Practice level: Verity's flat. Take your time to explore your surroundings and hone your game control skills.
Scenario: It is a weekday morning. Verity has to get up and get ready for work. There are two secrets to be found.
Opening doors: When confronted with closed doors at this level the temptation is to use Verity's authentic karate kick action: press the Kick key then very quickly press Jump and hold down Forwards. Although this does work, you will sustain 5% damage — 'stubbing the toe' — each time you do it, and remember there are no medipacks on this level.
Flushing the loo: You flush the loo in Verity's flat by climbing up onto the seat so that the cistern is at eye level. Now pull the lever (tap the Action key) three times vigorously and backflip out of the bathroom to land square in the middle of the hall (found by OooziM). If this doesn't work then you were probably too slow — you must wait five minutes for the tank to fill up again — so if you get it wrong you will probably want to reload your game at this point. You did remember to save your game, didn't you?
Traps: When going from morning room to kitchen, be sure to leap over the trailing aerial cable from the television.
Beware the milk in the fridge — it is poisonous! (If you like, you can crouch down and use the Look key to see that it is 12 days past its sell-by date.) You will want to place the carton into Verity's combat carrier bag for combat use later on.
Secrets: Vault into the bedroom sideways and look down. You will see there is a crawl space underneath Verity's bed. You will find assorted magazines and unwashed clothes, a hairgrip, her purse, and car keys.
The clean underwear is hidden in the washing machine (found by Daveman).
The level ends when you exit the flat.
Tips: OooziM writes: I found that the thermostat doesn't work properly unless you turn off the radiator in the bathroom.
Swazzer says: The doofer for the TV is hidden in between the cushions of the sofa, but it doesn't have any batteries so it doesn't work (Playstation version only).
Level 1: Getting to work.
Scenario: Verity travels from home to work. There are two separate strategies for completing this level.
Strategy 1: As you leave the flat you are accosted by the boring neighbour who wishes to tell you about his long-running dispute with the council. The correct approach is to crawl along under the cover of garden wall, then do a running jump (Forward, then quickly hit the Jump key) over the dustbins, and thus reach the safety of the car. Alternatively you can just sprint across the lawn and squeeze through the gap by the skip (found by Sophie). NB only evasive action is effective at this point. Do not use your weapon! Sour milk does not work against the boring neighbour.
Starting the car: press and hold the starter motor (Roll key) for thirty seconds while vigorously pumping the throttle (Action key). When she fires, pull out the choke (Choke key) about one quarter of the way.
Traps: It is a very good idea to save your game before trying to start the car.
If you pull the choke out too far, or too early, the carburettor will flood, and you will be unable to start her.
If you pull the choke out too little, or too late, the battery will run down, and you will be unable to start her.
If all this sounds too much like hard work then you can fall back on:
Strategy 2: Taking the Tube. Fairly straightforward and obvious except that you get more points if you kill the man who barges into the queue for the ticket machine with a karate blow to the neck rather than simply tripping him up into the path of the oncoming train (thanks to The_Gaffer for this).
Secrets: You stand a remote chance of getting a seat if you wait two thirds of the way down the platform, between the broken chocolate vending machine and the vandalised help point, and then push like hell (Push key) when the train arrives.
Bugs: There is a bug in the PC version that causes the train to stop between stations for periods of up to five minutes. No patch available so far. :-( :-(
Level 2: Arriving at work.
Scenario: The main task of this level is to get through the security door, which is protected by a keypad and electronic card swipe.
Strategy: The strategic options are:
- Try to sweet-talk Reception Ed into pressing the release button (Sophie claims to have had some success with this strategy, but nobody else can make it work). Do not use your weapon on Reception Ed! Receptionists are immune to the powers of sour milk.
- Hide behind the postal trays, waiting for someone with a card to open the door. Wait until the last moment, then do a running jump over the screen and sneak through behind them, innocently whistling (Innocent Whistle key).
- If you have used the cheat code to get all the weapons, you can use the Uzi to shoot out the lock. However, be aware that this causes the Building Manager to come out of her office to see what the noise is about. Now you are in big trouble. The Building Manager cannot be killed without the thermo-nuclear turbo-laser from the Caves of Tharg, which we will visit in Episode Three (Daveman).
Link scene: After you have overcome the terrors of the security door, an inter-level animation appears, where the Manager says: 'Verity, please can you make some tea — the directors are in an important meeting.'
Now you get to use your weapon...
