Mansion Infiltration

With Jack now in dataDyne's clutches, Joanna must penetrate the heart of Zhang Li's private mountain retreat to stage a daring rescue.

Mission Four
Default gadget: Loctopus (A) Datathief (SA) Demokit (PA)	Other gadgets: Audioscope, Radio	Available weapons: P9P, MagSec, DW-P5, Jackal, M60, Viblade

Disrupt security comms (Support - SA, PA)

Snugly positioned high in a mountainous region of China, the only company you'll have outside Zhang Li's mansion are dataDyne's security forces. After sending that lone guard on a quick descent down the mountain, you'll be alone at the base of a winding path. Make sure you bring along a silenced weapon, you'll need it until swiping a guard's radio.

Cross the waterfall bridge ahead and walk up the path lined with torches. Stop at the second torch and spin around, from here you should have a clear view of a guard tower over the canyon wall. Pull out a silenced weapon and zoom in, pop the sniper stationed there (don't worry, no-one should see your handiwork).

Keep heading around the path, up top you'll reach a circular stone gate. Take care here as two MagSec-wielding guards patrol the grounds just beyond. Your first objective is to shut down enemy communications, there's two ways to pull this off. One is to grab a guard's radio and fool the fella on the other end to shut radio comms down. The other way is to manually shut it down yourself atop one of the three guard towers (look for one with a radio antenna - there's a small switch in the tower. At this point grabbing a radio can get this objective quickly and painlessly out of the way.

Stay behind the circular gate (but not too close, the patrolling guards can see you from there). If you're playing on Perfect Agent the RCP-90's threat detector or the Shockwave's X-ray vision work wonders in this mission, as you'll be able to see the guards among the dense environment easily. Wait for the guards to separate, then follow one when he turns his back and whack him one from behind. Quickly seek out the other guard and take him from behind as well. They follow the same patrol paths so you should eventually learn where they walk. If you're still at the gate waiting for them to lower their guard, try to take out the two snipers over in the visible tower on the right side of the guard wall ahead (get the one facing you first, then quickly knock over the second as he might try to call for backup).

Upon knocking a guard out you'll grab his dropped radio, deal with both guards then take cover and stay out of sight (you should take both guards out as one might spot the body of the other). From safety pull out the radio (hit Left or Right). Hit A to use it and wait for Chandra's spiel about Joanna's "choker" giving her a male voice to fool the radio techs.

When the guard on the other end speaks up, you'll need to give the correct reponse to convince him. Here's some possible dialogue and the correct responses:

"Hello? You OK?" select Threaten
"Whoa, it must be freezing out there! You OK?" select Charm
"Hi there bud, control here. Anything I can do for you?" select Charm

If you fail to give the right answer every guard in the area (plus more - including the snipers in the guard towers) will instantly converge on your position, either carry on and shut down communications at one of the three guard towers or this early into the mission it's worth restarting until you get it right. Score the right answer and he'll send out a call for radio silence, completing your first objective.

Activate satellite server (Support)

From here you should have a pretty good view of the grounds (take in the gorgeous scenery, especially the lighting - this is by far one of the prittiest misions in the game). Up ahead is the first guard wall, with two guard towers flanking either end. Zoom in and deal with the single sniper on the left tower, then deal with the other two on the remaining one (if you haven't done so already). On the ground a third and final guard patrols the area over by the lone guard tower, head to the stairs leading up to the large wooden door on the guard wall and watch his patrol from there - creep up to whack him in the back as he's walking away from you.

If you have the Loctopus you can unlock the ladders to gain access to the guard towers, climb up if you want the sniper's dropped Jackal. If you haven't done so already, on the tower with the antenna you can shut radio comms down by either flipping the switch up in the tower or blowing it sky high with the Demokit, but take care as the noise can draw unwanted attention to your escapades.

Now if you watch the guard wall carefully you'll spot three guards doing the rounds atop it. From a guard tower you can grab a Jackal and take them from here (the Shockwave works nicely too, you can also see where all the remaining guards are with X-ray), or you can try to take them from the ground. Just make sure you've got enough cover.

Now there's three ways to get through the guard wall. On the far left side there's a circular door leading up to the top of the wall, in the center there's a large wooden door barring your path, and if you have the Demokit you can blow open a hatch down under the wall on the right side (but risk attracting attention while doing so). The hatch leads through to an underground path leading up to the courtyard outside the mansion. It's a good shortcut but you'll still need to deal with all the guards.

Don't bother unlocking the large wooden door as there's an unwelcome surprise on the other side. Atop the guard wall is the radio satellite server so you may as well go through the open door on the left side. Once inside you'll see another locked door ahead, this one leads to the pond beside the courtyard outside the mansion. Creep up the stone steps to the top of the wall, keeping an eye out for patrols if you haven't dealt with them earlier (if your timing's off one can be behind you in front of the satellite dish).

Three guards wander around, try to take them silently. If they see you they'll most likely alert the guards wandering around the courtyard down below, so keep crouched and stay low to avoid their MagSec shots. With the top of the wall clear, creep forward to the next set of stone steps leading down. Below is the chamber behind the large wooden door, there's three guards loitering inside, with one wielding an M60. If you're carrying Grenades or the FAC or SuperDragon, lob an explosive into the mix to stir things up, then pick off any remainders from above.

With the wall itself clear, use the Cover move to try and take out the three guards below in the courtyard, they have a habit of running up the stairs to the main entrance door of the mansion where it's easy to spot them. There's also another single guard over at the pond adjacent the courtyard below the satellite dish. With your opposition clear, if you need Armor there's one sitting near the center of the guard wall.

Head over to the radio antenna at the opposite end of the wall to the dish. Hit the switch in front of it to power up the dish, then head back to the dish and activate the terminal nearby to make Chandra's day (you'll need to hack it if you're carrying the Datathief).

Infiltrate mansion (Primary)

Now it's time to enter the mansion and make a name for yourself. Go down to the courtyard and stop at the foot of the staircase ascending to the door. Put a shot into the security camera watching the door before you head up. If you've got the Loctopus simply unlock the door via the lock pin on the left side, otherwise you'll need to fool the guard to let you inside - the intercom's on the right. Make sure the camera's out before you hit the intercom, the guard's not stupid enough to see a woman sounding like a man as something you see everyday.

If the camera sees you or you give the wrong response a team of dual-wielding MagSec dataDyne troops will appear from the guard wall, either storm the wall and take them out or take cover inside the tunnel leading back to the hatch in the first courtyard. It's the same guard watching over the door as was manning the radio comms, and his questions will be stupidly ambiguous again, listen for the tone of his voice to give it away. Here's some possible dialogue and the correct responses:

"Everything alright out there?" select Charm
"Hello? You OK out there?" select Charm

With the door open your combat session's taking a break - it's very wise to switch to Unarmed while inside the mansion.

Acquire voice scan (Primary - PA)

Once inside take in the beautiful sights around you, you're at the head of a large open water-filled inner courtyard with the DeathMatch room dead ahead. Problem is you'll need to work your way through a few side rooms to get there. At the center of the courtyard two masked DeathMatch players will start squabbling (is it just me or do both their dresses look the same?), if you're playing on Perfect Agent quickly equip the Audioscope and grab a recording of one of their voices which you'll need to gain entry to the DeathMatch room (lock onto one by pulling the Right Trigger with the character highlighted).

From here, up the stairs on the left path leads to a few indoor chambers adorned with sculptures and weapons - quite pleasant really if you forget who owns the place. There's a few roving security cameras watching the doors though - if one spots you the doors will promptly slam shut and you'll have to turn back (watch for the white light cones to tell which way each camera's facing). The cameras don't set off alarms so don't worry about blowing your cover, but you'll need to punch through a glass window to escape if the doors seal. See the ceramic statues scattered around? You'll be hating those things soon enough.

If you can't get through the side rooms, head back to the entrance and take the other path. Beyond you'll find yourself in a huge room riddled with red laser tripwires. These varieties don't set off alarms if you touch them, oh no, these Zhang Li-approved types can burn holes through pretty much anything, so try to avoid touching them. Move through the room using crouches and the Combat roll to sneak through the lasers, some appear and disappear so time your movements carefully.

If you have the Datathief, there are two metal panels on either side of the laser room (one on the left near the entrance, the other further ahead on the right side) - hack both to shut down all the lasers to make your job much easier. In the center of the room you'll find a Viblade atop a small pedestal, grab it if you want one for keeps. Clear the room to find a small armory hidden beneath the staircase at the end, grab any weapons from here that you want to keep beyond this mission as you won't be using any of them for the remainder of it.

Exit the tripwire room (not via the stairs) to find yourself back outside in the courtyard. By now the two DeathMatch players should have stopped arguing, if you're playing on Perfect Agent and missed grabbing a recording of their voices, there's another male player hiding in a corner, wait for him to start talking on his mobile phone and grab a recording. Walk past the guards in the area and don't draw any of your weapons to keep them on your friendly side (here's some trivia, some of them say "Ni hao", that's a form of saying hello in Mandarin). Weave through the small bridges to the main DeathMatch entrance around the corner.

On Agent and Secret Agent just walk on by the two guards by the door, otherwise on Perfect Agent give any response when they ask for audio confirmation. Strangely enough if you speak to them as the man on the phone they still let you in (go figure). The SuperDragons each guard holds are mighty tempting (they have M60s instead on Agent), but if you disarm them you'll fail the mission so keep things clean. Once inside the DeathMatch arena you'll meet the man behind dataDyne before going one-on-one (well not really) against his daughter Mai Hem in a heated DeathMatch game.

Defeat Mai Hem (Primary)

The VR battle takes place inside a small circular enclosed arena with two elevated walkways. You'll start out atop one of them, keep in mind that you can't ever reach the other. All you have to start with is a meager MagSec while Mai Hem will always carry a SuperDragon (but thankfully she never fires grenades). Keep close to a pillar, as Mai Hem will first materialise on the left end of the other walkway across from you. She'll keep running back and forth until you show yourself, so get her to stop moving and pump a few headshots at her. Stay near a pillar to avoid any early damage, as you'll need to preserve health during the fight.

Eventually with enough damage Mai Hem's body will de-pixelate (of sorts) and disappear. She'll do this a number of times before giving up the ghost. When she disappears you're about to meet some of her virtual cronies (of course she'll try to balance the odds in her favour). But first you'll have a chance of evening up the odds if you managed to activate the satellite server earlier on. Chandra will pipe in and give you three options, the Hawk, an M60 or a Combat Shield. The Hawk can help against the weaponless statues to preserve ammo and the Combat Shield is good for defending against their punches, but the M60 is only as good as however much ammo it has in it.

You may have spotted a number of the ceramic statues standing motionless around the room below. These inanimate objects aren't just for decoration, as they'll spring to life one by one and run after you. Their punches are stronger than what normal enemies deliver, so you must avoid them ganging up on you. Keep them in front of you at all times, lure them into running straight at you from afar and score a number of headshots to knock them over, or use the Hawk to preserve ammo (their heads will actually fall to pieces with each shot, sometimes you can knock their entire heads off, so Joanna can tell her grand kids one day she had headless statues running after her). Don't waste ammo on them as every shot counts.

With the first statue dead Mai Hem will attack again, keep her in your sights as only a few MagSec shots will send her packing. If she ever closes in on you just whack her a few times. Two more statues will then attack, deal with them both and keep an eye out for an ammo crate appearing somewhere among the serpents carved into the floor (it only tends to appear if you didn't activate the satellite server and are stuck with just the MagSec).

With both statues down Mai Hem will eventually reappear, but this time she'll summon clones of herself. You can tell them apart by their washed out static colour. The advantage here is that the clones drop their SuperDragons when defeated, grab one and take cover up on the walkway. Use grenades as much as possible and the pillars for cover, as you'll need a good aim to hit your foes with normal shots.

If you get stuck in the central arena below crouch and use the ceramic pots for cover. Use the MagSec up close as it seems to cause more damage than the SuperDragon's regular fire. Watch your radar for their positions and make sure they don't corner you from both sides of the walkway. Keep firing grenades at Mai Hem (don't hit the ceramic pots down below or the grenades will bounce off), eventually after a few rounds her clones will stop appearing and more statues will come to life.

Deal with the first two statues and stay right away from them (keep moving and don't rely on your radar as these nuts won't show up on it). Focus everything on Mai Hem when she reappears. You should notice now a single direct grenade hit won't send her de-pixelating, this means she's nearly done. Keep using the upper walkway for cover and watch your radar for her movement. Don't stay still for too long, if the statues try to corner you up top fill their faces with SuperDragon fire, but don't bother firing grenades at them (they can survive a single hit).

Score victory against Mai Hem to finish her once and for all, any remaining statues running around will promptly drop dead. Wait a few seconds for the cutscene to roll and pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

Next Mission: Laboratory Rescue