I didn't like those Duty fascists, so I chose Freedom. They were too busy smoking weed so the entire Garbage was already overrun by Duty
The first task was to clear the northern entrance to Dark Valley. Easy enough, I wiped them out and then sat there for like 10 minutes until Freedom finally realized to send their units to capture the area. No sign of Duty, time to move to the next capture point
It was the southern swamp. So I went there, ready to kill every Duty soldier in that area. Except there weren't any. The area was controlled by friendly loner stalkers. Stalkers aren't enemies with Freedom, and the leader of Freedom made it very clear that we were not allowed to take innocent lives during the faction war. But the game wouldn't advance. I was forced to kill all of them, and then Freedom finally captured the area
4 capture points + Duty base remaining, and these are by far the worst ones. Duty constantly sends reinforcements, a wave after a wave, every 3 minutes, and at the same time you have to wait like 20 minutes for Freedom group to arrive the capture points
I managed to capture the northern point easily, because for some reason Duty stopped trying to recapture it
Southern point isn't much different really. There was just one problem: a group of Bandits nearby. I have no idea how one group of Bandits manage to take out 3 groups of Freedom, yet they did. With their crappy sawn-off shotguns and Vipers. And I couldn't do anything about it, because I was neutral with Bandits and didn't want to piss them off because their technician specializes in SEVA suits and you can make a ton of cash by playing the crow shooting game. And yes, Bandits are enemies with Freedom even though joining Freedom doesn't make then enemies with you
About an hour later (seriously) Freedom finally captured the area and I was ready to move to Agroprom. Better save the game, because the next part is BS. Not only you have to clear the 2 remaining points, you ALSO have to defend the 2 entrance points in Garbage. Lose one of them and your objective gets canceled and you lose the areas you've captured in Agroprom automatically
I started with the northern point. I wiped out like 10-15 Duty squads while waiting 30 minutes for Freedom to haul their asses over to Agroprom. Once they arrive, save the game. At this point you have to capture the southern point and hope that the guys in northern point manage to hold the area. Fortunately I actually had 2 Freedom squads in the northern point so I could trust the AI and didn't have to run back and forth between the point like an idiot
Southern point is easy. Capture the area and wait for about 30 minutes and some Freedom squad might accidentally find their way to Agroprom and capture the area. Once it is captured, save the game, because the next and the last target is Duty base
Duty will constantly spawn squads to recapture the 2 points. You have rely entirely on Freedom to hold the points because you're busy capturing the Duty HQ. I had to reload the game over and over again just because I kept losing one of the points half-way through capturing the base. There are like 25 Duty soldiers in the base, and if you get lucky you manage to wipe them out before the point gets recaptured. I finally managed to win and got myself a cool looking Freedom exoskeleton, but goddamn the entire faction war is







TL;DR: The faction wars suck because
- It isn't faction wars. It's you versus a faction. Your allies are completely useless and the only time you ever see them (if you get lucky) is when they arrive to capture the point you've held for them for the last 30 damn minutes
- There are times when you have to rely on the AI to hold off the attackers. Not easy because 90% of the time Duty wipes the floor with Freedom. The fact that losing an earlier capture point automatically cancels your current objectives is stupid as hell
- Horrible respawn times. Once you reach the enemy's area it takes FOREVER for your allies to arrive, and at the same time your enemies keep respawning constantly
- The AI doesn't understand reinforcements. It only sends a new squad when the old one is completely wiped out. So if you have like 1 guy defending an area from constant enemy waves you might as well kill him yourself in order to trigger reinforcements
- Silly oversights like having to kill friendly and neutral units in order to capture points
- Sometimes it just doesn't work. Squads freeze, mysteriously disappear or sometimes won't even spawn. You either quick-load an earlier save or wait another 30 minutes and hope something happens
- There's no point in it, except for cool prizes. Even if you capture the base the enemy will just respawn once you leave and recapture everything. You can't make any permanent changes in the Zone's power struggle