Maine Ave | Act I Omerta: CoG Guide

Mission rewards:

• Gang Member: Vincento "Squigs" Rizzo
• Gang Numbers +1
• Level Up

Maine Ave is the first available mission and it serves as a sort of tutorial to introduce you to the world of the game. One of your friends, Freddie Tanino, will give you several missions to allow you to familiarize yourself with controls and the game's interface. Once you've mastered the control of the camera (simply look around the area) and selecting buildings (click the left mouse button on the building with a hat icon), you can proceed to the proper mission.

Hideout, your base of operations.

Your first task is to get the lay of the area. Highlight the building where the informant is (indicated with a question mark) and choose one of two options: Big Spender or Cheers. The former costs $5, the latter a Beer. The choice has no effect on the playthrough. After accepting the "mission", the character will go to a shopkeeper to seek information about the local buildings. In future, informants will demand much more cash or Beer; some of them will have to be threatened with guns or bribed with alcohol - in most cases it will be necessary to push the plot forward.

Informants will provide information necessary to take control over a district.

Since your character has discovered several Breweries in the area, it's high time to plan your first mob action. You're going to have to do a raid to obtain several dozen casks of Beer. To do it, proceed in the same way as with the Informant: press the left mouse button on the designated building, and select Raid. After confirming the action, your man will go for a "walk", and come back a while later with spoils.

Brewery raid. Some gangsters (such as Squigs) can bring home bigger spoils.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to take control over the district all by yourself - you're going to need to hire a henchman. Press the left mouse button twice on the icon reserved for the second gangster, select Vincento "Squigs" Rizzo from the list, and hire him. From now on you will be able to perform two actions at the same time. Time to use your new henchman and plan another brewery raid. Your warehouses should quickly get richer in 40 casks of Beer, and you will have successfully completed another mission.

The panel displays all currently available gangsters. In the first mission, you can only use your character and Squigs.

Now it's time to earn some cash - click on Jobs, select the Beer tab and get into talks with Ben O'Connor. After choosing a gangster to perform the assignment (in this case it doesn't matter which one you pick) and accepting the mission, you'll need to wait a few minutes before you get your money. The first job will go without problems - in the future, however, it may happen that the payer will want to rip you off, scam or steal from you, or you may fall into a police trap.

Jobs will appear throughout the whole game - they're the best source of dirty and clean money.

Next, go deeper into the city. Pay a visit to your (new) informant again - you'll learn of some new locations. Unfortunately, it will turn out that your partner Squigs has gone missing. To find him, ask the close-by gentleman if he hadn't seen your friend. Choose the question mark and send the Boss to investigate.

Sometimes, you're going to have to seek information among the people walking on the streets. Just as informants, they are marked with an exclamation mark.

It will turn out that Squigs had been captured and is currently held in a nearby warehouse. Look at the map and roll the cameras over the building indicated with a red cross - on the main screen it will be a warehouse with an eye icon floating above it. Here's where you should save your game - your first encounter with firearms is about to start.

In future, almost every mission which ends with a shootout will have the eye icon.

The way of controlling characters and using options has been described in the previous section of the guide. Your job is to rescue Squigs and escape from the warehouse. Since the path to your partner is blocked only by one thug, end your turn just in front of the door, then make use of the full amount of Movement Points to run into the adjacent room and easily eliminate the opponent.

The first opponent is just behind the door - before firing, get as close to him as possible.

Now you only need to go to the back and stand on the monkey wrench symbol to open the cell. Two more enemies will appear. Using the crates in the warehouse as cover, move towards the exit. As soon as you see an enemy, try to get rid of him in one move - perform the action when the initiative bar shows both your character's portraits one by another. Your accumulated firepower should be enough to get him down before he has a chance of striking back. Do the same with the other thug, and the way outside will be open.

When two consecutive moves belong to your characters, you may be able eliminate the opponent before he has a chance to react.

When the mission ends, you can level up your characters. Select the according option and choose a new Perk - try to pick one which best matches your playing style. Since my character is designed to fight with firearms, I chose Ranged Specialist. Squigs also uses pistols, so I picked the same Perk for him.

Time for the last mission, after which you'll leave Maine Avenue. You need to collect $1000 using your previously acquired abilities. Have Squids do some brewery raids and sell the spoils yourself. When you have a free moment, you can d some trading: use job to buy goods for low prices and sell them to whoever needs it. $1000 isn't a lot of cash and it shouldn't take more than a day of the game time to have the complete sum.

The last battle in Maine Ave jest childishly easy: focus on eliminating thugs one by one and the victory is yours.

Before you leave Maine Ave, there's one more thing to do. The thugs who had previously captured Squigs have come to exact revenge, so you'll have to fight with them again. This time you'll be outnumbered, but it won't be a problem if you're prepared. Just hide in the first room and wait for them to come - as soon as they're in range, concentrate fire on one thug at a time. After the three of them are defeated, the mission will end in success and you can pick another district to go to.