PR02 Breaking Bagram
The second level, like the first, begins with you riding shotgun. It’s daylight this time, though, and things are already blowing up when you fade in. After a few seconds the windshield gets hit, your weapon comes up, and you’re in control. Shoot out the glass to get a better view of things, and start firing as soon as you see enemies in the distance; they’ll run to the right side of the road and attack. A white pickup truck will show up on the right, too—put some bullets into it and it’ll veer over and smack into your car before falling away. Continue shooting who you can, and be sure to take out the gunners as more vehicles show up.
After some time the car will stop, and you’ll take the gunner seat in the back. Go right for the two large, red gas tanks to take out some of the enemies ahead, and then shoot out the machine gunners in the windows. After those are taken care of you can just sweep the ground, shooting anyone that remains. In a few seconds your car will drive to a new area and kicks you out.
Don’t bother aiming for the red tanks here, though, they don’t budge. Just clear enemies while staying behind cover, and aim for the guy with the rocket launcher on the building ahead. Move through the area and take out the remaining few enemies, but keep an eye out for grenades. They like throwing them here. A lot. It’s like, their favorite thing in the world to do.
Follow your team up to a door (that they kick open for you, this time) and you’ll be given a new tool. With it, you can mark a target. Mark it. It’s the massive building full of guys; it’s sort of hard to miss. After ka-boom an APC rides up and you need to mark it, too, but luckily it parks in the exact spot the building just was. After it goes explodey follow the path, taking out all of the enemies in your way. There’s nothing tricky here, just follow along, killing bad guys and focusing on taking out the chumps with rocket launchers first. You’ll run into an open area with a mortar gunner, but they go down fast, too.
After a little you’ll run into a large, open area with a dozen or so enemies. Toss some grenades (which you’ll find along the way) and watch for them to throw some, too. If you’re fast you can take out just about all of them before they even see you. Follow your team down, through the fence, and into the airplane graveyard to take out another group of mortar gunners. From here on out, keep your eyes on the planes stacked atop other planes—enemies love to use them as sniper nests. There’s going to be one on the left and another on the right as soon as you start to push forward. Luckily, the destroyed planes make for great cover, so you can use that to your advantage. Enemies know this too, though, so be sure to clear out a plane you want to use.
Follow your team into the warehouse ahead. As soon as you enter, take out the enemies on the catwalk above, and stick to the right side of the building. After some of the enemies are dead, a machine gunner on a pickup truck will crash in, and being on the right gives you the drop on him. Continue upstairs and pick up the grenades on the second floor before going with your team through the door.
Once you’re outside a few enemies will pop out, with the main threat being a foe about to man a machine gun turret. But look at the bright side: there’s an unfortunately placed explosive to his side. Give it a shot before taking out the other guys in the room (and keep an eye out for other explosives). Every so often an enemy will try and make a break for the machine gun, but as long as you check on it every so often they’ll likely never make it.
Your team will continue into a building, where Taliban will pop up on the first and second floor. Take out the guys on top first, since it makes it easier to find cover from the enemies on the ground. As soon as you’re outside there will be some explosions from a nearby air raid, followed by a tower full of enemies taking shots at you from the distance. Take cover and return the favor, then move into the next building. Here there are a few sniper rifles, and a fresh batch of enemies on the tower you just cleared to use them on. Once your teammates throw down smoke you can follow them into the building beneath said tower.
Feel free to go in guns blazing after you kick in the door. The halls are loaded with enemies, but you can get away with spray-and-pray here as long as you clear out the rooms to the side and be wary of the gunner at the end of the hall. On the second floor there are some foes, but be careful for enemies around corners; the smoke from the fire makes it hard to see. Breach the door ahead and clear out the enemies on the other side as they run from your mighty door-kicking ways. When you get to the next door there’s going to be an abrupt, awkwardly random cinematic of your teammate using a kung-fu move on an enemy. Enjoy it, and follow on until you’re given control of air support again.
This time you can switch between a few different types of AA. The GAU-8 acts like a machinegun strafe, so you need to tell it not only where to hit, but in what direction to hit it in, so pay attention to where the green arrow is pointing; GBU-24 is a guided missile that lets you aim, then control the descent to have it land on as many people as possible; Hellfire is the one you used earlier, and just calls down a big explosion; and the Mk-84 is a big, bad, unguided bomb that blows up anything it hits. Use whatever works best to take out the enemies ahead, though you’re going to want to use the GBU when armor stars showing up.
After a minute or two of defense, you’ve officially saved the airfield. Good job.
