[Face Humper] Follow Alyx to the first yellow lambda symbol in the game. Every time you see one of these you know there's something good around. In this case Ms. Vance opens a secret path to Dr. Kleiner's lab. Listen to the dialogue between the two characters and also Barney joining it after a while, and distract yourself a bit by teleporting a cactus, looking through the cool lens, touching the little hula-girl-figurine, discovering an old photo of Dr. Klein on the pin wall, having a look at an old picture from Black Mesa or maybe just hopping onto any character's head and staying there for a while. ^^ Eventually Barney walks into a small storage room, finding Lamarr who turns out to be a debeaked and sexually active Face Hugger. Put on your Hazard Suit and tank some suit energy at the Combine power station in the corner of the main lab room.
Then enter the teleporter room and get your first look at Alyx' father (Eli Vance) on the screen. As Alyx is about to be teleported something seems to go awfully wrong...great machinery: It's only the plug that has fallen off. Put it back into the wall and activate the switch to both finally transmit Alyx and to get some exaggerating praise from Dr. Kleiner. At least Barney shares your thoughts and cracks a nice joke about it. ^^ Now it's time to be teleported yourself. Step into the transmitter and watch yourself being transported to various places thanks to Lamarr. Oh goodie, Dr. Breen now knows you are in City 17. Oh well, at least you don't get eaten by that ugly fish and after finally ending your travel outside the lab near some Combine scanners you are in a better condition than President Scroob was in Spaceballs after being teleported.
Anyway, you are told to hurry, yet again there's no need to. Drop down and search for a door behind another fence, leading you to a passage that's blocked by some wooden bars. Hmm, how to get through? Barney joins you above giving you the original, famous crowbar from Half-Life 1. Slash your way through the wooden planks and a crate to reach the first (unarmed) enemy to beat: A Combine Sentry Drone. Drop down and quickly take a left into the train, as some Combines open fire from up above on the right. Hack your way through the wagon, leave it and hide behind the train on your left since another train is coming in, which might roll over you. Get rid of another sentry drone and follow the incoming train. Zip in between two trains on your left without stopping and enter another wagon nearby. Climb up the ladder, turn left and jump onto the wagon ahead and over the fence while being attacked from behind. Swiftly move on, crack the lowest wooden bar at the opening and go down the ramp.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-3.3 Chapter 3 - Route Kanal-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=CC3
[Battle on Rails] Refresh at the health station on the left wall. Hear that cry for help? We can't ignore that, now can we? Haste around the corner and smack the pistol wielding Combine with your crowbar. You should be able to catch him off guard, allowing for a few blows before he and his companion start attacking you. Once the first one is down, go for the Combine with the tazer stick. Go back to the health panel if you haven't depleted it before this struggle. Then move on, go up the ramp to the locked door and stay there, waiting for another Combine to walk down the stairs. Aim for his head. Move on until you see daylight coming down. Around the corner is another Combine whom you should give a head shot.
Step out of the dark, walk down the metal stairs outside to trigger a train coming to a halt right where you need it. Go back up and use the train to reach the other side of the trench. Turn around and blow up one of the explosive barrels to buy yourself some more time when breaking the upper wooden plank in the entrance to the house. Enter it and break apart another Sentry Drone while watching out not to come too close to the windows, as infinite Combines aim at you from the other side of the trench. See the yellow lambda symbol on the left wall? And do you remember what I said about it? Approach it to find some ammo and health. Move over to the other room and simply hop onto the explosive barrels and crawl out of the house instead of wasting a bullet on the barrels.
Stay left of the exit and aim for a barrel on a ledge up ahead. Its explosion takes care of some Combines nearby. Next, look at the small crate with the yellow sticker on it. Yellow? Seems like some Ivan Pavlov-experiment to me, as yellow once again means goodies, so keep in mind to watch for those small crates throughout the game. Move on and climb over the deformed fence which gets you back into the line of sight with the endlessly respawning Combines on the other side of the trench. Speed to the containers on the right and crawl through the vent (picking up some more items) still not getting you away from those guys.
Continue to the right and drop down onto the pallet to avoid falling damage. Shoot the barrels and watch out for some more barrels rolling down the stairs around the corner. Hitting them, too, should take care of any Combines around, giving you the time to pick up some suit energy under the stairs. Watch out for the incoming train, go up and kill two more Combines before it's time for some serious fun: Pick up one of those explosive barrels (I hope you left at least one) and move on. Two enemies will hop down to the rails behind the force field. As they do, they are unable to attack, allowing you to somewhat safely toss the barrel near them and shoot it.
Do you still have one of those red barrels intact? Great if you do, since you can pick it up and drop it near the other force field now. Then go up the stairs and step onto the metal bridge to trigger lots of Combine Soldiers closing in from where you placed the explosive gift. Shoot it from here when they are close to it (if you aren't that confident in your aiming skill, place the barrel at the force field you are about to get past and shoot it after going down). Break the crates ahead and go down to see some additional Combines. If you want to you might get back up and to the medical energy station to clear the whole area once and for all. The loads of ammo and the medical panel should outweigh any risks here. Otherwise you can drop down behind the force field and kill your enemies from here, but in this case much of the ammo that's being dropped probably stays out of your reach as you cannot get back to the other side of the force field. Now relax and restore yourself at the new medical station and the small crates.
An alternative way of dealing with these hordes of Combine is to speed over the metal bridge, run down and keep running to the left, avoiding any direct battle with the humanoids, but if you choose this alternative you have a rather hard time nabbing the suit armor inside the crates.
Jump into the water and enjoy the reflections on its surface until you reach a red container. Climb up the ladder on its left to get in and meet part of the resistance...and a nice vortigaunt alien, powering a TV with its electrical power. ^^ Get some of its power to strengthen your suit and break some obstacles outside to enter the next area.
[The Railway] Crawl through the rubble, watch a Barnacle eating a raven and witness an execution. There's still a survivor in the canal on your right so haste to him before it's too...ok, it's too late, no matter what you do. Position yourself on the rubble and take down the executioner on the far left as well as another one coming around the right corner. Get around the corner yourself and run for the stack of crates. Crouch after a few steps to hide from the machine gun and quickly enter the canal on your right. Kill a lone Combine in Underground Station 12 to gain access to lots of suit energy and the com showing how drastically the rebels are being attacked. Climb up the ladder, shoot the explosive barrel and take care of any survivors before taking control of the machine gun yourself.
There will be few waves of Combine and Sentry Drones coming from two points on the lower level and from two on the upper level, but as long as your aiming is somewhat good and as long as you concentrate on the Combine you shouldn't be in for a lot of trouble. Once the normal enemies are defeated, a police car opens fire with heat-seeking missiles, so quickly leave the machine gun and keep moving to not get hit. In case you need it, there is a health pak near the stack of crates you used to hide behind a few moments ago. Shoot the barrel on the levelled ledge to your right to lower the platform.
Follow the ledge to a lambda symbol. There's some health behind the red car wreck. Avoid the Barnacles, but shoot the last one before reaching the daylight again, as it blocks the path out. Listen to the only survivor of the nearby rebel station and enter another canal.
Are you in for some killing? If the answer's yes, then look up and try to hit the two Combine guards as often as possible before they run off to the right. Follow them underground into a water basin and watch out for the burning explosive barrels they drop down once you go for a swim. Either stay at the surface a bit prior to diving out of the way of the explosions or climb out of the water to avoid the explosion. Then look up again and finally dispose the two bad guys. If you don't want to kill them and just want to get along peacefully, ignore them completely and speed through the canal.
Leave the canal, shooting a few more enemies either by hitting explosive barrels or by attacking them while they jump down. Crouch behind the van to see some more barrels at a bridge. Shooting these prevents some Combine to appear after a few more moments. Move on and quickly dispose two Combine dropping down on the left and on the right. Use the crowbar to push a harmless barrel into the tentacles of the Barnacles up ahead and quickly pass by when they pull it up, expecting some prey. Then grab one of the explosive barrels and feed it to the mass of Barnacles that comes next. Stay near the other barrel and shoot the thrown barrel twice when it is pulled up, so it starts burning and explodes right at the aliens. Afterwards repeat for the other barrel and move on.
Don't get out of the canal just yet. Instead watch the explosive "treat" falling down into the water ahead. This is a warning, so be on your guard. Jump into the water, hiding behind the wooden wall to dodge another barrel. Then peek around the corner where an explosive barrel near some Combine couldn't possibly be placed any better. It creates a big chain reaction, leaving behind only one Combine at maximum. Climb up the ladder ahead and swim on, ignoring a barrel being dropped behind you on your way. Walk up the ramp and hide behind the wooden poles to have a better position against the two Combines entering the action on the bridge. Hop from platform to platform, only retreating once to dodge a barrel, to reach just another canal, yay...
[First Act for the Helicopter] Put some concrete blocks onto the left side of the seesaw to enable yourself to use it as a path up to the exit. Yikes, a helicopter! You'll deal with it for quite a long time and it won't be a pleasant time. Slide down and hide behind a wooden board on the right until the copter's first burst is over. Then to the closed canal entrance in front of you and as the third hideout to the Barnacle on your left. Afterwards open the door nearby and enter the building. See that lambda below? Climb down a ladder to some goodies before moving on. Crawl through the shallow water, shoot the explosive barrel in the place with the low ceiling and pick up some stuff. Now pick up another explosive barrel to feed it to a few Barnacles. Its remaining pieces should distract the Barnacles further down the ramp, but if you're too slow, just grab a normal barrel as a distraction. Slide down and repeat the whole procedure against two more packs of Barnacles. Leave the building and quickly sprint around the left corner, because the copter opens fire again, without leaving you any good place to hide.
[Manhacks] You'll reach another small outpost of the rebels, only held up by a single man. After a short conversation some manhacks break through the door. Either use the crowbar to quickly destroy them and rescue your ally or (as he actually serves no purpose to you) stick with the pistol and move backwards through the corridors while fighting the manhacks. This takes longer and it uses ammo, but it saves health. Afterwards climb up the ladder to find some goodies. Move on and attack three manhacks through a girder door. Eventually they will find their way to you above the door, but then they should already be damaged quite well. Hit an explosive barrel around the next corner twice to aid you against some more of those pesky machinery things.
When you see the daylight, don't exit already, but go on to find a few goodies. Only then step out and kill two Combines up above. Hear those manhacks coming? The best thing to do now is to retreat into the corridor and to close the door. There are five manhacks around, but they can't reach you now. Take your time and shoot them through the door. Then go out again and enter the next corridor. Ignore the barrel for now and crawl through the vent on your left. You have to face a manhack in here, but the loads of supply crates at the end of the vent are well worth it. Go back and blow up the barrel as a Combine has positioned himself next to it.
Drop down and move on until some Combines rope down. Give the one nearby a headshot and retreat behind the small stone edge. Wait for the other two guys to come by the explosive barrel to have an easy time against them. Pick up the SMG they dropped and place the other red barrel where the first one was lying. There's a narrow passage behind the barrel: Crawl through, pick up goodies and kill your first zombie. Then crawl back out to see another Combine being triggered to rope down. Luckily you have placed a barrel right next to him. You know what to do.
Time for a dive: Search for the underwater passage in which you have to surface once to refill your energy. Then follow the pipe to two Combines roping down again and to a Sentry Drone. The easy way now is to walk up the stairs (watch out for the Barnacle) and to hop onto the pipe from there. This path might be easier, but it also makes you pass up on some good stuff. If you want that, step outside and face two Combines and two manhacks prior to jumping onto the pipe. No matter which path you choose, you have to walk along the pipe, wait for the steam to pause, destroy a manhack in a narrow spot and dodge some Barnacles. The best way to get through here is to quickly grab the barrel around the right corner, let it be pulled up by the first Barnacle and to hit it twice on its way up.
Break the boards near the lambda sign to reach another place in the outside. Equip the pistol to quickly get rid of the guard at the truck up ahead. As you do, the truck unloads some explosive barrels which you should blow up in midair. This takes care of another Combine nearby. Equip the SMG and go around the corner to trigger three Combines. Retreat and try to deal with them one by one. The dark corridor you have to follow now, contains two niches with items, but also triggering two manhacks. The items are worth it, though. Afterwards go to the end of the corridor and retreat backwards. A bunch of manhacks will follow you, allowing for a great use of your grenade. Use the SMG to deal with the rest while still walking backwards.
The next room has some nice goodies, but you will need them. Crawl through the vent and after a bout 3 to 5 seconds you better start a big chain reaction with those explosive barrels to clear the room of loads of manhacks. Destroy any remaining with your crowbar. Climb up the ladder, jump onto the pipe, go left and drop down to a passage leading to a room with another big
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