ASSAULT ON THE CONTROL ROOM FULL

Right about now a human dropship should be getting the attention of the Covenant in the area. Be sure to get the ones by the Shades first. There should four or five snoozing nearby. Take a moment to bonk any sleeping grunts on the noggin but try not to attract the attention of the Banshee. Moving on, you get to see snow for the very first time.

ASSAULT ON THE CONTROL ROOM FULL

Remember to scavenge again and pick up a good, full plasma pistol. Move towards the door now and vent some plasma on them. If you manage to finish off the original complement of Covenant without activating them, good for you. If you get near the exit, three more grunts will come through to harass you. Be careful when fighting through this room. If he ducks behind cover, drop a grenade next to him. Once he's the only enemy left standing, take out his shields as usual then follow up with the pistol. That will usually send him running for cover leaving you alone to deal with his cronies.

If the elite is being annoying, take down his shields with a charged shot. If you're really close range, just whack 'em. You can just finish them off with the plasma pistol. If you're relatively close, there's no need to switch to the human pistol. Use charged shots to take down their shields then switch to the pistol and zoom in for the kill. Once they're taken care of, switch to your plasma pistol and go for the jackals. Wander around and try to pick them off from far away. Zoom in and aim for the head if using the human pistol or just hose them down with the plasma pistol. There also might be two or three jackals wandering around, but sometimes they're replaced by a few more grunts. There should be at least four grunts and an elite on the ground and two grunts up on the catwalks. The Covenant here vary from game to game. No need for stealth here, just head in and find cover near the entrance to the interior of this room. He'll wake up the whole neighborhood screaming at you, but that's fine. If you're having trouble, wait until he's heading towards the right (he seems to take longer going that direction) then instead of hitting him just stick a plasma grenade to him. Sometimes he's farther away than others, but you can always sneak up and whack him from behind if you're fast enough. Peek in and you'll see an elite patrolling the entrance to the next room. They can be very handy when getting out of the way of gunfire and they're invaluable for sneaking up behind elites. They give you four more ways in and out of the central areas of these rooms. Don't do this if you're trying to be stealthy of course, but once you're discovered blast them.

One very handy tip for nearly all of these rooms: Shoot out the windows. You'll be blasting your way through innumerable rooms like the one ahead so get used to the scenery. Scavenge through the carnage looking for plasma grenades and a good plasma pistol to take. Just mow 'em down then ditch the assault rifle. There are six grunts to finish off in the hall, but you can blow all your assault rifle ammo on them. Your first health pack is pretty far away and on the other side of a tough battle. If you survive this but with your health in the red, you may want to revert to the last checkpoint. Both elites should go down leaving you in decent shape. Hose them down with the assault rifle as soon as you can. With a little luck, the two elites storming out after you will get caught in the blast. Immediately start throwing frag grenades at the door and running towards it.

These grunts are going to fetch their big brothers, so get ready. The first Covenant you come across will be running like hell away from you. On the bright side, this level includes every single vehicle and nearly every weapon in the game for you to play with. I hope you've built up some calluses on those thumbs. You've made it through some pretty rough battles in the past, but AotCR has a whole ton of really nasty encounters in store for you.

Assault on the control room