Mission 01 – Welcome Home

 

 

MISSION 01 – Welcome Home

 

Welcome to the tropical island dictatorship of Medici, our protagonist Rico Rodriguez's country of origin. Watch the opening scenes while they play out as the cast of characters in the game are introduced. You'll join Rico on a plane flying over the airspace of the island paradise, finishing off his preparations. As the letters of the game title get blown overhead by the explosions of missiles, Rico will climb onto the top of the aircraft to 'pacify' the situation with his RPG.

 

Seconds later, you'll be in control of Rico for the first time on the top of the plane. Use the left stick to move up towards the nose of the plane to improve your field of vision, then use the right stick to aim towards the SAM site that starts pulsing with the word destroy next to it a few seconds later. Pulling the right trigger will fire your RPG, you have infinite ammo during this sequence so feel free to go nuts. Two more of these SAM sites will appear for you to destroy as your flight continues until a barrage of missiles forces the plane to roll, dropping you over the side (I love how Rico isn't concerned at all as the plane rolls abruptly. Eh, another day, another plummet to your death).

 

 

After rolling through the air, you'll be screaming downwards towards a large gorge with a yellow marker below. You can just let gravity do the work or increase your drop speed by tilting forward on the left stick. When you get to within about 300 feet of the ground, an A/ X prompt will appear advising you to open your parachute before pancaking yourself on the terrain below. Follow the game's advice unless you want to become extremely intimate with the ground. You can use the left stick to guide the parachute once it opens, moving toward the marker below.

 

When you land in the center of the gorge, run along the rocky bottom using your grappling hook (LB) to speed you on your way. You'll spot a small structure to the left where you can pick up another RPG (you dropped your infinite one when you fell off the plane) and some ammo for it. This is particularly useful for taking out enemy vehicles and groups of enemies. From this small structure, turn and look up to the wall in the cliff-side nearby. Mario will be calling down at you from it. Use a combination of your grappling hook and jumping to clamber to the top of the wall and help Mario engage the enemy soldiers. An RPG round to the car in the center will take out the two nearby, and you can follow it up be switching to your rifle using the D-pad to finish off the lone remaining enemy.

 

 

When the reunion with Mario ends, walk over to the vehicle next to you and press Y/ Triangle to enter it. Use RT to accelerate, guiding the ute along the arrow trail on the road ahead of you. Try to avoid driving off the cliff, it doesn't end well. The game will show up a prompt that you can use the X/ Square button to trigger the handbrake for tight turns. Smash through the checkpoint shortly afterwards (flattening anyone too slow to get out of your way for bonus chaos). Enemy vehicles will begin pursuing you at this point, but you can just leave them to Mario and his shotgun as you continue to follow the trail.

 

After passing through a tunnel, you'll reach a rebel outpost under siege by Di Ravello's men. You can careen madly around the area, running over soldiers like they were skittles in a bowling game, or you can park the ute and start firing at them with your assault rifle and RPG if you have any shots left. After bringing down a fairly large number of the dictator's troops, the flow of enemy reinforcements will end and you'll get a radio message about Dimah, the scientist helping the rebel forces (and also the equivalent of Q in the James Bond movies/ books as she helps you with your gadgets and upgrades).

 

 

A quick scene will take over showing a helicopter landing near your location. Press Y/ Triangle to hop in and take to the skies using RT (to ascend) and LT (to descend). You can use the left stick to tilt the helicopter to move faster or slow down as well. You're racing against the clock here, however it isn't a long distance to travel so unless you fail spectacularly, you should make it with plenty of time to spare. When you arrive at the rebel 'farm,' (what, do they grow them like crops or something?) you can either jump out of the helicopter to engage the enemies below or carefully park the helicopter in a flat area before entering the fray (*jumps out of the helicopter with an armed grenade in each hand*).

 

You'll see a weapons cache at the base of a stone tower if you want to top up your supplies of destruction, including five rounds for your RPG launcher :). Return to the front lines of the fight and start bringing down the enemy soldiers and their vehicles with your launcher. After a few hilarious aerial ragdolls by enemies who have just been blown up, a rebel will call out on the radio to man the nearby marked turret to take on the advancing waves of enemies. Grapple up to the top of the stone tower and hop on the turret up there to start unleashing some mayhem. You can detach the gun, but there is little need as nearly everything you will want to shoot is in your field of view. When the final enemy drops, a scene will take over and the mission will end. Welcome home. Rico.

 

 

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