Half-Life 2: Aftermath

[Chris F]

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=58579

 

"Valve is readying the first expansion pack for the unanimously acclaimed Half-Life 2. Provisionally titled 'Aftermath', the new adventures of Gordon Freeman and his able sidekick Alyx is tentatively scheduled for a 'summer' release"

 

I STILL haven't beaten HL2, but this is good news for people who want more. Especially if they want more Alyx.

[Whooter]

Especially if they want more Alyx.

 

[Jordan_E]

I finished HL2 fairly quickly, but would get the expansion pack without a second thought! As a matter of fact, was thinking of going through HL2 again when I finish DOOM3 (been taking my time with that one).

[Cyberwoo]

I STILL haven't beaten HL2,

 

What is taking you so long man? If any game begs to be finished from the moment you start playing it is HL2. Seriously what is keeping you from playing through it?

[Chris F]

What is taking you so long man? If any game begs to be finished from the moment you start playing it is HL2. Seriously what is keeping you from playing through it?

Dude. I have GADD*. That gives me problems finishing games.

 

I haven't completed a game in years. Although HL2 is probably the first on my list to finish.

 

Gamers Attention Deficit Disorder

[exile]

I haven't finished HL2 either. I will buy the expansion. My problem is that I'm stuck at a point in the game where the guards swarm you and you need to put the sentry guns up to defend yourself.

[Cyberwoo]

I haven't finished HL2 either. I will buy the expansion. My problem is that I'm stuck at a point in the game where the guards swarm you and you need to put the sentry guns up to defend yourself.

 

 

Are you referring to the one in the jail cells? That is one of the most enjoyable parts of the game. What I wound up doing was placing the turrets like so:

 

 

| |___________| |

| *-----------*

| -ME---------

| |------------*| |

| |-------------| |

| |-------------| |

-----{}{}{}{}-------

 

 

*'s = turrets

ME = Gordon (duh)

{} = the containers that you get the turrets from

 

 

Basically if you angle the turrets just right they act as cover fire for the other turret. You can act as cover fire for the turret that is alone on the left side of the map. In the event that a gaurd gets close enough to knock down a turret quickly run over, dispatch of the gaurd and pick the turret back up and place it back where it was. The key is to pan back n forth keeping an eye on the turrets and helping them when need be. I found that machine guns worked best here (using a well placed frag when need be as well) and then if a gaurd got in close enough I would switch to shotgun and dispatch of him quickly.

 

If you are referring to one of the other 2 scenerios where you use turrets for cover I can help ya out as well. Good luck.

 

 

Edit: Bleh that drawing didnt save as typed. Some of the stuff moved over to the left. Whatever...hopefully you get the idea.

 

Edit #2: Yay I figured out how to get the "drawing" to display how I intended.

[Tranquility]

Wow I'm really glad they're doing this expansion now. I can't get enough HL2. Finished it 3 times so far.

 

*SPOILER ALERT*

 

 

I wonder though how they will be able to incorporate Alyx into the expansion though. I thought she was all but dead after the final scene in the game when the G-man intervenes and takes away Gordon. I hope they come up with something better than a contrived story like "the G-man saved her".

 

[Derrik Draven]

:tu Excellent news!!! :rock

[Eldorado]

This is excellent news indeed. HL2 was great and I know at some point I'll play through again. When a release date is announced, I'll probably pick a month before-hand to start.

 

Sean

[Orpheus]

Just started HL2 for the first time and at the rate I go I should be finishing up just in time for the expansion to come out.

[blackcalx]

I haven't finished HL2 either. I will buy the expansion. My problem is that I'm stuck at a point in the game where the guards swarm you and you need to put the sentry guns up to defend yourself.

 

Funny, I'm stuck at the same spot. I've only given it two tries but I've been decimated each time.

 

The expansion is good news. This is the second FPS that I'm actually enjoying every moment of, Tron 2.0 being the first.

[Romier S]

Funny, I'm stuck at the same spot. I've only given it two tries but I've been decimated each time.

 

The config Cyberwoo gave above is spot on and the exact same one I used after trying that section a couple of time. Once you get into that nice little corner and keep up with placing the turrets back up whenever the Combine knock them down, you'll get through it in no time. :tu

[JFo]

The config Cyberwoo gave above is spot on and the exact same one I used after trying that section a couple of time.

 

You know, this is the most obvious way to go about this scenario, but it just didn't work for me at all. When I was trying to get past this part, I'd place the turrets just as Cyberwoo illustrates in his post, but I still got killed repeatedly. The biggest problem was when the Combine got close enough to knock a turret over and I'd have to pick them up and reset them with the Gravity Gun. Maybe I'm just not good enough with the keyboard and mouse controls for this game, but I usually couldn't get them back into position in time before I was taken out by the bastard who knocked it over. It doesn't help that whenever I had to re-position a turret, I had to leave my own corner unguarded, leaving me vulnerable to enemies coming in from that angle.

 

Instead, I did something slightly different. Take a look around the area. Don't worry, no enemies will show up until you start setting up the turrets. If you're facing where the turrets are stored, walk down the hallway to the left. Towards the end of it, you should see a small cell on the left side. The way I made it out of this area alive was to barricade myself in that little room and set up the three turrets to protect me as I hid in there. That way, I was able to funnel the enemies through to where I was at rather than having them spread out between four locations. If one happened to knock a turret over, I still had at least two blasting away while I reset it. Not only that, but the room itself gave me the cover I needed to stay safe from the vast majority of gunfire that comes your way.

 

If Cyberwoo's method doesn't work, try my idea. I personally think that this would be a much easier way to handle this section.

[Covak]

Wait, you don't need to use the gravity gun to pick up the turrets, do you?

[Cyberwoo]

Wait, you don't need to use the gravity gun to pick up the turrets, do you?

 

 

Nope. Just walk up to one and click the use button and it will pick it up. If I recall correctly when I tried picking them up with the grav gun it was more difficult because the grav gun picks them up in the position they are currently in which is sideways. This makes it rather difficult to place them upright again. I'm pretty sure when I used the *use* button it automatically tilts them upright while still in your hands thus making it possible to place them back up so they can start firing at baddies again. Is there a way to rotate an object once you have it picked up with a grav gun? That function would have come in handy on a few occasions.

[Cyberwoo]

Instead, I did something slightly different. Take a look around the area. Don't worry, no enemies will show up until you start setting up the turrets. If you're facing where the turrets are stored, walk down the hallway to the left. Towards the end of it, you should see a small cell on the left side. The way I made it out of this area alive was to barricade myself in that little room and set up the three turrets to protect me as I hid in there. That way, I was able to funnel the enemies through to where I was at rather than having them spread out between four locations. If one happened to knock a turret over, I still had at least two blasting away while I reset it. Not only that, but the room itself gave me the cover I needed to stay safe from the vast majority of gunfire that comes your way.

 

 

I beat that part of the game using that method as well. However I died a few times using that method prior to finally beating it. A few times a combine would lob a grenade into the room and that would pretty much mess the turrets up pretty badly. Grenade in the middle of 3 turrets = bad news for turrets. I found the way I described earlier much easier. By the way I'm referring to all these situations while playing on hard difficulty mode. Keep that in mind when making suggestions. I say this because the combine use different tactics on the easier modes (ie: maybe the combine wont lob grenades into that room in easy or medium difficulty as opposed to hard thus making it an easier strategy on those other difficulty modes). That is just a guess on my part but it makes sense nonetheless.

[JFo]

Nope. Just walk up to one and click the use button and it will pick it up.

 

If I had known that, I probalby would have done it the other way. At least I'll know that for when the Xbox version comes out this summer.

 

Grenade in the middle of 3 turrets = bad news for turrets.

 

Just a note, I did spread them out a bit, in case a grenade did get lobbed at one of them, only one would go down, and I'd still have the other two up and running.

[Cyberwoo]

All this talk of HL2 makes me want to play through it...again. Its not like there aren't any other good games to play its just HL2 is THAT good. I think I'll start up another HL2 session tonight.

[Romier S]

All this talk of HL2 makes me want to play through it

 

I just did. Well, actually I picked up on my second play through of the game which I left off of at "Follow Freeman". The Citadel levels are some of my favorites in the game. Having the gravity gun and tearing through Combine (I especially love throwing them in the energy wells and watching them disintegrate) is just too much fun. :tu

[Tranquility]

The way I went about this mission was I used some of the boxes that were lying around and barricaded one of the entrances. The combine don't attempt to go through blocked entrances. so that restricted the areas they could get to me through, and there weren't any blind spots. Eventually they manage to make it through though by sheer numbers, which is when I run into the room and hide inside, and fire from in there.

[Derrik Draven]

The way I went about this mission was I used some of the boxes that were lying around and barricaded one of the entrances. The combine don't attempt to go through blocked entrances. so that restricted the areas they could get to me through, and there weren't any blind spots. Eventually they manage to make it through though by sheer numbers, which is when I run into the room and hide inside, and fire from in there.

 

I did something close to this, as well. I barricaded the back entrace, all the way at the end on the left side. Used every single moveable box to do this. This way, your back is covered and you don't have to look behind you much. Can focus all firepower forward.

 

Then, just set up the turrets with one on the left of you, one on the right, one right in front. It makes one serious shitstorm for those Combine fucks to enter.

 

Every now and then, a Combine would appear up on the raised platform behind me but, that didn't happen much. I'd just pop them one in the head, and that was that.

 

As an added bonus, you're not cooped up in a little room where 1 grenade can mean, bye-bye. You're out in the open, can manuever better and, the turrets get a shot on the Combine earlier, keeping them farther away from you.

 

Took awhile for me to 'finger this one out but, this ended up being a strategy that worked for me.

 

Cool to see that other came up with other ways that not only worked but, that I didn't think of. Gotta love Valve. :tu

[Cyberwoo]

This discussion has really opened my eyes as to the different ways of getting through situations in the game. I'm going to start playing through the game again and this time I'm focusing on doing things a little differently then before. I just think its great that Valve created this world in which the gamer can experience all this freedom. One of my biggest pet peeves in games is the linearity and constraints the developers put on the gamer.

[General Zot]

I came up with two really convoluted but effective way to pass the combine jailhouse rush.

 

Method one: I took all the boxes and stuff and stacked them in front of the little jail cell. I put two turrets in the back and one just in front. Then I seal the doorway with a last barrel and go squat in the back of the room. You can even pick up the third turret and hold it in front of you, as that way it will never get knocked over. This method works, but eventually the grenades can jack your little hidey hole if you aren't skilled with the G-gun. I passed it using this method, but wanted something a little more eloquent.

 

So method two: Stack all the crates and barrels by the far end of the sentry turret room (so it is sealed). Then pick up the first two turrets and drop them right back in their closets, don't pull them out at all. They will flip a 180 and activate by default. Pull out turret #3 (closest to your barricade) and put it somewhere to cover the open hallway. Now equip the G-gun or shottie and go hide in the #3 turret closet. The only way the combine can reach you is to walk by closet #1 & #2, and the turrets will waste them. Even if they get a grenade off, the closet is too small for the turret to fall over, so they will almost never deactivate or get destroyed. You can either use the shottie and take out the lucky ones or keep G-gun to lob the grenades out of there. Turret #3 will get messed up, but hey that's life (you could hold #3 in front of you and back into the closet though, that would be hyper slick. Never thought of that hehe)

 

 

PS - After it is over, these turrets are special. They can never be destroyed by being knocked down. So pick one up and carry it around as long as possible. I hold it in front and use it as a gun with unlimited ammo, or place it in a corner and let it provide covering fire for you. But keep one of those turrets for fun next time, they are awesome!

[General Zot]

Haha, one more point: those turrets don't recognize anyone but you as friendly (maybe Alyx, but not her dad for sure). So when you run into friendlys, make sure it is never facing them as it will chew them down.

 

I carried the jailhouse turret all the way to the second turret setup in the lab (with Alyx & dad.) It was damn funny because as soon as I had it set up and the sequence started (with Alyx's dad heading for the teleporter), the 'lucky' turret hosed him down in cold blood at the edge of the platform. Alyx and I just stood there and looked at his corpse in silence, as the scripted combat couldn't activate until he had ported out. So make sure that turret is not facing anywhere even close to the teleporter as it is psychopathic.

 

:lmfao