On Thin Ice, Winter 2003
After your quasi-coronation, your next task is to penetrate Governor’s Island (where you assassinated Tatarin), rescue Isabella, and eliminate the Soviet stronghold on the island. You’ll begin by taking your troops on a daring raid across the frozen water in the harbor.
Governor’s Island: Boat Landing 1
Objectives: Destroy the tower
Welcome to Omaha Beach, or what might as well be Normandy, given the difficult landing your ships make upon reaching Governor’s Island. Not that they actually land; as you find out via the introductory cutscene, your ships are sinking (Chris’ ship seems to be called A Boy Named Hue; how colorful), Bagzton lost your C4, and the Soviets are breaking up the ice that your makeshift army is standing on. Sounds like an excellent time to retreat, but unfortunately that isn’t an option.
To make matters worse, the Soviets have two turrets placed inside the tower overlooking the harbor, and they’ll chew through your health quicker than a congressman taking a bribe if you don’t find cover, and the little cover there is barely adequate for keeping you alive. You’ll need to duck behind obstacles, then get on your feet and run from cover to cover if you want to live. Luckily, you’ll have a couple of teammates you can use as decoys; just tell one of them to attack towards the tower, then, as he’s getting mowed down, run towards the helicopter to the east.
The important thing here is to pick up all of the medic kits that you see; you’re going to need them in a hurry if the turrets lock on to you. At any rate, you’ll need to run around the rear of the ship where you start (it’s best to simply ignore the conversation between Bagzton and the fighters if you’ve heard it before; every second counts), then head towards the downed helicopter to the east. There’s a burning chopper in the middle of the ice; the smoke rising here will give you some cover if you need time to cycle through your items and use a medic kit, but your final destination is on the easternmost iceberg, where you’ll find a couple of rocket launchers. Use one and aim towards the tower to destroy it. You don’t need to aim for a turret; as long as you hit the upper part of the building (i.e., not the metal infrastructure below it), it’ll explode. Use any of your medic kits, if you have any left, on fallen fighters and head towards the island proper. Jump across the icebergs; if you try to swim, you’ll die within a few seconds.
You won’t be able to get anywhere near the island without taking out this tower first.
When you reach the island, you’ll be faced with two ladders. Take the one on the left and run like hell towards the east, and try to keep your fighters with you, since they have a natural, and foolish, inclination to fight against the dug-in soldiers behind the barbed wire fence to the east. When you reach the courtyard with the truck, find the manhole cover and head back to the rebel base. Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you’re going to have to go through the iceberg waltz again; the rebels actually have a makeshift base in the sewers of the island, which you’re going to have to use as a hub to conquer the five different locations here.
Your first priority has to be to get some teammates, but unfortunately the louts in the base feel nice and comfy down there, and won’t follow you to any of the island’s other locations. You’ll need to import quality fighters, by destroying the ventilation shaft grating back in the boat landing area. You can’t do that until you have C4, though, so the munitions depot will have to be your first stop. (If you’re critically low on medic kits, you can make a stop by Fort Jay to get some freebies near the manhole, without needing to fight anyone. Just make sure the attack helicopter doesn’t missile you to death. This is true of any of the gaps between these missions; just head to Fort Jay to get the maximum number of medic kits before starting any new area.)
