The Streets
When you gain control, a rather large demon with claws will be standing atop an overturned bus. He will roar at you as you fight with some minor Crawlers. These enemies are relatively fast and have a lunging attack. They will come at you from all directions so be sure to keep moving as you fight. After dealing some damage to them, a button prompt will appear over their head indicating that you can execute an instant kill on them if you hit that button.
After defeating a couple waves of these minor enemies, the larger Claw Demon, will hop down off of the bus. After a few seconds, you'll be prompted to activate Chaos Form but don't. Assuming this is your first time playing the game, there is an achievement/trophy just ahead that you can't get if you're in Chaos Form so I would recommend using it only if you truly can't get past this fight otherwise.
At this point, you're actually pretty powerful so this shouldn't be too difficult but that also makes this a good time to practice your technique. You've got lots of room to move around so use the dodge button (RB on the 360) to dodge. He only really has two major attacks. There's a swiping attacking which can be just a single swipe or two consecutive swipes depending on how close you are after the first swipe and a clamping attack where he tries to squash you against the ground with both hands. This attack usually only happens if you are right in front of him. I tried to capture the stances before he attacks in the images below.
When you dodge, you probably instinctively just keep dodging backwards or to one side but this isn't the best way to go about dodging. Whenever you dodge, you should dodge twice at right angles. If you dodge back, you should immediately dodge left or right afterwards. If you want, you can then dodge back again. When you dodge in this fashion, there's almost no delay in between the dodges allowing you to get more distance much more quickly.
This guy can take a beating but he'll go down. Just watch his movements, dodge as appropriate and when you have the chance to, finish him with an execution.
After finishing him off, the bus he was on will be destroyed (it may take a moment to trigger). On the other side will be a section of street with more of the minor Crawlers that you faced earlier. It is important to note that there is an achievement/trophy for killing 150 enemies with thrown environmental objects because any throwable object that is broken in any way (even just being bumped into) will not respawn at any point, ever. This is as good a place as any to start. Just hit the execution button (also used to pick up or activate items) to pick up any environmental object. Even things like parking meters and lamp posts can be used. Then use the right trigger to throw the object.
Use them to kill any enemies. Some of the larger objects like cars can deal some serious damage to stronger enemies but if you're doing alright and want to go for achievements, use them primarily on lower enemies and attack larger enemies with your weapons (there's an achievement for leveling your weapons through their use, not kills). Note that you can jump with almost any object which may give you a better angle for throwing and hitting multiple enemies. Clear this area of the minor enemies by throwing objects. When they are all dead, grab a car of some kind and carry it to the next area.
Follow the road for a little bit and you'll see this giant rocky golem creature ahead called a Tormented Gate. Walking towards him will trigger a cutscene where the path behind you will be blocked. This will force you to drop the car you're carrying but that's ok because it will still be nearby. As soon as you gain control, pick up the car, press in the right stick to aim and look up. A chopper will fly over you and you need to throw the car at it (and hit it) for an achievement. If you miss it, try reloading the checkpoint (Find Data in the pause menu and choose Load - the first option with the blue skull/circle emblem is the autosave). If that doesn't work, at least it's at the very beginning of the game.
*Open Air Parking | Destroy a helicopter during the apocalypse with a vehicle | 5 | Bronze |
After you've hit the helicopter, make sure that you bring yourself back down. You're about to be attacked by some Angels. These are basic Angel enemies that attack with flying spear lunges and swipes as well as a weak projectile attack which doesn't do much damage but will stun you a little bit. Throwing objects at them will bring them out of the sky, making it easier to deal some damage. This is probably the best bet if you can pick up smaller items since the Angels move so fast. You can also jump into the air to fight or use the Target Lock+Back+Swing combo to launch yourself into the air after them. Since you haven't used your Chaos Form, you can also do that if you'd like.
When you've knocked an angel down and they are panting on the ground, you usually have the chance for an instant execution. Unlike the Crawlers from earlier, however, this won't remain indefinitely. If you miss this chance, they will get back into the air to continue fighting and the chance will be lost. Their damage is not undone but they still have a decent amount of health left that could have been avoided.
Weakened
The Tormented Gate will move after you've defeated these angels. Follow after him and something really strange will happen to you. You'll need to be careful because you've lost a large segment of your health. Further ahead, you'll come to Times Square and be attacked by another group of Angels. This group will be about four strong but they'll be no different than the ones you fought earlier. You have far more space so make sure to use it and keep moving. Now that you have less health, it's important to make good use of dodging and moving.
Shortly after you defeat the angels, more Crawlers will comes out of a nearby building and down some Demonic Growth. Defeat these Crawlers and then jump onto the Demonic Growth to start climbing. Make your way up to the top and into the building. Make your way through the building and up the newly grown Demonic Growth at the back. On the roof, you'll watch as a demon removes a rather large Angel Guardian. Go to the edge of the roof and find the Power Line that spans the gap between the buildings. Make your way to the Demonic Growth against the wall ahead. Be careful because there will be some Crawlers coming down towards you. You can lure them to the ground, try to rush past them to the roof or attempt to fight them on the wall though this last option is possibly where you're at your weakest.
You can get into the building from up here so walk into the function hall here. There are plenty of tables and chairs to throw around if you like but there's not a whole lot of room for you to move around so it might be best to just fight through the Crawlers that come through the doorway. After you kill a couple, another five or so will appear. You should be able to make quick work of them. Go through the door way and follow the path down an elevator shaft, through a couple of broken walls and down a zipline.
When you get outside, you're almost immediately going to be attacked by another group of roughly five Angels. There are plenty of vehicles and lots of space to use them. Take out the angels however you like and the path ahead will open up for you. Make your way forward and try and follow along with the narrative. It's ok if you don't understand what's going on, you'll find out later. The important thing is how the cutscene ends.
This is Straga.
Straga
Straga is not happy -- of course, he probably never is. The first thing he is going to do is shove his hand into the lava and pull out a few cars to throw at you. These aren't hard to dodge really but don't get careless either. At least one will land near you. Pick it up and throw it at his face!
Now that he's angry, he'll likely wind up his fist. You'll notice it catch on fire. He's going to take that fist and punch the ground with it which will cause a shockwave of debris and fire to hurdle towards you. Pay attention to which fist it is because if it's his right fist (your left side) then he's going to do this twice. It should give you just enough time to dodge. Just keep dodging to the side until it passes by you. Straga has one other major attack that he could use where he will throw both hands into the air and then grab either side of the street you're on, lift it in the air and then slam it to the ground. When he does this, jump just before he grabs the street the first time and just before he slams it down to avoid damage at both points.
After he makes another attack or two, he'll throw more cars at you. Pick up the cars and throw them at him. This time, he should come down. Run up and start hacking at his face! After you deal some good damage, he will get back up and start his attack scheme over again. Watch for the attacks, dodge, and throw cars. Repeat this process until you stab him a good one. Watch for your reward!
