It's been a little while since I posted an update on Sony's Salt Day X Exists game, but now I've had the chance to play through all nine missions and offer a summary of the experience. If you've missed my updates and have no clue what I'm talking about, DayXExists.com is a first person online game in which users step into the shoes of a CIA Junior Analyst. The site launched on May 17th with the first of nine missions, which concluded with Mission 9 this week. Complete all nine missions and you should be well prepped for the release of Sony's action-packed Salt on July 23rd.
To start, I was contacted by rogue operative, Agent Salt, who went on the run after she was linked to an apocalyptic plot known as Day X. I wasn't really sure whether or not to trust Salt at first, but I decided it would be worth the risk if I could help to prevent Day X. As I moonlighted with Salt, I had to keep an increasingly suspicious CIA Director, Agent Larson, at bay. Thankfully Salt helped me locate some leads that impressed Larson enough to get him off my back for the time being.
Each mission starts with contact from Salt via the cell phone she gave me in Mission 1. So far I've played through an interrogation with Larson, taken photographs of potential rogue operatives, played a Tron-like PS3 game to copy some files and used a long distance laser mic to record a conversation. The mini-games start off rather tame, but it's all building towards the action.
In Mission 5, Salt distracts a pilot while I place a signal diverter inside his plan, The Raven. I've got to use a series of tools to get the diverter in before time runs out and the pilot returns. Fail and the result is a punch in the face, but don't ask me how I know that.
Now that we can track it, Larson tells me the Raven made stops in San Antonio, Jacksonville and a remote area in the Yuma desert, where the cargo was loaded onto a truck leased to a man named Archie Johnson. He turns out to be a former police officer that now runs a private security firm and often contracts out with the Defense Department.
As we head into the final missions, things are starting to pick up. The Day X agents are starting to get a little higher on the food chain. One alias, Sylvia Asimov, belongs to a Soviet woman reported to have perished in a fire along with her daughter back in 1991. You know things are about to get good when the dead are rising.
Salt has placed a tracker on Archie Johnson's package and needs me to trace it, which leads to the next mini game. Using my trusty Sony GPS (again, gotta love the product placement) I track him to a meeting with another agent, Hicks. Larson tells me that Johnson has some secrets of his own, as well as a different, Soviet name. Now I have to sneak into the meeting place and figure out what Johnson delivered to Hicks. In the next mini-game, I have to watch my step and keep a noise meter from going too far right or left. Make too much noise and, you guessed it, another punch in the face. Once I master my stealthiness, I open a safe which contains some circuit boards and coded slides. The code breakers are unable to crack the code, so it looks like I'm on my own again, though Larson does hint at a raise.
Thankfully, Salt is able to crack the code, although the news isn't good. It's the initiation order for Day X. The four operatives - Sims, Hicks, Johnson and someone named Chenkov - are meeting up at a container yard in Baltimore tonight. Now I'm about to get into the thick of things, assassin-style. I've got a gun and four bullets to save humanity. In her trademark foreboding tone, Salt tells me, "Remember, no one gets out alive."
In the most exciting mini-game of the series so far, I get the chance to step into the role of a sniper. I've got to aim and off the targets one at a time. The first three goes smoothly, but the fourth hears the shots and goes on the run. For the last kill I get creative and shoot the wires off an overhead shopping crate and take him down Wile E. Coyote-style. The problem is, the last guy is a CIA agent. Oops. Two more agents pop out of nowhere and chase me, but I manage to escape.
Things aren't looking great as I head into the final mission. Now I'm on the run just like Salt. I try contacting Larson, but it looks like I was identified. He tells me every agent at the bureau is lining up for a shot at my head and I've got an hour to turn myself in. Guess Salt and I are on our own.
In the final mini-game, the action heats up. I storm the warehouse, guns blazing. Controlling my gun's crosshairs with the mouse, the spacebar allows me to duck and reload. This is the meatiest game of the series so far, with dozens of baddies to blast before success. A single shot to the head puts them down immediately. Otherwise it can take a few hits before they drop.
After I pull everything off, Salt has a pretty big surprise lined up for me. Turns out I may have chosen the wrong allegiance after all. Nine missions down and, though I know a little bit more about Salt, I'm still far from gathering the whole story. True to the game's promotional ties, Salt tells me I won't see the full scope of Day X until July 23rd.
Check out the entire series of nine missions at DayXExists.com.
Salt opens in theaters nationwide July 23rd, 2010.
