Finally beat the game!
After several tries in the course of several years, I finally beat this game yesterday. What a glorious feeling.
I played on normal difficulty. My main crew from start to finish was Ice, Fidel, Ivan, Grunty and Speck (he was at home the entire game and joined the very last fight for sector 1 and actually killed a bad guy).
Also had more team members. Two were killed, two quit, and I fired four.
Fidel bullied Hurl until he quit, so I got Fox as a medic instead. Got Hamous, but fired him after one day, never took on another native guide. When Vinny was killed a few days in, Fox quit on me. Then I hired Sparky (mechanical) and Eli (medic) in their stead, and shortly thereafter fired Sparky... Then hired Jimmy. As I was surrounding the Island, Hector was killed, and I fired both Eli and Jimmy, and hired Vicky, Sidney and Needle. This team took the top and bottom peninsulas in the West and beat the game.
A few things to note. A lot of people say there are around 100 redshirts in Sector 1. I found only around 8. Once I was on Santino's peninsula, enemy gangs kept attacking my sectors and getting their asses kicked. I read somewhere that these attacks deplete the high number of troops in sector 1. I was expecting the very worst from sector 1, but in the end only Ivan was seriously hurt. I think Fidel and Ice took small wounds also.
I never used silencers in the entire game, as I find it tedious carrying them instead of scopes, and since it's no guarantee you'll get the process plant. Instead I kind of reached out and attacked the process plants early on, so they'd be repaired when I needed them to be. I also simply blew up the infected tree with dynamite as soon as possible.
You don't really need a great medic in the field. Just get someone with more than 10 medical skill, they just take longer and use much more bandages. Give 'em 3 packs every day.
I had my field mechanic carry all the keys and the lockpick, and I'm really not sure it was worth the bother. I had way too many keys in the end, over 10 unused.
Looking back, the game becomes slightly easier halfway, as your troops gain rifles and decent armor. The hearing aid is easily the best support equipment in the game.
There are certain things I'd do differently should I play again.
First of all I'd keep a native guide as these provide useful and entertaining story elements. Get them to carry the bloody keys. The second native Hamous is thought by many to be best.
Second, I should have fired Grunty, he's very mediocre. Hector as well. As I was surrounding the island, I had over 100.000 surplus dollars to spend. So I could have gotten someone better.
Third, my team was a little boring. Ice, Ivan and Fidel are cool, and I was sorry Vinny got killed. Speck stays at home repairing, which is fine, but I'd like Fox on the team along with some of the higher end guys.
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