Call of Duty 4 Veteran Deathless Playthrough

ExplodingCabbage

Edit history:

ExplodingCabbage: 2011-02-05 02:44:22 pm

ExplodingCabbage: 2011-02-05 02:43:15 pm

ExplodingCabbage: 2011-02-05 02:43:14 pm

2010-12-14 08:17:15 am

Recently I thought it would be an interesting challenge to try and beat CoD 4 on Veteran difficulty on Arcade Mode without dying once. I thought this might be of interest to some people here.

I've been going through levels one by one looking for consistent, easy routes. I'll give a very non-detailed breakdown of what I've got so far:

(Edit: Breakdown removed as it was massively out of date and my use of colour was offensive to the eyes of all decent people.)

I'm cautiously optimistic that a complete deathless playthrough will be possible, but the Mile High Club is definitely the biggest obstacle at the moment.

Thread title:

ExplodingCabbage

2010-12-18 08:48:51 pm

Just bumping in case anyone is interested in this to say I'm starting making attempts, I have my routes for every map down, and I got my success rate for Mile High Club up to about 25% which makes me think the whole project is rather doable.

Notable points where I have significant chances of failure:

* Defending the tank at the end of The Bog. There's nowhere I know of where I can safely cover both sides, so I have to cover the side most enemies come from and rely on my teammates to cover the far side of the tank, where the other tiny fraction of the enemy attacks from. To my incredible frustration, they're incapable of doing this consistently.
* Crossing the field on Hunted
* The bit after crossing the field on Hunted. The chopper usually kills you instantly if you make the slightest slip up here. Whenever you move into cover you need to make sure you can safely move to another bit of cover without exposing yourself to the chopper if a grenade forces you to move.
* All of War Pig. The fairly tight time limit in Arcade Mode means I can't take this as cautiously as I would like, and moving forward premautrely can mean death.
* The start of Shock And Awe
* Returning to the LZ on Heat
* Mile High Club

Act 3, interestingly, is the easiest in the game.

Just bumping in case anyone is interested in this to say I'm starting making attempts, I have my routes for every map down, and I got my success rate for Mile High Club up to about 25% which makes me think the whole project is rather doable.

Notable points where I have significant chances of failure:

* Defending the tank at the end of The Bog. There's nowhere I know of where I can safely cover both sides, so I have to cover the side most enemies come from and rely on my teammates to cover the far side of the tank, where the other tiny fraction of the enemy attacks from. To my incredible frustration, they're incapable of doing this consistently.
* Crossing the field on Hunted
* The bit after crossing the field on Hunted. The chopper usually kills you instantly if you make the slightest slip up here. Whenever you move into cover you need to make sure you can safely move to [i]another[/i] bit of cover without exposing yourself to the chopper if a grenade forces you to move.
* All of War Pig. The fairly tight time limit in Arcade Mode means I can't take this as cautiously as I would like, and moving forward premautrely can mean death.
* The start of Shock And Awe
* Returning to the LZ on Heat
* Mile High Club

Act 3, interestingly, is the easiest in the game.

P.Ommes

2011-01-07 03:41:51 pm

Quote from ExplodingCabbage:

Recently I thought it would be an interesting challenge to try and beat CoD 4 on Veteran difficulty on Arcade Mode without dying once. I thought this might be of interest to some people here.

Holy Shit, pls do this!. I've tried to beat the game on veteran, and i nearly started crying like a baby :-D. So frustrating, would love to see such a great SS run.

WillingToPay

2011-01-07 06:02:36 pm

If you did this I'd watch it over and over again.

Please do it and record!

ExplodingCabbage

2011-01-08 06:28:12 am

Hmm, glad to see there's some interest in this. It's proving to be harder than I expected, but I still reckon it's doable and I'm going to keep trying.

Omega

2011-01-08 06:55:19 am

I would love to see this. Smiley

Veteran is pretty hard to play even when playing very defensively. A speedrun would be amazing.

ExplodingCabbage

Edit history:

ExplodingCabbage: 2011-01-08 08:05:22 am

2011-01-08 08:05:09 am

Just to clarify, I'm not trying for a speedrun presently, just a single segment/deathless playthrough (although Arcade Mode has time limits, and on some levels they really do force you to handle at least some fights more aggressively than you'd like to). Once that's done and it's clear that playing through on Veteran without dying is possible, maybe someone (probably not me) will try a SS veteran speedrun, which would be awesome.

WillingToPay

2011-01-08 05:11:15 pm

Please record your playthrough regardless and provide us with links Smiley

ExplodingCabbage

2011-01-11 01:56:06 pm

Okay so I just had an attempt where my first death was on The Bog, and I thought, fuck it, I'm going to just keep going to the end of the game and see how many times I die and how. So I did.

Here's the results, as an indicator of how close to pulling this off I am:

Crew Expendable - 0 deaths, 0 close calls
Blackout - 0 deaths, 0 close calls
Charlie Don't Surf - 0 deaths, 0 close calls
The Bog - 1 death, early in the courtyard area after the first building. Really the problem was my strategy here, which required me to rush forward into the building on the left without clearing the courtyard first. After the death, I tried a more conservative strategy, taking everyone out instead of rushing upstairs, and found that I still had a comfortable chunk of time left at the end of the level. I will do this in future. 0 close calls
Hunted - 0 deaths, 0 close calls
War Pig - 1 death, which just resulted from me exposing myself too much in one area of cover due to impatience. I've had trouble in the exact same spot before. I'll be more careful at that spot in future. One close call, which was that I ran out of time and got the 'Time Up' screen at the end of the level, but the level finished in the background before my score had been finalised, so the game still progressed. Didn't really learn anything from that, I don't think I was slow at any points in particular. Will just have to hope it doesn't ever screw me over on a real run.
Shock And Awe - 5 deaths, 0 close calls. Three of the deaths were in the initial fight against tanks and infantry as you cross the river. That fight is the spot where I have my single worst survival rate (50%ish I guess) and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it, it just requires luck. Heck, one of the deaths I got pretty much the worst luck possible and died before the enemy were within range of my gun; literally couldn't've lived even with perfect play. The other two deaths were while the chopper was coming in to land to rescue the pilot from Deadly, which I didn't even realise was possible. I'll practise the level another couple of times and make sure I know how to take the guys there out efficiently.
Safehouse - 1 death, resulting from my own chopper rocketing me while I was sniping from the roof of the building with the mounted machinegun in. I'll remember to get off the roof after calling in a chopper there in future. 1 close call, when I was reloading my grenade launcher after firing into the toilet earlier in the same building from the basement staircase, and a guy ran round the corner and attacked, but was taken out by Price behind me. That point in my route has caused me difficulty before; I'll have to use flashbangs, normal grenades and C4 to mitigate the risk.
All Ghillied Up - 1 death resulting from me alerting some guards by taking out a guy who I didn't think they could see (and who they'd never seen before in my practice attempts). Next time I'll wait longer before taking him out and everything should be fine. 0 close calls
One Shot, One Kill - 1 close call whilst running to the apartments at the start; got shot nearly to death. Nothing to be done about this, really, it's just a tough section. About 6 deaths from grenades while waiting for the chopper, which were really weird partly because I've used the same method twice before without problems, and secondly because I never knew where the fuck the grenades were landing; they didn't seem to have warning indicators. However, I changed my position in the hut I was hiding in to be closer to the door and found that I was now safe from grenades, so I think I've solved that problem. 1 final death getting chewed by a dog while carrying Macmillan to the chopper, which wasn't a threat that had occurred to me before. In future I'll clear the area around the hut more before grabbing Macmillan.
Heat - 0 deaths, 0 close calls
The Sins Of The Father - 0 deaths, 0 close calls
Ultimatum - 1 totally retarded death from forgetting my route, running into a building I didn't need to be in, then standing there thinking next to a burning barrel I didn't spot or know existed until it exploded and killed me. I, uh, don't think that one is likely to recur. 0 close calls
All In - 0 deaths, 0 close calls
No Fighting In The War Room - 0 deaths, 0 close calls
Game Over - 1 death at the end from forgetting to get out of the line of fire of the armoured vehicle that comes a little before the chopper blows the bridge. I guess I should've practiced this level. 0 close calls
Mile High Club - 1 death from throwing my first flash too early and buggering up the first room. 0 close calls

All things considered, I'm feeling pretty good about my chances of nailing this within a dozen attempts. I've learned about a lot of potential pitfalls on this playthrough and most of the deaths have no chance of recurring now that I know to avoid them. The only major tripping points left at this stage are the TV room (maybe a 75% chance of success), defending the tank in The Bog (90% chance of success), the start of Shock And Awe (50% chance of success), running to the apartments in One Shot, One Kill (80% chance of success), and Mile High Club (50% chance of success). That works out at pretty good odds in total. I'm seriously happy with the methods I've got for Hunted, One Shot One Kill and Heat which turn nightmare levels into virtually guaranteed successes (with the exception of the rush to the apartments).

Anyone who wants me to encode and upload the practice run so they can see my routes and give feedback, say so in the next 20 minutes, after which I'll delete 240GB of footage I just recorded so I have space to have another go.

Okay so I just had an attempt where my first death was on The Bog, and I thought, fuck it, I'm going to just keep going to the end of the game and see how many times I die and how. So I did.

Here's the results, as an indicator of how close to pulling this off I am:

Crew Expendable - 0 deaths, 0 close calls
Blackout - 0 deaths, 0 close calls
Charlie Don't Surf - 0 deaths, 0 close calls
The Bog - 1 death, early in the courtyard area after the first building. Really the problem was my strategy here, which required me to rush forward into the building on the left without clearing the courtyard first. After the death, I tried a more conservative strategy, taking everyone out instead of rushing upstairs, and found that I still had a comfortable chunk of time left at the end of the level. I will do this in future. 0 close calls
Hunted - 0 deaths, 0 close calls
War Pig - 1 death, which just resulted from me exposing myself too much in one area of cover due to impatience. I've had trouble in the exact same spot before. I'll be more careful at that spot in future. One close call, which was that I ran out of time and got the 'Time Up' screen at the end of the level, but the level finished in the background before my score had been finalised, so the game still progressed. Didn't really learn anything from that, I don't think I was slow at any points in particular. Will just have to hope it doesn't ever screw me over on a real run.
Shock And Awe - 5 deaths, 0 close calls. Three of the deaths were in the initial fight against tanks and infantry as you cross the river. That fight is the spot where I have my single worst survival rate (50%ish I guess) and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it, it just requires luck. Heck, one of the deaths I got pretty much the worst luck possible and died [i]before the enemy were within range of my gun[/i]; literally couldn't've lived even with perfect play. The other two deaths were while the chopper was coming in to land to rescue the pilot from Deadly, which I didn't even realise was possible. I'll practise the level another couple of times and make sure I know how to take the guys there out efficiently.
Safehouse - 1 death, resulting from my own chopper rocketing me while I was sniping from the roof of the building with the mounted machinegun in. I'll remember to get off the roof after calling in a chopper there in future. 1 close call, when I was reloading my grenade launcher after firing into the toilet earlier in the same building from the basement staircase, and a guy ran round the corner and attacked, but was taken out by Price behind me. That point in my route has caused me difficulty before; I'll have to use flashbangs, normal grenades and C4 to mitigate the risk.
All Ghillied Up - 1 death resulting from me alerting some guards by taking out a guy who I didn't think they could see (and who they'd never seen before in my practice attempts). Next time I'll wait longer before taking him out and everything should be fine. 0 close calls
One Shot, One Kill - 1 close call whilst running to the apartments at the start; got shot nearly to death. Nothing to be done about this, really, it's just a tough section. About 6 deaths from grenades while waiting for the chopper, which were really weird partly because I've used the same method twice before without problems, and secondly because I never knew where the fuck the grenades were landing; they didn't seem to have warning indicators. However, I changed my position in the hut I was hiding in to be closer to the door and found that I was now safe from grenades, so I think I've solved that problem. 1 final death getting chewed by a dog while carrying Macmillan to the chopper, which wasn't a threat that had occurred to me before. In future I'll clear the area around the hut more before grabbing Macmillan.
Heat - 0 deaths, 0 close calls
The Sins Of The Father - 0 deaths, 0 close calls
Ultimatum - 1 totally retarded death from forgetting my route, running into a building I didn't need to be in, then standing there thinking next to a burning barrel I didn't spot or know existed until it exploded and killed me. I, uh, don't think that one is likely to recur. 0 close calls
All In - 0 deaths, 0 close calls
No Fighting In The War Room - 0 deaths, 0 close calls
Game Over - 1 death at the end from forgetting to get out of the line of fire of the armoured vehicle that comes a little before the chopper blows the bridge. I guess I should've practiced this level. 0 close calls
Mile High Club - 1 death from throwing my first flash too early and buggering up the first room. 0 close calls

All things considered, I'm feeling pretty good about my chances of nailing this within a dozen attempts. I've learned about a lot of potential pitfalls on this playthrough and most of the deaths have no chance of recurring now that I know to avoid them. The only major tripping points left at this stage are the TV room (maybe a 75% chance of success), defending the tank in The Bog (90% chance of success), the start of Shock And Awe (50% chance of success), running to the apartments in One Shot, One Kill (80% chance of success), and Mile High Club (50% chance of success). That works out at pretty good odds in total. I'm [i]seriously[/i] happy with the methods I've got for Hunted, One Shot One Kill and Heat which turn nightmare levels into virtually guaranteed successes (with the exception of the rush to the apartments).

Anyone who wants me to encode and upload the practice run so they can see my routes and give feedback, say so in the next 20 minutes, after which I'll delete 240GB of footage I just recorded so I have space to have another go.

WillingToPay

2011-01-12 03:54:35 pm

Damn I'm too late to request that Sad

I'll just give you encouragement to keep going. That's an amazing feat as it is already - you can surely improve on it if you're that skilled Smiley

P.Ommes

2011-01-23 06:18:47 am

I hope you're trying hard. really want to see such a amazing run Wink

djcj

2011-02-02 08:23:58 am

Wow, good luck with that. Yeah, Mile High Club is hardcore, I wasn't able to beat that one on Veteran yet, the time limit is the biggest problem for me. I know that this is meant to be a deathless playthrough and not a run, but how much time does it take you to complete this game?

ExplodingCabbage

Edit history:

ExplodingCabbage: 2011-02-05 02:36:49 pm

ExplodingCabbage: 2011-02-05 02:34:54 pm

ExplodingCabbage: 2011-02-05 02:31:27 pm

2011-02-05 02:30:53 pm

Quote from djcj:

I know that this is meant to be a deathless playthrough and not a run, but how much time does it take you to complete this game?

Between three and three and a half hours.

BTW update: I just completed a 3-death run. My three deaths were:

- One on Shock And Awe. Turns out there's a glitch where if you fire the cannon on the chopper the instant before you get off it, you get hit by your own rocket and instakilled. I'd never come across this issue before, but now that I've discovered it I'll remember not to dick around firing the cannon when I don't need to.
- One on Safehouse. Stupid mistake. I exposed myself to fire from the doorway leading into the room in the third house with the mounted machinegun whilst grabbing the Dragunov on the floor in that room. I've been killed in the same way before but hadn't really internalised the lesson yet, I guess. Well, I have now.
- One on The Sins Of The Father. Got under time pressure whilst making my way through the alleyways, started pushing too hard and ran into a grenade. Partly a symptom of not really having practiced this level (it takes about five minutes before you reach any meaningful action, which I find offputting), but I'm gonna have to suck up the boredom and practice this a few times now because I've fucked up on this level before. I think I can handle those alleyways much better than I have been if I just bounce grenades around the corner.

But yeah, having pulled off a 3-death run with no deaths in my traditional sticking points is really promising. I'm feeling hopeful.

I'm also doing an LQ encode just to check I'm not going to have any issues on that front. May upload it if there's interest. I'd kinda like to get some feedback and advice and appreciate that I haven't provided enough information for that to be possible thus far.

[quote="djcj"]I know that this is meant to be a deathless playthrough and not a run, but how much time does it take you to complete this game?[/quote]

Between three and three and a half hours.

BTW update: I just completed a 3-death run. My three deaths were:

- One on Shock And Awe. Turns out there's a glitch where if you fire the cannon on the chopper the instant before you get off it, you get hit by your own rocket and instakilled. I'd never come across this issue before, but now that I've discovered it I'll remember not to dick around firing the cannon when I don't need to.
- One on Safehouse. Stupid mistake. I exposed myself to fire from the doorway leading into the room in the third house with the mounted machinegun whilst grabbing the Dragunov on the floor in that room. I've been killed in the same way before but hadn't really internalised the lesson yet, I guess. Well, I have now.
- One on The Sins Of The Father. Got under time pressure whilst making my way through the alleyways, started pushing too hard and ran into a grenade. Partly a symptom of not really having practiced this level (it takes about five minutes before you reach any meaningful action, which I find offputting), but I'm gonna have to suck up the boredom and practice this a few times now because I've fucked up on this level before. I think I can handle those alleyways much better than I have been if I just bounce grenades around the corner.

But yeah, having pulled off a 3-death run with no deaths in my traditional sticking points is really promising. I'm feeling hopeful.

I'm also doing an LQ encode just to check I'm not going to have any issues on that front. May upload it if there's interest. I'd kinda like to get some feedback and advice and appreciate that I haven't provided enough information for that to be possible thus far.

WillingToPay

2011-02-05 04:45:35 pm

I'd love to watch it. I'm no speedrunner but I played the shit out of CoD4 so I may be able to help, but most of all I just want to see your already amazing feat. Smiley

P.Ommes

2011-06-13 04:41:28 am

Any chance of an Update?

caitlintulk

2023-08-08 03:31:54 am

I also tried playing CoD 4 on Veteran difficulty on Arcade Mode, but I failed many times. I'm curious how you can beat it.
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