Yeah, I used to think they unlocked at completion of blocs of missions, but that’s because I was playing each city in a very linear manner. It’s definitely level.
Senjak
1722
According to this chart, the final unlock happens at level 14, which fits with what I remember.
After using Revo uninstaller and reinstalling AP, my Steam copy at least loads. Now, however, I get error code 1036 whenever I try to validate. Anyone have any ideas?
I’m still jonesing to try Malkav11’s Archer playthrough idea. My plan is to pretend Westridge is my mother and that every dialogue option of Mike’s ends with either: “lacrosse camp,” “Danger Zone!,” or “Pele of anal.”
Jafisob
1724
The deal breaker on this game for me was the hacking mini game. I don’t suppose there is a patch or fan mod that deals with the issues? Playing on easy didn’t seem to make this mini-game easy.
Miramon
1725
Well of course you can just abort it if you’re running out of time. I found sort of defocusing my eyes and looking at the whole screen helped, as opposed to frantically scanning the page, because you’re looking for the text which isn’t changing, and once you find it, you can read it to see which one it is while you’re moving the cursor. But there were a few I had to retry two or three times in a row.
skyride
1726
Any recommendations (without spoilers) what builds work well and what might be game breaking/really difficult? Does stealth+melee work? How about full guns (no stealth)?
OrfBC
1727
How bad is that hacking game with a mouse and keyboard? Does it go beyond just controller wonkiness? I’m playing with a 360 controller and have had zero trouble, I think I’ve only failed once.
Lux
1728
The hacking game with mouse and keyboard is a tad weak. The keyboard string is easy as pie to move about but the mouse string is just painful. Nothing game breaking but certainly an annoyance, particularly on some of the harder hacks in the game.
stusser
1729
Broke the game for me. I couldn’t get through the tutorial after 10 tries. Maybe I just suc–fine, I suck. But still, unacceptable.
TimJames
1730
I was going to go through the thread and look at this, but I’m not sure I can stand reading all the posts. I might just see what I like when I start the game.
I tend to get bored with guns-blazing characters in these multiple-playstyle games. (Maybe the mechanics aren’t as good?) I liked the idea earlier about playing a total screwup, but I usually go with conventional characters for the first playthrough.
I think Stealth + Pistols is probably the most enjoyable to play, as it gives you a lot of badassery in a sneaky package. The third specialty is up to you, but stealth will eat up a lot of your points.
Melee has its advocates, but I don’t think it has as much of a comparative advantage as being good at a particular firearm: the strongest melee attacks are still the one hit KOs from stealth at melee 0 or melee 10, so there’s no topping that as compared to pistols where at high levels you can headshot someone from behind cover 40m away and not be detected.
Either way, sabotage at 2 is recommended early to give you more time on the minigames. The hacking game is quite enjoyable and challenging on a controller, but unfortunately was not well translated to the KB; the control issues clearly prevent people from making the simple cognitive leap that makes them fun to do. It’s too bad there’s no way to make both sides control with keys.
I agree with everything LK said. To expand a bit, Stealth will eventually make the game ridiculously easy, but it is a super fun tree. I maxed out pistols, but really never used any skills beyond the line up a crit behind cover skill. I also maxed out melee, which I think was a waste, but it may have made one fight easy to a silly degree. You won’t really need it though.
Honestly, Stealth is all you really need to make the game beatable. I would also take a few of the skills that making hacking easier, as with those and the armor mods I only failed 1 minigame once.
I agree with what Lizard King said also. The best build for me was Stealth and Pistols with a minor in Martial Arts. A few points in Sabotage combined with related armor mods make the hacking and bypass minigames much more manageable. I only had serious trouble with one boss with this build.
Probably the weapon skill that gave me the most difficulty with the game was Shotguns. Assault Rifles are pretty good, though not as good as pistols with full skills.
You can go with full guns, but it will make it much more difficult to be a “nice guy.” Go for it if you don’t mind the screaming in your ear.
Suffice is to say, there are STEALTH oriented missions where detection should be a avoided for the most positive outcome.
Silenced Pistol all the way. Extremely useful with a stealth build once you can aim from cover. Also a boss killer when you get a high level Focus Shot.
I also went with Sabotage which makes mini-games MUCH easier and allows you to stealth cameras.
habibi
1735
I finished two missions in Saudi Arabia - the one where I have to go deep into the mines to upload server data had my hands all sweaty. Really digging this game. One time I was trying to sneak and then I saw “Evasion” icon blinking - I think it must be a passive skills that got activated when someone spotted me. Nice! You guys gave a good advice on the civilian clothing for sneaking - that helped a lot but I just bought this mod (a glove) that allows better hacking - I can’t remember now but I think civilian clothing does not allow mod! What a waste of good money.
I really like the VATS-like Perk - when I activate it, the game pause and I click on the enemy twice and boom! Insta-death. Very powerful. I am saving my action points to reduce cooldown rate - that would be deadly for such a skill - I wonder, does headshot matters when I activate this perk? It doesn’t look like it. I get insta kill even when aiming the body and I guess it could be because I am still early in the game and therefore lower level enemies.
Martial art looks to be a very powerful skills to gain When I couldn’t shoot the guy, I ran up to him and melee him to death - no finesse, I know, but how else could you use martial art? I think sneaking behind and then doing a takedown is an action that do not require points in martial art, right - so this skill is only useful in situation where I rsuh Mike headlong towards the enemy and batter him to death. Any other way to play martial arts with style?
All in all, I am still pretty pumped up over this game and I sort of regretted buying Splinter Cell Conviction as AP is filling up my espionage thirst. And it is RPG-like with stats and what not, unlike SC: C. Ah…
I played it long enough to giggle at the sneaking animation. Now that that’s out of my system, I can look into those PC tweaks.
Focusing on stealth allows you to control the vast majority of fights in the game and the pistol special allows you to deal with anti stealth situations generally. These combine to make defensive armor stats less required, allowing you to focus on stealth related addons. I’d probably stay away from the hacking gloves, but i forget what i used instead and i suppose it depends on how much trouble you have hacking.
You still want to get the stealth armor asap though, which is well worth the loss in sound dampening.
Evasion if i remember right is the passive ability from stealth (i think that was the skill line but something like that) that makes you go invisible automatically if you’re spotted by an enemy, with a healthy cooldown. it is extremely good because you can trigger it and then instant stealth kill a number of enemies even though they just saw you. Then there is the obvious benefit of not having someone set off the alarm if you make a mistake and are seen.
The pistol special ability just stops time, allowing you to pretty easily set up a bunch of shots. you should always aim at their head. If they are weak enough that one shot kills them, use the other shots to kill other people. I took pistols on my stealth guy and i would mostly use the ability when there was a few people in a room (ie i couldn’t instant kill one person from stealth) to take them all out without raising an alarm. This is the best ability in the game for bosses since you can just step out of cover for a second and unleash a volley of safe headshots.
Martial arts to me was just a support ability for my stealth guy. Yes, you can instantly kill someone from stealth if they haven’t detected you, but there are times when they will detect you or they have friends that detect you. Martial arts is hugely helpful in those situations or just when you’re in close among a few enemies. Unless you use the pistol special, MA does much more damage and is much better at close range, which you will often be in when sneaking in for the kill.
Martial arts is also pretty handy at killing a few of the bosses.
There’s a similar ability for turrets and cameras down the Sabotage skill line, iirc.
That one isn’t that great though because it is SIGNIFICANTLY easier to avoid cameras and it doesn’t have the same combat applications. The Sabotage line also isn’t that great (in my opinion) unless you’re pushing for the lockpicking skill, which is obviously of questionable worth for the point cost.
On the other hand, cameras and turrets spotting you is an instant alert, whereas most enemies have to run to an alarm panel or radio, during which time you can murder them.
