Our Benefactors (Chapter)

Walkthrough
The first part of this level may remind you of platform jumping games from the olden days, as you have to use your movement to carefully jump past hair-raising abysses and make your way through narrow bone crushing spaces that are part of the innards of the majestic Citadel. As you play it, it may feel a bit repetitive and boring in the beginning, but believe us, it becomes much more fun later on...

Follow the tunnel until you reach the end, and jump down the cliff to the left. Be be careful as you step down to the edge, from where you must jump and slide down the next part of the cliffs, just make sure you don't glide over the edge by pressing back. Take a leap to the next cliff and watch out for the headcrab creeping out from between the rocks to your left. It may want jump and most probably miss you, in which case you'll enjoy the sight of a headcrab falling into oblivion. If you reach the end of the cliff you'll be able to step out on a broken pipe, which you must use to jump down to the small ledge in the combine citadel wall. Once you're inside, follow the walkway up to the left and then continue past the moving metallic pieces and choose the narrow path to the right where the way splits.

Once you reach the other end of this path, you'll see hanging combine carriers being transported above you. Get to the right of the big ledge and carefully make your way past this area until you see an opening. When you get off the surface, you'll see a big electrical device, designed to electrocute worn out stalkers. You have to walk on the edge of the next floor until you get near the area where the metal carriers stop to pick up stalkers. Don't get into the first one, as you will get fried yourself, instead move around, and jump into the other carrier pointing the other way by pressing E.

Simply enjoy this long ride, showing you more of the citadel and the way it functions. You might also catch a glimpse of the poor stalkers, human slaves modified to a grotesque degree, forced to work by the combine.

Later on, you'll notice the line you're being carried through leads into a dead end, and the carrier seems to drop you off into certain death. Luckily, there is an anti-gravitation field on the ground slowing your fall, and you are "only" being frozen by automatic devices as they obliterate your weapons. However, they don't manage to destroy the Manipulator with their electrical bolts, instead, it is overpowered! This is where the fun begins...

When the first squad of combine troopers arrives, you will realise this overpowered manipulator is capable of handling organic materials, which these soldiers experience the hard way. Use the primary blast to immediately kill them, or the secondary pickup to grab a single soldier and shoot him straight into his comrades!

Get to the next area where you'll see a monitor with Breen personally trying to talk you out of this, as he realises what a threat you are. Don't forget to charge up your suit, which has been upgraded as well, capable of being charged up to 200.

Three more soldiers will charge at you from the catwalk, as with all enemies on this map you should simply get close enough to rapidly send them into eternity with the manipulator. Continue on the catwalk past the next squads of troopers, another monitor with Breen and past a big generator with liquid floating in zero-gravity. A few more soldiers will arrive here, dispatch them and get to the elevator through a walkway on the other side of the room.

The next area contains force fields powered by highly powerful combine pulse-rifle spheres, which you must pull out of their field, you can also propel them away and even eliminate several soldiers in a row.

At the end of the fields you'll get up a stair where a armour charger is located, and further ahead another Breen monitor. This area is quite tricky, as you have to fend off a high amount of soldiers as you press the button on the middle of the circular ledge, calling an elevator to your spot. Watch out for manhacks and elite troopers in particular as you wait.

Once the elevator has arrived, quickly get into it. You will slowly move upwards as more soldiers appear in the walls around you. You can drag them to you from a distance to kill them with the manipulator, or use the pulse-rifle spheres floating in the vertical energy lines.

Continue past the Breen monitor (don't forget to charge up your suit), the generator room and a pathway to a huge pass way. You may want to use the combine carriers around you as shields or weapons as you encounter more enemies from the other end of the pass way.

When you get to the far side, nothing less than a Strider will attack you. It may seem like an impossible enemy at first sight, but if you use the pulse-rifle spheres available against the beast, it will quickly go down.

Pull the energy spheres out of their socket, and continue to the next area where another carrier will wait for you. Get into it and it will carry you to the end of the level.

Congratulations! Now awaits the finale, Dark Energy.