

Gordon has an army of antlions at his command for Storming the Beaches.

Nova Prospekt, including the exterior that leads up to the chapter of the same name.The surrounding overcast when you're driving alongside the ocean is quite awesome too. Being above the ocean while the wind rushes in your ears, as you barely climb your way over the broken up sections of metal under the bridge, while very quiet atmospheric music plays.Then, once the fighting starts, it becomes straight badass, especially when a gunship is added into the mix. It's beautiful and gives a very intense sensation of being there. Highway 17 has the bridge, the most wonderfully atmospheric part of the game.The airboat chase in "Water Hazard" is remarkably fun.The entire existence of the Combine could be considered this as well, since there was no proper reference to them in the first game.One could suggest however that its a result of the Black Mesa survivors and Vortigaunts spreading his name for saving them combined with the military survivors spreading his name as the ultimate demon to them, only to then join the Combine later, making everyone side with the mythical man who slaughtered hundreds of murderous soldiers.It was only the employees of Black Mesa and the Vortigaunts who knew of what he accomplished in the original Half-Life 1. Ass Pull: Gordon Freeman being portrayed as some sort of heroic figure that returns to lead the resistance is viewed as this by some people since it brings to question how Gordon ended up with such a high reputation amongst the people to begin with.The hardest part is working out what you have to do. Make your way to the top of the tower, and shoot the panels off the rotating thing against a hidden timer, while under enemy fire. Anti-Climax Boss: The last challenge of the game is to stop Breen escaping.In Episode Two, Alyx's "Great driving, Gordon!" line sounds really sarcastic if you're the kind of player who's already crashed twice.Is he really doing all of this for humanity's sake? Or is he using the Combine for power (given his little slip of the tongue in "Dark Energy", where he uses the term "The Combine" rather than "Our Benefactors", which he stresses the citizens to use because "The Combine" is like a derogatory term)? It's not hard to interpret Breen's actions in different manners.
