Completed!! - My experience/comments. [spoiler]

[stark]

Hi all,

Well ive just this minute completed the game. Thought id post a topic for my appreciation at Atari making one awesome game to play :)

I honestly say i didnt cheat or trainer anything. Didnt use walkthroughs either.

I played the game for two weeks now. Spent countless hours of my days playing it hehe. I went about things very slowly for the lisa missions. I thought id go for the AI missions first.

I straight away decided to enemy the mafia and bandits. But friend the government, gurellias, cia, indians and civilians. Wasnt easy i tell you. When i had a mission that wanted me to do negative on one of the other friends i had. I made sure the killing was down to a minimum. For missions against mafia and bandits, i just went on a massive killing spree. But for the other ones, like steal the documents, etc etc, all i did was steal the item, and run for it. Get in the nearest vehicle i stashed somewhere, and run.

I found that if you alert places you are friendly with, they are only enemies until you leave the area and complete the mission. So they didnt stay enemies for ever. Which i was VERY glad for :)

Half of my game however was really annoying as i didnt have the patch. So my cars were disappearing like crazy. So parking them close to where i was going was annoying. But once that patch was on there. Boy did it improve things. hehe

After I had done hours and hours of AI missions, getting myself my favorite weapons - the knife, uzi, assault carbine, sniper rifle, grenade launcher - and getting them maxed out i thought id do the lisa missions. Was very suprised how short they were. But after doing hours of the AI missions, the lisa missions were a sinch.

I got as far as having 90kg of carry weight. didnt have the navy or tracked training. Only plane, car, heli and boat. Didnt ever get to drive the sports car :(

I found a really good tactic for keeping up relations is to revisit the mafia areas and obiliterate them every now and then. From killing the men at Don Esteban, and the Airport, and the camp that held them indians, doing all three of them in one go increases relations with the other people no problem. So if you enemy a place and dont want to stay like that. Theres a handy tip :) You also make a killing selling all the ammo, grenades and injections.

One enjoyable moment for me was getting 8 people from the government prison out in one go. Took a while getting them unstuck from the doors, but i managed to run out with 8 people following me hehe.

Also at the end of the game, where you goto the volcano, I mistakefully walked into the centre of the volcano and get stuck naturally as I wasnt supposed enter it that way.

I never got the chance to do the xenus stone thing. Got 3 of them, and mistakefully didnt buy one of them off Don Pedro before he became the enemy. But after reading about it now, im not so bothered i didnt. If all it is is money in the end. Never mind :) Although the challenge of it would have been cool.

Well i suppose i have talked too much **** already now. So i will close it there.

Thoroughtly enjoyed the game. Hit the spot totally for me. Just my kind of game :)

Either GTA San Andreas next, or maybe the new Bards Tale.

Later all,
D.

[Phaet]

I haven't finished it yet but I'm playing the same way you do. Doing government, CIA, indians missions trying to kill as many mafia members as I can without hitting guerilla's. Good relationship with government and guerilla allows me to travel safe with my heli.

So you say it's not worth doing Xenus missions?

[stark]

Well i got to a point in the game when i realised i cant do the xenus mission. I made an enemy of Don Diego, and thereafter could not buy one of the stones from him. Unfortunatly i saved over the save before making him an enemy. So i just completed the game without doing it.

I was going to load really old save, and go do it. But i read the walkthrough in this forum and it says all you get out of getting all 6 xenus stones is a necklace worth approx 10,000. Now that may be a lot of money. But you have to spend more than that to get the stones in the first place.

So unless different to that. IMO its not worth the hassle.

[McDBigMac]

So, are you going to play it again (with patch of course) with a different strategy (like making friends with mafia and bandits) or are you through playing?

[stark]

I doubt it hehe. Dont know if i can be arsed to go through all that again! :)

I did have my version patched, just only half way through my game.

I pretty much done most things in my first time round. But now after completing the game, i cant see the point in playing it again for hours and hours doing the non lisa missions till i drop. When to complete the lisa missions is so easy and fast.

You dont need to do half the stuff i done, and i didnt even get to use navy boats or tanks. I didnt ever fly a plane since the training. I didnt ever use the sports car. I only done 3 heli missions and 3 boat missions total. Then i went for the lisa missions. But to be honest. I could have done them days before i did. So now ive completed it. I quite honestly cant be arsed to do tons of stuff when its not needed hehe.

I thought for a laugh i might reload my volcano save and instead of getting in there properly. I might see what happens if i just jump in the center of it and start blowing up the generators.

If you guys think its worth doing the game again but as a mafia/bandit friend, let me know? =]

[McDBigMac]

Whether it's worth it or not, may be different for each of us. Personally I like to do all the missions, and I like to use all the vehicles in the game. Additionally I like the complexity of keeping a good balance with many factions so that probably means I need to play it again to do all missions that I can't really do now because it would spoil my relations with other factions.

You can repair almost any relationship with earning enough money, but I don't like to do countless raids of enemy bases, too bothersome for bringing in real money, and bug using isn't my cup of tea either so yeah, I'll have a go at it again once I'm done with my current run. Also I hope to have a much better gaming experience then with plenty of bugs solved :)

[Phaet]

Just completed the game. Noone told me that vechicles stop working near the volcano and I was using my heli :P
Anyway I did the Xenus quest too and kept that necklase (reason: couldn't take off with my heli :P). Was hard near the end. I also liked the ending:)

[Mike Shaw]

Groan ... I must be very near the beginning still ... all I've learned to drive is the sppedboat, and I can't find anywhere that rents those or has some available. I'm desperately tackling missions to try to raise the bank balance. At a meagre 8 grand at the moment.

Questions - why don't any of the characters you kill carry any money?
How come I have to pay 1000 for (say) a gun, but can sell it only (IGC) for about 40 - isn't that an unatural differential? How come I can't sleep in a 'friendly' area, but can drive my car into an enemy area and sleep in it there? And so on.

The game offers incredible potential for 'realism' - but falls a little too short of it, IMO. A better AI for the above points (and all the other similar points) and it would be unbeatable. Whilst more of a 'fantasy' realm, I think Morrowind just pips it ... that took me around two years to complete, playing on and off, tackling almost all of the sub missions (??) en route! The rate I'm going at the moment, I guess this one will be another 'long haul'! :)

[purplecow]

how high did you get your "buying/selling" skill? and did it help much on prices?

i finished too.. no cheat or trainer.. it was cool but i mainly stuck with the lisa missions
wish i had never gave the mayor 1k
wish i didnt go back like 10 times to relise he wasnt woking on it
i befriended the bandits and gov right off
couldnt find cia at first
****ed off indians and that kinda hampered me near the end when you have to talk to indian on pyramid.
first time through jail mission i had to shoot the indian and mafia guy to get them out of my way.
so i did it again... killed everyone and walked them out individually.
i never used the boat.. the plane..or tracked vehicles i guess maybe the ai missions?
kinda sucks you cant steal some parked vehicles.. i was pretty sure i killed everyone in prison yet couldnt steal sports car
after the game i reloaded a old save 99% of the time the trainer crashed my game without working this time i got the money.. the sports car would have been nice.. lol but the cab is faster
i got shot down alot with helicoper and hard to land in good spots.
a few mission i did let people kill me just not to make enemys of them
and it was nice to still have the mission objective on me in hosipital and not have to repeat it.
i was always hurting for money so my weapons never got upgraded.
the guy with the 200kgs of fruit helped some.. but i should have sold it.
lol took me 30 mintues to carry it to the car 15 feet away..

[McDBigMac]

wish i had never gave the mayor 1k
wish i didnt go back like 10 times to relise he wasnt woking on it


I knew it! Never regretted putting a bullet between the mayor's eyes (one of the indian missions).

[Mike Shaw]

Same here.

But, he's back alive again a few days later. You just can't put 'em down!

[Short_Ghost]

the buying selling skils comes from your relations with cevilians i think....

[stark]

i never bothered doing the buying and selling skill. but i read to do it you need to have a gun ready, have some very basic upgrades ready, and in your own inventory keep applying the upgrade. then removing it. then applying it. etc etc

do this until it breaks. once its broke, get another upgrade. this over time will get your skill up.

[Phil5000]

So do you reckon the 1.1 patch sorts most of the bugs out? I was waiting for 2 to come out before I played it, certainly looks like my kind of thing.