5-3: A Trip to the Mall

5-3: A Trip to the Mall

As you approach the end of this street you see a yellow crane and as you approach that you get a CS of your next hostage rescue mission.  There are several mercenaries within shooting distance of the hostage and you are a level above them at the moment.

The best way to handle this particular hostage situation is to GPS mark the bad guys and then take out the guy on the right as your partner takes out the one on the left, and then quickly shift your aim to the third guy and one-shot him.  If you do it smoothly the hostage is standing there unharmed and waiting for you to rescue them!

Once you save the hostage head to the rear (left) of the crane and you will see a set of concrete stairs ahead - move to them and stay in cover, and use your sniper rifle to begin picking off the mercenaries in the construction yard and the building windows across the way.

After you clear the yard area of enemies you will move past the mounted gun and the second APC, and just as you pass that APC on your right you will see a concrete slab that has fallen to make a ramp - take that up and then the next one too so you are on the second floor, and head to the back of that area and crouch by the damaged window frame.  There are three mercenaries on the ground level below to kill, and another few and once they are dead, arm your sniper rifle and aim at the building across from you.

Collect the ninth Cat

There are three dark squares that represent rooms or hallways that go deeper into the building - focus on the second one up in its right corner and you will see the first of the two Cats (Neko Cat 9 of 12) for this chapter.  Go ahead and shoot it now!

Head back down to the street and bang a u-turn onto the wooden walkway and towards the area we were just targeting - you should have already killed the mercenaries in this area, so there should be no threats until you reach the point where you partner tells you that you need to cross the ditch and get into the mall.  On the other side are some barricades and enemy who will start shooting at you now.  Take cover and start picking them off, and once you have cleared them away, head into the ditch and over to the other side.

Note that there is a mounted gun ahead - your partner will be sure to tell you that - and did you notice the orange barrels on the other side?  They are indeed explosive and you can use them, strategically speaking, to take out a few enemy at a time.

As you head down into the ditch you get a CS of the front loader that you ostensibly started yourself rolling across - and knocking down the bridge you need to cross over.  There may be one or two enemy that you could not engage before now shooting at you - just take your time and take them out, and then cross over to the mall side.

Epic Battle

As you approach the stairs on the other side you get a bullet-time fight with infinity ammo - and a lot of mercenaries coming at you including a mini-boss.  You are supposed to go back-to-back and shoot your way out of this jam!  If you do not die at lease once on this one you are really good at this!

IF you do die - you need to backtrack and shoot the Cat again before you continue on!  Do not forget to do that so you do not lose track of which you have and which you do not!

Note: If you are playing the game solo on the regular difficulty you are going to have trouble with this fight.  The A.I. partner is simply not smart enough to properly support you - he does not concentrate on a set area, and the enemy target you mostly, not him, so you will die - a lot.  You might be thinking that this is grief code - and maybe in a way it is - but not really.  The thing you need to remember here is that this game is called Army of Two for a reason - it is meant to be played by two people.

If you are on Normal or Hard difficulty (Contractor) you really should not attempt this unless you have a human partner.  If you are on Normal (not Contractor) and you do not have a human partner, you can exit to the main menu, reload back in, and set the difficulty at Easy for this fight without there being any negative impact as far as the Achievements / Trophies are concerned.  That is not true for Contractor however - as changing the difficulty will cost you the one for completing the game on Contractor...

The solution to this fight is actually pretty simple - your human partner covers the left side, you cover the right - and you arm the highest damage weapon you can.  This is infinity ammo and no reload, so really you can just spray and pray for the most part.  Aiming on the higher levels will get you dead - shoot from the hip here!

The enemy will pop like this - three on the right including a heavy shotgun merc, then two or three on the left, followed by two on the right, and then two who track behind you to the right.  Two will pop up and flank you from behind, and there will be two above and to the left, followed by another group on the right sort of behind you.

At this point an RPG merc will pop up to the left and above, and let loose a round that lands pretty much at your feet, knocking you both out.  When you wake up you are being captured - you get knocked out again.