Banshee hijack from a roof
Posted April 23rd 2008
Writing this several weeks after getting the game, I've still never managed to hijack a Banshee in mid-air after jumping out of a Hornet, though I dare say it's possible. But I have found a fairly easy way to hijack one another way. Here's what I did on Easy.
When you get your first Hornet in The Covenant, fly to your destination - the third tower - and dismount on the long narrow sloping roof. If you haven't destroyed many Banshees on the way there will be lots of them flying about not far off, near a Phantom. One will soon come your way, cannons firing. When it gets close enough, run and jump towards it to board, pressing RB when you get the screen prompt for boarding. Bingo!
This can likewise work on higher difficulty levels of course, except that the incoming Banshee's fire becomes more of a concern. Possibly you could use the Hornet for cover or use a bubble shield, but I've not bothered to try that out.
Nasty handling
Personally I find the Banshee handling so unpleasant that I have no real interest in boarding them, which is why I've not done more work on the matter. I find it really awkward compared to the H1 Banshee I'm used to. One big difference is that it doesn't seem able to hover. It seems to want to move forward all the time, unless you pull back on the stick to descend. When I got one, it was a bit like it had a life of its own and I was struggling against it. I found it quite hard to target the enemy with fuel rod blasts, and didn't like having to reach for the B button to fire. I also found it annoying how limited my angle of climb or dive was. Enemy Banshees repeatedly climbed or dived out of my field of fire and there seemed nothing I could do about keeping a bead on them. All in all, a frustrating experience - but maybe you get along with them better than me.
Other ways?
There may well be easier ways to hijack a Banshee, perhaps involving the use of an overcharge shot from a plasma pistol, to bring it down where you can get close (but I don't think it'll work with the Banshees you encounter early on along the beach; I was never able to board those after immobilizing them). If anyone would like to do some work on this and report back, perhaps I can expand this article to report your advice, or add a link to something you've posted about it on the web.