jeff

[dwilkinson911]

i have been playing halfife alyx for a while now .
great game.
i am stuck on part 8 with jeff and keep getting killed by him all the time.
any suggestions on how to get through this part.
i have looked at the walkthrough and this has not helped .
what should i do/

[necrophonic]

Originally posted by andersenman:

♥♥♥♥ Jeff. Seriously, ♥♥♥♥ him. Painfully obvious, artificially cheaty design. The moment you enter the room with the crank, some mysterious circumstance prevents him from going after noise further down the hall even though he did that just a minute ago. Also, he can pass the forcefield. Also, holding the crank perfectly still to throw another bottle through the window into the hallway still makes him come directly for you. Because game logic. Total immersion breaker. It's so cheap, it's outright console-level cheap. Whoever designed him this blatantly, obviously, artificially annoying should have their fingers slammed in the door. When the game changes its own rules just to be an arsehole, oh, sorry, to present a challenge, then it's ♥♥♥♥♥♥ game design.

Because... you're meant to trap him in the room with the lock before you use the crank and first part of toner puzzle?

It's not cheaty, it's a puzzle. It's "how do I do this thing when even the slightest squeak brings him running". The answer to which is above.

[Del_Pierro]

Jeff is the best - I could never kill him, I even freed him before moving on to the next level (it's also possible, you don't to trap him forever or kill him).

[andersenman]

Originally posted by necrophonic:

It's not cheaty, it's a puzzle. It's "how do I do this thing when even the slightest squeak brings him running". The answer to which is above.

I have nothing against challenges or puzzles. My complaint is about the game changing its own rules to achieve a certain effect, rules that it taught the player just beforehand. So, when I said, ♥♥♥♥ Jeff, I meant what he stands for.

[mejco67]

Some advice to first timers, put a respirator on early in the game and keep checking it. It can prevent a barnical from grabbing you also but then you will lose your respiratory and shooting him will not get it back. Will keep you from coughing. There is a fool proof way to beat Jeff and it’s all based on what Larry Tells you. Good planning and you won’t have to hurry just well placed and timed bottle throws.

[vt-dbnz]

Originally posted by andersenman:

Also, holding the crank perfectly still to throw another bottle through the window into the hallway (because yes, you can do that in VR because you've got two independent hands!) still makes him come directly for you.

Agree. At least, the game should have bothered to make sure something makes sound even if you stopped cranking, like putting some clappers onto the crank. Good puzzles don't rely on breaking the rules, this is clearly a flaw.

Or it could have just made it another solution, nothing fundamentally wrong with that...

[vt-dbnz]

Other problems i had with Jeff:
* Jeff can't be distracted in the "corridor of death" where a headcrab knocks off some bottles - the first time i was here, i killed the headcrab, and have thrown a bottle to distract jeff, but it just didn't work, Jeff continued towards me and puked me.

* on the machine i was playing, loading a saved game after death took ages. With Jeff, i have died quite a few times, and that loading time became quite a frustration. It's not a Jeff issue, it's more of a whole game issue (or mabe even an issue with the computer), but it was truly annoying when dealing with Jeff.

* it is surprising that even though jeff can't see, he is perfect at navigating the facility. It would have been great if he would bang into stuff from time to time.

[Dionysus 🐭]

I don't get how people can even die to Jeff? Even walking near him (not in him) at full speed won't alert him. Cover your mouth when walking through spores, and if something you do does alert him, just walk 2 feet away and he won't detect you. The only part I had trouble with was the grate, but that isn't too hard because you can put the power cell at the bottom, open the grate and let the power cell fall, and then slowly walk away. By the time Jeff gets there you will be long gone, and in 5 seconds Jeff will be back to his normal routine.

[vt-dbnz]

Originally posted by aaronth07:

I don't get how people can even die to Jeff?

Death #1: just a test to see how close is too close.
Death #2: tripped an alarm while wiring in the fridge. Didn't go away promptly; attempt to distract jeff with a bottle failed.
Death #4, #5: the naughty headcrab part, where i just failed to notice the place i should hide in, and kept trying to distract jeff to no avail.
Death #6, #7 and maybe more: accidentally ran into jeff, or mispredicted jeff's walk path in find-the-three-powercells part.

That's about it, maybe i don't remember another silly death or two, but still, it was quite a few deaths.

[lieutenantkirtar]

Died to Jeff multiple times in the elevator. Still not sure what I did different to get through the last time.

[necrophonic]

He definitely got me a few times until I worked out the best ways to get past him. He's more of an annoyance now on subsequent runs, but still gets me now and again when I mess up.

[IanL]

I deliberately let Jeff kill me the first time because I wanted to know how he'd do it. Was more than a little surprised I have to say!

[necrophonic]

Originally posted by IanL:

I deliberately let Jeff kill me the first time because I wanted to know how he'd do it. Was more than a little surprised I have to say!

Yeah it's less of a "kill" and more of a "I'll have to go home now 'cos he's vomited all over my shoes" lol

The only problem I have with it is that when he sort of leans in to do it it's easy for your head to start clipping through him / his vomit and it looks kinda broken (at least in my experience)

[andersenman]

Originally posted by vt-dbnz:

At least, the game should have bothered to make sure something makes sound even if you stopped cranking, like putting some clappers onto the crank.

Actually, during second playthrough for the commentaries alone, I learnt there are in fact "Zen ears", as the devs liked to call them, on the crankbase, and they make noise due to proximity regardless how still you hold the crank.

It was actually me, as a player, who failed to make the connection. In fact, I only became aware of it because of the commentaries that specifically addressed those Zen ears, their potential for alerting Jeff, and their introduction to the player in safe advance of Jeff. I guess I just slept through that bit of teaching of game mechanics, hahaha.

Correction: Those are Zen Ears on the crankbase, not Zen Clams. The ears simply close. The clams are the clappers.

But that still doesn't excuse why Jeff suddenly can't be lured quite as far back down the hallway as you could just a few minutes ago, even though you can still throw bottles that far.