(GR) Wildlands: Pardon

[Part of the Wasted Land story] 

Despite the recent set backs with my squad the cartel must really be hurting on other fronts with full on aerial assaults happening on their production lines as the cartel leader calls in to meet. After killing who knows how many people he has managed to negotiate his way to a Presidential Pardon and extraction to turn in other nearby cartels, but this doesn't sit well with the CIA handler assigned to this task force and she shoots him dead before fleeing the scene. Maybe there's some truth to Walker's intuition?

Nevertheless, we're sent to support an elite Splinter Cell operative Sam Fisher in catching her - at a Unidad base no less, where she's selling secrets to try make a deal to escape. She's already KIA by Fisher when we arrive, but he has to hack the database to purge the Unidad server of its intel (in the center of the base we just stealthed through, with a strict "drop no bodies" requirement) while we mount a defense at all costs (and kill everyone anyway - wtf) as the entire army is alerted and tries to get to us. 

Under barrel grenade launchers are great for helicopters and many Unidad soldiers go down for each Ghost Recon soldier that does the same. Eventually its just Sam and myself left as the wipe completes. We jump out a back window and run for the nearest car when an explosion erupts behind me, throwing me forward and into a wall. Everything goes black. [Seriously, I can't win this mission...]

(GR) Wildlands: Punisher

[Part of the Wasted Land story]  

The general is very forthcoming in his intel in regards to weapons Unidad has gotten their hands on, and so while other ghost teams are sent to steal their nuke chopper and disarm a dirty bomb, my squad is sent to a bunker black site hidden next to an abandoned train line to retrieve a captured engineer being used against his will to develop some new weapon.

Interestingly what we find within is a trail of dead bodies. Another operative: Walker "the Punisher", is already here and questioning the engineer we're meant to retrieve. The high tech drones the engineer was developing killed the rest of Walker's squad and he believes it was a government CIA spook that leaked intel that led to the hit. 

Didn't expect to run into this guy!

We manage to talk him out of executing the techie and giving us custody but sure enough the supposedly "under duress" engineer shows his true colors by calling for Unidad backup. Walker then shoots the engineer in the face and we fight our way out of there through a small army of soldiers to escape, splitting up with the disgruntled soldier who we learn later also survived but quit the military. Ultimately that's still a mission fail in my book. 

(GR) Wildlands: Private

[Part of the Wasted Land story] 

As the stew maker has cartel radio on 24/7 we go after its DJ next who isn't so hard to find - the downsides of broadcasting right? He spills the beans on a rockstar musician hired by the cartel to perform at a private and secret concert which is decently guarded in the mountains. Good thing this guy is a coward, as all it takes is a little gun fire to make him run to his car and flee out the only road to that place - away from the people defending him! 

We nab him after shooting his tires out and learn a little about who financed him. As expected the cartel financiers don't really trust each other so we lean on that, stealing one of their armored cash delivery trucks and delivering it instead to the garage of another cartel accountant. Soon enough this guy is getting death threats from his own organization and comes forward on his own to snitch on his superiors.

Assassin's Creed: Bolivia

Of interest is the cartel's contact in the Unidad military, an untouchable general based in one of the largest military installations in the country. His previous aide who he recently imprisoned is easier to reach though, and from him we learn about the general's private life including his weakness: his daughter. Getting her and then setting an ambush for her papa is a piece of cake.

(GR) Wildlands: Pozolero

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

I'm soon recruited and deployed with the Ghost Recon team in Bolivia who have been busy taking down the Santa Blanca cartel in the region [we were playing it coop until it started crashing on us], but the mission is a fail as our first capture target had already hung himself up in his own luxury house. 

With no intel about the people who have gone missing in the province to be found here, we team up with Rainbow 6 operatives Twitch and Caveira who are working another lead and use their breaching skills to defeat a group of barricaded suspects with some anti-cartel hostages at a factory. The freed hostages reveal that bunches of them had already been taken via "death trucks" away somewhere so while Rainbow 6 secures them our Ghost Recon four man team go intercept the truck and force the driver to tell us where he takes his passengers: a chemical plant out in the styx.

That's some scary face paint.

We quietly take out the guards while infiltrating and capture the man-child "El Pozolero" (the stew maker) who dissolves the corpses in acid. He claims he's never killed anyone himself and is just doing his job but that doesn't stop him from getting multiple life sentences (as per his real life counterpart).

(DE) Mankind Divided: Protection

[Part of the Wasted Land story]       

Intel found on site as well as what Miller discovered during his recon at Tarvos gives a solid indication of what Marchenko intends to hit next, a sort of peace summit that somehow hired Tarvos guards for protection - the same guys who are actually out to kill them!

Miller and I enter the event and have to dispatch the guards quietly as to not alarm the civilian guests but the heat turns up when Miller discovers Marchenko and his goons have poisoned the wine right about the same time Marchenko broadcasts live that he is about to detonate bombs in the residential apartments nearby.

Now going loud with shotguns Miller and I split up. He goes to warn the assembly about the poison but takes a bullet to the head for his efforts while I hunt down Marchenko while eluding his robot and drone guardians. He is very confused when his bombs don't detonate thanks to Chang's signal interference, and a shotgun blast to his face is all it takes to end the madman, live on television.

Due to the public nature of these events my unit was soon disbanded. Sometime later I heard Chang went on to do some Ripper / Hacking work the Breach movement and got himself arrested, but that line of work isn't for me [Breach mode sucks].

(DE) Mankind Divided: Prophet

[Part of the Wasted Land story]      

A gas bomb trap is what I find in the watch maker's apartment, but I also deduce she's joined some sort of machine cult in a tenement nearby. These nerds and their security cams are simple enough to sneak past them only to learn this woman also happens to be some high prophet and is about to "ascend" the cult members by putting their consciousness together like a new C-Consciousness and abandoning their physical bodies. 

She discloses that she made many bombs for her brother Marchenko right before stabbing me with the same poison that killed the ARC leader. Lucky I called for backup as the local cops arrest everyone and Chang manages to test out his synthesized poison cure which saves my life. 

There is evidence that Marchenko is paying the local Dvali crime gang for smuggling services so I visit them next in their domain of the red light district. These scum trade in everything including drugs and women so while I knock out the exterior guards once I sneak into their theater base of operations I hack their patrolling guard robots to join my side and then assist my new robotic friends in killing all the gang members within, including the bosses downstairs who get some surprise grenades for dinner.

(DE) Mankind Divided: Poison

[Part of the Wasted Land story]     

Tibor is grateful for the assist and takes me to the elevator straight to the edges of ARC territory. While he goes on ahead I'm temporarily detained by a big bruiser mechanic named Marchenko who warns that I don't belong there, before heading off to tinker with a downed police drone. 

Sure enough, just around the corner Tibor is warning his ARC buddies about my arrival and my intent to arrest their leader. Using the ladders to the maintenance ways and the tranq rifle gets me to my quarry with no one the wiser, but upon confronting the man he is adamant his group is being setup by someone else before suddenly convulsing and dying on the floor. Poison. 

I quickly take what evidence I can including a sample of this poison before the ARC guards come knocking with a blow torch. My exfiltration is anything but sneaky, and the bolt action tranq rifle really is really a disadvantage against opponents with machine pistols and combat rifles. Still, my opponents end up unconscious instead of dead. 

I make it back to the office later that evening and find Miller away, looking into some a potential link to the Tarvos mercenary security force, but Chang gives me a lead for the bomb maker from evidence Miller had "borrowed" from the police investigation team that points to a local watch maker.

(DE) Mankind Divided: Prague

[Part of the Wasted Land story]    

It's a beautiful city, albeit now one with a heavy police presence due to all the recent terrorist attacks. This doesn't seem to dissuade the Dvali crime gang from throwing their weight around though as, to get a certified clean bill of health from the local doctor after my previous gallivanting, I'm forced to sneak around a bunch of them shooting up a store. 

With that in hand it's time to head in to work. The storage and shipping shop front serves as cover for the hidden offices below where I meet colleagues Chang, a fidgety IT guy and boss man Miller, who is happy that I'm ready to be sent back into the field - specifically to some slums where the ARC activist group is based. I'm to take their leader in for questioning in relation to the bombings and all I'm taking with me is a tranq rifle, just to emphasize the no kill order given by Miller.

It takes some time to get to the cramped alleys where the homeless sleep beside the dead and of course Tibor, the contact I'm supposed to meet to gain access to ARCs HQ, has been imprisoned by the local police - and these guys don't play nice with other badges. Using vents and timing is enough to sneak in to find Tibor being worked over in interrogation so I knock the cops out, saving the guy in the exo suit armor for last as that involves throwing an EMP grenade at him to "double disable" the poor sod. 

Stalker 2: Scar

[Part of the Wasted Land story]   

My first stop in Pripyat is to assist the vanguard (another faction) defend their base from monolithians. Despite this their leader is very anti-ward and refuses to provide info, so Colonel K gets me to snoop around the vanguard's past operations and I find and report in details to an underground passage taken from a crashed helicopter (which I have to steal from a chimera who has made it his home).

There must be a leak though, because I soon come across hostile Spark forces vying for that same maintenance passage, led by Richter who meets his end in the gunfight. Colonel K and a squad of Ward arrive soon after, advising the now late Dr. Dalin was the traitorous snake. The next segment to get to the C-Consciousness requires lots running between bunkers between emissions, monolith defenders and two surprise bosses who get in the way as neither wants Ward to succeed:

Strelok himself, now wielding a powerful artifact is much like a wizard now - zipping around the chamber and throwing lightning anomalies left and right which really batters my gear. I end him from afar. And Scar, who has gone crazy after realizing his shining zone is not real, needs to be TV migraine induced to die just like Strelok did with Dark previously. With that Colonel K sacrifices himself to eliminate the C-Consciousness program, and I'm free to leave with a pretty decent report on what transpired within.

Duty above all.

Stalker 2: Surprise

[Part of the Wasted Land story] 

Apparently "FIBER" is the pass code that translates to "please kill me" or something, because all the Ward guards at the base immediately attack and I'm forced to murder them in self defense! Colonel K soon arrives to sort things out, explaining they are protecting the FIBER program (which implants missions like Dark's one) from those who would abuse it until they can work out how to track the affected people (some having already escaped the zone) and to shut it down afterwards.

With that regretful misunderstanding out of the way I'm next tasked to get through Yaniv station and on to Pripyat in the North but due to the increased monolith threat they won't just let anyone through, as the monolith themselves find out when they attempt to take Yaniv station and fail miserably (without any participation from me).

Richter is here too, upset with my Ward allegiance and voicing how he should have left me in that anomaly field all those weeks ago (because Ward wants to "kill the zone"). He still helps get the border open though by suggesting I trade passage for a special detector that only needs leg work (in the Red Forest) to retrieve. As a bonus, I also finally find an Exo-Suit of my size and can get it and my more advanced firearms upgraded with the Yaniv technician, Harpy. I believe she is the best in the zone, and she definitely invoices like it!

Stalker 2: Strelok

[Part of the Wasted Land story] 

The Doctor turns out to be a pacifist who lives on a small island in a highly radioactive lake and is horrified to learn the C-Consciousness project is still running so he reveals Strelok is somewhere at the Cordon, an area near where I first entered the zone! The boss of the rookie village there (who is also feared by the local bandits) partners me up with a capable stalker named Dark who is already on Strelok's trail, which leads to another abandoned underground lab full of anomalies and mutants, including a pseudogiant we manage to slay!

Surprise!

Soon after, Strelok gets the drop on us and kills Dark with a TV induced migraine - revealing Dark was an unwitting C-Consciousness assassin sent to kill him. As we're on the same side about "killing" this C-Consciousness he sends me to turn on another installation nearby, this one with ghostly type poltergeists in the way and a trio of burers down below. These mutant dwarves have powerful telekinesis and can use scattered weapons to fire or throw at their prey meaning it pays to fight them in "clean" areas.

After turning on the power I'm jumped by Scar and his Spark fanatics, who question my allegiance with Ward. I basically tell them what they want to hear, that I support their vision of a "shining land" to make the zone paradise for all to trick them into letting me go without harm. To help me see the "truth" about Ward I'm told to go to one of their bunkers and ask about "FIBER", which seems like a reasonable request.

Stalker 2: Subliminal

[Part of the Wasted Land story] 

After finally getting the helm (it's actually a helmet upgrade that can be installed in any armor) I regroup with Ward forces about to stage a second attack on Duga, with plans to blow up the base of the radio wall. Led by Faust, the monolithians put up a decent defense but the helmet is effective and after a decent fight with his illusory tricks he falls to my shotgun.

Dr. Dalin is interested in Faust's pendant so I deliver it to him at STC Malachite just in time to witness Colonel K, now in exo-suit armor to compensate for his helicopter crash injuries, execute Professor Ozersky who actually sided with monolith and activated the Duga radio wall from here to begin with! Using the pendant, a shaken Dalin puts us in contact with C-Consciousness : the minds of seven merged scientists uploaded to a server hoping for people to join them in immorality. No wonder Faust was a nutcase if this is who he spent all his time talking to.

It's decided that these creeps need to be turned off, but to do that means having to find the one man who has navigated the dark valley in the past: Strelok. After running down a bunch of false leads I finally get one that pans out for winning 5 rounds at the Rostok arena (head shot vs humans and jump up on crates vs mutants). "The Doctor", an associate of Strelok's apparently frequents the Red Forest, a place high in psi-radiation. Gotta pack those Psi-block meds since this helmet won't be enough.

Stalker 2: Science

[Part of the Wasted Land story] 

A monolith emitter is what I recover from the psi site and I'm tasked with lugging it across to the chemical plant where Ward has their main base. En route I stop by Zalissya to save (a handful of) them against a heavy monolith attack before completing the delivery and Dr. Dalin quickly works out that Faust is going to try use the Duga radio wall to brainscorch everyone into serving the Monolith. Not if Ward can help it!

I participate in the assault, complete with Col. K's helicopter support which goes very well until Faust shows up with his doppelgangers and activates the radio wall, causing Col. K to crash somewhere over the horizon and many Ward troops to succumb and die on the spot. I make it out alone and report in to Dr. Dalin who suggests a Professor Ozersky at the nearby STC Malachite might hold the key to overcoming Faust's powers.

The scientist asks me to do something for him first which is to reactivate the abandoned Mirror facility and connect it's systems to Malachite. This involves a trip through some zombies and their controller and then clearing radar tracks of any obstruction... which happens to be a chimera!  As the door has locked behind me at this point I'm forced to use a narrow door (cheat) to slowly whittle down the great beast until it is slain. For this Ozersky tells me of some special psi-resistant helmet hidden in an old lab, no doubt teeming with mutants.

Stalker 2: SIRCAA

[Part of the Wasted Land story]   

I'm welcomed with open arms at the SIRCAA research institute by Dr Dalin who is happy the device has finally made it to him in one piece. Colonel K and Ward soldiers are present too so I warn them about the impending Spark assault so we setup an ambush for the raiders and kill a lot of them, but are blind sided by additional Noontider troops now somehow fully back under the thrall of the Monolith who perform a secondary attack and throwing SIRCAA into disarray.

The retreat order is issued and while Colonel K and Dr Dalin manage to get to the evac chopper it leaves me and the remaining Ward soldiers behind as a pseudogiant joins the fray! The Colonel tells me there's another way out via some tunnels so I rush to that, leaving the pseudogiant battle to instead fight through an array of other previously caged mutants underground, like snorks who happen to be scary and hilarious at the same time.

The danger continues once I exit the tunnel as I happen to wander next to a chimera den, angering the two headed inhabitant which forces me to tumble down some cliffs to escape. While getting my bearings down at the riverbank Colonel K radios in saying massive psi-spikes were detected near my position and I am to check it out. It's a bit of a trek and the four blood suckers who ambush me on the road are more of a surprise than the Monolith troops now guarding my target location.

Stalker 2: Swamp

[Part of the Wasted Land story]  

On the hunt for the Clear Sky base I run into Richter again at the Sultansk loner base (and bar) who provides directions to get through the swamp to the distant village but warns about the defenses setup to protect it from outsiders. Sure enough, a number of psi-emitting towers need to be disabled before I can proceed - one guarded by a mutant cat in a dark church!

Even without them the swamp is a hellish place to traverse with all sorts of anomalies, mutants, and hyper radioactive water - but I make it to the ruined and empty village and find the scanner in a basement, but no Faust. Now of course I have to make the trip back and running face to face into a pseudogiant was not on my bingo card. I fight for a bit until it's apparent that I don't have the ammo to take this monster down so I jump a broken bridge and flee through a bubble anomaly field which seems to make it lose interest.

Exhausted, I try to rest up at the nearest ranger station but instead encounter the Sparker faction and their leader Scar, who know I'm on the way to SIRCAA with the device. They don't want to stop me, they just want me to open a door in an underground tunnel while I'm there. Before I can give a proper response, Ward troops arrive and begin a gunfight so I dash out the backdoor to let them sort it out while continuing to jog to the SIRCAA research facility. Good thing I'm loaded up with energy drinks!

Stalker 2: Sabotage

[Part of the Wasted Land story] 

The Ward badge grants me easy access to the Noontider base where they are having some leadership dispute due to recent sabotage. Luckily I can dodge that problem and just talk to one of their egg heads who claims he might be able to track down the SIRCAA device if he could get his hands on an inductor from the nearby Waste Processing Facility... which is now home to a controller mutant who uses mind controlled "zombies" as guards. This bastard is a tough cookie, more resilient than the kangaroo rat, blind dog and flesh packs I've been encountering so far but not as scary as those damned cloaking bloodsuckers (who for some reason look like Cthulhu).

With the inductor in hand I'm directed to install it at the Ward controlled Azimuth station and find the defenders all slain by traitorous Noontiders! A number of head shots and jammed weapons later I finally have the place to myself and use the plot device to boost the antennas strength, letting me eavesdrop on a conversation between Noontider Faust and a mole he has in Ward.

As Ward Camp Icarus was mentioned and is nearby I go there next and stop a sabotage attempt (by diffusing a psi emitter - with bullets) just in time before it can fry anyone's brains, then taking out the Ward traitor as he's on a call with Faust. Faust is crazy enough to then chat with me briefly, inviting me to find him and that scanner I've been trying to get back at the old Clear Sky base - if I can. Challenge accepted.

Stalker 2: Sheriff

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

Using advice from the local one legged technician I activate a number of radio towers to triangulate Squint's position (the idiot left his PDA tracking beacon on) and reclaim the Ward device he stole but not my own as he no longer has it, claiming he sent in on to his boss whom I learn (from Ward, in exchange for returning their doohickey) is some crime lord based in a depot at Garbage.

By the time I get there the depot has been wiped out by Ward soldiers led by a Colonel with a really long name so I'll just call him Colonel K, but the bandit boss man isn't among them. I offer to help track him down as it might be easier as someone without their badge and the Colonel accepts, suggesting I ask around at the neutral tenements of Slag Heap on his whereabouts.

Turns out he was captured by a rival crime lord so I end up fighting this batch of bandits to free the bozo, only to discover he has already expired in his cell. A hidden note on his person leaves a clue that he was dealing with someone from the Monolith faction and upon hearing this Colonel K deputizes me with a borrowed badge and sends me off to Wild Island, to get more information from the Noontiders... who are all ex-Monolith. This is because he is actually working with SIRCAA, and the scanner I was bringing was ultimately meant to get to them.

Stalker 2: Start

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

It was supposed to be an easy job, to infiltrate the exclusion zone around the Chornobyl power plant and get a report back. Using the cover of being a courier for a new scanner device handled the paper work while good timing and cardio for a night time run got me through the military border to the nearby mobile bunker lab where I was to drop off the device (and collect the report from the inside contact).

Everyone in that lab was dead, and before I knew it I got jumped by some goons who took the device and left me for dead in an anomaly field too. Lucky Richter the wanderer showed up and taught me how to disrupt said anomalies to make them temporarily safe to pass through, then pointed me to the small village of Zalissya where there is tension between the local stalkers and the members of the Ward faction (who seem to be like the police) who have taken up position in the town hall.

I managed to radio HQ from there but they've tasked me with scouting the zone myself, specifically the SIRCAA research institute which is only going to let me in if I can get that scanner back. Asking around town I learn about Squint, the local sticky-fingers who has gone into hiding for stealing something from Ward (and why they've moved in), might know where my own missing equipment has gotten to.

Chernobylite: Heist

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

Thanks to Mikhail the team gets their hands on an anti-air missile system which Igor uses to shoot down a chopper carrying the NAR top brass. This includes a general whom they interrogate and execute and Igor's pal Dr. Semonov who is the head researcher at the plant. Igor leaves him to die in the burning chopper as the team leave to finally hit the power plant heist/rescue mission!

Disguises and the general's pass phrase get the team past most of the checkpoints as does Tarakan's hacking but upon reaching the side door into the power plant Sashko is sniped by Olga who is now a fully indoctrinated NAR whore! Luckily Igor can still get Sashko's explosives to get through a locked door later on, and Mikhail manages to clear out some civilians with a prank evacuation drill.

Eventually the NAR do catch up to the team though, with Tarakan being gunned down for going to slow and Ollie shot in the face for going to fast. The Black Stalker confronts Igor in the finale, and their gunfight draws out into a fist fight with the Black Stalker losing only to reveal that he is actually Igor, which kills both of them in a mindsplosion. Luckily Mikhail survives to disconnect the portal that is letting the sentient Chernobylite into this world which immediately makes most of the alien crystal vanish. Now only the monsters remain.

Chernobylite: Enemy

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

With their success against the NAR a local village girl named Olga joins the squad and teaches Igor how to master the humble AK47, which he then upgrades to be a drum fed, long barrel sniper rifle for close to mid range - which is EPIC as now only duster squads pose a threat in combat. Despite this, the team still refuses to attempt the "heist" mission (a strange thing to call the rescue op) until they have more intel and tools.

So Igor follows their leads - collecting explosive charges for Sashko, stealing NAR lab data for Tarakan, saving a contact of Mikhail, stealing NAR uniforms, and exploring a secret prison in the Red Forest for Olga. At every important decision Igor doesn't side with Olga which upsets her so much that she leaves to join the NAR instead. LOL.

Most importantly, the Black Stalker has now taken a personal interest in Igor and pursues him into each zone with his cheating teleportation tactics and BFG. This means stealth is almost out the window altogether as Igor opts to rush objectives using his newly trained parkour skills from Sashko to avoid the stalker.