Trouble in the Tropics is a level in the award-winning video game The Operative: No One Lives Forever. It is the 10th mission of the game and follows Cate Archer's infiltration of a tropical island in search of the antidote to thwart H.A.R.M.'s evil plan. It consists of four scenes and is immediately followed by the mission Low Earth Orbit.
Briefing
There is a small but nonetheless intriguing possibility that H.A.R.M. is storing the antidote for the reagent at a secret research facility on an island off the coast of Mandaru.
Your first objective will be to establish whether or not such a facility even exists. If it does, you must infiltrate it and retrieve a container of the antidote.
Mission Summary
Scene 1
Having concealed herself within a crate, Cate covertly arrives at a secret docking station hidden within a cave. She makes her way to the radio room and destroys the communications equipment to prevent anyone from radioing ahead. She then accesses the main lift to proceed to the surface level. As it passes by another one, the lift stops midway and she is ambushed by two H.A.R.M. agents. Luckily, the elevator they are standing on explodes and plummets to the ground. She then uses a ladder to climb up the rest of the way and opens the main door with the code breaker.
Scene 2
Outside, Cate discovers a large area hidden clearing where a helicopter flies by once in a while to collect supplies. She ventures through the jungle until she comes across an ancient temple-like building. The large metal doors suggest that this is the main entrance to the facility. As the doors an impenetrable, Cate has to find another way inside. A small river behind the temple leads to what appears to be the exhaust tunnel of a rocket or missile. She gains access to it using her zip-cord and goes inside.
Scene 3
Cate eventually reaches a large missile test site. Two scientists can be heard through an intercom discussing a "90 second test fire". She realizes that she has to find a way to sabotage this in order to avoid being killed by the blaze. She uses the welder-mode on her cigarette lighter to unhinge the locks on the missile's supports. After hiding in the nearby tunnel (which is filled with water), the missile comes crashing down immediately, causing serious damage to the control room and killing the two scientists. The explosion does not go unnoticed and Cate has to fight off several attackers before heading outside.
Scene 4
Cate now finds herself in the heart of the facility. She must avoid detection at all costs as raising an alarm will fail the mission. Venturing deeper into the compound, she overhears a conversation about the antidote between two scientists. While there are no antidote samples on the island, a rocket is sent up to H.A.R.M.'s space station every second week to bring back as much antidote as it can carry. The next rocket lifts off shortly. Cate immediately contacts HQ using a nearby radio requesting permission to board the rocket. Mr. Jones reluctantly consents. She then steals an astronaut's suit and boards the rocket just in time before liftoff.
Characters
- Cate Archer
- Mr. Jones (Radio Only)
- Dock Guards
- Construction Workers
- Scientists
- Astronauts
Trivia
- This is the second mission in the game where you cannot select your gear, as it is forcefully set by default to SCUBA gear.
- Cate is only clad in SCUBA gear for Scene 1. For the rest of the mission, she wears her spy catsuit. However, she still wears her goggles and oxygen tank whenever diving underwater.
- A part of the map that cannot be accessed in normal gameplay shows a lift with Cate, now wearing spectacles, looking at an engineer. According to a list of all the game's voice clips, the name of the engineer was supposed to be Chuck Barnes and was meant to be talking with Cate about how to "optimize propellant chemistry". It could be assumed that Cate's dubious answers to the engineer were intended to be the original method of sabotaging the test-fire, as opposed to her interference with one in progress in the final game.
The unused conversation on the lift between Cate and the engineer.
- The island of Mandaru is a fictional location. As it is described as "tropical" it is supposedly somewhere on or near the earth's equator. Two likely geographical locations include somewhere in Oceania near Papua New Guinea, or around the Caribbean.
- The ancient temple in Scene 2 suggests that the island was formerly inhabited by an old civilization, along the lines of the Inca, Aztec and Maya.
- This is the first mission since Berlin by Night that is immediately succeeded by another mission as opposed to a briefing/training level.
