Dance with the Devil

[retiredgord]

Dance with the Devil  and boogey to Hell.
      What a call to receive. Control informs me that the Agency is closing up shop as all the other agents are now dead. Control has split the balance of the agencies funds with me and sounds like she'll be on the run or dead shortly. However the last mission, which could be my last, is to kill a rogue CIA agent and an arms dealer, and any guards that get in my way. What is an extra wrench in the works is that the place will be filled with another agencies' cronies all looking to make me dead.
     I took out just a snub-nosed revolver as arms because I'm sure I'll be searched sometime, and you gotta know I LOVE my Silverballer. The gun and the standard kit is all I'll have and I'll have to pick up other stuff inside, if and when, I make it.
      Entry is gained by going into the reception area and asking about a briefcase that was left in the office upstairs. Of course the guard on duty knows nothing about it and head off to the back room, which shows on my maps, as an out of the way place to get a change of clothes. I notice the vid cameras on me and realize I'll have to retrieve the tape before continuing my mission. I follow the guard into the room and quick strangle him, change clothes, and then wait for the guard on patrol to come into the office. I exit the back room get behind him and quick strangle him also. I drag his body into the back room with his partner. Two down  but not of any concern. Little fish, big pond.
My map shows me a back way into the garage and up the ramp to the guard station there that has the video setup. I walk up the ramp closest to the wall not raising any interest from the guards all done up in my spiffy new guard uniform. I walk in the booth and just look around, ignoring the standing guard that looks my way every now and then. Eventually he goes out for the usual smoke and I pocket the video tape and head back out and down the ramp.
     I casually saunter over towards a stair opposite of the ramp. When I get down I see another guard that's on patrol and I sneak up on him when he's down the exit ramp and strangle him, dragging his body over to the bottom of the stairs. This frees me of him being nosey and possibly interrupting me later. I walk over and along the back wall scowling at the drunk by the pillar tossing his cookies and complaining about the bad drinks he's been served. They're probably good drinks, just a bad drinker. I sneak around the back of some trucks and head over to an open truck where I find a Heaven costume dropped by someone. I don the costume and look and see that the guards have metal detecting wands. It's time to drop the pistol so I can get upstairs.
     I walk over to the guard and he checks me out and finding me clean lets me enter the elevator. I head up to the top floors and   enter the party. What a party, scantily clad ladies of large endowments, waiters with trays of drinks and someone who couldn't carry a note singing. Sends shivers up my spine. A quick check of my map shows me the CIA target is drifting about the end of the building. He must have had a lot to drink as he's heading to a washroom. I walk over and into the washroom and grab a stall. A guard comes in and checks and leaves. A cook come in and leaves, not washing his hands by the way. What a pig. Another check of the map shows my friend is coming back this way. I wait till he enters the next stall, I pull out the wire and put his bad bladder problems to and end. I change into his costume with the Devil head and leave the room after grabbing his gun. I walk down to the Security Office and enter. No one is paying attention to me and when the guard leaves I grab a TMP and more ammo for the guns I have hidden.
      My next area to check is Eve's office and the laptop that should be there. I may find out info as to who the leak is that's resulted in the death of my colleagues. I enter unhindered and scoot over to the laptop retrieving the info while Eve, who's out on the floor, is busy. I get ready to leave but notice Eve is on the way back. I should do her in here, out of sight. It'll have be quick and silent as I hear she's a Martial Arts expert. I wait behind the door with the wire ready and when the door closes I move quickly and quietly to end her life. Two parts of the four are now finished. Now it's time to head downstairs to Hell. Someone else's I'm hoping.
     I wander out into the hall and to the elevator. I press the garage button and when the door closes I hop up unto the top. Maybe there's a cross over on top of the elevator like shown on the map. The elevator stops and sure enough thee is a place to cross. Now I can access the party with some weapons. On exiting the elevator I check the map and see that Vaana, the target does a show of some type off a balcony to the far right. The other target seems to be the bartender halfway down the hall. As I walk down to get to the back area the bartender calls me over and tells me he know who I am and is going to prove that he's the best Hitman by killing me in a fight to the finish in the room marked "Torture Chamber, as soon as I show up. He's leaves and heads down making a turn into a hall out of sight.
      I'll deal with him last and now I need to get the other target. I head over to the back area and enter going with boldness towards the small office in the back corner. The guards patrol and every now and then look sideways at me with a bit of interest. Good thing I got the mask on my head. I enter the office and wait for a dumbass to come in the office. I drop him and take his outfit. I walk over and behind some crates keeping hidden from the other guard. Vaana had finished he show but she does a few so I'll wait for the next and make it a real show-stopper. When she eventually returns and goes out on the platform I sneak out and grab a guard and knock him out, dragging him behind the crates. I then go over to near the door and drop a mine just outside of the door. I walk back and get behind the forklift there and wait for the performance to come to an end. A check of the map shows she's finished and out she comes. I trigger the detonator and she leaves this world and the audience gasping, and screaming. I haul a$$ behind the crates and gradually w@&k my way over towards the door and out without any trouble. Now I'm heading for my rendezvous with fate and good or bad it end here for one of us.  I enter the hallway and go down to the room that's my destination. There he waits and we go in the room. There's and outside alleyway with a center cage of wire mesh and Maynard informs me that my armaments are on a table by the couch. He quickly runs down the left side and heads around the far side. I head over to the table and just have time to grab some more rounds when he starts shooting from the opposite corner. He gets some hits and I'm forced to retreat to the left behind some shelving. I let him shoot some more and pop out to return fire. I take a few more rounds, not serious but get a eye on his location. I let go with a clip from the TMP and there's no return.  Huhh???  I approach his location carefully and find he's dead. HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE GOOD????  Maybe in the real Hell he'll be better.
      I guess it's time to blow this dump and get out to disappear and spend the money. I head out to the elevator and take it to the garage. I exit and head down the ramp towards the van that I'm to use to escape. I go around the corner and can't stand the arrogance of these Mickey- Mouse guards so I gun them down, one at a time, and the fool guard that has ignored all this crap in the first place. I get in the van and leave. My noise is 2 and Violence is 4 and I'm being called "The Eraser". My account is about 2.9 mill but I'll bribe some civies to get my notoriety back down to 32.


I tried two or three different ways. Going in the door near the drunk, having a battle and getting killed by Eve, blowing away all the guards in the garage on two tries, and some other scenarios. Of course I was killed several times but managed to finally get this one good run thru. There are several ways to do this but I found enjoyment in this one.

[mmosu]

Nice w@&k Gord, sounds like you are about to finish this one off! The last mission is TOUGH, so bring your A-game  ;)

And to everyone else, good job keeping this thread going as long as it has. I love that there are so many of us who enjoy remembering (and replaying) this game, and so many who are enjoying it for the first time!

[Art Blade]

Absolutely, mmosu, same here :) And there are so many stories to tell due to that freedom the game provides :)

***

Gord, what a great read! Especially some of your lines:

- Little fish, big pond.
- They're probably good drinks, [ he's ] just a bad drinker.
- scantily clad ladies of large endowments
- someone who couldn't carry a note singing. Sends shivers up my spine.
- I trigger the detonator and she leaves this world and the audience gasping, and screaming.
- I approach his location carefully and find he's dead. HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE GOOD?
- I'm being called "The Eraser".

Excellent, gord  ;D ;D ;D :-X

I tried two or three different ways. Going in the door near the drunk, having a battle and getting killed by Eve, blowing away all the guards in the garage on two tries, and some other scenarios. Of course I was killed several times but managed to finally get this one good run thru. There are several ways to do this but I found enjoyment in this one.

First of all, I am impressed that you managed that mission the way described above. Congrats and kudos, mate  :-X

There are indeed several ways to make it, but I didn't try it that way lol.

- You can drug someone with a syringe, rendering him unconscious for the rest of the mission, which does not interfere with silent assessin award, as long as you inject from behind unseen and unnoticed. Like that, you can take out a cop to get his uniform, useful to get the vid tape.

- there is a heaven costume on the floor in that garage in a back corner on the back of a truck with open cargo doors. Like that you can enter the heaven party and later descend to hell party.

- if you pick a lock of one of those doors down in the garage, you can enter the elevator shaft, unchecked by the guards, so you can bring your equipment.

- the hell party with the show, you can reprogram the fire bursts that will take out Vaana in a quite hot fashion. By the way, there are "real" sharks in that basin she's performing on top of, and you can push someone into it from behind the scenes where you were... fun to watch the sharks chew them up  ;D

[fragger]

@Gord, terrific read, mate! You do have flair - in both writing and whacking! Some of your expressions crack me up - "put his bad bladder problems to an end" - classic! :-X

I'm really enjoying reading this thread, even though I'm just starting out in this game and there's a lot of spoilers. Well, maybe not spoilers as such, more like best options. In any case, I figure that by the time I reach some of the places/scenarios described, I'll have forgotten what the spoilers were about.
Hell, I can't even remember where I left my glasses half the time ;D

[Art Blade]

Hell, I can't even remember where I left my glasses half the time ;D

Try looking next to bottles, mate  ;D

[fragger]

Try looking next to bottles, mate  ;D

Good one! ;D :-X

I find the bottle, then I find the glasses, then I lose the glasses ::)

The half-empty glass:
The pessimist sees it as half-empty;
The optimist sees it as half-full;
The engineer sees it as inefficient utilization of storge space

[Art Blade]

or, the glass is too bloody big for that drink  ;D

[retiredgord]

Thanks again for the compliments and all the hints. Those are never spoilers as the scenarios never seem to be absolutely the same all the time. Certain things are the same but I find when you change your procedure (like FC2) the results can be different.  You gotta love that part, like when a character looks at you and seems to recognize you. I've just gotten started on a level and got shot as soon as my bald head exited a door or turned a corner  lol.
Anyway I'm getting ready for the end, but it may take me several tries before I can come up with a relatively smooth run that I can post.

[Art Blade]

The replay value of HMBM is incredibly high. Even if you play it the same way twice, it still will turn slightly different because the AI is nicely programmed and reactions are not scripted :)

[fragger]

I'm realising that already and I'm only into the first mission. It has great freedom of action, and I really like the fact that you can accomplish missions using a large variety of methods - or so it seems to me at this remove. You can go in blasting, if you're not concerned about the consequences, or you can try to be completely stealthy, which of course is where the real challenge lies. The old Deus Ex game was a little bit like that, but this one's way better. The graphics aren't as sophisticated as many recent releases, but the gameplay certainly makes up for that.

I wish I could spend more time on it than I'm doing, but it's a bit of a hectic time for me at the moment, w@&k and family wise. At the rate I'm going, I'll still be playing my way through 6 months from now ;D I'll be having fun all the way though, it's a great game!