I did actually do this level with a certain level of stealth but there is no way to quantify it.
My goal was to finish the level without them ever seeing me. I have a theory that, on this level, at least, if they see you, they raise an alert of a different severity than if they only see one of their fellows lying on the ground.
I used the crossbow throughout the level in an attempt to meet some of the criteria for Silent Assassin and I believe I succeeded in finishing the level with no shots fired by them, minimal shots fired by me and then only with the crossbow, and they never even saw me.
I don't really have a way to prove this unless you were to learn as much as I did about the level in order to accomplish it. You would have to know, for example, that they always stay at their posts unless you are spotted but even then, how would I go about proving they never left their posts. I could try screen shotting every kill but that would raise the difficulty another factor above what it already is to do it.
I can give the following hints about the mission:
- Hello, there is a key in the dungeon. I can't believe how much time I spent on this level before I realized you can get into the church under the front right stairwell with a key hidden in one of the locked rooms in the dungeon. All you have to do is take out the lone guard down there and pick the lock. Without that it would have been twice as hard to do the level silently. ;)
- Believe it or not, it is possible to get out of the first courtyard safely without being detected. That was the first step to getting to the weapons. This was the most timing intensive move in all my experience with the game. I did it twice, once going directly to the right side of the walkway and dropping into the shadows and once taking out the guard right outside the door before jumping off. The two inside the courtyard were completely unaware of my being there to begin with but to do this, you have to time your moves perfectly.
- It is definitely possible to take out six of the enemies in that level with a completely silent weapon, either a knife or a fiber wire. I believe it is possible to get ten but I have to try it from the beginning again to be sure.
- It is definitely possible to then finish the level without using a weapon louder than the crossbow.
- There was one instance where I had to kill a guard from the front but I opened a door and then shot him so fast from three feet in front of his face with the crossbow that there was no reaction at all and no alarm. Yes with the crossbow, open, aim through the scope, fire. ;)
Hopefully, this will convince you that in spite of all the kills and aggression, I still earned the Silent Assassin rank on the final level as well as the first 19.
I'll try to go into more detail later so you'll be able to duplicate it if you want.
bill February 25, 2007, at 11:49 PM CST
