[Multiplatform] Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (is there a thread...?)

Well. I'm partway in to the second chapter and all I can say is DAMN. This game is fucking epic ='D

I'm also surprised that there isn't a Half-Life 2 thread (maybe I missed it? Lemme know if I did).

Gotta say that it has a slick presentation per normal. The acting and physics still wow me, and the graphics are just getting better and better =O

I must say, though, that a few of the songs are REALLY badass. Such as...

Antlion Stoplight-Room:

If you can understand the header on this spoiler, you know what I mean.

Right when the vortigaunts come in, some badass song kicks in, and then you just sit back to watch them rip the bugs apart. I need to find that song, because it is so damn catchy.

I'm impressed. Far more than I was with Episode 1 (which ended before I could blink). Ep 1 made me kind of bored since it was so similar to HL2 itself. This is just the same, but I feel really caught up in it. Maybe all the nice twists and such are just adding to it, because I don't see any new weapons... =V

What say ya'll?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Epic is damn right.

I beat it in one sitting, but hot damn if it wasn't the best 5 hours of my life. Everything from the beginning to the surprise ending had me going "OH SHI-"

I will say, though, that the Hunters are a bit too easy to defeat if you do it the right way:

Spoiler:

HIT THEM WITH THE FUCKING CAR!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Finished it.

Spoiler:

The gruesome way Eli is killed was actually pretty traumatizing. Straight outta Starship Troopers, that.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Just about to make use of the Magnusson Bomb...: (which is eerie because I had a chemistry teacher named Magnusson. And I hated her )

Spoiler:

Eli KNOWS about the G-Man? I'm THOROUGHLY impressed with how the story is unraveling. I thought the end of this trilogy would still leave us really in the dark, but it's playing things out very, very well. My guesses so far are all over the place. Hell, one thought is that the G-Man is actually from a third alien race that is monitoring man-kind (could maybe explain how he pops in to Gordon's mind. It is telepathy, since he mentioned at the Vort part (where they are healing Alyx) that he had to wait for them to be occupied).

Very impressed so far. I'm a bit before the last chapter and thoroughly enjoying this whole purchase. This has more than made up for how much Ep 1 bored me. The urban combat was just getting real old real fast =(

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Finished it a few hours ago. And made sure to get the Neighborhood Watch achievement, so I don't have to worry about that ever again.

Spoiler:

Good to see that Portal will tie into Ep 3, if only because Aperture made the Borealis. But hopefully Chell will be in it, as well. Or better yet, a copy of GLaDOS will be on board. Oh Aperture Science, you so crazy.

ELI NOOOOOOOOOO.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Gech:

http://gb2gt.com/audio/gff/EP2_Soundtrack.rar

The scene right after you get out of the car because "We can just walk the rest of the way"

Spoiler:

With Dog fighting. Quite epic! Best part of EP2

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

EP2 is incredibly good. Save for the final fight...

Spoiler:

It's nigh impossible to win... Yeah, the ONLY way to deal with the Hunters is to ram them, and it's all good, challenging but still doable until the dropships come. Then it's "miss once - game over. Oh, you haven't taken care of all Hunters from the last Strider of the first, individual attacks? Guess what sucker? GAME OVER! Oh, you've missed a Hunter once, and the second time you tried it jumped out of the way? GAME OVER FUCKHEAD! Oh, what was that? You've missed a Magnussen shot at a Strider, and now it's mixing up with the remaining two Striders and their Hunter forces? GAME OVER!".
I realise, it's supposed to be a boss battle. But the difficulty spike is WAY, WAY, WAY too high for my liking. I admire anyone able to play through that fight start to finish in one sitting without reloading. I can't even do it WITH reloading cause it frustrates me way too much.

FELIPE NO

Regarding the end...:

Well, I had a small amount of trouble with the Strider-Hunter blitz. I read an earlier comment on here (I believe) and stuck to ramming the Hunters. It is what you're intended to do; I'm certain. Why? Well, Hunters have an annoying dodge where they jump to the side JUST ENOUGH to dodge your car, if you're aimed right for them.

It got to points where I'd grab a Magnusson bomb, aim, and quicksave. I'd fire. Miss? Quickload.

I always wiped out the hunters first. If you didn't, their flechettes would blow up the Magnusson bombs. It became habit, for me.

However, I'm glad it ended when it did. I had two striders at the damn fence-line at the end. Took them out courtesy of a Magnusson bomb transporter being near and a bomb on the back of my car. I am MORE than grateful that they allowed you to stash one on the back of the truck :3

As for the end? ELI NOOOOOOO ;__;

Looking forward to Ep 3. I'm thinking that the rocket in orbit won't do what it was supposed to, hence the G-Man's warning. I wish they would've expanded more on the Borealis, but I'm certain we'll get the idea behind it in the third installment.

Also --
Am I the only one who wanted to shout "WOLVERINES" after taking out all the Striders? ='D

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Spoiler:

That SO reminds me of the semi-final mission of STALKER... I quicksaved after every few steps I gained... I really don't like quicksavefests like that.
But apparently people having problems with the final battle of EP2 are rather rare.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I can't wait to play this. I bought Orange Box today, but it takes shitloads of time downloading the game

I beat episode 1 today (took 1 day), so I'll probably begin with ep2 tomorrow. If I manage to beat both this weekend, it will be a weekend to remember

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The end:

Spoiler:

Closest to calling it impossible was running out of ammo for certain weapons. I trekked it on foot just fine and had no trouble re-shooting the mines if the hunters were still there.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'm at the final fight now. I'm having a hard time with it, but I read some things about it, and it appears I'm doing it all wrong. Guess I'll load an autosave and start over.

Fucking Hunters.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Grawl

I'm at the final fight now. I'm having a hard time with it, but I read some things about it, and it appears I'm doing it all wrong. Guess I'll load an autosave and start over.

Fucking Hunters.

Spoiler:

The Car.

I had a crapload of problems with this part, until I realized that the car moving at any sort of reasonable momentum can kill a hunter instantly. Throw a Strider bomb onto the back of your car, knock out the hunters, and then bring down the Strider.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Use spoilers.

Spoiler:

I didn't use the car much. All I did was wait at a hideout for the Strider to come near, then attach the bomb (which bounces off 9 out of 10 times) and kill it. I ignored the Hunters. Guess I'll use my car to kill the Hunters, get near the Strider and kill it from behind.

Additional Spam:
Ok, finished the game now.

I only have to say one thing - wow.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Spoiler:

Yeah, the hunters are assholes because if you're not REALLY fucking quick about shooting the bomb after it attaches, they'll quickly shoot it down and you're back at square 1.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Gechmir

Regarding the end...:

Looking forward to Ep 3. I'm thinking that the rocket in orbit won't do what it was supposed to, hence the G-Man's warning. I wish they would've expanded more on the Borealis, but I'm certain we'll get the idea behind it in the third installment.

Spoiler:

The second chapter of the first Half-Life is called 'Unforseen Consequences'. Eli talks about this as well. It's just a reference to the first Half-Life, when you started hell on earth by doing the experiment. Apparantly G-man told Eli about this, back then.

I need to play Half-Life 1 again.

How ya doing, buddy?

I got the game set up today and have played 5 hours.
As usual with Half-Life 2 I'm amazed, but this is just ridiculously amazing. Wow.

Also fun that I found most puzzles to be way harder than in the earlier HL2-games.

How long would you say the game is, compared to EP1?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Syndrome

How long would you say the game is, compared to EP1?

I'd say just an hour longer or so.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Awesome, just beat the game. Freaking epic.

And now I can't wait for EP3
Give.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Grawl

Spoiler:

The second chapter of the first Half-Life is called 'Unforseen Consequences'. Eli talks about this as well. It's just a reference to the first Half-Life, when you started hell on earth by doing the experiment. Apparantly G-man told Eli about this, back then.

I need to play Half-Life 1 again.

Spoiler:

I'm pretty sure that the G-Man said this because of the same reasons Eli laid out at the end. "He must have meant the ship. It could be worse than Black Mesa. You have to destroy the Borealis." (not a direct quote, heh)

Also:
I love the integration of Aperture Science in the game. It cemented what Portal hinted at. Dr. Kleiner's dislike for AS just goes to show that not only did Aperture dislike Black Mesa, but it was the other way around as well.

I'm really interested to see what kind of technology is on that ship. A large-scale portal device? Maybe Gordon will get a portal gun to go along with his gravity gun. OOooOOoooo

And the last hour of the game was truly epic. So much more than I anticipated, from one thing to the other. I guess that almost makes up for the 14 month wait.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Spoiler:

So....anyone else love the sound of Magnusons when they blow up?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Matt

And the last hour of the game was truly epic. So much more than I anticipated, from one thing to the other. I guess that almost makes up for the 14 month wait.

QFT, and it truly slaps the fingers of EP1 :O

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by StarmanDX

Finished it a few hours ago. And made sure to get the Neighborhood Watch achievement, so I don't have to worry about that ever again.

How?

Spoiler:

I mean, even in the commentary they say that the design they had in mind was for the player to see some of the buildings blown up. Having to go back for Magnussons to attach to the car meant that I would always drive up next to a strider just as they vaporized a building.

I did manage to get the achievement for killing a hunter with its own flechettes, which was both accidental and extremely satisfying.

But yeah, I liked Ep 1 for the character development, and the car garage sequence, but Ep 2 really raised the bar for the series and put the story in the forefront. I'd have to say Portal is still my favorite orange box game just because of the possibility for more missions, but Ep 2 comes damn close.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Skexis

How?

Spoiler:

I mean, even in the commentary they say that the design they had in mind was for the player to see some of the buildings blown up. Having to go back for Magnussons to attach to the car meant that I would always drive up next to a strider just as they vaporized a building.

Basically, a lot of saving. It helps to know when and where they're coming from in advance, and killing them as soon as they get there. There's just a couple tricky ones - the second one, which rushes to the sawmill, and another somewhere toward the middle that rushes the cabin on the west side.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Yeah, it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. Basically, I had to reload right at the start like 20 times but the rest of the battle went by smoothly. The saw mill is really the only building you have to rush like mad to stop from collapsing.

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