F*** Half Life 2:Episode 2

[Sinister Minister]

I don't understand how people find it punishing--if you're paying attention and actively trying to destroy the Striders, you shouldn't have that much trouble. Hell, you'd really have to be ignoring the Striders big time to really fail the section. I even saw someone mention lack of ammo--did you not see the several houses you drive by? They have craploads of ammo inside, not to mention health and suit batteries.

The Striders don't actively shoot your Magnusson Devices, but the Hunters do. And if you're trying to toss that thing onto a Strider with two or three Hunters firing at you and the Device, just...stop, and kill the Hunters. Use the Pulse Rifle energy cores, SMG grenades, rockets, double-barrel shooting with the shotgun, throw logs with the gravity gun, crossbow, .357, run them over...you have way more than enough to deal with them.

And if you're not using your vehicle to pinpoint the locations of Striders as they arrive or just to locate any you missed or just not using it at all, you are Doing It Wrong.

 

[jacilon]

yeah i remember that!....

The house exploding looked cool though right?

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I hated that fucking part. I played on Easy and used the gun on the vehicle (I think) to take down the little ones but I was nowhere near the achievement where you protect all of the houses. That just seems insane to me, more so than the garden gnome thing. Don't really care for the Half Life series though.

 

[Ekonk]

Really? I thought it was fucking amazing. It's really a final, desperate battle and it shows. It's hard, yeah, and a little panic inducing if you have to get bombs again, et cetera, but I think it's one of the best parts of the Half-Life series.

 

[Lilani]

Once you get it figured out it's not so bad. You run the hunters over with the car (shoot them only as a last resort) and only then can you take the striders down. Otherwise the hunters shoot down the bombs. It did take me a few tries, and I was rather frustrated, but in hindsight I rather enjoyed the challenge.

 

[Danny Ocean]

Oh and I'm playing the 360 version because this is before I had Steam (which is awesome) and therefore cannot use cheats and also I'm on the hardest difficulty.

Well then turn it down. Duh.

Also you know that there's mini-dispensors in each of the forward shacks, right? You don't need to go *allll* the way back.

 

[Ditzydoo]

Took me about 30mins of dieing and reloading before figuring out "My car kills hunters, LOL!" and thus making it easier, granted it dont make it a cake walk, but it does become easier if you just run hunters over and then get behind the striders

But yeh just relax, eat a muffin and then go back and kick some flank!

 

[Owlslayer]

I got it on the second time, tho i did fool around a bit on the first time. But yeah, i just ran over all the Hunters or whatnot, wasn't that difficult. And once you get behind the striders, they don't really give a shit what you do.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Ok, seeing that this thread is still floating about I will add some tips for you.

1) Hunters are hard to bring down with conventional weapons as stated by Valve's developer commentary. However the commentary also states that they are weak to physical impacts aka your car, a large log/random piece of scenery thrown by the gravity gun. (Try to get some flechettes that the hunters fire on your object you are going to throw, using an object with then imbbeded on it will score you an instant kill if it connects.)

2) You can yank out more than one Magnusson Device at a time, just move them out of the building and you should still be able to grab them even after a strider kills the teleporter. (note: pulling out over a dozen bombs and leaving will not work, the game will just deleate them when you leave, just pull out three or four.

3) Alt-fire for the SMG and the pulse rifle are good choices for Hunters as well.

4) Get behind the Striders when launching the bombs, they do not attack targets behind them unless you just planted a Magnusson Device on them from behind.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

It's easier when you kind of mix up your arsenal. Once I realized three rocket hits were still enough to take down a Strider, that whole battle become less grueling and more intense enemy and space management and control. It's a really well-designed level, it gets quite emergent quite fast despite its wave-based nature, and makes me quite excited for if Valve ever decides to push themselves to make non-linear games.

 

[Pakkie]

LOL change the difficulty to easy dude....
BTW I finished this first try, on hardest difficulty on PC.
The HL2 ports to consoles weren't done with the best care and had no actual balance done to them to make them work better for consoles, it was just a direct port, imo you'd be better off having the "intended experience" and switch to PC. Or go on an easier difficulty...

 

[Aeryn Seoung]

I highly anticipate the time when I have to do that part. I can only imagine that I'd be hyper and excited through the first couple of deaths, and then go on to rage. ^^;

It just looks like... so much fun.

 

[Gauntes]

guess saying that I had little difficulty in that mission wouldn't really contribute too much to this thread

 

[XMark]

I played it in hard mode - I do remember getting quite frustrated and dying a lot, but I made it through eventually. Just try to learn something each time you die

 

[McMullen]

I've been playing HL2:EP2 and I'm on the part where you have to takedown the striders with the Magnussons and it has got to be the worst,hardest,most frustrating thing I have ever played in a Half-Life ever or maybe even any shooter. Now don't get me wrong I love Half-Life and Valve and own every one of there games except Portal 2, but this is what makes me what to slap Gabe Newell so hard his eyes switch places. Your supposed to grab Magnussons (the sticky bombs) and launch them at Striders with the gravity gun while hunters shoot at you, they also shoot the bombs, Striders shoot at you and the bombs, the Striders are faster than you, the hunters are much faster than you and guard the Striders,you have to constantly grab the bomb put on the thing on the back of your car drive ALL THE WAY over to FUCKING Strider and then your bomb gets blown the FUCK up and you have to drive all the way FUCKING back and get DAMN bomb.To me that is just frustration in its purest form and it doesn't help when the car you drive is so twitchy that driving it feels like you pulling teeth, and trying to kill hunters feels like I'm lacerating my own genitals with a rusty tin can. I just hope that HL2:EP3 when it comes out in 2045 it will have balanced levels and fights, but what I want to know is what your experience with this level was like and if share the same frustration with me.Oh and I'm playing the 360 version because this is before I had Steam (which is awesome) and therefore cannot use cheats and also I'm on the hardest difficulty.

First rule of game difficulty: If it seems ridiculously hard, examine the possibility that you might be doing it wrong.

For example, I don't think I ever died, failed, or had to adjust the difficulty. I just started killing all the hunters in each pack before attacking the Strider, and then getting the Strider from behind. Run the hunters over with the car if you can, and if you miss, consider getting out and using the gravity gun and rocks/logs/whatever to finish them off. Use the alt-fire of the AR3 if you need them dead fast.

If anything, I was disappointed that the Striders were nerfed in EP2. In HL2 and HL2 E1, they were so insanely lethal that the first time I fought one, I was wondering if I was supposed to kill them or just run for my fucking life. I like enemies that can cause epic Oh Crap moments just by showing up.

Running around in the open in E2 with a Strider in view and not expecting to die immediately just didn't feel right.

 

[Sewer Rat]

If I recall correctly the logs nearby that can be picked up with the Grav Gun does absolutely ABSURD ammounts of damage, by which I mean it can kill hunters with one or two hits. So spam those away and focus the magnesuns on the striders. Oh and make sure you carry one on the rack of your car, you are going to need it.