Had a very brief session with DJ last night, hopefully put some more time in in the next couple of days. Also Dave popped back up on Uplay so hopefully get three of us on.
Anyhow firing it up set an itch I needed scratching, so a decided to try and complete the new Sam Fisher mission chain they have added. Man that was
hard. You can only play the mission after 9pm game-time, which I initially was frustrated by as there is no way to manually advance time in-game - thankfully I found that if you fast travel around the map, you effectively DO advance time, so that's what I did to get past 9pm.
Then you have to infiltrate a UNIDAD base to meet with Fisher (and yes, Michael Ironside is voicing him which was a massive plus for me). UNIDAD in-game are basically a very heavily armed paramilitary organisation, far more dangerous than the rank and file Sicario gangs you can meet, and the more you fight them the higher their anger with you gets, GTA-cops style. Also your infiltration must not involve any kills whatsoever. I have
never infiltrated anywhere in GR:W without at least a few tactical takedowns to clear the path.
Spoilered the next section, in case anyone wants to discover it for themselves:
So you meet with Fisher in the middle of the base, who says he is going to hack their systems and all hell is going to break loose, which is where I come in. Here I had to turn my difficulty settings down - I play on Extreme difficulty as that makes the game properly challenging, but you get swarmed and worst of all if you are killed, back to the start you go - infiltrate the base all over again. As well as having a small army of Unidad troops to take care of, UNIDAD also sends in Apache attach helos to ruin your day, and if you shoot them down they send more. Plus all the things you would usually clear down as standard before entering a base are in place due to your non-lethal infiltration - all the sniper towers, manned gun emplacements, mortars etc.
This makes the third section - exfiltration - massively hard. I managed to clear the ground troops (not on my first attempt) and make my way outside the building I had made my stand in. I was playing on my top level character with loads of perks won - damage to vehicles I shoot at, lower damage to vehicles I am using etc.
Having an Apache batter you with missiles though, those perks don't add up to much. I had my favourite LMG equipped, and had to make my way out downing as many Apaches as I could with it. I managed to reach a helo, but on jumping in was immediately blown up by en enemy helo. I was really lucky as I was blown clear, usually if you die in a vehicle there is no option for co-op players or your AI team-mates to revive you. I got revived. Shot down another couple of enemy helos as I made my way to another, heavier helo in the base to steal, which I managed to get off the ground with. Unfortunately, I had not realised there was a SAM site within the base too which I had not taken out - I made it a couple of hundred yards from the base before my helo was shot down by it.
By some fluke though, I had managed to get out of the base between enemy helo wave, and although I got downed I had managed to escape the UNIDAD patrols. Also as I was in a heavy-duty helo (and had barely gotten airborne), while the missiles had downed me I was able to get clear on the ground before it exploded.
I used my vehicle spawning options to get me another helo, although it spawned quite a way off. Made my way to it, and flew very carefully to the exfil site where I got a nice closing cutscene.
Mission rewards are mostly supplies won at each step, but complete the set and you get a Splinter Cell outfit (not fussed, while it is quite cool I want to look like a Ghost, and Sam Fisher's duds don't cut it. You do though also get his thermal vision goggles which can be equipped, and which your character will wear up on their forehead until you equip night or thermal vision at which point they pull them down into place. That is very cool, and something I have wishes they would do for a while a la ARMA. OK I am easily pleased, but this is only a little freebie and the mission was bastard hard, so I feel I earned it!
, but I don't think I would get any enjoyment out of it solo. Right now Vermintide 2 is my go-to co-op game so I'm not sure I have time for another one.