Far Cry

[Necromancer]

Level 9: Regulator

Find the first junction

After you start the level, you’ll have an opportunity to restock your ammo a bit. Pick up any items that are of use to you, then head through the small door nearby. You’ll find yourself in a sizable canyon, with a steam generator in the middle of a lake. You’ll be able to approach the facility from either the north, east, or west; any of the paths that you see stretching around the lake are viable ones. Any of the approaches are perfectly doable, although for most difficulty levels, the approach from straight across the bridge to the north is the easiest, especially if you have a few sniper rounds with which to lighten up the opposition. Take note of the merc in the tower to the east; he’s packing a rocket launcher, so be careful when he’s in sight. Don’t worry about getting up into the tower to steal the ammo from his body; he’s apparently been sealed in, Rapunzel-like.

The south end of the facility has a tower that’s connected to a "flying fox" device, which you can use to swing across to the entrance to the Regulator. The first room contains a truck and a few soldiers; kill everyone, then grab the health that’s in the back of the truck, if you’re running low. The next room over contains a few more soldiers; the merc on the catwalks possesses a Jackhammer, and now would be a good time to trade in your sniper rifle for a weapon that’s a bit more useful in close-quarters. Don’t miss the red keycard in the smallish room next to this one.

The stairs nearby lead up to a dank room that’s filled with excess canisters; needless to say, you don’t want to be getting loose with your gunplay in here. To the right of the stairs is another flight that leads up into a control room; kill the soldiers here, but watch out for mercs that may try to follow you up. Grab the keycard on the desk here and any goodies you require, then continue through the next door, which leads to a little grate-balcony overlooking the storage room below. Your night vision goggles will help you distinguish your targets; if you still possess an MP5, you can use it on single-fire mode to drop the mercs here without alerting them to your whereabouts.

One final keycard remains, in the smaller room on the second level of the storage area. After grabbing it, and looting the storage area for supplies, head through the door behind the keycard and shut off the steam, then proceed to the doorway in the hall behind this room and shut off the first junction. From here, you’ll have to return to the room with the discarded oxygen canisters, shut off another valve, then proceed to the second valve.

Find the second junction

Find the third junction

Find the control center

The next pair of junctions are directly beside each other, so shut them off, being careful to avoid getting killed by the sterile-suited merc in the third room, and head on to the control center. Inside, you’ll find a couple more goons; kill them, avoid picking up the health kit unless it’s drastically necessary, and flip the red switch here to start overloading the station.

Hide in the vent shafts

Your goal now is to find a spot to hide. Er, to heroically find a spot to hide. Your ventilation shaft is on the far side of the nearby courtyard, but a couple of troop transport helicopters will be dropping mercenaries into it, giving you anywhere from 6 to 10 soldiers to fight before you can reach the end of the level. If possible, lure them back towards the door and shoot them as they come through. Don’t forget to use your night vision goggles to put the spotlight on them.

[Necromancer]

Level 10: Control

Get out of the building

Predictably enough, the whole Jack-waits-around-in-the-ventilation-shaft plot doesn’t quite satisfy the exigencies of compelling storytelling. Mosey along the sewers until you reach another interior level. You should hear the sounds of gunfire coming from beyond the first door here; this is the result of a firefight between a few scientists and a group of Tridgens. If you don’t want to get caught in the crossfire, you can either wait them out, or shoot the grate off of the nearby vent and crawl through to reach the scientists. You’ll have to kill whoever survives the battle either way, of course.

When you’re done scrounging for items (and avoiding the insta-death hissing steam), climb down the ladder and start crawling through the ventilation shaft. Rotate the steam valve at the end, climb back up and proceed down the now de-insta-deathed hallway. Shoot the scientists, and watch out for Tridgens in the venting in the nearby corridor. There are actually two vents in this corridor; first, follow the one that the Tridgens were crawling through. This will take you back to the steam valve room, so climb up the far side of the chasm until you reach another valve. Spin it, then proceed back to the corridor and into the other ventilation shaft.

You’ll eventually come out into a room populated by mercs. Dispatch them, steal their stuff, and take the nearby lift. After killing everyone in the subsequent room, head out through the eastern exit and take down the Tridgens. The next room you pop out into contains three or four of the security-team mercs, they of the helmets and extremely dense body armor. These fellows are tough to kill, so whip out one of your assault rifles and try to pull off a few headshots apiece. Hopefully you’ll be far enough away for them to stutter in their return fire; if they mount a serious defense, just throw down a few grenades in their direction and back off.

The other exit from the room at the bottom of the lift will lead you to another medical research facility, where you’ll get your first glance at the massive Fat Boy variant of the Tridgen. It’s dead, thankfully, but take note of the rocket launcher on its arm: you’re going to be seeing one of these in action soon enough. The east exit of this room leads you back into the room where the soldiers were; if you popped a few of them, drop in to grab their armor and a medkit. The other exit from this room leads to a little shooting gallery of Tridgens; kill off the mercs, grab the minigun, and go to town. Eventually, a Fat Boy will appear, draped in shadow, and firing off his slow-moving rockets at you. He’s not incredibly accurate at most difficulty levels, so if you can, keep firing away while he attempts to move towards you. Even a Fat Boy can’t stand up to many rounds from a minigun.

As you head down the hallway, you’re likely going to attract the attention of the mercs in the kitchen off to one side; they seem to pick up any sound that you make, so a fight with these guys is unavoidable. What’s worse is that they all pack Jackhammers, making the close-range fight quite punishing for yourself. If you have any left, chuck in a flashbang grenade before entering the kitchen, then eliminate them as they flail about helplessly. Proceed from here through the head, offing Tridgens as you go.

You’ll eventually reach what appears to be a reactor room, the first in a series. You’ll have two exits, again; one in the floor, underneath a pool of water, and one in the wall. Take the one in the wall and climb the ladder to the top. This should start another smorgasbord of destruction in the room below, but luckily, none of the participants will be able to see you or shoot at you, providing you stay back from the edge of the pit in the middle of the floor. After the sounds of gunshots fade away, you can start taking potshots at the Tridgen and the Fat Boy below you; the Fat Boy will obviously require the most damage to kill, so don’t hesitate to unload a few rocket rounds on him. Even if it doesn’t seem like he’s getting hurt, he is, so keep firing away until he finally keels over. When he’s gone, climb down to the lowest level of the room and sneak out through the door nearby.

[Necromancer]

Level 11: Rebellion

Rebellion is probably intended to be the game’s showpiece level, and it’s certainly impressive. It’s also massively dangerous and difficult to maneuver through, as it takes the two-path philosophy to an extreme, so feel free to explore a bit and restart if you come across an area too difficult for you to proceed past.

To begin with, flip on your heat vision to scope out the Tridgens near your starting point. There are three of them in total within the facility, so take them down and restock your ammo and armor in the reception room where the security guards lay dead. A fairly serious firefight is about to ensue, so reload all of your weapons and wait until your night vision goggles are fully charged before stepping out of the door here.

Follow the road to the archives

In true Frankensteinien fashion, the creations have turned on the creators, and what you witness outside is the truest incarnation of the struggle ‘twixt man and beast yet seen. In other words, there’s a bigass rumble going down, and you’re in the middle of it. Well, actually, you’re kind of off to one side: you’ll find yourself inside of a fort that’s being sieged by Fat Boys and a new kind of mutant called Locusts. The Locusts are distinguished by their Hulk-like ability to jump incredible distances, and they’re armed with AG36’s, making them, oh, a wee bit of a threat to your health. Luckily for you, the Fat Boys and Locusts will be firing away at the fort’s mercenary garrison, which should let you escape unharmed, if you play your cards right.

At any rate, the fact that you’re inside the fort will give you a bit of protection from the Fat Boy rockets, so long as you don’t do anything stupid like climb up on the ramparts and start firing at them from above. And no, that’s not a backhanded way of suggesting a course of action; your first priority should be to escape from the battle and let the mercs and mutants kill each other off. To that end, take a right immediately after exiting the interior, shoot the merc on the walkway here, and walk down to the courtyard, where a 4WD awaits. You can’t do anything with it yet, so leave it be, shooting any other mercenaries who have the misfortune of being in the courtyard. One of the garages here has a belt of grenades for your AG36, so grab it, and the health from the second garage, if necessary, then flip the switch next to the door to the courtyard, run back to the 4WD, and book it out of there, running down anyone in your way, Fat Boys included.

As you proceed along the path leading away from the fort, flip on your night vision and shoot down any mutants or men in your path. You’ll eventually come to a couple of mercenaries next to another 4WD; shoot them, and any Tridgens in the area, and pause for a second to assess the situation. You’re at one of the branches in this level’s path; you can either take your 4WD and jump over the bridge to your left, or continue down the path to the right. Both of these options are risky, but we’ll go over them in detail.

Before you head out, though, you may want to return to the fort and use your 4WD’s rocket launchers and minigun to kill off any combatants still remaining, if you’re intent on looking for items. Of particular note is the sniper rifle in the tower overlooking the cliff to the south; you can trade in your Jackhammer here. Also, there’s a mountain facility near the fort containing little of interest, but if you wish, you can climb to the top, either via the footpath near the fort or through a ladder in the facility itself, to access a hang glider. The glider will let you bypass a good deal of route A, or will let you access route B without needing a car. In general, though, you’re better off with your 4WD. Either path eventually leads to another fort on the southern portion of the island.

Route A

Route A is the more difficult of the two paths, but is a bit shorter. If you have the 4WD, just press on along the right branch from where you encounter your first mercs and their vehicle outside of the fort. You’ll need to drive along the beach, past a few Tridgens and Fat Boys, and up a narrow road on the far end, where you’ll encounter a Fat Boy attempting to set off a landslide to trap you.

If you didn’t get the 4WD in the fort, you’ll be able to find one immediately below the hang glider, albeit a thousand feet straight down or so. If you use your binoculars on the first section of the beach, you’ll spot a merc attempting to hold off a Tridgen and failing; this 4WD is thus untaken and in perfect shape. Before you head down, though, you should use your binocs to scout the entirety of the beach, with special emphasis given to the road at the far end. This is where most of the fighting will occur.

If you’re up by the hang glider, you can use it to coast down to the 4WD below; just take it out nice and slow, and after a few seconds of flight, start strafing to the right. When you’re above deep water, get out of the glider and drop into the ocean. Don’t worry if you die; there was a save point immediately before you accessed the glider, so you’ll only lose a few seconds of playing time. When you’re in the water, swim to the shore, grab the 4WD, and take off down the beach.

As mentioned, the road near the end of the beach is the site of a prospective ambush, with at least two Fat Boys, a Locust, and a Tridgen. Before you head up the road, stop on the beach and scout with your binoculars and night vision. If you can spot anyone, get back into your car and use your rocket supply to blast them. Don’t forget that you can use your night vision while driving; activate it and you shouldn’t have a problem spotting potential targets.

When you’re ready to proceed, drive up the path, stopping when you hear the Fat Boy blasting the wall. His rockets will bring down a few boulders that may or may not block your path; regardless, try to lure him out from his hiding place and shoot him. When he’s dead, don’t bother with pushing the rocks around with your car; just get out and head up the road on foot. Past the burning car ahead, you’ll come across a structure; this is the southern fort that we mentioned previously.

Route B

Route B is found near where you first encounter two mercenaries with their own 4WD, below the spot where the hang glider sits atop the mountain. If you take a left turn on the path here, you’ll come across a broken bridge; you can jump the bridge with a vehicle if you accelerate hard enough. The first enemies you’ll encounter will be another set of mercenaries with a 4WD; if you’ve exhausted your supply of rockets, or if your car has taken any damage, you should try to face these guys with your machine gun and steal their truck.

It’s worth noting that the lighthouse across the water from this point isn’t the lighthouse that you may have seen on the maps of the island back in the fort, but you can get to it nonetheless. It seems that it was intended as a target for players who chose to hang glide from the fort, but if you go down to the water and swim to the island’s rear side, you’ll find another pier. There’s a ramp that leads up from the water to the land that you can attempt to climb; it wasn’t intended for someone to walk up it, but it can be done if you try. The lighthouse contains a full restock of health and armor; once you grab everything, you can take the flying fox device back to the mainland and reclaim your car. This is all completely optional, of course.

Your main obstacles along route B will be roadblocks, of the flaming-tree-set-across-the-path variety. Fat Boys are usually hidden away in the jungle next to these obstacles, so whenever your car hits a crest or a high point, drag out your binoculars and try to mark your opponents on the radar. The roadblocks aren’t very threatening to your vehicle, but the fire can reduce your health drastically if you dally too long, so keep your foot on the accelerator if possible.

Beyond two sets of these roadblocks, you’ll come across a low-grade skirmish between mercs and Fat Boys. Again, speed is the better part of valor here, so floor it and drive past the combatants. Taking the road a little further through the jungle will eventually bring you within sight of another 4WD, parked near a structure; this is the southern outpost.

The Lighthouse

Regardless of your method of approach, you’re going to have to clean out the fort here if you want the goodies within, which include all of the ammo from the mercenaries’ guns, as well as a health kit and a pack of rocket ammo. Don’t be afraid to use your loudest weapon; you’ll want to draw all of the mercs out from their hiding spots so that you don’t get shot in the back later on.

When you’re confident that everyone’s dead, head up to the mortar on the roof of the structure. If you’re using binoculars, you should be able to spot a sniper and a rocket launcher merc near the lighthouse; one’s in the roost at its top, and the other is on the road leading up to it. There’s also another merc with a mortar on top of a rocky outcropping, about halfway between your position and the lighthouse. If you have the sniper rifle, you can use that and the night vision goggles to eliminate each of these threats, but if not, a rocket launcher works just as well. There’s also the matter of two more 4WDs coming your way along the lighthouse path. If you can, use the mortar to destroy them; if not, you can either use the mounted minigun elsewhere in the fort to take them down as they arrive, or just wait for them to dismount and kill them inside the outpost itself.

After the fighting’s over, grab a 4WD and head out for the lighthouse. Before you start coasting along the beach, though, you may want to backtrack towards the grounded sailboat, which contains a full suit of armor. If you continue heading down this beach to the northwest, you’ll come across a corpse lying near a sniper rifle. If you haven’t found one yet, here you go; use it to bust down the lighthouse defenders. If you did already possess a sniper rifle, you’ll be happy to know that this one contains ten rounds, instead of the usual five.

The Archives

When you reach the road leading to the lighthouse, ditch your truck and beat your feet up to the structure. Loot the ammo from the mercs you shot before, then get a bead on the situation to the northeast. As is so often the case, there’s two methods of reaching the archives; you can either retreat back down to your 4WD and take the main road, or climb across the rocks near the lighthouse to reach the hang gliders. Actually, whether you intend to glide or not, it’s a good idea to check out the area near the gliders: there’s a merc who’ll drop another four rounds of rocket ammo for you; there’s a small box of sniper ammo nearby; you’ll be able to use your binocs to mark the locations of a good dozen or so mercs and mutants near the entrance to the archives; and last but not least, there’s a helicopter to deal with. This vantage point should let you make an easy hit with a rocket as it approaches.

Although you can see a good number of enemies near the archives, don’t bother sniping; these guys seem to regenerate when killed, or, at least, the game seems to keep spawning in more enemies as combatants die. What’s worse is that the only entrance to the archives building is a very narrow bridge, barricaded on both sides by concrete dividers. Your best bet here is to get back to your 4WD or the buggy at the base of the lighthouse road and take it in, Thelma and Louise style. Or whatever a more manly equivalent of Thelma and Louise is. And you’ll probably not want to commit suicide... Let’s move on.

At any rate, your vehicle should be able to get you to the bridge in once piece. When you’re there, hop out, tag any nearby mercs with your assault rifle or Jackhammer, if you still have it, and proceed up into the nearby tower to grab some supplies and the rocket ammo from the merc there. When you’re ready to move on, leave the carnage behind and head towards the helipad behind the bridge, but be on the lookout for the heavily-armored mercenaries guarding the path. If you manage to spot them before they see you, you can use one of your rockets to dispatch one or both of them. From there, it’s a relatively easy walk to the entrance to the archives, but be sure to snipe the minigunner atop the building before you proceed. Also, check the bunker near the road for a boatload of ammo before you exit this level.

[Necromancer]

Level 12: Archive

Make it to the last working cargo elevator

The first room of the archive introduces you to a new threat, the appropriately-named Spectre. These fellows resemble Locusts in outward appearance, except for the fact that they’ve come down with a mild case of invisibility. In harsh light, you’ll probably be able to spot them due to their Predator-like shimmering effect, but it’s generally easier to activate your CryVision goggles and track them by their heat signatures. If you feel a little underpowered for close-range fighting, don’t hesitate to use your rockets or the AG36’s grenade launcher to even the odds a bit.

After fighting off three of them, you’ll come into a room where scientists and mercs are skirmishing with a few Spectres. Kill the remnants of the fight and trade in one of your weapons for a Jackhammer, if you don’t already possess one. Shoot out the blue panels in the nearby...thing, and drop down. You’re likely to take damage if you just jump down and hope for the best; try to slide along the sides of the interior of the machine to avoid this. At the bottom, hit your night vision and take care of the two Spectres.

The rest of the doors here are locked, thus trapping you in a dead end...or so it seems. If you look at the water in the center of the room, you’ll notice that there’s a hole in the grating that’s been covered up by a wooden plank and a couple of metal barrels. Push the junk out of the way and float down.

In what appears to be a bit of Half-Life homagery, you’re going to have to swim through the passageway here until you come up next to what appears to be a reactor. Kill the Tridgen in the room and flip the switch on the wall to unlock the doors, then head back through the hallway to the room you just swam away from. Head through the door marked "Level 3" and take the lift down.

You’ll emerge into another firefight between Tridgens and mercs. Wait for the dust to settle, then suit up with whatever armor the mercs left behind.

The expansive room nearby hosts a dozen or so security mercs. As per usual, these fellows are packing helmets, rendering them less vulnerable to headshots. As such, you’ll probably want to make a loud noise near the hallways before the room and lure as many of them back to you as possible before Jackhammering them in the head. Your mileage may vary, but it can definitely help to weed out some of the multitudes before progressing into the room itself.

When you do move on, though, you’ll want to scout with your binoculars. You should spot a couple of soldiers on the catwalks towards the rear of the room. If you dropped your sniper rifle for the Jackhammer earlier on, you won’t be able to get a clean headshot off, but you can still use your AG36’s scope to pummel them with bullets from afar. They probably won’t move, or even fire back, since they’re so far away. Take them down before moving among the crates in the center of the room; the last thing you need is something distracting you from the soldiers among the shadowy boxes. If you’re intent on making an impression, you can fire off a rocket at these soldiers; one of them carries a rocket launcher of his own, so you likely won’t be missing any ammo afterwards.

The soldier along the rear of the room, besides possessing the rocket launcher, also drops a keycard when you kill him. Grab it and head through the nearby door to come face-to-face with a few more Spectres. The cargo elevator here is sadly nonfunctional, but it does contain a sniper rifle that will be useful in a few moments.

When you come out into the open, lie prone before the first little opening into the canyon beyond and start sniping away at any individuals that you can spot; there should be quite a few targets. Since you just passed a save point, feel free to go a little crazy and get a feel for what type of enemies are where; there are at least two mercenary snipers in this area, as well as a rocket launcher foe on top of the water tank way down at the other end of the area. As soon as you’re spotted, a cargo chopper will come in with a few troops. You can’t destroy it, but you may be able to get its mercenaries with a rocket as they rappel down to your location.

After the dust clears a little, you’ll be able to more thoroughly gauge the forces that you haven’t yet taken out. If you spot a Fat Boy at the other end of the metal walkway, and it doesn’t look like the soldiers there are firing at it, don’t waste ammo on it; this seems to be a repeatable glitch. He should disappear by the time you get a bit closer to the other side of the valley. Also, you may hear a helicopter sound as you walk towards the far door; this, too, is apparently a glitch, or just the sound of one of the helicopters that already left, as nothing appears to threaten you.

You’ll reach a save point before the metal doors that are your goal, and it’s a good thing, too, as another orgy of death awaits you in the room beyond. It’s not one of those generic, run-of-the-mill orgies of death, either, the kind that feature armorless mercs and a few Tridgens. No, this is an escalated threat, featuring a Fat Boys and numerous fully-clad mercenaries, replete with PG90’s, helmets, and grenades. Not quite a full-blown apocalypse of gore, but it’s early yet, and the Fat Boy can cause problems for players who happen to get too close. Don’t be one of them.

Unfortunately, the presence of a mutant won’t distract the mercs enough to prevent them from training their automatic weapons on you, so you’ll need to tread lightly. You can either walk into the room and withdraw as soon as the fighting begins, and wait until you don’t hear any more gunshots (which can take a while), or attempt to sprint to the right of the entrance and reach the doors at the far end of the room without dying. A standard method of dealing with mercs at long range, should you see any, is to flip on your night vision, immediately go prone, and use your AG36 on zoom mode to nab headshots. Despite the fact that they have helmets, headshots still drop a merc more quickly than do body shots, and if you click your attack button so that no more than three or four bullets fly out at a time, you should be able to retain some semblance of accuracy.

Your best bet, however, is to use rockets judiciously on your approach towards the door. You should have at least four from the guy atop the water cooler, and that’s really all you’ll have time to fire when you’re inside, but it should be enough to get you to the exit point unscathed. Well, that and a little luck. Begin by approaching the door from the outside on its far right extremity; when it’s opened up, pop over the ridge, activate your night vision, and start pacing along the room’s outside wall. When you see a merc, fire away. These guys are tough, but they’re not tough enough to withstand a close-order explosion, so feel free to fire at a nearby wall or the floor if you don’t want to risk missing a moving target.

When you reach the corner of the room, turn back inwards towards the metal doors and walk towards them. They’re actually not the exit - they’re locked - but they’re close enough to act as a good landmark. Where you really want to go is towards the crate that’s being suspended by a chain. Shoot the chain when you’re close enough to hit it, and the crate will fall through the floor, revealing a couple of vents. Drop into the hole here and head out through the eastern vent, continuing straight past the branch in the passage - all the fork here leads to is another exit from the same hole you just left. Eventually, you’ll reach a ladder heading up; flip the switch to call the elevator and congratulations, you’ve finally managed to complete the sole goal for this level.

[Necromancer]

Level 13: Cooler

Go to Valerie’s last known position

Levels have begun in a more pleasant fashion than the Cooler level, which immediately squares you off against not one, but two Fat Boys, in a couple of narrow hallways. The main difficulty here lies in the initial feinting process: you have to manage to get behind one of the Fat Boys so that you’re not pinned between them. After that, rockets, grenades, and your assault rifle should make short work of the beasts. Try to stick to the middle of each hallway, and strafe left or right around the Fat Boys’ rockets as they’re incoming. Leave yourself plenty of room between you and the wall behind you, and you should be fine. If not, there’s a medkit by a body near the fuel tanks.

Another little firefight ensues in the next room over, between a couple of Spectres, a scientist, and a merc. The best course of action here is to step through the door leading into the room, which triggers the fighting, then retreat back to the fuel tank and crawl through the ducts, taking the first right turn. This’ll lead back into the room, but you can fire upon the survivors from the duct with less risk of getting hit.

Since a game without quicksaving wouldn’t really be quite the same without two difficult fights in-between save points, you’re treated here to a duel between a few mercs and a Fat Boy in a narrow corridor. Your best bet here, and it’s far from a sure thing, is to try and wipe out the mercs first, either with grenades or rockets, then charge down the corridor to grab their minigun and use that on the Fat Boy. Since the minigun is positioned so close to the wall, you’ll probably want to disengage and take cover before the Fat Boy’s rockets hit you, then dash out and fire again, repeating the process until he goes down. Grab the keycard and the items from the ledge near the minigun, then head back to the locked door in the adjacent room, which the keycard will open.

Now that you’ve finally managed to save your game, you can keep on truckin’ through the now-unlocked door. Take out the Spectres and the mercs here, then turn the corner to get the Tridgens’ attention. You’ll have noticed the vents set into the floor of this hallway; crouching into one of them will get you a fair bit of protection from the Tridgens’ jumping attacks.

Find the security switch to access the elevator

Beyond the Tridgen hallway, you’ll enter a room where the mother of all PowerPoint presentations was apparently taking place before the disturbances began. The Locusts and maintenance workers in here are woefully inept at killing each other, so do your best to give them a hand, then head into the Archives room.

The first room on the left as you enter the hallway isn’t necessary to enter, but it does contain a box of Jackhammer ammo, which will be helpful when you’re assaulted by Spectres farther down. At any rate, as you pass through the gauntlet of foes here, you’ll eventually arrive at a room of armored mercs and Tridgens; kill everyone and flip the red switch on the wall to activate the elevator. The passage nearby leads you back to PowerPoint room, where the door to the main elevator has been unlocked. Head down, and reload your weapons on the way.

Another firefight is occurring down here, but if you mind your own business and stay out of the way, you should be able to keep a separate peace with the hostile parties. If you skulk your way to the left side of the room, you’ll come across a couple of mercenaries hiding behind some overturned cabinets. Here’s a tip: if you’re ever assaulted by mutants with rocket launchers attached to their arms, be sure to reinforce your makeshift fortifications by stacking explosive canisters atop them. This won’t actually make them any more secure, but it will help prevent your zombification due to the fact that your body will be in a hundred little pieces.

The room beyond the fortification is another lab - an evil lab. You can tell by looking at the copy of Evil Scientist magazine on the counter. ("Ten great tips to help hide WMDs from UN inspectors!") Flip the switch here to open the doors to the "big tank room." The hallway branching out from the lab will lead you to a position overlooking said "big tank room," and the firefight that’s currently ongoing between Locusts and a few mercs. Using your AG36’s scoped view and your night vision, you should be able to take down all of the combatants fairly easily. You may want to just shoot the two nearest mercs, then leave the two that are actually inside the room alone, so that the Locusts concentrate their fire on them.

Flood the mutagen room to access the upper floor

When the room is clear, rotate the steam valve at one end to instigate a probably-impossibly-quick flooding of the entire interior, then swim up through the vent at the top. You’ll soon be facing off against a single Fat Boy at fairly close range, so you’ll want to have collected any spare armor that the mercs dropped before you spin the valve here.

Save Valerie

This Fat Boy fight is supremely annoying, mostly due to the way his rockets detonate after they penetrate the surface of the water. There’s no easy way to kill him, unfortunately; if you reach this point without enough health, you may have to go back a save point or two and try the previous portions of the level in a different manner so that you’re not crippled when you reach him. After you dispatch him and the Tridgens in the classroom beyond, you’ll finally reach Valerie’s last known location. And, in a stunning plot twist, she’s actually still here, even if she is sharing the room with two Tridgens. Kill them off to end the level, and be shuttled off to some other inglorious assignment.

[Necromancer]

Level 14: Boat

Land on the first island

After all the interior mucking about, it’s nice to be working on proper islands again, even if they are packed to the gills with mercenaries. On the other hand, the Tridgen and mutant population of the islands is apparently nonexistent, so there’s that to be thankful for.

Grab the three explosives located on the first island Land your inflatable boat near the rocky outcroppings directly ahead of your starting position. Your first goal is to obtain some explosives from a nearby merc camp, so proceed overland and take out your adversaries. As with most exterior levels, your binoculars are going to be a big part of your progress, so try to continuously scan around and look for soldiers.

Destroy the first tower

After you clear out the first mercenary camp and retrieve the explosives, head back to the north, towards the small hut from which the armored soldiers came. You can load up on armor and health here before proceeding across the water to the northern island. Said trip is going to be difficult; depending on your level of subtlety, the patrol boats on the far pier may have been launched, thus giving you three reasons to give up, but with what’s hopefully a full load of AG36 ammo, you should be able to kill off the crews of each of them without getting annihilated. If one of them stops within swimming range, feel free to take it; otherwise, you may have to either swim across or run back to your inflatable boat to make the journey. Either way, use your sniper rifle (if you still have it) to soften up the opposition on the far side of the water. If you dropped your rifle, then you’ll definitely want to lure one of the patrol boats your way to use its minigun and rocket launcher before heading across.

The tower is easily visible from the southern shore, but you should head to the camp to the east first and look around. Two of the buildings here contain OICW’s, which can replace your AG36 as the assault rifle of choice. Although its zoom isn’t quite as powerful as the AG36, the increased accuracy and control of the OICW makes it a more effective marksman’s weapon, as well as more deadly in a straight-up firefight. Grab both of the rifles, on the weapons rack in the two main structures, as well as the extra HE rounds from the garage, before driving up to the first radar tower. Don’t park your vehicle too close to the structure, now; it’s going to be blowing up soon, and the last thing you want is to wreck your vehicle while serving the greater good.

After taking out the guards here, plant your explosives and check your next objective. Before heading out, walk to the northern edge of the island near the destroyed tower and sweep the next island with your binocs to get as many soldiers as possible on your radar.

Destroy the second tower

Your best bet for reaching the second tower is to grab one of the patrol boats from the pier near the camp to the east of the tower you just destroyed. If you take a boat to the west of the pier and wrap around the first island, you should find yourself near the point where you’ll want to dock your ship - look for the submerged pier. You probably already noticed the small island nearby, bristling with troops; your OICW should be well within headshot range for these guys, so feel free to bust a cap or two. You’ll have soldiers approaching from the island, as well as from higher up the road, though, so keep your eyes open. When you’ve cleared the island, you can check the hut for a few more rounds of sniper ammo and an armor refill. From there, you can either proceed north across the water to find a tunnel leading to a set of stairs, which will take you to the tower, or you can head back to the main road and walk up.

Destroy the third tower

As you may have surmised, the third tower is definitely going to be the most difficult one to access. It’s nestled in the hills above an enemy base, which is itself packed with mercenaries.

Your first job is to just land the boat near the pier on the southern side of the island. You can find a boat by walking down the stairs near the destroyed second tower, so take it across the water and get out. Unfortunately, from here on in, you’re reduced to simple gruntwork, of the attract-enemies-and-wait-for-them-to-approach variety. There are probably around two dozen mercs on this island, all told, a couple of whom have apparently had bionic eyes implanted, as they’ll spot you from, quite literally, a mile away.

As you walk up the road from the pier and pass through the three rocks that block it off, get ready to hit the dirt as soon as your tension music queues up. The three soldiers who are most likely to spot you are in the three sniper towers in the base to your north; one possesses a sniper rifle, one a rocket launcher, and the third a regular AG36. A fourth owl-eyed bastard is manning a minigun near the rocket launcher’s tower. If you still have your sniper rifle, equip it and start dishing out justice, a dish that’s best served cold! Or something like that.

After the primary threats have been dealt with, you’ll probably hear a 4WD coming your way from the rear of the island. Hunker down near the road leading up from the pier and shoot out anyone who gets off the truck, then claim it for your own. If you still have mercenaries that are hunting you down, you might just want to wait somewhere for them to come within view, before issuing headshots for the house.

When you’ve foisted a modicum of order onto the island, you can proceed into the merc base and loot the buildings and towers. When you’re ready to move on, knock out the third tower in the hills above.

Go and destroy the freighter!

Just in case all this running around wasn’t enough, you’re given a new surprise task; now you have to assault and destroy a freighter in a nearby harbor. From the tower, grab the 4WD and gun it towards the western end of the island. When you spot a couple of mercs in the road, gun them down and get out of the truck. You should be able to spot the freighter from this position, or a little bit further west, but you definitely don’t want to let the snipers aboard spot you just yet. If you grabbed the sniper rifle from the mercenary base, or already had one in your possession, you can use it to take down the boat’s defenders from here; just lie prone behind the large rock and strafe left or right until you spot a target. There should be one sniper and two rocket launcher foes, so check the ship with your binocs to make sure the exterior is clear before taking the nearby boat and climbing up the chains on either side of the ship. There will still be a few mercs left on board, so be cautious as you make your way up to the bridge.

After grabbing the explosives, refill your health and armor and grab a full load of rocket ammo. You’ll find the fuel cell at the rear of the ship, so plant the explosives there. The explosives detonate after 25 seconds, which will cripple the ship and slowly sink it; Col. Crow flies in to try and take you out in the meantime.

Since Crow’s on a helicopter, you’re going to be at a marked disadvantage if you actually stay on the ship; his minigun will cut you to pieces as soon as the water rises enough to force you to swim, and even before that occurs, you’ll have a tough time dodging his fire without getting hit. The thing is, although Jack seems to think the front of the ship is the safest spot to survive the explosion, you’re actually better off jumping overboard as soon as you plant your explosives, and swimming towards shore. You may take a bit of damage from the explosion, since you won’t be able to move as quickly, but you should survive, at any rate.

When you’re ashore, pick a sizable palm tree and stand next to it as Crow flies in. Crow’s attack heli moves in the same fashion as the previous choppers you’ve seen; it’ll swoop around until it’s close, and then it’ll start strafing around your position, so that Crow can fire on you from the minigunner’s position. If you picked a big enough palm tree, though, you should be able to simply hide behind the trunk whenever Crow fires, thus rendering you able to survive the fight without taking any damage at all, in most cases. All you need to do is sit behind the tree, moving so that Crow is on the opposite side, and occasionally pop out and fire a rocket at the helicopter. You’ll obviously want to do this when the chopper is moving slowly; you only have a maximum of 14 rocket rounds, and the helicopter can take nine or so hits before it flies off and explodes. If you run out of rockets, switch over to your OICW and use its HE rounds to finish the helicopter off.

Although Crow survives the encounter, the destruction of the chopper signals the end of this long level.