This just may be the best single mission in HD2.

Certainly it's the purest. That is to say, there's no nonsense about secret documents or laboratories or castles or disguises or four guys taking on an army or any of the other goofy stuff that you find in even the best of the other missions. Not that the goofy stuff can't be fun, sometimes, but....

Anyway this is just straight infantry action, street fighting variety. If it bears a certain distant resemblance to certain missions in Call Of Duty, that's not necessarily a bad thing; CoD is a great game in a lot of ways. In fact the first time I ran this mission I kept thinking that this was what CoD could have been like without all that ham-fisted scripting.

It's also a very tough mission; one of the toughest in the game, because there aren't any tricks or short cuts. You just have to outfight the bastards. I hope by now you've gotten good at it.

Town in northern France, in bad shape from heavy bombing and shelling. Germans scattered about the area, handful of GIs holed up in bank. Shells still coming in.

Fight your way to the GIs in the bank and help them hold off the Germans until friendly troops arrive. That's it. Trust me, that's enough.

For this you definitely want your A Team. They'll need to have excellent shooting skills and high endurance; first aid expertise is a plus too. Stealth and lock picking are irrelevant. Strength isn't a big deal either because there's no heavy stuff to carry.

I always use my team of Broadhurst, Elliot, Lauer, and Mulholland. My premise is that they've been on some secret mission in the area and completed it, or else had to abandon it for some reason, and were on their way back toward Allied lines when they came across this situation and felt obliged to lend a hand.

Fortunately, no doubt recognizing the total lack of connection between this mission and the previous one in this "campaign", for once they let you start afresh with your choice of equipment. (Within the usual not altogether reasonable limitations.)

You'll need one sniper; he'll have to use the Springfield because that's all that's available, God damn it. Lots of ammo, too, there's plenty of sniping to be done in this mission. The other men can carry Thompsons or Stens, Thompsons being more authentic if you want to say this is the SAS but Stens wouldn't be wildly wrong. I've had pretty good luck with an American carbine but it's not at its best at close-quarter point shooting.

I usually give the sniper a pistol for close-in work but he's never yet had occasion to use it and I don't really know why I bother. He can pick up an MP-40 early in the game if he feels the need for something handier than the rifle.

There are a few spots where you might get a chance to use grenades, so it's worth carrying a few along, but don't bother loading up on them. No knives, no explosives. I tried once taking along some antipersonnel mines and planting them in the path of the German attack but as far as I could tell nobody stepped on any of them and they were a big pain in the ass so I didn't do that again.

No compasses available, which is a pity; not that you're likely to get lost or disoriented, but it sure makes writing these walkthroughs easier when I can refer to directions.

This is the one mission in the whole game that actually could have happened. A town in ruins, a scattering of disorganized German stragglers, a small American patrol that got itself surrounded and shot up, both sides hanging on in a desultory way while waiting to see whose reinforcements get there first; a crack commando team on their way from some mission, coming upon the scene and spontaneously cutting themselves a piece of the action - why not?

It could even be an SAS mission. The SAS certainly did operate in northern France after the invasion, usually but not necessarily in cooperation with the local Resistance; they carried out various missions such as sabotage, reconnaissance, ambushes and so on, and often free-lanced for jobs of opportunity rather than following pre-planned operations. So this could indeed have happened in realtime history.

There are a few quibbles that could be made; there's that damned Springfield again, for one, and the MP-44 was still a pretty rare item in the West in the summer of '44, most being sent to the Eastern Front. And I have to admit that I am rather offended by the way the Americans are portrayed as a bunch of helpless whining weenies who have to be rescued by the heroic SAS....

Otherwise, this is a good one. I can only wish that the rest of the missions in this game were to this standard.

The start of this mission may be the toughest part. If you can get through the opening bits you should be able to handle the rest; but don't be surprised if you have to restart a few times.

You're standing in back of some wrecked buildings. In front of you is a mostly demolished house. You've got to go through that house; it's the only way out to the street. A street at present owned by some very tough, very mean Germans who would like nothing better than to shoot your ass off and will do it if they get a chance.

Go through the house, then, to the front room, and take up a position by the window covering the street outside. Don't get too close to the window; don't show yourself yet. Bring up the others - don't waste your time on Follow Me, you know how useless that is in close quarters - and deploy them in the room where they too can cover the street.

Probably two or three Germans will come down the street - individually, not in a bunch - and you can shoot them, but be quick because they're very aggressive and they don't scare for shit. Look up by the corner to your right, on the far side of the street, and you might get one there. (However this part is very unpredictable.)

When you've got the street clear, you can start moving your people out of the house. Stay down at the end of the street, though, and keep low. There are some Germans (at least three) in a demolished building up ahead, on the far side of the main street, and it's very hard to see them but if you shoot one the chances are the others will come out and attack you. The sniper needs to move over to the far left side of the street and watch for signs of movement; the others must be ready to give fire support in case of an attack.

There is also a man at a top-floor window in the building next to the wreckage (shown on the map as the "Hotel Lannion B") and the sniper can pick him off. He moves around a bit so if he's not there at first check back or just wait.

At least one man needs to be in a position to cover the end of the alley on the left side of the street, because now and then somebody comes out of there.

When things have settled down along the side street and up ahead, one man can run down that alley. Around the corner to the right there's a German standing in a window above an arched passageway. He's pretty easy. Bring the man back around the corner but leave him in the alley in case anybody else tries a move by that route.

The sniper can run to the mouth of the alley, then, and turn to face back across the side street. There's a weird asshole up on the roof of the wrecked building on the corner, across from the hotel, and he shoots at you with a pistol. Explain to him why he shouldn't take a pistol to a rifle fight, and then move back into the side street and get down and ease up toward those archways on your left and look through. Across the street, at an angle to your left, there's a German in an upstairs window in need of a thirty-caliber fix.

By now, assuming you got all those bastards in the ruins ahead, you're past the toughest part of the mission. Not that you can relax, but if you got this far without losing anybody you'll probably make it through the rest.

One man can now run up the side street and sprint across the main street (the Avenue de la Paix, a choice bit of irony there) and into those ruins, weapon ready in case there's still a German or two in there. He needs to sprint across the street and not stop to look around, because the shells start to fall in the middle of the street at this point. As soon as he makes sure it's clear, bring the sniper across. One of you check the street in front of that hotel; sometimes that guy in the upstairs window drops his MP-44 out onto the street when he gets hit. No great loss if he didn't, since you've got no ammo for it at this point.

Through the door on the left as you enter the ruins, you'll see a ladder going up to a half-wrecked second floor. (Once I found a German on it, frozen to the ladder by some bug of the game; he wouldn't surrender and he wouldn't let go and I finally had to shoot him in the back to get access to the ladder.) Take the sniper up it and through the rooms up there, keeping low. He'll probably come under fire as he goes into the second room; there are two Germans in an exposed corner of the building 45 degrees across the street. Pick them off, being careful not to give them a clear shot at you. They're not easy to hit because they move around a good deal, but stay after it because they've got to go in order to get on with this job.

When they're down move to the window with the machine gun and snipe the German out of the church tower in the distance. This is a very long shot and you can't really see him; all you can do is put a few rounds into that window, about where you figure he is, until you hit him.

Now let the sniper take over the machine gun and leave him there. Across the street, move the man in the alley through the ruined hotel to a position just inside the front arches, covering the area down the street to his left.

Your other man over amid the ruins can now dash down the right side of the street, staying close to the buildings and moving fast - there's going to be some more shellfire - and duck into the cover of the next bunch of wreckage. At this point two or three Germans will charge up the street from the intersection up ahead, and the machine gunner can cut them down.

Get your sniper out of there, now, and back across the street to the wrecked hotel and up the stairs and over to the edge of the ruined second floor, where he's got a view of the intersection down the street. Leave the man under the arches and the fourth man can come upstairs to join the sniper.

Now your man across the street moves down under that sign that says RITA, and on past that just a short way, staying down in a crouch and hugging the side of the building, watching the area ahead of him and to his right. A couple of Germans are going to come out of a side street, jump over a wrecked car, and run toward him. As soon as he sees any movement he can back up or hit the deck or even turn and retreat a short way; his function is as bait, to get those two out where the shooters across the street can nail them.

When that's over, bring everybody down and across the street - watch out for the shellfire - and into the cover of the building by the RITA sign; and then, one by one, around the corner and into what's left of the building there, lying flat so they can see out that hole by the street. Two or three Germans will come along and can be bushwhacked.

Now things start to get tough again. The next street - the Avenue de la Republique - is almost undefended; but there is one son of a bitch down toward the end who is a real fanatic, and very lethal to tangle with. In fact he's more trouble than any of the other bastards in this mission. You can get him but it's very easy to lose a man or two in the process.

This is the best way I've found: run across the Avenue de la Republique, to that burned-out car, and wait a moment until the shelling stops. Now sprint along the left side of the street until you reach an open doorway and duck through it and into the room to the right. Take up a position by the farthest window and wait.

If you're lucky Supernazi will come up the street right away and you can shoot him. Probably not, though. Usually he needs a little more baiting. So bring another man down in the same way and station him at another window.

By now your target will probably have launched some sort of attack, shooting and even throwing a grenade, but he may still not come up the street far enough to be shot from the windows. One more man, then, can run down the street, this one on the right side, and flatten out in the alcove there by that iron gate. That just about always gets him; just hope he doesn't get anybody first.

With him out of the way, deploy your people to cover the far end of the street - using whatever cover they can find - and run one man along the right side to those archways that are half blocked with rubble. Dive through the archway and get up against the wall and back up into the sheltered space behind you and watch the corner ahead; a couple of Germans are going to appear there. At the same time some more will probably appear on the street and your pals can get them.

Now everybody else can come up and gather behind those arches, and wait there while you run around the corner and up the stairs - haul ass between the corner and the stairs, you're exposed to several guns but they rarely shoot if you move fast. Once on the stairs go to silent movement. At the next floor look both ways, but there probably won't be anybody in the front hallway. Go right around the staircase and back through that short hallway to the rear of the building and through the door into the next room. Over to the right, beyond an open doorway, there'll be a German - though he may be dead, if he tried conclusions with your people while they were out on the street. If not, make him that way quickly and let's go.

Back to the front hallway, and down to the end and through the door there and check the corner room, though I've never found anybody there. Then back to the stairway and up to the next floor, again moving in silent mode.

There'll probably be a rifleman down the front hall to your left; chances are his back will be to you. Finish him and then go down to the other end and open the door. There's a sniper in the corner room but chances are he's already dead, having been plugged by one of the Americans in the bank across the square. Take his rifle if you can find it, but often as not it's fallen out the window when he got shot.

Bring the others up to the second floor and move them back into the hallway out of harm's way, so they won't be tempted to start anything. The next bits are sniper work and the other troopers will just be in the way.

The sniper can go down to that corner room, now, and get to work. First and easiest, there's a man on a balcony off across the square to the northeast. (Or wherever; but I'm assuming the map is oriented north-side-up.) The building, anyway, next to the Hotel Beausejour. Look for him, find him and bump him.

The next part is harder. The Hotel Beausejour, on the corner diagonally opposite your building, is a real trouble spot. On the top floor there are two Germans, one with a rifle and one with an MP-44, and another one on the ground floor, while yet another is somewhere close by ready to get in on the action.

You may as well get the one on the ground floor first; he's partly hidden but he doesn't move around so he's the easiest to hit. When you shoot him, or shoot at him, the rifleman upstairs will likely start shooting at you, so get back out of the window and try to figure out where he is. He's not too hard, but there's another one somewhere around who comes out into the street and shoots at you too. The one with the MP-44 stays where he is and doesn't get involved; we'll get him later.

Meanwhile there's a strange bastard walking around out on the square. His movements don't seem to follow any logical pattern; he comes out of a street over near the bank and walks across the square (naturally the GIs in the bank don't shoot at him; they don't do a damn thing all this time even though they have plenty of opportunities because we have to show what assholes the Americans are...sorry, sorry, but it pisses me off) and stands around and then walks back. All I can suggest is that you watch for him, and shoot him while he's walking away from you. (I got him once with a grenade but that was just a fun thing because I was getting tired of sniping.)

Go through the door at the back of the corner room and pick your way through the rubble and crouch down and look along the front of that building along the right (south?) side of the square. There's a kid of recessed area, a store front or something, with some columns, and there's a German in there. He's way back and you can't see much of him, but if you get into the right spot you can see an elbow and a leg through the scope. You have to sort of peck him to death; it's pretty gross really, takes three or four shots and you see the blood and finally he goes down.

Climb up the stairs to the top floor and go down to the corner room and through the door to the rear and very cautiously work your way around that hole where the floor has collapsed, all the way to the back and then all the way out to the outside. Turn and scope those upstairs windows in the Hotel Beausejour and you'll just be able to make out that son of a bitch with the MP-44. There's enough of him showing to kill him, though; and now you almost own the square. Only one more to go.

Back down the stairs to the ground floor and across the street and into the cover of that arcade or whatever on the corner; shellfire will tear up the street again so be fast. When the blasts stop, run on over to the Hotel Beausejour - a shot or two may come close as you do - and hit the deck and squirm your way into the front room and scope through the nearest window, looking across the square. Your target is up on a rooftop; look just past that statue in the middle of the square.

When he's down you can get up and go up the stairs and take that damn MP-44 and the ammo and go back to your building. Somebody can now go down to the square and collect that other MP-44, wherever the bastard dropped it, and also look around for that sniper's rifle - but stay out of the middle of the square and definitely stay clear of that bank, you don't want to trigger the next phase yet.

Right now it's time to do some weapon swapping and ammo arranging. Your character will no doubt want an MP-44. You've probably got two, though, and there's not really an adequate supply of ammo for both of you. Give the other man (your steadiest, fastest, most reliable killer; I wouldn't use anyone but Mulholland personally) all the clips, then, you're going to have a chance at a supply quite soon. Toss whatever other weapon you were carrying; you've got to have a free shoulder.

The sniper will of course hang onto his rifle; make sure he's got all his belt pouches full of ammo. If you managed to retrieve that scoped Mauser, whoever has it can go ghoul up some ammo now; there'll be no shortage of dead riflemen in the immediate vicinity.

Put one sniper in that corner room - second floor, not third - and position him so he can cover that side street over by the Hotel Beausejour, the one partly blocked by the wrecked tank. Stand the other one in the front hallway by a window where he can cover more or less the same area. A bunch of Germans are going to be coming out of that side street pretty soon and will offer good targets, but once they spread out onto the square they'll be too many and too spread out for snipers to tangle with; so you want your snipers where they can cover the side street but not be exposed to fire from the square. (If you've only got one sniper rifle then put him in the corner room and the one in the hallway can still do some good work with a submachine gun.)

Now take your man with the other MP-44 and give him Follow Me, and lead the way downstairs and around the square - not across it, around it, staying over to the right side; shellfire will burst in the middle of the square as soon as you start - to the front of the bank. Go through the doors and immediately over to the boxes against the wall near the windows. Ignoring the babbling of the loudmouthed idiot by the window, grab yourself a bazooka from the long box and then, holding the MP-44, empty the supply box. That will give you eight clips which should be enough; actually you probably won't be doing all that much shooting.

Leave yourself there by the ammo boxes, looking out the window, and take over the other MP-44 man and run upstairs and locate the man in charge long enough to trigger his hysterical little speech of welcome. Leave him while he's still babbling and go into the room to the left and take up a position by the window, covering the far side of the square but not exposing yourself too much.

Switch back to your #1 down on the ground floor, and wait. You won't have to wait long. The first shots will come from your snipers over across the square, as the first Germans start to come out of that side street. Leave them to it; they can handle it or they can't. Your man upstairs in the bank will probably get in on the action pretty soon too.

For yourself, you can watch and possibly see a few targets of opportunity, but don't get too involved in the gunfight outside; you're mainly waiting for a tank, and you can't get yourself shot up or heavily engaged because you're the man with the bazooka and everything depends on you. Anyway, you're not really in a very good shooting spot. One thing you do want to watch for: now and then a German will come through the doors of the bank, and you better be ready to get him because your US allies won't do jack shit. (Of course by now they're mostly dead anyway.)

Pretty soon you'll hear that familiar rumble, coming up the street to your right. Wait a little longer, till you're sure it's right outside, and then grab the bazooka. When the tank comes into view blow it up. By now you know from experience how to do it.

Now toss the bazooka, get out the MP-44, and look for targets. You might want to run upstairs and find a better shooting position. Or you might want to just switch viewpoints a bit. Check the icons and see if anybody's hit and needs to be moved out of harm's way. Remember, the mission isn't to kill all the Germans or even to turn back their attack; it's only to survive until relief arrives. If your guys are getting shot up, pull them back from the windows and put them in a defensive position by the stairs so they can shoot any Germans who come up after them, and get yourself and your bud in the bank in a similar position, and try to hold out.

It doesn't take all that long, once you've blown the tank up. And the infantry attack loses energy and cohesion with the loss of their armored support. The shooting will go on for a little while - it seems longer than it is - but then you'll get a very dramatic cut scene followed by mission fulfillment.

If you got through that one without losing anybody you are definitely getting good at this. Way to go.

One more campaign, and it's a killer in every sense.