Scenarios Where It Becomes Impossible to Proceed

[Olde]

I was watching someone's playthrough of Half-Life earlier and I was thinking about a possibility that could make it impossible to proceed. Just hear me out.

The level is Surface Tension, in the beginning by the dam. Let's assume you take out the helicopter and the cannon, then dive into the water, climb up the ladder and turn off the turbine. Now here's the important part: you use up all the health in the medical station. So it's fully depleted. Now you jump back down into the water but you don't notice the ichthyosaur until it's too late. Then you take massive damage while fighting it so by the time you've killed it, you only have 1 HP left (0 armor as well). You quick-save at the top of the water. This is the point where I'm conjecturing that the player is completely screwed. You need to turn the wheel at the bottom of the water but since it takes so long to spin and they reset when you leave, I figure the player must take at least some drowning damage. And as far as I know, there aren't any other spots in the area where you can grab health. So you can't turn the wheel to open the grates and go through the dam because even at your fastest you'll take one bit of drowning damage and immediately die. Is this true?

As I was typing this, I remembered another part where the player is forced to take damage, which is during the Residue Processing chapter where you need to ride through a furnace-looking thing on a conveyer belt and you're forced to take at least some environmental fire damage. If you're unfortunate enough to only have 1 HP there and you've used up all the health stations, I assume you're similarly stuck and can't proceed through the game. These are all assuming you're using one save in the run, of course. Can anyone confirm these two scenarios as being impossible to proceed, or if it's possible to un-stuck yourself, can you tell me how (aside from using cheats or other console commands)? I'm very curious.

[PsyWarVeteran]

You're right, those are oversights made by Valve. That furnace part always bugged me too.

[Profile Name™]

I just completed Half-Life for the first time, on Easy mode. When I was in these areas, it was a given that I would have to be careful. Yeah, if you get stuck, obviously you will have to start the game over again or borrow someone's save file. But it is pretty hard to get stuck. Why? Because the game stores two Quick Saves, not just one. Then on top of that, it stores two Auto Saves. So out of those four Saves, one of them should take you back far enough to where you can manage. I'm always overly cautious when I play games. I save a lot. If I take damage, I load a save and repeat that part. That way, I always have a ton of ammo and a ton of health. I don't get why you are over analyzing this or trying to make it out to be some major flaw or bug. Your theory is correct that it is probably possible to get stuck, but it's no where near a game breaking or unacceptable oversight. By the way, I never even took the helicopter out. There were even boss monsters in the game that I just avoided rather than killed. The game has a lot of flexibility so you aren't forced to follow a certain set of actions. For instance, I recently watched a walkthrough where this guy spent like 10 minutes killing a ichthyosaur with a Colt. What a weird way to play. It only takes like three darts, maybe a few more if you miss, to take out a ichthyosaur. And he had the darts. So I'm glad I didn't follow his walkthrough. You can also get past the helicopter without shooting it down or taking damage if you just hug the lighthouse type structure. The cannon is the only real concern. You need to blow it to smithereens as soon as possible without taking any damage. I used one of the powerful weapons for that. The helicopter took out the bad guys on the bridge, except maybe one that I sniped. Anyway, just enjoy the game and stop over analyzing everything.

[Olde]

I've beaten the game numerous times before and I've never actually gotten myself stuck in those places, I just find it fascinating in any game to put yourself in an unwinnable position. Doesn't mean the game's broken or flawed, or that Valve is stupid, I just find it interesting. :)

[Lychy]

dont' ♥♥♥♥ up

[Sikobae]

Originally posted by Olde:

but you don't notice the ichthyosaur until it's too late. Then you take massive damage while fighting it so by the time you've killed it, you only have 1 HP left

You can use the ladder to kite the shark, hitting it with the shotgun or pistol, and take zero damage.

Originally posted by Olde:

You quick-save at the top of the water....and immediately die. Is this true?

You could have skipped this entire section by jumping over the other side of the dam, and landing in the wedge between the rock and the hard place, taking zero damage.

If you are already in the water section, you can use a jump followed by a Gauss gun charged shot to boost yourself back to the top of the Dam, so you can jump over to the other side. Whether you've hit the turbine to flood the canyon, or used the rock, you'll take zero damage

Originally posted by Olde:

furnace-looking thing on a conveyer belt and you're forced to take at least some environmental fire damage.

You can run backwards on the conveyor belt to avoid this section entirely, taking zero damage.

Originally posted by Olde:

killing a ichthyosaur with a Colt

The pistol is a 9mm Glock, possibly a G18.

[MrMcSwifty]

Yup, sometimes spamming quicksave can bite you in the butt. Especially if you're in the habit of doing it with only 1HP left ;)

[java.lang.NullPointerException]

The game was easy for me except for a few parts I got stuck on. I hardly ever had the problem of using most of the health stations.

[Profile Name™]

Sikobae really knows this game inside and out. I have wondered if it was possible to jump on the other side of the dam. All those things he told us are simply great. I didn't know you could use a gun to boost yourself higher in the air. Wow, great read. Good thing you asked that question, Olde.

[Stand Alone]

I have gotten stuck in half life's Surface Tension i made it to the helicopter missing the gass gun on my first playthrough

[PsyWarVeteran]

Originally posted by Stand Alone:

I have gotten stuck in half life's Surface Tension i made it to the helicopter missing the gass gun on my first playthrough

Good job reviving a five year old dead thread with this gem.

[verdeAntico]

Read the whole post; loved it; good job guys.

[Ikagura]

Originally posted by Stand Alone:

I have gotten stuck in half life's Surface Tension i made it to the helicopter missing the gass gun on my first playthrough

You can hit the cockpit as there's a small hitbox in it.

[Olde]

It is possible to get stuck in the beginning of Residue Processing. Don't pick up the crowbar, instead break the floor grate with Gordon's own weight + gravity, get shot out to the outside, then you can't break a grate that leads into the waste disposal facility. You either need to noclip or restart. Shockingly, Crowbar Collective fixed this softlock in their release of Black Mesa.

[Ikagura]

There's also a solution for the pipe section at the end of Combustion Chamber to not take fall damage.

Thanks god that there's water in the PS2 port.