Terribly annoying small area in Forget About Freeman!

[Plasman]

The watery area that features the large moving gears and steam leaks was just woeful. The player constantly gets stuck around the submerged pipes whilst swimming, and I honestly couldn't work out how to proceed through the area. If the player was supposed to go under the large rotating gear from front-to-back I couldn't achieve it without being crushed. If the player is supposed to go OVER it, as I did in the end, it's impossible to jump up and over it without either using a barnacle, which of course can be killed, or without the single metal barrel the player can find in a side room. But I assumed at first that this might be pushed under the gear in order to stop or break it. All I succeeded in doing was losing access to the barrel, ending up with (as far as I could tell) a dead end requiring a reload.

Quite an annoying little area that really threw the game to a grinding halt. Any kind of section where the player can easily stop themselves from progressing without a reload (or at least the path is not evident enough) is the antithesis of the Half-Life games level design in my mind. Fixing the clipping player interaction with the submerged pipes and providing a clearer way to get over the large gear, such as a ladder nearby, would be nice.

[Peter Brev]

We haven't had much complaint about this area. Have you looked at a gameplay video to figure out what you could've been doing wrong?

[Plasman]

Fair enough, my initial assuming (to duck and walk under the gear) was the correct one, though the fact it's so easy to flub and get killed makes it quite easy for the player to say "huh guess it's not that way" (you seem to take damage just from touching the gears even for the side in open space) The whole shtick of "Valve" games is that the path the player needs to take is fairly clearly indicated or not terribly difficult to find... Indeed the fact there IS a gap and ledge nearby to (somewhat) allow the player to get up and over means a "false" solution is presented, as befell myself.

And my complaint about the clipping submerged pipes and their weird interaction with the swimming player being janky as heck still stands :) Especially after the player passes under the first gear and has to remain submerged to dodge the steam, coming up from underwater against the pipes in front of the player was very odd and seemed to clip. I had difficulty triggering the "up and out" movement without hitting my head on the steam directly behind the player.

[Peter Brev]

Personally, this area never gave me any headaches and I never got damaged by the first or second gear.

Originally posted by Plasman:

I had difficulty triggering the "up and out" movement without hitting my head on the steam directly behind the player.

I'll give you that, though, as I had trouble a few times here.

[elteaser]

I tried the going under the gear twice. Both times I got hurt. It helped to go through sideways and watch that you are pacing between the teeth correctly.

I figured, oh well, you win some you lose some.. on to the next.