Chapter 10: Entanglement

After falling through that hole, you’ve entered the next level. It’s not a very flashy transition, but it works. In this level, you spend a lot of time with Alyx. As such, all you need to do is follow her. She’s invincible so don’t worry about her dying, but she’s also very useful so stick close. Alyx carries a powerful machine pistol, and she’s a great shot with it. She’ll also open locked doors, turn off force fields, and tell you where to go. Because of this, a lot of times this review won’t tell you specifically what direction in which to travel since Alyx does it for you.

When you land, walk straight and you’ll drop down another level; don’t worry about on which side of the fence you fall because it doesn’t matter. Keep going and you’ll see Alyx at a console just as a train speeds by. She runs off, but you’ll catch up shortly. Drop down once more and you’ll be under the tracks. Head off in the only direction possible and you’ll hear someone fighting combine. Alyx sees you 1 and directs you to a point where you can meet up with her. At that point, start following her guidance.

Shortly after meeting with Alyx, she’ll guide you away from the train tracks and to an elevator. When it stops, there will be several combine waiting for you. Help Alyx kill them and continue following her. She’s looking for her father and stops at a console on your right to locate his pod then redirect to where she can talk to him. After she shuts off the adjacent force field, your next path will be up a flight of steps on the right; two combine come down it just as you approach so be ready with your shotgun and double-tap them in the face. It’s your best bet at not suffering massive injury.

As you continue on, you’ll encounter a few more combine. Just around the corner is a small closet-type thing with no door: inside are some supplies. Alyx leads you into a small chamber where Eli is waiting in his pod. After a boring dialogue, Alyx lets you through the next door and leaves you to your own devices, more or less; she still helps guide you over a radio. Down the steps is a door on the left with supplies and some fast headcrabs 2. In the next section, you have to wait a bit for Alyx to open the gate that’s blocking your path 3. Once through, she’ll guide you to the right down that hall, but don’t go there. Instead, ignore her and go into the little guard shack. There’s a vent behind the big wooden bookshelf thing standing against the back wall 4, 5 (when Alyx realizes you can’t go anywhere to the right, she directs you here).

Inside the vent, three headcrabs await you. Blast them with your shotgun and show them who’s boss. You. At the end of the vent, you have to be careful not to drop out immediately. There’s a trip mine just underneath. Also, there are a bunch of fast headcrabs in the room the vent empties into 6. You can do three things to remedy this: roll a grenade out, get a head crab to jump into it, or pull an object through it. So, now that you’ve dispatched with the trip mine and ventilated all the fast headcrabs, drop out of the vent shaft and into the room. There are a few supplies here.

Upon exiting this room, Alyx directs you to the guard shack in front of you. When you enter it, there will be a grenade crate to your right. Also, lots of combine are headed towards you. Use the grenades to blast them to smithereens and then lob a few more down the hall for posterity’s sake. Actually, there are some turrets down there and a few more combine may come after you from the door on the left. However, there are some combine waiting for you "over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go”—err, around the corner and through the door. There is another doorway: directly to the right, pressed up against the wall is yet another combine. Then behind the force field are two more combine. That’s definitely more combine than you can shake a stick at. Now comes the challenge. How the heck do you get past that force field? The answer is "elementary, my dear Watson.” Go to the left side of the field, press up against it, and lob a grenade into the doorway you’ll be able to see 7. When it detonates, it will blast the plug off the wall.

Traverse the hallway and directly on your right behind a crate and corner will be a turret. You won’t see it until you round the corner so be careful! At the end of the hallway are two more turrets 8. There are some supplies down there, but get them at your own risk. The suggested way to do this would be to lob grenades at the turrets to knock them down. Go down the hallway to your left and climb the stairs. There are two combine inside the room, but they’re not paying attention. Shoot them and listen for Alyx. She’ll tell you that combine are on the way. Use the two turrets in the storage locker 9 to help defend the room. Set one up at each entranceway (to the left and right of where you came in), but slightly inside the room. This will help avoid having them shot over by a combine.

Some manhacks will fly in, and if you look out the window across from where you came in a combine will show up there. Once everything is dead, Alyx falls through a vent in the ceiling 10. Gather the supplies and charge your suit and health as she looks for Judith and uncovers a secret garden. Not really, but it’s something that hits you like…like…hmm, can’t think of anything not really clichéd so we’ll leave it at it hits you like a rocket-propelled Mac truck, driven by the Incredible Hulk…with Bigfoot as his passenger…speeding down an icy road…yeah, that sounds good. Needless to say, this outrages Alyx who then demands you go on a murderous rampage. Wishful thinking. But you are sent off on your own again to help Alyx find her father and Judith.

Note: Several parts ahead again make use of turrets that help you. At one such point, it would be easier if you had four turrets, but you’re only given two. If you’d like, carry one of the turrets with you, either with the gravity gun or by hand (they’re light enough to pick up simply by pressing "use” next to it). It will make your journey somewhat slower, but it will be better in the long run.

Climb down the stairs, pass through where the force field was on (Alyx shuts it off for you), and go left. At the end of the hallway, clear all the rubble away from the door and go through 11. Descend the stairs and in a little room on the left will be three headcrabs and some supplies. Next you’ll pass through two doors and enter a big room that’s flooded. To make matters worse (though what could be worse than wet shoes?) the water is electrified. Something broke exposing live wires to the water. Once more you’ll be playing a favorite kids’ game of many little ones, except this time it will be "The floor is made of electrified water that hurts when you touch it so don’t touch it or you’ll get hurt, and it will be painful.”

The best plan of action is not to go down the steps, for starters, nor should you go down the ladder because that leads right to the deadly water (but save first!!). If you look to your left right after entering the room, you’ll see a pipe. Hop onto it, but watch you’re head: two headcrabs will try to latch onto it. With luck, they’ll miss and land in the electrified water, dying instantly. Drop from the pipe onto the console below and jump to the platform across from it 12. Here you can walk around safely because it’s high and dry. Look for a big object (like a crate or blue barrel) and take it with you to the end of the platform. Gently toss it (if it’s breakable, like a crate) to a point in between you and the stairs in front of you. Leap to the object and onto the stairs. If this doesn’t work, load the game and try again until you make it.

The next area you reach contains several sleeping zombies and two paths: one straight ahead and the other to the right. Go straight first because there is a health charger and also some supplies. Kill the zombies while they’re sleeping then go down the next path. Traverse the steps and go through the door on the left 13; don’t continue climbing. Using the gravity gun, push the barricade out of your way and go left, ascending the next steps. In the guard shack there are some supplies. Before you go to the next place, save and prepare for an intense fight. Go to the first balcony (the one next to the stairs) and shoot the two combine, one level with you and one on the ground below. Next, hop down. Alyx comes over the radio and warns that a boatload of combine are on the way, but neglects to tell you they’re bringing manhacks with them. Immediately to the left is a small area with three friendly turrets and two chargers. Up the hall, in the middle, is a crate with MP7 ammunition 14 and further along on either side are other supplies.

This is where it helps to have brought a turret along with you. Set up two turrets facing the gates closest to the chargers (but a few feet away) and the other two (if you brought one) behind them. Once you do this, force fields are raised and the combine start swarming. You job is to survive and to do this you need to keep the turrets up. The combine will throw grenades at them and shotgun-toting ones will make mad dashes at them to knock them over (which is why it helps to have four). If you didn’t bring the turret with you, stay near the area where there is only a single turret and watch its blind side. If you save often and carefully manage the usage of both chargers 15, you should survive fine. There really is no other strategy that this guide can help you with; it can’t fight the battle for you. Note: you may want to bring a turret along.

When the entire combine force is dead, Alyx appears 16 and doesn’t leave your side until the next level. She’ll open the gate, giving you access to two other chargers. Recharge completely then follow her to your imminent doom…err, to the next section. Here, the lights are shut off while combine get into position then red flares are fired off to provide some illumination. Help Alyx kill the combine then follow her to the next area where you find Judith 17. After giving Judith a strong talking-to 18, Alyx leads you into the teleportation chamber, where yet another epic battle is about to occur. A few moments of dull talking ensues before Judith kidnaps Eli in his pod and escapes 19. While you wait with Alyx for the teleporter to recharge, combine appear to attempt to turn you into Swiss cheese. You get more turrets to help 20, which is why it was suggested in the previous paragraph to carry one along again.

There are three recommended areas to set up the turrets. Place two (one if you didn’t bring one along) facing the main doors across from where the turrets were stored; another should go in front of the door you entered through, facing away from the storage area; the fourth (or third if you didn’t carry one with you) in between the console Judith was at and the teleporter, facing that door. For the most part, you’ll be able to let the turrets do all the work, but make sure they stay up. This is critical to survival and making sure you don’t run out of ammunition. When the teleporter is charged, make a mad dash for it. Once inside with Alyx, you’ll be safe from injury for a bit.

After the teleport sequence, you end up in Dr. Kleiner’s lab. A period of talking goes on, during which time nothing will hurt you. You learn about what happened, you get your next task, and you find Dog. He’ll help you in the next section for a little bit. If you remember the layout of Kleiner’s lab from the beginning of the game, you’ll find a charger in the same spot; if you don’t remember, it’s next to the door to his teleport chamber. Near the end of the conversation, you find out that Alyx is leaving you once again because Kleiner refuses to leave without his pet headcrab LaMarr, and Alyx won’t leave him alone because it isn’t safe. So she opens the door for you, which leads to a small hallway. There are supplies on either side, including an ammunition crate. When ready, drop down the elevator shaft on your left, and you're done with the level!

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