Favorite Half Life 2 Moments - SPOILERS!

Cafe Society
1

I haven’t beaten the game yet, but I just had to gush, and spoiler boxes bug me, so here’s a thread for the coolest things you’ve seen in Half Life 2. Obviously, mine are all from (roughly) the first half of the game, and I probably won’t be back to read any posts until I’ve beaten it. Not so much because I don’t want to be spoiled, but because I’d rather be playing it than talking about it. ('course, I’m at work now, so I can’t play it, hence the thread…)

Anyway, my favorite stuff so far:

The whole Ravenhome level. Scariest thing I’ve ever seen in a computer game, bar none. Head crabs could give me a good jump in the first game, but they freak me the fuck out now. The way you can hear the person they’ve taken over screaming and gibbering while the crab manipulates their body… :eek:

I loved the priest, too. I liked how, crazy and disturbing as he was, he was genuinely friendly and helpful. And the way he was crazy made total sense in the context of the game. He wasn’t just spouting out random gibberish, but was in a specific delusion deriving from his particular circumstances: the only human left surviving in a city full of zombies, all of them in some sort of apparent suffering, and the human is a priest (with some sort of military background, I presume) who was probably ministering to many of these zombies back when they were still alive. It makes sense for him to have stayed behind to help put them to rest when he was still sane, and for him to gradually develop his bizarre sermons after months (years?) of being trapped in the city with them, hunting them down one by one. Brilliant characterization.

Oh, yeah: Sawblades + Gravity gun. I was standing on a roof top, watching those agile super-zombies leap from roof to roof, getting closer and closer… and then I tagged one in mid-leap with a sawblade. Must’ve been almost two hundred feet away. Droped him like a stone. Well, two stones… :smiley: Also, beating zombies to death with a radiator ranks as one of the highpoints of my life to date.

Picking my way carefully across the underside of the bridge, literally on my hands and knees to avoid falling. Then, having reached the other side and lowered the forcefields, sprinting back the way I came while dodging a gunship to get to the crate of RPGs.

Also, while there, the way the guided missiles would corkscrew around the gunship as the laser lost lock everytime the gunship would pass behind a girder, and reacquired it on the other side. Awesome!

Right now, I’m at the prison. The whole sequence is amazing. It’s like a recreation of Aliens with the xenomorphs as the protagonists. I could imagine the Combine pissing themselves in fear as the outlying pounders started going offline, one by one. But the standout moment for me was while I was still in the courtyard, and another gunship showed up. I was up against the building, and that sucker was right above me, belly exposed. Beautiful shot, especially since I hadn’t found a crate yet, and wasn’t sure if there were enough missiles lying around on the map to take it out. So a clear shot like this was a Godsend. I line up, fire the missile… and a second gunship soars over the lip of the building, shooting down my missile in midflight! When I saw that, my stomach dropped like I had just hit the first big dip in a rollercoaster. Two gunships? At once?! Bastards! And it ended up being one of the best fights in the game so far.

All that said, I think possibly my favorite moment so far was right at the very beginning, before anyone’s even trying to kill you. You’re in the trainstation in City 17, and a Combine guard knocks a soda can on the ground and makes you pick it up and put it in the trash. Nothing big or dramatic, but look how much is done in this one scene: It brings story (The Combine is oppressing the humans…), it brings character (…and they’re dicks about it, too!), it gets the player emotionally involved ('cause now you really want to shoot this guy.), it’s a demonstration of the physics engine (“Watch how NPCs interact realistically with objects in the enviroment!”) and it’s a game tutorial (“Pick up the can by pressing the “E” key.”) All that in one five second scene. That, ladies and gentlemen, is art.

2

I’d say the defining moment for me was when Steam finally connected and finished the install. Just kidding.
The gravity gun is too much fun. I kept picking up furniture and flinging it on top of the zombies. I liked playing catch with the “dog” too. The NPCs facial features are incredible, and this is one area where the graphics really excel. I could also stare at the water all day - best looking video game liquid I’ve ever seen.
Dropping the cars on the headcrab zombies and flinging 55-gallon drums of fiery death at them were highlights as well.

3

I’m still only an hour or so into it, so I’m just posting without reading the rest of the thread.

I was so pissed off at the installation and Steam nonsense that I was all set to hate it, and I spent the first twenty minutes or so very non-plussed. Interesting voice work, neat enough looking city. Ah, it’s all a big Havok physics engine demo. Whatever. Big deal. Decent setting of mood. Right, right, next?

Then there was the sequence where I’m in the apartment building and suddenly everybody’s yelling at me to get to the roof. Get the hell out of there! Where are the stairs? That way – shit, it’s the guards! Open that door – more guards! How do I go up? The voices are behind me coming closer! What about that guy, is he going to die? Can’t stop, they’re coming! Get out on the roof! They’re shooting at me now! What the hell is that thing? Where do I go? That way! And finally kept running like mad until I found safety.

That was just amazingly well-presented, and that one sequence sold me on the game. I stopped thinking about engines and textures and level switches and level design and triggered events, and I was right there. I can’t wait to get back home and get back into it.

4

Just beat it. Damn, that was a wierd ending. Woulda liked a little more resolution. Still, the last two level were kick-ass. The upgraded grav gun was fantastic! I want to play through the entire game with it.

The striders were awesome, too. I was fighting in the courtyard of City Hall, after I’d disabled the artillery cannon inside, fighting the last of a large group of striders. All the NPCs had been killed, and I still hadn’t found the missile crate. I’d managed to take down the other striders by collecting dropped RPGs, but I was almost out. I fired my last rocket, hoping this would be the one that would take it down (I was playing on Hardest: it took a lot of rockets to drop those things). Perfect shot, but it’s not enough. The strider straightens, turns its gun on me… and is rocked by two more rockets from behind and goes down shrieking! I don’t know where those other two NPCs came from, but they totally saved my ass. Makes up for all the times I got killed because one of those doofuses was standing behind me when someone dropped a grenade down the stairwell.

So, what’s the deal with the G-man? I only saw him once in the game (in the prison level, I think) but I assume I just missed the other appearances. Is he supposed to be supernatural? Demonic? Divine, even? What exactly did Gordon accomplish when he killed the big brain thing in Xan? Anything at all?

I’m still intrigued, but they better offer up some resolution soon, or it’s going to start pissing me off. I hope I don’t have to wait 'til 2010 for Half Life 3.

Still, over all, best FPS I’ve ever played. No question. Nothing even comes close.

And I haven’t even touched multiplayer!

5

Again, MEGA spoilers in this thread: I’m especially worried about Sol, who seems to just be starting out! Why are you reading this thread already dude?!!

Favorite moments:

When I finally met up with another manhack after getting my gravity gun. Those things had tore me to pieces in the first part of the game, and they were all set to tear me apart again… and then I pulled out the grav gun, grabbed it right out of midair, and smashed it against the wall. You like that, bitch!!!

Another similarly cool moment was when me and an antlion doubleteamed a manhack between the two of us: crowbar smash on one side, antlion smack on the other, and the thing went to bits. High five!

Oh, and Alyx’s ass. There are two moments in the game where you are given absolutely gratiutious chances to stare up at her ass. And for the second one, I was staring up at it, and I then look over and one of the resistance guys is staring up at it as well… and then he sorta looks over at me, knowingly. A GAME made me feel creepy about staring at hot videogame chick booty. Those sorts of moments are what make the game so cool.

Nothing, of course, is quite as cool as D.O.G.'s second major appearance. Whoa. I kinda wonder why Alyx doesn’t just mass produce D.O.G.: an army of him would tear the combine to shreds.

Then, of course, that unforgettable moment when you realize that something funky happened, and your grav gun can now do what you were always disappointed it couldn’t do. :slight_smile: The whole design of the final level: the vistas, the sheer immensity of it, the cold, hardness, and knowing what was happening inside: it was phenomenal. And the ending: classic Half-Life. You weren’t expecting a nice, clean explanation of everything and to have teh secx with Alyx at the end while the resistance cheers, were you? Not on Valve’s watch. :slight_smile:

And the G-Man? The dude was ALL OVER the game. You could find at least one instance of him on a viewscreen or walking around in pretty much every single chapter. My favorite was the tv in anticitizen one where it looks and sounds sort of like an episode of X-files before the tv quickly winks out…

6

Here’s what I can piece together (which is part of what is great about Valve’s storytelling: nobody ever comes out and just tells you what’s what, you have to put it together on your own) from all the little bits (like what Nilhanth (the brainy Xen boss) says, what you find in HL2). Nilhanth, the boss of HL1, was basically the Xen version of Dr. Breen: the colaborating administrator for a conquered race. The “benefactors,” whatever they are (and Breen hints at this in some cases: bizarre stuff, like super-intelligence weather patterns and stuff) enslave races and planets and entire dimensions and pick out those species they think are worthy of become mercenary armies for them to conquer and rule yet more worlds.

We don’t know exactly what the G-Man is or to whom he is aligned. Breen hints that you’ve been used, and just like HL1, you end the game not entirely sure you’ve done the right thing. As the vortigaunts say in Hl2, you may be a hero in some respects, but you also bring death and doom. In HL1, you aren’t even sure if you are a hero or genocidal patsy who made things worse: opened up Earth to final collapse and defeat. Same thing at the end of HL2: you may have just doomed the entire human race, just as Breen warns. Good going! Why did the Gman want to use you to destroy Breen? We don’t yet know…

As for multiplayer… there’s nothing to touch, yet. unless you consider CS:Source new (most have had it for weeks already, so it’s not really new with HL2, and I’m not a huge CS:S fan anyways). But a HL2DM is rumored to be very soon, and Natural Selection: Source is looking more and more likely. I also really can’t wait for DOD:Source, since DOD is one of my favorite online mods.

7

I’m sure he was everywhere, I was just too busy running for my life most of the time to look. Same thing happened the first time I went through the first game. I’m going to go back through on easy just to get all the references. Or, at least, as many as I can.

I wasn’t expecting everything to be wrapped up in a bow, and I’m cool with them extending the story to at least one more game, but after that, I’m going to want an actual ending. It doesn’t have to be a pat explanation, or feature a naked Alyx (although that would be nice) or anything like that, but sooner or later, they need to conclude this thing and move on to another story and protagonist altogether. But maybe that’s just me: I crave finality, and hate it when they just keep padding out a succesful franchise too long. I’m hoping Half Life doesn’t go beyond three major games.

And the grav gun v. manhacks rocks. You can clear out a whole swarm of them in thirty seconds.

I also love the homage to the tram ride at the end of the game. Nice touch, I thought.

8

One of my absolute favorite parts of the game is in the middle of the interminable jetboat sequence, the first time the helicopter is coming after you. You’re flying along trying not to get shot and blown up and whatnot and for no good reason at all there’s this ramp that launches you up on top of a concrete abutment where you skid along the ground until you fall off the other side back into the water. It’s such a silly, cinematic, James Bondesque moment, and it really threw into relief the amount of heroic movie stuff you are actually expected to think of and then do during the course of the game. This is where it became clear to me that the best strategy for getting through the game is to think of what an action movie hero would do in your situation and then do it.

–p

9

Loved that too. I’ve done it three times now looking at stuff along the way.

A few OMG moments:

As mentioned, grav gun + sawblade. :smiley: I think my record was 4 zombies at once.

When you’re on the roofs in Ravenholm, and those really fast bastards start scaling the drainpipes, you can see the pipe pulsing as they’re on their way up. An added bonus is that a quick shot to the head with the shotgun sends them tumbling to the groud below.

I’ll add more when I’m bored at work next week, but I will say that I loved the manhacks. Love the way they spin out of control when hit - it just looks awesome. They were my favorite baddie until I saw that blue ray coming out of the striders and bending the space around it. :eek: Striders are just bad ass. :smiley:

And I LOVED the last level. I think every FPS should end like that. Have a few hard moments to get there (and I died plenty in Ravenholm and the prison), but make the last level a place where the player can just wail on the opposition. That was awesome. I’ve played through it a second time already, and I’m sure it’ll happen again.

And big word to Miller. Let’s make it a trilogy. I want some questions answered.

BTW this game makes me realize just what a ginormous turd Doom 3 was. For the first hour or so I kept stutter stepping every time I was about to pick up some ammo because I was afraid OMG MONSTARS would appear behind me. HL2 is so much better it’s unbelievable.

10

I just got past Ravenholm, actually. Awesome, awesome, awesome. After I passed it, I paused the game for just a few moments to collect myself. I look forward to playing through that game.

I liked how it showed the hopelessness of the situation, how an entire city can become so overrun, how all these people can be forced into a horrible existence of pain and agony… of how one man can stand living there, fighting this hopeless battle.

I kept wondering what sorts of crazy extents Grigori would have to go through just to get a few hours’ sleep… what rat-hole, rigged with traps upon traps galore, he had to crawl into, how he’d have to keep his shotgun next to himself while he slept…

However, my favorite moment is still Gordon’s arrival. “I didn’t see you get on the train.” Just stepping off, taking occasional butts and lashes from the Combine troops, knowing just how close the whole thing came to disaster, then surprise! it’s Barney! Fuckin’ Barney… yeah!

Love this game. I wouldn’t say it makes me dislike Doom 3, it just shows me how the different graphical engines reflected different game priorities… D3 is just a whole lot of lighting techniques, HL2 is a whole lot of physics… both games tailored their gameplay around those (don’t believe me? How many times were we treated to Donkey Kong-style encounters with flaming barrels rolling down a hill?).

11

G-Man sighting: when you’ve come out of the mines, and are about to break into the back side of the warehouse where you and the handful of resistance fighters perform a pincer on the Combine. There’s a tanker-type railcar accordioned under an overpass – you can’t get through – but if you press your eyes up against the crack, you see him strolling away with his briefcase.

Also: how cool is it that the intro page changes with each new chapter you open? :smiley:

12

The dude is EVERYWHERE in HL2: virtually every single chapter, sometimes in multiple places.

I have to say that HL2DM is full of memorable moments too.

13

Only got to play a bit of the game, but the speedboat level was really, really fun. Especially when you get a gun mounted on the thing. I also love how you can plow through wooden supports on bridges that cops are perched on, sending them flying (I love turning around to watch them tumble ass-over-teakettle :stuck_out_tongue: )

14

He also appears in the swamp-boat stage when you come to the resistance hideout red barn, where everyone already dead.

While I wouldn’t mind Half-Life going on, I think Freeman is just going to plain need a rest. I’d really like to see if HL3 might not see Gordon start to use of the G-man’s dimensional manipulation tech/magic/whatever - with him using short-range teleports, swapping enemies into nullspace, etc.

However, while I think the endings are intentionally ambiguous, I’m betting the G-man does have a very specific purpose in mind (like erasing those alien overlords from the cosmos), which will benefit humanity as a side effect.

Besides, Alyx is pretty cool, and every epic Hero needs to have a woman to come hoem too…

15

Maybe there will be another Blue Shift type expansion pack where we get to play as Barney. I actually enjoyed playing Opposing Force more, but I don’t see how they could do that with this game. I wouldn’t want to play a Combine soldier.

16

For me, the most memorable bit in the game was actually at the beginning; when you’re in the laboratory, and you step into the little room on the side and put on your HEV suit. My room started rumbling with a deep, rich version of the Half-Life ambient music. And I thought to myself, "Fuck! yeah! This is it!’

17

I’ll second the big bridge as one of the coolest moments in the game! Scary as hell and fun all at once!

Speaking of scary, how about when you look down into that mine shaft and see head crabs scurrying all over down there by what look like the dozens. And I have to go down there!?!? YIKES.

I also loved the dunebuggy level, especially after getting the crossbow, and killing the first combine I see with it by pinning him by his head to that billboard, Woo-hoo!

I got frustrated by trying to keep other resistance fighters alive. What a fruitless thing to try to do! They usually just get mowed down by a gunship or something.

I’d give anything to get hold of a combine sniper rifle!!

As for Doom3, HL2 does not at all make me dislike it. I think HL2 is more fun, but I really loved Doom3 while I was playing it, and Doom3 scared the crap out of me in a way that HL2 never quite did. Doom3’s monsters are fantastic, IMHO, and overall I give Doom3 the graphics edge.

But, damn, getting to use a big lifter to drop boxcars on combine!?!? Priceless!

18

Sorry to bump this thread but I have a favourite moment - when my gravity gun got ‘upgraded’. I finally found out what people were on about in half life threads when describing funny things they did with people’s bodies.
I love the sheer size of this game. Just when I think I’m close to the end a whole new ‘level’ of depth opens up.

19

I agree. It’s one of those things, much like the grav gun was when you first got it. After a few minutes you wonder how you ever survived without out.

Upgraded grav gun = a reason to play through the entire game again with THAT weapon in my arsenal (using the hack, of course).

20

Ah, the upgraded grav gun. I loved the moment in the citadel where you see a Strider appear in front of you, and it starts blasting you. It took me a minute to realize that you could yank the little Powerballs out of the power transformer thingy.

But definitely the greatest sequence is the uprising, immediately after you topple city hall. Seemingly dozens of striders, blowing shit up like mad… and you have conveniently-placed crates of rockets strewn about to deal with 'em. Ahhh, bliss.