Things I learned from The Creator

– Neo-Asia has a police force but no army or diplomatic force to speak of. You can just swoop in and kill its inhabitants without any political or diplomatic consequences.

– For the most sensitive operation in years, recruit the guy with the muddled interests and the chip on his shoulder, the exact night before you leave at “o-600 hours”.

– After showing said guy faked images of his long lost love, ask him if that’s her on a picture.

– Brief the crew with the shortest speech ever on the plane, just before the operation.

– Don’t bomb the enemy base. Enter it with a skeleton crew. After all, it worked with Bin Laden.

– Build your base like a subway-sized tunnel. Enter it with a teeny-tiny hatch.

– When you’re looking for a person who’s been presumed dead for years, act surprised when you only find her tracker in a puddle where she went missing in the first place.

– Go swimming as an amputee. Afterwards, attach your bionic arm without even drying off your stump.

– A Vietnamese jalopy contains an inca winter hat in its glove compartment. Use this to cover your sim-hole. Forget about the mechanic neck.

– Nomad can differ in size and orbital height.

– Nomad’s missiles differ in radiation levels and or shockwave strength, depending on what character is hit.

– Neo-Asian families are so nice, they pick you up on a whim (even though you hail from an invading country), they let you hide in the back at border crossings and don’t even hold it against you when you nearly get meemaw and the kids killed.

– Sims are constantly looking for real-life faces to emulate. Certainly those of wrinkly Vietnamese farmers.

– Sims sleep in hammocks like people do. They just load up in the process.

– When in trouble, look up your special agent friend who switches sides like dirty underwear. He’ll tell you after a quick inspection that your little sim is growing and will be all powerful.

– AI is outlawed, except for cutesy kamikaze bombs with arms and legs.

– Boats fly. They just do, motherfucker.

– Didn’t you know? LA blew up due to a human error and sims just want to get along.

– When boarded, Nomad will send a tiny crew of marines. No other security will be present.

– Since it’s war, one American general has all arbitrary power.

– If five guns are shooting at you from behind a barricade, no harm will come to you.

– Known enemy bases only get attacked when the shit really hits the fan.

– Rockets just become duds when communication gets cut.

– Sims can’t harm Nirmata. In five years, they can’t even ask their human allies to pull the switch.

– Nirmata shouldn’t be intubated. Just use an oxygen mask that’s barely around her head.

– Washington and Chan: meh, Menchaca, Janney, Watanabe and Ineson: good to great, Voyles: fantastic.