A true badge of honor.

Half-Life 2. You know it. You love it. You've played it probably 15 times by now (and, because of this post, you'll probably want to play it again). It's simply gaming ecstasy. For most gamers, 2 things in the game make it simply amazing: the Gravity Gun, which allowed you to use your entire environment as a weapon, and headcrab zombies, because...well, they're zombies. While each were introduced in different areas in the game, both are best utilized in one of my favorite levels, Ravenholm. Now, I don't need to tell you about Ravenholm; Sharpless told the story of that hell-hole perfectly a few months back. What I'm here to talk about is a 360 achievement that was a total blast to get, and became one of my favorite destructive moments ever: the "Zombie Chopper" achievement.


Your first (and only) line of defense.

Before I get started, I should explain "Zombie Chopper" first. It's an achievement garnered by playing through the entire Ravenholm chapter using only your Gravity Gun. That's right; no guns, no grenades, and sure as shit no crowbar. You have to slog through the most evil, wretched, vile setting in HL2 using only, in essence, pieces of wood and scraps of metal lying around you.

Now, playing through Ravenholm is scary enough; you're surrounded on all sides by headcrab zombies, shit's always on fire, and you've got some unseen madman with a shotgun barking orders at you from random houses along your route. As if this wasn't bad enough, you've also gotta contend with Father Grigori's (the madman mentioned earlier) zombie traps, new headcrab species, and the fucking terrifying Fast Zombie.


Man, even that picture gives me the creeps!

So, with all that you're faced with, you cannot use ANY weapons, aside from your newly-acquired Gravity Gun. Hell, you're even given the best possible zombie-fighting weapon in the game (the shotgun) in this level, but can't use it. It broke my heart when I got that damn shotgun...

Anyway, don't think you're completely down Shit Creek paddle-less just yet. While the Gravity Gun isn't much on its own, the residents of Ravenholm liked to, apparently, have various sorts of sawblades around them at all times. This is where your strength lies, and where the "chopper" part of "Zombie Chopper" comes from; the sawblades, in conjunction with the Gravity Gun, are your main means of survival. This makes for some of the most fun gameplay that HL2 has to offer.


Ouch.

The sawblades are designed to literally chop through anything and everything that is in your way. Oh, what's that, a wooden sign blocking me from the next area? *SAWBLADE* (yeah, that's the sound a sawblade makes when it destroys shit). Got a group of ravenous zombie fuckers who want to tear you limb from limb? *SAWBLADE* Now, none of those bastards have legs anymore. On top of the destructive power that the blade has, it, in essence, has unlimited ammo, as the only way to lose the blade is to...well, lose it. The blades can constantly be picked up and reused after decapitating a row of zombies, again and again and again. The sheer amount of destruction capable from these blades is astounding. I've never had more pleasure using a weapon before as I did using those blades. I can remember my proudest moment on the way to achieving the "Zombie Chopper" achievement: towards the end of the level, you must wait for Grigori to shuttle over an elevator to the rooftop you're on, so you can progress in the level. While he does that, what seems like an army of Fast Zombies descends upon you. At first, I thought I was well and truly fucked; my last sawblade was 3 stories below me. Luckily, I was able to find a previously-shot sawblade a few houses back, and, after having shot and retrieved the blade about 15 times, finally destroyed the entire group of zombies. I literally leaped out of my chair in excitement, feeling like I had performed Ash-like feats of zombie termination.

Now, of course, if you aren't an achievement whore, you can play through Ravenholm normally. But, to get the most enjoyment out of the level, and to add 25 points to your Gamerscore, you MUST use only your Gravity Gun in Ravenholm. Believe me, when "Zombie Chopper" pops up on screen, you'll be more proud then ever before.

Fuck, now I gotta go play HL2 again...