anyone was confused as why the soldier was shooting the ground in that final scene, he was doing that to kick up sand into the woman's face. At that close range, it'd be like getting sandblasted. The psychological component (having some maniac firing a gun inches away from your face) is just a bonus.