Raven Squad Notes

I choose regular as I am not sure really what to expect here.

A voice over on a black screen where an inspirational quote from Winston Churchill glows in white. It is four days before Christmas a three man team has been sent to an unknown jungle location to eliminate a drug dealer as a favor to the NSA.
We se a helicoper coming in low over the sea, it lands on the beach of a jungle island and three men get out.

Mission 1 Prologue
The controls the usual rotation and movement with the analogue sticks.
So far no other buttons do anything, well Y make a binging sound and tells me that tactical view is unavailable.
Right trigger is shoot.
My two other squad mates follow me around.
Clicking in the left stick crouches.
Clicking on the right stick aims.
We have to progress to a white marker.
I am told that the beach needs to be cleared of guards. There are three to shoot.
I am told to get some rockets.
The three man squad are named Paladin, Oso and Thor. You can switch to any of them by pressing the d-pad button assigned to them. We are told to change to Thor once we get the rockets and use his rocket launcher to blow up the armory.
Now we are tasked with using the tactical view.
Pressing Y changes to a view from high in the sky of the landscape. we can move around using the left stick. The right stick rotates the view or zooms in and out.
If we press A on a spot the men move towards it. We are encouraged to look around the surrounding area at three specific points. We are shown the enemy leader, some of the soldiers scattered around and locations of health and weapons crates.
We are told to get some grenades and blow up some crates that are blocking the way.
I do this by Holding Down Left trigger and pressing the appropriate button for the character who has the grenades.
Seems that each character has a special skill, Thor has rockets, Oso has grenades.
I get into a firefight and switch to fps view to kill the attackers.
I am encouraged to move to the commander and kill him. Then once done to go to the helicopter. I move through the map checking the tactical view for enemies and moving around, then switch to FPS for the actual firefights.
I kill all the enemy soldiers and get to the helicopter.
The mission ends.

Mission 2 Touchdown
We have to go deep into the Amazon and find a crashed plane, primary objective is to recover a disk, survivors are secondary.
A cut scene shows the plane coming in low over the jungle, it is hit with a rocket from a Sam site and is going down. The soldiers jump from the plane and parachute to the ground.
It is a rough jump and Paladin is knocked unconscious. He wakes to find himself alone.
The handler manages to contact him but there is a lot of static. Seems we are on the edge of satellite coverage.
We are tasked with finding the rest of the squad.
I find Oso under attack and save him. He joins back with me and I can switch to him.
We are told to hide in the undergrowth as a chopper comes over.
Thor meets up with us and a jeep arrives. We are told to shoot it using Thor's rocket launcher.
I am directed to a certain point, where we have to wait for others.
Now we get to control a new squad, like before they are split up and we have to get them all together.
Shadow is the leader I get control of him.
Flash and Zombie are the other team members.
They have stun and smoke grenades as their skills. Shadow is a sniper.
We now have to reach point alpha with this team as well.
Which isn't far away.
The two squads are now separated by a piece of engine from the plane wreck. We can now switch to tactical view and see that the plane is nearby and crawling with enemies.
Using a charge we blow up the plane engine by pressing A on it in tactical view.
The enemies coming to investigate it are blown up with it.
We move forwards to the plane and kill all the surrounding soldiers. The disk is not to be found. There is another plane to search and it is the same, looks like the soldiers have found it. we go to their Sam site and kill everyone there. The mission ends here with the news that there is a logging camp up ahead under guerilla control. Looks like our disk might be here.

Mission 3 Village attack
We have to go into the logging village, which looks like it's a slave camp anyway.
Rodriguez is the warlord here but it looks like he may be working for someone else.
Again we are searching for the disk.
A cut scene shows the gang being ambushed in the jungle and fighting their way through it. It reminded me of the A team, lots of shooting but at nothing.
We progress to the village and have to clear it of enemies. Med packs can be picked up for both teams here.
A cut scene shows us asking a slave where the package is and not really getting very far.
We progress to the logging camp. Some soldiers are taken out a small camp to get some more ammo.
As we enter the bigger logging area a cut scene shows the two teams being separated by a tree being felled in an explosion during a firefight.
Paladin's squad are hemmed in and unable to return to the area that needs to be searched for the package. They come under fire from a group of enemies.
We have to take Shadow's team into the village and kill the enemies and search a group of highlighted crates for the package. Shadow finds the package and we radio for evacuation.
The chopper is on it's way when the radio is jammed.

Mission 4 Shattered hopes
We are trying to reach the evacuation point in the hope that the chopper will be there.
A woman's voice comes onto the radio. She tells us that she is a archeologist working for the enemy, she however wants to defect. She will guide us in return for a rescue. Paladin agrees, though he has no intention of mounting the rescue and is using her to get to the chopper.
We get tactical view back and find that the two teams are not that far apart and a logging yard is up ahead. I send both teams in, in different directions and kill all the enemies in the yard.
Our next objective is to reach a clearing. Then some ruins, there are enemies of course in the way. At the ruins we have to take out a machine gun nest.
Helicopters come over and drop some enemies behind us which gives me a hairy moment.
I progress through the ruins to the helicopter and find that our pilots have been captured and the helicopter sabotaged.
25 minutes

Mission 5
We have to resupply before we can assault the main base. Hopefully rescuing Xian our pilots and getting a new helicopter.
At the village soldiers are forcing civilians into trucks.
I go in and clear the village.
I speak to the villagers and they tell us that the pilots have been taken to the hacienda nearby.
We now have to get to the coffee plantation.
Now we have to cross the large open fields which are filled with soldiers.
After we cross the plantation we come to a warehouse and are ambushed by lots of soldiers.
After this Xian tells us that Rodriguez is in the factory nearby. We are to go and kill him.
I enter the factory and kill all the men, Rodriguez escapes out of the back door however.
Next we have to assault the hacienda.
The Hacienda looks like it will be heavily guarded, however it isn't really.
I kill the few guards and talk to some civilians.
The pilots have been taken away with a group of other prisoners.
Xian is asked to try and find the convoy that has taken them.
We are attacked from the roof by Rodriguez. He runs around on the roof and we have no way up. Basically you just have to shoot him when you see him. I sent the squads to either side of the hacienda and when he went to each side just hammered at him with guns.
There was probably something obvious I was missing but it worked anyway.
Mission ends with the gang resolving to attack the pow camp and get the pilots back.
33 minutes

Mission 6 Alliances
We are about to attack the pow camp.
We have to circle around the camp, I think I was meant to be stealthy and avoid the patrols. I didn't I just shot them all.
Inside the camp are a lot of dead bodies.
I fight my way through the camp, taking it slow and sure. I find the pilots and they are dead. There is a Brazilian General with the bodies, he tells us that his men are in the next barracks. They will help us if we help them take the camp and get the civilians out.
Once we kill all the guards in the camp we have to hold the camp while the civilians are loaded into a truck. The enemy start to pour into the camp.
This is a sudden difficulty spike, the first time I have actually been taxed and died.
However this is because I was unprepared for the enemy to attack on two fronts.
Once I split up my teams placed one in cover guarding a funnel point and the other team near the main gate manning an emplaced gun it was plain sailing.
RPG soldiers arrive at the end of the time spent loading the civilians and we have to go out onto the road and clear them away.
Once done the mission ends.
In cut scene we see the civilian truck leave and the Brazilian general ask us to help him free some more soldiers. we go along with them as the Brazilian general is the best bet to give the team the aid to get the hell out of Brazil.
22 minutes

Mission 7 Urban nightmare
We enter a town to help Sanchez.
The town is quite large and although it looks like it's a rabbit warren of streets, there are blockages of walls and vehicles that make it a linear crawl through funnel points of enemy ambushes.
I make my way through the market and find a machine gun post. It looks like it's going to be hard to take out but I get my sniper in a good place and kill all the men guarding it.
Up ahead at a church a truck with an emplaced gun is circling in front of the church. I try to rocket it but run out of rockets. You only get two.
I use grenades and that does it. I get to the church and the Brazilians follow.
The mission ends when the general gets there.
21 minutes.

Mission 8 Ferry of Styx
Sanchez is reunited with his men, they are in fairly bad shape. The church is no place to defend either. Paladin thinks it a good idea to get everyone out of the town.
There is a ferry nearby and the plan is to take it and use it to evacuate.
We start back at the church and have to make our way through a series of waypoints fighting heavy numbers of troops.
We get to the ferry and as we ask Sanchez to come the church explodes as if hit by an airstrike.
We get to the ferry and find it has no fuel. One team is too stay and guard the ferry as the other goes and gets the fuel from nearby.
I get to the fuel waypoint and find a truck with fuel.We now have to drive it to the ferry under heavy attack.
As we park the truck next to the ferry the mission ends.
A cut scene shows the gang on the ferry come  under rocket attack. The ferry is sunk.
25 minutes.

Mission 9 Wet Dusk
The ferry is sunk, but at least the gang are across the river. We are now heading for a satellite control center.
The gang are dredged up on the beach at night and must now make it through the heavily patrolled jungle to the enemy base.
I make my way through the jungle, at one point enemy soldiers are taken out by a rocket. The squad question what is going on, was it friendly fire or is someone helping them out.
We come across a torched village, which Juarez had destroyed due to lack of co-operation. We promise then man we will save captured villagers and kill Juarez, since we are going that way anyway.
We have to fight through the village and up to an enemy camp where the prisoners are.
Seems there are another group of civilians, I go to the camp and save them.
Another group to save.
The waypoint indicator tells me to investigate a crate. When we do a gas grenade is triggered and the squad are rendered unconscious.

Mission 10 Revenge
The gang have been taken prisoner by Juarez. Xian thinks all is lost, however she manages to get in contact with General Sanchez, who it seems was not killed in the church blast, seems he and his men hid in the crypt which saved them.
Out to repay Paladin for his earlier help, General Sanchez sends troops to aid Paladin.
As the gang are being brought to Juarez's camp Sanchez's son saves them by attacking the convoy they are in. Together they decide to take out the artillery which has been shelling us. We enter a large camp and take out the first gun. Sanchez sees  Juarez making a break for it. He goes after him leaving us to fend for ourselves in the camp and to take out the other guns. Two more artillery guns have to be blown up by walking up to them and pressing A
Notice here that shells will explode when shot, there are also exploding barrels.
Once the artillery has been blown we are now escaping the camp.
As we do Xian is disturbed by someone coming into her room, have the enemy finally found out who is helping us.
We have to make our way through three waypoints in the jungle with no satellite view to aid us.
21 minutes

Mission 11 Ruins of Amazonia
Again we are heading for the satellite control center. No RTS view available.
We take the only path available and fight some enemy, they use smoke and grenades on us.
Xian comes back online when we reach a waypoint. She was questioned about heavy satellite activity but made excuses. However, they are watching her now.
We will have to get her out very soon. There is a large camp up ahead and we must rescue other prisoners here. We are tasked with crossing a road and avoiding being seen by patrolling vehicles.
Then we go through the jungle shooting up enemy patrols.
Next we reach the ruins and are told to go to the dig site.
Which we are already at but we must go to the centre of it.
Now we are to free the archeologists.
Once that is done we are told that if we hide in a truck loaded with archeological relics then we can get inside the camp.
We have to hold off enemies as the truck is loaded then escape the dig site to the truck.
Mission ends when you get to the truck.
31 minutes

Mission 12 Boy meets girl
Now we have been dropped off at the gates as we now try and enter the base, get Xian and escape in a helicopter.
We see a cut scene of Sam sites blowing helicopters apart, looks like we will have to get the Sam sites out of action before getting away.
I take out three Sam sites, usual stuff, attack the defending soldiers and place explosives.
Now the air defenses are down and we can call the Brazilians to try their attack again.
The Brazilians mount an all out assault on the front gates of the compound, allowing our much smaller team to enter the rear under cover of the distraction.
The base is fairly empty and we make our way through to the front where the Brazilians are shooting ineffectively at the front gate. We have to do all the work from within and this is a fairly crazy section.
There seems to be a never ending stream of soldiers from a hut at one side, while you have to deal with snipers in two towers near the gates, there are also machine gun emplacements at either side. You are also flanked by guards from behind.
A sudden difficulty spike indeed.
I eventually seem to fulfill the criteria for finishing this section which isn't clear as men keep on coming, it seems there are a key few that don't respawn that need to be taken out.
Now we have to take out a generator.
Brazilians come in to help, but are fairly ineffective.
I take out the generator, we now have to defend a satellite center containing Xian while she blows the jammer that has been cutting us of from our original controller.
I defend the center for a minute and then the jammer is off and the OC comes back online.
Juarez is coming to attack for a final boss battle, he has an armored vehicle.
He drives around in a set path, and after the earlier scene at the gates is a piece of cake to kill.
Sometimes the objective waypoints don't trigger, it's a glitch, leaves you wandering about wondering what to do.
Final cut scene shows Sanchez being interviewed by news crews and telling of the final attack that destroyed Juarez and his rebellion.
We don't even see Xian and Paladin meet, which was sad I thought.
The gang leave in a truck and the credits roll.
32 minutes

Tried the multiplayer and couldn't find a partner to play with, which is a shame, as it might have been nice to control one squad and have someone else control the other.

Roughly 6 hours of play time.
495 achievement points for one playthrough on regular.