APC garage

The APC garage is a Combine garage located in the Wasteland section of the Canals, used for the storage of Armored Personnel Carriers. It is visited by Gordon Freeman during his journey to Black Mesa East.

Overview

 * The APC garage is used by the Combine to store and repair APCs.


 * It is guarded by a large Civil Protection force.


 * The nearby river floodgate can be controlled from within the building.

Features
The APC garage is an old warehouse, elevated a few meters above the Canals, converted by the Combine to store APCs in. There is an entrance area, where a Breencast monitor is located and a main garage with APCs parked within, with some repair tools. There is also a room that seems to be an armory, with a Grenade cache, and a health Charger and also a large outside area guarded by an Emplacement Gun.

The control room for the floodgate contains supplies and two generators.

Half-Life 2
The garage is visited by Gordon during the chapter Water Hazard.

Whilst travelling through the Canals via Airboat, a closed floodgate means that Freeman must enter the garage in order to continue his journey. As he passes through, he is ambushed by many Civil Protection officers, one of them using an Emplacement Gun to try and slow him down.

As he passes through, Wallace Breen sends a message via Breencast.

After fighting the Metrocops, Gordon reaches the lever for the gate, however it is broken, sparking electricity. Conveniently, there are several explosive barrels nearby which Gordon shoots in order to break loose a large bar of metal, which swings down towards the gate, smashing it open. This causes an alarm to sound and he is forced to take the long way round, back through the garage, to get back down to the airboat. More Civil Protection officers arrive, and must be fought by Gordon before he continues on his way.

Behind the scenes
Four APC garages can be found in WC mappack maps such as " " and its variations, near the early Breencast, a Metropolice station, and the Manhack Arcade.

Trivia

 * It is possible to skip the puzzle without cheating. When taking the ladder leading to the garage, one has a visual contact with the explosive barrels that need to be destroyed to open the gate. It is possible to shoot them from the long distance and clear the path to the airboat without going inside any of the buildings.


 * When viewing the building from the outside, it appears that at least one of the two garage doors leads to nothing.

List of appearances

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