Headcrabs In Real Life
I had forgotten how big and important this chapter was. Not only do we collect 3 new weapons (Pistol, Machine gun and grenades) but we also encounter barnacles, manhacks, zombies and headcrabs. In addition we actually get to shoot shit, kill stuff and drive an airboat. That’s quite a lot, but wait there’s moreWe see a wide variety of locations and settings, all seamlessly flowing one into another. Little did we realize that the “just get to Black Mesa East” would be such a pain in the ass.Puzzles are introduced, in the form of the board and bricks.
No real tutorial needed as it’s pretty obvious, and that’s the best way. Make it obvious what needs to be done, but make it fun figuring out HOW to do it.Now, there is plenty of analysis of this level on the net, but the things that struck me are as follows.Some sections and areas are surprisingly empty, image 10 is a good example.
If a mod was released with an area like this today, we would all be complaining.How clever it was to put the boards on the metal fence near the beginning. They probably found that players had trouble locating the enemies, but the wood help with that.The combination of manhacks and wood is very cool. Having them slice their way through crates and boards is so much fun.Vortigaunts are now our allies and apparently we “serve the same master”. Story depth there, for sure.How do the early NPC not realize I am somebody special. Sure, they might not know I am Freeman, but they know that somebody important is running around.
Here am I in a bright orange and grey suit and “I’m just another guy”!I wish manhacks could go underwater – that might add a new dynamic to some gameplay.Lastly, how kind these NPCs have been. They each have their own story, goals and ambitions all put to one side for the sake of me – well, Freeman. I hope all players see the sacrifice they are making. We/I/Freeman owe them big time.—–I certainly lost a little of the atmosphere in this chapter because I had to play over three sittings due to interruptions but it is a great piece of work, especially the way the designers made all the different environments flow. We had quite a few moments where you can see where you are going to get to, creating that all important “push”. Nicely done, Valve.Playtime: 1 hour 16 minutes. Route Kanal is the chapter where the real action finally starts.
We witness an agression right at the beginning, and as we are a very nice guy, we save that lady. We also get a gun 😀Then there are a couple puzzles including force fields and trains, we get shot at ALL the time, encounter a couple lambda ammo cache, some obvious, some not.then we move in some dirty water, meet a vortigaunt that gives an AP boost of 2 (yay.-) and we continue shooting combine. We encounter barnacles, and the game teaches us right away that they will eat other things than us, which is pretty cool.
We meet several refugees, and pretty much every single one of them dies. We move in sewers, air ducks, and pretty much everywhere we can to move forward. We meet a chopper (already?!?) and we clearly see that the combine has a lot of control over the headcrabs and who is transformed into zombies, since they are the one sending the headcrab canisters. We get an airboat, and move on to the next level 😀Challenges:no challenges?
I have a couple ideasFive words or less review:Finally some fighting, pew pewDeaths:None, for now.Playtime:13 minutes 20 seconds 208 milliseconds.Damn those levels are long. GeneralBecause teleporter had failed, Gordon must follow the classic path set by the Resistance.
But the Combine want to capture him and proceed to punitive raids in Resistance stations.The whole chapter is filled with enemies, essentially cops. So we can feel pressure while moving to a new zone. More Gordon meet CPs, more he became dangerous and more CPs want to kill him.
However the level is not to difficult because those cops are stupid and hide behind the numerous explosive barrels.This feeling is also underlined by the oppressive shadow of the Citadel, viewable from everywhere and the Super Voice which never stop talking.Others enemies like Barnacles and crabs proves that the Black Mesa Incident have influenced Earth, Those wild Xen species are now part of ecosystem.The setting of “Route Kanal” is not linear. Of course we get across some canals, but before we follow a railway because we came from train station.Later we land in the sewers and meet some resistants who survived the Combine attack. Some can be helpful and their presence means we are on the right way. We also noticed this Lambda Logo that resistant use to recognize their places and hiding.Between actions phases we encounter simple puzzles, mostly based on physics and again showing Source Engine potential.
The prehistoric concept of lever for example, wasn’t so easy to reproduce in games before.Finally Gordon reach a station that haven’t been destroyed and after a bad surprise, obtain the air-boat. Since HL2, Valve want to include tutorials in the whole game instead of making an Hazard Course.
The large area at the very end of chapter is a good example. The player can train and have fun with the air-boat and then continue when he want. Right, so our trek starts and the combat starts to ratchet up little by little. I like the feel of Route Kanal, you’re down in the canals and tunnels most of the time and you feel trapped.But what I want to talk about is the consistent method Valve uses to introduce an enemy to you. In every case, you get to see the threat before it can harm you – sometimes well before (barnacle), sometimes right before (manhack, while your ally is fighting them off). But you always get a chance to observe first without direct combat. It’s partially teasing, partially training – in that it lets you get a chance to determine a tactic to fight or avoid them.
It even applies to the explosive barrels – by the second or third map of this chapter, you have a good idea of what they do to you and to the Civil Protection. So when they’re tossed into the water next to you or rolled down the hill at you, you know what’s coming, even if you can’t easily evade. Think of the first encounters with the barnacle, helicopter, manhack, and headcrab.Another key method Valve uses in this chapter and throughout the game is to train you via puzzles, with no “tutorial” or guidance needed. As you learn from each puzzle, a future one will have you apply it slightly differently. An example is the flooded chamber where you can’t reach the ledge unless you break the wood down below and allow the large spools and crates to float to the surface.
It’s fairly straightforward, although it might take you a minute or two to figure it out the first time. But later we’ll see a clever application of this floating object puzzle.This player-training-through-puzzles is a key aspect of game design, and Valve really applied it to perfection later, in Portal. If it’s done right, it’s pretty subtle, and the player doesn’t even know they’re being trained.Playtime: 46 minutes. We start as a hero saving that lady from those metropolice thugs and get a weapon, where killing is a little less personal! Now that we have the gun we never seem to get a chance to stop using it!We get to jump, and fall off a lot on my first play through, on a moving train and have fun blowing up enemies with those hazardous red barrels.
We meet friendly people who seem to always be warning one about trouble and a Vortigaunt gives me a health boost, I think! So we learn they are now our friends fighting the same enemy and worship the great Freeman, look down at feet remembering being drenched in the blood of many, many of this chaps kind.Smashy, smashy with my old friend and it open air and a shooting gallery, but first mind the crow chopping barnacles! There is a nice little resistance nest leading up to a machine gun where great fun can be had shooting combinations of enemy equipment and white-faced goons! But this replay I was lazy and headed for the sewer, only to be bombed from above. So I watched my oxygen gauge and stayed deep, apparently the suit knows how long you can hold your breath!Three Combine on a very bodged bridge and a red barrel underneath provide a calamity of fun before you enter Half Life 2’s version of a hazard course.Starting with the barnacle-dodge, where you learn that they are easily distracted by stuff and then the swimming course, with exploding barrels and bullet hail, just to add to the fun.The seesaw room is where the fun ended! The first time I played this it drove me crazy with frustration. The times I had to keep waiting for the light to recharge were maddeningly frustrating as I loaded the ramp and then feel short!
Time and again I was thwarted and I left the game many times because I couldn’t get to the exasperatingly open tunnel exit! It ruined the game for me and I did not play it for quite a while afterwards!So when I replayed today I just cheated, using the infinite aux power cheat to keep the torch on, and loaded up the ramp.
And it still took me three jumps to clear that small gap! If was a relief to be running away from a rather overmatched opponent in the guise of a combine chopper!The catacombs were a visual delight when one does not have to constantly stop and pause, whistling or something while the torch recharges. Now the sequences flow in a way that really shows the superb skill of Valve’s Half Life’s programming team.Those manhacks are so annoying; I just hope I don’t end up in a big dark room with lots of them.
And, of course, you do, but it is also full of exploding barrels. I actually survived such a huge explosive party! Shame about those manhacks!Deep diving followed, and I was quite peeved that you could not just drop a grenade underwater to free those floating cable drums, but smashing in fun.Now for the biohazard course and zombies, featuring those irksome headcrabs, not de-fanged this time. A good puzzle course really with monster combat and sparkling death, well it was the first time. Your reward for all this trouble is one of HL2’s greatest assets, that tatty old airboat. When I first tried to control this thing it was chaos, driving on curser keys while you could be looking anywhere seemed madness! It is so simple now and still great fun and Valve even had the decency to give you a huge free area to go nuts in!Funny note: during my replay the combine starting using M41A pulse rifles on me and then I picked one up, very nice sound!
I must have left this in after my HL2 cleaning!This is a good long level with a huge amount of new information and skill training and is more enjoyable than I remembered, even resisted the urge to noclip that damned seesaw!Challeges:Still getting that seesaw jump wrong!Five words or less review:Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! (airboat)Deaths:None this time, but many before.G-Man sighting:Why was the vortigaunt watching him on telly?Playtime:1 hour and 13 minutes. (previous was a couple of months!).
In my recent playthrough of this chapter, I discovered an easy non-cheat way to get past the seesaw area without having to mess with the aggravating thing at all. Just pile four of the concrete cinderblocks up against the floor’s ledge, then jump onto the cinderblock pile, then jump onto the floor. You’ll have to stack the cinderblocks carefully so they won’t fall over while you’re trying to do your jumps. (Sorry I didn’t get this info to you earlier, but I’ve gotten a bit behind in my HL2 playing!).
I love this chapter – most of it anyway. With such a big chapter it is quite difficult to talk about individual parts; I love the way the environments shift from intense outdoor combat to quiet, damp sewers. The headcrab shelling right at the end is brilliant. It’s a very tightly controlled area and there is just enough scripting to build up a feeling of tension and fear, especially the first time through.The combat levels up pretty nicely as well since we go from being very vulnerable to much more heavily armed. The only bits that I don’t really like are the part where flaming barrels are thrown at you and the manhack room that you have to flood. The former I found very annoying the first time I played since it seemed impossible to avoid losing a lot of health. It’s not so bad for me now though.
Prettymuch Crew
The other one I thought was a good puzzle but the amount of NPCs is a bit of a difficulty spike. Reading that back makes me sound really negative but it’s really only a tiny bit in a huge and great chapter.Of course, who could forget the seesaw puzzle. I know someone who insisted on stacking the bricks to climb the ledge. He claimed that nobody would ever use a seesaw in real life!
I almost forgot about the part where you jump on to the moving train, I always loved that idea. Just shows you how much is going on in this chapter.Level design-wise there are so many great locations, like the collapsed overpass. Personally I really like the idea of all the little resistance hiding spots just out of sight of the Combine. Valve succeeded in making look really unique and fit in to their environments. Face frame cabinets. I’m glad we will get to see more in the Coast chapters.
As a sidenote, I got “achievement progress” for finding some of the Lambda caches. In this case it seems that achievements really add to the experience as they give extra incentive to go look for all the secrets.By the way, I saw some problems which I guess are due to the engine update some time ago. Firstly the “sun” sprite kept going flickery, and also the skybox textures were very streched in some places. The latter is an issue I encountered before as a mapper, I believe it’s due to them not being HDR skies. I am surprised it hasn’t been fixed since it should be a minor problem.We travel quite a long way in this chapter, having basically left City 17. But now we have the Airboat, it’s time for some real journeying!
In Real Life Boy Band
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