This Game has been overanalysed and let's played so many times, but the story arc about Freeman's Child is something truely new. Keep up the good work.
As others have said, it's best to look down and press forward to climb down a ladder. That way you'll see when the ladder ends. Loving your playthrough!
Don't forget your secondary fire! The machine gun has a grenade launcher (you used it in the training section) which is really useful for getting people who are behind cover, for example the big guys behind the sandbags!. But most weapons actually have a secondary fire function. You also have other explosives which you can use to help you in tough situations!
@@RustyPopcorn Too bad that shotgun has only one barrel, because the "barrel" under it is just the ammunition magazine, so it is an inaccuracy of the game. At least the Black Mesa remaster changed it to two shots fired in extremely quick succession.
18:00 - Watching people play Half Life should be used in Game Design courses to show how differently people approach things. Here is a combat scene, with a giant enemy clearly being shown as extremely tough. In addition, there are doors placed directly opposite, in line of sight as you enter, as a hint to keep running. But instead, aggressive players will expend their whole arsenal, and cautious players will run back into the tunnel to snipe. It shows how hard it can be to craft something that works for multiple playstles.
Unfortunately if many studios get their way, they’d brick older games and make them near impossible to play on modern machines. There should be laws against this because for every other field people learning their trade can go back to old masters and learn from them. A artist can research old paintings, a writer can read old texts, a game dev should be able to able to play and peer into the code of old games and learn from them. Game development is an art as much as every other art and should be regarded as such. Thankfully we have people like GoG standing up to the other corpos in this regard.
Pretty sure I emptied everything I had on him from the tunnel, retreating to safety when he attacked. After blowing myself up and/or dying a Gaziliion times trying to slap tripwire mines on the walls while being chased. I also MAY have used cheats to give myself a rocket launcher, but I swear I did it legit at least once. Watching this, its pretty clear you're SUPPOSED to run past him, and get him to fry himself on the rails.
Regarding your question at 1:23:00 - When trying to take out gun emplacements like this one, I had the best experience with lobbing grenades behind the sandbag barrier. There is enough of a gap near the wall to aim for. You had the right idea earlier on, but your own grenade was not properly aimed and therefore bounced off.
You have shown good instincts for the game's environments so far. The section after the test firing event seems to have stumped you a bit, though. I am not complaining, you inadvertently hitting the edge of that pool certainly made me chuckle. 😁
You can switch weapons by pressing numbers. 1 is crowbar, 2 is pistol (press twice for the second pistol) and so on. It makes switching so much easier. Switching with the mouswheel is a pain. Loving the gameplay so far!
never in all my time as a half-life fan have i ever seen anyone go all the way around those pipes with the radioactive barrels, i never even knew it was a thing! LMAO gotta be the most unhinged playthrough of this game i've ever seen, i'm loving it hahaha
I meant stingy in the way that I never seemed to have enough of this ammo type left. Not using magnum ammunition enough was never my problem, personally speaking, even though I didn't waste it on mere headcrabs. 😉
Tip to Half-Life game beginners: You can quick swap weapon to previous weapon by pressing "Q". Specially handy in original Half-Life to swap between a gun and crowbar, because there's so many boxes to smash. 😉 Also, save often. There are no "checkpoints" like in new games. You can easily quick save by pressing F6 i think and quickload F7, or something like that. (just try to not quicksave with 1hp or mid-death)
@@ethanlivemere1162 CES2025 - Steam Deck & Controller v2, Valve Index v2, Source Engine 3. All demonstrated using Half Life 3 (HL:Xen). A man can dream....😅
You need health? Please open the crates. ALL the crates. Also, for ladders, if that can help you, AIM towards where you wanna go (up or down) and use FORWARD to climb in that direction Finally, switch was on the wall, behind the blood
28:00 Remember you have a secondary fire on that gun, it can throw grenades! 40:16 You missed it, because you ran away, but you electrocuted it, because it was standing right between the two big red coils when you switched the generator on.
you're doing great, loving the series so far! i hope you're having fun and that you'll finish the series and then play black mesa a couple years later. i'm about to leave tips/notes/backseat, so now is the final warning to stop reading. your shotgun and machine gun have an alternate fire, right click with the mouse, more guns do, it was briefly touched in the training. it helped me to look up or down the ladder and use W instead of staring directly into the wall, and always hold crouch/shift so the movement is slower. the angle you get on the ladder also matters. you can select weapons with number buttons instead of scrolling through everything. double tapping a number selects the second weapon in the dropdowns.
for the record you zapped the big guy with electricity when you turned the power on but were too busy prudently running away to see. as others have mentioned remembering you have a secondary fire on your weapons would be helpful but honestly you're doing fine and i'm enjoying the playthrough a lot
Amber, i was literally screaming at you sometimes) But your approach to games is one of things why I love you and watch your videos. Even if I screaming)
I belive f5 is quick save?! Keep these coming Amber there are hilarious :D I remember replaying these tougher segments over and over until I took next to no damage ^^
1:32:56 this rocket launcher section gave me plenty of trouble...until I figured out that: if you start the trolly foreword while being crouched, you can't be hit by the rockets. You keep driving forward until you are past the launcher. The soldier is just standing there waiting to be beaten.
Hi Amber, long time Half Life veteran here. Here are my tips for getting through this old but still fantastic game: 1. Get in the habit of using quicksave and quickload, default is F6 and F7 on a keyboard respectively, though I'm not sure how it'll work if you're using a controller. Half Life was made at a time you weren't expected to rely on autosaves, so you'll need to save regularly to avoid losing too much progress. If you save during quiet moments when you still have a decent amount of of health and suit power, you'll have a good fallback for when you die or lose too much health, and you'll find it less frustrating than trying to get past difficult encounters with 20HP. 2. The ladder controls depend on where you are facing, so the easiest way to deal with them is to only move forward and try to face the direction you want to climb. So look directly up or down, then press forward, and they should start to make sense. Don't feel bad if you still struggle with them, Half Life's ladders have been infamous for a long time! 3. Some of your weapons have secondary fire buttons you aren't using. For example, your MP5 has a grenade launcher which is handy for dealing with those MG bunkers if you aim for the wall directly behind them. Also your shotgun's secondary fire is a double shot, use it on marines at point blank to get the most out of it. Finally, there are a couple of weapons you will acquire later in the game that have VERY useful secondary fires so you should get familiar with using the function now. 4. When it comes to fighting groups of enemies, especially marines and Vortigaunts (the aliens that zap you), try to only fight one at a time when possible. Make full use of cover, don't be afraid to retreat, and try to pick off enemies one by one. Gordon is a speedy scientist and you can easily run in and out of cover to take shots while taking minimal damage in return. 5. Those MG bunkers are nasty, but the easiest way to deal with them is to lob explosives around the back of them to kill the marine using them. I already mentioned using the MP5's grenade launcher for this, but hand grenades and satchel charges work just as well. In fact, you can use satchel charges as makeshift grenades for general use, run and jump before throwing them to send them a good distance. Perfect for tightly packed groups of enemies. Sorry for how long this is but I hope it helps and I look forward to seeing your next video!
Loving this playthrough so far! Just a small tip concerning the ladders - moving backwards on them can feel super janky, it's best to just move forwards while looking in the direction you want to go (whether up, down or even sideways) :)
1:16:15 - from all the chaotic moments in this episode, this was the funniest. I’m loving this series so far, can’t wait for you to reunite Gordon with his child!
You're doing great! Very nice shooting in the section with the soldiers and the flooded generator, and shooting the mine from behind to ambush the elevator guys was clever!
idk if you figured it out but aim/look where you want to go then press forward when climbing up or down the ladder it helps making it easier to ladders, and just press jump to get off ladder😅 love your reactions btw struggling and all especially jumpscares😂 another tip, right click features for certain weapons like shotgun which shoots two ammo barrels means more damage, and later for SMG grenade launcher like you used from the hazard training course. You're doing fine for now hehe
This is maybe the best playthrough of Half-Life I've ever seen!! You are doing such an awesome job, and I absolutely love to see how scared and uncertain you are!! That's how you're supposed to feel while playing this!! If this game isn't freaking you out, it's not doing its job properly!! I played this game back when it was brand new in 1997, and its tagline was "Run, think, shoot, live". You are getting the whole, proper, Half-Life experience! And I am here for it! Also, I really hope you play Half-Life 2 and it's episodes! And also Black Mesa, the fan remake of Half-Life 1 that was so awesome that they turned it into an official retail release on Steam that took 15 whole years for them to properly make!!
Not sure if you’ve noticed and I didn’t notice or if someone mentioned it, but with the shotgun you can shoot two rounds at once. I’m not sure the game tells you this, but several weapons have alt fire modes. One of them could be quite hazardous to your health, but that goes for pretty much most everything in this game… Regarding ladders… you’re not alone, they’re quite deadly to players not used to the speed of our protagonist here. Your modern Pc might be adding to the issue because while old school FPS games had much faster movement, higher specs make you even faster than how it was originally. I recently had to use my GPU’s software to cap a game at 30 because anything higher made the QTE’s impossible to do. Maybe something similar could help you not be so zoomy, especially on ladders.
Certainly have memories of the "On A Rail" chapter. Getting on, getting off repeatedly. Sneaking ahead, backtracking, messing up and doing it over again 😄. You're doing great, Amber. Really fun playthrough. Certainly frustrating at times for you but it was for me too on my first playthrough.
I definitely remember rail sections, but I think I repressed a lot of this. My obsessive completionism would've driven me nuts, what with the branching paths and all the backtracking, and I am generally terrible with samey looking maze-like sections in games.
@40:54 After you turn the main power back on, the room with the switch has a large electric arc formed near one of the machines that zaps the big guy to death. You just left so fast, you missed it.
in the rocket propulsion test chamber, the Tentacles are sensitive to vibration/noise, if you crouch you can sneak past them (most of the time, takes a little practice), sometimes they get you when you jump on the ladders...
Really enjoying this series. Half Life is a classic, and your reactions to everything are super entertaining. If you've never played Half Life 2 (or Portal), those would be great things to play after this.
1:29:30 Yes, those were the underbarrel grenades you could not pick up because you never used them and your inventory was full. You can carry 10 of them, shown just above your normal ammunition count of 250
1:05:05 - this is where you should have used the secondary fire of your submachinegun, which fires grenades. They don't bounce around, and explode on impact.
27:10 "Why did it do that?" When you hold the button to throw a grenade, the grenade timer starts as soon as you click. You were holding the grenade so long that it was about to explode in your hand, but you changed weapon at the last moment. When you used a grenade again, the timer didn't reset, so it exploded almost immediately. I didn't even know it could happen 😂
PROTIP: Some of the weapons have an alternate firing mode (right click). Shotgun fires a double blast, glock pistol does rapidfire (good at close range), machinegun launches a grenade (limited supply)....that's all I can think of off the top of my head.
I really enjoy your playthrough. A quick tip if others haven't told you, most weapons have a secondary firemode, for instance the smg has a underbarrel grenade launcher 🙂
When you flipped the switch at 40:16 the generator fried the Gargantua as you fled down the side corridor. Although it's perfectly understandable that you didn't stick around to watch the show. 😄
The switch was covered in blood from the last person you shot. Also you can pick up the sentry machine guns and use them to shoot other enemies or place them in other directions, have fun.
I don't know if you realise there's a built-in Grenade Launcher on the Assault Rifle. I remember it being a little hard to find ammo for, but i'm pretty sure it showed you had a bunch. Not only is it useful when you're out of regular grenades, but it shoots straight and for a decent distance, so its a pretty versatile problem solver. Turrets, tripwire bombs, and annoying enemies you need to turn into chunks, it does it all. Just...maybe not when the problem being solved is right in Gordon's face.
@1:31:40 I had the same problem with the rail-car not wanting to go further at the same exact spot. I even reloaded to an earlier save game, but the same thing happened again. I was wondering if it was a result of me adding a ray-tracing mod to the game, but I guess not.
Symbality as an OG gamer and OG HL fan watching you play Half-Life is great, but please lemme give you a pro-tip so it goes easier. If you wanna optimize climbing ladders in HL best way to approach it is use forward to move any direction on the ladder but to go both up and down ladders look in the direction you want to go. Also if you want to dismount ladders, jumping will get you off of them easier. At dangerous and tight spots if you strafe off the ladders you can usually get off safely in tight areas, sometimes ducking while dismounting helps.
I know 1000 comments about the ladder have already been made, and I may be remembering this incorrectly, but I believe if you press E when you're right in front of the ladder, you automatically grab onto it, and once you want to get off the ladder, just press E again. That miiiiiight have just been a 'Half-Life 2' thing, but I think it was in the first game, too.
U might know this already but quick tips, if you having trouble to jump up/over some of the crate like small one , after pressing jump immediately press crouch button it can "boost" or "latch" to the crate maybe thats the word sorry bad english. This technique still useful even in the modern fps.
Fun fact, many people didn't like "On a Rail" :D (the messy chapter you're currently on) I remember also vividly in my childhood having nightmares of that chapter, replaying it as an adult it was less awful as I went in with some dormant memories as well as understanding that it was "ambush: the trap chapter" & was clued into taking all audio as ways of figuring out when traps were coming up so I could try and sneak up or use grenades/tripmines to set up my own traps to lure enemies into. Black Mesa (the fan remake) drastically streamlined the chapter, removing some frustrations, though other fans promptly went and made a "BM: On a Rail (uncut)" in the workshop, which is still a pretty decent uncut version that did try to also solve some of the more difficult aspects of the chapter. Hope you figured out the way forward (the switch being covered in blood) now 3 weeks later lol.
Look at the huge fan around 0:28. Notice how one of the fins is reversed? You can't unsee it now! 5:32 - there are supposed to be three. When you first went through the room there were two, but that was an error, because GoldSrc is buggy AS HELL. I had actually never seen one of the tentacles disappear before! 37:34 notice how the soldier yells "medic!" _after_ being blown to little bits? XD 1:10:17 - So far Freeman has discovered that the military is attempting to cover up the experiment and kill every scientist they find, but here we find that the HECU soldiers know Freeman by name and have it out for him personally since he has committed several dozen acts of self-defense against them by now! Freeman didn't ruin the experiment though; he was a lowly peon in the Black Mesa hierarchy. The experiment was ruined by the administrator turning up the anti-mass spectrometer to 105%! More about him in HL2...
Select two weapons that you are comfortable with and use them. Learn to use q to swap from machine gun to grenade for example. Also most weapons have a secondary fire(right click). Try using them all to see what they do and get accustomed to it. Game will be a lot more enjoyable that way. Also, try learning the amount of hit points of the monsters. Like headcrabs are dyeing in two small shots from the pimple gun but from one shot from the revolver. That way you learn how to be economic with your amo although the game makes sure you are easily replenished.
ok I fell fre to comment as you said: fisrt, I am lovins this series, firs time watching you as well, I love HL and people experiencing it for the first time brings me joy, thank you. Now some advise for gameplay, try the secondary shots for guns, you can throw granades with the SMG, shoot 2 shells at once with the shotgun, rapid fire the pistol, be more tactical, peak arround corners wait for them to show up, shot at torso/head not legs, thats why some die with one revolver shot while others take 3 or 4 you're shoting at the legs, at the end the blood splased and painted the switch to lift the barrier next to it. And yes, the train level is the most boring and tedious of the game.
Some weapons have a alternate/secondary fire mode, machine gun also has a grenade launcher, and the shotgun also can shoot 2 barrels at once (might be a HL2 thing, been too long to be certain). Am pretty sure there's a few more weapons with a secondary fire mode, but you'll have to figure out which weapons do :) Keep on enjoying the game :D (and HL2 next? ;) )
@Symbalily, try to forget what the training course taught you about ladders. Moving backwards to descend is a terrible idea. Look up or down depending on the way you want to go, and move forwards. You won't slide around / fall off as much and can see the danger you're heading towards. :P Edit: Oooh... just saw the end about early access comments. You're probably not going to see this :|
I mean, this is Goldsource. Source ladders are a dream by comparison. You can get on/off with the Use key and can't slide from side to side so much. Goldsource ladders aren't helped by the TERRIBLE advise in the training course about "moving backwards" to descend.
![IVE BEEN CAPTURED - Half Life [4]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/WN2m4o9CVbM/mqdefault.jpg)
![IVE BEEN CAPTURED - Half Life [4]](/img/tr.png)
![Well, this level hurt... alot :) - Half Life [5]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/jRgEpJ6dG3Q/mqdefault.jpg)
![This SOUNDTRACK?!😲 | First Time Playing HALO 3: ODST Blind Playthrough [1]](/img/n.gif)
This Game has been overanalysed and let's played so many times, but the story arc about Freeman's Child is something truely new.
Keep up the good work.
As others have said, it's best to look down and press forward to climb down a ladder. That way you'll see when the ladder ends. Loving your playthrough!
Don't forget your secondary fire! The machine gun has a grenade launcher (you used it in the training section) which is really useful for getting people who are behind cover, for example the big guys behind the sandbags!. But most weapons actually have a secondary fire function. You also have other explosives which you can use to help you in tough situations!
Especially the shotgun. Secondary fire is both barrels 😁
It's one of the disadvantages of recording in advance. I'm sure she's already done with the game, so there's no point giving advice.
@@RustyPopcorn Too bad that shotgun has only one barrel, because the "barrel" under it is just the ammunition magazine, so it is an inaccuracy of the game. At least the Black Mesa remaster changed it to two shots fired in extremely quick succession.
"He's gone. I've lost him. Where's he gone?" 🤣 You were too scared to see your foe get toasted.
same as i first time had no idea what im supposed to do, just trying anything and just later realized what happened ...
1:30:34 the switch being covered by blood the entire time 😭
Ikr, and she was looking right at it lol
18:00 - Watching people play Half Life should be used in Game Design courses to show how differently people approach things. Here is a combat scene, with a giant enemy clearly being shown as extremely tough. In addition, there are doors placed directly opposite, in line of sight as you enter, as a hint to keep running.
But instead, aggressive players will expend their whole arsenal, and cautious players will run back into the tunnel to snipe. It shows how hard it can be to craft something that works for multiple playstles.
Unfortunately if many studios get their way, they’d brick older games and make them near impossible to play on modern machines. There should be laws against this because for every other field people learning their trade can go back to old masters and learn from them. A artist can research old paintings, a writer can read old texts, a game dev should be able to able to play and peer into the code of old games and learn from them. Game development is an art as much as every other art and should be regarded as such. Thankfully we have people like GoG standing up to the other corpos in this regard.
Pretty sure I emptied everything I had on him from the tunnel, retreating to safety when he attacked. After blowing myself up and/or dying a Gaziliion times trying to slap tripwire mines on the walls while being chased. I also MAY have used cheats to give myself a rocket launcher, but I swear I did it legit at least once. Watching this, its pretty clear you're SUPPOSED to run past him, and get him to fry himself on the rails.
@@MadMadNomad when you turn on that giant generator? there's massive arcs of electricity that blow him up, not the rails.
What I did was to run across and then by the window I just yeeted grenades at him till he died and then I took my time to explore. XD
Regarding your question at 1:23:00 - When trying to take out gun emplacements like this one, I had the best experience with lobbing grenades behind the sandbag barrier. There is enough of a gap near the wall to aim for. You had the right idea earlier on, but your own grenade was not properly aimed and therefore bounced off.
Your attraction to electrified rails is... fatal.
You have shown good instincts for the game's environments so far. The section after the test firing event seems to have stumped you a bit, though. I am not complaining, you inadvertently hitting the edge of that pool certainly made me chuckle. 😁
40:45 the Gargantua was actually killed by the electricity
You can switch weapons by pressing numbers. 1 is crowbar, 2 is pistol (press twice for the second pistol) and so on. It makes switching so much easier. Switching with the mouswheel is a pain. Loving the gameplay so far!
never in all my time as a half-life fan have i ever seen anyone go all the way around those pipes with the radioactive barrels, i never even knew it was a thing! LMAO
gotta be the most unhinged playthrough of this game i've ever seen, i'm loving it hahaha
06:18 Ah yes, the consequences of panicking... 😄
lol at 32:50 that guy pretended to check on his hit friend and then pulled some grenade pins from him. Pure merc tactics.
Burning through magnum ammo like it was free candy? Damn. You had my stingy self sweating there. 😅
is better than to keep it and never use it tbh
I meant stingy in the way that I never seemed to have enough of this ammo type left. Not using magnum ammunition enough was never my problem, personally speaking, even though I didn't waste it on mere headcrabs. 😉
Tip to Half-Life game beginners: You can quick swap weapon to previous weapon by pressing "Q". Specially handy in original Half-Life to swap between a gun and crowbar, because there's so many boxes to smash. 😉
Also, save often. There are no "checkpoints" like in new games. You can easily quick save by pressing F6 i think and quickload F7, or something like that. (just try to not quicksave with 1hp or mid-death)
This is the closest we'll get to have a Half Life [3]
This comment might become irrelevant in a few months
@@ethanlivemere1162 CES2025 - Steam Deck & Controller v2, Valve Index v2, Source Engine 3. All demonstrated using Half Life 3 (HL:Xen). A man can dream....😅
@@ethanlivemere1162 no
@@ethanlivemere1162god I hope so. The leaks got me acting unwise.
@@ethanlivemere1162 haha, come on, you can't really believe all these rumors.
41:00 You killed him by flipping the lever lol. The energy blew him up.
1:00:12 "I'd actually prefer to work with the aliens at this point over the soldiers" 😉🙃🙂
"Greetings to the Freeman." 👽
Next playthrough: Opposing Force, where you do the whole thing again as the soldiers lol
Don't worry too much, Amber. The train section is pretty tough!
You got this!
Was still a fun episode. Have wonderful holidays!
ladders, look up - go up, look down - go down, light presses left/right to stay centre...
ceiling all you had to do is jump use crowbar
You need health? Please open the crates. ALL the crates.
Also, for ladders, if that can help you, AIM towards where you wanna go (up or down) and use FORWARD to climb in that direction
Finally, switch was on the wall, behind the blood
28:00 Remember you have a secondary fire on that gun, it can throw grenades!
40:16 You missed it, because you ran away, but you electrocuted it, because it was standing right between the two big red coils when you switched the generator on.
you're doing great, loving the series so far! i hope you're having fun and that you'll finish the series and then play black mesa a couple years later. i'm about to leave tips/notes/backseat, so now is the final warning to stop reading. your shotgun and machine gun have an alternate fire, right click with the mouse, more guns do, it was briefly touched in the training. it helped me to look up or down the ladder and use W instead of staring directly into the wall, and always hold crouch/shift so the movement is slower. the angle you get on the ladder also matters. you can select weapons with number buttons instead of scrolling through everything. double tapping a number selects the second weapon in the dropdowns.
for the record you zapped the big guy with electricity when you turned the power on but were too busy prudently running away to see.
as others have mentioned remembering you have a secondary fire on your weapons would be helpful but honestly you're doing fine and i'm enjoying the playthrough a lot
If you're trying to use the ladder, just look in the direction you want to go (either up or down) and press w
Amber, i was literally screaming at you sometimes) But your approach to games is one of things why I love you and watch your videos. Even if I screaming)
You might hate the headcrabs, but they love you. 😭
This was so fun to watch Amber, great job figuring out the ladder jank. Valve game crowbars are OP
I belive f5 is quick save?! Keep these coming Amber there are hilarious :D I remember replaying these tougher segments over and over until I took next to no damage ^^
1:32:56 this rocket launcher section gave me plenty of trouble...until I figured out that: if you start the trolly foreword while being crouched, you can't be hit by the rockets. You keep driving forward until you are past the launcher. The soldier is just standing there waiting to be beaten.
Hi Amber, long time Half Life veteran here. Here are my tips for getting through this old but still fantastic game:
1. Get in the habit of using quicksave and quickload, default is F6 and F7 on a keyboard respectively, though I'm not sure how it'll work if you're using a controller. Half Life was made at a time you weren't expected to rely on autosaves, so you'll need to save regularly to avoid losing too much progress. If you save during quiet moments when you still have a decent amount of of health and suit power, you'll have a good fallback for when you die or lose too much health, and you'll find it less frustrating than trying to get past difficult encounters with 20HP.
2. The ladder controls depend on where you are facing, so the easiest way to deal with them is to only move forward and try to face the direction you want to climb. So look directly up or down, then press forward, and they should start to make sense. Don't feel bad if you still struggle with them, Half Life's ladders have been infamous for a long time!
3. Some of your weapons have secondary fire buttons you aren't using. For example, your MP5 has a grenade launcher which is handy for dealing with those MG bunkers if you aim for the wall directly behind them. Also your shotgun's secondary fire is a double shot, use it on marines at point blank to get the most out of it. Finally, there are a couple of weapons you will acquire later in the game that have VERY useful secondary fires so you should get familiar with using the function now.
4. When it comes to fighting groups of enemies, especially marines and Vortigaunts (the aliens that zap you), try to only fight one at a time when possible. Make full use of cover, don't be afraid to retreat, and try to pick off enemies one by one. Gordon is a speedy scientist and you can easily run in and out of cover to take shots while taking minimal damage in return.
5. Those MG bunkers are nasty, but the easiest way to deal with them is to lob explosives around the back of them to kill the marine using them. I already mentioned using the MP5's grenade launcher for this, but hand grenades and satchel charges work just as well. In fact, you can use satchel charges as makeshift grenades for general use, run and jump before throwing them to send them a good distance. Perfect for tightly packed groups of enemies.
Sorry for how long this is but I hope it helps and I look forward to seeing your next video!
Wondering how long it will take her to figure out she has a grenade launcher.... 😅
I'm waiting for her to remember quicksave/quickload, personally. Lots of time spent riding that lift....
I've seen some 3 week old comments (patreon I guess), so she'd probably finished the game. Let's see if she finds out in Half-Life 2 xD
Ladder tip, if going up Lakota (look) up then move, going down look down, then move.
This is one of the weirdest autocorrect mistakes I have seen
Loving this playthrough so far! Just a small tip concerning the ladders - moving backwards on them can feel super janky, it's best to just move forwards while looking in the direction you want to go (whether up, down or even sideways) :)
So much chaos, and so much fun!
1:16:15 - from all the chaotic moments in this episode, this was the funniest. I’m loving this series so far, can’t wait for you to reunite Gordon with his child!
I liked 1:23:14 😊 Cleared all the soldiers only for this to happen...
Eveytime use fill up on health/HEV SAVE, new area, SAVE, defeat a boss, SAVE...
This is the game that taught me Save Scumming. 💾
You're doing great! Very nice shooting in the section with the soldiers and the flooded generator, and shooting the mine from behind to ambush the elevator guys was clever!
idk if you figured it out but aim/look where you want to go then press forward when climbing up or down the ladder it helps making it easier to ladders, and just press jump to get off ladder😅 love your reactions btw struggling and all especially jumpscares😂
another tip, right click features for certain weapons like shotgun which shoots two ammo barrels means more damage, and later for SMG grenade launcher like you used from the hazard training course. You're doing fine for now hehe
This is maybe the best playthrough of Half-Life I've ever seen!! You are doing such an awesome job, and I absolutely love to see how scared and uncertain you are!! That's how you're supposed to feel while playing this!! If this game isn't freaking you out, it's not doing its job properly!! I played this game back when it was brand new in 1997, and its tagline was "Run, think, shoot, live". You are getting the whole, proper, Half-Life experience! And I am here for it!
Also, I really hope you play Half-Life 2 and it's episodes! And also Black Mesa, the fan remake of Half-Life 1 that was so awesome that they turned it into an official retail release on Steam that took 15 whole years for them to properly make!!
Damn rails and ladders! Don't they know you have a son to go home to!
Not sure if you’ve noticed and I didn’t notice or if someone mentioned it, but with the shotgun you can shoot two rounds at once. I’m not sure the game tells you this, but several weapons have alt fire modes. One of them could be quite hazardous to your health, but that goes for pretty much most everything in this game…
Regarding ladders… you’re not alone, they’re quite deadly to players not used to the speed of our protagonist here. Your modern Pc might be adding to the issue because while old school FPS games had much faster movement, higher specs make you even faster than how it was originally. I recently had to use my GPU’s software to cap a game at 30 because anything higher made the QTE’s impossible to do. Maybe something similar could help you not be so zoomy, especially on ladders.
When you are used to current control systems, the old half-life system will be frustrating as hell. I'm impressed with your resilience. :)
Right mouse button is secondary fire on the guns
Certainly have memories of the "On A Rail" chapter. Getting on, getting off repeatedly. Sneaking ahead, backtracking, messing up and doing it over again 😄. You're doing great, Amber. Really fun playthrough. Certainly frustrating at times for you but it was for me too on my first playthrough.
I definitely remember rail sections, but I think I repressed a lot of this. My obsessive completionism would've driven me nuts, what with the branching paths and all the backtracking, and I am generally terrible with samey looking maze-like sections in games.
bit of a grind, maybe goes on a touch long, although the soldier emplacements are all rather memorable.
This series is like watching 8-10 year old us when we were young
She has 3 in the title, impossible.
@40:54 After you turn the main power back on, the room with the switch has a large electric arc formed near one of the machines that zaps the big guy to death. You just left so fast, you missed it.
in the rocket propulsion test chamber, the Tentacles are sensitive to vibration/noise, if you crouch you can sneak past them (most of the time, takes a little practice), sometimes they get you when you jump on the ladders...
Really enjoying this series. Half Life is a classic, and your reactions to everything are super entertaining. If you've never played Half Life 2 (or Portal), those would be great things to play after this.
1:29:30 Yes, those were the underbarrel grenades you could not pick up because you never used them and your inventory was full. You can carry 10 of them, shown just above your normal ammunition count of 250
1:05:05 - this is where you should have used the secondary fire of your submachinegun, which fires grenades. They don't bounce around, and explode on impact.
27:10 "Why did it do that?"
When you hold the button to throw a grenade, the grenade timer starts as soon as you click. You were holding the grenade so long that it was about to explode in your hand, but you changed weapon at the last moment. When you used a grenade again, the timer didn't reset, so it exploded almost immediately. I didn't even know it could happen 😂
I love how she doesn't even question those grenades just flying dozens of feet straight up.
PROTIP: Some of the weapons have an alternate firing mode (right click).
Shotgun fires a double blast, glock pistol does rapidfire (good at close range), machinegun launches a grenade (limited supply)....that's all I can think of off the top of my head.
You should start using quick save and quick load, this is not a Souls type game.
I really enjoy your playthrough. A quick tip if others haven't told you, most weapons have a secondary firemode, for instance the smg has a underbarrel grenade launcher 🙂
Symbalily released Half Life 3🤯
When you flipped the switch at 40:16 the generator fried the Gargantua as you fled down the side corridor.
Although it's perfectly understandable that you didn't stick around to watch the show. 😄
The switch was covered in blood from the last person you shot. Also you can pick up the sentry machine guns and use them to shoot other enemies or place them in other directions, have fun.
I feel like years from now Amber will only remember this as that game with the ladders.
"At this point, I'd rather work with the Aliens over the soldiers" Funny you should say that....
One of the challenges with HL1 is always run can be the norm, and the key normally for running is actually to walk. This plus the latter's, IME
Also check out the alternative firing mode on some of your stuff, you'll love it!
Hold "Shift" button to walk. Also works with ladders.
in the room you fell down in, you can destroy more of the boxes; If you time a jump you can land on the table and take no fall damage.
I don't know if you realise there's a built-in Grenade Launcher on the Assault Rifle. I remember it being a little hard to find ammo for, but i'm pretty sure it showed you had a bunch. Not only is it useful when you're out of regular grenades, but it shoots straight and for a decent distance, so its a pretty versatile problem solver. Turrets, tripwire bombs, and annoying enemies you need to turn into chunks, it does it all. Just...maybe not when the problem being solved is right in Gordon's face.
@1:31:40 I had the same problem with the rail-car not wanting to go further at the same exact spot. I even reloaded to an earlier save game, but the same thing happened again. I was wondering if it was a result of me adding a ray-tracing mod to the game, but I guess not.
Symbality as an OG gamer and OG HL fan watching you play Half-Life is great, but please lemme give you a pro-tip so it goes easier. If you wanna optimize climbing ladders in HL best way to approach it is use forward to move any direction on the ladder but to go both up and down ladders look in the direction you want to go. Also if you want to dismount ladders, jumping will get you off of them easier. At dangerous and tight spots if you strafe off the ladders you can usually get off safely in tight areas, sometimes ducking while dismounting helps.
Half Life [3] confirmed!
Would love to see you play Thief: The Dark Project, and Elder Scrolls III. Those two games along with Half Life were revolutionary in the early 00s
You should get in the habit of saving every time you kill something basically so you can conserve health/ammo. Good luck!
I know 1000 comments about the ladder have already been made, and I may be remembering this incorrectly, but I believe if you press E when you're right in front of the ladder, you automatically grab onto it, and once you want to get off the ladder, just press E again. That miiiiiight have just been a 'Half-Life 2' thing, but I think it was in the first game, too.
U might know this already but quick tips, if you having trouble to jump up/over some of the crate like small one , after pressing jump immediately press crouch button it can "boost" or "latch" to the crate maybe thats the word sorry bad english. This technique still useful even in the modern fps.
Fun fact, many people didn't like "On a Rail" :D (the messy chapter you're currently on) I remember also vividly in my childhood having nightmares of that chapter, replaying it as an adult it was less awful as I went in with some dormant memories as well as understanding that it was "ambush: the trap chapter" & was clued into taking all audio as ways of figuring out when traps were coming up so I could try and sneak up or use grenades/tripmines to set up my own traps to lure enemies into.
Black Mesa (the fan remake) drastically streamlined the chapter, removing some frustrations, though other fans promptly went and made a "BM: On a Rail (uncut)" in the workshop, which is still a pretty decent uncut version that did try to also solve some of the more difficult aspects of the chapter.
Hope you figured out the way forward (the switch being covered in blood) now 3 weeks later lol.
The ladder boss!
0:44 this part tenses me up every time.
1:26:00 I died with Freeman there 😂
1:21 "Shh! No swearing"
2:56 *one headcrab later*
Look at the huge fan around 0:28. Notice how one of the fins is reversed? You can't unsee it now!
5:32 - there are supposed to be three. When you first went through the room there were two, but that was an error, because GoldSrc is buggy AS HELL. I had actually never seen one of the tentacles disappear before!
37:34 notice how the soldier yells "medic!" _after_ being blown to little bits? XD
1:10:17 - So far Freeman has discovered that the military is attempting to cover up the experiment and kill every scientist they find, but here we find that the HECU soldiers know Freeman by name and have it out for him personally since he has committed several dozen acts of self-defense against them by now! Freeman didn't ruin the experiment though; he was a lowly peon in the Black Mesa hierarchy. The experiment was ruined by the administrator turning up the anti-mass spectrometer to 105%! More about him in HL2...
you missing the big guy getting roasted because you were screaming in panic was so funny
Select two weapons that you are comfortable with and use them. Learn to use q to swap from machine gun to grenade for example. Also most weapons have a secondary fire(right click). Try using them all to see what they do and get accustomed to it. Game will be a lot more enjoyable that way. Also, try learning the amount of hit points of the monsters. Like headcrabs are dyeing in two small shots from the pimple gun but from one shot from the revolver. That way you learn how to be economic with your amo although the game makes sure you are easily replenished.
You need to watch the soldiers they often carefully put a grenade and not throw and so put your vigilance to sleep.
Symbalily is my favorite Freeman
my gamer brain can't comprehend why you don't use alt fire for anything(right click on mouse, left trigger on a gamepad).
that arm thing at 5:20 sounds like silent hill music lol
The machinegun has an alternate fire mode. It looks like a grenade launcher attachment.
ok I fell fre to comment as you said: fisrt, I am lovins this series, firs time watching you as well, I love HL and people experiencing it for the first time brings me joy, thank you. Now some advise for gameplay, try the secondary shots for guns, you can throw granades with the SMG, shoot 2 shells at once with the shotgun, rapid fire the pistol, be more tactical, peak arround corners wait for them to show up, shot at torso/head not legs, thats why some die with one revolver shot while others take 3 or 4 you're shoting at the legs, at the end the blood splased and painted the switch to lift the barrier next to it. And yes, the train level is the most boring and tedious of the game.
Tip, smash small boxes on shelves, they may contain ammunition.
Some weapons have a alternate/secondary fire mode, machine gun also has a grenade launcher, and the shotgun also can shoot 2 barrels at once (might be a HL2 thing, been too long to be certain).
Am pretty sure there's a few more weapons with a secondary fire mode, but you'll have to figure out which weapons do :)
Keep on enjoying the game :D (and HL2 next? ;) )
Right-click to use the grenade launcher on the MP5 machinegun
@Symbalily, try to forget what the training course taught you about ladders. Moving backwards to descend is a terrible idea. Look up or down depending on the way you want to go, and move forwards. You won't slide around / fall off as much and can see the danger you're heading towards. :P
Edit: Oooh... just saw the end about early access comments. You're probably not going to see this :|
Drop dead gorgeous!
I really like this new Dark Amber character that says "fuck you" instead of "kyuuuuute"
Ladders are the bane of source gamers, it's not only you
I mean, this is Goldsource. Source ladders are a dream by comparison. You can get on/off with the Use key and can't slide from side to side so much. Goldsource ladders aren't helped by the TERRIBLE advise in the training course about "moving backwards" to descend.
Please stop climbing down ladders by using the move back key. Only use move forward while looking down. That way you can see where you are going.
This is a tough game even if you're comfortable with keyboard and mouse, so you're doing great!
There is an another fire Mode fir every weapon, the MP has a grenade luncher the Colt rapid fire
Poor Vortigaunts ...IIRC some won't actually attack unless shot at.
That's only in "Interloper" (the Borderworld factory level)