CAMPAIGN VS. FREELANCE - WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Upon launching the game the two main modes of play available are Campaign and Freelance.

To make up for the lack of something like a printed instruction manual here is a breakdown of each mode.

WHY YOU PLAY CAMPAIGN

Campaign is our challenge to you as developers but we start you off gently. The first thirteen missions are explicit tutorials that restrict you to just one loadout.

[Sidenote: all mission names are song references - here’s a spotify playlist as an alternate listening experience to Makeup And Vanity Set’s excellent electronic music]

Campaign missions are all single-map endeavors that have one of three main objectives: kill the captains, destroy marked buildings, or eliminate enough of the hostile enemies on a map. Objectives are visible in the top right of the screen. When the main objective has been fulfilled, the exit gate will be open.

As you complete missions, names change from blue to pink, with a diamond indicating that a loadout for that mission has been successfully completed.

Mission names in dark red cannot be accessed until the preceding mission has been completed. Only one loadout completion from a mission is required to access the next one in the list.

As you get further into the campaign, sets of missions will become available, but keep in mind to access the next set you will still need to clear all mission names in blue at least once for the next set to open up.

The Mission menu will tell you what sort of objective you will have to complete and comes with a short briefing, sometimes from characters within the fiction who only ever appear in these short snippets.

Double-clicking a mission name or clicking Loadout will take you to the loadout screen. Unless you go to the trouble of modding the game, mission loadouts are all preset and cannot be altered. For the mission FRENCH MAID, there is only one loadout available: Ripley Snell’s Canavan.

Completing a map with any of a mission’s available loadouts will reward you with the loadout first completion award on your earnings statement after successfully exiting.

This is a one-per-loadout bonus. Loadouts that have been completed already in a mission will be marked with a diamond icon on the loadout selection screen.

In the screenshot above, the diamond indicates it has been completed with the Touro, but not the Huss, Rounder or Chook.

In most missions you will get up to four different loadouts.

It was mentioned earlier that vehicle loadout choices in Campaign mode are preset. This is because they act as a sort of difficulty modifier. For example, the Treehouse is a very straightforward option since a stack of cars on tank treads is not at all subtle. To make up for being a massive target, the Treehouse has large amounts of health and shields to tank incoming fire, plenty of ammunition to flatten most of the map, not to mention the Audio-Kinetic Pulse available on cooldown. Choosing the Mongoose for the same mission, however, means players will have to avoid direct assaults and instead get better at flanking and mastering the use of Active Camouflage to get the drop on unsuspecting enemies.

Take note that if you want the second rarest achievement in the game, you’ll need to clear all loadouts from every mission.

Previously this achievement was much easier to attain because the campaign originally ended on “I’m Always In Love” but we kept updating