Half-Life 2: Lost Coast

Half-Life 2 Lost Coast is a technology demo showing off the Source Engine's HDR capabilities. The game setting was originally slated to take place between the levels "Highway 17" and "Sandtraps" but was dropped. Lost Coast was released on October 27, 2005 as a free download to all owners of Half-Life 2. In the Source SDK Base, a flyby of this level can be launched for a video stress test.

Plot
The level begins with Gordon Freeman waking up, after having apparently fallen (you hear a loud splash shortly before awakening) near to several decaying piers underneath the shadow of a large Byzantine-style church set up on a large outcrop of rock overlooking a small town that will soon be obliterated.

An unnamed man (referred to in the commentary as "The Fisherman") standing on the dock recognizes Gordon (although he cannot accurately remember his name) and tells him that the Combine are in control of Saint Olga. He leads the player to a gate, which he opens, and tells Gordon to "take out that gun". He then sits on a bench beside the gate where he presumably remains for the remainder of the level.

The gate leads to a winding path along the side of the outcrop the church is located. The player doesn't walk very far before encountering resistance from Combine Soldiers. A Combine Elite destroys the stairs directly leading to the church, forcing the player to continue up along the edge of the outcrop where he meets with more soldiers, some of whom rappel from above.

By this time the player notices that headcrab shells are being launched from within the church onto the nearby town, some of which seem to ignite fires within the city.

Upon entering the church courtyard the player is met with an unusual stillness, though the door behind him locks, effectively trapping him in the area.

The church itself is relatively undamaged save for the religious paintings on the walls, the faces of all but a few of the characters having been rubbed away. Whether this was an intentional act by the Combine (or Valve itself, to avoid controversy) or a coincidence is not known.

On one wall of the structure, the Combine have constructed the shell launcher. At steady intervals shells are loaded into the chamber and 'shot' upwards to come crashing into the town below. The breach of the device is easily obstructed by inserting any sizable object into the opening, thus jamming the mechanism - and releasing some poison headcrabs. This also triggers an alarm, prompting the Combine to launch a second attack into the church itself, including the appearance of a Combine Hunter Chopper.

After several soldiers are disposed of, an exit is opened which leads to a set of scaffolding set up outside the walls of the church and suspended above the beach below.

The player must then shoot down the chopper (which behaves like a gunship for the purposes of the gameplay) from that area, causing it to crash into the scaffolding and knock aside several boards. A lower level of scaffolding becomes accessible, which in turn leads to an elevator.

The elevator (which appears to be weight activated since there are no controls within it for the player to activate) lowers onto the beach near the original starting point, where the Fisherman congratulates Gordon and invites him to a "feast" in Saint Olga. "I, uh, hope you like leeches."

The level then begins to fade out, and the Fisherman remarks on Gordon "getting fuzzy round the edges" before the screen becomes completely black.

Allies


Allies will attack Headcrabs and Combine.
 * The Fisherman

Xenian: Headcrab
Headcrabs will attack Combine and Allies.
 * Poison Headcrab

Combine
Combine will attack Headcrabs and Allies.
 * Overwatch Soldier
 * Overwatch Elite
 * Hunter-Chopper

Developer commentary
Aside from visual fidelity and HDR, Lost Coast also acted as a testbed for a commentary system where, when the option is enabled, additional items appear in the game world that can be interacted with to play an audio commentary, each piece ranging anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute of commentary. Players will hear the developers talk about what they are seeing, what is happening, why the team chose to do what they did, what kind of challenges they faced, and so on. Commentary tracks are represented by floating speech bubbles known as commentary nodes. To listen to a commentary track, the player places his crosshair over it, and presses the use key. Doing the same again will stop the commentary track. Commands can be run when a commentary track starts and stops; in Lost Coast, this is used to completely disable the AI while the track plays. However, in Half-Life 2: Episode One, running a commentary track renders the player invulnerable to in-game damage for the time being rather than disabling the AI, likely for the purpose of not drawing away from the game.

Valve plans to make commentary standard in all of their future titles, and, as stated above, has already added it to Half-Life 2: Episode One, as well as Episode 2. Portal also has the commentary.

Lost Coast is not the first title to include developer commentaries: similar features have appeared in Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (2001), Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (2003) and The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (2004).

Recommended system specifications

 * Processor: Pentium 4 2.4GHz or AMD 2800+
 * Memory: 1 GB RAM.
 * Graphics Card: DirectX 9 native
 * 335 MB disk space (with Half-Life 2 installed)

Lost Coast is a 98 MB compressed download from Steam.

Despite some claims to the contrary, Lost Coast runs on computers with specifications lower than that listed above, albeit without some of the key focal features such as HDR. It should be noted that a computer with the minimum specifications to run Half Life 2 will not be able to run Lost Coast.



Walkthrough
When the game starts, you find yourself standing on a beach. Around you are a lot of garbage, beached ships, and a city. Look towards your left and you’ll see a harpoon-toting fisherman standing on a dock; go to him. The man explains about what’s going on in the city: more or less, the Combine have been constantly bombarding it with headcrab canisters. He asks you to shut off the launcher and save the city from further destruction. Follow him to the gate, and he will let you in. Before you head up the stairs, grab the ammo and armor cell in the crate to your left as well as the one floating in the water.

As you head up the stairs, it's pretty calm so take a moment to gaze to your left and check out the scenery, especially if you have an awesome graphics card. Continue up the path and you’ll reach some concrete steps. After crossing the top, you’ll encounter some Combine. Kill them, making sure to get the two to your left; one slightly higher than you and the other above on some wooden stairs 2. You can shoot these out from under him, but if you don’t and attempt to cross the stairwell it will collapse under you; though, two combine will appear above it and may destroy it before you attempt to cross anyway. When you go to collect ammo dropped by the dead Combine, be careful not to fall off the ledge!

Up the next set of steps you’ll find more ammunition and a Pulse Rifle. Continue on forward to get two more combine to appear. Blast them and then turn around. You should be facing back the way you came; you’ll then be able to see where to go next. Travel back down the stairs you just came up and leap across the gap, making sure to save it first. Don’t charge your way up the ledge there; a Combine with a Pulse Rifle comes around the corner when you take a few steps forward. At the edge of the ledge do an about face; the next path is right beside you. Three combine will appear and try to turn you into swiss cheese. Destroy them by any means that pleases you and continue. At the next gap, two combine will zip-line down the cliff 3 and then two more appear below you. Shoot the guys in front of you; if you want to, kill the ones below you, but you should be able to escape fine without wasting ammo on them. If you don’t trust me, don’t toss your only hand grenade or lob your only 40mm grenade; you’ll only kill one of them. When you continue on, you’ll come across another four Combine, again you will need to kill and another two will be below you. Choose whether the two below live or not. Keep going up, following the ledge, making sure to pay attention for a little cave on your left where you’ll get ammo and an RPG launcher (which you already have with full ammo); soon you’ll encounter a doorway to a bombed-out market place.

To your left inside the ruins, you’ll find another rocket launcher on top of a little mound and an ammo crate in the corner. Go back out and turn left; there’s another crate in the corner on the other side of the wall as the first 5. Walk straight in front of you into the market place. There is a large scaffolding stuffed into the right-hand corner with a crate on top of it. You’ll have to use the gravity gun to get it down, but it’s only pistol ammo. However, to the left is a little alley with more supplies 7. Go up the stairs that are past the well and into the little hallway. On the left you’ll see a set of double doors. This is where your objective is. In the far right corner is the headcrab canister launcher. Since this point is about the only respite you’ll get, take the opportunity to pick up the ammunition and health lying around the room and charge up your suit with the wall charger; there’s also a wall-mounted health kit that you’ll probably want to use. Now, you’ve got to stop that launcher from bombarding the town. Select your gravity gun to yank off the two metal doors covering the launching mechanism 8. To your left on the ground is a bucket inside a wash basin. Pick up the basin and toss it into the launcher when the mechanism is raised then step back. The machine will be disabled, but three poison headcrabs pop out at you. Squash these and take cover: a hunter-chopper enters the scene as well as six combine. Stay away from the windows and the chopper can’t hurt you, but use the big concrete table-like thing next to the launcher as cover from combine fire. About ten combine will appear over the next few minutes.

After the room is cleared, stay put. A few minutes will pass, and a door will be blasted open (it’s directly opposite the canister launcher). A combine will be outside, so be sure to deal with him; a swift kick in the junk won’t be enough, but a double-tap from your shotgun will be. If there is still health left or the charger can still dispense armor, fill up before leaving the room. Head left and take cover. You’ll drop down onto scaffolding that has some sheet metal and a crate of rockets along with a launcher and some health. Now you’ve got to blast that hunter-chopper out of the sky 9. Take note of two things: 1. it can shoot down your rockets like a gunship can, 2. if you’ve played Episode 1, this hunter-chopper doesn’t take as many rockets to kill it (three will do fine). Once the chopper is destroyed, part of the scaffolding will fall away, allowing you to drop down one level 10. Continue along this path (to the right if you’re facing the ocean). You’ll come across a metal basket. Hop inside and it lowers itself. Once at the bottom, you’re back to where you started and the fisherman from the beginning is there again. He talks to you again, and then the game ends.

Trivia

 * The Fisherman does not have a actual ragdoll and if killed he will either crash the game or his animations will be forced into a T-pose.
 * The Hunter Chopper can shoot down rockets fired at it just like a Gunship.