Airboat

"Hey, Dr. Freeman, I've been hoping you'd show up. Got this Airboat all gassed up and ready to go."

- Arlene

The Airboat is a Resistance vessel apparently built from scrap and spare parts. Nimble, fast, and capable of traveling over both water and land, it is ideal for navigating the City 17 Canals. It is unarmed at first, but is later retrofitted with a pulse cannon salvaged from an Hunter-Chopper, making it a very deadly threat to Combine forces.

Half-Life 2
The Airboat is introduced to the player towards the end of the chapter Route Kanal at Station 6, which is destroyed by a Headcrab Shell bombardment as Gordon passes through it. There Gordon is given the boat by Arlene to reach Black Mesa East faster and more safely. He then makes his way through polluted canals and wetlands and is soon spotted by a City Scanner, prompting nearby Civil Protection units to give chase. Freeman manages to evade them, until eventually a Hunter-Chopper joins the chase.

After being pursued for miles, Gordon temporarily loses the chopper in some tunnels, and comes across a hidden Resistance station. There a Vortigaunt mounts a pulse cannon on the boat, providing a powerful offensive capability. Gordon is now able to defend himself more easily against the Metrocops, the APCs and the Xen wildlife swarming the Canals, and to the defeat the chasing Hunter-Chopper, which will be destroyed near a dam right before Black Mesa East. When Gordon reaches Eli's facility, he leaves the Airboat behind. It is then presumably captured by the Combine as they invade the base.

Tactics



 * A fast and compact vehicle, the Airboat is well suited to the high speed navigation of the Canals. Though unarmed at first, it can be used to ram any CP foolish enough to stand in the way of it. Once the Airboat is armed, however, its lethality increases significantly. The Hunter-Chopper pulse cannon is an extremely powerful weapon, capable of punching through the armor of both APCs and Hunter-Choppers. In addition, ammunition supply is not a problem, as the ammo 'recharges' as it is used. However, burst fire is regularly needed or ammo will run out in around two seconds.


 * Several puzzles involving Resistance installations are required to be solved to be able to proceed further. Two involve a springboard than has to be raised with a counterweight. One has to be filled with any heavy props found around, the other with blue barrels.

Behind the scenes

 * The Airboat was originally a Jet Ski but did not playtest well. When the Airboat (then known as the "Mudskipper") replaced it and was first tested, it caused motion sickness. If the player's view was tightly connected to the vehicle, every slight bump was magnified, making some early playtesters nauseous (Adrian Finol, programmer, even threw up after an extended playtest). A careful redesign of the handlebar, pontoon and roll-cage were subsequently made, ending with the current version.


 * The first Airboat model can be found in the playable Half-Life 2 Beta files. It is longer and its textures are not completed.

Trivia

 * The Airboat is almost impossible to knock over. Even executing 180° rolls will almost always result in the vessel not flipping itself. This is most likely to prevent players being stranded with an unusable vehicle, since it would be impossible to turn it over by external means, the Gravity Gun being not acquired at that point of the game.


 * Two Orange Box Achievements, "Anchor's Aweigh!" and "Heavy Weapons", require acquiring the Airboat and having the pulse cannon mounted on it, respectively.


 * A pulse cannon similar to the one salvaged by the Resistance and added to the Airboat can be found mounted in a small tower near Gate 5 in the Canals. Freeman uses it to fire at the pursuing Hunter-Chopper.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life 2
 * Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar