Half-Life 2 Walkthrough for Chapter 4 - An Overview for the Series

2008-12-27

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Overview

This chapter features a mixture of vehicle and fighting sections. You will be navigating through the canals trying to reach Black Mesa East. Unfortunately, you have a lot of Combine in your way. There will be flood gates that you have to open and ramps to raise. Running from helicopters will also be a recurring theme for you.

Key Objectives

Raise the Ramp - A fairly simple puzzle. Just use the blue barrels to raise it up.

Open the First Flood Gate - There’s a lot of fighting for this one. You’ll need to get through a garage, kill a machine gunner, and then open the gate and escape. Be ready to fight. There are better instructions through the link.

Open the Second Flood Gate - You’ll have to open this second flood gate under heavy fire from a helicopter. There are also a bunch of Combine in your way. There’s a lot of running and fighting involved in this one. I have full instructions through the link.

Avoid the Mines - This canal run is complicated by a pesky helicopter with mines. Tips are through the links.

Raise the Second Ramp - A simple puzzle with a washing machine as the weight to raise the ramp.

Get the Machine Gun - You’ll have a nice long canal run to practice using this new machine gun. I suggest you take as much time as you can, since you’ll need to kill a helicopter with it soon.

Kill the Helicopter - Just kill the helicopter with your new gun.

Open the Third Flood Gate - Just a simple exercise in Combine killing.

NPCs

Rebels - The rebels manning the underground railroad sections will still help you.

Enemies

Zombies - Not many zombies in this level. Just shoot them in the head to escape.

Headcrabs - Not many headcrabs either. Crowbar is still your best bet.

Civil Protection - More Combine that are basically powerless. Just run them over with your airboat or shoot them as usual when you are on foot. They shouldn’t be much of a challenge now.

Manhacks - No real change in strategy for these guys. Either take them out with submachine gunfire or smack them with a crowbar.

Helicopter - They still fire machine guns at you, but you will have the means to finally dent them now.

Armored Cars - They still fire rockets, but your airboat’s gun can disable the rockets and even blow up the cars.

Mines - These mines are dropped by the helicopter. Just avoid them and you’ll be fine.

New Weapons

Grenades - You’ll find your first box of grenades. Just throw them with the primary fire button. You can also role them on the floor with alternative fire.

Magnum - This is the powerful handgun in the universe…apparently. It’s accurate over any visible distance and will kill most soldiers with one shot. The firing rate, reload rate, and ammo capacity are all less than great.

Basic Tips

Take a minute and practice the control for your airboat. You’ll need fine control for later.
Speed is your friend. You will be able to dodge most gunfire, rockets, and mines if you are just moving fast enough.
Remember that the magnum is great over longer distances. Don’t forget to watch your ammo though.

This post is part of the series: Half-Life 2 Walkthrough - Chapter 4: Water Hazard

This series of articles covers chapter 4 of Half-Life 2. You will be doing a mixture of airboat driving and fighting combine at various flood gates. It’s easy to get confused with the large levels though, so feel free to get a little help.