All's quiet at the moment - and I aim to keep it that way!

(6:36) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Legendary. A change of pace now. In this fifth instalment I try to tackle the glasshouse battle purely by stealth. A tough challenge on Legendary! Some phases of patient waiting around are edited down for the sake of movie length, but all the kills are shown of course.

Released December 22nd 2019, gameplay recorded December 19th 2019.

00:02 The first Grunt bites the dust, and then I see the red Elite patrolling my way, up the right. The blue is briefly on the scene too, but turns and heads away, so it's no problem for me to use the pillar as cover and bash the red from behind - after which I get a few more Grunts. A good start, fairly typical of how things often went with this set-up on earlier attempts.

00:28 Going back towards the end, I see a Jackal moving into a potentially good position to get whacked. I can't see or hear any others close, so I take the chance and rush in to whack him. It was good to get a Jackal so early. The first one take ages. I immediately take cover, whacking a Grunt in the process, but it's quickly apparent that I didn't get spotted. I whack the last Grunt there before heading back.

00:53 On the way around to the left I swap my needler for the sniper rifle, then deal with all six Grunts. A Jackal is potentially ripe for picking off, but at the mast moment when I could've rushed in, I see another Jackal beyond, who would've spotted me if I'd gone ahead, so I was thwarted there.

01:37 I head back to try and get the patrolling blue Elite, and soon locate him - initially via my tracker. As he enters the inner area I pounce. No trouble. Now the harder work begins.

02:09 Back at the far left, I get to a safe observation spot and monitor the Jackals, hoping for one to get isolated at this end. I use the sniper view sometimes, but it's really just for fun while waiting, plus it gives some nice footage for the movie. After more than four minutes though, I've still had no luck and I decide to have a change.

03:04 Around the other side I get lucky after a minute or so. One guy comes into a good spot while the other two are well clear, so I pounce, then get clear just in case either of his buddies got alarmed.

03:26 Getting that second Jackal took a total of around six minutes, but now with only two left, things are considerably easier. I get my third Jackal after about three minutes of waiting around, and the fourth after less than a minute's worth. Time elapsed so far: nearly 13 minutes.

03:59 Just the glasshouse left now, but getting the three Elites is tough. I get up on a side platform to take a look, and immediately see the blue Elite stationary at the top of a ramp (I assume he glitched and eventually stopped pacing). I might be able to go up the ramp and whack him, so I head there. However, it turns out that there's also a red Elite stuck at the top of the other ramp. Because of the way they're facing, an approach is initially out of the question. But after about two minutes the red is facing away somewhat, so I take the chance and rush up the ramp to whack the blue. There's a reaction from the red (you can see him turn a bit and raise his rifle), but I'm not spotted. The prong on which he was impaled may well have blocked his vision to my benefit. I had a very clear case of that with another guy once.

04:43 At the base of the other ramp I wait and take quick glances at the red. After about a minute he looks away somewhat and I rush up and whack him. It's a relief to be done with those two guys, and I now have an excellent chance of victory.

04:51 I want a good view of the one one guy still pacing, so I use a side platform again. When I see him waking away from my direction, I make my entry and quickly whack two Grunts. Maintaining cover, I get a third Grunt but then realise the Elite is glitching at the top of a ramp. Could be tricky, but after a while he's stopped trying to move, and is facing away from me, so I move in and take him down. Woo-hoo!

06:02 It's all plain sailing now. Just a few Grunts left. Three to be precise, but I was so wound up with that last Elite that I'd sort of forgotten about numbers, which is why I briefly tour the place to check, before settling down to smite the last guy. Total time: almost 19 minutes.

Closing remarks That success came after quite a few failures across multiple hours of trying. I've done the challenge at least one time previously too, but again it took serious effort.

Something about this play which struck me as being unusual is that none of the Jackals got suspicious and stopped, in an alert pose. In my experience there's usually at least one Jackal who gets like that due to the killing of one of his buddies. That can be tricky to deal with.

© 2004-2020 by Rockslider