I died A LOT in this one... | Half Life | BLIND Playthrough | Episode 2

[@NabeelFarooqui]

The tactics the soldiers use (running, dodging, hiding, grenades etc) is still impressive

[@Yora21]

Breezing through this.

[@tommcewan7936]

When you don't blow 90% of the budget on photorealistic ray-traced graphics, you have more resources left for developing the AI.

[@curvy4655]

Sad but true

[@DrLeshy]

@@tommcewan7936 i mean, these were literally the most photorealistic graphics at the time this came out.

[@tommcewan7936]

@@DrLeshy yes, but they didn't require anywhere near as much work to produce their assets as modern graphics do.

[@Dolphin002]

1:56 In all my time playing Half-Life, I always thought you had to break that glass with a weapon. I never noticed that you can just press e to smash it.

[@RxAxVxExN]

ALWAYS destory crates, especially those with green tarp on top

[@zeitgeistlime]

Weapons: 0:55 Tripmine 2:26 HECU Turret and Turret Tripmine 3:23 MP5 Monsters: 7:48 Human Marine/Human Grunt/HECU Soldier 18:50 HECU Osprey 34:20 Tentacle Monster (No official name, called outer space octopus by security guard and "tentacle silo" in concept art) 47:30 Dr. Smithers (Hiding spot scientist, yes he has an official name!) 1:13:04 Leeches 1:23:06 Gargantua Chapters: 00:00 "WE GOT HOSTILES!" 26:22 BLAST PIT 1:04:15 POWER UP 1:21:04 ON A RAIL Misc: 28:40 Black Mesa Transit System Tram

[@harry68784]

And if someone is curious: HECU stands for "Hazardous Environment Combat Unit"

[@juxxtapoz]

Use F6 to quick save instead of relying on auto saves.

[@roblosgaming5873]

fact: roaches, friendly npcs and bullsquids have sense of smell ai. friendly npcs will comment on the smell of a dead body roaches and bullsquids will follow giblets, but bullsquids will do an eating animation

[@eccentriastes6273]

Fun video. This game is super frustrating on hard lol. Don't forget to use the double shotgun blast, although even that is pretty useless on most enemies unless you get RIGHT up their face.

[@Yora21]

I've seen so many people spend 20 minutes with the tentacles and never noticing that you can throw grenades to make noise or blow away barriers. Or having caught that they react only to noise.

[@tommcewan7936]

The game gives you exactly one hint about that, and it's *really* easy to miss.

[@ethanlivemere1162]

​@@tommcewan7936 Well, two, one of which is implicit and can be interpreted differently

[@NabeelFarooqui]

My guy got the noise hint instantly but spent way too long deciding between which path to take to power the rocket

[@fllthdcrb]

It might have helped that he actually went through the Hazard Course, which a lot of people don't do. It specifically tells you that crouching reduces movement noise. There are some things the Hazard Course lies about, presumably because it was developed some time before the game was finalized, and some things changed in the meantime. For example, it says there's an oxygen meter on-screen, which there isn't, just a warning when you've run out and are taking damage from lack of oxygen. And also, it suggests the flashlight uses suit power (by putting suit batteries in the path where you use the flashlight), which it doesn't. It's also hopelessly inadequate when it comes to ladders. But overall, it is useful to go through it.

[@ethanlivemere1162]

@fllthdcrb It only IMPLIES the flashlight uses power by putting the batteries there, but then it also has the confusing wording of "remember your flashlight drains power" which could easily be interpreted as (and possibly originally meant) it draining your suit power, when in reality it just means your flashlight will run out of power after a while.

[@JeanLucPicard85]

Half-life has always stood out with its semi-realistic physics, destructibility and gameplay based on such where speed, collision, leverage, etc. produce expected results. It's why it's so chaotic and more than just a fps. Enemies all have distinct behaviors and attack modes too. HL also doesn't have cutscenes, everything happens in-game as demonstrated by the prologue tram ride where you can move freely and look around. This also means that story bits, normally relegated to cutscenes, are missable and can even be interrupted by the player so you always have to be on the lookout. Along with interesting environments that constantly change up gameplay this is the magic of Half-life more or less. Certain areas like the surface bit with the helicopter are best handled by simply running through them. Not fighting is a valid option from time to time. In any case don't worry about dying a lot, the struggle and chaos are what makes if tun. I admit I've never played HL on hard, it's fairly challenging even on normal.

[@burningsheep4473]

Half Life was always a little more on the difficult side, even on Normal. Hard on a first playthrough is definitely brave as some have said. ;) I found that on that difficulty you have to change your approach. Burst damage and indirect damage worked fairly well for me. You don't want to stand in front of a Marine for long. Also, there isn't much health/charge. The game doesn't take care of you after most encounters like Black Mesa does.

[@fllthdcrb]

"Hard on a first playthrough is definitely brave" Or just ignorant. He was definitely assuming the difficulty scale would be like modern games.

[@burningsheep4473]

@@fllthdcrb Hard to say much on that without knowing where he is coming from.

[@oiytd5wugho]

@@fllthdcrb how come you mind-reader types always figure everyone is stupid? (this is me telling you to not be a poopoo meanie)

[@fllthdcrb]

@@oiytd5wugho What, for saying, "ignorant"? It's not meant to be mean. If he didn't know, he was ignorant, by definition. That's not the same as stupid, nor is it wrong to be ignorant, except perhaps willfully. I really don't think a lot of modern gamers realize how different the difficulty scale is with this game. And it wouldn't be a problem, except in _HL1,_ you're locked into whatever difficulty you choose at the start. I feel a little bad for him, because he's going to have to either struggle through like this or start over at the beginning.

[@TheCow-j1l]

35:39 the guard distracting the creature for you, what a brave soldier

[@c0l1n_m45]

Play on normal, even as a Half - Life veteran the hard mode is extremely difficult. Especially on the later levels.

[@tmaster42]

Some tips: You can quick save and quick load using F6 and F7, this is helpful to save your progress to quickly retry when you're in a difficult area. A lot of weapons have an alt-fire, for example: the shotgun can fire 2 shells at once, and the smg can shoot grenades. You can hold down on the crowbar instead of just clicking. Turning off auto-aim will allow you to aim headshots a lot easier, and will help with aiming projectiles later on. And I suggest you switch to Normal mode, Hard will be extremely difficult as you progress and will definitely lead to a lot more uneeded frustration 😅

[@gnolex86]

A little tip for platforming sections: use the walk key when you need precision.

[@flatulentdragon]

That was hilariously painful to watch! I love watching people experience this game for the first time. If no one's mentioned it, F6 is a quick save. It'll save you from having to rerun long segments. Also the administrator's name is "The G Man"

[@HORUS-IT]

What's the rush? You are moving at breakneck speed. I think that you are missing out on much of the game's atmosphere, which is truly a bummer.

[@zeitgeistlime]

the scientists will follow you everywhere, they only tell you that they're staying behind if they can't traverse something, so when you started blast pit and you went forward past the crates he said it because they don't know how to crouch, if you broke more you could lead him further also the pipe at around 1 hour in is indeed difficult! you will die unless you bug it or have enough HP, it's one of the few moments in the game where the devs regretted it, and yes it's hard, but if you want it easier turn it off hard mode, hl1 does not take hard mode like a joke the shotgun is useful but you need to literally be point blank touching for it to work, i recommend using cover and when they give chase peak out and BLAM! also, hard mode

[@keeby4]

lol I love seeing people reactions to that first HECU soldier not being on your side.

[@GenDercius]

About the weapon damage, if you're still playing on Hard, that's the culprit - Hard in Half LIfe makes the enemies exceedingly spongey, and is generally not very enjoyable. I think you'd be better off playing on normal. More fun that way IMO.

[@hereelabs]

yeah, the biggest problem with half-life's difficulty system is that it just makes enemies harder (or much easier) to kill, not make the levels harder by challenging the player (i.e. adding more enemies or changing the route the player has to go through)

[@VinVonVoom]

I find hard mode to be incredibly fun but it's definitely not good for first timers. You can change the difficulty back to normal without restarting by just putting "skill 2" in the console and then saving.

[@hazzmati]

I don't get why he thought hard made was a good idea for a 1st playthrough

[@practic4l349]

12:02 the biggest brain but not so biggest performer, your mind outperforms your skills 😄

[@lois3469]

This game has very good promotion title, that showes what this game is about: "Run. Shot. Think. Live."

[@burningsheep4473]

And don't worry about it, it was pretty fun to watch. :D Just quicksave more please! There is no need to repeat more than necessary.

[@zeitgeistlime]

the green aliens are also called alien slaves, and please keep calling the headcrabs headmites! i want it to be a stable of the series!

[@burningsheep4473]

Yeah, I was wondering if the term "Vortigaunt" had only appeared with Half Life 2.

[@roelieboy204]

The first time I played this game was with a VR mod, it was an amazing experience! The tentacle monsters were annoying tho, luckily I understood I could distract them with grenades.

[@mattmullett9521]

A staple of Valve design is seeing some way to go, then looping back to unlock that route.

[@DragonsLoverQc]

QuickSave often if you need (check your keybinds), if it goes bad, QuickLoad and try again. Problem is, you waste the gained health too often. Also, hard is hard.

[@Tulemasin]

You can use soda cans from vending machines to gain health. one can = one HP. Just don't break the machine or they won't work.

[@fllthdcrb]

Also, don't spam the buttons. Only one can can be in the tray at a time, but pressing buttons still uses them up, causing them to be wasted.

[@yester30]

Use the quicksave, Luke (F5/F9) At least after healing

[@fllthdcrb]

It's F5 and F6 in this one, by default. Because they hadn't yet learned that putting them next to each other invites disaster.

[@LoricSwift]

@@fllthdcrb "What could possibly go wrong?" lol

[@KOS_Nova]

Loving the playthrough so far! When youre finished with the game you should definitely check out a youtube series called Freeman's Mind by Accursed Farms. It's like a cinematic playthrough of HL except Gordon is narrating his thoughts throughout the whole game. Its incredible

[@Arokuara]

No he needs to see Half-Life: Full Life Consequences

[@xxDrain]

Looking forward to your HL2 playthroughs :P

[@Beldgor]

While hard is punishing, one thing I'm picking up on is that it feels like you're really rushing your way through everything without looking at the environment or timing your jumps, not looking up or down but instead with straight-forward tunnel vision always at full speed like this was doom, which leads you to be frustrated. If you slow down a bit and take your time I think you will be less frustrated by the game. Also you really don't like that shotgun. It's very effective but it's again not a doom shotgun effective. Shoot it barely further than crowbar range and you'll be able to put a lot of hurt on targets quickly, and it doesn't chew through ammo like the MP5. Very useful for targets right behind doors, or when you think something's going to pop out at you. Not for shooting at something at the opposite side of a room or down a long hallway.

[@steffankaizer]

its a puzzle game above all. its ok to not get it on the first try lol. that is the halflife experience you run, jump, die, try again, fail better.

[@JamesBeignet]

I always loved half life, love to see you stumble in there hahah. Btw, not sure the problem you had with sound effects, maybe use speakers/other earplugs ? I remember playing and things were leveled pretty good. Also, not a cheat but we found some better ways to switch weapons than what I think you re doing (using whellmouse + click?) You can have one short cut for each "class" of weapon so if you haven t already I think it s good to use it

[@al-almutalip6166]

It is nice to see a new half life video

[@LoricSwift]

Several of the weapons have an alt-fire mode with right mouse button, the shotgun fires two shells simultaneously, and the pistol fires faster but less accurately, both good for close range enemies.

[@burningsheep4473]

To the question at 19:40: At first you don't have many options, but especially on Hard you are very much expected to reload when things don't go well. Frequent quicksaving advised.

[@aikawayumi_art]

tip: your pistol and the mp5 share the same kind of ammo. try to make sure both guns (or all guns) are fully reloaded before picking up an ammo source. Also, pistols deal more dmg than mp5 and are more accurate at long range, only benefit of mp5 is its rapid fire. So you can try playing safe with long range kills using pistols against the military using just the pistol. Or better, use the shotgun at close range with its secondary fire. - You might also want to try breaking the boxes/crates with green blankets as they mostly contain military supplies - if you ended up finishing this game, try Black Mesa. it's a fan-made reimagining of half-life 1 with better graphics and more world details to somehow match the lore/visual storytelling

[@curvy4655]

Bloody, but highly entertaining! And yeah I died a lot (and save scummed even more).

[@nickbundt]

Turning off auto aim will help with your damage, as you will more likely hit vital head shots than the auto aim trying to body them for you.

[@joelbenitez1790]

Don't underestimate the shotgun, you just have to go at close range for it to be effective. But the double shot face to face is lethal in almost any enemy.

[@jackmonster0017]

pro tip: I noticed you were spam clicking the crowbar to swing it, you can just hold down left click and it'll keep swinging!

[@Yora21]

Classic videogame shotguns. It only damages things closer than 5 meters.

[@dracmeister]

Word of Advice moving forward: Eyes peeled. Beyond the small background details this game does, it helps that you notice other bits and wonder if you can progress or not-chances are if you can get to it then it could be the way you should go. Also, yes. HECU Marines will be one of your most difficult encounters moving forward, ESPECIALLY on HARD MODE. Though it might help if you know how to manage your HP with them (and for the rest of the game.). Armor is important. It blocks 80% of all incoming damage even if you just have 1 armor point. For balance, there is a bit of a diminishing return since the armor will still take the full brunt of 80% damage though more armor is still beneficial. Let's have 2 scenarios: >Scenario 1: 100 HP, 100 Armor If you take 100 damage, 80 of that damage will go to your armor and 20 to your HP. This leaves you with 80 HP, and 20 Armor. >Scenario 2: 100 HP, 1 Armor Taking the same 100 damage, you see the drastic effect of armor. Your armor is dropped to 0 but, you still only take 20 damage to HP, leaving 80 HP and 0 armor.

[@Obduleo]

When the pipe broke you were meant to land on the table with health packs, healing right before you took falling damage but you kept missing the mark.

[@cuddlycanine8246]

Nope. At 1:03:24 you can see a frame where he got both medkits and goes from 13 to 33 hp, to 0 hp on the next frame. This is one of the few parts of the game that are plain unfair.

[@The_Butt_Cracker]

​@@cuddlycanine8246Yeah, there's a reason they flooded that area in the PS2 port. On lesser difficulties the medkits are usually sufficient to save you, but on hard mode they give you less so it's even harder to survive the fall.

[@VinVonVoom]

​@@cuddlycanine8246There's a reason why they designed it to where you can break the pipe and jump back without falling down.

[@lois3469]

If it's too hard you can change difficulty in middle of gameplay, you always welcome to change it if it will be too frustrating. Half life 1 is VERY difficult, and a litiitle unbalanced on hard 😅 You are great at observing environment and piecing story together, your playthrough is very entertaining! I would like to know, if you are planning to play addons for hl1 (basically dlc's with their own storyline)? I'm a little bit obsessed with everything half life related, so i know basically everything, if you have some questions i will be glad to answer them!

[@fllthdcrb]

As far as I'm aware, _HL2_ introduced the ability to change difficulty mid-game, but you can't do that in _HL1._ Whatever you choose at the start, you're stuck with. Unless it's something they changed for the 25th Anniversary release. I don't see anything about it in the list. But I haven't played this release (I tried to recently, but it wouldn't launch for some reason). But if I'm wrong, feel free to explain that.

[@lois3469]

@fllthdcrb Until you wrote, I was sure that this could be done in HL1, it seemed to me that I was changing the difficulty in the first game like that..but now it seems to me that this is a false memory, I will need to check if this is possible or not in the game..

[@al-almutalip6166]

There’s still a half life 2 and half life 2 episode 1 and half life 2 episode 2 you need to finish but I’m not forcing you, there just amazing

[@arioamin]

Hard mode is worth it, but please add a death counter so we can keep track

[@FINBoggit]

I watched the part 1 yesterday and I must say that I like the name 'Brain mite' much, much more than the name 'Headcrab.'

[@wulf2121]

that episode seemed the mp3 volume was turned very low compared to the sound effects volume. It was hardly audible in sections where I knew music was supposed to play (also there is a few seconds long sound bit that also comes from mp3 supposed to play when you kill the big guy in power up).

[@cynthiamcgarrah1118]

From what I've seen swap between weapons constantly. If I'm no help then since this game was made in the late 90s there's a official strategy guide.

[@GoldSrc_]

Picking hard on HL1 is not something I'd recommend for a first playthrough lol. Also, break all crates, and always crouch jump. It's always fun to see people play this game for the first time. The guy in the suit is GMan, he's not the administrator.

[@TheTechCguy]

51:32. I would like to digress. This part is nothing compared to what’s in store later on in this game. No spoilers. In the Half Life series, from my long experience, the further you go in the story the worse and harder it gets to the end. We have yet to see how Blue Shift, Opposing Force, and Half Life 2 will go down as well here. This game was a good part my childhood, back then. 😆😆😆

[@CocoTheMii]

i think you mean "disagree" lol, to digress is to briefly switch topics

[@TheLaFleur]

yeah, someone is going to have a great deal of fun playing this game on hard, hope you learn how to peak at enemies and use corners, it saves lives

[@astrafaan]

I just ran straight to the exit with that first souldier encounter on the surface. Rushing everywhere and trying to gung-ho it is probably why yr taking so much damage.

[@felderup]

throwing grenades, have you tried right button throws? you're throwing behind them.

[@seiaghen]

you know what's even crazier? we got COUNTER STRIKE from this game (because 2 dudes made the mod)

[@lewa_j]

In this game you run by default and have to hold shift to walk slower.

[@Redbr34]

So the soldiers helmet are freaking bullet proof, so aim at the body of soldiers that clearly has a helmet.

[@phantomhurricane666]

it's a V-22 Osprey.

[@LoricSwift]

You do know you can save yourself rather than relying on the autosave, right? Relying on the autosave is turning it from Hard difficulty to Extra-Hard lol

[@soulsand4287]

Death montage

[@KOS_Nova]

1:00:07 🤣 this guy

[@butwhytho6522]

1:02:12 summarises everything about this

[@oiytd5wugho]

19:30 "how did you guys handle that bit?" Honestly, I haven't played it in forever, I do a skip that takes you right to 24:38 :P I don't like this chapter too much

[@PikuAuddy116]

Press F6 to SAVE your progress

[@trisfaleel]

12:25 you can actually you just didn’t let the first one lift you high enough

[@TheSoupMan80]

I tried using the barnacle but it never worked

[@trisfaleel]

@ well you have to airstrafe because that’s the only way to get forward momentum from a standstill when you’re in the air

[@jaynouby]

Playing in hard mode in this game just makes the enemies like a bullet sponges, Its not challenging or fun, It's just annoying lol

[@burningsheep4473]

Nah, it's pretty well balanced. You just shouldn't play Hard on a first playthrough. And you need to kill quickly and stay in cover. Double burst from the shotgun, explosives etc. And if you do badly it's often better to just reload. There just isn't much health/charge to go around. People have weird notions about so-called "save-scumming", but Half Life was obviously designed with frequent Quicksaving in mind.

[@fllthdcrb]

@@burningsheep4473 Well, the fact that it autosaves and automatically reloads after you die suggests to me this is the case.

[@burningsheep4473]

@@fllthdcrb ? It autosaves somewhat regularly, but watching him play it's obviously not a replacement for making frequent quicksaves.

[@fllthdcrb]

@@burningsheep4473 Of course. I'm merely pointing out supporting evidence for the design favoring frequent saving and loading. You're the one who set the context of this.

[@burningsheep4473]

@@fllthdcrb Ok, I see, just a misunderstanding.

[@TheSoupMan80]

Lol the guy in the suit isn’t the administrator 😂