Road transport
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| Road transport | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Faction | |
| Type | |
| Used by | |
Road transport is, in the barest of sense, vehicles adapted for road use, although some may also possess off-road capabilities. Road transport is featured commonly in the Half-Life series as both a mode of transport as well as obstacles or cover.
Contents
Types of road transport[edit]
Road vehicles, existing in the Half-Life and Portal universe, are wide-ranging, featuring varieties with either threaded wheels or rubber tires, and encompassing cars, trucks, APCs and tanks.
Half-Life and its expansions[edit]
The selection of road vehicles available in Half-Life are confined to those used by the Black Mesa Research Facility, as well as the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit and Black Ops. None of the vehicles can be driven, but some of them feature functional armaments (i.e. turrets) or contain supplies.
Road transport in the Research Facility relies on Black Mesa SUVs, used as an alternative to the Transit System for above ground transport, and Black Mesa trucks, armored vehicles transporting goods that require special care.
Both the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit and the Black Ops use M44 cargo trucks to transport personnel and equipment. The M1A1 Abrams, a main battle tank, and the M2A3 Bradley, a military infantry fighting vehicle, are only used by the HECU.
Half-Life 2 and its episodes[edit]
With the inclusion of the Combine and the Resistance as the two factions in Half-Life 2, the player is introduced to a new range of road vehicles affiliated with those two groups.
Whilst the player has no control of Combine vehicles, the Resistance owns several controllable road vehicles constructed using salvaged parts. The Resistance's vehicles in particular are integral to two storyline arcs in Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode Two, during which they are used by the player to traverse great distances to a particular destination. The vehicles are indicated to be of utmost importance to the missions, as the player automatically fails if he manages to lose the vehicles by dropping them onto off-limits areas of the map (i.e. deep water or cliffs). They include the Scout Car, used on the Coast, and the Muscle Car, used in the Outlands.
The Combine notably uses Armored Personnel Carriers, which feature pulse rifles and guided rocket launchers, and Advisor Platforms, needed to transport the Advisor pod. Interestingly, the second version of the APC, apparently based on the American V-100, can be seen above a crushed car in the Half-Life 2 chapter Anticitizen One.
In addition, civilian car wrecks exist throughout much of the games. These wrecks are primarily used as obstacles to the player, but may also be punted as heavy projectiles or used to plug Antlion Soldier holes in Half-Life 2: Episode One, both with the aid of the Gravity Gun; at the beginning of the episode, Gordon and Alyx are thrown inside a car wreck by Dog over a pit near the Citadel. Moreover, the car traps in Ravenholm employ wrecks to crush Zombies. With the exception of the hatchback wrecks, most road vehicle wrecks featured are East European in origin.
Portal[edit]
Although the game features no vehicles, a parking lot can be seen outside the Aperture Science Enrichment Center.
Related Achievements[edit]
| Half-Life 2: Episode One | |
|---|---|
|
Car Crusher (5G) |
| Use the cars to squash 15 Antlions in Episode One. | |
Behind the scenes[edit]
Half-Life 2 was originally to feature more road vehicles. These include several brush sedans, vans, and trucks, the AirEx Truck, which was to be seen in the Air Exchange, School Buses, apparently to be used by the Combine as the primary local Citizen transportation in City 17, Merkava, a Combine battle tank, and the Combine SWAT Truck, which can be found as concept art in Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar.
During the development of Half-Life 2, John Guthrie created a number of experimental vehicles. One of them, called the AOD Jeep, in reference to The Oldsmobile featured in the movie Army of Darkness, had a spinning propeller blade attached which severed Zombies in half, and was said to be a source of great fun.[1]
The Episode Two car was originally a Volkswagen Beetle in a poor condition, named "Jalopy". The team decided to redesign it so that players would feel excited rather than disappointed when they saw the car.[2]
An open-air Aperture Science car, originally appearing as a baggage tractor in the Left 4 Dead series, was to be seen in a diorama exhibit sequence cut from Portal 2. It features two seats and an "Area 20" label on the front and the back.
Gallery[edit]
Half-Life[edit]
Models[edit]
Decay model, without windows.
Screenshots[edit]
Lifted Black Mesa SUV in a garage of the Topside Motorpool.
Bennett, Simmons, Rosenberg and Calhoun on their way to freedom and safety outside the Black Mesa South Access Tunnel.
Half-Life 2[edit]
Pre-release[edit]
Models[edit]
Concept art of a Moskvitch 2140 by Eric Kirchmer.
Car studies by Eric Kirchmer.
Brush sedan from the WC map pack. Appears to be a 1987-1990 Chevrolet Caprice.
Brush van from the WC map pack. Appears to be a 1986-1995 Chevrolet G20.
Brush pickup truck from the WC map pack. Appears to be a worn out Ford F-Series flatbed, mixed with a first generation Chevrolet C10.
Unfinished car brush found in the WC map pack map
cave_canyon08.
Textures sheet of the previous car with an alternate front (taken off wrecks of a 1952 Buick Super, a 1954 DeSoto Firedome, and a 1942 Dodge D22).
Volkswagen Golf Mk2 wreck, blue variant.
Ditto, orange variant.
Ditto, red variant.
Ditto, white variant.
Ditto, yellow variant.
Heavily damaged version, blue variant.
Ditto, orange variant.
Ditto, red variant.
Ditto, white variant.
Ditto, yellow variant.
Sedan, white variant. Appears to have main body shape taken from a Lada, and front textures taken from a 1964-1965 Chevrolet Malibu.
Sedan, red variant.
Sedan, turquoise variant.
Sedan, beige variant.
Sedan, dark gray variant.
Trabant wreck.
Mini Cooper wreck.
Ditto, with damaged roof.
Ditto, sans roof.
The AirEx Truck, with fan-made textures.
Avia A31 truck wreck.
Unimog truck.
ZiS 5 truck wreck.
The E3 2003 Scout Car (Fan-made restoration).
Screenshots[edit]
Brush sedan, pickup truck and van in the WC map pack.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Car, truck and school bus wrecks at Eli's den.
Car wrecks near the Manhack Arcade in the map
c17_04_38.
Wrecks in a Ravenholm church prefab map (
proto_church).
Trucks blocking the road to New Little Odessa.
V-100 APC and several car wrecks in the map
e3_seafloor.
Sending a car flying with two weld tanks attached to it with the Physgun in the map
dangerted.
Retail[edit]
Models[edit]
The Scout Car.
The Combine APC.
Volkswagen Golf Mk2 wreck, orange variant.
Ditto, yellow variant.
Heavily damaged version, red variant.
Ditto, blue variant.
Trabant wreck, white variant.
Heavily damaged version, red variant.
Moskvitch 2140 wreck, yellow variant.
Heavily damaged version, blue variant.
Volga GAZ-24 wreck, white variant.
Heavily damaged version, blue variant.
ZAZ-968 Zaporozhets wreck, green variant.
Heavily damaged version, white variant.
RAF-2203 Latvija van wreck, white variant. Under the right taillight can be seen a Lambda symbol.
Ditto, blue variant.
Avia A31 truck wreck, blue variant.
Ditto, green variant.
LIAZ Škoda 706 RT truck wreck.
GAZ-53 truck wreck.
Exploded tanker.
V-100 APC.
Construction trailer.
Small trailer.
Ditto.
Bicycle.
Sedan on one page of The Terminal.
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Screenshots[edit]
Volkswagen wreck in the Wasteland.
Used in a car trap in Ravenholm.
Car wrecks at Shorepoint.
Wrecked vehicles blocking the road near Dock 137.
The V-100 APC as seen in the Half-Life 2 chapter Anticitizen One.
Half-Life 2 episodes[edit]
Models[edit]
RAF-2203 Latvija van wreck, red variant, featured at the start of Episode One.
The Episode Two Jalopy (Fan-made restoration).
The Episode Two Muscle Car.
Hyster 35 forklift wreck featured in Episode Two. In one of the instances, it is equipped with a working fork.
Truck from the cancelled Half-Life 2 Episode Ravenholm. Appears to be restored version of LIAZ Škoda 706 RT wreck.
Screenshots[edit]
Van thrown by Dog at the beginning of Episode One.
Alyx inside the van.
An Advisor Platform pulled by an APC in Episode Two.
The Muscle Car waiting to be retrieved near car wrecks in Episode Two.
Supply crates equipped with Transponders, hidden in a car in Episode Two. The Lambda symbol previously mentioned can be seen under the right taillight.
Half-Life: Alyx[edit]
|
Riga ad.
Portal and Portal 2[edit]
Pre-release[edit]
Car wrecks inside the ruined Enrichment Center, in the second, fourth, and fifth frame.
The diorama car.
Ditto.
Retail[edit]
The parking lot of the Aperture Science Enrichment Center.
List of appearances[edit]
Main games[edit]
- Half-Life
- Half-Life: Opposing Force
- Half-Life: Blue Shift
- Half-Life: Decay
- Half-Life 2
- Half-Life 2: Episode One
- Half-Life 2: Episode Two
- Portal (Car park only)
- Half-Life: Alyx
Other[edit]
- Half-Life: Day One (First appearance)
- Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
- PotatoFoolsDay ARG
References[edit]
- ↑ Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar (uncorrected proof), page 330
- ↑ Half-Life 2: Episode Two commentary
