When you trigger the lasers in shogun showdown you experience an incredibly unique NPC behavior unique to this mission which is they congregate from throughout the level in the nearest hallway aiming their guns and remaining still waiting for you to emerge.
In the basement where the bomb is, when you walk through it intentionally, it causes the 5 guards standing outside by the helicopter to all gather in the hallway. If you have a disguise and walk outside right after walking thru the lasers, some ninjas run right past you without becoming hostile, on your way out. Then the yard with helicopter is empty for the remainder of the mission unless you do something to disturb the guards in the hallway.
I wonder if this was meant to be used to empty the area outside. I’ve never seen this mentioned in any walkthrough, but it makes sense since specifically those guards go in for it, and it’s right next to the unused disguise in the next room.
Oh wow, this is a cool find! I’ve never noticed this, and frankly always avoided triggering the lasers, but from what you describe, it seems that that might indeed have been the intention. I don’t have SA installed to try playing with it, but if there is a way to empty the courtyard and not risk blowing your cover at the same time, that is very neat.
yeah I havent tested whether merely triggering the laser causes an alert to show in your stats, but it doesnt make your suspicion meter go up or cause the music to change or anything so it doesn’t seem like it. It would make sense because I always found those guards awkward to deal with as they start following you on site, but dont pursue you if you run away, so it always felt like I was missing something about how you’re meant to deal with them. they are easy to walk past and plant the bomb, but it feels like thats more due to their ai being glitchy or not working properly
Let us know if it counts against SA or not. Like Rimland, I always avoided them except for maybe once or twice. I know I triggered the one that leads to the weapons cache room once, but that one caused guards to run towards me and they blew my cover and lit me up.
You just have to be moving and they won’t blow your cover. Suspicion is based on proximity but most guards don’t follow you if you keep walking. These guards especially since they are programmed to be running to investigate and get into position. Trigger it then immediately walk or run outside using the closest door. A ninja in black (the white ones use the other door opposite side of the hall) may pause as you pass him, but as long as you keep moving and eventually leave his line of site, he’ll forget about you. That’s how a lot of these guards work with disguises in this game. There are different stages of suspicion. I’ll try to check tomorrow if it causes an alarm in the stats
They shouldn’t run towards you if you act normal. The two sitting in the room will stand up but as long as you keep moving and leave the room they shouldn’t turn hostile. They only do if you stand there long enough to look at you.
here is a video demonstrating the whole thing and how it works. I havent had the chance to go through the rest of the level yet to see how it affects score, but it doesn’t seem like it would https://youtu.be/PJlfFHXGk_I
Thank you! It’s been actually not that long since I fired up the X360 and played H2SA, so it may be a while before I do it again but when I do I’ll certainly hit that level up now.
yeah no problem. in the same vein, I noticed the two guards who stand on the other side of the lasers leading to the basement, the laser door in the squeaky floor room, will always walk to wherever the floor squeaks after it squeaks twice. This could also be used as a distraction. You could run across between the two safe “lines” on the floor in the center of the room, facing towards the wall with the laser door, then walk behind the crates along that wall while the two guards leave their post to investigate the sound. while they are over there, you could use the keycard to open the lasers and make your way to the basement. While those guards similarly don’t turn hostile as long as you keep walking and go down the basement stairs before they start following you, it still always felt kind of awkward having to walk right past them and pray it goes okay. It makes me wonder if this is actually something they intended, and if thats the entire reason for those crates being there with just enough space to walk behind, and being completely concealed by shadows and on the path toward the laser door.
Triggering the lasers doesn’t affect the rating in any way, which makes it useful to manipulate not only the helipad guards, but also the ones in Hayamoto’s penthouse (not sure if that’s the case for all the laser doors on the map though). Thanks to that, I’ve discovered how fun it can be to complete the level SASO. After struggling a bit searching, I’ve finally found the exact video which taught me the trick quite some time ago:
That’s another trick I’ve found used in the video above.
Oh that’s awesome thank you for that video. What other examples are there? I always wondered if there was a proper way to get past the ninjas on the floor right below the top penthouse. When you trigger the alarm system on the third floor, those guards are the only ones who stay there, so when I would walk up past them to get onto the roof it seemed like it was a 50/50 chance they’d get hostile.
Right now I am working on basically the opposite of that video I’ve been working on it for more than a year now it’s gonna be the most perfect cinematic playthrough that takes the most all-encompassing route and strategy to show off every feature, gimmick, and every aspect of the level in the most organic way, making every movement of the camera and every movement of 47 absolutely perfect, syncing up all movement to the soundtrack and everything to make the gameplay look like a cutscene