Half-Life 2: Water Hazard

25th March 2013

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Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

This chapter details the second half of Dr. Gordon Freeman’s escape from City 17 through its canal system to Black Mesa East.

Aboard an airboat, he fights off numerous Civil Protection units and a Hunter Chopper.

Trivia
  • During the first few moments aboard the airboat, the player can see the G-Man on the ledge of a nearby barn. When the player approaches, the G-Man retreats into the barn. Closer inspection reveals only a few headcrab zombies. It is also possible to see him a couple of times more, after the airboat is equipped with a Hunter Chopper’s gun.

Screenshots

Click on the thumbnails below to open a 1024 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.

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The Replay Experience Experiment

This post is part of the The Replay Experience Experiment event. This is a chance to replay all the Half-Life games and discuss them based on our experiences since we first played them.

Hat Tip

The intro and trivia text are taken from the CombineOverWiki, a fan-supported, editable wiki covering the Half-Life series of games.

Walkthrough
A Complete Half-Life 2 Walkthrough

On the left is a complete text walkthrough for Half-Life 2.

It has been written by Stanley E. Dunigan and updated with all the tricks and tips from PlanetPhillip.Com readers.

It is in PDF format, meaning you can open it directly in modern browsers or download it and print it.

(Left-click to open and right-click to save)

Do Not Own This Game?

You can purchase Half-Life 2 directly through Steam and could be playing in within moments, depending on your internet connection.

Categories (?)
Games Half-Life 2

15 Comments

  1. PlanetPhillip

    Oooh, an airboat – that sounds cool and let’s be honest it was. Probably one of the most iconic sections of HL2, this chapter offers plenty of postcard screenshots to send to your less fortunate friends telling them “Wish you were here!“.

    But you don’t, because you wouldn’t want to directly share the pleasure and fun you are having driving this aforementioned airboat round in circles and over ramps.

    Air time is just a little too long, suggesting Valve added their own kind of bullet time or at least some sort of anti-gravity. I’m not complaining – just observing.

    What strikes me about this chapter is that you only really get to drive quickly on a second or third play through, otherwise you are stopping and looking for ammo caches etc.

    The tension is held well and the stop to get a mounted gun is a welcome break, as well as a welcome addition to my growing arsenal.

    I did manage to find an invisible wall and there are probably a few places you can get to where Valve didn’t expect you to.

    I saw the G-man once but wasn’t looking that closely. I did find out you can fire the weapon while zooming which is kinda fun, although it makes driving the boat a little hit or miss – and in my case, mostly HIT!

    All in all a fantastic level but I am sure glad it’s over. Valve timed this one to perfection. Any more and my enjoyment would have dropped, any less and I would be asking for more.

    Playtime:2 hours 1 minute.

    Reply
  2. Kaito Kid

    Damn, you’re going fast :/

    Water hazard is the chapter where we get introduced to the source vehicules, and the mecanics are pretty nice. Chapter is obviously very long, but it’s extremely fun. I would have ran through it on foot if it had been possible to go through the rebel hideout without it, unfortunately, it’s impossible. I really don’t like the homing rockets, mainly because they are extremely hard to avoid. Some pretty nice physics puzzles (Gordon would have died if we went through this place during hl1 :0)

    Challenges:
    No challenges? when will we see challenges?
    here are a few:
    – Destroy a chopper
    didn’t have time.
    – Get a metrocop killed by a barnacles
    didn’t have time either.
    – Throw the airboat out of the map
    I needed to keep it xD
    – Blow up the gate without entering the building
    😀

    Five words or less review:
    *engine starting*

    Deaths:
    None 😀 so happy

    Playtime:
    17 minutes 21 seconds 333 milliseconds
    O.o that’s long

    Reply
  3. Olrick
    General

    A very enjoying chapter there.As the previous, it is long but you never get bored with that air-boat. While I was playing I thought it wasn’t enough mod with it, but I suppose it’s difficult to make.

    Of course this part of the game is based on the use of air-boat but you encounter some obstacles forcing you to go at foot to open a door and continue.
    There are some puzzles to solves but it’s mainly action and pursuit. The one with first chopper could be very interesting in an action movie.
    I also enjoyed the falling chimney, despite it is bugged since the 2010 updates.

    In the whole chapter we can see that canals are dried, maybe it’s due to season but it’s looks like all the water had been used elsewhere.

    Near the end the air-boat is upgraded with a machine gun, allowing to riposte and persecute those poor PCs. That reverse the pressure.
    Greatest moment is obviously this wonderful battle against a chopper. Personally I don’t use the whole area but I thinks it’s a very well made boss map.

    At the very end we can see a city from the dam, but what city it is. The great building reminding the Citadel but I don’t think it’s the directions. Maybe it’s just Ravenholm but it still annoy me.

    Caught my eyes

    The last chopper is cheating! It can generate hundreds of bombs from nothing!

    G-Man Sighting

    -At the red warehouse near the beginning

    -On a giant screen a little latter, if you look carefully

    -Near the end after this vessels carrying a thank

    -At the very end on the dam

    I saw it four times! Don’t he have anything to do ?!

    Death

    None

    Playtime

    46 minutes

    My French Let’s Play

    Reply
  4. Blue Lightning

    Water Hazard was my first “wow” chapter. I remember when I began the chapter I paused it after a few minutes, I locked my front door, turned off my telephone, and when my friend called on the cell phone I told him I have to get back later in a few hours, and then turned it off!

    The airboat and the atmoshphere made it tops. But not only that, Water Hazard is also the level with (by far) the most secret places if a player cares to go slow the second time through and look around. You would be suprised how many secrets there are, not to mention the most famous of them all, the all knowing Vortigaunt near the end of the level.

    The chapter is also the only chapter that features the “hidden skulls”. I’m not talking about a skull under a barnicle which you might see occasionally (in a few other chapters as well), I’m talking about in this chapter a skull is cleverly hidden in every section…can you find it? If you find one, there will not be another until you get to another section, mabye a half mile ahead or something like that. To find them all you have to also dive underwater a lot (follow the bubbles!) and above water you have to look in places you would never normally think of. I spent days once doing this…I took a screen shot of each one and posted it on Steam.

    The gameplay is fast and furious, one of my favorite levels.

    Reply
    1. ghostygfd

      I’d like to see these screenshots with the hidden skulls. What is your Steam profile?

      Reply
  5. 2muchvideogames

    there’s a really simple way to skip the first checkpoint (the one with APC garage and stuff)

    Pretend that’s a challenge

    Reply
  6. s.anchev

    We really need an AirboatVille (my personal running gag on PP).

    Reply
    1. PlanetPhillip

      Yep, you could be right. Or just CanalVille, for use with the buggy, Airboat or Jalopy.

      Reply
      1. Blue Lightning

        Ive been saying this all along! But you tell me it would take modders too long to make a long driving section.

        Reply
        1. PlanetPhillip

          Because that’s what modders tell me. I can’t force them to make stuff they don’t want to make.

          Reply
        2. MisterAddy

          Believe me it takes a huge amount of work to make maps like this. If you just consider how relatively enclosed most mods are, and the amount you would have to scale that by to have a viable driving segment. Think how many maps you fly through in this chapter!

          Just making the small car part in my BeginningVille entry took way too much time.

          Reply
  7. rikersbeard

    First off we spot the Gman at a quayside building and we have a little climb and fun and watch that combine chopper fly past. Then it’s a matter of buoyancy and accurate driving, which was much easier than my first crashing efforts all those years ago!
    Then it’s a game of lock wars, where shutting gates mean it is time to run and gun and to me, just try to survive. The first area is a chance to stretch ones legs and collect some ammo from dead combine or is that civil protection? A nice medieval gate opening device involving our old friends the exploding barrels shows the combines lack of health and safety directives!
    The second areas blaring siren literately screams “it’s a trap” as the bullets fly, but a handy covered area gives cover. A shiny new magnum is your reward, but its ‘kick’ leaves let’s my accuracy stray rather badly. But it is good for long deadly shots when the need arises. Oh I forgot to mention the gun-blazing helicopter! Not a fair fight for a machine-gun toting combat scientist hero, but we know who will prevail!
    The airboat-driving course is fraught with so much danger and poor steering in punished in many ways, but the funniest is being plucked off the boat by a barnacle, mid flight! Lots of little breaks in the action give you a chance to explore and find secret weapon caches and zombies, but the helicopter and guided rocket attacks do not help in this. Speed and swerving is key during most of this level, so the player can end up missing a lot of interesting scenery.
    A rebel base helps break the panic as your boat is finally armed and you leave happier and straight into the face of that chopper, firing again! Dodging cars, logs, rocks, walls and other ephemera and then facing that choppers weapons leave little time to admire the scenery. And then the rockets, which only hit me twice this time, and fire, leave you almost drained.
    So when you face another set of locked gates and two rocket firing APCs, its time to get out as fast as possible. Knowing the route, I did just that and left those APCs to their own devices as I jumped into the tunnel and into the frying pan!
    A truly epic one on one with a gun and bomb armed helicopter in a vast water area, set against the fading daylight left me with 25 health and that choppers last strafing run! Luckily a few grates survived and I got some desperately needed health, phew!
    I spotted the Gman again by the dam and then visited a building for a good boost in health and ammunition, after a little shooting of course! I even paid that vortigaunt a visit via the sewer outlet, pushing the airboat against the way and climbing up and in. Nice cosy atmosphere and the food was ok, but my host did rabbit on! Do not forget to carry a health pack on the way out!
    I set up for the dam jump as usual and floored the airboat expecting the usual, gravity defying, slow descent but instead of that I got a beautiful slow 360-degree loop landing beside a rock! I still consider this to be the oddest place for a loading pause!

    A long and extremely intense action sequence with long full-speed, swerving runs and some technical manoeuvring to highlight the sheer fun this iconic contraption brings to the Half Life universe.

    Tech note: The combine chopper probably uses a portable transporter/launcher to deliver so many mines straight from a distant armoury.

    Five words or less review:
    Stop now and you die!

    Deaths:
    None this time; but oh so many previous.

    Playtime: 1 hour and 22 minutes.

    Reply
  8. MisterAddy

    I’ll be a bit briefer on this one since I’m so far behind! There is a lot of great gameplay to be had in this chapter, and again there are some optional areas and secrets for the more thorough players. There are a lot of gates that force you out of the airboat to proceed which add some extra variety. I find the area in screenshot 38 to be quite hard.

    Being constantly hounded by the Chopper really adds some pressure and forces forward motion. The arena where you finally take it down is just brilliant, especially given the mounted gun. It’s a good thing that was withheld until later in the chapter as it makes things far easier. As Phillip mentions, the airboat itself handles a little weirdly, mainly how long you stay in the air, but it’s needed for all those jumps.

    The issue with the skybox I mentioned last chapter is even more noticeable here. I uploaded a couple of screenshots as an example. The first is how it looks by default, the second is fixed by using the command sv_skyname and adding _hdr to the end.
    http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=134580282
    http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=134580204

    Challenges

    Whatever happened to the challenges? Have you found the All Knowing Vort? This was my first time.

    Deaths

    A couple, mostly me being terrible at combat.

    Playtime: About 2 hours.

    Reply
  9. Unq

    A great mix of action and decent exploration in this chapter. I liked the linear setup but with some side areas (especially if you’re going for that achievement where you have to find all the lambda spots).

    So what we learned in physics puzzles so far is applied here, especially in the part where you need to weigh down the lift to raise the ramp. But there’s also the floating barrels to raise the ramp (earlier) and even the pulley-rigged lambda spot that drops some health down when you remove the cinderblocks. Our simple training from earlier chapters put to use.

    Overall I didn’t find too much challenge in this chapter, once you know how to dodge the homing rockets. But damn did that warehouse in screenshot 38 give me trouble as it did Addy. It must have taken a dozen tries to get through it, playing on hard. The toughest part of the chapter by far.

    I thought both the pacing of this chapter and the gradually changing ambience were fantastic. The way the chopper is set up as the important enemy throughout the maps is great, and then the final battle is a good payoff to that set-up. The mixture of puzzles and action is very well crafted, there are good opportunities to catch your breath and take in the sights that give you a break from the increasing frenzy of the chopper chasing you and the homing rockets. It’s a great buildup and it really gives weight to the moment where they arm your airboat and you get to fight back.

    I loved the look of this chapter and how the sun sets and the lighting changes over the course of the maps. Once you know what’s coming soon (Ravenholm), it kind of adds a gentle tension to the waning light.

    Playtime: 1 hour, 23 minutes

    Reply
  10. Ade

    Oh boy, an airboat! Meh, not my fav since I can’t sprint with it, but at least it never turns over.
    Why dont more mods use that type of tower mounted gun against choppers
    Gman sighting!!

    Playtime: 1h

    Reply

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