Why exactly did we have to go through Ravenholm?

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daftalchemist

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The reason why you have to go to Ravenholm is that when you pass by the door to Ravenholm Alyx shivers and says "We don't go there anymore". That's why you go to Ravenholm.
 

Amnestic

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maddawg IAJI said:
Souplex said:
The point was so they could shove the gimmick weapon in your face for a whole level instead of just isolated bits. I don't see why you couldn't just use the gravity gun to move the rubble out of your way.
Because the rubble weighed too much, even for the regularly powered Gravity Gun?

Why is there even a thread about this? Are you trying to find logic in a video game about a world where Earth was invaded by aliens that use giant daddy long leg aliens as artillery and where the main character is a Scientist who's trademark weapon is a crowbar?

But in short, you basically had two options. Wait for Dog to dig you out while the Combine land in the courtyard outside and come out you from the other end (All the while, you have no cover and a limited amount of ammo) or you slip into Ravenholm in an attempt to evade your pursuers and finding a way back to the others.

While both are seemingly death traps, the Ravenholm plan has SOME chance for survival.
There was no reason to even start to go to Ravenholm. What did they have outside? A battalion of soldiers? Maybe two? That's not really that scary when you've already fought through twice that many just to get to the base in the first place. Doesn't Eli get captured as a direct result of you fucking off to Ravenholm rather than staying to defend, so you have to go into the Citadel itself to rescue him?
 

maddawg IAJI

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Feb 12, 2009
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Amnestic said:
maddawg IAJI said:
Souplex said:
The point was so they could shove the gimmick weapon in your face for a whole level instead of just isolated bits. I don't see why you couldn't just use the gravity gun to move the rubble out of your way.
Because the rubble weighed too much, even for the regularly powered Gravity Gun?

Why is there even a thread about this? Are you trying to find logic in a video game about a world where Earth was invaded by aliens that use giant daddy long leg aliens as artillery and where the main character is a Scientist who's trademark weapon is a crowbar?

But in short, you basically had two options. Wait for Dog to dig you out while the Combine land in the courtyard outside and come out you from the other end (All the while, you have no cover and a limited amount of ammo) or you slip into Ravenholm in an attempt to evade your pursuers and finding a way back to the others.

While both are seemingly death traps, the Ravenholm plan has SOME chance for survival.
There was no reason to even start to go to Ravenholm. What did they have outside? A battalion of soldiers? Maybe two? That's not really that scary when you've already fought through twice that many just to get to the base in the first place. Doesn't Eli get captured as a direct result of you fucking off to Ravenholm rather than staying to defend, so you have to go into the Citadel itself to rescue him?
The Combine soldiers are after you. The Resistance is a bonus at best. Freeman is the figure head of the resistance, he is seen as the Guy. The guy who will turn the tides and win the war etc etc. Now what happens if this guy dies? Morale drops, troops lose the will to fight and your resistance is crushed because your tank with feet guy ran out of gas and was turned into swiss cheese, not by a battalion or two, but by a never ending wave of Combine Soldiers barreling at him with Plasma Rifles, and thats IF he stayed inside.

For all we know, if he went outside, he's stuck in a canyon, with an air ship doing passes around him while picking away at him with it's main gun. It doesn't matter how many he killed along the way. Along the way, he picked up new weapons, grabbed some health, found some ammo and had the pleasure of cover. Not to mention that a large portion of those kills, were while you were going 40 in an air boat with an infinite amount of bullets spewing out of a machine gun.
 

The Rogue Wolf

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Serenegoose said:
The bigger question is - are the resistance too inept to raid museums and steal WW1 era german helmets as headcrab defense, or did the combine see such an obvious threat to their reign of terror, and 'suppress' them all? :O
Ep. 1 shows us that the Combine's technologically-superior helmets didn't do much to protect them- the headcrabs just took off everything above the jaw. I don't think a vintage half-sphere of steel only kept on by a leather strap would put up a better fight.
 
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Serenegoose said:
Frozen Donkey Wheel2 said:
randomsix said:
Didn't the ceiling collapse and separate you from alex?
Yeah, pretty much this. Besides, the Combine won't follow into a crab-infested town.

My question would be, why does the Combine use Crabs as a weapon in the first place? It seems a little imprecise and easy to evade.
The combine have infinite resources - headcrabs are terrifying. Saturation bomb an area with headcrab shells, and not only will that town shut up, but every other one will shut up too. Weird thing, people don't like being transformed into still conscious mutated zombies.
Well yeah, but....Why not just use actual bombs?
 

maddawg IAJI

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Feb 12, 2009
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Frozen Donkey Wheel2 said:
Serenegoose said:
Frozen Donkey Wheel2 said:
randomsix said:
Didn't the ceiling collapse and separate you from alex?
Yeah, pretty much this. Besides, the Combine won't follow into a crab-infested town.

My question would be, why does the Combine use Crabs as a weapon in the first place? It seems a little imprecise and easy to evade.
The combine have infinite resources - headcrabs are terrifying. Saturation bomb an area with headcrab shells, and not only will that town shut up, but every other one will shut up too. Weird thing, people don't like being transformed into still conscious mutated zombies.
Well yeah, but....Why not just use actual bombs?
Because Actual bombs are expensive and throwing a parasite in a tube and launching it out is a hell of a lot cheaper and is guaranteed to cause panic.
 

Serenegoose

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The Rogue Wolf said:
Serenegoose said:
The bigger question is - are the resistance too inept to raid museums and steal WW1 era german helmets as headcrab defense, or did the combine see such an obvious threat to their reign of terror, and 'suppress' them all? :O
Ep. 1 shows us that the Combine's technologically-superior helmets didn't do much to protect them- the headcrabs just took off everything above the jaw. I don't think a vintage half-sphere of steel only kept on by a leather strap would put up a better fight.
True, but their helmets don't stab headcrabs to death whilst they try and latch on. :p You can kill them with bullets easy enough, impaling ought to work. :D
 

aLivingPheonix

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I'm pretty sure it's because it was the only way out of Black Mesa east.

Also, Alyx tried to tell you NOT to go into Ravenholm.
 

maddawg IAJI

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Feb 12, 2009
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Serenegoose said:
The Rogue Wolf said:
Serenegoose said:
The bigger question is - are the resistance too inept to raid museums and steal WW1 era german helmets as headcrab defense, or did the combine see such an obvious threat to their reign of terror, and 'suppress' them all? :O
Ep. 1 shows us that the Combine's technologically-superior helmets didn't do much to protect them- the headcrabs just took off everything above the jaw. I don't think a vintage half-sphere of steel only kept on by a leather strap would put up a better fight.
True, but their helmets don't stab headcrabs to death whilst they try and latch on. :p You can kill them with bullets easy enough, impaling ought to work. :D
Don't they first latch on at the face, not the tip of the head? And how can you be sure if your helmet won't get knocked off as it is latching on?
 

Canid117

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spectrenihlus said:
randomsix said:
Didn't the ceiling collapse and separate you from alex?
Yes but she tells you to go through Ravenholm and then for Dog to circle around and get back to you.

Oops I meant circle around and get back to Alyx.
Dog can climb sheer cliff faces. Gordon cant.
 

TheMadDoctorsCat

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spectrenihlus said:
I was replaying Half Life 2 the other day and I was thinking to myself while disemboweling zombies with the buzz saw gravity gun combo;" Why did Alyx tell me to go this way"? Seriously it isn't as if you are trapped and the only way out was going through Ravenholm. If that were the case wouldn't Dog have gone with you. I know it wasn't to keep you safe so why did Alyx tell you to go that way? Was the reason just so we can see Father "Batman" Grigori?
Dude, you're asking the wrong question here. The real problem isn't to do with space, it's to do with TIME. To demonstrate:

When you go into Black Mesa, the sun is just going down. When in Ravenholm - which can't take more than twenty minutes or so for most people, surely - it's night-time throughout. You escape through the tunnels, and then end up outside in broad daylight about ten minutes later.

So how the heck did you get from evening to midnight to mid-day in about half an hour, total? Apparently Gordon's HEV suit has more powers than even we knew. It can speed up the passing of time.
 

spectrenihlus

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Canid117 said:
spectrenihlus said:
randomsix said:
Didn't the ceiling collapse and separate you from alex?
Yes but she tells you to go through Ravenholm and then for Dog to circle around and get back to you.

Oops I meant circle around and get back to Alyx.
Dog can climb sheer cliff faces. Gordon cant.
Gordon can ride on Dog's back.
 

Canid117

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spectrenihlus said:
Canid117 said:
spectrenihlus said:
randomsix said:
Didn't the ceiling collapse and separate you from alex?
Yes but she tells you to go through Ravenholm and then for Dog to circle around and get back to you.

Oops I meant circle around and get back to Alyx.
Dog can climb sheer cliff faces. Gordon cant.
Gordon can ride on Dog's back.
Bad idea when there are gunships shooting at you. Dog is bulletproof. Gordon is bullet resistant.
 

Enigmers

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VALVe wanted to scare the shit out of you with zombies, let you throw some saw-blades around, then let you meet "Father Grigori" which I believe was also what most people called Rasputin [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasputin] back when he was, you know, alive.
 

Erana

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What I want to know is why aren't there more operational vehicles? I would have circumvented the creepy creepy place as much as possible, and used a motorcycle to do a backflip and land and keep going, too!
OK, maybe not a motorcycle, but still, he could have gone around the town. It didn't look that big, and not having to do physics puzzles would prolly save a lot of time.
 

Serenegoose

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Mar 17, 2009
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maddawg IAJI said:
Don't they first latch on at the face, not the tip of the head? And how can you be sure if your helmet won't get knocked off as it is latching on?
The once they've shown it happening (in HL1) the headcrab leaps from behind, over the top of the head, sinking their claws into the chest, and latching onto the entire head in a single motion. In HL2, you see a man briefly wrestle with a headcrab, and it's trying to latch on by grabbing the entirety of the head (from above) in a single motion. I guess it could knock the helmet off, but if you secure it properly... That said, it might just survive anyway. They seem to be pretty hardy creatures (3 bullets to kill!) and they take a lot more to put down once latched onto a zombie, so they evidently become semi-symbiotic, rather than purely parasitic, as the host increases the crabs ability to endure punishment.

I've overthought this, I know - I'm a massive geek when it comes to sci-fi. I'll get into arguments about hyperdrive, empire vs rebellion, dr who, whether Flere Imsaho is cooler than Skaffen-Amtiskaw, and whether you can drive off a headcrab with an old german helmet. :p
 

snow

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pspman45 said:
the answer is very simple
Valve wanted a zombie chapter
its a pretty damn good one too, why the hell are you complaining about it?
Hello, and welcome to the Escapist!

Unlike other forums and websites, you'll notice that when some one asks an honest question, it isn't always complaining. Please take off your shoes before signing in, and enjoy your stay.

And remember, only the brave dare enter the basement...

*bing bing BING!*

Seems like a lot of people answered the question already, but I must say, Ravenholm is indeed one of the more memorable parts of the game, even though the transition into it pretty much screamed out "We want a dark and scary level!!!" from the developers...

Gah, I miss the days where such things weren't made as obvious...
 

Mr. Gency

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EcksTeaSea said:
I am pretty sure you were trapped and the only way out of there was through Ravenholm. Only other exit would have probably gotten you killed by the Combine. Besides, meeting that priest made Ravenholm all worth it. That entire level was pretty great.
Marik2 said:
Yeah my thoughts exactly the priest was a cool guy.
Are you kidding, I fucking hate that level! God damn Headcrabs. Though, I agree that the priest it cool.

[sub]Fucking Headcrabs...[/sub]
 

Marik2

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Mr. Gency said:
EcksTeaSea said:
I am pretty sure you were trapped and the only way out of there was through Ravenholm. Only other exit would have probably gotten you killed by the Combine. Besides, meeting that priest made Ravenholm all worth it. That entire level was pretty great.
Marik2 said:
Yeah my thoughts exactly the priest was a cool guy.
Are you kidding, I fucking hate that level! God damn Headcrabs. Though, I agree that the priest it cool.

[sub]Fucking Headcrabs...[/sub]
Well I thought it captured the feel of actually fighting in a zombie infested place.
 

Vhite

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spectrenihlus said:
Canid117 said:
spectrenihlus said:
randomsix said:
Didn't the ceiling collapse and separate you from alex?
Yes but she tells you to go through Ravenholm and then for Dog to circle around and get back to you.

Oops I meant circle around and get back to Alyx.
Dog can climb sheer cliff faces. Gordon cant.
Gordon can ride on Dog's back.
That would be too epic for any computer to handle.