BCM536 - Tackling the start, four ways

First contact on the plateau. Delightful sniping potential and more besides!

(6:53) Level 3 ('The Truth and Reconciliation') on Heroic. Just in case you need any ideas, I've prepared two movies on tackling the start of the level. For this first one I've used Heroic, on which there's more lattitude to enact gung-ho or non-sniping plans such as the 'AR assault' and 'deep infiltration' included here. But in the next movie I'll step things up to Legendary. Update: I've now posted an article on the topic.

Released December 24th 2024, gameplay recorded December 21st-23rd 2024.

Commentary

00:02 (Sniping) To start with, here's some sniping from way back near the entrance to the area, keeping myself totally safe and minimizing my exposure to the enemy - at least until the initial troops are almost wiped out. Very easy, and with almost no risk.

01:57 (Deep infiltration) The idea for this plan is to get deep into covie territory and attack from there - possibly even with grabbed covie weapons. You can get some nice crossfire going too, on covies who are focusing on the Marines. That's best exemplified here by my stream of needles around 2:51, taking out a red Elite just as the Marines are dropping down. Bonus feature in this play: a beastie sound around 2:16.

03:41 (AR assault) This time the idea is basically to charge in with the AR, in somewhat gung-ho fashion. Good fun, though with significant danger even on Heroic. Makes quite a nice challenge.

04:52 (Sniping further along) Finally here's some more sniping, but this time stationed a good way along the balcony path so things feel quite a bit different. There's an excellent narrow gap to fire through, and the narrowness helps cut down your exposure. Incidentally, it can be fun to grenade the Shades from distance, so that's something I demonstrate here.

Closing remarks The covie reinforcements comprise initially 1 Elite and 2 Grunts, then another 4 Grunts and 2 Jackals. But to repeat a detail mentioned in my dustbowl megabattle article, they only actually spawn if Cortana finishes saying "Stick to the higher ground to the right" before you enter the first area. So don't charge in too early or you'll get short-changed!