Did Ya Hate It? Half-Life 2 Review

[00:00:30] Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of our Patreon exclusive series. Did you hate it in this series?

[00:00:37] Nick and I go back and forth playing one game from our backlog that has a 50-50 chance to make one of us either

[00:00:43] Cry tears of sadness or smile while praising the Sun. So Nick

[00:00:48] Did you hate half-life too?

[00:00:52] That's a good question. Well, that's a good question and that's what the show is all about

[00:00:56] So patreon listeners, thank you so much for supporting the show

[00:00:59] I'm really excited and I'm also very apologetic for taking this long to get through half-life too

[00:01:04] But you all are gamers too, you know this year has been insane working this game in alongside all of the other AAA threats

[00:01:11] Yes, we have had the the Avenger level threats that have been coming down the pipeline

[00:01:15] It has been crazy but to answer your question will it is complicated

[00:01:20] Oh

[00:01:21] But I did not hate half-life good. I did not hate half-life finally another classic in the belt

[00:01:27] Yeah, definitely something that took it took me long enough to get to it right half-life to a game

[00:01:32] Published by EA and Steam and then it was developed by Valve of course the original release date for this title is in

[00:01:38] 2004 I believe it had an earlier edition that leaked on PC that came out in 2001

[00:01:44] They had to pull back and then remake it later

[00:01:46] And it came out in 2004 and then of course in later editions for the ps3 and the Xbox 360

[00:01:51] It came out in the orange box which released with both portal and

[00:01:55] Team Fortress 2 yep, that's where I played it and that's that was a banger release

[00:02:00] You think about getting those three games in one package?

[00:02:02] Incredible value. They don't do it like that no more. They don't do it like that anymore whatsoever

[00:02:06] You know just as it's quick billing notes

[00:02:08] The writer for the series is Mark laidlaw and it was pretty interesting because there's a lot of good writing in this game

[00:02:14] There's a lot of good lore that's baked into to half-life 2 but for folks who are our patreon supporters

[00:02:21] It may not necessarily be as familiar with the series of the franchise

[00:02:24] Just a quick plot overview and a description of what this game is

[00:02:28] Half-life 2 takes place in and around city 17 nearly two decades

[00:02:33] After the events of the first game half-life 1 slash black Mesa depending on which version you played of that

[00:02:39] Half-life 2 it follows the scientist Gordon Freeman as he's thrust into an unfamiliar environment

[00:02:45] In which the aftermath of the black Mesa incident has come to bear fully upon human society the ramifications of what he did

[00:02:52] Letting the Zen into the world have really kind of fallen on our heads in half-life 2

[00:02:57] And it's it was a bit much for me to kind of unpack that but you know

[00:03:01] We got through this time around Freeman is forced to battle against

[00:03:04] Increasingly unfavorable odds in order to free mankind from the combine which is this ruling

[00:03:11] Authoritarian force kind of has a vice grip on what's left of the remnants of humanity in this world in the struggle

[00:03:16] He's joined by various allies including scientists rebels and friends like Alex Vance who has an own her own game

[00:03:24] On the valve index all shot to see him alive

[00:03:28] Which is interesting

[00:03:29] So nobody expected Gordon Freeman to be alive this time around apparently at the end

[00:03:35] The lack the final events of half-life 1 are very similar to the ending of half-life 2 where everything kind of stops in the G

[00:03:42] Man this weird unknown presence kind of steps out of time and he grabs

[00:03:47] Gordon and he takes him away through a different dimension where Gordon is put into cryo sleep by another

[00:03:53] favorite not so silent

[00:03:55] Magnest for many many years until he is reawakened later to kick off the events of half-life 2

[00:04:02] This is a really good game. Yeah. This is a this is an incredible title. I

[00:04:09] Struggled getting into it. It's a not something that I think a lot of gamers will appreciate or really into

[00:04:16] So you don't so you wouldn't say it held up as far as playing in 2023 modern gamers

[00:04:21] I think that people like us who grew up with n64's who grew up with like playing the og Xbox og

[00:04:29] PS1 ps2 games

[00:04:31] I was fine with it. Yeah, and I played especially this is like very much ps2 era

[00:04:36] I mean, of course, you know came out on the Xbox 360 ps3 versions of this game were released

[00:04:41] But I think that in terms of holding up from 2004 to 2023

[00:04:46] It's a massive leap this game has a lot of technical issues

[00:04:50] Unless you mod the shit out of it and that's the good thing about playing it on steam playing it on PC

[00:04:55] There are so many mods available to you this time around when I went in and I jumped at this game

[00:05:00] I applied the half-life 2 update

[00:05:02] Which is a very specific update that steam has in there inside of their own tenant

[00:05:07] And then on top of the half-life 2 update. I put an M mod

[00:05:11] Which is essentially it's like a mod that increases the visual fidelity and it like helps you see like blood splatter on the walls

[00:05:18] It helps you see the rounds coming out of the guns

[00:05:21] It actually this mod is its community driven and they remodeled all of the guns in this game

[00:05:27] So they look really good for what the game is like it doesn't look like a ps5 or an Xbox series x game by any means

[00:05:34] But the guns themselves have crisp lines

[00:05:37] You can hear them reload and also when you get the M mod update

[00:05:41] It gives you a more upgraded

[00:05:44] Controller layout that you can use as you go across the modernized that yes

[00:05:47] You can use like RB for you know grenade throws and you can kind of modify it however suits your play style

[00:05:54] But yeah, even with all of that. It's it's just playing it out of time playing outside of

[00:06:01] The hardware and the consoles that it was released on it's just tough

[00:06:06] It's tough to get through this was it was a grind for me if I'm being honest like I

[00:06:12] There was at no point like when I was in kind of like what we were talking about recently what you mentioned with Zelda

[00:06:18] We were in a space. I was you were in a space

[00:06:20] We're like oh like I not looking forward to playing tears of the kingdom

[00:06:23] But when you're playing tears, you're like oh shit, this is actually fun

[00:06:26] Like I'm enjoying this very similar energy with half-life 2

[00:06:29] I never was looking forward to playing this game

[00:06:31] So I got to go back to have I got to get this done

[00:06:33] It was it was more of a chore for me until I got into it until I figured out some of the gameplay loop

[00:06:39] Until I got to some really great levels like Ravenholm until I got to play like Nova prospect where I was like oh shit

[00:06:46] They're doing this is popping off now. They're doing their thing right now. It's so interesting seeing

[00:06:52] Level design in that's really if I have to say one thing about half-life 2 and give it its flowers

[00:06:58] And it's accolades for this game

[00:06:59] It's a master class in level design like there's not like you can hold it up to almost any modern first-person shooter out there

[00:07:06] And there's they don't really even compare. Oh nice for the most part like of course

[00:07:12] We've seen quality of life upgrades with new consoles obviously fast travel map systems

[00:07:18] I would have loved to have a map in this game

[00:07:20] Oh, yeah, they give you a mini map, but it's like not really

[00:07:23] It's not something you do you don't really have one when you're playing Halo

[00:07:26] combat evolved either but

[00:07:29] Something that I'm gonna continue to compare this game to is my experience with Halo combat evolved

[00:07:33] Okay, and the problem is is that oh gee bungee in that day like they were in their bag

[00:07:38] They were a hundred percent in their back and and it's cool because like I believe like combat evolved came out a year later

[00:07:45] Right, so you can't really say that one informed the other

[00:07:48] But they were both developed concurrently like around the same time the same path

[00:07:52] And I imagine maybe these devs knew each other to some degree

[00:07:55] Maybe they received the same type of training in whatever level design or you know theory or game theory

[00:08:01] However, they're applying these systems to these games

[00:08:03] but it's really interesting to think about these two games in comparison to each other because

[00:08:10] Halo was just like I could play Halo combat evolved with you right now and remember like

[00:08:14] Beat for beat what I have to do and I feel like with this game as I was going through as I was reading reviews

[00:08:20] Watching YouTube videos seeing community responses to this game. So many people are like I pay

[00:08:25] I play half-life to every single year

[00:08:27] Yeah, I go back and I revisit this game

[00:08:28] And it's like an old friend and I'm like it's so cool to see people in the community that have so much love and

[00:08:35] Support for a title like this that's just not supported by the developers of the publisher anymore

[00:08:40] So it's like you know you hate to see it go buy a valve index

[00:08:44] I guess if you still want more of that injected in their vein

[00:08:47] I guess they're relying on older folks who have $1,500 to just drop on

[00:08:53] You know not necessary VR console. So yeah, it is complicated

[00:08:58] There's lots to unpack here some of the issues that I had obviously character design. It's very

[00:09:05] 2004 like very like like you got it. You got to kind of take what you can get from it

[00:09:09] It was cool. It was unique one of the big points where I was like

[00:09:13] I started getting more into it was when you hopped in the buggy

[00:09:15] But then when you're in the buggy at the same time like controlling it felt like oh like I'm

[00:09:21] It's like I'm playing a PS4

[00:09:25] Tough and it's like I loved when like Halo for example

[00:09:29] Like you happen to work hug with the first time and it pops out in that third person view

[00:09:32] And it just you drift around corners your fucking rip in sake 90s

[00:09:37] It just works you're mowing over the stick who would have known who would have known

[00:09:40] Yeah, and so this one it's more of you press this you press the stick forward

[00:09:45] It goes and then you use the camera to kind of like

[00:09:48] Move the the buggy where you need it to be and I will say like

[00:09:53] in terms of doing that type of gameplay in terms of getting in the car and

[00:09:58] You know having the minigun come out and it you know auto locking on enemy ships as you're going through those various like vehicle levels

[00:10:05] I don't think really many games did that back then so it's probably super unique for its time

[00:10:11] It just didn't feel good and I will say Gordon Freeman cool character cool idea the character

[00:10:18] Everybody gives context to Gordon Gordon of course silent protagonist. He is you he doesn't have a personality

[00:10:24] But the cool thing is that he does have a persona if that makes sense people always will give you like reference information

[00:10:30] Be like dr. Brain when you first meet him the very beginning game

[00:10:33] He's like I remember you from black Mesa. I remember you were the one that threw a wrench into my plans

[00:10:38] Like those those sorts of little subtle

[00:10:41] Context flavors and of course Alex Vance and her father Elijah. Yeah, you live and see a lot

[00:10:47] Yeah, they both are kind of like Gordon. We're so happy to see you. Where have you been this entire time in the myth?

[00:10:53] The legend yeah, he definitely precedes him. Yeah, it's it's so cool

[00:10:57] I'm curious like what you thought about this whole experience because

[00:11:01] Did you play half-life one before jumping in a half-life to always played like a little bit of half-life one

[00:11:06] So I didn't go all the way through okay, let me see so how about before getting into half-life to yeah

[00:11:11] I mean, I can't really think before I feel like I just got orange box or portal

[00:11:17] A part of it. I was like you were like whoa this game is cool

[00:11:19] Yeah, so I was like, oh, let me check it out

[00:11:21] So of course I played through it, but I mean it was very fun game

[00:11:24] It was mostly my introduction for the most part to Gordon Freeman. Yeah, so getting through to play as him

[00:11:31] The entirety of the game was fun and it was a blast

[00:11:33] I actually getting and doing all the puzzle-based things so that was really my main takeaway from it

[00:11:37] Yeah, definitely like in getting to know him and then getting to learn kind of like the level design

[00:11:41] And I have this like step away from my wheelhouse of being like

[00:11:45] Trying to like attach to the lore because they made a very specific valve made a very specific point of being like

[00:11:51] The story don't matter in this game. Just play the game

[00:11:53] Yeah, and like see what it is like the the lore matters the narrative like there's just no narrative

[00:11:58] Like go from point A to point B because for the most part too when you're getting dropped in from G man

[00:12:03] No, it's not like he's like hey go in here and do XYZ right?

[00:12:06] You're not giving like those call of duty marker points to go do it's more like he's dropping you in and you're like

[00:12:11] All right

[00:12:11] I'm on a train and then you see what's going on this world around you

[00:12:14] Yeah, and at that point you are kind of ushered into the resistance

[00:12:18] Yeah a hundred percent and it's it's really interesting kind of seeing how the rest of humanity is dealing with this situation

[00:12:25] They're kind of being en masse like put into like enslavement and then the very end of this game giving you this very interesting weird

[00:12:33] Gestalti like

[00:12:35] sci-fi horror that's very similar to gave me a lot of scorn vibes

[00:12:39] It gave me a lot of other like very like event horizon vibes, which is really cool

[00:12:44] Yeah, there's there's a lot that I really enjoyed about this one thing

[00:12:48] I will say before we go into our breakdown is

[00:12:51] This keep is really slippery

[00:12:54] Felt slippery here. Yeah, like your character. Yeah

[00:12:56] I like inertia yeah

[00:12:57] Like he moves around so fast in the game

[00:13:00] Which is good when you're in combat because you want to feel that that

[00:13:04] Rapidness and that's what I will give it like credits for is that obviously in terms of first-person shooter

[00:13:08] You need something that handles well

[00:13:10] But there's so many points in this game where you're platforming and you're trying to do stuff and you're trying to

[00:13:15] Navigate levels especially when you're in the water work section of this game where I was just like oh my god come on

[00:13:21] And then there are other times where you're up on high platforms and you kind of you struggle

[00:13:26] And then there's another time you were there's sand and you can't touch the sand

[00:13:30] Yeah, we get into that a little bit later

[00:13:32] But I'm curious then so you talk about you know like the slipperiness of the characters and kind of how it felt and some of

[00:13:38] The overall maybe not in this issues

[00:13:40] But just how you're kind of feeling do you feel like any of that if maybe the majority of that comes not just from

[00:13:45] You know the age of the game but from the source engine in

[00:13:48] Like specifically like how the engine itself played because I don't know I don't know

[00:13:52] I was like yeah, how many other

[00:13:55] Like source game so portal is a game you play that uses source engine

[00:13:58] Yeah, I need to play portal one and two again because I really really love those games and it's been a minute since I played

[00:14:05] It's not been super long time like I have played them relatively recently like maybe in the past five or six years

[00:14:10] But again like I haven't put in a good amount of time playing those

[00:14:14] But I don't see that's the beautiful thing about portal to is that like it is very

[00:14:20] Self-contained like it is very much level to level you figure out

[00:14:22] Yeah

[00:14:23] Glad us gives you a room and you kind of just have to figure out what to do with that room and

[00:14:27] Portal I feel like is intentionally slippery

[00:14:30] To a certain degree because you need to be able to shoot through a portal and then go to like jump to the other

[00:14:35] Side of the room and I do think that there is some of the source engine in there

[00:14:39] That it's just kind of like natural for that

[00:14:41] but it shouldn't be the case like it shouldn't be as as

[00:14:46] Highly ramped up as it is in half-life for it to be like a first person action shooter puzzle

[00:14:53] Solver for me amalgamation. Yeah, so that's kind of that's where I exist with it

[00:14:58] But still very good for its time

[00:15:01] I guarantee you that if they

[00:15:03] If they put enough resources if they if they assembled the the team if they got a team together

[00:15:08] You know to do a have a proper half-life 3

[00:15:12] That would probably rival any you know

[00:15:15] I would guarantee you that it would rival stuff like the arcane has put out

[00:15:19] It would be incredible. Yeah, the hype would be it would never live up to it

[00:15:23] It would never live up to the hype but that's the thing though is that like I'm so curious like I

[00:15:28] Don't know if developers can pull that off this day and age because they feel like that people just pay so close attention

[00:15:33] to the games industry and obviously hackers are like

[00:15:36] Regularly booting into servers to like look at source files and doing bullshit and like stealing information

[00:15:42] Just putting stuff on their LinkedIn. What if what if they they pulled like a like a tango games works like a high-five rush

[00:15:49] Shadow drop is half right half like three that be gross

[00:15:52] And they did it like a right before like a new Call of Duty or a new battlefield or some shit like that

[00:15:57] That would be amazing

[00:16:00] Incredible if they did that but yeah, I feel like that that would be the proper way to go about it because I was that's the thing

[00:16:06] Is that with a high-five rush?

[00:16:07] I feel like if they had advertised if they had marketed it more people would have had

[00:16:11] Expectations that it was surpassed the scope of that game

[00:16:14] Mm-hmm, and I feel like if they just don't do that for half-life 3 people are gonna be so happy with it

[00:16:19] But we're not talking about half-life 3. We're going to dig in a little bit to half-life 2

[00:16:26] Obviously I've given you some of my preliminary thoughts just to let you know that pretty much everything going forward is gonna be spoiler based

[00:16:33] There's not a ton to spoil because if you understand the complexities or the inner workings of half-life

[00:16:39] Yes, there are things out there that if you want to play this game yourself. You're certainly welcome to

[00:16:44] When it comes down to like who do I recommend this game for?

[00:16:47] It's not gonna be players that haven't like it's not gonna be for players that are older than

[00:16:54] 24

[00:16:56] Like if you're if you're 24 and young I know let me rephrase that it's not gonna be played for players that are younger

[00:17:04] You know what I'm saying like anybody who's like 25 and older who lived through this 360 era at least the 360 era of gaming

[00:17:10] This should be on your backlog. Like I wouldn't say you have to prioritize it

[00:17:15] But if you're a game

[00:17:18] Listen to play the game listen to plasmama g over here because he's gonna

[00:17:22] He's gonna lead you down the right path

[00:17:23] But I think for the most part

[00:17:25] Anybody who's like a younger gamer and you're like some of your early games or Xbox one games or ps4 games then

[00:17:32] You don't necessarily have to go back to this. I'm okay with that

[00:17:35] But for for old heads like me and you

[00:17:38] You know do your homework your homework do your homework for sure pay reference

[00:17:41] But so everything going forward here is gonna be spoilers

[00:17:44] Let's take a quick music break and I'll see you on the other side for a chapter by chapter breakdown of half-life 2

[00:17:50] Okay, and welcome back everybody so chapter 1 half-life 2 point insertion

[00:18:05] Gordon basically wakes up and you see this g-man. He addresses Gordon his his old ass face hops through that white pillar door and

[00:18:15] He throws you in and you basically wake up on a train in city 17 as it's going down into eastern europe

[00:18:22] Which is under the control of the combine empire

[00:18:25] So yeah, so city 17 is under the control of the combine empire right now

[00:18:29] Basically he gets off the train and he sees like you're in this pillar

[00:18:34] You automatically realize that this is just there's an authoritarian state. This is the military state at this point

[00:18:39] You see director brain or dr. Wallace brain. He's on all of the stuff and he's

[00:18:46] Basically talking major shit. He's like human beings. We've had to curb your reproductive cycle

[00:18:51] You know we have to make sure that the population growth rate stays under a certain amount x yz

[00:18:56] Basically doing like a straight like 1984

[00:18:59] Handbook

[00:19:01] Authoritarian like a script that he's reading off of right now

[00:19:04] Essentially, he kind of goes to this area and there's one thing when you told me to play this game

[00:19:09] There's one section that I will never forget when you first walk through because you're walking through these areas

[00:19:14] You're being inspected

[00:19:15] You're being pushed around by the combine dudes

[00:19:17] And you get to this part where you hit a checkpoint and there's this one dude who like comes through the door

[00:19:22] And he like fucking he shows it in Gordis chest and it makes your character back up a little bit

[00:19:26] He's like back up and then he looks at the side and he sees a can on top of a trash

[00:19:29] And he knocks it off and he looks at Gordon and he says pick that up

[00:19:34] Would you do it? So I went I picked it up and I threw that

[00:19:37] Yeah

[00:19:43] And then you basically have to pick it up and throw it away and it's just a game teaching you how to interact with objects

[00:19:49] Which is it's very funny. It's cute. Yeah, it was amazing

[00:19:53] yeah

[00:19:54] But essentially you go through this area until eventually you kind of like it's really weird how you get there

[00:20:01] But you make your way through this like winding corridors till eventually you get to the place where you're supposed to be and you get in

[00:20:08] Contact with a good friend of yours

[00:20:12] Who is Barney Barney basically you're taking to an integration. You think you need the shit beat out of you

[00:20:18] But Barney is basically he's being a combine cosplayer right now mask off. Yeah, he's a fucking mask off

[00:20:25] Yeah, he came in and Barney Calhoun is

[00:20:29] Used to be a black Mesa security guard and now he is like one of the sergeants in the resistance force and he's like

[00:20:35] He's like Gordon come with me. We need your help and so he takes Gordon aside. He basically brings it

[00:20:41] To one of their friends dr. Isaac Kleiner who is Gordon's mentor when Gordon was at MIT very interestingly enough

[00:20:49] And it also a former black Mesa employee when Gordon was doing his fuck shit over there

[00:20:54] And then essentially along the way Gordon shows up and they talk he gets the suit

[00:20:59] He gets that half-life. Yeah, which is sick

[00:21:03] Like that definitely iconic and the wrench I never knew understood why the wrenches iconic

[00:21:08] I use the wrench the whole whole game. Of course

[00:21:13] Just I walk up to a box

[00:21:15] So funny because the animation isn't like what you would imagine like somebody

[00:21:25] So it's very funny and then you can actually pick up one of the stun batons from the security officer

[00:21:31] So so you slowly I was surprised

[00:21:34] I thought that this was gonna be one of those stripped down game experiences because of course

[00:21:39] I didn't know anything going into this

[00:21:41] Yeah

[00:21:41] I thought this is gonna be one of those game experiences where you jump in and like they give you a pistol

[00:21:45] You have like offer it. Yeah, like they give you a bit. It was gonna be kind of like

[00:21:50] Like what you can make

[00:21:55] The way you can turn dead space into with the one gun run

[00:21:59] Like I thought they were just gonna give Gordo a pistol and he has his wrench

[00:22:02] And he just bounces back and forth between it

[00:22:04] But they do the thing that you know is typical with most games is that they slowly

[00:22:09] Escalate the different types of weapons and guns that you can get without the game and let me say I loved all of the guns

[00:22:15] The guns were sick. I

[00:22:18] Primarily mainline the submachine gun as soon as I got one of those and then you kind of go later on in you get more powerful

[00:22:24] iterations like there is a there's a

[00:22:26] It's kind of like a mounted cannon

[00:22:29] It's like an energy cannon that you can do but it also acts as a machine gun

[00:22:32] And you can get different versions of that and then like reloaded they have specific now

[00:22:37] Here's where it gets weird because I don't know if this is an M mod update thing or if this is just a half-life thing

[00:22:43] But when you reload some of the weapons, they have really cool animations where it's like little arms inside of the

[00:22:51] like

[00:22:52] Inside of the

[00:22:53] capsules of the guns like to they like reach back and grab rounds and load it into the weapon

[00:22:59] And it's really cool animation. I was like that's a sick little artistic dirt design note right there

[00:23:04] That's really cool. Do you remember that? I don't remember off the top of my head

[00:23:07] I want to say because you do get some combine weapons. So I think those are the ones that have the more

[00:23:13] Extravagant like reload features. So I think there are some that stay there

[00:23:17] I'm not sure like you with you bringing up your mod. Yeah, that's a good point

[00:23:19] There could have been some that were added on later on yeah, cuz it looked fresh

[00:23:23] It looked pretty clean and I was like, I wonder if that's a mod thing or if that's just like a half-life two thing

[00:23:28] But yeah, so essentially Gordon he gets recruited in this lab

[00:23:33] And then he goes through another thing the combine are chasing him and he shows up here

[00:23:36] And essentially he meets with dr. Kleiner and Alex Vance you meet this is when you're introduced to Alex Vance

[00:23:42] I'm not mistaken and she basically you know introduce herself as Eli Vance's daughter and she's brilliant

[00:23:48] She is honestly shout out for valve for having a strong brilliant

[00:23:53] Non-sexualized black female protagonist not really protagonist, but main character in their game like 2004

[00:23:59] Mm-hmm that that was not happening back then but you know

[00:24:03] You know you did your thing you did your thing so good representation on you here. We go Gabe

[00:24:08] Yeah way to go game

[00:24:09] But yeah, so we see that here and obviously he's given the suit

[00:24:13] We talked about that and there's a funny little scene where he's talking to dr. Kleiner and then the buddy

[00:24:19] Who's like the undercover cop Barney is there and he's like where is that thing?

[00:24:23] And you see the facehugger like hop from the balcony up on top of him

[00:24:27] He's like don't worry about it. He's been db'd he's just a friend. He's like treating it like a cat

[00:24:32] It's basically like just a cat that's really around. Yeah, it's very grody

[00:24:37] And it will just like it will hop on dr. Kleiner's head and just ride on his head

[00:24:42] Even though it like basically wants to use it was trying to do

[00:24:45] Yeah, turn him into a zombie so nice, but I guess you got to take what you can get in the world of half-life

[00:24:51] but after a little bit of

[00:24:53] Dialogue that goes throughout here. They're like Gorda. We need your help the

[00:24:57] Carbiner fucking us like we were the resistance blah blah blah you go forward and you're like, okay cool

[00:25:03] And then they're like, okay, let me spin up the portal

[00:25:05] And so they send through of course Barney gets the first run at it and there no Alex gets the first one

[00:25:11] And he's like, oh, I hope it doesn't mess up like last time and she's like last time

[00:25:17] And he's like, oh don't worry we've run multiple tests. There's gonna be no problems

[00:25:22] And then she goes through successfully and then of course is Gordon's turn and then what happens

[00:25:27] But the one and only little fucking headcrab pops out and just ruins everything

[00:25:33] He it hops inside of like the wiring

[00:25:38] Starts like messing up and then it sends Gordon into like multiple dimensions

[00:25:43] Love to see it

[00:25:45] At the same time while this is happening the combine are like trying to storm the lab

[00:25:49] They're trying to like get into the lab while that's happening

[00:25:52] So it's very stressful and then all of a sudden Gordon is basically

[00:25:55] Sent through a series of portals before he's put in front of Dr. Brain

[00:26:00] And he's like Gordon you're alive like he didn't think like he just assumed he was dead because it's been 20 years

[00:26:06] Yes, since the black Mesa incident which is really cool

[00:26:09] And so you kind of like go forward and that would that was really cool

[00:26:13] And then finally you're out and then from there basically it's like okay Gordon point-a-point B

[00:26:19] You go through these levels it's off to the races

[00:26:22] So that's kind of like the context of the story that you get so this is where it starts getting cool

[00:26:25] You go through route canal, which is the third chapter of this game

[00:26:29] You kind of go through and it's it's interesting

[00:26:31] This is mainly the underwater works area where you start realizing that there are like

[00:26:38] Headcrabs or like they're

[00:26:41] Not leech but they're they're almost like like likes but the other little sticky tongues know pull you up into them

[00:26:47] I hate those. Yeah, I don't know much. Yeah, though. I was like, oh my god

[00:26:50] I was very worried that I was gonna be like stuck with those the entire game

[00:26:55] And the thing is is here is that both chapter three and chapter four route canal and water hazard

[00:27:00] Had me really

[00:27:02] Kind of like concerned or like thinking I might not finish this game

[00:27:07] Oh at those points like I wasn't really vibing with a level design

[00:27:11] I wasn't I mean I recognized what it was I reckon that I was kind of looking at all of the just the dated aspects of it and not

[00:27:19] Necessarily enjoying some of the more brilliant parts of it and it really was because at this point

[00:27:23] They're not giving us the sauce yet plus the art design is garbage

[00:27:28] Everything is like brown

[00:27:30] Everything is brown and gray and white in a pocket. Let's look at the world, right? Yeah, it is

[00:27:37] Yeah, but like they don't

[00:27:39] See but the difference is that fallout like I'll play fall out any day of the week because fallout is like a lived-in world

[00:27:46] There's nothing in Half-Life 2 except Gordon the combine in his rag tag band of like heroes and then whatever fucking

[00:27:54] Wild life is out the murder you who are just the remnants of the Zen that came through the portal in black Mesa

[00:28:00] so I

[00:28:02] Was kind of there and I was just kind of like I was kind of bored if I'm gonna be honest with you kind of going

[00:28:06] Through and then you know had to repeat some levels because of the save file corruption thing and so I was gonna think I was like

[00:28:12] Okay, okay, and then we finally get through and

[00:28:16] If I'm not mistaken we get to the point where

[00:28:22] Yeah, you're given like a you meet a vortigaunt for the first time and there was like through that through those two levels right there

[00:28:28] You're basically trying to get to the rest of the resistance

[00:28:30] You're trying to get Gordon to like kind of reunite with the homies and I effort the first time I saw a vortigaunt

[00:28:36] I was like who the fuck is this?

[00:28:37] I didn't understand why are humans cuz I was like why are humans working with aliens?

[00:28:42] But then the combine they don't necessarily seem human like what's going on because they're not really using words

[00:28:48] They're just like

[00:28:51] And so really annoying yeah, it's very annoying and then like the kill like the kill thing

[00:28:57] It's nice because you know that you killed the dude, but every time it's like you pop them off and it's like

[00:29:02] And it's like they're flatline every single time I'm like that is gonna be annoying and I was right

[00:29:09] Right, I was correct. It was it was pretty annoying. Oh my god. I just realized based on what I'm looking at is that

[00:29:16] His thing when dr. Breen is on like the video. It's called the brain cast. I hate it

[00:29:23] It's got a lot of podcasts, baby

[00:29:26] But yeah, so essentially you make it through these areas you make it through the waterworks

[00:29:31] And I believe like right before this section you are

[00:29:35] Introduced to a vehicle. It's like a it's like a buggy. It's like a four-wheeler

[00:29:39] The right before chapter three right before chapter four

[00:29:42] It's like oh, no excuse me right before chapter five. Okay, and as you kind of like make it your way through there

[00:29:48] Yeah, you kind of have to fight a hunter chopper through that point which is pretty fun

[00:29:52] And then he finally gets to his destination, which is the hydraulic power plant

[00:29:58] Which is on the other side of the black Mesa East until you finally make it to black Mesa

[00:30:03] What's called the the low air not airship?

[00:30:08] Yeah, it's like a pontoon. It's like it's like what on team

[00:30:12] Louisiana ship exactly. That's what I always think about it

[00:30:16] I was like and it's got like a gun mounted to it

[00:30:19] You can kind of like go through there. So that was really cool

[00:30:22] And that's where you that's where the thing and I was I was having fun with that you were going over ramps

[00:30:27] I was like yeah, let's go. I think you have the shootout with the

[00:30:32] The ship is there a combine ship and pretty sure that point

[00:30:35] Maybe it's another one

[00:30:36] Maybe that's actually with the buggy

[00:30:37] But there should have been like a combine ship because I think there's an achievement at that

[00:30:42] Yep, the hunter choppers. Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right

[00:30:45] Did you ever pull off because that's where you get this kind of semi open world when you're one of those areas where I have the boat

[00:30:50] You ever pull off into like some of the side little caves and areas

[00:30:53] I know at one point you can pull off and there's a vortigaunt just like hanging out and you can kind of chit chat with him

[00:30:57] He's talking to you didn't do that

[00:30:59] But I did look it up and he's called like the all-knowing vortigaunt like that

[00:31:02] Yeah, and he's he kind of like some cryptic stuff about like the future and like what's gonna happen later on the game

[00:31:06] Yeah, which is really cool like that there's labor text and it kind of makes sense because what's the Gary's mod?

[00:31:12] Yeah, it's kind of like the section where it's like you get out to this part and then it's just a world

[00:31:16] That you can go out and kind of interact with which is really cool. Exactly

[00:31:20] Now I'm also curious too

[00:31:22] I don't know if you've noticed either during your time playing or later on after the fact

[00:31:25] But you know there are certain parts during the game

[00:31:28] I think at least one in every chapter from that mistaken where you can kind of from far away before

[00:31:33] Triggering a spot for him to kind of like walk away or leave. There's g-man just like watching

[00:31:38] Gordon as he's like really about doing things

[00:31:41] So yeah, one of the spots is here. I can't remember exactly where it is while you're driving around

[00:31:45] Yeah, he's like just in the world like watching so at one point you may like come around a corner and then if there's a bridge

[00:31:51] That's like way out and of course if you're just playing the game

[00:31:53] You just go in normally with an airboat and you go under the bridge and you're good to go

[00:31:56] But if you come around that corner and you're really far away

[00:31:58] You can like look out with like your binoculars and you can see g-man like looking out there

[00:32:03] Looking to see what Gordon's doing and they just like walking away and leaving so that happens throughout the rest of the game

[00:32:08] Yeah, interesting. Yeah. No, I didn't notice him until the end really he shows him in the beginning shows up at the end

[00:32:14] I didn't under I don't understand his context. I don't understand like his purpose

[00:32:18] I guess he's just like a he's like a equivalent to Q from Star Trek. He's like all-knowing

[00:32:22] I guess omnipotent to a certain degree

[00:32:25] But just using it's like the the TVA just making sure that things stand the proper

[00:32:30] Right, they should be proper time exactly the sacred time

[00:32:33] Your time

[00:32:35] So yeah, you make it to Black Mesa East, which is really cool. This is the area where you basically

[00:32:42] Meet the rest of the band you kind of meet back up with Eli Vance and he's like

[00:32:46] Oh, it's good to see you brother Eli's cool

[00:32:49] I really like Eli his voice actor did a great job

[00:32:52] All the voice actors did good in this game

[00:32:53] Like I was surprised at how well done it was when they had notes even the NPCs as you're going through

[00:32:58] Like the rebel folks are like, you know, we got to get through this and there's some funny ass lines

[00:33:03] Where it's later where it's like later on and I I could save it for when we cover that section of the game

[00:33:09] But like they're really funny lines where he's like, oh no, you know you you killed you killed Jake

[00:33:15] I love this guy. He was my best friend like there's funny moments

[00:33:19] Like they were having fun with this game which I really appreciate it

[00:33:23] This is a cool little section you meet Dr. Judith Mossman who immediately is kind of like a she's kind of a jerk

[00:33:29] She's kind of mean to you. She's like, oh, where did you get your doctorate from?

[00:33:34] I've been working with Eli on these types of things. Oh, I really don't see the point in

[00:33:39] X Y and Z and there's a lot of friction between both

[00:33:42] Judith and Alex and they're both like working on similar projects and Judith's like you don't understand

[00:33:48] You're too young X Y and Z blah blah blah. I'm like, oh this ladies this lady's not cool

[00:33:53] um

[00:33:54] Yeah, but essentially he is introduced to the zero point energy field manipulator

[00:33:59] Which is also known as the best gun in the game

[00:34:01] Yes, sir

[00:34:02] The best gun in any game the gravity gun when we talk about I don't know if you want to talk about weapons

[00:34:07] It includes guns as a whole or if you want to talk about weapons

[00:34:09] But like keep guns separate for their own show eventually we got to talk about weapons at some point for sure

[00:34:15] But yeah, the gravity gun

[00:34:17] Honestly super fun and this is where I start realizing that

[00:34:21] The physics engine and the source engine is probably superior to any engine of its time like true

[00:34:27] There's nothing out there that I can imagine playing that was like as

[00:34:31] as

[00:34:33] like

[00:34:35] Kind of what's the word that I'm looking for?

[00:34:37] There's not many games out there that listen to the player input as

[00:34:42] Closely as the source engine especially in this game half-life, too

[00:34:45] I feel like even going back and playing it today like you're not gonna see games

[00:34:50] Like I feel like on Sony games things are on rails to your degree

[00:34:54] Whereas like oh for sure half-life like it is very much sandboxy

[00:34:58] But it's like they give you a lot of freedom

[00:35:01] They give you a lot of tools to work with and the gravity gun is just another example of that

[00:35:05] I feel like in prey 2017

[00:35:07] Arcane really went out other way to kind of like take a lot of honorifics the goo gun is very similar to this

[00:35:12] Yes, for sure a different application of the idea

[00:35:15] And that's where it comes down to I mean a lot of people talk about the game itself having physics-based puzzles

[00:35:20] Which is of course is accurate

[00:35:21] But I mean there's a physics-based video game

[00:35:23] There's lots of stuff you can do with the gravity gun with combat aspects that make it really cool

[00:35:27] So oh yeah, yeah, and we will talk about that shortly a little bit later here

[00:35:32] But right before that before things kind of go south

[00:35:36] You're introduced to my favorite character of the game otherwise known as dog dog

[00:35:42] That's my dog. That's my dog. Can I pet that dog? Can I pet that dog?

[00:35:47] Let me say let me say we talk about robots a lot

[00:35:51] You know there are there are good good robots out there BD1

[00:35:55] Fantastic robot literally like anytime you just make a robot kind of like a dog odds are

[00:36:01] Fantastic ten out ten robo and they ten out of ten robo

[00:36:05] They they hit it the nail on the head with this one dog is fucking amazing. He's throwing

[00:36:10] He's throwing dumpsters at you. He's playing fetch with you when you have the gravity gun

[00:36:14] He listens to Alex. He has a very special connection with Alex

[00:36:19] And that that kind of shows up later in the game, but he like listens to her

[00:36:22] She's like dog put that down and he listens or he puts the he puts the thing down because he

[00:36:27] Runs out of he runs out of things to throw out Gordon to like play with but it's it's really funny

[00:36:32] He's has a lot of personality

[00:36:33] Yeah, and you see that kind of reflected later on in portal 2 with the different

[00:36:39] Characters that they have in there as well

[00:36:40] It's just the internals of the way that they design those like very energetic your the emotional spheres

[00:36:46] Yeah, exactly exactly kind of like that that kind of thing so

[00:36:51] Yeah, really really good, but all of a sudden they start getting stormed by the combine

[00:36:54] So once again, it's off to the races and where does Gordon go the one place we do not go?

[00:37:00] Ravenholm all right, so I know I told you a little bit about this ahead of time

[00:37:05] How did you feel going into Ravenholm? I was like oh this bullshit. I don't want to go to the bad place

[00:37:12] It's scary

[00:37:15] Yeah, I ended up playing this you know, I guess I played it in October or if I might have beaten a sub-tribe

[00:37:21] I don't remember specifically when I finished this this game, but

[00:37:25] Yeah, no, this was great

[00:37:26] Yep

[00:37:27] This was when the art design changed and you get a lot more deep blues you get a lot more reds

[00:37:32] You start you start a lot of red. Yeah, it's it's incredible

[00:37:39] There's essentially this is part where you Ravenholm is a city that was originally hidden village

[00:37:47] That lived free from the combine until eventually it was discovered and they the combine you pick up notes

[00:37:53] Or you realize you pick up like audio things and apparently the combine dumped hundreds of headcrabs in the village

[00:38:01] And just wiped out the population we talk about how horrific that is as a war tactic

[00:38:06] They shoot missiles into areas that don't explode

[00:38:10] No, they just hit the ground a little door pops out and then well sorry door opens and what pops out are

[00:38:17] Crab like creatures that scuttle around literally just your head

[00:38:23] Yeah, it's crazy. Yep. Yep

[00:38:25] And where you start seeing those other versions of the headcrabs to because it's not just one

[00:38:30] Exactly, there's this is when you start realizing that they have like mutations and they have different type of enemies

[00:38:35] And then they start ramping up the different types of enemies that you're gonna be faced with here in this game

[00:38:41] Which is really really cool. So you so there are the normal like

[00:38:45] Walkers the Walker zombies that have the headcrabs that are kind of slow moving

[00:38:49] They're not super quick

[00:38:50] You can pop them off and as long as you hit the crab headcrab

[00:38:53] You can kind of deal with them and they're not really that much of a big deal

[00:38:56] But then you have large boys who are I will say that the last of us for folks who have played the last was part one

[00:39:04] The blowders in that game or the blowders run left for dead as well, but like

[00:39:09] basically the big enemies and they'll literally just rip off

[00:39:12] Headcrabs from their bodies that I guess they grow on their bodies and show them at Gordon

[00:39:17] And so who get hit he gets a little bit of acid damage, but it's really cool

[00:39:21] Yeah, and then they have poison of headcrabs

[00:39:23] fast headcrabs

[00:39:25] And then as you're going through this level

[00:39:28] It's like a weird really interesting level design where it's like you're trying to get on top of the roofs

[00:39:32] You're basically on the ground floor and you're just trying to get up because all the zombies down

[00:39:37] So it's kind of and you at this point

[00:39:40] This is a long level and you're running low on ammo

[00:39:43] And so you're running through and you're like shit shit shit shit

[00:39:45] I gotta fucking go and then gravity gun and that's what the gun shines

[00:39:49] It's how many the traps and things did you get a chance to really use around Ravenholm cuz I mean

[00:39:54] Yeah, because there were like wire traps

[00:39:56] I feel like that were I made use of and I kind of like did the thing where I led them into it

[00:40:01] And then there are like proximity mines that blew up. So yeah, I made use of a lot of them

[00:40:06] And I raise your blades you can pick up yes sling razor blades

[00:40:09] This is when it started with the race grab the gun I believe where it's like I saw them embedded in the wall

[00:40:13] And I was like, oh wait a minute

[00:40:15] Wait a minute and I whipped it out and then you can you because with the gun you can suck things to it

[00:40:20] And then you can also suck thing or like push them away

[00:40:23] Yeah, and then finally you meet this really cool character called father

[00:40:28] It was great glory. His name is yet father father Gregori

[00:40:32] and he basically is the last one left and

[00:40:35] his excuse for being here is that you know everybody out here like

[00:40:40] They're they're suffering but like he says like this is my home. This will always be my home

[00:40:44] I have to basically just ride it out to the bitter end

[00:40:47] And he is the one he actually gives he throws a shotgun to Gordon

[00:40:52] Across like the rooftops and Gordon catches it and at the same time

[00:40:56] basically these very fast agile

[00:40:59] creatures who are like the

[00:41:02] Headcrab zombies. Yeah, they they come out and they start running along the rooftops

[00:41:06] And that's you start blowing away and this is when it starts getting into its very much a

[00:41:12] Kind of like a halo vibe

[00:41:14] It was getting closer to that or like maybe even early doom or

[00:41:18] Quake that sort of thing. So that's when you when you I just love the shotgun into first

[00:41:23] Especially the shotgun in this game is great. It's strong. The thing about the shotgun it has range

[00:41:28] Yes, which is love to see it

[00:41:30] You love to see a shotgun range like you do not have to be within like five feet of the kid

[00:41:35] That that person can be across don't get close

[00:41:37] You'll be like

[00:41:38] And it's down down one shot one kill with this area too

[00:41:43] I don't think there's any reason for you to have known both ahead of time, but

[00:41:48] Have you ever listened to the normal headcrab zombies in reverse? No

[00:41:54] What is it?

[00:41:55] The sounds that the headcrab zombies are making as they're coming at you the

[00:42:01] Play the reverse and help me. Ah, help it hurts help me really

[00:42:08] Disgusting the law this game is really dark. Yes. It's horrible

[00:42:12] It's it's really fucked up like what happens to the people in this game and it's it's incredibly dark

[00:42:18] Especially when you get context to like

[00:42:20] What happens at the very end of this game and you start realizing like who the combine are and like what they are

[00:42:26] Yeah, it is pretty dark. It's really dark

[00:42:29] And it sucks to think that like there aren't that many people

[00:42:32] I mean the resistance is kind of popping off in half-life to the resistance like they're not doing bad

[00:42:36] I don't know they're fighting

[00:42:37] They're fighting the good fight and they're doing they're making make it headway

[00:42:40] But you kind of make your way out of Ravenholm and then you go to the underground caverns before eventually

[00:42:46] You make your way back up on the surface and this section was really fun. I really love this is a highway 17

[00:42:52] Oh, I was 17 is fun

[00:42:53] This is a great area and this is when essentially you realize that

[00:42:59] Eli

[00:43:00] During when you were at Black Mesa East in the combine stormed it because Breen knew where you were the whole time

[00:43:06] Um

[00:43:07] They took Eli advanced and they brought him to Nova prospect

[00:43:10] So your job is to go to Nova prospect and bring Eli back to because he's the leadership of the resistance

[00:43:17] They can't really do much without him

[00:43:19] I mean they could but like he's one of the central figures that keeps people going

[00:43:23] He's an icon. So you have to go and also you kind of like Alex Alex is kind of your boo thing this game

[00:43:29] So you got to go help out daddy

[00:43:32] Don't worry daddy's home

[00:43:36] That's why you don't talk good you say he'd be saying stuff like that all the time. Oh, I guarantee you I guarantee you

[00:43:42] He would be you'd be very Chuggy

[00:43:44] But yes, you kind of this is another

[00:43:48] This is another part of the game where they're using a lot of physics engines

[00:43:52] They're using a lot of different puzzles solving mechanics and you basically get on the buggy

[00:43:56] There are certain parts of this game where you make it out

[00:43:59] And then you hit like a checkpoint and there are people there

[00:44:03] And this is if I'm not mistaken right before like after you get out of the

[00:44:08] Of Ravenholm you're brought to the shore point base and I think that's like a combine base, but there's also

[00:44:16] There are in remnants of rebel forces that are there and they they come through and they give you a buggy

[00:44:21] And they're like take this and that's when you get on highway 17 dangerous to go alone

[00:44:25] It is super dangerous

[00:44:27] But essentially as you make your way on hybrid 17 you realize that there is a problem

[00:44:33] There's an environmental hazard since it's a little one. It's a smidgen. It's ant-line

[00:44:37] It's a baby. It's ant-line. It's an ant-line season, baby. Why there have to be ant-lions

[00:44:42] Now I didn't know what an ant-line was

[00:44:45] Before playing this game. I mean, I mean in real life or in real life

[00:44:49] I knew there was a thing called an ant-line

[00:44:51] But I I didn't know what this ant-line was and they're fucking horrible

[00:44:56] I'm glad you got to witness it in real time

[00:44:58] Oh my god, is it like I as soon as they started lowering my thing

[00:45:02] I was like wait you didn't shoot them all wait

[00:45:04] You didn't shoot them all and then the magnet drops

[00:45:07] Yeah

[00:45:07] Like disconnects and then you're like you drop with your buggy

[00:45:10] And then you fall out of the thing and then now like dozens of them are surrounding

[00:45:14] Oh my god

[00:45:15] So you have to like flip it like flipping the halo warthog jump in really quick and then start running over

[00:45:20] These things and I will say that this is again super fun because you're just like you just going forward and pressing the right trigger

[00:45:27] And it's just mowing down these ant-lines

[00:45:29] But it's one of those things where it's like a very fun

[00:45:33] Sandbox to kind of go in and you have a boost mechanic where it will boost you across jumps and stuff

[00:45:38] I can imagine, you know

[00:45:40] However old will was at the point when he's playing this for the first time

[00:45:43] It was having a blast playing this game

[00:45:46] So this was really fun

[00:45:47] You hit certain points of this area where you hit like like force fields and you have to get past the force field

[00:45:53] Just like wiping out the combine. If I remember correctly

[00:45:56] There's a part of this game where you hit a certain checkpoint and in order to go forward

[00:46:01] You have to go in and wipe out a bunch of combine

[00:46:05] Soldiers and then get on a crane and you have to use the crane to pick up a buggy

[00:46:10] And then like put it on top of the base that you're trying to get into

[00:46:14] Mm-hmm

[00:46:15] And then more combine open up like come out to open up the path that you can go forward

[00:46:19] But it's really cool because it's a cool like puzzle-solving mechanic like a combat puzzle because you have to like continuously like

[00:46:26] Fight against cuz they know that you're in the crane and they're shooting at you and you're mostly protected

[00:46:31] But you also they're like you have to like move the thing and then get to the buggy at the same time

[00:46:36] And yeah, it was just asking you to spend a lot of plates during that time

[00:46:40] Yeah, there was there was a lot of stuff going on simultaneously and also again funny physics engine

[00:46:45] Weird shit happens sometimes

[00:46:48] There were times where I was moving the thing in this specific puzzle and like the buggy just like shot out and spun off into space

[00:46:54] And I was like goodbye

[00:46:56] Oh, I don't know what to do now

[00:46:59] But yeah, so yeah a couple of saves and I was able to figure it out

[00:47:02] I died a lot in this game. You know, they you take that kind of enough damage

[00:47:06] Yeah, you have health and health in a shield or do you just have health?

[00:47:09] I can't remember shield. Yeah, it's like an energy shield classic. Yeah that goes from that suit which is really really cool

[00:47:15] But essentially as you go forward you like make your way through that point you get past this bridge

[00:47:22] And there's other lore that's kind of involved in this area

[00:47:25] But you make it to this place called sand traps

[00:47:28] Now the sand traps are really cool because it's at this point where you're like you

[00:47:34] This is the part of the game

[00:47:36] Where you go forward and they're like you can't touch the ground the floor is lava

[00:47:40] Yeah, but it's not a lava basically it's like oh there are antlions pop up and eat you

[00:47:45] So this is a huge platforming section. You have to like jump from section to section

[00:47:50] And this is the first time that you meet or encounter one of the

[00:47:56] One of the bigger bigger enemies in the game

[00:47:59] I'm like the biggest enemy of the game which is the antlion guard

[00:48:01] Which is like a queen antlion

[00:48:03] It's just massive and it's angry and it's just trying to fuck you up

[00:48:06] And it eats it choose through a ton of your ammo for it to go down

[00:48:10] So if you want to deal with it, you have to there's not really you can't really run away from it

[00:48:15] Because it's so fast so you have to just load it up with shock

[00:48:18] And when the smacks yous and you flying across the loyally

[00:48:21] Yeah, no that was really really cool

[00:48:24] But it's basically towards the end of this level

[00:48:27] That you meet a vortigaunt and it's the vortigaunt says the free man will follow me

[00:48:32] Just like that too and he brings you and he basically teaches you

[00:48:35] Oh, the the antlions are trained to respond to the Farrapods and he gives you this pod which becomes another

[00:48:41] Resource or a weapon in the game. He's basically unlimited

[00:48:44] You don't have to like refill ammo and it's just he gives you pods and

[00:48:48] Now that you have the Farrapods and you know how to use them the antlions are your friends now you go

[00:48:53] I have the power

[00:48:55] Why are they your friends now you ask because you're about to hit the hardest part of this fucking game pretty much

[00:49:01] Which is Nova prospect?

[00:49:03] Nova prospects is essentially a research facility that was turned into a prison slash torture facility

[00:49:10] basically a massive interrogation torture

[00:49:13] Dungeon that you run into really really cool level design here

[00:49:19] Very very much enjoyed it. It's just a huge combine base

[00:49:21] This is where the combines start setting up auto turrets

[00:49:25] And so you have to be very careful about rounding corners doing things

[00:49:28] But in order to like get to this point you have to get through the sand traps and then get through this major security

[00:49:34] Like beach like it's kind of like that level if you remember in Halo 2 when they like you

[00:49:40] You're it's really cool section where you land with a bunch of pelicans on the beach

[00:49:43] And you storm it with a bunch of odsts to get to a thing that Cortana tells you to go to

[00:49:49] But it's a really really cool point where it's like kind of looks storming the beaches of Normandy

[00:49:53] It's kind of like that in this game

[00:49:56] Thing leading up to Nova prospect but once you get there you get inside

[00:50:00] You're using the ant lines and you're just tossing fair positive

[00:50:04] And it's so cool because they basically lead you through this entire level

[00:50:09] There is a check like a hiccup where you go through one area and then an ant line guard like

[00:50:15] Breaks through a wall and then you have another like mini boss fight with them

[00:50:18] But this is another one where it's like you hit sections and then you have to stop and then Alex is helping you

[00:50:24] And you have to kind of like set up auto turrets and go through this is the map design level design here is very

[00:50:31] Commoduted in person purposefully so

[00:50:33] So you make it through

[00:50:36] and eventually

[00:50:37] You're a Nova prospect and you finally

[00:50:40] Realize that dr. Mosman is a combine spy that has been

[00:50:48] Information to dr. Brain surprise surprise the lady who's a pretentious asshole

[00:50:54] Is the one that's the you know the bad guy who's been kind of ratting out the resistance the entire time

[00:51:00] so essentially Alex while you're inside of

[00:51:04] Nova prospect and you realize all the horrible things this is where they're experimenting on people

[00:51:08] This is where they're kind of like working on fusing humans with the head crabs and that sort of thing

[00:51:14] Really fucked up shit and then Alex in

[00:51:17] Gordon are just like trying to look for Eli as fast as they can and fight off the forces of the security

[00:51:25] um, and then you realize that

[00:51:28] You you finally they split up several times and they reunite and then they tracked down Mosman

[00:51:33] I can't remember. I don't think you kill her. No, she gets away

[00:51:36] She tells away at the very end

[00:51:39] And she teleports both herself and Eli out of Nova prospect to the Citadel

[00:51:45] Which is back kind of at square one at the the base of city 17

[00:51:50] So you came all this way just to return to the beginning

[00:51:53] so essentially you kind of go forward and you hit chapter 10 which is a cool cool chapter title anti

[00:52:00] Citizen one which is really really neat and this is the point where they realize that Gordon Freeman a man

[00:52:08] who got his doctorate in

[00:52:11] Theoretical physics with a specialized focus in bulliconometry

[00:52:17] Of John Wick

[00:52:19] This man doesn't do a single goddamn scientific thing in this whole fucking game and he does puzzles

[00:52:25] He does puzzles. We are puzzle scientific. Yeah physics

[00:52:29] This is a class. I guess yeah, he uses his physics degree to the pick up

[00:52:35] Scientific right? Yeah science big science going on over here. But yeah, no

[00:52:39] He he's he keeps the blick on him and yeah, he he figures out the trajectory of the bullet from his

[00:52:51] But yeah, no, it's it's really cool and essentially this is the point where

[00:52:56] You like your back at Kleiner your back at Kleiner's lab and he's like, what are you doing here?

[00:53:01] He's like I thought you died and you realize that like you were teleported away from Nova prospect as

[00:53:08] It was blowing up or something like that

[00:53:10] And then you made it out just in time and it was like a two-week time

[00:53:13] I know we get between then and when you teleported back to the old lab

[00:53:17] And he said I thought you were God we're done for and so but in that meantime

[00:53:22] You're basically Alex and Gordon's death had galvanized the resistance

[00:53:26] And that's the point where they were like they were fucking done with the combine and they had like basically

[00:53:32] Got a bunch of weapons and stockpile then they were trying to storm the Citadel

[00:53:35] They were storming the Citadel to try and go get Eli away from them

[00:53:40] And this is a point where basically Kleiner is like you need to get out there

[00:53:45] You need to help these people it's gonna help their morale if you go lead from the front and so Gordon's like

[00:53:58] So he basically goes forward you this is another point where you have a reunion with Barney and Barney's

[00:54:03] He's that guy and he's kind of helping out too. But this is cool because instead of

[00:54:09] Instead of having

[00:54:11] You know the you kind of finish the stuff with the the ant lions instead of ant lines

[00:54:17] You have actual people that are your followers and they kind of just attached to you

[00:54:21] They're kind of like just like halo the marines that that attached to you as you go through the levels

[00:54:26] Yeah, that's kind of exactly what happens here

[00:54:29] And then you go on to follow the free man free man and

[00:54:33] Gordon teams up with the Barney together and they lead a battle at the overwatch

[00:54:39] Overwatch Nexus in which is fighting at the foot of the Citadel, which is just a massive building

[00:54:44] And this is where if I'm not mistaken yet

[00:54:47] This is definitely the point where you start fighting the striders

[00:54:53] The gunships and all this other stuff and you have rocket launcher

[00:54:56] I didn't talk about that earlier, but you get a rocket launcher at one point of the game

[00:54:59] Changes the game for sure

[00:55:00] There's a point

[00:55:01] I think it's like right at the tail end of highway 17 when you get the rocket launcher and you meet this like British Colonel who's like now listen

[00:55:08] Here Dr. Freeman

[00:55:09] This is how you use a rocket launcher and then like they have like a tutorial section where you go shoot down two gunships

[00:55:15] And it's very cool. I'm sure remember

[00:55:17] I think what the rocket in this game isn't you shoot it and then you can continue to aim it

[00:55:20] Yes

[00:55:21] Moving the camera. It's so good

[00:55:22] And that's how they get past the defenses and this is another thing that we glazed over

[00:55:26] We talked about like the cool part about the combine all of the ships are basically like

[00:55:32] Gunships that have been fused with aliens bio. Yeah, they like they have like taken aliens and they have a factory

[00:55:39] It basically the Citadel is the factory where they fuse these aliens with their mechanical parts and turn them into like living gunships

[00:55:47] So it's really fucked up and twisted in a way

[00:55:50] But it's it's also really cool. So but this is where you start fighting striders, which are like

[00:55:55] You know straight out of war the worlds, you know, they're just walking on the things and there

[00:55:59] Yeah, I people they're like try leg to that

[00:56:02] It's something like that and then like wall they can like knock down walls, too

[00:56:06] Which is really cool

[00:56:07] So you kind of go forward

[00:56:08] But you know we continue forward and there's not really much going on here

[00:56:13] But I think this is the point of the game where I was like I'm realizing

[00:56:16] This is like really a masterpiece because once Gordon gets to this Citadel

[00:56:21] And you realize what's going on he infiltrates the combine and after entering he basically you get all your weapons taken away

[00:56:28] Yep, and the guard takes him and he puts them on ramp and then you're on like a five minute long

[00:56:34] Ramp ride through facility and you see that basically they have

[00:56:38] Like almost the human whole human population of the continent

[00:56:42] Being processed through this facility. They're being tortured. They have vortigaunts, which made me feel really bad

[00:56:47] Vortigaunts are getting tortured and they're like psychic

[00:56:49] So they're like sending back their readings to the resistance as they're getting like tortured and shit

[00:56:55] Like it's really fucked up. It's really sad. So I mean, but it's really cool stuff going on here

[00:57:01] You know again making comparisons to stuff like scorn

[00:57:05] Making comparisons to things that like it's very archaic and just like not our cake is the wrong word very esoteric

[00:57:11] As you're going through and you're like seeing this like, you know these

[00:57:16] Neomechanical like a biomechanical design in the facility that you're in

[00:57:20] It's all very interesting and deep and there's there's just a lot to kind of unpack there

[00:57:25] But it is a very cool thing but essentially you reach the office with dr. Breen

[00:57:31] And the leaders of the resistance you finally recover Eli Vance and

[00:57:36] Mossman eventually realizes I made a mistake trusting this guy. He's actually a bad guy surprised a fucking prize

[00:57:43] But before you do for though, you skipped over a little something something when you talk about your weapons being taken away

[00:57:48] Yeah, yeah, everything except for one

[00:57:51] Yeah, you get that you get the main you get the main gun that the BFG basically

[00:57:55] Half-life to gravity gun gets super charged and instead of just being able to pick up items and weapons and stuff

[00:58:01] There's a people pick up people. Yeah, yeah, they're vaporizing folks

[00:58:04] Yeah

[00:58:05] You start absolutely

[00:58:06] Decimating the the combine troops that are inside of this little outfit facility because this is it is another combat

[00:58:12] Scenario, it's very short. It's very brief

[00:58:15] But it was a fun little power power trip

[00:58:18] The gravity gun for sure

[00:58:20] Yeah

[00:58:20] But eventually you make your way to the top of this facility and then you meet with dr. Breen and then there's like back and forth

[00:58:26] There's dialogue and dr. Breen is kind of like you just have to listen

[00:58:29] You just have to listen what I tell you and everything's gonna be fine

[00:58:32] Like you don't have to worry about it blah blah blah. You should join us. He keeps trying to get Gordon to join him

[00:58:37] Really silly because Gordon has just been smoking his troops this entire game. I'm just like what do you what are you thinking man?

[00:58:43] And then Breen tries to kill

[00:58:46] Gordon with an oversized with supercharged gravity gun

[00:58:50] But then runs away with it and then Alex and Gordon find him arguing with an advisor

[00:58:55] Yeah, and then he escapes before they're able to get to him

[00:58:59] And essentially they realize that he set off the dark energy reactor

[00:59:04] That's at the top of this world and if it like explodes

[00:59:07] It's gonna like implode the earth or something like that something crazy

[00:59:11] So you have another combat scenario where you run up to the top of the facility with Alex

[00:59:16] And if you're doing the things you have to use like the physics puzzles with the overcharge to like turn off these mechanisms or

[00:59:23] Like spin these things and it's supposed to like shut it off

[00:59:26] But then it doesn't work at the very end and then the last thing you see in this game is the thing super charges and

[00:59:33] explodes and

[00:59:35] Then time freezes as Gordon is flying back and the G-man's like what's up, bro?

[00:59:41] You did a good job. I've been watching I've been watching

[00:59:45] We're gonna take you out of the situation

[00:59:46] So he grabs he grabs Gordon he puts it back in his taces which makes me really wonder like what the fuck happened Alex?

[00:59:52] Cuz she's just a human being and she's at the top of this facility got gotta play Half-Life Alex

[00:59:57] I'm not doing that shit

[01:00:00] If they release it on like steam if they do like a Xbox port

[01:00:03] No, Phil Spencer make it happen. Philly Spence my boy. He spent my dog. Oh, that's the funny thing too

[01:00:09] You're like, oh, I don't know what happened Alex. I forgot you literally just played Half-Life 2 you didn't even play episode 1

[01:00:16] Yep, no, you got to go play the DLC now my boy. You have to I won't you have to have no desire

[01:00:22] I'll watch a YouTube gameplay preview. You gotta play episode one and I think this episode 2

[01:00:27] But I know for a fact that was at one so you got it come on join me play Metal Gear

[01:00:31] You want me to play half life? Have fun? No, you don't know you don't bet. I'm gonna just read it

[01:00:37] I'm just gonna read the wiki. I'll just look up the information sir

[01:00:42] I have too many damn games to play but no so essentially Alex says that she saw a brain fall

[01:00:48] implying that he died

[01:00:50] But his fate kind of still leaves a lot to be determined

[01:00:54] You could choose your so everything like everything at the end of Half-Life 2 is open-ended

[01:00:58] Like you have no resolution at the end of this game because they were like we're definitely making a third one

[01:01:03] This game is okay for sure masterpiece. We're definitely gonna make a third one

[01:01:05] Gotta this was before people realized that valve can't count a three

[01:01:10] So that's kind of where we're at with that whole situation, but yeah, this wraps up the game man. It's it's good

[01:01:18] Okay, it's definitely good. I had I had a good time like the latter

[01:01:23] Fourth of this game is incredible the latter fourth. Okay. Yeah, I would say like the the I started recognizing the brilliance once I

[01:01:32] Got into the the the pontoon and then I got to rave home. I was like, okay

[01:01:37] This is great. Yeah, this is really fun

[01:01:38] But as soon as I you kind of you make it deeper in the game

[01:01:42] You realize how they're ramping it up how they're making it hard

[01:01:45] Nova prospect really tough level fun to get through fun to figure out

[01:01:51] You know, it's just it's it's tough going back old game is old old game is indeed old

[01:01:55] I you know again. I did not hate it good. It was alright. It's good. It was alright

[01:02:01] I won't say I love it

[01:02:03] But it definitely I can see the brilliance of this game and I can see why people regard it as like some of the best of all

[01:02:09] Time again, just because there's such a cheese good design. That's baked into this

[01:02:14] So now I have a great excuse to go play the Stanley parable

[01:02:19] Yes, as you should Stanley parable is a fantastic game. Is that also in the source engine? Yes, okay

[01:02:24] Okay, I saw thoughts so

[01:02:26] But yeah, so I have that you know really have I've gone through everything

[01:02:30] Not really that many final thoughts

[01:02:32] But that is gonna be it for my half-life to digitate it will do any final thoughts for the listeners

[01:02:38] The final thoughts is dear listener if you're listening to this and you have not played half-life to go play it

[01:02:44] And then don't be like Nick go continue to play episode one and episode two because they're also very lost coast

[01:02:51] Right. No, no the lost coast is like a demo thing. It's just half-life one episode one

[01:02:56] Sorry half-life to episode one and half-life to episode two and then once again, they don't count to three so they don't get there

[01:03:02] so

[01:03:04] Can you just give us our dear listeners an overview of like what those entail?

[01:03:09] So with how I mean they're both not lengthy lengthy, but they have a little bit of length to them

[01:03:14] But for episode one, I think that one follows up directly after what happens in the game

[01:03:20] That's one the section you mentioned there where Alex talks about seeing brain fall

[01:03:24] So it's mostly like Alex focused is

[01:03:28] Episode one got it and it's just her kind of after that

[01:03:31] And then with half-life to episode two

[01:03:34] That's when she meets back up with Freeman again

[01:03:37] And you see Freeman and her actually like kind of teaming up. Oh, nice working together and doing more things

[01:03:42] Cool

[01:03:42] So that's why it's just a good way to continue that story and see what we could have potentially gotten with three

[01:03:48] With Alex and Gordon continuing their team up session that would kind of continue in there

[01:03:53] But what would have been cool in three is if they liked it the

[01:03:56] Protagonist switch where it's like obviously they want Alex to be the new protag

[01:04:01] And so you plays Alex, but then you like get to watch Gordon and then they give Gordon voice lines

[01:04:06] And then Gordon gets hit in the face with a golf club. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that'd be great. It's right

[01:04:14] That's the end

[01:04:19] Cool so

[01:04:20] Gotcha, did you hate it? You are you were very meh on

[01:04:24] Half-life to like you said overall is good. I'm gonna say man isn't a bad connotation

[01:04:28] But you were like it is it has good points. It has bad points. Would you play it yearly? Probably not

[01:04:33] I'm not gonna play this game again. Yeah, I'm saying would you go back to play it again?

[01:04:36] Probably not so it's like it is perfectly fine your I'm guessing glad you played it

[01:04:41] But it does not need to be like notice is not in your top 10 of all time 100%

[01:04:46] It's not I mean, I'm sure it would be for if I played it when it came out on a four

[01:04:50] Mm-hmm like I'm sure I would have that touch with it. Is it in your top 10

[01:04:54] You think I'm on my top 10 maybe maybe my 15 or 20. Okay, because it's just it's such a fun game

[01:05:00] Yeah, I think like part of this in I love this series because it's such a good exercise in

[01:05:07] Forcing you out of your comfort zone and that's what I took away most of this game

[01:05:11] I was like this is not in my wheelhouse. This is not in my comfort zone

[01:05:14] I would like somebody to throw me a bone for the next digit hate it

[01:05:18] When we get to that point

[01:05:19] But I definitely appreciate this game for what it is and and what it did and I feel like a gaming historian

[01:05:26] Good going about playing and I feel like I'm putting I'm getting the building blocks to how we get to things like

[01:05:32] Pray to how we get to things like, you know other, you know modern first-person shooters like

[01:05:38] Like like I even see stuff in this game that I remember seeing in Titanfall 2

[01:05:44] Yeah stuff like where it's like you obviously these games are all informed by each other and iterated upon and

[01:05:50] Perfected and polished, but we don't get brilliant masterpieces like Half-Life 2 or Halo 3 without, you know Half-Life

[01:05:59] You know half like to do in the running first walking first. Yeah. So yeah, that's that's really what it is

[01:06:06] Thank you listeners so much for hanging out with us all of our patreon supporters

[01:06:10] And then any listeners who are listening on the main feed after this is published much later on

[01:06:14] But for our patreon exclusive listeners, it's been a very fun show. So I'm excited

[01:06:19] Let's figure out what we're gonna get will to play next for his

[01:06:23] You don't have the little the shortlist. I don't have a shortlist. I don't I mean do you have thoughts?

[01:06:28] I'm open to thoughts. No, I want you to pick. I have no interest in in tainting it

[01:06:33] Okay, yeah, no bias. Yeah, I want you to pick four and then let the people choose or pick three

[01:06:39] Whatever you want to do and then I gotta know I gotta know what's on your backlog. No, you don't just pick some

[01:06:45] But if something I've already played

[01:06:47] Okay, so we'll have to we'll have to talk about it. We'll have conversations but listeners until then

[01:06:52] Be safe take it easy. We'll see you next Friday night deuces