Half-Life 2/Our Benefactors

Welcome to Our Benefactors, the thirteenth and penultimate level of Half Life 2.

The Citadel
Head down the tunnel to the end and pick up the medkits. There's a big chasm ahead, so you need to take another route. Turn to your left and drop to the rock below. Follow the rock ledges down until you reach a slanted rock, jump across and use this rock to slide to the ledge below. Jump across to the left and onto the next ledge. Go to the end of this ledge, drop onto the pipe to your right and jump onto the moving platform when it's up as high as it goes. Jump to the floor to your right and go left up the slope into the Citadel. Go forward through several doorways while avoiding the moving parts of the Citadel and drop down at the end to a thin passageway.

Follow the passage to the end, where you will be in a chamber with transport pods moving along a rail to the left above you. Find your way between the walls while following the general route of the pods by following the path left, right, left to the wall, right across the metal and onto the next path, left, left, right, to the end and drop to the next floor. Go straight ahead through the metal beams to the end of the path and drop to the floor below. Go straight ahead to the end and slightly to your left in front of you are two lines of transport pods opening and closing. You need to get into one of the pods on the far side, as the nearer pods go into a matter disintegration beam which kills you.

The first transport pod
Go to the other side of the second line of pods, turn around and face the second line, and when you are ready to move on "use" the pod. You will be carried through the Citadel for around three and a half minutes and through a loading screen, giving you the opportunity to see scanners, stalkers, striders, Combine, bug ships and trains on your journey. When your journey ends, your pod will open and drop you into a confiscation field and a loading screen.

A side effect of the confiscation field
In the confiscation field, all your weapons will be taken and destroyed, with the exception of the gravity gun. The field transforms it into something new - an organic gravity gun. Pick up the gun and prepare to deal with the Combine who approach from ahead. The first trigger of the improved gravity gun allows you to pull much bigger objects to you, and the second trigger sends out a much stronger energy beam. If you pull Combine towards you and then throw the body at another Combine, the energy will be transferred and will kill the others it makes contact with.

Head down the passage into an open chamber. Turn left and charge your health and suit at the dispenser. From here on, a single dispenser will restore your health to 100 and your suit to the new high of 200. This Combine technology will serve you well as you turn it back onto your oppressors. Dr. Breen will make his first of several appearances on the screens here with personal messages for you as you progress. He clearly gets more annoyed at your presence with each successive message. If you want, you can rip the consoles and screens from their fixings, and throw them at your enemies or use them as shields.

Kill the Combine and follow the walkway around to the right, go forward and left into the next chamber, killing more Combine as you progress. Follow the walkway on the left to the next chamber, kill the scanner and listen to Dr. Breen. Go through the doorway towards the matter disintegration field and jump over the fence to the level below. Kill the Combine and dispose of the bodies in the matter disintegration field if you wish.

Follow the passage ahead and slightly to the right to a green button. "Use" the button to activate a lift up to the next floor. kill the Combine and remove the energy ball from the generator to take down the forcefield. Go forward, right into the passage and recharge your health and suit at the dispenser on the wall to the right. Go into the next chamber, kill the Combine and pull out the energy ball from the generator to lower the forcefield. Go past the energy beams into the next room, up the stairs, charge your health and suit at the dispenser on the right wall, and go forward to a loading screen.

"It is you alone..."
In the next chamber you hear from Dr. Breen. Kill the Combine and manhacks, "use" the button on the heptagon to call the lift and recharge your health and suit at the dispenser. Kill the Combine, manhacks and scanners while you wait for the lift to arrive. When you get onto the lift platform in the centre of the room, a forcefield will go up around you and you will start your ascent. Combine will attack you on your way up. The lift will stop twice on the way up until you've finished off your enemies, and will stop a third and final time at your destination floor.

Kill the Combine and remove the energy ball from the generator to drop the forcefield around the lift. Dr. Breen will make another appearance on the screens. Head into the passage ahead and to the left, charge your health and suit at the dispenser, and carry on through the passage. Kill the Combine which come from the passage with the forcefield and carry on into the next chamber, where there is an matter disintegration field in the centre. Go out of the chamber through the passage on the other side of the disintegrator, down the passage, left at the end, charge your health and suit at the dispenser on the right, and go right at the end of the passage.

Dr. Breen appears on the screens again, before you drop to the next level and head forward. Use the cover available while you take out the Combine. Sprint to beyond the second bridge and destroy the strider with the energy balls from the tubes either side of you. Go into the chamber, where Dr. Breen makes a final appearance on the giant screen. Pull out the energy ball from the generator beyond the forcefield and drop down to a loading screen.

Charge your health and suit at the dispenser at the far end, go up the stairs on the left, into the next chamber and "use" the transport pod. This second transport pod journey, lasting about two minutes, takes you past a security beam, which triggers a scanner. You go higher and higher past stalkers, bug ships and giant bugs, and after seeing the city far below you, you will get to another loading screen for the next, final level - Dark Energy.