October 9th, 2016, 6:57am
After his capture, Jack regains consciousness at the old Riverport industrial area, which is now run by Monarch Solutions.
Collectibles
Narrative Objects and Intel Items for Act 2 Part 1
The first “heavy” weapon in the game, each blast from the Semi-Auto Shotgun fires a random spread of 8 pellets. Each pellet is about as powerful as a shot from the Pistol or Assault Rifle. This makes it the ideal weapon for time dodging into enemies and blasting them at close range. Unfortunately, like most videogame shotguns, it has poor accuracy. Most of the pellets will miss if the enemy is more than a couple of metres away, making it useless at any kind of distance.
This weapon has a rather misleading name, as it isn’t actually “semi-auto”. It is a pump-action weapon with a slow rate-of-fire of about one shot per second. It is based on the Kel-Tec KSG, a modern pump-action shotgun that features two side-by-side tube magazines under the barrel. The real KSG can hold 14 rounds (7 in each tube), while the in-game shotgun only holds 5 shots and 5 in reserve.
This is one of the best guns in the game. Its damage-per-bullet is weaker than every other weapon, but it has decent accuracy, and absolutely no recoil or kick whatsoever. This means that at close or medium range Jack can safely hold down the trigger and fire a continuous stream of low-powered bullets, and every bullet will hit his target. It has the same fast rate-of-fire as the standard SMG, but it has an even larger 48-round magazine, and the fastest reload time of any gun. This amazing weapon is not carried by any enemies, so you have to find it lying around. Unfortunately that means dead enemies won’t drop ammo for it, but it comes with a huge supply of reserve ammo, and you can refill it if you can find an ammo backpack.
The Advanced SMG’s design is based on the Magpul PDR, which is actually an assault rifle rather than a submachine gun. The Magpul PDR (Personal Defense Rifle) was a prototype bullpup-style carbine that was designed to use assault rifle bullets while being as compact and lightweight as a submachine gun. It never went into production, so it appears Remedy decided that most gamers wouldn’t notice if they repurposed its futuristic design and changed it into a small-calibre, high-capacity submachine gun.
Jack can ‘charge up’ his chronon energy and direct it into a grenade-like explosion. This destructive time anomaly does more than simply freeze time - it disrupts causality and causes the timelines of local molecules to become unsynchronised. This results in violent collisions and contradictions on a microscopic scale, with catastrophic macro-scale consequences. Normal enemies caught within the temporal eruption will be instantly killed, while Heavy Troopers will lose about half their health.
Time Blast is activated by pressing and holding the button that is normally used for Time Stop. This causes a rippling distortion field to appear wherever you are aiming. The time anomaly won’t detonate until you release the button, giving you a chance to adjust your aim. This is useful for targeting distant enemies, as you can move the ripple effect around until you have it in exactly the right spot. The downside is that enemies will notice the distortion field and realise they are under attack.
Time Blast is very useful for taking down snipers or other enemies on upper levels shooting from afar. The first upgrade increases the blast radius, allowing it to eliminate several enemies in a single attack.
Unlike other abilities, Time Blast uses up its entire power meter when activated. There is a 2 second delay before the power meter starts to regenerate, and then it takes 30 seconds for the meter to refill.
The second upgrade for Time Blast, ‘Reduced Cooldown’, is supposed to shorten the time it takes for Time Blast to charge and allow you to use it more often. However the ability seems to be bugged on both console and PC, as it seemingly does nothing.
Standard security guards dressed for day-to-day operations. They wear grey trousers, a navy blue shirt, and a grey sleeveless jacket (bodywarmer / gilet) printed with a huge yellow Monarch symbol on the chest, as well as a number of smaller Monarch Solutions logos and symbols. Some also wear Monarch baseball caps, but others have no headgear.
Light Troopers are normally armed with Pistols, although a few use Heavy Pistols. They have no body armour and can be killed by just three bullets from a Pistol or Assault Rifle, or four SMG shots. Their lack of head protection means they’ll be killed by a headshot from almost any weapon. (The one exception is the Advanced SMG.)
Concept art shows that their bodywarmers were originally orange with white Monarch symbols. Although this was changed in the final game, it would appear that Microsoft used this early design when dressing staff for a promotional event, as the orange Monarch Solutions Bodywarmer is listed on Microsoft’s store for Ad Hoc Event Merchandise.
A specialised variant of the SWAT Trooper, equipped with Semi-Auto Shotguns and lightweight tactical gear. They wear grey trousers, a sleeveless navy blue shirt, and advanced body armour that is less cumbersome than SWAT Trooper gear but provides just as much protection. They lack helmets, instead opting for just a balaclava and a set of protective goggles. Their belt equipment includes a couple of smoke grenades and a trauma kit.
Shotgunners are more aggressive than other enemies, and they will try to rush you and use their shotguns at close range. When Shotgunners arrive in a combat situation they will sometimes set off smoke grenades to cover their entrance, making it more difficult to pick them off at a distance. Although their body armour is just as effective as those worn by standard SWAT troopers, their minimal head protection means that they can be killed by a single headshot from most weapons.
These enemies wear heavy suits of reinforced body armour that protects all parts of the body, making them extremely resilient against both bullets and explosions. The outfit appears to be a bulked-up version of the SWAT Trooper uniform, and it somewhat resembles the bomb suits used by EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) teams.
Heavy Troopers are usually armed with Semi-Auto Shotguns, although some have powerful Light Machine Guns. They move slowly due to their cumbersome armour, but they are bullet sponges who will fearlessly stride through your gunfire. It takes two full Assault Rifle magazines to kill one, and that’s assuming that every shot hits its target. Explosive barrels do a minimal amount of damage to them, it would take seven barrels explosions to kill them. A Time Blast will take off half their health.
Time Stop is useful for holding them in place and for boosting the damage of your bullets, while Time Shield allows you to safely blast away at them and be protected from their attacks. Their helmets allow them to survive several headshots from most guns, but powerful weapons such as the Heavy Pistol can kill them in three headshots.
Some guides refer to this enemy type as ‘Safeguards’. It would appear that this is based on a part of the game in which a couple of Heavy Troopers are referred to as being members of ‘Safeguard Squad’, however this squad also includes some other types of trooper. It is likely that Safeguard is just a squad name, rather than a proper name of this particular type of enemy.
