Keep moving

“Don’t overthink it,” you say, checking in either direction. The road is littered with cars and debris. There are several roadblocks, and the game is artful about making sure that the sniper-friendly sightlines aren’t too ridiculous here. “Let’s get in there.”

As you say it, gunfire rattles off inside the industrial compound. The game makes it difficult to pinpoint directions and locations, but the sound design is detailed. The gunshots sound realistic, and so do the snaps and pings when shots are blitzing past you. Someone else is having a party right now. You check your magazine to make sure it’s loaded, getting ready to move, but Colby speaks.

“Heads up,” she says. “On the left, in the bushes.”

You hit Q to lean and peer around the barrier. The stone wall that surrounds the industrial area has barbed wire and shrubs all along it. You see a shrub move. That’s a PMC—a player-controlled opponent, not an AI scav.

“Looks like he’s alone. Should I tap him?”

“No. Throw a grenade first. He might be armored up.”

“I don’t have one.”

“What?”

“I didn’t bring any,” you say, defensively. You threw these loadouts together quickly, and you never play this game. “I don’t even know if I have any. I usually just sell them.”

“God,” Colby mutters. “Let him go by. We’ll shoot him in the back.”

Coldblooded, but it makes sense. You’d like to ignore this guy completely, but you can’t. The wall has several breaks in it, and those are the ways through. This guy is probably heading the same that you’re planning to. If you don’t deal with him now, you’ll deal with him later. And then you might not have the upper hand.

The guy continues along, crouch-walking slowly to minimize the noise. He’s not as sneaky as he thinks, but you wouldn’t have noticed him if Colby hadn’t… but he would’ve definitely seen the two of you rush across the road to the wall. You hate this dumb game.

He’s going past. You ready your AK, and Colby already has a bead with her M4.

“Now?” you ask.

“Now,” she says.

You both fire, tapping repeatedly and aiming for the head. The guy vanishes instantly, and Colby stands up and advances, firing a couple more shots into the bushes. You slapped suppressors on both guns, but these gunshots are still loud as hell.

“He’s down. We’re good,” Colby says, disappearing into the bushes.

“Are you looting him?”

“Maybe he has grenades,” Colby mutters.

You roll your eyes and change magazines, opening your inventory to put loose bullets into the mag you just fired from. Once you’re good to go, you keep watch while Colby loots.

“He has croutons,” she repeats. “I need these for a quest.”

“Great. Can we go?” you ask impatiently. There’s more shooting, but this is even farther away. It’s coming from the area of the bridge that leads to the exit. Speaking of exits, you check to see which ones are open. “How are we leaving? The one over the bridge?”

“The only one that’s close isn’t open. Safer to use 011,” she replies, like you know what that means. You’ll just have to follow Colby’s lead. “Let’s go. Watch for the barbed wire. Skeleton is right there.”

You can see that huge structure on the other side of the stone wall. It’s between you and your objective, and you remember enough to know that it has a lot of tactical significance.

You stand up and sprint across the road. Some things about this game are shockingly smooth and fluid, like the mouse wheel walk speed, and others are janky and clunky. Sprinting is rough; it’s meant to be realistic with heavy body armor and gear and stuff, but you’re used to CoD and Apex. You clunk to a halt short of the bushes, which you don’t want to rustle loudly. You also don’t want to walk into that barbed wire that Colby mentioned. It’ll make noise and injure you. There’s a break in the wall that you can get through, and Colby’s close to it.

The distinctive crack of a big rifle makes you flinch and your screen goes red as you take a hit. You mash the shift key and sprint, but you are not making it to the break in the wall. You get behind a car and crouch as Colby opens fire.

As she’s shooting, you’re in your inventory trying to use medical supplies to heal your wound. What are all these status effects? You don’t know. It’s your arm. Heavy bleeding. You can’t believe people play this game for fun. You grit your teeth in real life as your character arduously does something with a bandage. You hear a magazine clatter to the ground as Colby reloads, then resumes firing. There’s no way that she’s hitting anybody with all these bullets; she’s just buying you time.

OK, you took care of the bleeding.

“Coming over,” you say, lurching to your feet. Colby keeps shooting, backpedaling to cover you as you make it to the opening and clank through the shipping container to the far side.

“Follow me,” Colby says, hustling past you.

Instead of right, toward Skeleton, she cuts left. You follow. You’re moving slowly, your vision swims, and your guy is making noises of pain.

Colby leads you into bushes under a huge, rusty pipe. There, you crouch out of sight.

“How bad is it?” she asks, and you hear her messing around with her inventory.

“Uh… my arm’s fractured. I have torso damage. I think I’m OK. I can, uh, splint this. And I have the good medkit,” you say, clicking madly, trying to do all the things.

“OK, I just used all my ammo,” Colby says. “Who only brings four mags?”

“Dude,” you say irritably. “Who uses four mags on one guy?”

“We aren’t done with him. We have to go back and kill him.”

“Oh my god! He doesn’t matter,” you whisper angrily.

“He’ll follow us if we don’t. I know what he’s doing. Either give me the shotty or give me that AK.”

Colby is in… gamer mode. This is not her real personality. There’s no reasoning with it, but this is getting bad. First, you’re moving in the wrong direction. Your objective is the other way! And you are not here to fight, you’re here to get a Macguffin for Colby’s quest.

“I’ll do it with my Glock if I have to,” Colby says grimly. “John Wick style.”

Give up your AK? Or give her the Saiga?