Quake II/Installation

Level objective
The Installation is the second map in the game, and the first one you will revisit.

The objective of this level is to use the sewer tunnels to gain access to the Comm Center.



Strategy
For the second level in the game, the Installation is quite hard, especially on higher difficulty settings. You will meet Machine Gun Guards, which take four Blaster shots to kill, although they still go down with one well-placed Shotgun blast. Worse, you will meet them in groups, with Enforcers, without much cover to duck behind. Keep on the move, place your shots well and find more powerful weapons as a priority. You will also encounter another feature of Quake II, which is that apparently solid walls can open up behind you and disgorge Strogg to attack at your back.

The Machine Gun
From the elevator in which you arrive, it looks as if only one Guard stands in your way. Once you step out and shoot, however, you'll find that you need to fight Four Machine Gun Guards and a Light Guard in this room with three or four Light Guards sniping at you from above. There isn't much cover, so keep on the move and try to take out the Guards on your level with a single blast of the Shotgun each. The Guards up above are too far away for this to work, so either run away or dodge while you hit each twice with the Blaster. Take advantage of what lousy shots they are. The way ahead is obvious, but things get hectic with many Enforcers and Machine Gun Guards. You will, however, find your own Machine Gun in an alcove. Press the wall button to open the bars, step in and grab it and the ammunition for it. Do this as soon as you can, even while under fire (you can back into the button and also back into the alcove) because this weapon is much more effective against Enforcers than the Shotgun.

Past the Machine Gun alcove, you will arrive in a room with an elevator and a barely-comprehensible map of the base area unit (but conveniently labeled in English). Again there are Light Guards on a walkway up above. Take the elevator up to the walkway and clean up any remaining Guards. Go through the opening on your right and use the Machine Gun on the Enforcer there. This is the way ahead, but if you like to fully explore you should go back and follow the walkway to the left. There are Light Guards, including those you ran away from in the first room, but there's also worthwhile stuff to pick up. Watch out for a concealed wall panel that rises to release two Guards behind you. In their alcove you will find Jacket Armor. There is a lot of ammunition for the Machine Gun here, more than you can carry. Plan to come back here later on for more.

The Sewer Tunnels
Back at that opening on the right where, out of caution, you took out the Enforcer, continue to meet a second Enforcer and see a bridge get blown up. In the area outside, deal with three Light Guards and take stock of the situation. The bridge was over a channel with water in it and there are steps down to the water around to the right. There is a large pipe down there, which we can guess has something to do with the sewer tunnels that we're looking for. The obvious thing to do is to make for the sewers so, if you want to do that, skip to the next paragraph. The alternative is to take a look on the other side of the broken bridge. If you take a good run, jump at the last moment and cross at the narrowest part, it's quite easy to make it to the other side. If you miss, you'll slide without harm into the water below and you can climb the long set of steps to get back up and try again. Once across, use the Machine Gun to kill an Enforcer in the narrow passages to the right and then move on to two Enforcers and two Light Guards in the more open area to the left. From inside, you can see a door labeled (in English) Comm Center, but you cannot get to it. Outside the door is a lever which just might operate the open draw bridge that now blocks your progress. Drop down to the water below and follow an obvious path to the water outside (watching out for a secret on the way) and to the sewer pipe. If you can carry more Machine Gun ammunition, go back for it now.

Enter the sewer pipe (but if you decided not to jump over the bridge, see Secrets, below, first) and dispatch the three Light Guards in the room at the other end. Press the wall button and a hatch opens up. Drop down into the pipe revealed by the hatch to go to the ../Comm Center/ level. Note that dropping down a pipe means that you won't be able to come back this way.

Return from the Comm Center
When you get back from the Comm Center, you will find yourself in an area that you could not previously get to. If you jumped over the destroyed bridge to explore you will remember it, otherwise it will be entirely strange. You will also need to dispose of the enemies if you did not do that earlier. If there is an Enforcer and a Guard in the area ahead of you, kill them before approaching the lever. The lever lowers the drawbridge which allows you to continue the level and complete the unit. It will also open the door off to your left, so go that way, killing opposition as you encounter it. Outside you will recognize where you are, but watch out for Flyers whether or not you explored this area before. Enter the area that the destroyed bridge leads to and continue over the drawbridge to the door on the other side.

Through the door, you will meet some Guards in a hallway. Go carefully to the other end of the hallway, peek through the doorway on the left and you will see a large room. Obviously, you need to go in there, but save the game first. If you feel you're doing well, go ahead without reading the rest of this paragraph. The problem is that there are three Gunners and not much cover. They can be very quick with those Grenades and each does a lot of damage so this is the first fight in the game in which you can easily find yourself dead before coming up with a plan of combat. One option is to figure out how to use your own Grenades, even though you don't have the Grenade Launcher yet. If you have the Super Shotgun and can get close, a couple of direct hits will do the trick. Continuous fire from the Machine Gun will also take Gunners down, but you'll need to strafe to avoid return fire. Try to entice each of the closer two Gunners to come after you into the hallway so that you can deal with them all one by one. If your strategy allows the use of the Quad Damage power-up and you brought one from the Comm Center, here is a good place to use it. There is even a replacement on top of a crate in the back of the room. The exit elevator is here, to the left of where you came in.

Before you leave, collect any supplies that you did not already pick up. You may be low on Armor, since there was very little in the Comm Center, so if you left the Jacket Armor on the other side of the destroyed bridge, don't forget to go back for it now. Its easy to get back there, through the water and up the steps, but to return to the exit room you really need to be able to execute the running jump over the bridge (otherwise, you'll have to go through the Comm Center again). Also collect the plentiful ammunition for the Machine Gun. If you're short of a secret, now's the time to look for it, but the last one is so easy that you'll probably just stumble on it. Also look for the last secret if you are short of enemy kills. Finally, press the wall button to open the elevator and go in to receive the message "This is the end of the unit". Press the button inside the elevator to exit and begin the Bunker Area unit.



Secrets
This level has two (2) secrets:
 * 1) Near the sewer pipe and to the left as you face it is a rectangular opening into a flooded area under the building.  If you're coming out after dropping down from inside the building, you will have passed the secret on your left.  If you're going in from the outdoor area, stay near the right wall.  Watch for a crack in the wall.  Shoot it to open a hidden alcove, receive the message "You have found a secret area" and reveal a Shotgun.
 * 2) In the exit room, when the Gunners are dead, notice that there is an underfloor area that you can drop down into from various places.  Explore and you will easily find a Super Shotgun.  Take it to receive the message "You have found a secret".  Quickly stand with your back to the corner.  Six Light Guards will have come out of alcoves and will be looking for you.  Most will just walk into your fire, but you may have to search out the last one or two.  Look for stairs to take you back to the exit room, above.