Lambda Locator (Getting All Achievements in HL2)

This is something I actually did the day before yesterday, but I wasn't really in the mood to write about it at the time. That also means that I did this before I started playing XCOM yesterday, but whatever.

Last time while talking about my quest to 100% Half-Life 2, I was detailing my experience with the Get Some Grub achievement in Episode Two, which I absolutely dreaded. It was the fourth-to-last achievement I had to get, and I decided that for my antepenultimate achievement I was gonna go with Lambda Locator, the last achievement I needed from base HL2.

For the achievement you have to unlock find all 45 lambda caches in the game, which are these spots scattered through the map which contain supplies, and are marked by orange lambda graffiti. Some of these you are guaranteed to come across through the game, others are very easy to find, some involve puzzles to get through, and others are just way too hidden to the point where you need a walkthrough.

Which is what I did! Just in case I missed one. Here's the one I used:

Part of me kinda dreaded the achievement since it would take a while, as it involves playing through almost the entire game, from A Red Letter Day to Follow Freeman. The last cache is in a point where there is basically just like an hour and a half of the game left.

Fortunately though, if it isn't clear yet, this is a game that I really love, and can get through most sections with relative ease! So although I did dread having to spend so much of my time with this (well, about 8 hours, but that is quite a bit for just one achievement lmao), at least it was spent playing a game which I really enjoyed!

And enjoy it I did! I not only replayed through the game but I had some fun with it in certain sections! I took a picture of me exiting one of the lambda caches in Water Hazard which was in a tunnel.

I tried to "speedrun" the bridge section in Highway 17, which took me about 5 minutes (counting a few deaths lol). Later on in Sandtraps I ended up getting exactly 99 health and 99 suit energy while getting some health, and I also decided to be silly and see if after defeating the Antlion Guard I could return to the beach with the pheropods.

I did it! But unfortunately nothing interesting really happened, the Antlions simply just stopped spawning even while I was walking on the sand, so I couldn't even control them, but whatever! It was fun trying to use items and stack up back to the top of the cliff.

And, of course, it felt super rewarding to finally get that final cache in Follow Freeman and unlock the achievement, finally making me complete 100% of the game. Even if I now know every single secret and useful technique the game has to offer, it was an absolute joy to replay!

Now I have completed every achievement in the base game, and now I am just missing two from Episode Two! Neighborhood Watch, for making it through the final part of the game without letting any buildings get destroyed; and Little Rocket Man, the achievement which requires to also play through (almost) the entirety of this game, while carrying a garden gnome the whole way through.

Those will definitely be an adventure in their own right, but at least I know that no matter what, they will not be as awful as Get Some Grub!

Uhh fun fact, while writing this the name of that achievement was autocorrected to Get Some Bruh. I don't know how it happened, maybe I mistyped one letter and it autocorrected, but regardless it was funny lololol