San Andreas Mercenaries review

Everything you wanted to know about the new DLC, but were too afraid to ask ;)

Intro (editorial)

Hi gang!

Summertime on Vespucci Beach!

The summer is upon us and that means... a new (summer) DLC! In 'San Andreas Mercenaries' you're going to take on Merryweather in a set of 6 missions called "Project Overthrow". Next to these "main missions" there are also three side-missions in which you and your 'team' try to sabotage Merryweather as best as you can. And of course: yes, you are going to get paid for these activities ;)

Although I really enjoy this DLC for what it is there are still several problems to address: this DLC is far from perfect. In fact, it even creates inconsistent gameplay!

For example... do you like that car above? Well, with a little luck you may even find it out on the streets but if you take it and then try to drive it into your garage or an LS Custom's you'll be told that the car is "too hot" and that you need to purchase it online. Same as always, right? Yah, so about that: if you then try to look up the car (like the Grotti Carbonizarre above) then guess what? You won't find it anymore because R* has removed it from their in-game website(s)! This and 160+ other cars are gone from the website(s) and thus no longer available for you to purchase...

Like I said: far from perfect.

But trust me, it's not all bad... there are some really cool new features in this DLC and some QOL life changes as well. Let's dive in!

Spoiler alert!

Although I'll do my best to keep this to a minimum please keep in mind that minor spoilers may be part of this review.

The backstory (fan fiction!)

A new faction has emerged in San Andreas: the Los Santos Angels!

Trevor has left the building (and the whole state!)

The story around the "LSA" begins several months prior when Trevor Philips suddenly departed, he even left his associates completely clueless as to what happened and why he left! But he was gone, and as anyone who knows Trevor could expect: this created a power vacuum, many rivals immediately tried to take over where Trevor and his TPI "organisation" had left off. At first Ron could somewhat manage but as soon as the obnoxious Dax and his band of misfits actually managed to take over the very center of "TPI" Ron knew that he wasn't safe anymore, not without the sheer madness of Trevor backing him!

In desperation he called out to you, the protagonist, but as we all know you more or less left him hanging and instead decided to see if there was any profit to be made by doing some work for Dax. At first this may seem like a weird or unfair (?) decision but ... in San Andreas it's all about the money, even for you. And there's something else to consider: you've been down that road with Ron before, remember the hangar business? And while Ron did his best that whole operation wasn't exactly a great success, rumor has it that it got quickly abandoned simply because... it just wasn't all that great.

However, ironically enough it is that same hangar business that set this operation into motion!

A hasty retreat!

After your depature with Dax it became clear to Ron that his couldn't go on, he had to do something because it would only be a matter of time before the next competitors would come knocking on TPI's door. Rumor already spread about the Lost MC severally picking up the pace in Los Santos for example, courtesy of some of Geralds doings.

So Ron retreated to the one place where he knew he'd be safe: your hangar! He realized that no one would be stupid enough to attack any of your properties because... well, that's basically a guaranteed death sentence. After all: both the LSPD and several local gangs have raided your "businesses" several times, at least they tried, and that was also the last anyone has ever heard or saw of those guys.

Once there he started talking to Charlie Reed and no doubt has told him about your impressive resume and about the things you can do. While it's unsure how Ron discovered your connections with the IAA, you sharing a Facility and more so: owning an Avenger, fact is that he did find out and also must have told Reed about it; who then immediately realized the potential the Avenger could have.

So... Reed made preparations of his own to try and fit the Avenger into the hangar so that he could apply some of his own upgrades. Meanwhile Ron realized that if he wanted to restart the hanger smuggling operations then he'd need to make changes to make this more appealing to you. How about also focussing on land based operations?

In the mean time Reed made more preparations of his own by calling in some favorites and he managed to form a team of mercenaries: the Los Santos Angels. All they need now is someone willing and maybe crazy enough to take the lead...

Meanwhile a kingpin becomes desperate...

Remember Martin Madrazo? Basically the kingpin of crime in Lost Santos, besides you of course! Well, the recent power struggles also haven't exactly been easy for Mr. Madrazo either and some of his (now former) associates are actually moving against him! The loose ends which he so desperately needs to clean up just keep stacking up against him and now he's had enough!

You've gained quite a reputation with Mr. Madrazo, so much even that he will now trust you to handle his requests solo if you want to. Yah, he will no longer frown and simply dismiss you if you show up on his doorstep and will allow you to tackle whatever issue is bothering him.

And that's how the story begins....

Main requirement: The Avenger

So for those who aren't aware yet: the Avenger is a huge 'VTOL' type plane; VTOL stands for "Vertical Take-Off and Landing". While you can see it flying in the picture above those two rotors can be turned by 45 degrees so that the plane becomes a bit of a helicopter, allowing it to hover in place:

My Avenger near the Alomo sea...

Before the release of this DLC you could only purchase an Avenger if you also had a Facility to store it in, comparable to the Terrorbyte which requires a nightclub for storage. However, this is no longer the case: we can now also store the Avenger in a hangar but even this is not a requirement anymore: even without any storage you'll still be able to purchase yourself an Avenger so that you can get started with this DLC immediately.

Why would you want to have an Avenger?

Several reasons actually, first: having the ability to customize weaponized cars. Some cars like the APC, Halftrack and of course the Insurgent can only be customized inside either the MOC (if it has a vehicle workshop installed) or the Avenger. And because the Avenger can only be upgraded by adding extra features, but not actually customizing them, this can make it appealing to install the workshop here so that you can use your MOC for other purposes. For example I stored a vehicle in my MOC.

Second... if you installed the workshop you can now also quickly transport your cars all across the map. Just load it into the Avenger and take off! In the beginning you could only customize weaponized vehicles but this restriction has been lifted; now I can even drive my Lifeguard quad in here! Unfortunately this doesn't usually work for "mission cars" because you can't customize them, not in an LS Customs and therefor also not in your Avenger.

And finally, if you also installed a weapons workshop you can also replenish all your MkII ammo. And that's not even mentioning the turrets on the Avenger, those are devastating!

Required update

Using the Warstock website to renovate the Avenger & add the terminal...

In order to get started all you really need to do is add the operations terminal, as shown above. However, you can add more new options, but for this to work you'll have to bring the Avenger to your hangar. Like I mentioned in my story: this is all Charlie's doing and something tells me that the IAA wouldn't be too happy if some mercenary suddenly started adding some "vague" customizations to your Avenger.

Heck, even Warstock is making sure to cover their legal ass, as you can see in the screenshot above: they accept no legal responsibility for the use of the terminal, lol!

Charlie's upgrades



If you bring your Avenger into your hangar you can apply extra options, as shown above:

• Operations terminal => This is the main terminal from which you can start the new missions.
  
• Mammoth Avenger Thruster => A lightweight thruster (it has no weapons) which can be stored inside the Avenger and be called up close to you by using the context menu. You can use this to get back inside the Avenger if you left it hovering somewhere.
  
• Autopilot defenses => If you set your Avenger to autopilot ("hover mode") then one of two things can happen: 1) Your blip disappears from the map or 2) Missiles can no longer lock on. Considering the size of the Avenger option #2 is plain out pointless to have.
  
• Primary weapons => Same as in the Facility: you can install gun turrets, and trust me when I say that these are deadly.
  
• Machine guns => No explosive rounds, and they're not exactly very fast, but even so: you can now have the same kind of guns as in a Buzzard (or any other armored aircraft).
  
• Missile launchers => These are directly comparable to a Buzzard: you can only have 2 missiles out at the same time and to make things a little worse there's also a brief delay between the option to fire again.

All in all these aren't exactly gamebreaking features but even so they're nice to have. Especially if you're taking your Avenger somewhere hostile: having missiles available to clear out an area is always a good thing!

But of course R* wouldn't be the same if they didn't introduce a bunch of bugs as well... for some reason you can still purchase countermeasures for the Avenger but... you can forget about ever firing these because that no longer works for some vague reason.

It begins: the 'new' missions!

As soon as you set foot in Los Santos with the new DLC you'll get a call from Charlie during which he explains his plans for "Project Overthrow": an attempt to put a stop to Merryweather. He tells you about the terminal which you can add to your Avenger and as shown above you will also get to see a mission icon which locates the LSA lockup. This isn't very special though because if you go here and try to trigger the mission the only thing that happens is that Charlie will give you another call.

But that's not all...

Hanger source missions... by ground (sorta)

In addition you'll also get a call from Ron who's happy to inform you that he has expanded the hangar business and can now also provide land based missions to both source and sell cargo! Honestly you guys? If you ask me then R* really redeemed the hangar with this one... I'm seriously enjoying myself!

I've never been so excited about a hangar source mission before!

So here I was somewhere in the desert standing next to my Avenger when I figured I'd give Ron a call. As far as I can tell you'll mostly (not always!) get land-based source missions if you phone him. So he tells me about a crew who are about to transport some cargo: go there, "neutralize" the crew and steal their plane. They were active on Sandy Shores airfield so... not too far away from both my current location and my hangar (which is at Fort Zancudo).

I fly over there, use the missiles on my Avenger to "neutralize" the hostiles, land, shoot the last of the hostiles and grab the plane. Not a few moments later after take-off I'm intercepted by some jets and missiles are exploding left and right from me! See screenshot above?!

THIS. WAS. AWESOME!!

For the record, I looked it up.. this was me before:

Utterly frustrated with these crappy source missions that always bugged out...

But now? True story: after the above mission (and having done some more earlier this weekend) I got so excited about all this that I immediately bought myself both a Pyro and a Molotok. Oh, and a Lazer too because why not ;) And I don't even really care about planes and/or jets, but after this... this was really something else! Loving this change!

Princess incoming!

One last example! Here Ron got hold of a group of smugglers using a barge to grab their loot. SO I landed my Raiju in there. I release the cargo, Ron makes a funny comment about assuming that the crew would actually think things over and I end up using a sub to collect the cargo, load it in a truck and then drive that over to my hangar. Once again: a really enjoyable mission IMO.

... any now my hangar is filling up as well ;)

Martin Madrazo wants to dispatch you...

Solo players will love this change I think...

You're not seeing things: Martin's "dispatch missions" can now be done solo, and IMO this is a change for the better. I haven't done all of 'm but the ones I did were pure fun for me. Despite the fact that I'd call these missions a bit "lazy" on the part of R* because the only interaction you get with Mr. Madrazo is through text messages. A bit of the same as with Gerald's Last Play and Simeon's Repo missions, but for some reason... I dunno you guys but I actually like these! Even more than those previously mentioned series (though there are fun missions there too).

They don't pay out too great, just like any other contact mission the time also afffects your payment but ... meh, I like these!

There are 6 Dispatch missions in total, and you can select another when you finished one...

Taking on Merryweather step one: LSA Operations!

The rewards don't always make sense...

The actual new DLC missions come in 2 groups: Project Overthrow, which is a collection of 6 missions that you first need to play in sequence. And the 'Los Santos Angels' operations in which you and the 'Angels' are trying to sabotage Merryweather as best as you can through 3 operations, as shown above.

//Direct action

This is actually a bit of a repetition of one of the MC clubhouse missions. Here you need to head to LSIA where you'll be picked up by Rooster and you'll be dropped near the flight carrier south of LS. Your mission: locate a container that holds an experimental car which Merryweather is going to use. Basically you're trying to grab the Toreador. Yah, the same car you probably have in your Kosatka?

It's not a bad mission, but it's very much a repeat of an already existing MC mission in which you need to head onto a roof, search containers for an experimental bike (the Oppressor) and then take the bike to the sellers. The main difference is that you can only drive the Toreador out of the carrier whereas you can choose to either drive the bike or use a cargobob to grab the entire container.

SO about those rewards? This mission can become tedious, and is far more difficult than the other two ("sorta") but sometimes also pays out much less.

//Surgical strike

I actually like this one, also because you can do this in any way you want which is a huge pro for me. But it is also here where you'll notice.. "limits"; I'll explain below.

Charlie got wind of a temporary Merryweather base of operations and his idea? Bomb the living daylights out of 'm! He got wind of a Merryweather bureaucrat so your first task is to find her, hack her phone and that should lead you to their current base of operations. Just be careful regarding her goons...

SO yah, first time I went in? I was like "why would I care?" so I just "bombed 'm" (literally). The "look for the operative" quickly changed to: "get their wallet" and after I learned about the base I just repeated myself. Once everyone was dead I got in, did what was needed and even scored the bonus objective!

But the second time... I actually did hack her phone, did use the decoy option to disguise myself and actually had fun when I used my silencer to zap one Merryweather agent after the other. They never saw me coming....

I just love that bit of freedom!

It's rightgeous slaughter for real: Call in the airstrike! :P

But not all is perfect here... signs of forced limitations are starting to surface. See, the moment you take on this mission you'll be told: "Exit the Avenger". Just hopping into the cockpit will do the trick, but the thing is: you can't go back into the Avengers hold. This holds true for all these missions and I think that sucks.

Why am I not allowed to hover my Avenger over the temporary Merryweather base and then use my Avengers turrets to blast 'm into kingdom come? Overpowered? Maybe, but let's not forget that when I bought my Avenger I spent approx. 10 million on the Facility (fully upgraded), my Avenger (fully customized) and I also bought myself the Insurgent back then.

Not to mention that R* could have added "problems" here, like accidentally blowing up the cargo yourself? Sure: that was the plan all along, but why not bring ego's into this? That guy on standby? Of course he would be pissed, and thus I broke up the Angels. #fail. But no...

Yah, I think we deserve our share of being overpowered every once in a while. And you'll soon learn why I think so, it's not just about the purchase costs mind you....

//Whistleblower

And another repetitive mission, though this one is fitting I think. Ever took on the Autoshop mission where you were tasked to raid a Merryweather bunker? If not... you're missing out, and I strongly suggest you try to take on that mission before going into 'Project Overthrow'. Well, the first 4 missions won't be an issue but do yourself a favor and don't play the 5th mission before that "Merryweather raid" from the autoshop. Trust me: it's easily doable solo (you don't even need to bother collecting the equipment) and... it will fit in with an actual story!

This is one of those few times where R* actually gave us some follow up storyline about our previous actions and ... as you can probably tell from this review, I love storylines and I also really enjoyed this one! ;)

But back to the facts at hand: a reporter from Weazle News actually got interested in the ongoing issues with Merryweather and thus asked us (through Charlie) if we could provide them with proof. Yah, leave that up to Charie!

You're going to invade an IAA Facility, steal their harddrives which contain evidence of the governments involvement with Merryweather. As I mentioned: this is a bit of a repetition because.. within the autoshop you're invading a Merryweather bunker where you need to... ayups: steal harddrives.

But even so, this is a fun mission... How do you get into a highly secured IAA setup? By using an EMP to turn off their power, and their door locks, then you use the distraction to your advantage. Yah, that's the theory at least; in reality... it makes no big difference. Worse yet: you're now also going to experience some "endless spawners". Ergo: you kill an enemy and 5 seconds later.. they're back.

This is also yet another example of a mission which blocks game functionality for no appearant reason:

Why am I wearing goggles when I can't even enable 'm?

As you can see it's dark when you take on this mission and you'll also get attacked by hostiles when outside the Facility. During which some clear vision would have really helped... but no...

The big one: Project Overthrow!

Not bad, but hardly great either... mediocre?

Sometimes I truly ask myself: does R* actually do some quality testing on their missions? Because I sincerely doubt it!

These missions aren't necessarily bad, but then again, not that great either. Some of which though are frustrating and actually crap due to a total lack of any serious gameplay what so ever. Continuously respawning enemies in the exact same place within 10 - 20 seconds isn't good gameplay: it's utterly lazy and and an overal plain out crappy excuse for a gameplay mechanic.

Other missions though... yah, you'll be the judge.

//Reporting for duty

SO you're going to take your Avenger to the quarry, check up on Merryweather, destroy all opposition after which you need to take their main vehicle. One option is to land, park the vehicle in your Avenger and then fly back to the lockup.

The other is to, well, just drive it out of there. You're "only" having to deal with several jets trying to blast you into kingdom-come with an endless barrage of missiles, and of course the always spawning hostiles driving cars. Yah, guess what option I went for? I figured: run, check out the heat, recall the Avenger to appear closer to me and then get in and hop off. Even the patch notes tell you that a key feature of this DLC is that you can re-call the Avenger (or Terrorbyte) and it'll spawn closer to you.

That's the theory at least:

In reality this happens... so much for recalling your Avenger...

I actually enjoyed most of this mission because IMO the extra heat from the jets that try to blow you up really adds up. It's a lot better than those dumb choppers that eventually disappear and then suddenly re-appear again close(r) to you as if by magic.

The mission wasn't bad, but definitely frustrating because if you don't follow R*'s lead... then forget about it. Gameplay consistency? Your own strategies? What's that?!

//Falling in

So in between the previous mission and this one I hopped back into freeroam, did a few tests and what do yo know? Relocating worked as expected. In other words: it's only during these missions when R* has decided to block you from using otherwise avaialble options. And it's getting annoying!

Here's another one...

Once again the mission itself is fun, and it wouldn't have become a frustrating mess if R* would have stayed consistent with its gameplay. Reed has discovered that Merryweather are taking out smugglers left and right throughout San Andreas. But not with the intent to report 'm to the legal system, of course not: Merryweather is "confiscating" the smuggled goods and then either sells it on the black market themselves or puts it to some good use for themselves. Time we stepped in!

Merryweather has shot down 2 planes which dropped into the water. But luckily for us Reed managed to upgrade our turret system with new filters that allow us to spot any traces of metal deep below the surface. Let this sink in: we need special filters to spot these crates in the water.

Now my plan is simple: locate the crate, shoot down hostile aircraft, position my Avenger above the location of the crate and then jump into the water after which I sent away my Avenger and pick up the crate. Easy, right?

Of course not easy! You get teleported to the shore, just in time for the new hostiles to arrive!

And of course those hostiles somehow seem to know exactly where you are and will even have no problems with shooting you between the legs. Despite the fact you're several meters below the water surface. Remember that we needed special filters in order to locate anything down there?

So much for consistency. ...again.

And once more:

Of course this doesn't work, can't make this mission too easy now, can we?

And things only get worse from here on :( Because it's around this time when i discovered that the Avengers guns aren't accessible during missions either. I'm not talking about the turrets but the guns: you can't use them for some dumb reason.

//On Parade

And it started so good :(

Ironically enough my complaint here is much different than most others...

You get introduced to the Raiju jetfighter and you're tasked to be its first testpilot. Sweet! After making a fool out of Merryweather thanks to the stealth system, doing some test manouvers, shooting some targets and getting a good feel for the jet Merryweather decides that enough is enough and they attack you full force.

Once again I loved the start of this mission, it felt intense and it was just... realy good!

Merryweather coming at me in full force!

Until the hostile Avenger showed up. I fire rocket after rocket and nothing seems to happen; the health bar barely does down. SO, remembering how Merryweather wasn't allowed to operate above the city (according to Reed anyway) I went to the radio tower ('behind' the Vinewood logo?), landed my plane... only to discover that I couldn't exit. So much for open gameplay and me using some explosive sniper rounds :(

I took off again and considered flying above the city when I figured.. let's do this.

So now I fly straight towards the Vinewood logo with the full intent to take on the Avenger. I fly over the hill and... "poof": the Avenger is gone!

What the heck?!!

Project Overthrow - Part 2

//Breaking ranks

Once again a mission that starts nicely but quickly becomes painfully annoying. You're tasked to infiltrate a Merryweather lockup and steal several crates using one of their own vehicles. So far, so good. You go in, shoot the hostiles, find the crates and bring 'm to the Rumpo. The good bit here is that you're not forced to find & bring the crates one by one but you can "carry" multiple crates at once.

But it's here where things are seriously starting to fall apart and it gets a lot worse from there on.

The original idea is to head back to your Avenger and load the car in order to make your escape. Of course that idea doesn't work twice and your Avenger gets blown up. SO... now you'll have to get out the old fashioned way ... again.

As in the first mission: enemy jets, missiles blasting here and there and to be very honest? I'm once again really enjoying the extra heat, if you know what you're doing then you can survive this! Seriously! But then it begins... you'll learn the true meaning of "With friends like that... who needs enemies?".

Behind & around you: hostiles jets shooting missiles which explode left and right (not too excessive though). As mentioned before: I'm loving this part, it adds good tension, puts on the pressure and IMO it's a helluvalot better than those choppers which somewhat follow you, then disappear, and then re-appear as if by magic (as mentioned already before).

Before you: a highway filled with traffic and as one can expect: hostile vehicles will randomly spawn in several meters in front of you driving straight into traffic. If you played more missions you should be accustom to this; they're really easy to avoid: make a left to gain room, make a sharp right which will make them try to block you, but then go back left and zip past 'm. It sounds harder than it is, trust me: this works.

But now the fun part begins: some will give chase, comparable to the hostiles which you encounter when delivering excessive weapon parts from your bunker to AmmuNation: they'll even try to ram you, so... you need to pay good attention here!

Yah... so now it's time to ph33r, because the Rooster is here! Your worst enemy of the whole mission! And it pains me to say this because the idea itself? It's honestly good! If only R* wouldn't have overdone it :(

Rooster, obviously keeping track of what's going on, notices the Merryweather armada of hostiles coming towards you on the highway so he hops into his chopper and rushes over to give you backup. It's actually pretty good. However... once his chopper is closer to you you'll see a blue circle appear: the idea is to stay within that circle so that Rooster can give you optimal cover, so far so good.

... what doesn't help though is that if you get near the edges of said circle your camera forcefully focusses on Roosters chopper so that you can see where he's at. While you're actually busy trying to evade hostiles that still come straight towards you, which you can now no longer see because... you're forced to look at Rooster!

Not once, not twice... this mess happens multiple times if you're not careful, it almost killed me! SO darn frustrating... seriously R*? Don't you test this stuff in some way?!! In the end I also started spamming the "camera focus" button and ended up distracting myself.. grrrr....

Eventually I sped away and putting as much distance as I could between the chopper and myself; this way I was actually able to more easily evade any hostiles.

//Unconventional warfare

Warning! => I strongly advice you not to play this mission before you stole the harddrives from the Merryweather CEO during one of the autoshop contracts.

He thought to be smart, but Merryweather caught up to him!

Poor Avi... during the autoshop contract mission he was sure that he carefully covered his tracks and thus truly "Schwarzenated" Merryweather. Yah, he didn't. It took Merryweather some time but eventually they caught up to him, kidnapped him and then forced him to hack into several government networks in an attempt to learn more about you and the LS Angels.

Your job? Get Avi outta there! This is my favorite mission of them all.

You'll be infiltrating a Merryweather serverfarm (the same kind as in the Doomsday heist) and to make sure you come fully prepared you'll be flown in and out, all you need to do is actually infiltrate the base, get Avi, and then get the heck outta there!

I've already given away too much spoilers here, but seriously.. This mission is one of the best in the series!

//Shock and awe

Why can't R* keep up a good mission pace? :(

The last mission was one of the best, in my opinion of course, but this one... is easily one of the worst. You've exposed Merryweather for what they are: after it got out that they're even kidnapping civilians the government doesn't want anything to do with Merryweather anymore. However, they do prefer to keep things "clean" so while they're simply going to stop renewing any contracts, you are going to burst into the Merryweather compound and retrieve some of the governments donated assets.

You fly in your Avenger, make your way to the control room to unlock a cart with the raw materials and then... you need to push that cart all the way back to the Avenger while you're getting attacked by constantly re-spawning hostiles.

Seriously... you kill an enemy standing in a specific corner, go back to pushing and sure enough: the exact same enemy is back, all within a few seconds.

Can this get any worse? Of course it can, don't worry! Because if that cart you're pushing takes on too much damage you'll also fail the mission. So... stop whining and get pushing!!



That guy on my right? At this time I killed him 4 times in a row already, and he just keeps popping back in.... Same for the sniper on my left. It truly can't get any worse than this, a total crap show... how convenient that you can "like" or "dislike" every other mission except this one.

Remember me mentioning something about us maybe becoming overpowered? Yah... that's only reserved for your enemies it seems, and I think that's highly unfair. Sure, this is my choice to play solo, fair enough, but why can't I sometimes have some overpowering fun as well?

Some of the new stuff

Trust me, it's not all bad.. some of these new features are actually darn good!

An extra Thruster!

Left: The Avenger Thruster, Right: My 'personal' Thruster (from the Facility).

As you may know you can put your Avenger in "hover mode" by enabling auto pilot. If you then have a vehicle inside that can either land in the water (like the APC, Stromberg or Toreador) or fly like the Deluxo then you can make a quick exit.

But... how do you get back inside? In the old days we had to sent away the Avenger, recall it and then get in the old fashioned way. These days though... you just call up your "Avenger truster", fly up and when you hover around the back you can re-enter without issue.

Unfortunately this doesn't work with the Deluxo (it'll auto-switch from fly into car mode) but guess what?

Two thrusters are better than one ;)

Ayups, this is now also a thing, pretty cool right? You can't customize the "Avenger thruster" but it'll automatically use whatever color scheme you currently have on your Avenger. Also... it's for transporting only; as you may be able to see it doesn't have any weapons.

Just like with the Sparrow you can call up the "AT" using the context menu, and also return it in the same way.

The new Raiju jet

Left: My Hydra (from Pegasus), Right: The Raiju.

Someone on the forum wondered if the Raiju would make the Hydra obsolete... Each to their own but I beg to differ, just look at the two. I seriously enjoy flying and looking at both of them.



The Raiju is a VTOL, just like the Hydra, with the main difference that its entire engine rotates whenever you change into hover mode, as you can see above (notice how it's facing downwards?). Another huge pro of the Raiju is stealth mode, this is comparable with the Akula helicopter. But of course.. the Raiju can fly a lot faster ;)

I really think R* added something awesome here, and once again: I don't even necessarily like jets! ;)

New clothing for both male & females

eeew, that looks uncomfortable!

There's a lot of new clothing for our avatars, some of which naughty and some, well pretty slick. As you may know the Raiju can be applied with a rather specific "lightning livery". Yah, and if you enjoy that livery you can dress like that as well!

If you enjoy dressing up your avatar... you're gonna enjoy. New clothes, new sunglasses (nice ones) and yah.. I like it!

A new SMG

Shhht, you didn't hear this from me. ok?

There's a new 'tactical SMG' which is actually pretty useful because if you get the extra magazine expansion it'll hold more ammo than your current guns. You can also use this from within your car or on a bike, win win.

The only caveat... it's officially not for sale, Ammu Nation doesn't carry this. Sorry, have a nice day though!

ok, ok... so I did hear this rumor about a gunvan somewhere in the city where you might be able to buy this?

The first of the new cars :/

I'm going to return this one after I finished this guide :(

So I own a lot of Grotti super, sports and even casual cars. I enjoy 'm. But this one? The moment it starts to rain then you can forget about normal driving because this car will break out every chance it gets. The traction is just horrible. And for the record? This is coming from someone who owns, and seriously enjoys, driving a Carbonizarre (you saw that one earlier, at the beginning). Now if you want to talk about oversteer, you're talking Carbonizzare.

But this one... is even worse. It just makes no sense! I'm gonna sell this and re-buy the Virtue instead. I'd definitely recommend against buying this one.

Unlockable outfits

Don't worry: I'm not joining Merryweather ;)

Whenever you succesfully finish one of the three LS Angels "side missions" then you'll unlock a new outfit, as the one you see here. However... I also suspect a bug (what else is new?) because even though the game mentioned unlocking that stealth suit I never found it in my collection.

Oh well....

Free Pegasus vehicles!

Not sure if this is temporary or not...

I know most of us fully forgot about Pegasus but honestly? You may need to keep 'm in mind because you can only have up to 20 aircraft in your hangar, after that... you're forced to replace some.

It's what happened to me but then I realized... do I really need to keep the Duster, Velum and Lazer in my hanger if I hardly ever use 'm? Nah, instead I reserved those places for my Raiju, Pyro and Molotok. If I need any of those other three planes I can just as easily call Pegasus, and what do you know? That seems to be free now?

It's easier to become CEO or MC President



If you approach a terminal somewhere while you're not a CEO or MC Pres. then you'll immediately get a dialog which allows you to "boss up" and to continue using the terminal, all in one go. Before this it would simply refuse access. IMO definitely a change for the better!

In conclusion...

The new way to fly your Thruster! ;)

Well, there you guys have it... Yah, this DLC definitely isn't perfect; I can easily understand that some of you will not be happy with the removal of all those cars for example, and to top that off some of the new missions... are also "so so" (if not plain out bad).

But as mentioned... there's also a lot of good stuff to be found here.

Ok, Rooster; go find me some eggs... errr, crates! ;)

Let's summarize....

• A new terminal for your Avenger giving you access to 9 new missions: Project Overturn (6 missions in sequence) & LSA Operations (3 missions).
  
• The Avenger can now also be stored in the hangar, or... not stored at all. You no longer need to have a Facility before you can purchase an Avenger.
  
• You can put your crew logo onto your Avenger.
  
• Martin Madrazo's dispatch missions can now be played solo!
  
• New Hangar cargo missions which are focussed on land; both sourcing and selling!
  
• Rooster can grab hangar cargo for you... for a fee of course ;)
  
• New features for your Avenger: missiles & gun, an onboard Thruster, autopilot protection (off the radar or missile jammer).
  
• The new Raiju jet which is just... awesome: VTOL + stealth options (off the radar).
  
• A new Grotti car which is... just bad IMO. Way too much oversteer, which gets ridiculous when its raining.
  
• Lots of new clothing for male & female characters (like the uncomfy corset, eeew! ;)).
  
• You can now even put your 'real' Thruster inside the Avenger.
  
• A new tactical SMG handgun which is... quite good! Only available from the gunvan...
  
• Unlockable outfits from the "LSA operations".
  
• Free Pegasus vehicles (at least for now?).
  
• If you rename your Acid product it'll give you an extra boost in sales (if you do the sales mission vs. selling to street dealers of course).
  
• Becoming a CEO or MC President is now grouped in a new menu item: "Become a boss".
  
• ... it's also easier to "become a boss" when accessing a terminal.
  
• You can now reclaim all your destroyed vehicles at once.
  
• Switching to VTOL now uses the same keypress as retracting / extending your landing gear.
  
• Blips on the map are no longer static but only appear when you get closer.

But as mentioned it's not all good news... For example: while you can purchase countermeasures for the Avenger you can somehow no longer fire these. Missions keep restricting you: during the LSA Operations for example you're not allowed to call up your Stromberg, they also block the machinegun on the Avenger and sometimes you're "just" teleported to shore (with hostiles incoming!) while you'd normally be in free fall.

And some of these missions... are just frustrating or plain out crappy.

But even so... generally speaking? This is a mighty fine DLC. Nothing too special, but definitely mostly fun!

This is actually quite handy!

SO yah, there you have it. Now , if you'll excuse me... I have a Grotti to sell!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!