At the top, you can see the entire map, although you canвЂ™t really make out the path you need to take. ItвЂ™s refreshing and honestly pretty fun вЂ“ add in the bits where Alyx is sniping for you and it adds up to a nice variety of gameplay.ДЄlso, notice how many times you get to stop and take a good look at an upcoming area. It was great to finally see a well-lit and nice looking area where weвЂ™re fighting the вЂscaryвЂќ enemies with no real attempt to make it вЂscaryвЂќ simply by taking away most of the light. But beyond that, I see it as a greatly evolved version of chapters in the previous games that are zombie-heavy and encourage the gravity gun over standard weapons вЂ“ particularly, Ravenholm and Lowlife. The main section of this chapter is, as Phillip says, a masterclass in design, pacing, and layout. I was down to 5 health, no barrels left, and 3 final pistol bullets, and was resorting to flinging the engine at the last guard and waiting for him to fling it back rather than risk going out of the little fort. WeвЂ™re rewarded with a cool scene of the Combine moving across the bridge in the distance, but then another twist on the mini-boss battles weвЂ™ve seen in the previous games: now weвЂ™re up against not one but two antlion guards.Д®ven with all the explosive barrels around, I found it to be a really grueling battle, and itвЂ™s partly why my time on this level is perhaps longer than average. The bridge puzzle was spectacular the first time you encountered it, and now itвЂ™s still cool.Дefinitely a masterclass in design, pacing, layout and great use of a small space.ДЇinally out of the caves, and back to the nice color palette of sunny days outside City 17, like the good old days of Half-Life 2. I have little doubt there are areas I have yet to find and explore, we even have a jumping puzzle if you think about it. There is even a sighting of the G-Man on the bridge and who doesnвЂ™t like to see him every now and again? I have plenty of choices to pass the level and I might even try and play it tomorrow and see if I can get past it without killing anything.

I enjoyed having help from Alyx and working with her to help me. It encapsulates everything I like in an area we clearly see the point where we need to get to, we donвЂ™t cover a great distance, there is 10% puzzle and 90% action, the area contains plenty of vertical and horizontal movement, with the actual layout both very linear but also maze-like. This is possibly my favourite individual chapter of all the Source games and maybe even the whole series. The Replay Experience Experiment aka TREE.Half-Life 2: Episode Two: Freeman Pontifex | RTSL Menu

Halflife episode 2 walkthrough