*he throws the gun, which lands on the car and goes off, firing a shot through the windshield*
Russell: It's unloaded now!
The game begins in City 17, five years before the events of Half-Life 2 and its subsequent Episodes. Alyx Vance, daughter of scientist and Resistance leader Eli Vance, is keeping a lookout while her father and other Resistance members liberate a miniature power generator. However, something goes wrong, and the Resistance team finds out things that the Combine absolutely wants to keep secret. Eli and Alyx are arrested and sent away on separate prisoner trucks, but Russell, another Resistance scientist, manages to free Alyx using his remote drone.
As she escapes through the alleyways, Russell informs Alyx that he and Eli found some mysterious pictures of an old building while hacking the Combine construction network, and the Combine are intent on finding and killing anyone aware of its existence. Alyx proceeds to Russell's base, where she is given a pistol and a pair of gravity gloves, and heads off to rescue her father by intercepting the prisoner train he'll be on.
This Chapter contains examples of:
- Easing into the Adventure:
- The first chapter involves no actual combat, and largely acts as a tutorial for how to interact with the world in Virtual Reality.
- The developer commentary goes further into detail with this, as they designed the opening room with the expectation that this will be many players' first time playing VR. The opening balcony and greenhouse give the player a chance to adjust to the controls and interact with the world, answering the phone call from Eli at their own pace.
- Mission Control: After rescuing you from the CP officers, Russell's drone gives you a headset. You use this for the rest of the game to communicate with Russell.
- Oh, Crap!: The two CP officers transporting you via prisoner van get hit with this when a rogue Scanner crashes into their windshield, dropping a live grenade right inside the cockpit. At this point, you get to watch the pair descend into blind panic as they desperately try to get rid of the explosive before it detonates, to no avail.CP #1: GRENADE!CP #2: Get it!CP #1: I don't see it!CP #2: It's under the seat!CP #1: I'm looking, I'm looking!CP #2: Get it, get it, get it!CP #1: I got it!CP #2: Throw it, throw it —CP #1: I'm throwing it n—
BOOM! - Police Brutality: A Combine Charger tases and knocks out Eli and Alyx during an apartment raid despite neither of them resisting being detained.
- Reckless Gun Usage: Russell tosses a gun down to Alyx without clearing the chamber, claiming it's unloaded. It goes off on landing, firing into a car windshield."It's unloaded now."
- Spear Carrier: Olganote is mostly there to point out that the CP is reacting much more strongly against Eli's theft than would normally be expected. Developer commentary explained that Olga was needed to help reinforce to the player that they were playing as Alyx, not Gordon Freeman.Olga: (looking at Alyx/the player) Alyx! Alyx, are we good?
Alyx: They got the reactor. Easy peasy.
