A. GAME INFO 1. INTRODUCTION: What is "War: Final Assault?" 2. CONTROLS 3. CHARACTERS 4. WEAPONS 5. ENEMIES 6. PENTABOLT KEYS 7. CODES B. TIPS AND TRICKS C. CREDITS
//////////////////// A. GAME INFO ////////////////////
1. INTRODUCTION: What is "War: Final Assault?"
This is a really cool arcade game first-person shooter, one of the first of it's kind. You can choose from 4 different characters and navigate through a realistic 3D environment, destroying computer-controlled enemies in the single-player game, or other players in a free-for-all battle. Up to 4 machines can be connected, though so far I've only seen 3 machines together in one place.
2. CONTROLS
The game uses a control scheme which is intuitive if you are used to first-person shooters such as Quake or Unreal. There are buttons to control your movement forward and backward, to slide left and right, and to jump. The joystick allows you to turn your facing, or to look up and down. There are two buttons on the joystick: a trigger, for firing, and an "eject" button, to toss away the weapon you are currently carrying, or to exit from a turret (more on these two later). There is also a convenient "View" button which switches you between a first-person view and a chase view, where the camera is behind the player.
3. CHARACTERS
Once I find out the names of the individual characters, I'll put them in. For now, here they are by description:
Crew-Cut Guy: Armed with a shotgun, he's pretty much the average person in the game. A great starter because of this. His shotgun will do good damage up close, but does less the further from your target you are. However, it's very easy to hit targets from afar with it.
Female Fighter: Has a light rapid-fire weapon. It's pretty weak. Her greatest advantage is speed; she's the fastest of all the characters, and a pretty decent jumper as well. The gun fires faster, but since it's weaker, it doesn't quite make up for it.
Shades Guy: An excellent long-range fighter. His machine gun will do the same damage whether you're right next to your target or really far away from it. Perfect choice for snipers.
Big Cyborg Guy: Slow, but makes up for it with power. His weapon is a small rocket launcher. It's hard to hit targets with it, and has a slow reload time, but it does a lot of damage. Recommended only for experts.
4. WEAPONS
Chaingun: Very fast-firing weapon. Tears through infantry, and is even good as a sniper weapon since it doesn't lose strength with distance. Very accurate as well.
Laser: DEADLY! You can rebound this off of walls too. The only drawback is that you have to line the target up well if you want to do the most damage that you can. In a head-to-head game, jumping will make it harder for someone to hit you with it.
Grenade Launcher: Shoots out explosive bomb-like projectiles, which explode after a seconds. The true power of this weapon is if you can hit them with the grenades directly, where it will do a lot of damage.
Mortar: Lobs a large explosive projectile out. This is an instant kill weapon if you hit someone directly with it, but it does good splash damage as well.
Flamethrower: Not very good damage, but the target will contiue to burn for a while after they're hit.
MIssile Launcher: One of the best weapons. You can fire up to 3 missiles before reloading, and they will home in on targets if you lock onto them first.
Plasma Cannon: To make this weapon work, you have to hold the trigger down to charge it up, then fire by releasing the trigger. Fully charged, it can kill anyone in front of you with one shot.
Barrel of Monkeys: This only appears every so often on multiplayer levels. It's one of the most powerful weapons in the game! It launches out monkeys with dynamite strapped to their back; they run out towards enemies, and will kill them on contact! You can defend yourself by shooting down the monkey before it reaches you, however.
5. ENEMIES
Construction Workers: Lightly armed, with wrenches or light pistols. They die fast and easily. Just watch out if they swarm you, because those wrenches can hurt, especially in numbers.
Orange-Suited Guys: The basic enemy that you encounter through much of the game. They are fairly strong, and will fire large energy blasts at you. Dodge them, because they can cut you down in no time if you stand still!
Black-Suited Guys: Tougher versions of the orange ones, they can take more damage, and their weapons are a little deadlier as well. Plus, sometimes they are armed with one of the regular weapons. Kill them and take it from them!
Radiation Workers: Just like the construction workers, but slightly tougher, and wearing radiation suits. Also, on level 7, you will sometimes find them carrying weapons that you can take once you kill them.
Aliens: They will appear in various shapes and sizes in the last levels. The large ones either shoot at you or try to punch you. The spiders can be a nuisance, but are dispatched easily.
6. PENTABOLT KEYS
Here are the locations of the pentabolt keys on levels one through 6. Collecting them all will allow you to access a secret level after defeating the boss of level 7.
Level 1: Go inside the building at the beginning and climb up the stack of boxes to the left. There will be a tunnel that you can fall into from the top. It leads to a hallway with a few enemies in it. The pentabolt key is at the end of the hallway; after picking it up, ride the lift up back to the rest of the level.
Level 2: After you get back outside, shoot out the bottom of the first crater. Fall in and follow the hallway around, killing the enemies inside. Drop down into a room with a large slime pit and a turret on the opposite end. After destroying the turret, jump across the pillars sticking out of the pit to reach the other side. Go through either door, then up the ramp. You will find the pentabolt key protected by some enemies. Grab it and continue into the next room and out the door, which leads back outside again.
Level 3: Go up the staircase at the beginning. Instead of going through the door at the top, jump onto the banister to the right of the door, then jump from there to the window ledge. Walk towards the wall, and a door will open up, taking you to a small computer room with lots of construction workers and a couple of the black-suited guys. The pentabolt key is in this room. After grabbing it, take the ramp down and go through the door to go back out into the level.
Level 4: In the long hallway with all the debris and boxes stacked up against the wall, find a door on the right site near the end with a few boxes and one of the red explosive barrels. Destroy the barrel, and go through the door. At the bottom of the ramp is a room with the pentabolt key in the middle. Grab it, but watch out for the ambush from the doors on the sides of the room. To avoid getting hit, try grabbing the key, waiting a brief moment, then jumping backwards. If done correctly, all the shots will miss you. After killing the enemies, take the ramp up on the other side of the room and go through the door back out into the main hallway.
Level 5: As soon as the level starts, go left and shoot the cliff wall inside the fence. Go through the cave, which leads up to the ledge. Somewhere along the cave, however, is a spot where you can blast /another/ hole, leading to a point where you can drop down into a warehouse with boxes. Kill the enemies, and watch out for the tank! Just past the tank is a lift that will take you up to the pentabolt key, which is floating over a hole. Don't worry about falling into the hole, because you'll grab the key as you fall, and that's where you need to go anyway.
Level 6: Go through the level until you get to a conveyor-belt-like machine that's rolling something lava-orange. Make sure you take the /left/ path around the maching; going the other way will cause you to miss the key! Continue through the level this way until you reach a large room with two vats of slime. Jump up on the platfor on the far end to the right past the vats. Around the back of them you will find a stairway which takes you to the top of the vats. Jump onto the rim of the first one, then jump over to the second. Fall /into/ the second vat. Watch out for the radiation workers! Take the lift up to a narrow passage leading to the pentabolt key, then drop back down into the room with the vats.
7. CODES
When selecting your character, press the view button several times, then move the joystick left or right. This will allow you to select different models for your character. They will act exactly like the character they are replacing; they just look different. More of these models will become available to you as you become a higher rank. Upon becoming a warmaster, you get a cool Alienov model for the last character.
The winner of a head-to-head game can select the next level. All they need to do is hold the eject and view buttons together to bring up the list, and while they're holding the buttons, move the joystick up and down to select the level they want.
//////////////////// B. TIPS AND TRICKS ////////////////////
I am as of yet undefeated in War, in all the head-to-head games I've competed in. Also, at the Gameworks at the Great Lakes Crossing Mall in Auburn Hills, MI, I've attained a single-player streak of 255. I can offer these tips that can help you become good enough to attain similar streaks.
1. Learn your enemies movements. They will always shoot at you at the same times. You can dodge them by learning when they shoot and doing a brief slip to one side just as he shoots. This will cause them to shoot way to the side instead of shooting at you.
2. Robots can be defeated easily. When they fire the first spread of shots at you, there is usually a gap between them that you can slip between if you're quick enough. Then just weave back and forth as you shoot at them. With practice, you won't take any damage at all.
3. Conserve ammo for tougher enemies. When going up against weaker foes, toss away your weapon, kill them, then pick it back up. Another way to conserve ammo is to learn to judge how much ammo it will take to kill an enemy; practice shooting the chaingun, for example, and releasing the trigger just as they are killed. Finally, you can save even more ammo with a mixture of both weapons. Example: use some chaingun ammo, then while still firing, throw away the weapon, causing the final blow to be delivered by your basic weapon. Also, the black-suited guys take two missiles to bring them down, but instead you could use one missile and one basic weapon shot.
4. Keep track of the positions of any health objects across each level. Learn to move between these areas while taking as little damage as possible. Particularily, learn to stay alive until you reach a mega-health powerup.
5. Assuming you got the rocket launcher just before reaching the second level boss, you may be tempted to use them all on the boss, to bring him down as fast as possible. The best thing to do, however, is to use a few of the missiles to take out the orange- suited guys that come out from the sides of the base. It's hard enough to fight the boss by itself, but it becomes harder when there are more people shooting at you.
6. Don't charge headstrong into any area, unless you're sure you can handle it! The long hallway on the 4th level, for example: edge through each section slowly and take down all enemies before continuing further. If you try to run straight down the hall, all the enemies will be released practically together, leaving you little or no chance for survival.
7. If you have a good streak going, you will notice more enemies placed around the level. This is bad, because it will be harder to fight them all off, but it is good because they will help your streak and kills increase even faster.
8. Oh, yeah, unless you don't know this already: never EVER use the "Just Play" option at the beginning of the game, even when first playing. Ever time you don't keep records, those are dozens of kills that won't count towards your goal.
9. Despite how difficult each boss seems, most of them can be taken down without dying. The exceptions are the bosses of levels 6, 7 and the secret level, which would take an extraordinary amount of skill to accomplish. Make sure to take cover on their attacks; the cover they supply on all the boss areas is there for a reason, you know.
I can also offer these tips for head-to-head combat:
1. Use the scenery to boost your jumps. If there are explosive barrels or debris sticking up out of the ground, jump on top, then jump again. It's much harder for someone to hit you if they have to aim up.
2. The missiles are more effective at close-range, or from above. Don't stand still while locking on, though, or you'll be a sitting duck. A particular trick I like to use is to keep them in my sights from my high position, then jump down and fire the rockets while you're in mid-jump. This makes it hard for them to hit you because you're probably leaping over their heads, and actually tends to have a better chance of you hitting them.
3. I personally never use turrets, and I really come down hard on people that do. It's just a personal preference really; I feel it makes you a sitting duck. With that in mind, here are the best ways to take out someone in a turret: with the chaingun, with the homing missiles, or from afar with your basic weapon; it's suprisingly effective against them! Also, if you can run in fast enough and climb up on the pedestal between the turret's cannons, he won't be able to hit you, and you can stand there and shoot at their face to your heart's content...unless your opponent figures out the trick in #4 below.
4. For those of you that /must/ use turrets, I can offer you two tips to avoid becoming a sitting duck. First, if you see incoming missiles, or someone's really pecking away at you, leave the turret (eject button) and back up for a few seconds. After the missiles impact harmlessly against the turret, you can climb back in and resume blasting away. Second, if someone runs up between the barrels of your turret, it may take you off-guard since you can't hit them with the projectiles, but remember that it's an explosive weapon; point the gun down and fire at the ground a few times. The exlosions should take him out.
5. Forget using the flamethrower, unless you're shooting at someone from above or below. In a face-to-face confrontation, you will likely die, especially if he's armed with anything other than his basic weapon.
6. You may be tempted to fire a full three-missile spread at an opponent, but consider if your opponent is already hurt...one missile might do the job, allowing you to save the other two missiles for someone else. Likewise, people like to take advantage of the missile launcher's reload time, so try firing one missile, wait a second, then fire the other two as he charges towards you, thinking you're helpless. It's amazing how often that tricks even a good player.
7. I must admit, I do like turrets for one reason, other than the fact that I find their users an easy kill: people will often run towards it and forget about anything else, allowing me to snipe them easily from behind. A smart player will run backwards towards the turret. This brings up another point: don't try to run away if you're getting beat on. Back away so you can shoot at them, unless you have a cliff or other ledge that you can leap from (an effective escape maneuvar).
8. Use you radar! Try not to let any of your opponents behind you. If you get caught in between someone, run for an edge of the map.
9. I know this is also a matter of preference, but always use the first person view instead of the chase view. It's a trade-off for peripheral vision, but you will always see /exactly/ where your weapons are shooting. That's more important, especially when using the laser or chaingun.
And finally, these movement techniques:
1. The Circle: learn to hold onto the sidestepping button and keep your enemy in your sights. This will cause you to run in a big circle around them. You can turn the circle faster or slower by holding onto the forward or backward button at the same time.
2. The Weave: Jump forward-left, then immediately jump forward-right, and repeat. This makes it tougher for turret grenades or missiles to hit you. In fact, doing this at the right times will even shake off homing missiles!
3. The Block: If your target is weaving back and forth, don't stand in one place and turn to keep them in your sights...slip to the side to keep them in front of you.
4. The Escape: If you're being shot at, and you know there's a ledge nearby, jump off of it, but don't turn to face it! That takes too much time. If it's to your left, jump left. If it's behind you, jump backwards. The important thing is to get out of there as soon as possible.
5. The "Can't See Me!": Do a tight foward-right or forward-left circle as mentioned above, when you're right NEXT to someone. You can often circle around them faster than they can turn to face you, which keeps you just out of sight (or in sight, but not enough to shoot).
//////////////////// C. CREDITS ////////////////////
This FAQ was written by Mark J. Hadley (mjhadley@oakland.edu) War: Final Assault is a product of Atari Games
