Crow's Nest Two guys, one with a missile launcher, the other scouting, sees that it is a Pelican coming and they fist bump. The flight traffic control guys say to the Pelican “sorry for the tight squeeze, Tell the commander her ace is in the hole.” Dirty.
Master Chief, the Arbiter, Johnson and the rest of the troops unload from the Pelican. Some injured troops notice this and are excited and get hopeful because Master Chief is on-site. They must not have heard that my sticky grenades regularly miss Grunts and end up on some soldier's nuts or that I have no problem shooting one of them in the back of the head if they obscure my line of sight.
Miranda Keys, she the one with the raccoon style mascara, or maybe she’s just dirty from her trip through uncanny valley, is in command of this operation. She narrates the closest thing you are going to get to a recap of what happened in the last game which is that she stopped the halo from firing, then the Covenant smashed through Earth’s defenses. The Covenant profit named "Truth" then concentrated all his forces into East Africa and started digging for the Ark. Finding it will mean the profit can fire all of Halos, killing all life in the galaxy.
Lord Hood calls in to the conference center for an update. He is pleased to see that they found Master Chief. Hood asks for his status. “Green, sir” Says chief. Badum-ching! Miranda details her plan to stop the Covenant digging which is to take out the Covenant’s Anti-Air defenses and then Lord Hood will come in from the sky.
The power stops and the image of the Profit Truth splashes across all the screens at the command center. He threatens to glass the surface and then specifically mentions what he will kill the demon (the Master Chief).
With the message over the Master Chief worries aloud that the Profit mentioned him in the message. Master Chief is a cybernetic bad-ass why is he worried about this? It is like he is the kindler-gentler killing machine who fears his own mortality. Miranda calls for the evacuation of the base.
Know Your Role The Covenant ships are approaching and it is Master Chief’s job to secure the perimeter so that the escape ships can get out. This is essential a Hoth mission without the snow or tow cables.
SKULL BLACK EYE
- Go all
the way to the back of the op center where there are two guards standing beside
a red locked door.
- Turn
around to see two floodlights. The right one is in front of a red steel beam.
- Jump
on top of this right floodlight then onto the red steel girder.
- From
the red steel, walk forward so you are above the big screen.
- Jump
up onto the giant metal AC duct and the skull is at the very end of it
Head down the stairs, following the overly enthusiastic marines. Miranda calls in saying that a hanger has been infiltrated and Master Chief needs to clear it out.
- Continue down the hallways to get to the hanger. Use the Right Bumper to open every hatch that has a glowing green light.
- Run past the quickly destroyed Warthog, fight through the gauntlet.
- Secure a plasma pistol and pair it with a battle rifle to have an easier time with the jackals and the coming Brutes.
- EASTER EGG: When this hallway is clear of monsters, don’t go through the green lit door. Instead, run down to the end of the hallway to see the Red Vs Blue guys do a bit about being locked out.
The Hanger: There is light resistance to begin with but eventually wave after wave of Covenant drop ship enters, drops its troops and then leaves.
- Run up to one of the emplaced turrets and detach it by pressing B. You will be slow but the huge well of bullets that is in that gun makes up for it.
- It may be tempting to shoot the energy gun turret on the front of the Covenant drop ships but don’t. Save your bullets for the Brutes.
- Make full use of those red light tunnels. You can use them to pop up behind a pack of attackers and shoot them in the back. Shooting people in the back is how to win the war.
When clear, the Pelican lands and your allies climb aboard. The Master Chief however, will need to stay behind and backtrack (yes backtrack) to the Op Center. Before you go though, look out of the hanger and see the gigantic Covenant ship laying siege over the city. Those are the command ships of the Profit Truth, the one who came over the command center screens. Backtrack to the ops station. On the way back, the sounds of enemies breaching the base echo throughout the halls and Keys intercoms that the barracks are under attack.
A soldier tells Master Chief to come along but is quickly attacked by a giant fly. These are drones, the stupidest looking beast in the Covenant Menagerie. Daikatana was criticized so many years ago for casting bugs as enemies and they still arn’t cool now.
Weapons: Battle Rifle | Pistol
Stay back in that room with the cage and snipe the flies with your Battle Rifle. It’s like your shooting out of Danny Devito’s office from Taxi. When your shield is low back off to the next room until they recharge.
Gift with Purchase
Back in the ops center Miranda is on the big screen and damn she looks like an Oblivion NPC telling a ghost story with a flashlight. The troops are preparing a giant bomb with the intent of blowing up the base once the troops are evacuated. Johnson commands between cigar-chomps that saving the barracks troops is a priority because “We both know what they do to prisoners.” Johnson was a prisoner back at the dam. All they do is put him in a force field, and that doesn’t sound too bad.”
EASTER EGG: If you head up to the second story of the Op Center, there are some laptops with the same Blue-Screen-of-Death from the New Mombassa map in Halo 2.
The garage (complete with overburdened Semi) leading to the barracks is the first real challenging battle. It is a long hallway with Brutes arranged in an offensive line. Rushing into this battle will mean getting attacked up close by the first line of Brutes while the ones in the back will snipe you to death.
- First, get the shotgun. To find it, run straight ahead to the end of the truck and pick up the grav lift. Deploy it and bounce yourself up to the catwalks above. On both sides of the upper deck are ancillary rooms that are filled with weaponry. The shotguns are here.
- The shotgun can take out a ground level Brute with a single shot paired with a melee attack.
- The best way to whittle down this Brute platoon is to hug one of the walls, wait for them to walk by, and then shoot/melee them in the side. (This stance is picture below)
- Stay in ancillary room to take out the first two curious Brutes then jump down to the bottom level.
- Same as above, let them come to you.
- If you pop out and shoot at them down the length of the hallway, they will open fire and you will die.
- Hide in all of those smaller side rooms and get into the hunkered down position (see the picture below)
- Use the radar to see when they are approaching.
- Again, you will have to be more patient then them, they will always come to look for you so just hide in the shadows
- They really don’t attack that aggressively so you have time to reload and let you shields re-charge.
- The Brutes will send the low level ones first. Take them all out and then go after the gold and chieftain.
- Save your sticky grenades for the gold one
- When the low-level guys are all dead the one with the hammer (the Chieftain) will come after you. The game plan changes at this point. You are now going to have to run around maintaining a good 10 meters distance from him. Keep the shotgun but use your ranged weapons such as a scrounged Brute shot or a Battle Rifle. If you find yourself in close quarters with him, switch to the shotgun a blast him a few times so he is stunned and thus buying yourself time to run away. Go back to sniping him from afar.
- When the Chieftain is dead, go scrounge for his energy hammer.
- Oh and if you get tired of dying, a fun diversion is to grab a grav lift and place it under the semi truck. It will float right up.
 Hiding by the side, waiting for a Brute to walk by to shoot it in the ear.
What a battle. From afar, fighting the Brutes looks like you are in shoot-out with Homer Simpson. Head through the open door at the other end of the hall. Head for the little manhole and a Drone comes popping up. That was just a scare tactic because we were so jumpy from the Brutes. Jump down and Cortana comes back writhing around. This would be the hot and bothered stage of Rampancy. She says that Master Chief has been called upon to serve. Drones will come shooting out of the pipes and it reminds me of the (non-super) Mario Brothers stages. Don’t jump down the pipe at the bottom, there is another skull in here.
SKULL:
GRUNT BIRTHDAY PARTY
- Creep
over the edge of that pipe at the end. Looking down, you should see a small
ledge.
- Drop
down the pipe and aim for that ledge. If you land it, you can walk under the
grating to the skull
- This
is a silver skull so there will not be an achievement.
Just run past them to find the Arbiter again. He is simultaneously shooting at drones and upbraiding the false profits. He turns to Master Chief and mumbles through a few lines that I think say “The Brutes have taken your soldiers as food or prisoners blruble brlupy burble.”
The next room is the barracks, I think Bungie bought this level at a Valve yard sale. Yah it was the room where you had to set up the turrets while the combine was coming. This room is significant because it is the moment I realized that I like fighting direct, box smashing Brutes more than the foppish, hide-in-the-corner Elites. Fighting Brutes fulfills the fabled 20 seconds of fun.
Weapons: Shotgun | Hammer
- Continue using the same Brute survival tactics you learned in the last room
- You can be a bit more offensive on your attacks in this room because they are not grouped as tightly as the last room.
- Save your hammer for the Brute Gold.
Over the radio generic soldier #75 reports that the Op center has been lost due to a Brute rush and they had to fall back to the hanger, yes this will be the third hanger/garage. When the lights come on, run up to the large elevator door and hit the switch. I know its going to be full of something, I know it.... Nope? That was anti climactic. Hit the Green switch to start the ascent. Someone with a really fake southern accents reports that the Brutes are attacking the sensors.
The Pelican lands for an evacuation but has to leave again because it ambushed by flying Brutes. The weak Pelicans are becoming a real liability, why don’t they just add a machine gun to the side of one. Or even like a sharp spike that moves back and forth. Oh and stop making them out of paper machete. That would solve half of the human’s problems.
- The Brutes will drop in waves so take them out one by one.
- Stand back and let your squad and the Arbiter shoot them down to ground level
- Hide along the sides and when the Brutes are shot from the sky, finish them off with a shotgun blast.
So the troops load into the Pelican and the guy reports that the op center bomb has been deactivated. Miranda Keys is back on the mic and she commands the Master Chief back to the op center to destroy the Brutes and re-arm the bomb. Whoa I am getting serious Halo 2 Deja Vu. Head down the stairs from the hanger. Oh, but if you look up before you leave you can see some of those new Hornets zipping around – pretty neat looking.
Last One Out, Get the Lights
Continue down the military tunnels. I recommend the Hammer and a dual wielded speed weapon like Spikers or plasma rifles. Creepy Cortana is back and says
“You will be the protector of Earth and all of her Colonies.” The next fight winds down through an access tunnel ultimately leading to Op Center
- Take cover along the sides. Rip off a plasma turret and use against the shielded jackals.
- When you get to the end of the hallway destroy the two energy turrets so an adventurous Grunt wont commandeer it. Don’t go out in the open, there are two snipers and another turret deep in the next hanger.
- Grab the battle rifle that is leaning against the truck and crouch behind that purple barricade that the Covenant has setup. Still crouching, pull back from the barricade just enough to see the feet of the sniper jackals. Pick them off from here. The barricade should protect you from the Grunts in the next room.
- Now sniper less, perform a full frontal assault on the Grunts. Scatter them with grenades and shoot at will. Be sure to keep them off the turret and you will be fine.
Follow the icon to the Op Center. Inside, the Brutes are amassed around the main screen where the profit Truth is asking his lead Brute if he know how the humans are going to stop him. He does not so the Profit puts the Brute in charge with finding answers. The Brute then shows true leadership ability by delegating the task to his subordinates - the drones are to scour the base to see what the humans know about the Ark.
- Take a moment to appreciate the fact that no one made any “Somebody set us up the bomb” jokes
- This battle is difficult because everything explodes and it is hard just to understand what is going on.
- Go back to the hallway and grab a Covenant beam rifle and use it to pick off the two lesser Brutes. Switch to a shotgun or other close range weapon to get rid of the Grunts.
- It should now just be Master Chief and the Brute Chieftain. Use the hammer , if you still have it, or the shotgun that is sitting right next to the door of the command center.
- When the room is clear, run up to the bomb and hit the switch.
The bomb is armed and we are launched into a Metroid-style escape sequence that is rendered almost benign because there is no countdown clock. Johnson says head back to that service hanger and then on to a secondary garage. ANOTHER garage! This base is 75% hangers and garages. So, with no time pressure to escape, saunter down the stairs you took to get to the hanger during the first part of this level. There will be a murder of Grunts running around. Don’t worry about shooting them as they more like set pieces that add to the overall stimmung of the army base.Cortana is back and she says “There will be a great deal of hardship on the road ahead” in the same tone of a nagging wife who has since lost the magic. I half expect her to add “You should probably pick up some Arby’s tonight if you want dinner.” Wander around here long enough an icon will appear directing you where to go.
When you reach the hanger Cortana comes up and say “You will become the best we can make you.” The “we” seems to hint at her new partner Gravermind. The hanger is in disarray and you can run past most of the resistance into the elevator. Cortana is back again and says “this place will become your home... this place will become your tomb.” And then the level ends.
I really enjoyed this level, I could see where some might complain that this is another Bungie backtracking hack job but in certain cases (and this is one of them) backtracking makes a level feel more real. You backtrack at the office, and in your house because it is a functional place. Gears of War had almost zero backtracking and much of it felt like you were fighting down one long tunnel with the only difference being that some of the walls looked like a city and some of the walls looked like a cave. The layout of those tunnels never matched a real-life location. In Crow’s Nest, the level is architected like a real, functioning base so there is by necessity going to be backtracking.
Time 59 Minuutes – Rating *******
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