Level 8: Steam

Find the night vision goggles
After Valerie jogs off (apparently to nowhere at all), you’ll have a new blip on your radar, which will lead you to a pair of CryVision goggles. First, though, you’ll have to navigate through a bit of forest, the first bit of which contains a few Tridgens. Tread lightly, and don’t be afraid to use some rocket ammo to take them down from a distance.

From the corpses that the Tridgens were gnawing on, head south until you reach the small hill next to the ocean. If you climb it, you’ll come across a stationary mortar; combined with your ranged weapons, it should let you kill off any mercs your binoculars can pick up in the forests below. There’s also a patrol boat in the ocean which can be conveniently detonated with the mortar. In a rather astonishing display of AI brilliance, if you manage to alert one of the guards in the jungle, he’ll shoot off a flare gun, which will bring a couple more patrol boats towards the beach. Deal with all of the threats before heading west.

The jungle path below the mortar leads into a small village. If you want, you can just run in guns blazing, but there are soldiers in the hills above the village that will make this difficult. To the south, there’s a stationary minigun, and to the northeast, there’s a soldier with a rocket launcher that’ll paste you if you get too close to the piers. You may want to try to sneak onto the hill to the north of the village and use any remaining rocket ammo to take down the minigunner, then kill off the rest of the mercs as they converge on your position. This village, like most of those in the game, has a restock of health and armor, so don’t feel that you have to be too conservative with your life. Just don’t die, of course.

Follow the road to the Steam Generator
A little down the way from the village, you’ll run across a small harbor, where a patrol boat will be shooting away at a couple of Tridgens. If you’re in the 4WD, you can use your rocket launcher to take out the patrol boat, the mutants, and the soldiers near the minigun across the water, but keep your ears open for more mercs coming down the road from the west.

Don’t forget that you can use your nightvision in conjunction with your sniper rifle’s scope!

When you’re secure, you can decide how you want to proceed towards the southwest. There are a few options open to you: you can either keep on going along the road, which will leave you open to sniper fire; drop down to the harbor and take the path to the east, which will lead you to a parked patrol boat; or drop down to the harbor and take the path to the west, which will lead up a mountain from which you can snipe away at the soldiers below. (There’s a sniper rifle near the minigun in the harbor if you dropped yours during the last level.) Sniping the enemies here is probably the best way to go; take down the enemy sniper first, then the merc with the rocket launcher, and then any remaining soldiers before the 4WD comes moseying along. It’s probably best to let these soldiers exit their vehicle unmolested, then pick them off and steal the car for yourself. Grab the ammo from the huts and fallen weapons, and be on your way.

The next little roadblock is manned by half a dozen soldiers. If you possess the awesome might of a 4WD, blast the garrison with your rockets, then ditch the vehicle, as it’s seemingly impossible to jump the tree that’s fallen across the road. When you come across the hill that’s climbable on the western side of the path, walk up and start scoping out the generator building with your binoculars. When you’ve gotten a good view, flip on your night vision and start shooting up the soldiers that are patrolling the path. Any noise you make will probably bring along more soldiers from the huts to the south, so be careful.

Steal the plans to the Regulator facility from the worker
Keep walking along the trail to the south. The aforementioned set of huts is here, complete with the requisite armor, health, and another 4WD vehicle. Take the truck and start blasting away at the troops around the facility, but stay in the car and drive around to the regulator’s north side. Eventually, you should trigger the appearance of an assault helicopter, which will be easily dealt with by your truck-mounted rocket launcher. When you’ve cleared the way to the generator, drive up and around to its east end, find the blueprints, and radio Doyle, who’ll formulate a plan to destroy the facility. You’ll need to head inside to do so, but before you go, check the shipping crate near the door; you can pick up a few rocket rounds inside.