Mission ten: A Dance with the Devil. The second mission set in Las Vegas although they don't tell you this, it could be in any part of America. The playing field is a building currently hosting a "Heaven and Hell" party split into requisite areas (penthouse and basement) with an expansive parking lot (purgatory?) in between. Two mission targets, a CIA agent (Anthony Martinez) playing both sides and Vaana Ketlyn; during the mission you'll also meet two other assassins: Maynard John who challenges you to a contrived duel, and "Eve" who takes time out of butchering a song to try and seduce 47.
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Notes
I wanted to get this narration done before I went to bed because then I could set the lengthy VP6.2 encoding process going and do the high-quality video at the same time; this means that it was done late at night which is why it has no less than three instances of me putting on character voices. Overall I feel it was a decent narration but there are a couple of errors I make, both during the summary of the mission: I say that the mission took 14:16 when it in fact took 14:46, my eyes had just about failed me at this point; I also say that the lift-kill can count as an accident which is true, but not in this case and the accident refers to rigging the pyro show. Sometimes the game does count lift kills as accidents though I'm not sure of the criteria which makes it believe they are.
Details
Play time: 14:46
Rating: Silent Assassin
Retrieved suit: Yes
Accidents: 1
Close Combat Kills: 3
Bullets fired: 0
In this mission I throw money at a guard's head, I set someone on fire, get shot at by a lunatic in a cage match, strangle somebody in a lift and then garrotte a woman wearing only a strip of fabric and some angel wings. This is an excellent mission and if it weren't for the tedious "duel me for the title of greatest assassin evar!" section, then this would probably be my favourite mission over "You Better Watch Out...". The easiest disguise to get in this level is obviously the security guard in the first building, however no matter where you put his body, it will more than likely be found sometime during the mission; if you're up for a bit of sneaking, the man throwing up is another easy target but this only gets you into the hell party main-area, probably the easiest way to advance from that suit is to kill the CIA agent when he gets into one of the lifts and then use his disguise although that's a lot of waiting about. If you are the CIA agent you can start a transaction with Vanya and kill her that way although if you haven't turned the projector on behind the scenes then you'll get a noise rating at the end of the mission which lowers your overall ranking.
I believe there is a way to kill the man in red before the duel: he acts as a bartender and he drinks from a glass located on a shelf nearby, I haven't tried it, but I would think poisoning that glass would cut out the dueling section, but would leave his body in a ridiculously open area. You can't get into the "Torture Chamber" until he unlocks it, at which point the cut scene starts so there's no possibility of bomb planting within the confines of that room. Don't worry about making noise, like he says, the room is soundproofed and no one else goes in there.
The CIA agent is very easy to take out as he exposes himself within the lifts among other places so there should be no problem there. Eve is a pain because she fights back with a stiletto if she catches you sneaking about but she's exposed when she walks into her "private" office. There is a way of getting up onto the rigging for the stage lights so the possibility of sniping her from there is present, but escaping may be a little tricky.
The escape is a bit complex because you need to nab the video tape from the guard station which requires some very simple sneaking, and then retrieval of the suit and running to the van. You'll notice in my playthrough as I sprint for the van my attention meter shoots up because a security guard spots me, but at that point I'm home-free so ignore it and carry on.
Next mission
Mission eleven: Amendment XXV, is giving me some trouble with regards to getting silent assassin ranking on it. The criteria the game uses is very bizarre, and I've done a clean run through of it (no bodies found, no noise made, no covers blown) and it still only gave me a professional ranking. Also, Bioshock is coming out this week and I was hoping to get this run through finished before I started on a fresh game, so if I can't find a way to get SA ranking, it will probably be a while before I try again and get the last mission narrated and written up.