The player characters "Hazard suit" when taking large damage, will state: "Morphine administered." While not seen by the player its implied the protaginists suit is using morphine on them for medical purposes.
A main character and ally, Barney Calhoun, will say when first meeting the player: "About that beer I owe ya." In reference to the first game. There are also random empty bottles strewn about most levels, but its not clear what liquid used to occupy the bottles.
When the player first encounters the Barnacle enemies, a bird that the player accidentally scares away is caught by a nearby Barnacle Tongue and eaten.
No bugs native to Earth are present in the game with the exception of flies which appear as simple audio files playing near deposits of dead bodies. The closest manifestation to "Bugs" can be seen in the design of the alien "Antlions"; formed as large four-legged creatures building large ant hills and resting/breeding larvae in subterranean caves.
In later levels you have to (voluntarily, but there is no other way to progress) get into a metal carrier thing that prevents player movement and using your weapons. Other characters are also held in these involuntarily.
While it isn’t a main feature of the game, there are areas where Combine soldiers can be crushed with heavy objects such as vehicles or metal shipping crates.
Humans don't experience this, but during one of the episodes, you're tasked with covering holes that antlions crawl out of with objects, including heavy machinery. You are technically burying them to keep them from coming out, though it's more like an obstruction rather than a burial.
A main character, Eli Vance, is missing his right leg past the knee. Its instead replaced by a metal prosthetic. But he does not lose his leg in the game.
The Player is able to break their leg bones several times and will be notified in such case by their HEV Suit before being administered morphine. There is no explicit mention of other injured NPCs having any of their bones broken.
You can shoot enemies in the eye and a bloody wound texture appears on their closed eyelids (but you can faintly make out the eye undamaged). One of the corpses uses a photo texture of a real dead person’s face, which includes empty eye sockets.
It's mild for an M-rated game but the zombies have exposed entrails (plus you can slice them in half) and there are excessively gory corpses strewn about some levels, at least one of which uses an image of a real dead body's face as its face texture.
Main characters will follow you in certain sections, and though they regen health very quickly it is possible for them to die in which case the game will put you at your last save. In addition, a main character unavoidably dies in Episode 2
Countless deaths in-game as well as a photo of a real dead person’s face used as one of the corpse face textures. There are mods that remove this texture if this is triggering/against your ethics.
One of the main plot points involves a character being kidnapped by the Combine. The player must rescue him with the help of his daughter. It is later revealed that the daughter has been kidnapped as well.
Starting from the chapter Route Kanal; the player may encounter dormant Zombies which will wake upon the player physically interacting or startling them. A few of such zombies are however located beneath shallow water surfaces and are automatically triggered to come up screaming as a form of jumpscaring enemy.
Citizens may become possessed upon a Headcrab successfully coupling with their head; turning them into zombies. In rare circumstances the Headcrabs may survive the death of their victim and seek out alternate host bodies to possess. The transmutation of the victim is only a parasitic side-effect of the Headcrab taking control over the body.
There is arguably a strong anti-cop message as you'll face opposition with Civil Protection and other authoritarian Combine forces. One of the main characters is a double agent assuming the disguise of a cop.
In one point of episode 1, the character Alyx will have a episode of anxiety and emotion after realizing her and the player snuck into a stalker train car. She talks about feeling horrible for the Stalkers, due to them once being normal people.
During the chapter "Follow Freeman"; a long deceased citizen is found inside an apartment having died in their seat with a .357 Magnum next to their hand. The situation likely indicates the Citizen to have performed suicide over a week prior during the beginning of the Lambda Uprising.
Kind of, the worst it gets is usually "sh*t" but there is one line where Barney says "If you see Dr.Breen tell him I said 'f**k you.'" In game the f word is interrupted by rubble falling down however you can hear it if you listen to the audio file.
Some areas of the game include damaged light fixtures as the only source of light which are flashing in a heavy strobe pattern. Additionally the game features surveillance drones called "Scanners" which come up to the player and flash into their eyes. If more than one Scanner is near a player their effects may overlap and cause a heavy strobe effect.
If you die in episode 2 during the sequence where you must protect the rocket from oncoming Striders and Hunters, the death screen text contains “the game now ends.” Also if you talk to any vortigaunt during Half Life 2 (not the episodes), one of their standard lines includes “Something secret steers us both. We shall not name it.” This one is more vague because it’s up for interpretation, but some see it as an acknowledgment that you, the player, are controlling Gordon.
No. When Gordon wears the Mark V HEV suit for the first time, Dr. Kleiner comments, "Well, Gordon, I see your HEV Suit still fits you like a glove. At least the glove parts do." It's very unlikely that he was making a comment on Gordon's weight in this context, but some have interpreted it that way in a non-serious manner.
that depends on how you look at it. general npcs have randomly selected playermodels, so it's not intended if a black character dies first. however, the first confirmed (and permanent, at the time) casualty of any story-relevant characters is a black man, though his death is later prevented through time shenanigans. the same goes for our secondary protagonist, who is a black woman that dies impermanently.
Short answer: Mentioned in discussion from time to time, but nothing graphic. Long answer: There is talk of a suppression field which inhibits procreation, but no actual sexual content depicted in the game. During some segments in the game, you'll actually hear the Combine Overwatch voice letting human Combine members know that a reward for deeds done correctly is "non mechanical reproduction simulation." This mention is as far as it goes. Also, if Gordon waits a while before putting on the HEV suit, you might be able to hear Alyx joke, "Don't worry, I won't look." During Episode 2, (spoilers) you'll be able to hear a recorded PSA from Dr. Kleiner letting citizens of City 17 know that, due to the suppression field no longer being in effect, now's a good time as any to try to reproduce again. Alyx even comments on this with "Is Dr. Kleiner really telling everyone to get busy?"
Upon the player acquiring their Jeep; they will be pulled up by a crane which will fail and lead to the player crashing into the ground upside down. The player may crash one of their own vehicles if not careful enough. There are no other car crash accidents besides sabotages to Combine APCs.
At the end of the first game, the large ominous tower called the Citadel, explodes, but the player and Alyx are teleported away by the Gman and are unharmed by the explosion.
A majority of enemies and npcs bleed when hurt. Headcrab Zombies are walking, semi-decayed corpses, as well as having their rib cage bursting out of their chests.