Finished Half-Life 2 last night. Have to say, the Citadel areas were not the most visually exciting in the world (although the perilous descent to actually get in was...nervewracking.). They were nonetheless probably my favorite of the entire game. Why? The super gravity gun. The best weapon in the history of the FPS, I am confident in saying.
For those of you who do not know what I am talking about: Arguably the most original weapon in Half-Life 2 is the zero-point energy projector, affectionately known as the gravity gun. This is a device that plays with the physics newly introduced in the Source engine. It has two modes. Primary fire projects a force bolt that can kill certain small enemies (mostly headcrabs) and knock most nonliving objects around. It's useful mostly for moving obstacles. (Pushing cars into the ocean, for example.) Secondary fire attempts to pull the targeted object into the clutches of the gravity gun itself. This only works on objects below a certain size, and nothing living. Once they've been grabbed, they can be used as makeshift shields, repositioned, or in concert with the primary fire, projected at high speeds as a makeshift ballistic weapon. (Especially useful with exploding barrels and buzzsaw blades.) The secondary fire will also cause a particular type of mine to switch friend/foe identification to help you.
It's required in some circumstances, but I found it only occasionally useful otherwise since it's often more productive (or even necessary) to use the other weapons you're armed with.
However: in a late stage of the game (that is to say, the Citadel), an event occurs which supercharges the gravity gun. It still has the same basic operation modes...but the secondary fire will grab just about anything, including people and very large environmental objects, as well as energy orbs that are present in those levels. And the primary fire will kill human-size targets in a single blast (hell, so does the secondary fire.). There is very little as fun as taking previously dangerous enemies and using them as projectiles. Or balls for various sportive activities. Or just seeing how many walls you can bounce them off. Or my regular favorite: hurling them off various extreme drops. (Though with the super gravity gun, they're dead the moment you grab hold of them, so you don't get the scream you do in, say, Jedi Knight.) The only downside is the energy from the gun vaporizes the weapons your victims were carrying, so it's your only weapon for those stages (but hell, why would you want to use some grotty old machine gun when you have the SUPER GRAVITY GUN...).
Would it eventually have gotten old as my only option? Yeah, probably (though I'm loathe to admit it.). But as an endgame weapon it was beautiful.
Oh, and a little side note: I mentioned that totally inconsequential 40 gig drive that wasn't showing up? Well, it was very inconsequential, and with my new 300 gig, I just took it out. And, yesterday, gave it to a friend of mine who's been suffering with a 16 gig hard drive for a while now. He's a non-techie, so it may be a bit before he manages to find someone to install it for him, but I feel good now.
For those of you who do not know what I am talking about: Arguably the most original weapon in Half-Life 2 is the zero-point energy projector, affectionately known as the gravity gun. This is a device that plays with the physics newly introduced in the Source engine. It has two modes. Primary fire projects a force bolt that can kill certain small enemies (mostly headcrabs) and knock most nonliving objects around. It's useful mostly for moving obstacles. (Pushing cars into the ocean, for example.) Secondary fire attempts to pull the targeted object into the clutches of the gravity gun itself. This only works on objects below a certain size, and nothing living. Once they've been grabbed, they can be used as makeshift shields, repositioned, or in concert with the primary fire, projected at high speeds as a makeshift ballistic weapon. (Especially useful with exploding barrels and buzzsaw blades.) The secondary fire will also cause a particular type of mine to switch friend/foe identification to help you.
It's required in some circumstances, but I found it only occasionally useful otherwise since it's often more productive (or even necessary) to use the other weapons you're armed with.
However: in a late stage of the game (that is to say, the Citadel), an event occurs which supercharges the gravity gun. It still has the same basic operation modes...but the secondary fire will grab just about anything, including people and very large environmental objects, as well as energy orbs that are present in those levels. And the primary fire will kill human-size targets in a single blast (hell, so does the secondary fire.). There is very little as fun as taking previously dangerous enemies and using them as projectiles. Or balls for various sportive activities. Or just seeing how many walls you can bounce them off. Or my regular favorite: hurling them off various extreme drops. (Though with the super gravity gun, they're dead the moment you grab hold of them, so you don't get the scream you do in, say, Jedi Knight.) The only downside is the energy from the gun vaporizes the weapons your victims were carrying, so it's your only weapon for those stages (but hell, why would you want to use some grotty old machine gun when you have the SUPER GRAVITY GUN...).
Would it eventually have gotten old as my only option? Yeah, probably (though I'm loathe to admit it.). But as an endgame weapon it was beautiful.
Oh, and a little side note: I mentioned that totally inconsequential 40 gig drive that wasn't showing up? Well, it was very inconsequential, and with my new 300 gig, I just took it out. And, yesterday, gave it to a friend of mine who's been suffering with a 16 gig hard drive for a while now. He's a non-techie, so it may be a bit before he manages to find someone to install it for him, but I feel good now.