Favourite HL franchise puzzles (hold the spoilers!)

[nokori3byo]

Okay, so I posted a similar thread a while back, but it was ignored, so here goes...

I have an interest in puzzles as a facet of game design and, like a lot of you, I was intrigued by the revelation that Ep. 2 would feature the biggest physics puzzle ever created.

I thought I'd list a few of my favourite HL franchise puzzles, along with my thoughts about what made them special:

1. Half-Life: Blast Pit (the whole area): While not technically the first puzzle created on a large scale, BP displays a tightness in conception and execution that made it a model for many puzzle levels to follow.

2. Half-Life: Disposing of the Garg in Power Up A great example of using indirect tactics to kill a boss-type creature. It was blatantly copied in the "mutant Rancor" level of Jedi Academy, proving its appeal as a gameplay concept.

3. Half-Life: Laser puzzle in Questionable Ethics: Not overly hard, but thoughtfully put together to ensure a satisfying conclusion, after some tinkering.

4. Half-Life 2: Water-Level puzzle in Route Canal: A nice use of physics (floatation, in this case) to create a puzzle which gels nicely and believably with the level's environment.

5. Half-Life 2: Barrel Puzzle in Water Hazard: (see above).

6. Half-life 2: The first 3-turret battle in Entanglement: The game's most notorious action sequence was less a puzzle than a perfect hybrid of combat and problem solving, and a welcome change from mindless running and gunning.

7. Half-Life 2, Episode 1: Direct Intervention (passim): An even more satifying implementation of the puzzle-area idea seen in Blast Pit, it's a puzzle you can really get into (literally).

8. Half-Life 2, Episode 1: Antlion/Garage sequence: Commendable for the same reasons as DI, but way more frantic.

What are some other good ones? I hear Blue Shift puzzles are really hard, but I haven't played and so wouldn't know.

(*edit: Ahem, and by "frnachise", I, of course mean "franchise.")

**EDIT: Arrrghhh! Sorry for double-posting this thread!)

 

[Asknoone]

Blast Pit:

Arguably the best. A specific, direct theme and then the player having to work his way round it in order to solve detached problems that contribute to the overall solution. Superb.

Power up:

Enjoyed this just as much as Blast Pit, but I think it would have worked better had they been seperated a little.

Direct Intervention:

Same reasons as Blast Pit.

 

[nokori3byo]

Power up:

Enjoyed this just as much as Blast Pit, but I think it would have worked better had they been seperated a little.

Agreed. It was like eating two desserts in a row. And it briefly led me to believe HL1 was the awesomest game ever created. Then came "On a Rail"...

 

[ríomhaire]

Blast Pit
Direct Intervention
The g-man

 

[Planeteer]

- Blast Pit! That was so great and scary puzzle. The OP4 "Blast Pit" with that worm was ridiculous.
- Highway 17 resistance gate. Small puzzle, but nice.
- Water Hazard barrel puzzle

 

[nokori3byo]

- Highway 17 resistance gate. Small puzzle, but nice.

The one with the electrified gate that had to be poewered up? Good to see someone liked it.

 

[nokori3byo]

How about in Gearbox games? Are there any puzzles that stand out?

(I haven't played any of them, except for the Op4 demo).

 

[Kevin]

HL 1:
Blast pit. Obviously the best puzzle in the HL franchise. I was scared of the tentacle when i played through the level the first time. I always had to look back just to be sure the tentacle wasn't banging the ground too close to me.

And Power Up gave me that weird adrenaline-ish feeling when luring the garg into the electric current. Same as with the Tentacle, i had to look back, because i always felt like it was right behind me.

And another scary one with a Garg was in "Forget about Freeman!". I heard a garg and when i looked back i saw one crushing 2 soldiers with an SUV and shortly after that coming for me. The first thought going through my head was "Holy shit!" followed by the sudden need to turn around and follow my (Gordons') instinct to survive and run like hell the other way.
Just getting rid of it was a bit hard.

Not any REALLY good ones in HL 2 so far. But most of them are good.

 

[Asknoone]

The one with the electrified gate that had to be poewered up? Good to see someone liked it.

Sucked.

 

[the show 1347]

Blast pit was good and maybe the core part in episode one.

 

[Polaris]

Direct Intervention is best, my favourite part of the Episode one.
Also puzzles in Blue Shift's Focal Point and Power Struggle was quite good.

 

[nokori3byo]

Sucked.

Hmmm. Yes. It left me with a headache and very little sense of achievement.

If I had to name one cool thing about it, though, it's that there's a way to do it without lifting the gate.

 

[nokori3byo]

A nice, overlooked puzzle is the falling-car trap in Ravenholm. It's not hard to figure out, but the fact that it can be used both to squash zombies and access a new area gives it a feeling of depth and functionality.

 

[Baratos]

2. Half-Life: Disposing of the Garg in Power Up A great example of using indirect tactics to kill a boss-type creature. It was blatantly copied in the "mutant Rancor" level of Jedi Academy, proving its appeal as a gameplay concept.

I remember the first time I played that, I went "OMG GRENADES! GRENADES!" and killed him. Then I played on, and heard all the Garg noises being made. I assumed there was another one prowling around, and spent the next two levels conserving explosives in fear.

My favorite is the turret puzzles in Entanglement, because you can drag the turrets with you as you go. I remember the part where you go to the tunnel where the lights are cut out, I made a line of about 8 turrets and crouched behind them. I took not one point of damage or fired a single shot and killed all the Combine.

 

[Planetary]

Blast Pit was awesome, of course, but only after I figured out how to avoid the tentacles, that is. The end of Blue Shift was nicely designed, where you have to turn on power, release pressures, open damping locks, and hear the marines storming the area, quit a bit of tension, though it ended up very easy.
I don't see what was wrong with the Pit Worm's Nest, except that maybe it was too easy as well.

The Blue Shift "coolant barrels to jump across the coolant pool" bit was also pretty good, but damn coolant kills quickly!

Also with the "swarm of trip mines, explosives and atomic weapons building' on Surface Tension, I can see why that scientists lost his nerve!

 

[achilles_d]

Direct Intervention no doubt

 

[Kevin]

Puzzles are some of the things that made HL so famous.

And my other fav:

The explosive filled warehouse in "Surface Tension".
And a few other ones i don't remember.

 

[nokori3byo]

The explosive filled warehouse in "Surface Tension".

Yep. That was a good one. Way better than the wrecked building jumping puzzle that came later in the level.

 

[leib10]

The Core in Direct Intervention was my favorite. You also got to see a very pretty blob.

 

[Dr0ndeh]

#1 has to be blast pit cos its a classic! lobbing grenades downstairs then legging it to the next doorway was at the time groundbreaking gameplay.

but a personal fave of mine is

6. Half-life 2: The first 3-turret battle in Entanglement: The game's most notorious action sequence was less a puzzle than a perfect hybrid of combat and problem solving, and a welcome change from mindless running and gunning.

my first playthrough hl2 i played on the hardest difficultly, and i remember this taking me about 10/15 quicksaves. sadly in later plays i 'exploited' it a little and used another turret from earlier in the level to make sure i had 4 turrets

i even did a trick once where i used all 3 turrets in the same place, below the little 'balcony' in the middle, then just used some crates to hide up the top and let the turrets do thier thing

 

[Asknoone]

The Blue Shift "coolant barrels to jump across the coolant pool" bit was also pretty good, but damn coolant kills quickly!

You're insane! Barrel pushing is grating. ^__^

 

[Kevin]

DAMN! How could i forget.

The other favs of mine are both of the entanglement turret defences.

For some reason i also liked commanding the antlions before NP.
I love having tactical C&C over biotics!

 

[nokori3byo]

What did everyone think of the ramp-raising puzzle immediately preceding the acquisition of the Tau Cannon in "Water Hazard"?

I like it for its Rube Goldbergesque chain-reaction quality which put me in the mind of the old 70s boardgame, Mousetrap. Though I'm embarrassed to say I got stuck on it longer than I had any right to.

 

[Kevin]

The one here you get in the pool of water and push some barrels under the floating ramp with your gravity gun to make it rise?

It took a little to figure out what to do with the barrels but it wasn't hard.

 

[nokori3byo]

No, the one where you use a large heavy object to depress a platform, causing a pulley aparatus to lift the ramp.

 

[Planetary]

It's a washing machine. An there's a creaky wooden ramp up high that you have to scurry across to get there.

 

[nokori3byo]

It's a washing machine. An there's a creaky wooden ramp up high that you have to scurry across to get there.

Yeah, I was trying to be non-spoileristic about it.

 

[Kevin]

Ahh the one in Water Hazard. With the ramp you have to raise. Yes.
That was a good one. Didn't notice the ladder at first.