Half-Life 2: Episode Two - 03 - Freeman Pontifex [Hard]

Chapter 3: Freeman Pontifex After their theft of the Larval Extract, Gordon and the Vort head to the surface with a freshly resuscitated Alyx, where they find out that a massive group of Combine are mobilizing to White Forest in order to put a stop to their plan to launch the rocket. In order to get on the right track to the base, our trio must first face off against a very angry Antlion Guardian (alongside a regular Guard) who has pursued them to the surface, deal with a warehouse complex full of zombies. and solve an elaborate see-sawing bridge puzzle. Playlist with all completed chapters:    • Half-Life 2: Episode Two - Full Playt...   Notes: - The car Gordon drives in this game is a heavily modified and stripped-down second generation 1969 Dodge Charger. It is also called the "Muscle Car" (referring to American muscle cars) by fans, as well as "The Jalopy", a reference to the codename Valve used for the Volkswagen Beetle in older builds that looks a lot more run-down. Fun fact, Valve redesigned the Jalopy because playtesters were disappointed rather than excited when they first saw the car - The emergency lights on the Muscle car were added by Valve to help players find it more easily - The Antlion Guardian will no longer apply a toxin effect on Gordon if it lands a hit on him - If Gordon is in a location where the Guards cannot ram into him, they will instead punt objects towards Freeman's direction (as seen at 3:44) - The pickaxe at 6:15 is extremely bugged. If Gordon jumps on it, it will launch him in a random direction, which allows for interesting map exploits (watch Desinc's video) - The G-man's first re-appearance since the start of HL2:EP1 at 7:41 - If Gordon stays on the platform at 15:05, the Zombies will eventually knock it down - Sawblades are available on the walls for Gordon to use during the big zombie fight at 15:10 - The only ammo crate in any Half-Life game that offers unlimited SMG grenades (19:35) - Gordon can get the car across the first section of the bridge before the Portal Storm damages it if he is fast enough (22:35) Trivia: - The term "Pontifex" is defined as follows, from Wiktionary: "Often interpreted as a compound originally meaning “bridge-maker”, from pōns (“bridge”) +‎ -fex (“suffix representing a maker or producer”), either metaphorically “one who negotiates between gods and men” or literally if at some point the social class which supplied the priests was more or less identical with engineers that were responsible for building bridges" - The above definition is very fitting for the chapter considering Freeman deals with a massive bridge in order to jump the car back to the correct side. Metaphorically, Freeman is also "building a bridge" so that our heroes can successfully get to White Forest - Although Gunships are also seen mobilizing with the rest of the troops at 0:09, they are not encountered at all in the final battle of the game (though they were supposed to be fought in earlier iterations of the battle) - The Guards will start "bleeding" when critically injured, as seen briefly at 3:08. This feature was not in any of the previous games - The first time a Combine sniper rifle is seen in-person in any of the games (8:27) - Fun fact: A playtester was so scared of the noises at 9:44 that he refused to enter the room - If Gordon retreats into the first room at 9:58, the Poison Zombie will break the wall and keep chasing him - If Gordon manages to detonate an explosive (grenade, SMG grenade) where Alyx is using the sniper rifle, a Combine corpse will fly out (10:33) as Valve had simply programmed a Combine sniper AI to target enemies but not Freeman - First time a Zombie is seen being capable of operating doors at 11:56 - Fast Zombies (and zombies in general) are shown to be quite curious creatures, as a Fast Zombie can be observed dumpster diving at 12:10 - First appearance of a Fast Zombie torso in any Half-Life game at 17:21 - The chair, SMG and beers and nearby SMG grenade ammo crate at 19:49 are meant to imply that Resistance members used to lob grenades at the Zombies in the pit below for fun - Alyx is actually supposed to fully kiss the Vort on the cheek at 26:04 instead of doing whatever the hell she did do in this video