help with Leningrad

[Veech]

man, I can't make it 1 minute into Leningrad.. how do you get past the hordes and tanks in the beginning? And suddenly my video card locks up with all the flame action, making it even worse, choppy performance! Help please :)

[SYS]

...a voice from the darkness.....

Yes, "Leningrad" is indeed very tough, I still and also have problems right after the beginning. But just hold on! :) Well, take out the first few soldiers and the first tank, that's not so hard. When everything seems to be clear at the starting area, don't forget that still there are one soldier in the distance, almost at the end of the first longer street, where the ruins is. I know there are ruins everywhere, but the arrow will show the way. Take him out too with the BoltGun, by its scope-feature. But be a smart killer, don't let them hurt on You much! Then You can take the MegaHealth and the armor, and also grab all the ammo what You can found... QuickSave Your game...

Now start walking on the long street, and right when more enemies appear, turn round and shoot two rockets into the soldiers behind Daniel! They are attacking from two broken windows, and an explosive barrel is near each of them... ;) Kill the other killable soldiers too from a safe distance, don't progress until the area is cleared...

Then the hardest part is coming... Two nice tanks and one or two soldiers, and even a ******* Russian Officer are still there, at the end of the street. You can destroy the first tank with the SMG or with the ChainGun... But then..You have to watch out for the Russian Officer. Russian Officers can call very deadly airstrikes onto Daniel, when they notice Him. When a Russian Officer shoots a "sparkling white sign" up to the air, then that means the airstrike will come in a few seconds to the area where Daniel is standing. You even can hear a "whistle"-sound when this happens..You still have time to run away when an airstrike is coming and started... Try to progress, and provoke an airstrike..run back to the previously cleared area..and then quickly draw the Shotgun, and run to the area where the Russian Officer is..freeze him and blast him as soon as possible...

Then kill the remaining tank and soldiers, and You've done it! The first CheckPoint will appear...

Sorry for the long post, but it's a hard point indeed, so I thought I should share my strategy with You. Although it still doesn't always work..You need some luck too... Good luck!

About performance issues... In Options, go to Video and click on Advanced. Turn off Bloom and Warp Effects, and also Character Shadows, if You haven't done it already. You can see an effects comparison page (http://www.shuto.ch/users/adre/aGe/Varus/Pain/PKeffects.htm) too, at Varus' nice PK-Site..that could be very helpful...

Have fun!

[Veech]

Great response SYS, thanks!! I'll give it a shot and report back :)

[Frag Maniac]

I don't see you saying what level difficuty you're on, so I'll assume you can use quicksave.

When I got to Trauma level on this, I used cards in the frist, second to last, and last areas.

Two things that I've found with Leningrad, try to use campspots, and try to save ammo,

I go immediately to the right to hide behind that broken wall when the level starts, if you do it quickly, you'll avoid fire from both the snipers in the distance, and the oncoming troops.

Try to make use of the barrel right by the corner, and the one across the street, when they rush you, to explode them when they're near them. If you have time, take out the sniper down the other street that's standing on the rubble with zoom boltgun, before they rush you. The other sniper doesn't have a line on you until you go out and to the left some from that spot.

Once those first ground guys are gone, then either rush into the broken building to get the ammo for the chaingun/explosives, or use what rockets you have on the tank. I like to get the ammo first, but you have to time it so the tank won't get you.

Once it's gone, you need to rush to the other end of the street, and out towards the corner of the building oppsite where the 3 barrels were stacked, to trigger the guys in the window, while looking up at them. Rocket or chaingun them, then get to the other side of the street the remaining sniper is on, without going far enough for him to get a shot at you. Use your PK to shoot the barrel by the him, which is about the point you see a telephone pole line up with him.

Then try to get the first tank down that street from a ways away, and rush to the ammo to the left of the side street. If you've done it just right, the Russian Soldier will appear around the corner, stay by the buildings to the left on the far side of that side street, in range of the Russian Officer with the shotgun freeze, and take him out with a freeze/shotgun combo. Rule of thumb, if the RO sees you, he'll send an airstrike, so don't let him see you untill you're ready to take him out.

The last tank's just a matter of going in and strafing as you shoot. If all goes well, you'll have at least 200 health, and 150 armor going into the next section.

[Mr. Q]

Movie of first section.

http://users.pandora.be/Mr.Q/Film_0002.wmv

[Veech]

Thanks all, I'll try these. Frag, I'm playing on Nightmare. One thing I have not been good about is collectiong coins, so I barely have $600 in coins to use, hardly enough to buy much help. But I rushed through Dead City, trying to make the 20 minute goal (*hah* fat chance, took me 40 minutes to finish the level) so I may re-play it taking my time and coilecting as much gold as possible. I'm missing a lot of the treasures, so I may have to d/l that old cheat that showed where the treasures were, what was it again? Who made it? It was cool, toggle on and off, showed where the ammo, armor and treasures were. I lost it when I uninstalled PK a few months ago..

I wonder if anyone has completed Leningrad without using cards?

[Frag Maniac]

...run thru being a money issue is what many of us are talking about when we say BOoH is a bit harder than PK.

I played BOoH all the way thru just to get as much money as I could first, then went thru again to get any cards I missed, I think many might be doing it that way, due to starting out with no gold like you said.

Dead City can be done in under 20 minutes even without using any cards, if you don't waste a lot of time on objects. I only got a bit over $300 total gold when I went back for the card, $200 of it being the easier to reach holy items on the balcony by the barrels, and the one behind the cars in the parking garage. The rest was a bit of pickup from objects that had smashed during battle.

If you use the methods described in Leningrad, it can be done without using cards, but it WILL be a bit harder to stay at or above 200 health at the end.

Try to not use the smaller, and megahealths unless you're really down to the point where the next section will be impossible to stay up high.

Also, there is a great campspot in the second area, just by immediately rushing to the pile of rubble, and climb up it and into the middle window where the guy is shooting down between the other two in the windows next to him. Immediately take him out when you get there, and you'll be able to keep your health high easy from that spot.

The cheat you're refering to is Powermad, and kalme's site has the latest version of it. http://www.kalme.de/painkiller/

Don't be too impatient with trying it without cheats first though, many of us like and have used the Powermad option, but much of it is just for the fun of the video effects you can get out of it, after you've played thru and beat all the game challenges.

It really gets easier after you play thru a few times, and know the maps well enough to develope a good strategy for each section.;)