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Half-Life 2 Hints
Secret Area Shortcut
1 of 13: To start with, follow the "regular" path of going through the padlocked door and into the room with the first .357 Magnum.
2 of 13: After you pass through the Magnum room and get back outdoors, *do not* go up the steps that activate the chopper. Instead, look around for a way to get up onto the upper dock structures.
3 of 13: You're going to need to stack some boxes and/or barrels next to the fence just past the doorway that leads back inside.
4 of 13: Start by shoving the large wooden crate that's nearby over next to the fence -- it'll be your base. (Don't put it too close to the doorway, or you won't be able to get through it easily.)
5 of 13: Then go back to the Magnum room and get one of the barrels and stand it upright on top of the large crate.
6 of 13: You can now jump onto the crate, then onto the barrel, and then over the top of the fence.
7 of 13: You're now in the secret area! Run along the walkway and up the ramp that's on your left.
8 of 13: You see that dumpster that's in the back corner? If you stack up some barrels so that you can jump up into the dumpster, you'll find the watermelon and frag grenade that the game designers put in to make this an official secret area.
9 of 13: However, this doesn't help you get to the gate control room.
10 of 13: Check out the wooden beam structure that's next to the bottom of the ramp.
11 of 13: You can get up onto those beams by putting an upright barrel on the upper floor next to one of the vertical beams and then jumping onto the barrel and then to the top of the beams.
12 of 13: You can then make a running jump that'll get you over the top of the nearby fence and into the large outdoor container area that's next to the open building.
13 of 13: You'll have to enter the building and follow the "regular" path from there on (but without any chopper problems, thankfully).
