"Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman. Rise and shine."
— The G-Man
The opening chapter of Half-Life 2. Gordon Freeman is re-awakened by the G-Man, who addresses Freeman in a monologue and sends him back to Earth. Freeman finds himself in City 17, one of many cities under the control of an alien dictatorship. Wandering through the city, Freeman is instructed by an undercover Barney Calhoun to get to Kleiner's lab. Freeman stumbles into an apartment raid and is forced to flee the aggressive Civil Protection officers. He finds himself ambushed, until Alyx Vance, daughter of Freeman's former Black Mesa colleague Eli Vance, neutralizes the officers and escorts him to Kleiner's lab.
This Chapter contains examples of:
- Abandoned Playground: During the introductory wander through City 17, a playground is encountered, providing not only an opportunity to show off some of the physics features, but also to
hear a faint echo of children playing. - Developer's Foresight: At the end of the chapter, Gordon is trapped in a tiny room after the stairs he climbed down collapsed under his weight; he is subsequently knocked out by a swarm of Civil Protection officers before Alyx saves him. If the player somehow finds a way to stay at the top of the stairs after it collapses, there are a pair of Civil Protection officers behind you who will ensure the scene goes as intended.
- Downer Beginning: Despite Freeman killing the Nihilanth and stopping the Xen invasion, Earth seems to be suffering under an alien dictatorship.
- Flashback Cut: The test chamber in which the resonance cascade occurred is seen during the G-Man's monologue.
- Flash Forward: The transportation of the Stalkers in the Citadel is seen briefly during G-Man's monologue.
- Madness Mantra: A 'passenger' in the trainstation keeps repeating "...they're always departing but they never arrive... and the ones that do arrive, they-they never leave... you never see them go... they're always full... no one ever gets on... but they're always... they're always departing but they never arrive...", while pacing in front of a train schedule.
- No Fair Cheating: Early on, when you are walking through the square without any weapons, a Strider walks past in the distance, behind a roadblock. If you put the cheat codes in and blast the Strider with the rocket launcher (which you don't normally have at this point in the game) as it passes, it pauses and glares at you for a moment before continuing on its way.
- Opening Monologue: The G-Man delivers one after re-awakening Gordon Freeman. Dr. Breen also delivers one over telescreen as Freeman exits the train in the beginning of the game.
- Police Brutality: Civil Protection officers are this trope to a T. In the first chapter of the game, CPs will shove you away if you stand next to them and will pull out their stun baton to wack you if you either persist or attempt to speak with them. In one instance, a CP knocks down a can and forces you to pick it up, laughing when you do so. Then, of course, there are several times where you can witness CPs harassing or even assaulting citizens and using excessive force to arrest people. The Civil Protection officers are seen striking citizens with their batons and behaving aggressively if Freeman does so much as get near them. They also strike multiple citizens during their apartment raid and certainly intend to kill. Somewhat justified as the whole game takes place on a Vichy Earth.
