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Half-Life Hints

This cargo-loading room near another crossing barrier seems empty, too empty.

  • 1 of 16: One of the most difficult areas of the game for a first-time player, at least in my experience, is a cargo-loading room in which a good amount of soldiers are stationed.
  • 2 of 16: When you creep around the corner, you will recognize the room by an unmanned machine-gun bunkered across the way and by the amount of boxes lying around on the upper platform.
  • 3 of 16: What you do not see yet is a heavily bunkered soldier with a machine-gun off to your right as you enter the room, and a squad of soldiers hiding behind the boxes. The scary thing is, they know you are here.
  • 4 of 16: You do not want to move out into the room with that machine-gun to your side and a bunch of soldiers attacking from all angles. Instead, stay in the tunnels and slip around the corner quite a bit to see into the room.
  • 5 of 16: If you watch long enough, you will see the soldiers change positions and change cover in order to better anticipate your actions. You will NOT hear them.
  • 6 of 16: Their cover seems to be primarily wooden boxes, so it might be beneficial to destroy the places they hide.
  • 7 of 16: Pull out your .357 pistol, for power and accuracy without wasting ammo, and start taking aim at the boxes. If a soldier is left standing there, take him out too.
  • 8 of 16: Repeat this process until all of the wooden boxes are gone and a few soldiers are down.
  • 9 of 16: The squad leader tends to hang out behind the metal boxes near the bunkered machine gun, so do not worry about him for a moment.
  • 10 of 16: You will want to get underneath the bunker housing the machine-gun, where the machine-gun cannot get to you.
  • 11 of 16: Run quickly over underneath the bunker before the soldier inside has a chance to react. Look up and take care of the squad leader, whom you finally have a shot at.
  • 12 of 16: Once all of the soldiers in the squad are removed from the surrounding area, you can begin work on the machine-gun.
  • 13 of 16: Slowly edge out until you can accurately estimate where the opening in the bunker is.
  • 14 of 16: Pull out your Mp5 and use the grenade launcher on it to pocket a grenade in the bunker. Or, if you do not have any Mp5 grenades, toss a standard-issue grenade into the bunker. Be careful not to under-throw the grenade and have it bounce back near your feet.
  • 15 of 16: Pull the lever on the upper platform to lift the crossing-barrier to continue on.
  • 16 of 16: Or you could just skip all of this and continue on past the barrier and the next area on foot. That makes things a lot easier, and you can skip some things (like the second rocket-firing soldier).