I arrive at Castle Clinton in the company of Agent Navarre and a couple nameless UNATCO troopers. They take up positions in front of the castle, waiting for my arrival.

Their plan lacks subtlety, so I look for alternatives. An ill-fed urchin hits me up for some food. I give him a candy bar and he lets me know that the NSF goes in and out of Castle Clinton through a secet passage behind a soda machine on the docks, and he gives me the code I need to enter into the nearby keypad to open up the passage. I sneak in, crossbowing a few terrorists guarding the secret passage, and scout around until I find some of the missing Ambrosia. It turns out that Computers is a really great skill for sneaky characters, as it allows you to hack any security computer you find, turn off security cameras and turrets, and open or close doors at will.

In addition to the Ambrosia, I find another nano enhancement. This one offers me the choice of Aqualung (increase the amount of time I can spend submerged in water) or Environmental Resistance (reduces the damage I take from radiation, gas, and poison). This is not a difficult choice.

I work my way up to the castle courtyard, where a bunch of NSF dudes are patrolling. I fire a few shots at them, which prompts them to run outside to seek cover. Anna and her troops are still waiting out there, and are apparently pretty bored, as they gun down the terrorists without warning. Anna is pleased about waxing all the terrorists, and gives me some EMP grenades. I move on to the next part of the mission, going on to the nearby subway station to resolve a hostage crisis. The NSF have wired the subway platform with explosives, and are threatening to blow it up.

They’ve set up a barricade of crates at the bottom of the stairs into the station, and I just don’t have the ammo for a prolonged shootout. I eventually hit upon the solution of chucking a gas grenade down the stairs, and shooting the bad guys while they’re helplessly choking and unable to shoot back. Rude, but effective.

Once I get to the bottom of the stairs, this entire gunfight turns out to have been a huge waste, since the NSF have set up laser tripwires in the doorway, and I can’t find any way to bypass or disarm them. Disturbing the lasers means detonating the many, many crates of TNT which are spaced strategically on the subway platform. This also makes any shootout with the remaining guards on the platform rather dangerous.

I quickly retreat up the stairs and find and alternate entrance: a hatch leading into the steam tunnels above the station. I’m then able to drop from the tunnels onto the platform, kill the remaining NSF, and rescue their two hostages. Once I do this, I get the message that Battery Park is secure, and I hop on the subway train to proceed to Hell’s Kitchen. Alex tells me that Gunther will arrive to secure the park, which will become something of a running joke throughout the game: sure, he talks tough, but he only shows up once all the bad guys are unconscious or dead.

Overall assessment: being sneaky and looking for a back way into Castle Clinton worked splendidly. Being straightforward and mounting a frontal assault on the subway station resulted in a difficult gunfight, and I was forced to find an alternate route onto the platform in any event. It’s like this game is trying to tell me something.