RandomGuy

Most likely. Falling from a high height would work for some of them, especially the first one you see dead, who is slumped over the ledge of a tiny island barely big enough to stand on, with blood everywhere. Starvation would work as an excuse for a few as well, namely the ones in isolated areas with no blood. But most are dead in fresh pools of blood next to hostile aliens, so "beaten to death" will be the most likely cause of death (or "crushed to death/perforated" in Big Momma's case). Speaking of Xen, having replayed the levels the other day, I predict it will take the following episodes for him to get through the chapters: "Xen": 1. It's very short. Even if he lollygags around and talks to himself for a while, it can easily be completed in under ten minutes. Plus, that last teleporter is a natural ending point (not sure why Freeman would jump in, though). "Gonarch's Lair": 1. With the x2.5 damage (or thereabouts) FM!Freeman has on his weapons, the Gonarch shouldn't take very long, as the chapter's length mainly comes from Big Momma being a tank. Also, there's no good ending point in between the start and end of the chapter, while there's a very good one (in the form of another teleporter) at the very end. It could possibly be two, with Freeman ending episode 63 in one of those crevices in the second stage of the fight, and killing the Gonarch in 64, but I doubt it. "Interloper": 5. The first two islands (the big one with the mantas and the smaller one with the Garg respectively) are each just long enough take up their own episodes, if he takes his time, and separated by teleporters to boot. The factory comes right after that, and it's by far the longest 'level' of this chapter. I predict this will take two episodes at a minimum (he could complete it in that time if he doesn't take his time TOO much, and they're long episodes), four at maximum, but most likely three (somewhat depends on how many optional areas he explores). "Nihilanth": No idea. More than one episode, at least. Really depends on how long Freeman talks to himself, how long he takes to realize the Nihilanth's gimmick, and how many times he gets teleported.

I actually liked it... I guess most people do, given its ratings and reviews. Nope. I haven't even updated the mod as of yet (nor have I posted in the relevant thread, but you know that part). I'll probably do so soon, just playing other games right now. Also, every time a new Freeman's Mind episode comes out, I just feel the need to go back and play HL:S, starting from where the episode ended, so that's taken up my Half-Life-craving side lately. Not sure why. I guess so I can see how much of the game is left.

Essentially, the joke was that there was no joke. You didn't mention 2006 (or other years, but using just that one makes it sound more random), so I made it sound like there was something that kept it forbidden from being mentioned, when really there wasn't.

I just want to see his reaction to all the dead HEV-suited corpses. I replayed the Xen levels recently, and there a LOT. Half of them are in pools of blood, half of them aren't, and all of them have containers loaded with weapons. They all also have helmets. Actually, now that I think about it, I wonder how those scientists in the Vort cave got killed in Ross's version of the game, since he's been more or less playing Freeman off as being immune to alien projectiles. Were they all killed be melee attacks? That's a plausible explanation, but Freeman seems to have forgotten how damn strong these aliens really are. Or maybe he just never cared and thought that being able to smash through heavy steel doors and thick concrete with your bare hands wasn't impressive. Another thing I just thought of: Freeman said this in episode 21: "This probably leads to a room filled with poison gas and a bunch of dead people who look just like me, but I don't KNOW that, so there's room for hope I guess". There actually is a room just like that on Xen. It's in a cave, with spikes closing in and blocking the exit, with weird plant things shooting green crap that gives you toxic damage. There's an HEV-suited corpse in the same room.

It was a joke.

2006 is forbidden to mention. We all know why. Also, what if it's 2000?

"Of course, you owe us nothing." Freeman sees this as a way out of Black Mesa, which he's been trying to do this entire time. The scientist's talk sounds like the middle of a discussion he's not up to speed on and I wanted to allocate more time to explaining that he's not the person they're looking for. Since he seems to be the dominant personality, he's hoping he can just get them to send him on his way instead. It would be like if you wandered into the investor meeting for General Motors. You're not sure what's going on, but you'll be happy to get a ride home from someone. I mean the real reason of course is the game gives me no other option, this is why I prefer being able to do more original videos rather than have to shoehorn in explanations. As for your analysis below, you're looking into it too much. It reminds me a quote I heard from a cop before: "Lawyers have weeks to go over decisions we have seconds to make." That's not just him being up to speed, it's him being outright told everything of importance and ignoring it. While the game only gives you the bare minimum, it still at least lets you know where the portal goes and why. So what if Freeman is the "dominant personality"? The scientists just told him the portal went to Xen, but that it was his choice whether or not to step in. They never mentioned they even could teleport him anywhere else (he has no reason to believe they can, given the limited nature of the teleporters he's seen so far), nor did they respond to his requests that they do. On top of that, they had no reason to send him to Massachusetts, and he knows that. Plus, aliens started pouring out of the portal the minute it started up, which should have immediately tipped Freeman off, and they have absolutely no one else to send, especially since Freeman just made off with all their heavy weapons, and the last crews they sent were killed by aliens (which Freeman will notice very quickly when he finds HEV-suited and weapon-toting corpses, in pools of their own blood, next to hostile Vortigaunts and Grunts, not to mention Big Momma; looking forward to that). Am I really? They just told him that they needed him to go kill the powerful alien controlling the rift. They also said that they sent survey teams to Xen, who "collected some handsome specimens... before being collected themselves, anyway", and mention that this was the supply depot for said teams. This depot is teeming with guns, heavy weapons, and HEV suits, which Freeman takes note of. I guess Freeman could have just not been paying attention, but "we've sent people to another dimension before, and most of them died" seems like something that'd be really hard to miss. There's a difference between not being perfectly logical and what Freeman did here in regards to the scientists and the teleporter. He's at least shown enough sense not to get himself killed so far, so he should show enough sense to know what the teleporter did, rather than completely making up a solution in his mind and assuming the scientists are both able and willing to go along with it, despite them having no reason to do so, and them never taking back their statement that they'd send him to Xen. The Controllers pouring out of the portal is just icing on the cake; he still jumped in. Plus, his low blood sugar hasn't been mentioned as an explanation by Ross (in fact, he specifically mentioned that he glossed over the potential effects of Freeman's journey so far), nor has it been brought up when it would be very noticeable before (Freeman just makes the occasional comment about being hungry). So I doubt that's the explanation. I'll wait until the next episode until I say more, though. For reals this time. Yep. No ifs, ands, or buts.

Here's the thing, though: why does Freeman think they'll do anything other than teleport him to Xen, like they said they were going to? What reason would they have for doing that? If he doesn't trust the guy apparently in charge of the Xen expeditions about the nature and number of the alien creatures, why does he trust him enough to jump into a teleporter? The scientist just told him that other Black Mesa personnel who went to Xen got killed by the aliens, even though the depot is loaded with HEV suits and heavy weaponry, and he also pretty much said that sending one guy via this teleporter was the world's only hope. Combine this with the fact that apparently no one in Black Mesa outside of this section knows about teleportation technology (Freeman didn't, after all), along with the fact that the only other potential candidates for going to Xen are a couple of geezers and a rent-a-cop, and I'm not sure what Freeman was thinking. You can say he just didn't believe a word the scientist said, but that brings us back to point 1. When I was first playing HL1, I didn't have much of an idea of what was going on, but I could at least tell that not killing the Nihilanth = bad for Earth, because that's what the scientist tells you. I'll wait until the next episode until I say more, but for now I'm just kinda disappointed that Freeman bumbled in there by ignoring everybody's warnings and trusting people he apparently doesn't trust. He doesn't, but he doesn't actually acknowledge that at any point. He just thinks these guys with the teleporter are the best way to go, even though they outright said that if he went into that room, they'd teleport him to Xen. I question why he just ignores that warning, doesn't pay attention when they brush him off and don't respond to his requests, and jumps into the portal he sees aliens pouring out of, again after being just told that the portal leads to the alien dimension. The aliens are hiding in Xen. No one can reach them, except via the use of that one specific teleporter. And the not only was that teleporter deep inside a facility occupied by aliens, the place was about to get nuked. 1. The Lambda staff just told him Earth would be screwed if he didn't go through the portal. So, it wouldn't just be him who loses in that case. Maybe the aliens wouldn't outright conquer Earth, but their teleportation fuckery and deadly wildllife could make a mess of modern society, even if their actual military is eventually defeated. Besides, is Freeman really so sociopathic that he'd let the entire world die if he and only he could somehow survive it? As you said, what would he even spend his money on? 2. The scientist just told him it was the place the aliens were coming from. "This, Mr. Freeman, is a long jump module, created expressly for navigation in the world beyond. I certainly hope you received long jump training because once you're in Xen, you will need it". This comes right after they tell him that they're going to send him to the alien dimension, in case any more clarification was needed. He doesn't say any more, but what else does he need to say? 3. This brings us back to point 1: he doesn't trust the Lambda personnel about the aliens, even though this is their job and what they're saying is backed by what he's seen today (the wildlife are nasty, the aliens have a military, this military uses teleportation as a weapon, the US Army/Marines/whatever just got routed, the aliens are about to break out, etc.). Okay. Then why does he trust them to teleport him to Massachusetts? 4. Him thinking they were going to take him to Massachusetts is still the main issue here. He's at least gotten a little more unhinged. Unrelated: Freeman's going to be freaking out over the next two episodes. Not just because he's in an alien dimension, but because in the very first chapter (which should be one episode), you already encounter three dead HEV-suited scientists. At the start of the very next chapter, the area you're teleported into has ANOTHER dead HEV-suited adventurer loaded with weapons not five feet away from where you land. Freeman will probably wonder what killed him before the giant armored spider monster comes into the frame a few seconds later.

He did indeed say that........... but on what basis should Freeman believe that? No evidence was presented in that little info dump. Why would Freeman think he's the most capable person for doing this? He's bumbled around the facility for several days, almost always on the verge of death. Sure, the military unit sent in to deal with the situation was incompetent. That's not necessarily a sign that he's the last thing between the evil super-mega alien and the Earth. Thus far from what he's seen and observed. This is a failed small scale containment operation that happened because some squad of goons were sent in to kill the science team rather than stopping an alien invasion.......... Surely he would assume the most probable way of defeating this thing will be the full scale intervention of the military? On the same basis that he believes the scientist will do what he says and send him to Massachusetts? Unlike in the latter case, what reason does he have to assume the scientist isn't telling the truth? He would, if the scientist hadn't outright told him that one person needed to go through the portal to kill the Nihilanth. That's the only way they have to go to Xen. Freeman should know this. So how the hell does he expect the military to do shit against the aliens that can teleport anywhere and are invincible to retaliation?

Freeman is selfish, but he's not stupid. The guy in charge of the "teleport people to the alien planet" department just said that Earth was screwed if no one killed the Nihilanth. But my main problem isn't that, it's Freeman just jumping into the portal under the assumption that the scientists will do exactly what he said, even though none of them even responded, and aliens start pouring out of the portal the minute it starts up. Also, his enemies have bad luck, and he can sprint at 40 miles per hour while still accurately shooting a gun without looking down the sights. The manuals and the tutorial level implied he got some firearms training, but of course that wasn't the case here. Also, his suit isn't impenetrable; in this series specifically, it's seemingly more protective against lower level threats than it is in the games, while being more vulnerable to higher level threats, but the suit wasn't all there was to Freeman's success. Otherwise, those other HEV-suited scientists wouldn't have gotten killed by aliens (not that Freeman knows about them yet). For maybe a third of his journey, it didn't matter whether he had a suit or he didn't due to the enemies he faced not really caring (speaking of this series here, of course, where his suit is just really high quality plated body armor with some rubber). You know, soldiers with .50 BMG machine guns/mortars/rocket launchers/grenades/whatever, tanks, IFVs, super-strong aliens that can smash through concrete casually, 3 meter tall aliens that can take more damage than tanks and smash through thick metal doors bigger than them, horrid tentacle things hanging from the ceiling that choke their prey to death and eat them, three-story tall aliens with giant knives for faces that can gib armored humans, etc. He has survived (and killed) all these threats. So he has a reason to think that he's more qualified than the geezers and the rent-a-cop. Especially since he constantly brags about how athletic is, how badass he is, how death-defying his stunts are, and how much combat experience he's getting in a short time. It should also be mentioned that the scientist in the Lambda Complex just told him that the scientists they sent to Xen got killed. And he's in a place full of HEV suits. It doesn't take a lot of effort to connect the dots and see that they already tried sending people technically more qualified than Freeman there, with the same equipment, it just didn't work. Freeman also wonders why the lab has so many guns, when the scientist also told him that they were a supply depot for the Xen survey teams, and the guard told him to gear up. I know he doesn't pay much attention, but come on.

If I had allocated a little more time when recording I would have talked more about this (I may come back to it in the next episode), but the bottom line is they sort of thrust this information on you with no context at all. Besides for self preservation, who the hell says HE has to be the one to go in there and stop it? There are plenty more qualified people on Earth to handle it, plus it's assuming they know everything that's happening globally. The way I see it Freeman would rather take his chance on Earth than trust these clowns to teleport him to another part of the galaxy. This comes back down to Half-Life's story presentation, they give you the absolute bare minimum and you're just supposed to go along with it. I think a lot of people remember details that are plugged in later from HL2 or online supplements, when the game gives you almost nothing and you only have one option anyway. As for the teleportation rant, not every line is meant to be a laugh out loud event, there's always a bunch of space to fill and I try to mix it up with thoughts that might be interesting to follow. The thing is, the scientists (who should know what they're talking about, given their department) outright told him that if HE doesn't go there, there wouldn't be much to come home to. Meaning that not only is Earth fucked if the portals stay open, but no one else in the area is qualified enough to go to Xen, using their only Xen teleporter Which should be obvious, as there's like three guys in the Lambda Complex, none of which are as heavily armed or adept in combat as him. Everyone else has been killed by aliens, and all the doors are sealed. It doesn't really require knowledge of HL2 or the Laidlaw vault to recognize any of these things. At the very least, he should recognize that maybe millions of soldier aliens showing up in the middle of the United States along with highly deadly wildlife teleporting all over the Earth would be very bad. The aliens apparently teleport at will, so who's to say that he won't make it to New England only to have a Garg dropped on his head? And why wouldn't he trust these clowns to teleport him to Xen? He apparently trusted them enough to let them teleport him to the other side of the continent. This is despite the fact that he almost never trusts anybody, has repeatedly called all of Black Mesa incompetent, and never even got a response from the scientists who just told him that they'd teleport him to Xen. There's no real reason for him to think they'll follow through.

Gotta admit, this episode was pretty disappointing. I've been looking forward to this scene for a while, because I wanted to see how Freeman would react to being told that there's a single alien keeping the rift open, and that he has enough troops to threaten the whole Earth. More importantly, I wanted to see how he justified going to Xen given his personality so far. I'm not a fan of him just bumbling in there. It's bizarrely out of character, as it relies on Freeman completely trusting guys he called lemmings, and leaving Earth for the aliens. One, Freeman does not seem to trust anyone, least of all the Black Mesa staff, and it makes no sense for him to assume they'll do exactly what he says when they never took back their earlier statement that they're sending him to Xen if he goes in the teleportation room. Two, Freeman is selfish, but he has a sense of self-preservation. The Xen expedition staff flat-out told him that there wouldn't be much to come back to if the portals remained open. Even if they can't conquer the whole Earth, the aliens could inflict enough damage to effectively collapse modern society, via both the military invasion and the wildlife infestation, and Freeman knows this. Why would he think that getting to New England would stop that? As for the jokes themselves: I didn't laugh at Freeman's teleportation rant, which took up a good chunk of the episode. I did, on the other hand, find his interactions with the guard and scientist to be very funny. Especially his reaction to the Kleiner scientist packing a shotgun, and him insulting the Barney. Also disappointed to here that there will be no more Freeman's Mind any time soon. Of course, that probably translates to a lot of them in November.

Right, but if that was SO effective, wouldn't they? 1. It either explodes or there's some teleportation fuckery going on with it, which seems to be implied by what other Combine weapons do to people, as well as the small teleporter in Kleiner's lab having the same particle effect as the Combine weapons. Either way, it's definitely not weaker than a modern rifle, even if you ignore the feat of a turret using a weaker pulse projectile than it ripping a zombie in half. 2. Why would they have it? It's clearly a weapon designed for humans, who weren't part of the Universal Union prior to the war. Moreover, why would they even make humans use it if all the other guns they had were more effective? Their clothing isn't really baggy enough to fit those thick coats under. Alyx was given that health for game play reasons. If it was just a matter of them wanting the rebels to be more durable, they could have just modeled their costumes to give them armor on their arms and abdomen. Or just give them moderately less health than the CPs. Honestly, either way, it wouldn't matter, as 90% of the time they die to stuff that'd one-shot them regardless of whether they had 30 health or 40.

I'm aware of that, but of the rare firefights that cops get in, they almost never involve rifles. I really think you're underestimating the Pulse Rifle. The Combine automated turret (which fires weaker projectiles than the Pulse Rifle) split a zombie in half at one point, and the Pulse Rifle can kill the hard-plate wearing Combine Overwatch soldiers in a few shots. I never got the impression that it was just way, way weaker than a modern, real life rifle, otherwise the Combine would have just grabbed some rifles rather than wasting their time developing a useless piece of shit of a weapon system. And again, are their arms even armored? If that were the case, the rebels would wear the whole CP get-up rather than just the vest, and the developers wouldn't have given rebels and CPs the same amount of hit points.

The CPs and Overwatch, by default, hold their arms out in front of them to shoot their guns. That's how they always are in combat. In reality, assuming this position while in a firefight would make someone many times more durable to bullets? Again, is there even any evidence that the CPs are armored in their arms? If the CPs were armored anywhere other than their chests, where the thick vests are, I'd assume the rebels would wear the whole thing, and the CPs would be more durable than the rebels. In reality, is the default response in every firefight involving properly armored combatants to aim straight for the head, because any amount of fire to the torso would be worthless unless you want to burn whole magazines just to kill one guy? That's the thing though... if it's that simple, why isn't this everybody's default tactic in real life? If putting armor on your arms and holding them out in front of you enhanced your survival chances in a fight astronomically, as it does in the mod (where the CPs and Overwatch soldiers hold their arms out when firing, causing bullets to their torso to hit their arm hitboxes instead and do next to no damage), everyone should do it. Since they're so slow, ducking and weaving shouldn't be hard. I don't think I got hit at all in Ravenholm, and I mostly just used the crowbar.

So, yes? In real life, wearing armor on your arms and holding your arms in front of you makes you several times more durable in a firefight involving soft body armor, and in a firefight between guys in hard body armor, the default response should always be to aim for the head, because shooting the enemy in the torso with your assault rifle is useless? Also, now that I think about it, where you getting the CPs being armored everywhere on their torso, rather than just the chest? You'd think that if the CP uniforms were so protective, the rebels would take the whole thing rather than just the thick vests. The only concern I'd have is running out of AR2 ammo quickly when fighting the Overwatch... Ravenhom should still be a trivial matter if the crowbar can one-shot zombies.

Their arms are armored? So, in reality, the best survival tactic in a gunfight like this is to armor your arms, hold them out in front of you, and let them absorb bullets? That's what the CPs do here, and it more than doubles their durability if you aim for the torso. In any fight with them or the Overwatch, the default response becomes to aim solely at the head, because shooting them anywhere else does next to nothing, which is... a bit unrealistic, as far as I know. You're nerfing the amount you require per box, or the max amount you can carry?

The arm multiplier thing would be nice. Unless it's just way more realistic for CPs to take dozens of bullets to kill when they're holding their arms out to fire guns. I'm not sure if it is. Damn, that sounds ominous. I'm not annoying you by this point, am I? I try to respond as much as I can because you said you'd appreciate feedback.

That's good if you're going for realism, but just remember that it makes all of the levels where they're the main enemies kind of a joke. Nothing on the arms/chest things, huh? That's cool. While, logically, it makes no sense for the poison zombie to absorb so many bullets before it dies when you could just shoot the poison headcrab controlling it, that's just the way the game has it. I don't think this enemy was designed with the idea of simply being able to shoot the headcrab off in mind. Realistically, is the best option in a firefight to run up to someone, ignore their bullets, and send them flying by hitting them with a crowbar? I wouldn't say it's underpowered even in vanilla, it's just not a primary weapon. If you want to make it realistic, then go ahead, I'm just pointing out that, partly due to the physics system and the animations, making it do that much damage appears to have the opposite effect. sk_apc_missile_damage 15 I wasn't complaining about the shotgun being underpowered, as I'm aware that's the most realistic option, just pointing it out. Actually, I guess in-universe the shotgun has to be firing something abnormal. Normally I'd just dismiss its insane damage as a gameplay convenience, but in-universe, Alyx picks up a shotgun rather than an SMG or Pulse Rifle in the hospital, and the Combine give shotguns to the squad leaders (who wear a Combine Elite armband).

Not a huge one, but I just think that modifying the arm damage multipliers to be the same as the chest would solve a lot more problems than it causes. You don't suddenly become four times as resistant to all bullets shot at your torso by holding your arms in front of your armored chest. The game isn't DIFFICULT, as hitting the head is easy, especially with CPs, but it just bugs me when the average cop is taking dozens of bullets to kill unless I shoot them in the face. That's just by feedback. I have no problem with the leg or abdomen multipliers, just the arms. A Hunter-Chopper increase would be welcomed (like, a big one; it's not a boss anymore), but the APCs are fine as they are. They take two 9mm bullets to the head on Normal. That'd still be a bit low IMO. In base HL2, they're over three times more durable than a soldier. Not saying that you need to give them 500 health, but that should be a good indication of what their purpose is in-universe and in gameplay. Just saying, even when nerfed down to 40 damage the crowbar's kinda broken, killing CPs in 1-2 hits and sending them flying, killing Overwatch soldiers in 2-3, killing zombies in one, and making antlions explode with a single hit. For the rockets? I just checked the console in-game. The thing is, if you're close enough for that many pellets to connect, there's not a lot of reason not to two-shot them with the crowbar or shoot them in the head with another gun. As for conserving ammo: the pistol and SMG both have more common ammo, and the crowbar works just fine at that job.

1. Let me clarify: I don't think you should make all the damage multipliers the same. Just the arms and the chest, because the hitboxes often detect the bullets as hitting their arms a lot of the time, so it can get annoying when I'm clearly hitting them in the torso from as far as I can see, and yet still have to shoot them over two dozen times. I don't have any problem with the legs/abdomen multipliers. In fact, the same issue applies to the Overwatch soldiers. Their arms hitboxes apparently block their chest hitboxes. 2. I can, but only if I'm so close that I may as well just sprint towards them and one-shot them with the crowbar. Which is why I recommended changing the arm multiplier, and only the arms. 3. 'Kay Just completed Ravenholm; I'm done for the day and won't go any farther until at least tomorrow (I'll update my version if you make those changes). Comments on stuff besides the CPs: -The Hunter-Chopper is really, really fragile (at least when you shoot it with an autocannon). I'm pretty sure that was intentional, but it really turns the boss fight of Water Hazard into an anti-climax. Is this a matter of realism? 'Cause the Hunter-Chopper is a completely fictional piece of technology, and the Combine repeatedly show the ability to produce a really ridiculously durable type of armor (note that the Abrams tanks from HL1 have 300 hit points, to the Combine APC's 750). -The zombies are also really, really fragile. Ravenholm is a joke with this mod. Even the poison zombies, whose main strength is supposed to be soaking up a lot of damage, go down with one good hit from the crowbar. I'd recommend boosting them in the next version of the mod (or nerfing the crowbar... or both). -The Hunter-Chopper autocannon, APC pulse machine gun, and APC rockets all do a very small amount of damage. I know the rockets are bugged, but what about the other two? Also, the console lists the APC rockets as doing 15 damage. -The shotgun is really weak, even against wildlife. It was OP in the original, but now there's really no reason to use it rather than the crowbar or SMG. -The CPs can take several shots from the Emplacement Gun before falling. I know that there's likely no way to change its damage, and it doesn't make much of a difference gameplay wise anyway, but it's just a bit weird that the Combine equivalent of a .50 BMG takes so many shots to kill regular cops in soft body armor (in the original, it took only two shots, 'cause the CPs had way less health). -Small thing, but I'd also recommend increasing the max on AR2 ammo.

Alright, that explains it. If the problem is that the hitboxes often register the shots as hits to the arms, maybe you should just give the arms the same damage multiplier as the chest, so that doesn't happen. It's not that big of a deal, but having to shoot everyone in the head because they take two mags to the torso to kill is a bit annoying. So the slight loss of realism from the arms and chest taking the same amount of damage would be balanced out by the increased realism (and fun) of a regular cop not taking dozens of rounds to the torso to kill. It'd solve a lot of issues quite nicely. Also, any reason the damage multiplier for the abdomen is so low? As I said, the CPs aren't even armored there, and the Overwatch soldiers don't have thicker armor there compared to everywhere else. How does shooting them directly in their thick body armor do the most damage besides shooting them in the head? [i will respond to the rest of the post you made earlier in time, but I just finished Water Hazard and Route Kanal so I want to give a bit of feedback on those)

I typically play on normal the first time I play something, then hard the second time. Not saying someone would be fine after getting hit in the head with a crowbar, but I bet they could survive just getting hit once, especially since the blow would be somewhat softened by thick body armor, even if it is soft. The crowbar in general just seems OP. It's pretty comical to smack a zombie or a human once and not only instantly kill them, but send them flying. I did. It said their health was 75. I do know that they only take 0.5 damage to the abdomen (...even though the CP vests don't cover the abdomen), those shots were to the chest. I guess it's possible that I'm always hitting them in the arms, but I doubt it (plus, it's pretty weird that they take next to no damage to the arms, considering they aren't armored). Console-spawned CPs take 10 shots to the chest to bring down, naturally spawning ones take over two dozen. I've also come across other oddities, like the Hunter-Chopper going down near-instantly despite the console saying it has 7,500 health, and direct hits from the APC rockets doing only 3 damage to me. I'm not saying they're HARD, they're still very easy due to head shots, but I'm just wondering what's going on. It shouldn't be taking 30 shots to kill one of them, going by both the console (CP hit points = 75, pistol dmg = 5) and what you posted here (normal damage scale = x1.25).

So, after my computer decided to be a dick a few times, it's finally working properly. I'll respond to the rest of your post after I play the first couple of combat chapters. All I can say so far is that it feels kinda weird for the crowbar to just instantly kill a metrocop with one swing, especially since they have armor and helmets. Gordon must be strong. Also, something's weird about the CPs. It should take a dozen shots to the chest to kill one on normal, right? They seem to take far more. I stood right in front of one and shot him repeatedly in the chest with the pistol, and it took well over twelve shots to kill him. It took over 18, at least. EDIT: I spawned a Metrocop with the console to check. It took ten pistol shots to the chest to kill him. Of course, when I tried the same thing on a Metrocop that was naturally spawned by the game, it took 29 shots. What's up?

Don't get me wrong, I love Opposing Force too. The plot just made no sense.