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Half-Life 2 Hints
How does the shortcut work?
1 of 14: In this shortcut, you don't go into the building nearby at all unless you want to sneak in just long enough to nab supplies, including a full load of frag grenades, from the very first parts of the building.
2 of 14: Park the airboat a ways back and then walk up to the closed gate on foot.
3 of 14: First, notice the large crane structure that's easily visible above the gate on the left side of the canal.
4 of 14: Connected to the other end of its cable is a group of very large and very heavy metal beams. See if you can spot them.
5 of 14: If you stand just right and look through the large holes that are along the top of the closed gate, you can see that the metal beam bunch is resting on a small and rickety-looking wooden platform.
6 of 14: To eliminate the journey through the building and back, you need to destroy the weak vertical supports of that wooden platform from here so that the metal beams will swing into the gate and knock it off its hinges.
7 of 14: The easiest way to do this is to stand where you can see one of the platform supports through a gate hole (using the zoom feature to make sure you're aiming at the right thing), then shoot it repeatedly with the pistol until it breaks.
8 of 14: Or instead of shooting out the platform's support, you can shoot the explosive barrels that are directly underneath the platform, thereby (possibly) saving some pistol ammo.
9 of 14: In order to get to where you can see part of one of the barrels, you'll have to back up a ways from the gate and move over to the left.
10 of 14: However, there's a better vantage point. Climb up the ladder that leads to the door to the building and stand on the little balcony where you can see the gate and crane off in the distance.
11 of 14: TIP: You can get up on the balcony's railing and make a running jump to get to the small semi-circular cement ledge that's in front of the balcony.
12 of 14: Use the zoom feature to locate the explosive barrels, then shoot them.
13 of 14: NOTE: The nearest explosive barrel won't help -- you need to move so that you can see the next barrel beyond it and then shoot that one.
14 of 14: As soon as the gate is bashed open, a dropship will fly by as if to drop off troops, but don't worry -- it won't really. There's no rush in getting to the airboat and moving on, so take your time.
