MAX PAYMENT
Member
I was a HUGE mercenaries fan.
One of my favorite games.
I'm tempted.
Is the single player AI that bad?
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Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands |OT| Squad Goals
- Thread starter SJRB
- Start date
I was a HUGE mercenaries fan.
One of my favorite games.
I'm tempted.
Is the single player AI that bad?
Keihart
Member
Single player AI is boring but functional enough that makes the game easier. They can't be spotted, they'll always revive you and can use sync shot without a direct line of sight and will never miss.
JigglesBunny
Banned
How did the Xbox One version turn out?
The Beta builds I played had some really drastic performance issues during action and distinct input lag - was any of that addressed for retail?
Also, is there a thread for GAF members to squad up or do we just manage that independently? I got an unexpected bonus slapped onto the check this week and I have cash to blow, I figured I would give the game a shake.
The Beta builds I played had some really drastic performance issues during action and distinct input lag - was any of that addressed for retail?
Also, is there a thread for GAF members to squad up or do we just manage that independently? I got an unexpected bonus slapped onto the check this week and I have cash to blow, I figured I would give the game a shake.
Captain Zyrain
Member
That sounds like fun.. right now, Wildlands (and most games I guess) makes it easy for you to find a groove and stick to it. The HTI from the side of a helo is pretty reliable for taking down convoys. So, yeah it lends itself to not rewarding changing up tactics. I will say the 'randomness' of the game helps in that regard though, as things can change at the drop of a hat and make you use something else.
Oh.. fun times today too.. here is me dropping off the face of the Earth (literally):
I do hope a Wildlands 2 improves on things.. as this is an awesome base to start with.
I play on Xbox and it mostly runs fine, I haven't noticed any real issues.
WildslandGAF is our Xbox Club, and I started the Xbox Taskforce "NeoGAF" if you search. My gamertag is "NSA".
Impulse bought the game the other day after enjoying the betas. Really enjoying the full game, it has its issues but I really appreciate what its trying to go for, and the co-op is a blast.
Helps I'm a big fan of the modern military special forces aesthetic. The game alternates between "Sicario" and "Strike Back" in tone and gameplay style for me and I kind of love it.
The story and dialouge are terrible for the most part, but every so often one of my team will have a real funny or neat piece of dialouge.
I don't think its a game for everyone, and most will probably want to wait for a sale, but it scratches a very particular itch for me.
Helps I'm a big fan of the modern military special forces aesthetic. The game alternates between "Sicario" and "Strike Back" in tone and gameplay style for me and I kind of love it.
The story and dialouge are terrible for the most part, but every so often one of my team will have a real funny or neat piece of dialouge.
I don't think its a game for everyone, and most will probably want to wait for a sale, but it scratches a very particular itch for me.
MGSV is one of the best games I've played. I put 60 hours into it and only stopped because I didn't want to give the game a chance to burn me out. It's superlative.
So, this fan really likes Wildlands, but I think they're only similar in limited ways that aren't necessarily important.
Yes, they're both open world and afford a chance to do missions in ways you'd like - but MGSV is far more inventive than Wildlands. Kojima's game offers more interesting options and subtlety in gameplay.
MGSV is interesting from the moment you pick a loadout. Wildlands is 'only' interesting when you're using it.
Keihart
Member
Strange enough i feel more freedom when aproaching a mision in Wildlands, MGSV is way more forgiving when getting spotted and Snake really feels like a superhero ability wise. MGSV is the better stealth game, but wildlands is the better tactical sandbox in my view.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
How do you take out the chopper supply convoys? Can you just shoot the chopper down?
Lashley
Why does he wear the mask!?
Yeah, sometimes they'll have 2 lined up and 1 will die too, weird
RedSparrows
Member
Wildlands 2 could be incredible. This is already so fun. Love the shift changes and patrol alterations between night and day.
EMP drone might be the most useless thing, you still get jammed and if not why not just use your sniper rifle.
also just did the
mission or so with a friend and this was bs, you have to interrogate him, surrounded by couple men, no way to get to him without alerting the base, then you have to stop him, because he's trying to escape, interrogate him while hopefully the chopper above won't shoot at you ._.
also just did the
el pulpo's right hand
I rented it solely for co-op. I've already taken down 4 provinces on Solo. I thought I would hate it with the friendly AI's hit or miss behavior, but I'm enjoying the hell out of it.
The Dear Leader
Banned
I'm kind of coming around on this game, I've been playing it while watching stuff or listening to a podcast and it's pretty fun game for that. The controls felt really stiff when I started but once I've gotten used to it it's not too bad. I don't think it's worth $60 but it's worth the $30ish I paid for it.
Captain Zyrain
Member
Solo is really a lot more tactics.. Especially with syncshot. It's about controlling the encounter, doing lots of recon, and getting the job done. If that is fun to you.. It will be enjoyable for a while.
Multiplayer coop is about that too.. But also the wild, madcap nonsense of playing with other people.
I like both, I alternate back and forth and have good experiences either way.
My techniques for my team on solo have been to use them like a mix of MGSV's D-Dog and Quiet. They help mark targets as we approach, and then I use them to shoot key targets with me. If everything goes south, I let them loose and go flank the targets.
Thank ya! I've been busy with work the past two days so it worked just fine for me now. I sent a request as FatalT (PSN ID is FatalT1 if it shows up as that). I'll probably play a good bit tonight!
I recently unlocked unlimited battery for the drone so I just kinda have them mark 3 people, shoot them, fly around a bit waiting for the sync shot cooldown, then repeat. Works out fairly well and seems pretty cheap
EDIT: Aw hell, double post.
I think the player who is hosting the game sees things as they actually happen. From my point of view the first missile missed the plane just barely.
gutterboy44
Member
The lack of feedback from the devs and the woefully thin "known issues list" they updated a week ago that wasn't even remotely complete based on the official forum posts then, let alone now, is starting to get very concerning. I have a bad feeling DLC and new cosmetics to buy in store are going to be their only focus. Milk this for every penny and move on. I would love to see similar efforts Massive put in to improving Division, but they were so much more proactive, even between betas.
MAX PAYMENT
Member
I want this and mass effect.
Unfortunately they both sit at that iffy 7/10, will I ever play it a second time, type range.
Had a huge, incredible session last night. Infiltrated a massive base, interrogated and extracted a guy without being spotted. Traversed a city at night (felt like I was in Black Hawk Down), got Unidad into a fight with Santa Blanca AND rebels - watched the fireworks from a distance. Failed two mobile side missions but didn't care because it was so intense and realistic doing so. Found a base that seemed totally impenetrable - realised I'd ranged into a 4-star difficulty area without realising it.
Great times and I haven't even touched co-op yet. I just love the crackle and snap of more realistic shooter - forgot how much i loved this. Knowing where a tango is, crouching into stance, firing off short bursts, seeing them go down. So satisfying.
Also incredible how many interiors there are in this game. We're dangerously close to open worlds with all interiors rendered. Like creeping through a city while a huge sprawling gunfight is going on, and looking through doors into impoverished households, people cowering for cover, a middle-aged woman running past and ducking into a building... Just incredible.
In singleplayer, literally just play it as if you're totally alone, and call in the AI squad mates to provide covering fire if you get in a pinch. It's perfect once you play that way. Basically never rely on them, do entirely your own thing, and just call them in as backup. There are occasional times when the game throws a really tough situation at you and you use sync shot to efficiently take down a group of guys, at which point it almost reaches Splinter Cell Conviction/Blacklist levels of efficient killing.
If you're worried about replayability, honestly co-op is the answer to that. Even doing missions/bases you've done before is great crack in co-op. It's so dynamic and it gets bigger and more complex as you go along.
Great times and I haven't even touched co-op yet. I just love the crackle and snap of more realistic shooter - forgot how much i loved this. Knowing where a tango is, crouching into stance, firing off short bursts, seeing them go down. So satisfying.
Also incredible how many interiors there are in this game. We're dangerously close to open worlds with all interiors rendered. Like creeping through a city while a huge sprawling gunfight is going on, and looking through doors into impoverished households, people cowering for cover, a middle-aged woman running past and ducking into a building... Just incredible.
In singleplayer, literally just play it as if you're totally alone, and call in the AI squad mates to provide covering fire if you get in a pinch. It's perfect once you play that way. Basically never rely on them, do entirely your own thing, and just call them in as backup. There are occasional times when the game throws a really tough situation at you and you use sync shot to efficiently take down a group of guys, at which point it almost reaches Splinter Cell Conviction/Blacklist levels of efficient killing.
If you're worried about replayability, honestly co-op is the answer to that. Even doing missions/bases you've done before is great crack in co-op. It's so dynamic and it gets bigger and more complex as you go along.
MAX PAYMENT
Member
Interesting. I've seen dudes do crazy stuff like hop out of a speeding helicopter 10 feet above the ground to land and start ramboing it.
I'd prefer to play it a little bit more realistically. I'd put it on a harder difficulty. Helicopter in and land offset to the objective for a silent on foot movement to the objective.
Does it suit that playstyle or is it more like mercenaries?
Lashley
Why does he wear the mask!?
Suits that playstyle, it honestly is a sandbox where it'll suit any playstyle but I also like to go on as if I'm an SAS operative
That is literally exactly how I play on the hardest/second hardest difficulty and it's glorious.
It's obviously not as tight/refined as MGSV, but I've honestly had a bunch of amazing stealth/infiltration moments in Wildlands where I legit thought "MGSV should have had this".
Two small examples:
1. In MGSV your insertion method is helicopter drop off. Nothing else. Ever. In Wildlands, I can heli drop off, parachute in, swim in, infiltrate using a vehicle as a disguise.
2. The stealth isn't as refined but you have more distraction options in Wildlands. For one thing, instigating combat between different NPC factions. Find a vantage and shoot off the padlock to a rebel cell – watch a gunfight erupt in a base and sneak through (not unlike MGS4's battlezones). Then there's also co-op, where one person can literally aggro with a helicopter, sniper rifle or LMG or whathave you, and you can fully 100% stealth in from the other direction while they distract.
Also hostile NPC AI is actually pretty good. Not quite MGSV level good but certainly not bad.
yellow submarine
Member
I'm having an absolute ball with it solo. Amazing game, and I don't mind the jankiness at all. The story is quite nuanced and better than I was expecting. The only thing this game is slightly weak at is stealth, it seems to be built for the oh-shit-I-got-spotted all out brawls. It's like MGS5, but with AI bros helping you out. I love it.
The sync shot feature is amazing, makes me feel like assassins brotherhood again. Of course the dark-souls-"it's not hard unless you hate life" crowd at GAF are whining about it being "easy", but it makes me feel like a badass, and that's what I play games for.
Mossybrew
Gold Member
Probably 90% of my time with the game so far has been solo. I love it, sure co-op adds another dimension to it, but I think it's also a great solo experience.
It's funny, all the dialogue and 'scenes' are bloody awful, but the actual content of the story is pretty well thought out and roundly developed. I'm impressed even though I'm cringing at how the characters are talking.
gutterboy44
Member
Omg, the MK-48 LMG unsuppressed is so nice sounding. It has a good balance of handling, damage and accuracy too, especially fully modded. Had a great simple moment solo. Cleared out a small town for a weapon attachment. Saw a supply mission 500m away figured I'd walk it. As I am leaving town, and go out into my a field with high grass. Cartel reinforcements are rolling into the town I just left and my status is still hunted. I just stay put out in the field crouched. They work their way through town then slowly out toward me in the field. I am still hunted by they only know my direction not location. They fan out in a formation so I decide against mortars. Instead I just let them get a little closer, and then just open up with an LMG while still crouched. I don't even see any of them directly, just their markers. They never fully spot me either and I just mowed them all down by throwing shit tons of lead down range. It was very satisfying and sounded like a proper gun fight.
I know I have said it before, but be sure to give yourself chances to use weapons without a suppressor. The sound fx in this game are amazing and even change depending on your surroundings. Also, go get that MK-48 LMG and enjoy.
I know I have said it before, but be sure to give yourself chances to use weapons without a suppressor. The sound fx in this game are amazing and even change depending on your surroundings. Also, go get that MK-48 LMG and enjoy.
foxdvd
Member
The Ritmo assault rifle is amazing. I am not sure what mission, but it is a unlock that you can't customize but it is a lazer that does great damage and has a grenade launcher on it.
I had been using an lmg for the helicopters since it shreds them easier than a grenade launcher, but I noticed when messing with my Ritmo, it drops choppers just as fast as a LMG when using bullets.
I had been using an lmg for the helicopters since it shreds them easier than a grenade launcher, but I noticed when messing with my Ritmo, it drops choppers just as fast as a LMG when using bullets.
NullPointer
Member
So last night me and a buddy were trying to infiltrate an enemy base. They had a jammer parked in the middle.
Reading online that you can take a jammer out with gunfire at a distance we set up some firing positions around 180-200 meters out and start firing at it with suppressed MSR's. We must have hit the top and body of the jammer with at least a dozen shots, but it had no effect.
A few minutes later I pick up the HTI sniper rifle from this very base. Just to check if it makes a difference I tried one shot with it at the jammer, and it explodes in a huge fireball freaking us both out - and the base for that matter ;p
Does this align with what you guys are seeing? Can you not take out jammers or similar devices with anything short of the HTI? If not, how many shots does it take?
Reading online that you can take a jammer out with gunfire at a distance we set up some firing positions around 180-200 meters out and start firing at it with suppressed MSR's. We must have hit the top and body of the jammer with at least a dozen shots, but it had no effect.
A few minutes later I pick up the HTI sniper rifle from this very base. Just to check if it makes a difference I tried one shot with it at the jammer, and it explodes in a huge fireball freaking us both out - and the base for that matter ;p
Does this align with what you guys are seeing? Can you not take out jammers or similar devices with anything short of the HTI? If not, how many shots does it take?
Captain Zyrain
Member
I would imagine enough damage from anything would work, though I've only used the HTI and/or Drone Explosion or other explosives to take it out. Did you try the MSR w/o the silencer? Having the silencer equipped takes down its penetration rating quite a bit, which may explain the lack of damage?
I'm not 100% on the damage model for the jammer/generator/SAM/etc, but maybe it's not a hit point based thing, where you can slowly whittle it to death, but a YES/NO type of thing if you can penetrate its armor? I just got the MSR last night (well after getting the HTI) so I haven't really played around with it.
The HTI is a beast, a sloooooooooooow beast, but one-shotting helo's and vehicles rarely gets old.
gutterboy44
Member
Yeah, I never bothered to keep shooting to find out what the count is. After probably reloading once I gave up with the MSR. HTI is always one hit kill of generators and jammers. Apparently other weapons can do it, but I have never bothered to find out just how many shots it takes because they are all more than one shot. I've been enjoying using my EMP drone to fuck up things too. Great for stopping convoys.
NullPointer
Member
There is no way to fire off the HTI without smiling.
Even suppressed it sounds like a beast, and my fucking god the effect on target ...
Even suppressed it sounds like a beast, and my fucking god the effect on target ...
gutterboy44
Member
Best moment with the HTI was when trying to grab the ACR. The base it is in has a cool setup. It is a unidad outpost right next to a river. The opposing side is a steep cliff with a great ledge to snipe from with the high ground. I started by trying to snipe silent, I think with the G28 or something, but eventually someone saw a body or I missed. Either way, once spooked like 4 unidad guys went into this yellow building that was made of steel, like a shipping container almost. I waited, none of them would peek out the door. I could still see their enemy markers and 3 of the 4 were just in the middle of this little building doing nothing. So, HTI time. Took off the suppressor, and just started firing bullets through the roof of the building, killing them one by one. I love the idea of these guys going to hide in a building thinking they are safe only to have .50 call bullets start raining down through the ceiling.
FUBAR McDangles
Member
Best moment so far: two friends and myself try and ambush a lieutenant and his buddies for a mission. Wont go into details because of spoilers or whatever, but it is a big open area and we come from three angles. This is the fourth time we tried it because once we accidentally shot him, once he got away, and once we accidentally blew up his car when he was in it.
Doing things tactically we designate positions. I have the task of being close by (like 2 minutes of crawling through grass to make sure they dont see me) and grabbing the lieutenant before he gets away. One buddy is sniper overwatch way back behind me on top of the hill I crawled down, and our third guy is hanging out next to a chase car on the side of the hill just in case we have to follow the lieutenant.
We launch our attack. Kill three of the six guards in unison. Other three guards start shooting and the LT freaks out. I run up to grab the lieutenant as bullets are flying all over the place. He jumps into his car right as I get the button prompt to grab him but he dips out. My guy grabs at open air. I start swearing and run after the car.
Mid level buddy gets away from his car and is shooting at the tires of the LT, who is fast approaching. He keeps backing up while shooting, panics, turns to run, and gets run over by the lieutenant. I am sprinting toward our chase car, sniper gets to it right before I do. He drives, I lean out of the back seat shooting and chasing this guy down a road.
His front tires were already shot by our dead friend (RIP scrub) and I shoot out the back tires during maybe 2-3 minute chase. Car starts to slow down, my buddy swerves left to come up at an angle to hit the target car and see if he can spin it out. Right as we make our move, the lieutenant jumps out of the car. We nail him with the front of out truck and the dude just disappears. Instant Mission Failed. My friend starts screaming and I laugh so hard I have tears in my eyes. Dead friendis just going "what the hell happened?" over and over. They are both pissed we failed again but I cant stop laughing. Dude just straight up dove in front of our bigass truck like it was nothing.
So good. 10/10 would fail again.
Doing things tactically we designate positions. I have the task of being close by (like 2 minutes of crawling through grass to make sure they dont see me) and grabbing the lieutenant before he gets away. One buddy is sniper overwatch way back behind me on top of the hill I crawled down, and our third guy is hanging out next to a chase car on the side of the hill just in case we have to follow the lieutenant.
We launch our attack. Kill three of the six guards in unison. Other three guards start shooting and the LT freaks out. I run up to grab the lieutenant as bullets are flying all over the place. He jumps into his car right as I get the button prompt to grab him but he dips out. My guy grabs at open air. I start swearing and run after the car.
Mid level buddy gets away from his car and is shooting at the tires of the LT, who is fast approaching. He keeps backing up while shooting, panics, turns to run, and gets run over by the lieutenant. I am sprinting toward our chase car, sniper gets to it right before I do. He drives, I lean out of the back seat shooting and chasing this guy down a road.
His front tires were already shot by our dead friend (RIP scrub) and I shoot out the back tires during maybe 2-3 minute chase. Car starts to slow down, my buddy swerves left to come up at an angle to hit the target car and see if he can spin it out. Right as we make our move, the lieutenant jumps out of the car. We nail him with the front of out truck and the dude just disappears. Instant Mission Failed. My friend starts screaming and I laugh so hard I have tears in my eyes. Dead friendis just going "what the hell happened?" over and over. They are both pissed we failed again but I cant stop laughing. Dude just straight up dove in front of our bigass truck like it was nothing.
So good. 10/10 would fail again.
Captain Zyrain
Member
Weird bugged, refilled ammo decided to do loadout right after and I was frozen as if in a menu
I've had a handful of odd/strange bugs over the 50+ hours I've put into the game so far..
I had 1 hard crash, I don't remember what I was doing, but the game fully locked up and crashed to home screen.
I've had a few (maybe 3-5) weird audio issues, most recently where the SAM 'incoming alert' sound wouldn't go away, even after I escaped the SAM's and exited the Helicopter! I don't remember what I did, but eventually it stopped. Maybe going into a menu, or dying or something.. but it was beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep'ing for a long time.
The no Drone/no Binoculars bug hits me relatively often, its always right after I get out of piloting a helo. Also, it seems to go away on it's own. I don't know if I need to get a certain distance away from the helo or what, but eventually I can use everything like normal, without requiring a restart or quitting the game.
As posted above, and Youtube video HERE, I fell out of the world. I blame my indulgence on too much medicina.. but alas.. I've also gotten stuck a few times in the world, mostly in crevices and the link. A fast travel fixes that.
I'm sure there has been some weird AI behavior, but nothing terrible. The open world/flexible nature of the game means not too many bugs are 'killer', thankfully.
Out of town for the past 4 days. But I logged into the page and the website is still giving me problems. I don't see anyone pending.... that being said, I don't end up in my profile page when I log in either..... Really wish Ubi would fix this crap.
I'll be back tomorrow evening and will accept you through the ps4 browser. Seems to be the most reliable way.
Cheer-
Captain Zyrain
Member
I don't know if I've seen that happen, it has spawned me very near to enemies though.
Yesterday a bunch of us kept spawning RIGHT NEXT to a "steal the chopper" mission and alerting the guys and they'd take off with the helicopter. We finally all figured out we needed to go prone IMMEDIATELY upon spawning, and toss flash bangs.
I haven't yet figured out how the spawning mechanic works, as I've died on the same mission a few times and spawned in different places.
NullPointer
Member
Last night was another great session. I was in a two man group tackling the mission where you have to take out three instructors at a Santa Blanca boot camp in Montuyoc.
SPOILERS for that mission follow:
We started our recon over this sprawling base. It was effectively two bases, split along the middle by a main road where civilian traffic and the occasional gunship protected convoy would pass. The left side of the base which we designated base 1 had a Jammer, a SAM system, a generator and alarm towers. HVT's 1 and 2 were also here, as well as the HTI sniper rifle in an armory to the rear of the base (that we had both picked up already in a previous botched attempt but hadn't really used much yet). The second part of the base, base 2, had its own generator and alarm tower, as well as HVT number 3.
The sun was just starting to rise, so we made our plans quickly. After clearing out a thin patrol, I moved in on foot to the back of the base to manually shut down the jammer and generator. Taking out the generator also shut down the alarm towers here - but we weren't completely safe because the second base had its own working alarm towers and infrastructure. So my partner flanked wide right to get the highground overlooking that base to take out the generator at range with the sniper. So I was outside of base 1, and my buddy was overlooking base 2 which had us at right angles to each other, and about 500-600 meters apart, and the main road halfway between our positions, slicing the right angle like two equal pizza slices.
With both generators down we were now ready to go. Surprisingly the base seemed to be pretty tranquil - maybe they don't notice a downed generator in the early morning? I dunno.
Regardless, now that we could drone I found HVT 1 pretty quickly, standing outside, presumably overseeing the day's training, which consisted of a vet and about a dozen SB troops milling about or doing exercises. I was able to plug the instructor with the HTI without causing a fuss so all was well so far. But we still had two more targets and both looked safely turtled away in their buildings, watching TV or sitting at their desks.
My buddy up on the hill overlooking base 2 thought he might be able to land a sniper shot directly through the shuttered windows to hit HTV 3 inside the building, but had no luck. We heard a nice metallic ping, and then moments later both bases were on radio alert.
This was a problem. From my vantage I saw all the soldiers from base 1 heading in my general direction. They didn't have a bee-line on me and were decently spaced out, but soon enough I had enemies in front of me and to my left flank, slowly drawing in the net.
Reinforcements had now arrived in armored vehicles along the middle road too, which cut me off from my buddy overlooking base 2. So now I had bad guys in front and on both flanks, and was feeling like I was running on borrowed time.
The one bright point of all of this is that the commotion had caused HVT 2 to leave the comfort of his office and take position outside, 150 meters straight ahead of me. He had taken cover against my friend's sniper, which left him fully exposed to my line of fire. Out comes the HTI again, and HVT 2 was history.
Eventually a soldier on the left flank wandered a little too close and I had to drop him. This alerted the other guards to my left and front, and things got loud quick, which caused the reinforcements to my right along the main road to start heading my way too. Things were going to shit.
I had to move, and my back was to a cliff-side so I ran towards the main road to my right (towards my buddy beyond the road too), taking shots at the reinforcements there while spinning around and laying down fire on the soldiers chasing behind. At this point me and my partner switched things up, with me dropping down and taking out the reinforcements ahead of me near the road while my buddy took long range sniper shots at the soldier's behind me. I'd cop a squat, take a few reinforcement troops out ahead of me, bum rush to the next position and repeat while my buddy sniped each soldier tailing me, though that's a far cleaner description than how it all played in the moment. I went black and white a few times but I was somehow able to make it up near the road in one piece.
On the road were all the now empty vehicles from the Santa Blanca reinforcements, and a long line of stopped traffic that had built up because of them. Now, roads always freak me out in this game, and I make sure to expose myself to them for as short a time as possible, preferring to sprint from one point of concealment to the another concealed point across the road as quickly as possible. In this case I should have paid more attention to the stalled traffic which I assumed was all civilian, but nope. Six cars back or so was an armored UNIDAD truck, and when I was mid sprint across the road its gunner opened up on me and we now had a level 1 UNIDAD alert on our hands.
I barely made it an elevated rocky position just across the road with my world in black and white and my heartbeat getting louder. But I knew I wasn't safe since UNIDAD would be rushing my position with armored heavies any second. Prepping for that I looked around me and incidentally saw that I could look into base 2 from here, and there was HVT 3, just across the way, also outside of his building taking cover. I yelled out to my buddy that he was outside and fully exposed just as the motherfucker opened up on me and dropped me like a sack of beans (like a skilled instructor would I guess ;p).
So now I'm bleeding out behind these rocks overlooking base 2, and awaiting the cloud of UNIDAD troopers to descend upon me - which happened - only they continued right past me and started a full on assault of base 2 with everything they had. My buddy couldn't reach me amid all the chaos so I had to bleed out and warp to his position, and from his hillside perch we watched the carnage unfold as soldiers from both sides went at it. And let me tell you, UNIDAD does not fuck around.
At this point we were both up the hill and feeling pretty good because we took care of our objectives, but there was still a skill point to pick up at target 2's location back at base 1 so we headed back to my old, and now mostly cleared, firing position away from the unfolding carnage at base 2.
We did a little recon to mark up the stragglers left in base 1 when a UNIDAD blackhawk flew directly over us and opened up with its chainguns. We were positively fucked - prone on a rock but with no bushes for concealment, out in broad daylight, and this bird was flying LOW and its chainguns were screaming.
But we weren't the target - base 1 was. As we watched, the helo swung past us, circled around and unleashed hell on the remaining SB soldiers between us and the skill point, just before a Santa Blanca heavy opened up with his LMG from a nearby rooftop and reduced the blackhawk to fiery wreckage.
That gave us the opportunity to rush in, assault the HVT 2 building, grab the skill point, tag some resources and pocket some docs, and book it up to an abandoned monastery atop a nearby hill where we caught our breath and took a moment to celebrate. By the time we reached and cleared the monastery it was night time, and the battle below between UNIDAD and the the Santa Blanca soldiers at base 2 was still going strong.
So we ended the evening by watching the fireworks play out in the expansive valley below us, and then removing our HTI suppressors and taking long range, gloriously punchy shots of that beast of a rifle, at the SB soldiers way over there in the base.
A perfect gaming night-cap for another great session. I love this game.
SPOILERS for that mission follow:
We started our recon over this sprawling base. It was effectively two bases, split along the middle by a main road where civilian traffic and the occasional gunship protected convoy would pass. The left side of the base which we designated base 1 had a Jammer, a SAM system, a generator and alarm towers. HVT's 1 and 2 were also here, as well as the HTI sniper rifle in an armory to the rear of the base (that we had both picked up already in a previous botched attempt but hadn't really used much yet). The second part of the base, base 2, had its own generator and alarm tower, as well as HVT number 3.
The sun was just starting to rise, so we made our plans quickly. After clearing out a thin patrol, I moved in on foot to the back of the base to manually shut down the jammer and generator. Taking out the generator also shut down the alarm towers here - but we weren't completely safe because the second base had its own working alarm towers and infrastructure. So my partner flanked wide right to get the highground overlooking that base to take out the generator at range with the sniper. So I was outside of base 1, and my buddy was overlooking base 2 which had us at right angles to each other, and about 500-600 meters apart, and the main road halfway between our positions, slicing the right angle like two equal pizza slices.
With both generators down we were now ready to go. Surprisingly the base seemed to be pretty tranquil - maybe they don't notice a downed generator in the early morning? I dunno.
Regardless, now that we could drone I found HVT 1 pretty quickly, standing outside, presumably overseeing the day's training, which consisted of a vet and about a dozen SB troops milling about or doing exercises. I was able to plug the instructor with the HTI without causing a fuss so all was well so far. But we still had two more targets and both looked safely turtled away in their buildings, watching TV or sitting at their desks.
My buddy up on the hill overlooking base 2 thought he might be able to land a sniper shot directly through the shuttered windows to hit HTV 3 inside the building, but had no luck. We heard a nice metallic ping, and then moments later both bases were on radio alert.
This was a problem. From my vantage I saw all the soldiers from base 1 heading in my general direction. They didn't have a bee-line on me and were decently spaced out, but soon enough I had enemies in front of me and to my left flank, slowly drawing in the net.
Reinforcements had now arrived in armored vehicles along the middle road too, which cut me off from my buddy overlooking base 2. So now I had bad guys in front and on both flanks, and was feeling like I was running on borrowed time.
The one bright point of all of this is that the commotion had caused HVT 2 to leave the comfort of his office and take position outside, 150 meters straight ahead of me. He had taken cover against my friend's sniper, which left him fully exposed to my line of fire. Out comes the HTI again, and HVT 2 was history.
Eventually a soldier on the left flank wandered a little too close and I had to drop him. This alerted the other guards to my left and front, and things got loud quick, which caused the reinforcements to my right along the main road to start heading my way too. Things were going to shit.
I had to move, and my back was to a cliff-side so I ran towards the main road to my right (towards my buddy beyond the road too), taking shots at the reinforcements there while spinning around and laying down fire on the soldiers chasing behind. At this point me and my partner switched things up, with me dropping down and taking out the reinforcements ahead of me near the road while my buddy took long range sniper shots at the soldier's behind me. I'd cop a squat, take a few reinforcement troops out ahead of me, bum rush to the next position and repeat while my buddy sniped each soldier tailing me, though that's a far cleaner description than how it all played in the moment. I went black and white a few times but I was somehow able to make it up near the road in one piece.
On the road were all the now empty vehicles from the Santa Blanca reinforcements, and a long line of stopped traffic that had built up because of them. Now, roads always freak me out in this game, and I make sure to expose myself to them for as short a time as possible, preferring to sprint from one point of concealment to the another concealed point across the road as quickly as possible. In this case I should have paid more attention to the stalled traffic which I assumed was all civilian, but nope. Six cars back or so was an armored UNIDAD truck, and when I was mid sprint across the road its gunner opened up on me and we now had a level 1 UNIDAD alert on our hands.
I barely made it an elevated rocky position just across the road with my world in black and white and my heartbeat getting louder. But I knew I wasn't safe since UNIDAD would be rushing my position with armored heavies any second. Prepping for that I looked around me and incidentally saw that I could look into base 2 from here, and there was HVT 3, just across the way, also outside of his building taking cover. I yelled out to my buddy that he was outside and fully exposed just as the motherfucker opened up on me and dropped me like a sack of beans (like a skilled instructor would I guess ;p).
So now I'm bleeding out behind these rocks overlooking base 2, and awaiting the cloud of UNIDAD troopers to descend upon me - which happened - only they continued right past me and started a full on assault of base 2 with everything they had. My buddy couldn't reach me amid all the chaos so I had to bleed out and warp to his position, and from his hillside perch we watched the carnage unfold as soldiers from both sides went at it. And let me tell you, UNIDAD does not fuck around.
At this point we were both up the hill and feeling pretty good because we took care of our objectives, but there was still a skill point to pick up at target 2's location back at base 1 so we headed back to my old, and now mostly cleared, firing position away from the unfolding carnage at base 2.
We did a little recon to mark up the stragglers left in base 1 when a UNIDAD blackhawk flew directly over us and opened up with its chainguns. We were positively fucked - prone on a rock but with no bushes for concealment, out in broad daylight, and this bird was flying LOW and its chainguns were screaming.
But we weren't the target - base 1 was. As we watched, the helo swung past us, circled around and unleashed hell on the remaining SB soldiers between us and the skill point, just before a Santa Blanca heavy opened up with his LMG from a nearby rooftop and reduced the blackhawk to fiery wreckage.
That gave us the opportunity to rush in, assault the HVT 2 building, grab the skill point, tag some resources and pocket some docs, and book it up to an abandoned monastery atop a nearby hill where we caught our breath and took a moment to celebrate. By the time we reached and cleared the monastery it was night time, and the battle below between UNIDAD and the the Santa Blanca soldiers at base 2 was still going strong.
So we ended the evening by watching the fireworks play out in the expansive valley below us, and then removing our HTI suppressors and taking long range, gloriously punchy shots of that beast of a rifle, at the SB soldiers way over there in the base.
A perfect gaming night-cap for another great session. I love this game.
DukeSilverHaze
Banned
I've only taken out the first boss, so I'm pretty early in the game. Anyone on PS4 wanna join up?
Captain Zyrain
Member
Great write up.. I feel like sometimes I need to be taking notes to relive some of the experiences. Or just record everything! There is so much going on, it's crazy how you can get the different factions going at each other. You should have called in some Rebels to help, just because!
NullPointer
Member
We use the rebels only if we have to, because we always try to ghost through our missions if at all possible, and it feels like an easy button at times.
So if we're working in a base or town that has captured rebels we'll only release them at the end of the mission, unless things go fubar in which case we might use them to cause a ruckus that allows us to bug out.
Though I'll admit, when we discovered you could call in rebel artillery strikes via the drone - that was an amazing moment
And yeah, the more I think about it, some rebel support would have been nice when things went sideways but it all happened so quick - I think my buddy wanted to grenade the reinforcement vehicles to help me escape but we didn't pull the trigger because we were worried about taking out civilians. That's another facet of the game that I appreciate being there.
RedSparrows
Member
Great story, the game is full of them.
Last night 4 of us spent 1hr+ sneaking into a base totally undetected, and then leaving undetected. Sundown, tense creeping past sleeping SBs, eyes glued to patrol patterns whilst I snuck through a building to photograph documents.
And then we stole away...
So much fun.
Last night 4 of us spent 1hr+ sneaking into a base totally undetected, and then leaving undetected. Sundown, tense creeping past sleeping SBs, eyes glued to patrol patterns whilst I snuck through a building to photograph documents.
And then we stole away...
So much fun.
Captain Zyrain
Member
I turned on the XP tracker, and it is nice seeing the game is giving you more XP points for unseen kills and other stealthy things. I wish it would reward you more (somehow) for playing like a true Ghost.
Since I got to level 30.. there isn't much incentive for gaining XP, which is kind of a bummer. Wonder if the level cap will raise with the DLC? Not sure if it really matters though.