All the Time in the World

All the Time in the World opens with a driving cinematic. Bond is assigned chauffeur duty for Cressida and Monroe, who are attending the World Chess Championship at the Grand Carpathian Hotel in the Slovakian High Tatras as cover. The drive through snow-dusted mountain roads sets a very different tone from the London nightclub of the previous chapter — this is classic Bond: an isolated luxury hotel in a hostile environment, full of wealthy guests, staff who may not be who they say, and more security than a chess tournament reasonably needs.

The camera sweeps across the hotel facade: a sprawling alpine structure with steep roofs, chess banners at the entrance, and luxury cars at the valet. MI6 believes 009 — the rogue agent connected to the Pike arms deal — is inside. Greenway runs the operation from the car and the initial order is simple: stay with the vehicle, observe, do not go inside. That does not last.

After the opening cinematic, you have control of Bond by the car outside the hotel. The instruction is to stay put, but you quickly spot something off: a blond bellhop moving furtively near the staff entrance, watching arriving guests too intently, then slipping inside through a side door. This is your trigger.

Bond follows him in against Greenway’s orders. Getting into the hotel without a press badge is the first real puzzle. You can create a distraction at the main entrance (knock over a luggage trolley, trigger a car alarm, draw the doorman away) and slip through while staff are occupied, or follow the bellhop route via the side entrance through a brief stealth sequence around the building exterior.

The Grand Carpathian lobby is stunning: vaulted ceilings, wood panelling, a massive stone fireplace, chess-themed decor everywhere (banners, statues, a giant chessboard floor), and guests in evening wear between the check-in desks and the lounge. This is classic IOI crowded-public-space design — lots of NPCs, lots of sight lines, security in formal dress patrolling the edges, and staff following predictable routines. Your first priority is to blend in.

The bellhop disappeared through a Staff Only door behind check-in. To open it you need either the key or a distraction that gets the concierge away from his post. Before going for the objective, explore the lobby: there are eavesdropping opportunities, collectibles, and environmental storytelling that makes the hotel feel alive.

Once through the Staff Only door, you catch up to the suspicious bellhop in a back corridor. A short, tense conversation follows — he is not the primary threat; he is a low-level courier moving a weapons case to the upper floors on behalf of the Murto twins, the Finnish arms dealers the intelligence community has been tracking. He gives up what he knows quickly when confronted: the package is for a meeting in the cellar below the restaurant, 009 has been seen but his exact location is unknown, and the entire upper floor of guest rooms has extra security posted.

After the conversation you can either knock him out and take his uniform (useful for blending in upstairs) or let him go and proceed without a disguise. The uniform makes the corridor sections easier but is not strictly required.

The upper floor has a very different feel from the lobby: darker, quieter, plush carpet, numbered rooms, and housekeeping carts. Guards patrol in pairs and maids challenge you if caught out of place. The core puzzle centres on Rooms 205, 206, and 207, each with a different challenge.

The floor also connects to a backstage maintenance area overlooking the tournament hall, leading to the Championship Badge collectible. Moving between rooms without being seen requires timing patrols and using environmental cover.

Room 205 is the easiest room to access but has a layered puzzle. The door is locked and guards pass by periodically. Sabotage the suit of armour at the end of the corridor to create a loud clang, drawing guards away; sabotage the grandfather clock for a second distraction that pulls anyone remaining.

Once clear, flip the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door — in this hotel, the sign triggers a maid to come clean within about thirty seconds. When she arrives with her master key, slip in behind her or enter after she leaves the door propped.

Room 206 is the investigation centrepiece of the upper floor. This is where 009 (or someone connected to him) was staying; the room has been tossed: papers scattered, drawers open, signs of hasty exit. You must find six clues: a keycard under the pillow, security documents on the desk, a newspaper clipping in the top drawer, a note on the room-service cart, a lost wallet behind the fireplace, and a suit on the bathroom rack containing a hotel receipt.

Finding all six updates your objective toward the restaurant and the secret passage. Enter via the shared bathroom window from Room 205 or by picking the corridor lock.

Room 207 plays differently from 205 and 206. The door is triple-locked and the guest refuses to leave. You cannot pick or trick your way in from the corridor.

Climb out a corridor window onto the exterior stone ledge and edge along the building to reach the 207 balcony. The ledge is narrow; move slowly and do not over-correct. When you reach the balcony, kick the door in. Inside you find a bellhop uniform and a weapons cache — confirming the bellhop network.

Back down on the ground floor, the main tournament hall is where the chess championship is in session: a large room with a giant screen broadcasting the board, spectators in tiered seating, press photographers, and security at every exit. You need to get backstage to access the cellar route. Squeeze through the gap behind the left-hand big screen to find a backstage corridor that runs behind the tournament stage.

This area has dressing rooms, equipment storage, and a staircase down to the cellar level. Be careful here — backstage staff are more alert than lobby guests, and there are security cameras covering key junctions.

The cellar under the hotel is cold, damp, and only dimly lit by bare bulbs. It feels immediately wrong: stacked crates that are too new and clean for a wine cellar, wiring running along the walls that does not belong, and the faint smell of diesel. This is where the arms deal is being set up.

You will find disassembled weapons in crates, stacks of cash, and communications equipment. The cellar is patrolled by armed guards in tactical gear rather than hotel security — a clear sign you have penetrated the real operation. Move slowly, use crates and pillars for cover, and use your silenced PPK for any takedowns (no loud weapons; this is still a populated hotel above you).

Back upstairs, the hotel restaurant is a warm, wood-panelled dining room with a roaring fire, white tablecloths, and wealthy guests who have no idea what is happening beneath their feet. The restaurant is a social-stealth space similar in feel to the nightclub in A Night Out but with a more mature, quieter rhythm. Waiters move between tables, a pianist plays near the bar, and a group of guests who are clearly part of the arms network (wrong build for chess fans, too aware of the exits) are dining at a corner table. Eavesdrop on their conversation and you learn that the meeting is imminent and that the "special room" is accessed through the fireplace.

The secret passage is hidden behind the dining room fireplace, directly referencing the From Russia with Love novel and film (a deliberate Fleming homage on IO part). To open it you need to solve the Chimera Challenge: three animal symbols set into the stone mantelpiece that must be pressed in the correct order. The clue is on a torn page from a chess book resting on a service cart near the kitchen door.

The correct sequence is Lion, then Goat, then Snake — the three heads of the Chimera myth. Press them in the wrong order and nothing happens; reset and try again. Once entered correctly, the fireplace grate slides open with a heavy grinding sound, revealing a narrow stone staircase leading down.

The staircase descends to a stone chamber beneath the restaurant, part old wine cellar and part command centre. Maps are pinned to the walls, monitors display CCTV feeds from across the hotel, and there is a table set for a meeting that has not yet started. This is where the arms deal was supposed to happen.

Explore the room before the cutscene triggers — there are intel files on the table that fill in background on the Murto twins and their connection to 009. There is also a weapons case you can open to resupply. After you examine the central map, a cutscene triggers: Bond discovers he has walked into a trap.

The boss fight against the Murto twins is the combat centrepiece of the chapter. When the cutscene ends, both Niko and Tero enter the chamber from opposite sides and attack. This is a multi-phase melee-and-firearms fight in a tight stone room with breakable environmental objects.

Glass display cabinets line the walls, heavy wooden chairs are scattered around, and there are pillars you can use for line-of-sight breaks. The fight works in phases: first you fight Niko one-on-one, then Tero joins and you face both, and finally one twin falls and the remaining twin goes into a berserk rage. Use environmental throws (grab a bottle, a chair, a broken bottle from the cabinets) to deal bonus damage and end phases faster.

During the fight, a lantern is knocked over and a fire starts in the chamber. The flames spread quickly along old wooden beams and bottled alcohol, and within minutes the cellar and ground floor of the hotel are on fire. This is an escape sequence rather than a combat section.

Bond must fight his way back up through the burning hotel as guests evacuate, alarms blare, and sprinklers create a chaotic mix of water, smoke, and fire. The route up is not the same as the route down — the fireplace passage is blocked by fallen debris, so you must navigate through the kitchen, the staff corridors, and finally the lobby as the fire spreads. Be careful of burning ceiling timbers that fall without warning; look for the glow and avoid standing under them.

The car chase through Slovakian mountain roads is a major action set-piece. Bond steals a guest car (an Aston Martin, naturally) and pursues 009 vehicle along snow-dusted, winding alpine roads. The driving is arcade-style rather than simulation: you have machine guns mounted to the car (Q-branch toys) and a limited missile system, but the real challenge is the road itself — oncoming traffic, tight hairpin bends, black ice on bridges, and 009 men in chase vehicles trying to run you off the road.

Focus on staying on the road first, weapons second. The chase culminates at a small mountain airstrip where 009 plane is waiting.

At the airstrip, 009 is already boarding a cargo plane. His remaining security detail is positioned between you and the plane, using fuel drums, jeeps, and stacked cargo crates for cover. This is a straightforward combat section but elevated by the setting: the plane is warming its engines (visible prop wash and noise), snow is blowing across the strip, and you are on a clock — the plane will begin its takeoff roll shortly.

Push forward aggressively using cover; there is no stealth option here. Enemy numbers are not huge but they are well-armed and the open ground means flanking is hard.

Once on board the cargo plane, the sequence splits into two halves: a fight through the cargo hold while the plane is climbing, and then a freefall sequence when the rear ramp opens. The cargo hold is full of secured vehicles, weapons crates, and more of 009 men. The plane banks and tilts as it climbs, periodically throwing everything to one side — use these tilt moments to your advantage by being braced against a wall while enemies lose their footing.

You can also cut the straps securing vehicles to send them sliding into groups of enemies. At the end of the cargo hold, Bond reaches the cockpit area but 009 is not there — he has already bailed out with a parachute.

The final sequence of the chapter is a freefall chase. Bond dives out of the cargo plane after 009, and you must catch up to him in mid-air while avoiding other skydivers (009 remaining men have followed him out) and debris. The controls switch to a freefall system: you steer Bond body position, streamline to fall faster, spread out to brake, and can engage enemies with a pistol in freefall (short, inaccurate shots, but effective at close range).

When you get close to 009, a struggle ensues and Bond manages to plant his Q-watch on 009 before being thrown off. 009 parachute opens, but Bond own chute has been damaged in the struggle. You must deploy the reserve, navigate away from the mountain face, and land in a snowfield. The chapter closes with Bond on the ground, watch signal active, tracking 009 as he lands somewhere ahead in the mountains.