Simon Hason doesn't mess around. His latest, Sierra 7, is a first-person shooter that plunks you into the capable shoes of a special operative in the unit known as Sierra.
But wait! Sierra 7 isn't just a shooter, it's a rail shooter to be more precise. The game does all the movement for you, taking you along a predetermined course. All you have to do is point and click to shoot, and hit the [spacebar] when prompted to open doors and so forth. Press [R] to reload, and [Q] to cycle weapons. There are seven missions to play, not counting the tutorial, and before starting each one you can click on "loadout" to choose which of the weapons you've unlocked that you'll be taking with you. Whether you go in like Rambo or McClane is up to you, but when you're ready, hit "Execute" to start your selected mission. You'll need to complete each one within a certain time limit to pass, and remember; no disintegrations.
Sierra 7 is sort of an odd duck, in that it reminds me in gameplay and premise somewhat of Killer 7 (only with less talking heads in washing machines... unfortunately) but in execution it's a lot more like Swat4, if fairly watered down. Gameplay is fairly realistic; aim for the head and you'll always take an enemy down as long as you're a decent shot, guns behave and load realistically, and not every enemy has magical scoping laser headshot vision when they fire at you. There's even a level where you're required to snipe certain targets from afar, taking into consideration factors like wind speed and direction. The fact that enemy locations are randomised each time you reload a level takes some of the sting out of having to replay a level when your checkpoint was a ways back.
While things don't really start getting difficult until the last few levels, you still shouldn't expect to slack off. At least, not unless you really wanted some more ventilation in your head. As it stands, gameplay is fairly smooth, but a few bugs still popped up during my play, such as when my weapon decided firing was for suckers forcing me to reload the window, and in places the gray colour palette can make picking out your black stickmen enemies downright frustrating. More levels would have been welcome, but while it lasts Sierra 7 is still an impressive example of the genre and is practically screaming for a sequel.
Walkthrough Guide
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Sierra 7
This walkthrough is a breakdown of tips for each level.
General Tips
Remember to check your bullets. The best time is when the game pauses in front of a door and you have to press [space] to proceed. Reload then. But be vigilant - you have limited ammo clips and any bullets you don't use before a reload you lose.
Playing on low quality will improve the speed of the game, so remember to tone it down (in the Options menu).
You can only change difficulties before you start and after you finish the game. If you change the difficulty after finishing the game, you will lose all the mission-specific emblems, but keep the general ones (such as 25 Pistol Kills).
If you need to sharpen your skills (or just be challenged further), play the challenges.
If you step into a scene and don't move on within two or so seconds, it means you will be attacked soon.
Unlocks
Medkit:
Beat a level with 100% health.
Vest Tier:
Finish a mission without reloading. This gives you two extra clips.
Springfield Operator handgun:
Get 25 kills.
H&K G36C:
Kill everyone on the sniper level without missing.
Colt M4A1 Socom:
Get 50 headshots.
H&K USP:
Get 50 pistol kills.
H&K MK23:
Get 25 suppressed kills (use the Colt M4A1 Socom).
Benelli M4 Super:
Finish game on Recruit difficulty.
M60 7.26 Nato:
Finish fame on Veteren (sic) difficulty.
Levels
Training
The enemy patterns are always the same.
Set your gun to Semi (tap [f] until you see 'Semi' on the HUD next to your bullet count.
Irish Safehouse
This is a good level to get the 100% health and No Reloads emblems. Use a shotgun to do the 100% health run.
Completing this level unlocks the Mossberg 590 Tactical 126 shotgun.
A shotgun is the best weapon for this level.
Tangiers Hotel
Completing this mission unlocks the Bomb Diffusion emblem.
A pistol is the best weapon for this mission.
Completing this level unlocks the Colt M4A1 5.56 assault rifle.
RSA Embassy
Unlocks the AK-47.
Unlocks the Helicopter Insertion emblem.
There are two guys at the end who will execute the hostages. You have to shoot both before they do. A pistol is the best weapon of the job.
Kosovo Sniping
If you tap [space] while looking down the scope, you will zoom in more.
Watch the wind. Aim on the opposite side of which the flag is showing. So if the flag is blowing right, aim to the left of your target.
Getting the 100% accuracy emblem unlocks the H&K G36C.
Kosovo Base
This level features a lot of people popping out of cover. Keep an eye out for long pauses - it means an attack is imminent.
At the end you have to stop the commander from committing suicide. Use a pistol and shoot at his arm.
Somalia Street
Building
At the wall you can peek out. Keep your head out and shoot at the soldiers appearing in the windows and only move to cover when you reload.
Armed truck
The trick to beating the truck is to get your cursor in place. Peek over the cover and move the cursor towards the guy in the back of the truck. Remember to duck down behind cover before he starts shooting again. If you don't move the mouse when going back to cover - and come out of cover again - the cursor will point to where you aimed it the last time you peeked. Line up the cursor and then take pot-shots between the salvos.
Use Burst Mode [f] to get short bursts in when you fire back.
If you let go of [space], you will start going back to cover. Use this to peek out and start shooting as you duck back.
The first salvo is a burst of about five shots. It's easy to distinguish the gaps.
The second salvo are two bursts, around 3 then 4 shots each. Wait for both bursts before shooting back.
The third salvo is tricky - two bursts of three bullets each. The gap to shoot back is just slightly longer than between the bursts.
Thanks to James Francis for the walkthrough!
Posted by: Mike
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January 20, 2011 10:56 PM
The Kongregate badges recently appeared for this game, and they include completing the challenges. I didn't see a walkthrough online anywhere, so I figure I'd post one here.
Challenges walkthrough (particularly for the Kongregate challenge badge):
Sniper Field:
* You must have 100% accuracy and finish within 60 seconds for 70k points.
* Don't bother zooming in twice for most shots. (wastes time)
* After you shoot, you have 1 second to line up your next shot (in the 1st zoom level). This saves the most time by far.
* A little obvious, but if you're no good with wind adjusting, go after far targets when there's no wind. Save you closer targets for when you have wind.
Pistol Room:
* Memorize the placement and when to reload. You need to be reloading before the text comes up.
* In order to get 50k points, you either need to hit all 43 targets and miss up to 16 times or so, or hit 42 targets with 100% accuracy (not shooting and missing at 1 target). People who are bad at timing that last fast moving target in the second set may want to just ignore shooting at it completely if you can get 100% on the other 42.
Hostile Arena (scoring seems buggy):
* First: The level seems buggy. The challenge ends after 5 waves instead of 6, holding down space while you're in the game skips over the summary screen, I didn't get credit for headshots, at one point I had 200% accuracy, etc.
* To get 10k: Just get 100% accuracy then die. IE: Switch to semi fire or pistol and shoot someone once.
* IF it weren't buggy, I'd recommend: Getting pills (beat a mission at 100% life) and use the m60 for its high damage and no need to reload (aim for head, but most anything else will kill)
Gun Running:
* Complete the game in the easiest recruit level and use that shotgun (the best shotgun). It enables quick shots and fast reload and will score you a very high accuracy. With a shotgun, this challenge is significantly easier.
* Don't forget you can shoot through the corners of the wall if the targets have just passed.
Long Range:
* I liked the M4A1 for accuracy, AK47 didn't seem to cut it. The last pistol also works, but requires more reloading.
* Switch to Semi-automatic fire.
* You can shoot the targets through pretty much any cover.
* For 60k points aim for a 90% accuracy in under a minute. Take your time, each missed bullet costs you about 4 seconds. In comparison, at 80% accuracy you'd need to finish in 40 seconds (nearly impossible).
Other thoughts:
I really like the way this game does 3D elements! I haven't seen much like this without plugins in a flash game, it's pretty impressive. (wait, it's not a Unity game, right?)
To change difficulty, just beat the last mission again. You won't lose most weapons or badges that are not related to beating specific missions.
Posted by: Slansing
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February 17, 2011 4:58 PM