Today was my first attempt at moving into power up, starting here:



I realize that this new monster will be difficult to kill, similar to the three headed monster from Blast Pit. So I didn't stop and waste my ammo trying to kill it. I moved forward through the room, to the left I noticed a track with a flat-bed car that wouldn't move when I tried to engage it. So I made it to another opening and killed a few creatures that shot electricity in previous levels.

After killing some of them I found a room with a collapsible walkway.



In the room was some much needed ammo. Through another door was a hurt soldier and some much needed armor. Unfortunately there was no health :(



At the other end of the room was a lever that moved when I engaged it and there stood the monster. So I'm assuming the lever did something, something perhaps that the dying soldier was to have told me. Unfortunately I wasn't playing with sound tonight which I know will get me lots of ribbing from blog readers. I'm not out of the room yet, but I will go back and listen to what the soldier has to say as I'm sure it's an important clue.

This is where I stopped:



I hope for more game play tomorrow.

I'm not just blindly playing this level. I'm sure there are multiple parts to it like Blast Pit, so I'm keeping an open mind. I don't have much health so I hope I don't have to go a long way like I did in Blast Pit on a small amount.

Thanks to lots of wonderful advice from blog readers and shackers I finally finished Blast Pit! While this is nowhere near the end of the game I know, as long as it took me to finish and as much trouble as I had, I feel this to be a tremendous accomplishment.

I started the night here, back in the control room:



I realized when I got there that I had done something wrong because only one light was lit up, only electricity had been turned on. Once I learned that the fan was a help, not an obstacle, I had to find my way back there. So, I did and up I went to the top of the fan room. I crawled my way through a vent area and down into the room that had the fuel and oxygen maybe? (I can't remember).



I killed some head crabs and aliens and turned on the last two things needed to TEST LAUNCH and kill the three headed monster. All this time I had been playing with energy at "1" and virtually no weapons or ammo. I made my way back to the control room, "test fired" and the monster was killed!! I was all "take that bitch" "oh yeah you like that" "bout damn time you monster freak" - I was so glad it was done I basically expected Gordon to be magically teleported into the next level.

That didn't happen.

So I go exploring and went down to the bottom where the monster disintegrated. Down the hole I went straight into some water.



This wasn't easy since my health was so low so it took some practice. I did find my way up to a dead security guard that had a awesome revolver. I wonder who I'll get to pump full of lead with that thing! After swimming down I was able to find dry ground. I went down a ladder and entered a room with a lot of toxic going on.



I found some much needed health & armor so I filled up and enjoyed every second of it!

I figured that I wasn't supposed to swim in the toxic liquid so I went back up and found some piping. Knowing how it went earlier in the game I followed it around some corners and then across to a hole in a metal grate. This wasn't easy so it took a few times to make the jump. Once I did I was thrilled!



Down another tunnel I went that ended up collapsing. I took a big hit health wise which killed me a handful of times before I realized that I was going to fall just right to salvage some health. Once I did this, I had to kill some head crabs and found two health packs and some ammo.

Once this was done, down a hallway I went and -- I was out of Blast Pit!!

Power up Ahoy!



I went around a corner and immediately spotted this:



I stopped here and figured this challenge was better suited for another night.
I'm excited to be out of Blast Pit. I never meant for it to take two months, but it did and I hope that the following levels aren't as tedious. I really want to finish this game, I know I have a long way to go, but getting to this point sure feels good. Thank you to everyone who has given me great tips and hints. I welcome comments and suggestions at anytime.

My last quest had me crawling in the rafters of the office complex. I had moved some boxes and climbed a ladder ...



There was an obvious way out of the current obstacle by crawling and breaking a metal grate, but for some reason the first few times I tried, the grate wouldn't break. So that had me waste some time trying to find another way out. But then I tried again, hitting the grate square on with the crowbar and it finally broke. As soon as the grate broke, I saw a scientist walk in, say "hello" and then totally get owned by a laser gun that was mounted on the ceiling. I rushed across the room (yes, I died a time or two) and got by the gun. I killed some head crabs, made my up some stairs and met up with the first security guard I had seen in a while that wasn't dead. He actually helped out a little bit by killing some head crabs and following me.

After I got to another section of the office complex I could tell the action was picking up. I heard some screeches and noises from some creatures that I hadn't heard before. Of course I ran right into a creature who killed me quickly.



I tried a new strategy to kill some of the monsters. I eased my way around some corners to get some good shots. Of course I don't think this is always going to work when there are multiple creatures to kill. My problem is, my health is down to 9 and I haven't seen a health station in a while. I saw a room or two that saw scientists trying to escape and getting killed. There are multiple new creatures around, so before I move on I'm going to need to increase my health, re-load my ammo, and get ready to shoot.

Seems like I'm getting to a pretty exciting spot in the game ...

When I finished off the last time I was faced with this moving platform. I figured out how to pull the lever and move my way over to the platform as it slowly descended into the unknown. As the platform lowered, it was raining head crabs. I was able to shoot a few but most ended up at the bottom.

When I got off the platform I realized there was a medical station nearby but with a health number of only "5" I couldn't make it very far. I was getting crab raped!



I decided to run for it and I turned a corner and quickly died after falling off of a collapsible bridge.



After dying a few dozen times I stood at the edge of the bridge and pondered my way out of this situation. This, perhaps, was one of those cases where the bridge was not my way out. I looked to my right and saw some pipe so I jumped up on the pipe, made my way around the room, crouched, used the crow bar to break open a vent and crawled through. I even figured out how to break open another vent and ended up on the other side.

Some boxes that I found had some ammo in them after I decided to bash a few with the crowbar. With this new discovery, no box is safe in the future.

I come to another room and see some sort of questionable creature that was a little bigger than a headcrab.





I am able to get over to him, kill him and finally find a room where there is a medical station. I stop here but look ahead to see another interesting passage.

I was told that the trick the vent was the kind of puzzles that I'm going to face more of as I get more into Half Life. The last few times I've played was more of a quest for survival for me. I tried to just move around with dying and without getting mauled by crabs. Now that I've gotten to this point I feel I can try and survive while also noticing more about my surroundings and grasping the whole picture.

As always, more to come ...