After escaping from the trash compactor and getting back to the surface, Gordon stumbles towards a mostly abandoned part of the facility, meant for processing and disposing of waste and hazardous materials. Dodging and jumping through antiquated compaction machines, great vats of green waste, and slipping through furnaces, as well as riding on gravity-defying conveyor belts, Freeman escapes to a hidden part of the facility.
- The old level name featured on Half-Life: Day One, given in the “titles.txt” file was: Chutes and ladders.
The challenges below have been set by 2muchvideogames
- Exploit the observation area as a shortcut.
- Unlock 7 doors.
- Complete this chapter without taking any fire damage.
MEDIUM: 100 Health 92 HEV [8KB]
HARD: I need a HARD save for this level. Do you have one? Please send it to me.
Click on the thumbnails below to open a 1024 pixel wide image.
WARNING: The screenshots contain spoilers.
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This post is part of the The Replay Experience Experiment 2012 event. This is a chance to replay all the Half-Life games and discuss them based on our experiences since we first played them.
All text taken from the CombineOverWiki, a fan-supported, editable wiki covering the Half-Life series of games.
On the left is a complete text walkthrough for Half-Life.
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)
You can purchase Half-Life directly through Steam and could be playing in within moments, depending on your internet connection.
I really enjoyed this level. It’s clearly a filler in the sense that it’s really just a jumping puzzle area. That said, it’s very well done and I am surprised that more mods didn’t try and do something similar.
There’s little here except swimming and jumping and none of it too hard. Have a feeling it’s just a rest before some serious action.
I like how Valve put a few ledages and balconies around the place to give the player a breather. When this was first released I bet it was a really fun challenge.
Damn it, I missed him. Is he in here?
The liquid in some areas can be seen to be split into different sections.
Twice, as listed below
– Exploit the observation area as a shortcut.
– Unlock 7 doors.
– Complete this chapter without taking any fire damage.
It’s all about timing!
25 minutes
2
Got caught with a barnacle and timed a crusher thingy wrong.
It begins with a picturesque place, but the beautiful mountains are quickly will be replaced with old, rusty metal.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/emoleveldesigner/screenshot/558694186607955467
We found the old industrial areas the scientist in Apprehension was talking about. Or, actually the areas found us, appearing in front of us at the right time.
Short chapter. It is an obstacle course where we get through various mechanisms. The variety is high, locations are detailed well, so the trip is interesting.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/emoleveldesigner/screenshot/558694186607969631
http://steamcommunity.com/id/emoleveldesigner/screenshot/558694186607978111
Eventually we get to the circular room with barnacles, after which the next chapter, questionable ethics, starts.
Playtime: 11 minutes
No dialogues or even monologues here.
This is a short and very calm chapter. Calm because there’s no one to speak with. (Except you can save Barney before a script makes him run into a Barnacle, letting him follow you a bit although it’s not very useful then)
There is, or better said there ISN’t as good as no combat at all here. You can avoid every single alien here and there aren’t any other living threats, but some obstacles you need to pass through safely for not getting squished, burned or contamined.
At first we’re finally breathing fresh air again, the sun is shining in the well-designed but unfortunately short outdoor area.
I remember in one of the very first times I went down the “elevator” in the silo outside I took a lot of falling damage because I wasn’t fast enough after turning the flow control wheel for activating the “elevator”.
We soon find Barney shooting some headcrabs before he stupidly runs away out of sudden and straight into a Barnacle…
However, this way we will get his pistol as we need some gun later on in this chapter (but not for necessarily shooting aliens).
Later on we will find the some shotgun ammo and 4 contact grenades for the AR in some crates, plus – HOORAY! The Magnum! And satchels..
Besides the architecture is very nice and layouts are some sort of amazing (or a-maze-thing? 😉 ) THIS chapter feels like a filler at all times as there’s not much to do except finding the “exit” to the next chapter. No conversation, no combat, no storyline continuation…
So the design is pretty neat, I like the observation areas and how it shows you what to expect and how to proceed.
Anyhow, it’s not necessary to go there as you can begin to make your way through the timed jumping sequences before visiting the observation areas.
Textures, lighting and moving objects fit the sections very well, making it feel at least a bit alive.
There are also some ambient sounds sometimes and a short music track.
In the large assembly line areas it can be a bit confusing where to go to proceed.
At least that’s what I feel every time when being there, but as soon as I see a blue laser it’s pretty obvious 😉
Overall it’s a short jump “n” run chapter with a few puzzles, not very memorable and just nothing special feeling indeed like a filler…
I can’t say I ever liked playing this chapter, but okay it’s short and easy.
Challenges:
Exploit the observation area as a shortcut. – Nope, how?
Unlock 7 doors. – Yes
Complete this chapter without taking any fire damage. – No, haven’t tried
5 words or less review: Relax, take it eee-eeeeeasy!
Playtime: 13 minutes
That barney, he’s not as useless as you think!
So he’s useful for skipping some part of the chapter as a shortcut? 😛
One of the first chapters that is almost exclusively puzzle based. It makes sense, too, in that all I have here is a *wrench* to go about with. The puzzles are mostly pretty simple, including a section with the stereotypical jump across gaps and “crushers’.
One of the challenges, “Unlock 7 doors’, shows that this chapter is largely well interconnected. Unlike the linear layout in Office Complex where u can unlock doors to the previous hallway from the next hallway, the Residue Processing maps tend to be more complex. The doors that can be unlocked are not difficult to find, but some of them are not right on your path. All of them can only be unlocked from the other side. I think that this chapter is the only one with so many “unlockable” doors. There are only a few (2, I think) in the next chapter. Valve’s mapping style tends to make levels interconnected most of the time. This gives the levels more breadth and less of boring linearity. Good stuff.
In the video:
1 – I position myself directly under the first headcrab. Common sense would prolly say that I would immediately get headcrabbed, but luckily that doesn’t happen.
2 – As barney gets pulled up, I get momentarily stuck while he goes “thru” me. It’s really strange.
3: The bullsquid AI temporarily gets distracted for no apparent reason, despite my being plainly in it’s view.
I attempted to exploit the shortcut… but barney got eaten.
I was recording with fraps (30 second limits) which meant I had to minimize any exploring. However, you can see me avoiding the not-so-mandatory fire damage area.
05’05”
I did get crushed in a previous recording, but that went messed up so I rerecorded and this time I got lucky.
what video?
Residue Processing is, perhaps, the epitome of a filler chapter. No new story or dialogue of any sort; no new gameplay mechanics; in fact, there is absolutely nothing noteworthy at all.
There’s a bigger emphasis on platforming – jumping puzzles, and some tricky maneuvers involving conveyor belts. These end up being pretty tedious and boring, though – they don’t really add any meaningful value or substance to the gameplay. I wouldn’t say it’s the idea itself is the problem, but that the overall execution is to blame.
This waste treatment sector seems run-down and aged, but remains in active use – there’s even a small security detail. There is power and energy, and waste is still passing through the processing systems. What exactly this waste is, I have no idea. But really, why is it radioactive? Why do we only see human giblets passing through the waste processing tunnels? And where does it all go? Where is it deposited, and what is it done with?
These are all reasonable and common questions that this chapter fails to answer. And when its setting and backdrop is so prominent and detailed, I would expect such questions to be answered. Other chapters gave us a fair amount of insight into how the areas they took place in functioned, but Residue Processing offers us little more than 20,000 conveyor belts and some green goo. Not cool, Valve.
The level design itself is okay, but sometimes overly convoluted to the point of confusing the player. The complex layout still fails to be logical or realistic, as never in this entire chapter do I see a main entrance to this place. We enter through a waste silo, and exit through a laboratory back hall. How do people get in?
There’s also very few guns here – you’re given a pistol, a magnum, and two satchels. That’s it. As such, there’s not much combat at all.
Music’s cool, though – widely known as the theme music for “Freeman’s Mind”. It’s a pretty iconic tune that perfectly complements the labyrinth mayhem of Residue Processing. Good stuff.
At one end of this roller-coaster of a sewage processing facility, we find a small, dark corridor leading us to the next, and perhaps, most important step of our journey to the Lambda Complex. Yes, my friends – one of Half-Life’s greatest sequences of all time awaits us! I can hardly restrain myself.
Five Words Or Less: As smelly as its namesake.
Play time: 12 minutes
Playtime: 18:27
In this chapter I love the idea of having to find all your weapons again; you start off with the crowbar then find a pistol much like the beginning of the game.
I’ve always found the vents spewing gibs everywhere very amusing.
The entire maze of conveyor belts can get quite confusing, however if you do everything right this becomes a pretty short chapter.
Playtime: 17 minutes
This is possibly the worst chapter in any Half-Life game. I always skip this level.
First of all, I want to apologize for a huge mistake I made in the last chapter. I stopped apprehension after being knocked out, when in fact the trash compactor is part of apprehension. SuperFrizzio told me this in the comments. Now that means my apprehension video is too short, and therefore this one is too long. It doesn’t make any difference in the final time, but now the levels aren’t aligned correctly. I will consider that the trash compactor was part of this level in this review because I can’t edit my apprehension review anymore and this would leave that map blank.
“Oh crap, I woke up in a trash compactor AGAIN!”
Ross Scott’s funniest line of all time according to me.
We escape the compactor and get outside, only to realize it’s day already, which means we spent a big part of the night unconscious, or for bad players, we’ve been really slow. some weak aliens are present, then we get in and take barney’s gun (or we can also save him, but it’s funnier to let him die). we jump on huge meat pieces in toxic sludge, then on heavy machinery, then in dirty water. we end up getting a magnum back, and some satchel charges already, which are really useful against the later tripmines. some conveyor puzzles, including going in circles (reminds me of the beginning of on a rail) and falling off. Looking for the stairs with the hundreds of sign telling us they’re close, then going back up. Some more crushing machinery, and then we climb a ladder and we’re on for the next level.
Five words or less review: DuckRoll on conveyor is awesome
Deaths: Deaths are still for the weak
Playtime: 3 minutes 29 seconds 833 milliseconds
felt like “on a rail” for me too
My run thru this would’ve been much faster had I not fallen off those damn conveyors a dozen times–this is where the “it goes too fast” complaint comes in: one tap of the WASD keys creates too much movement and momentum, and makes me miss the basic aligning movements. They kinda messed up here, but they corrected it in HL2 by making us walk unless we hit the “run” key.
Either way, this is kind of a respite, with a little bit of challenge in the puzzling we have to do–and even that was minimal.
I’d like to agree with Vic on this one, but I cannot. This is yet another example of “government-military complex-itis”: a complex built to serve a purpose, that was redirected from some other purpose, and bent to fit what they needed it to do. Inscrutable, because that’s just how they think: “it’s above your pay grade”, “it’s classified”, etc. All that matters is that you get a clue to what goes on in the bowels of the joint, and it’s actually not very good. Are the body bits human?? Possibly, could be stupid head crab zombies falling into the waste processing system, tho; or other critters. It’s just a guess. And it still shows that Black Mesa was doing things that they probably didn’t want the EPA knowing. And I’d guess the entrance was in the vicinity of where we exited, and the only people going down there were minions and security Barney’s–why would a scientist soil him/herself to deal with something like THAT??
Fairly short, a chance to regain health, and if you’re careful you can come out with a fair amount of strength for the next chapter. But I suspect they designed it to bring you down some and have a tough time with the houndeyes–I died a few times right there, because I either kept getting electrocuted by the walls (low health sucks), or the houndeyes got me because I didn’t have enough weapons to kill them all. I think I missed the satchel charges, too, I don’t think I had them at that point, just the pistols and my crowbar.
Five words or less: it was a filler.
My least favorite chapter in the whole game. While I appreciate Valve’s decision not to immediately allow us to get all our weapons back, I don’t like the left turn they took with the design of Residue Processing. Yes, it gives you a bit of a breather from combat, but at the same time it throws you into a series of pure movement and jumping puzzles with only a sprinkling of the weaker aliens tossed in.
Overall I suppose I’m not much of a fan of what is essentially a platforming chapter in a game that has already established itself to be so much more in the preceding chapters. Residue Processing feels like an out-of-place minigame since it’s so different that what we’ve been doing all along.
That said, I do really like the environment this chapter is set in, and the interconnectivity of the areas and maps is superb. It thankfully doesn’t feel maze-like, but you can certainly wander around for a while before finding the exit – although unlike in On A Rail you’re not really rewarded for exploring. Yes, there are a couple extra health chargers you can find, but quite often you’ll have taken falling damage in order to get to these areas so there really isn’t much net reward.
I think it would be very interesting to have a chapter more along the lines of Blast Pit or Power Up set in the maps of Residue Processing. An overarching goal requiring some exploration of the maps, with patches of real combat, would have nicely meshed with the industrial atmosphere of this chapter and in retrospect it might have been a missed opportunity. I’m glad we’re past this chapter so we can get to the sequence of chapters that I feel is the pinnacle of Half-Life.
Mapper’s Corner: We’ll look at what I think is the most intricate puzzle (or at least requiring the most action on the player’s part) – the conveyor belt mashers.
http://imgur.com/wtTC2
It becomes obvious after we reach this area and kill the bullsquid(s) that we have to get past up the conveyor belts and past the mashers to proceed.
– The conveyor belts are func_conveyors. On the top they have a texture that begins with ‘scroll_” which means that in game the textures will scroll exactly like the top of a conveyor belt.
– The mashers are all func_trains that move between two path_corners each. The path_corners are set to slightly different speeds so that the mashers are out of sync (they don’t all move together).
– The levers in the room to our right control the direction of the conveyors. The left and right conveyor belts are initially set to push up, while the middle is set to push down. If we activate one of the levers (func_rot_buttons), it triggers the corresponding func_conveyor, which changes its direction.
– The button in the main room is a func_button that targets a multi_manager. This multi_manager targets the mashers (func_trains) immediately, which stops them, and again after 8 seconds, which re-starts them.
In all, a nifty little puzzle if simple. But it does beat jumping over radioactive goop. On another note, I don’t like to point out the mapping problems in Half-Life but I did like the mysterious floating lights of Black Mesa:
http://imgur.com/KZblk
Playtime: 12 minutes
Well I avoided playing this chapter for as long as I could but had to catch up at some point. If there are any chapters that I hate in hl1, this is definitely one of them. It reminded me of mods like ‘the Trap” and in general I’m fine with jumping puzzles, but hl1 has less precision in movement compared to hl2, as we can see even in Kaito’s video for this level.
I also managed to get myself stuck between the floor and a conveyor control lever, if you can believe that. Mapping has obvious hickups and although I found the layout interesting, I just hate dead ends and there were a lot of pseudo dead ends here with all the doors being opened from the other side.. it really didn’t help the player at all. It was just ‘look at what this mapper can do” or play with your sense of orientation, kind of like a proof of concept (multiplied by 7), pardon my harshness.
Exploration is usually rewarded by Valve, but not in this chapter. And forced damage, while always being a no no, can be overlooked if used once in a million years. Here it was used way too many times.
Playtime: 22 minutes (shameful, I know)
5 Words or Less Review: I hate that horizontal crusher!