Archive for May 3rd, 2009

Paul meets me as I exit the subway, and explains he’ll be leading a raid on a warehouse where the NSF are holed up with the stolen Ambrosia. The warehouse is protected by an electromagnetic shield which is preventing UNATCO from proceeding with the attack, and  it’s my job to find the shield generator and shut it down so the attack can go forward.

Naturally, after throwing this critical mission at me, the game throws me into the most open-ended level thus far. The neighbohood is lousy with NSF, some of them harassing the locals, others engaging in shootouts with UNATCO troops. I waste them where I find them and gather information about the hidden (literal) underworld of Hell’s Kitchen, most notably an entire society of homeless living beneath the streets, and a weapons smuggler with an underground complex.

Paul has apparently been distributing tear gas grenades to the UNATCO troops here, resulting in a hilarious conversation with two troopers whose bitching about the grenades culminate in their reading the list of potential side effects that’s packaged with the grenades. They offer them to me, and I take them, since tear gas is great for incapacitating dudes while you shoot them in the head.

Luckily, Hell’s Kitchen does have a couple problems that can be solved without violence. I run across a pimp threatening a hooker, and run him off with a few well-placed threats. Naturally, I apparently already know the hooker in question: she’s the runaway daughter of the manager of the shitty hotel where Paul stays when he’s in New York. There’s also a public clinic where I manage to calm down an upset patient, which gets me a discount of medical care. An overheard conversation between two old guys at the clinic reveals that the NSF was formerly the Northwestern Secessionist Forces, and that the NSF kicked the government forces’ ass on at least one memorable occasion years ago.

Also of note is the Underworld bar. The bartender, a woman named Jordan, is a former UNATCO agent, and much of the clientele is apparently badass enough to not worry about the war going on just outside. Other notable individuals there include Jock, a UNATCO pilot, and Joe, and annoying tabloid reporter. They’re not particular important at this point, but become more interesting later in the game.

The other interesting above-ground structures are a warehouse and the Hilton hotel (known colloquially as the Ton), where Paul lives. There’s a shootout in front of the Ton, and after helping UNATCO wipe out the NSF, the UNATCO squad commander tells me there are still some NSF inside the hotel, with hostages. I go up the fire escape into the only open window I find, which happens to be Paul’s room.

Among the things in his room are a datacube telling me that there’s a secret keypad behind a painting, and giving me the code for it. Entering the code reveals a secret room full of ammo, tools, and a computer. Near the computer is a datacube addressed to me, explaining the Paul hasn’t had time to set me up with an email account, but giving me his login and password if I want to use it. His email includes all sorts of interesting messages from mysteriously-initialed strangers, which make it look like Paul is involved in some pretty shady business.

Let’s just say that I’m not impressed with Paul’s operational security.

After looting Paul’s suite, I head out into the hallway, where there are two NSF terrorists, each standing near a hostage. I sneak up on the nearest one and knife him, then dash around the corner to attack the other terrorist, forcing him to backpedal away from the hostage, and giving me the chance to kill him. I take a few bullets during the fight, but nothing too serious. A creep down the stairs to tehe lobby, where a third baddie is holding the manager hostage. I give the bad guy the good ol’ crossbow rhinoplasty, and the hotel is secure. There’s not much else of interest in the hotel, and most of the room doors are barred and inaccessible. There’s one room I can break into, but all it contains are some dead people and some drugs. Based on the circumstances, I elect not to experiment with the drugs.

In search of more firepower, I hunt down the smuggler people have been talking about. Getting in to see the smuggler involves giving a password to get through the front door, going through a laser barrier which sets off an alarm, fighting a security droid which attacks me when the alarm goes off, and then going down an elevator to see the smuggler. The smuggler doesn’t have a whole lot of merchandise available, and it’s expensive, but he offers a discount if I find his friend Ford, who’s gone missing. The Smuggler (who doesn’t seem to have a proper name) comes across as ridiculously paranoid, not surprisingly, claiming that people are being kidnapped and dragged into the sewers to be experimented on.

Naturally, before I leave, I help to prove his paranoia well-founded by hacking his computer and lifting whatever loot I can find lying around.

The funny thing is, it turns out that the Smuggler is right. After navigating a heavily-trapped tunnel in the sewers, I find a pair of dead guys on a ledge. One is an NSF fighter, while the other is in an unfamiliar uniform, and my HUD identifies him as a dead MJ-12 trooper. This is not a good sign. Investigating the ledge reveals a secret entrance into an unknown facility. Alex informs me that the facility isn’t on any of the maps, and warns me to be careful. Thank you, Captain Obvious.

The place is lousy with these MJ-12 guys, as well as toxic waste (found in both barrels and standing pools), giving my new Environmental Resistance ability a workout. Luckily, it turns out that the bad guys aren’t resistant to poison gas, and I exploit this fact mercilessly whenever I find them standing near barrels. After clearing out the base, I find Ford. He’s some kind of biochemist, and his captors were apparently kidnapping homeless people off the street and infecting them with the Grey Death for some sort of nefarious experiments. Charming.

Unfortunately, while wiping out a heretofore-unknown faction is fun, and prevents them from using their Nano-Ebola to wipe out New York, it doesn’t get me any closer to fulfilling my assigned mission. After visitng the Smuggler one last time to take advantage of his now-reduced prices, I’m ready to head into the last above-ground building I haven’t investigated, a warehouse.

It’s pretty empty on the inside, but on the roof I find an NSF sniper. I retire him and steal his rifle, which I use to kill some more baddies in the courtyard of an adjacent building. After some rooftop maneuvering, I locate the building where the enemy’s generator is. I can tell it’s the right place because it’s just crawling with guards and guard dogs. The roofs are pretty good for sneaking around, so it’s not hard to hit a few enemies with tranq darts and the just stay out of site until they fall unconscious. There’s some intense fighting as I make my way down several floors to the generator, but a combination of gas grenades and tranq darts make the hordes of enemies manageable.

I fin the generator control room and hack the systems to disable the generator and cause it to explode. Naturally, this is when a helicopter lands on the roof and disgorges Gunther to secure the area. Seeing him is never a treat, but I’ve accomplished my mission, acquired some useful new toys, and rid NYC of a whole bunch of undesirables.

Unfortunately, despite all my awesomeness, Paul appears to have screwed up his part of the operation, and the NSF managed to get away from his team, along with the stolen Ambrosia.

Honestly, if it weren’t for me, I get the feeling that UNATCO would be the least successful UN agency ever.

 The first event of note that occurs in UNATCO HQ is that as I’m running down the entrance hallway, there’s a loading screen which freezes the action. When the game resumes, I’m facing a wall and no longer sure of my heading. I can’t reorient myself by looking around, because inconveniently-placed corners prevent me from seeing anything other than blank walls.

This almost perfectly replicates the experience of being lost in a large UN complex. Unfortunately, my suspension of disbelief collapses once it becomes apparent that even though this is my first day on the job, I already have a login and password for my UNATCO work computer. Yeah, like I’m going to buy that.

Not that I need a login or password. Between my nanotech enhancements and my awesome computer skills, I can hack computers completely unnoticed, even if someone else is already using it. I can do that same with ATM machines, too, an ability which I take advantage of mercilessly. I’m a pretty shitty officer of the law, really.

Several important characters are hanging around at UNATCO HQ dealing with the current terrorism crisis. Jaime Reyes is a short, chubby Hispanic dude whose computer password is “amigo”. Classy. He’s also the resident doctor, and considering that people are shooting each other just outside HQ, he’s having a pretty shitty day. His lab contains a couple of medbots which can heal me and install the augmentation canister I picked up earlier. I go for the Microfibrial Muscle, which should help me wield heavy weapons (like the GEP gun) more effectively, and allow me to move heavy objects around.

Alex Jacobs is your typical nerdy hacker and mission control guy. Hacking his email account reveals that he keeps a list of everyone else’s login names and passwords. Awesome.

Sam Carter is a former general who was a hero during the previosu war against the NSF, but after his family were killed by the terrorists, he retired from active duty and now acts as UNATCO’s quartermaster. This means he gives me weapons and ammo, making him the most useful UNATCO dude thus far.

Joseph Manderley is the head of UNATCO. He gives me orders and money, so I have conflicted feelings about him. The NSF is running amok in New York City, and have stolen a freighter full of Ambrosia, which is needed to prevent various high mucky-mucks from contracting the Gray Death. The first step is to partner up with Agent Navarre to clear out the NSF occupying Battery Park, and the second step is to track down the missing Ambrosia.

Anna Navarre is your typical reformed Eastern European hardcase. She thinks Paul’s a wussbag for his reliance on non-lethal force, and that JC is a wussbag both because he’s Paul’s brother, and because she doesn’t think much of his fashion sense. The choice quote in this regard is something along the lines of ”Skill and experience are more important than fashionable sunglasses and baggy coats that make us look bigger than we really are.”

Anna and Gunther do have an amusing conversation in the employee lounge. Gunther thinks the maintenance staff is conspiring against him, because when he tried to get an orange soda from the vending machine, it gave him lemon-lime. Seriously.

Comedic value aside, Anna and Gunther are clearly bloodthirsty assclowns, possibly because they’re mechanically augmented, and thus look pretty creepy; this might be why they’re playing up the “psychotic killers” angle. Not that it gives me any sympathy for them.

After looting HQ as thoroughly as possible, and reading all my co-workers’ email without their permission, I head back to the docks and get in the boat to go to the next mission.