Strogg Medical Facilities

Welcome to a land of happiness and sunshine, cupcakes and laughter, fluffy bunny rabbits and little puppies. All is well, there’s nothing to worry about. Just keep telling yourself that while the Strogg do their thing. This section of the game was a horribly ill-kept sequence, so you probably won’t be too surprised to find yourself Stroggified by the end of it. Fortunately for you, your Rhino Squad buddies will get to you just before your neural implants go online, freeing you from complete slavery at the hands of the Strogg hive-mind. When you do regain control of your body, though, you’ll notice that you have a slightly higher health capacity than before, and that you move much more quickly than you normally would. Yay!

Now that you’re a super-soldier, you’ll be able to really rip up some Strogg. When you split off from the main group with Medic Anderson, get ready for a fight, because you’ll soon be launched into combat with Strogg Medbots, which prefer to attack with melee strikes, but whom can also throw poison grenades that deal small amounts of damage to you over time. Still, they shouldn’t be too difficult to take down due to their charge-ahead movement; just let them come to you and shotgun them in the body.

When you’re past the medical bay (click on the panel near where Anderson was taken to unlock the doors, and grab his machinegun while you’re at it), follow the path until you reach a lift. Take it up, and start fighting your way through the numerous Strogg guards of the facility. You’ll find your first rocket launcher at the top of the lift, which will come in handy against the Gladiator nearby. Just be sure to aim at its feet to bypass its shield and get some splash damage in on the Enforcers near it.

'Killian! I'll be back!'

Eventually you’ll reach Voss, who’s stuck behind a door that won’t open. In order to reach him, you’ll have to backtrack past the two soldiers in vats, through the door there, then down the lift. Don’t miss the semi-hidden ladder at the top of the stairs a bit further on, which will let you collect some more armor and rocket ammo. You’ll meet up with Voss shortly thereafter, but it’ll be a quick reunion.

When you reach the room with the Gunners and the two large blocks in the center, you’ll find that there are a couple of paths leading on. If you go past the Medbots in the autopsy room, you’ll find the correct path; the other corridor, leading to a pair of Gunners, will net you another Rocket Launcher. Likewise, in the room overlooking the vat processing machine, head left to get some armor and health before moving on through the right door.

Eventually, you’ll come to a set of crawlspaces where you’ll find a hyperblaster, as well as more ammo for most of your weapons, which should be a welcome sight. Be sure to reload your weapons before heading into the next room, because the Parasite that pops out will have a new trick up its sleeve: it can launch as many as four teleport beacons when it spots you, which will pop out two Humanoids and two Berserkers. Five’s a party, obviously, so strafe around the edges of the room, and try to take out the Berserkers first, preferably with rockets from long range.

Construction Zone

The Walker's shields will go down quickly, but recharge just as fast.

Well, it’s time for you to take out the Walker for a spin; this bipedal mech will encase you in the usual shields and armor you’ve come to expect from a tank, and also give you the machinegun turrets and rockets that you know and love. It’s not as powerful as a hovertank, mostly due to the fact that its shields drop much more quickly and it’s much more slow, but as per usual, if you sit out of combat for a few minutes, your armor and shields will regenerate. Even if your shields do go down, they recharge quickly, and you’ll have plenty of armor to back yourself up with.

Despite the relative ease with which you’ll be blasting your foes, this is still a lengthy level, mostly because of how slow the Walker is. The only real challenge will come near the end of the level, when you have to take on a Harvester. Hide in the bottom of the pit near where the Harvester is stalking, and fire at its legs with your missiles to take it out. When that’s done, you can leave the mech and head out to the exit of the level.

Dispersal Facility

You’ve got a fight against other recently Stroggified humans at the beginning of this level, as well as another Gladiator. You’ll also finally pick up a railgun, although you may be surprised to find that it really doesn’t do all that much damage to your foes, at least not on Hard difficulty. You’ll be better off letting your enemies get close for use with the shotgun, or accurately placing rocket launcher rounds.

Start fighting your way through the facility here, ignoring the Harvester when it appears; just run past it and duck under the crushed portion of the walkway to move on. There’s a difficult sequence of fights a bit later, where you have to take on a squad of Stroggified soldiers in a stairwell full of explosive barrels. Most of the soldiers have shotguns, but one has a hyperblaster, and another packs a railgun. Try to lob grenades off the stairs and hope that a few of them get caught in the explosions, then head down and clear the area out.

Eventually, you’ll reach the facility’s pulmonary station. This is quite literally pulmonary, as it’s a giant heart suspended by cables. You’ll find two switches nearby that control voltage going into the heart; flip them both, and an access hatch will pop open. You can kill the floating mechanics if you wish, but they won’t attack you. Drop down into the hatch and crawl into the pipe to move on.