I just realized that “Apprehension”… the Half-Life chapter… is so named because it concludes with Freeman being apprehended. … Mind == blown.
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For the longest time, I thought it meant the emotion.
I’ve always thought it was a double meaning with both.
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I always thought the naming was clever for that reason. You think it’s the emotion at first, but then when the chapter ends, you’re like “HA! that’s what it really means”.
So both.
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First time I played Half-Life and saw the title card flash “Apprehension”, I thought "Oh am I going to get captured? Then I saw the Black Ops and was like “Oh they’re going to capture me, I won’t let them!” so I killed them all. Pleased with my work and feeling safe although not secure with my low health, I was more than happy to run straight toward that Medical Charger on the wall. That’s when I found out how right I was about the name.
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Apprehension was always that weird chapter for me. Even before I knew what was coming, something just felt off about it. I think it was that the other chapters had either light, or color. This one had neither. But it did have lots of water.
Hmm, Apprehension, yeah that sounds familiar. There is a chapter in there called apprehension isn’t there?
Wait what there are people who don’t read it like that?
I didn’t even know apprehension was an emotion at the time.
That’s the interpretation you get with English as a second language-- you connect “apprehension” with “apprehend”. But the feeling of apprehension, as we use it, only loosely relates to the concept of being apprehended. When feeling apprehensive about something, it’s still possible to act-- it’s just uncomfortable to do so-- which is contrary to what we normally think of when someone is apprehended. On top of this, we rarely if ever have the need to use the word “apprehension” in that sense; we prefer “capture”, “detention”, “internment”, or other fun synonyms.
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As a native speaker and watcher of all sorts of reality police shows, apprehension as in capture was the only definition in my mind.
Huh, I never considered non-native speakers not getting it.
Oh, you must love Surface Tension.
I am a native speaker and I only kinda get it
I love this! Mentally adding it to my list of favourite gameplay anecdotes.
Also in this chapter will give many things, you find ammunition of all weapons, it was like a party, and the sad thing is that after you get caught you removed all weapons
Hahahahaha it´s so cruel
duh, until you guys were talking about this, I (as non-native english) didn’t even know that apprehension could be an emotion!
But I remember when I used to play Half-life and my english was already pretty ok, but I never had heard the word “apprehension”. It doesn’t really resemble a word a word in english i knew at the time nor any in my native language german. So I tried to speculate over the meaning from the context. And so - for a long time - i was sure it had something to do with water, or something hazardous coming from the water, some terror from the deep. Because this was the first thing you saw after the title of the chapter appeared - that ichtyosaur eating that scientist. man, that chapter freaked me out just because of these beasts (i have a natural fear of open waters in which you cannot see the ground under your feet). So this stuck with me: Apprehesion = terror from the deep
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Most of Half-Life’s chapter titles are double entendres, having more than one meaning. Most commonly, it’s a scientific phrase, like “Surface Tension.” An example of surface tension is the ability of things to stand on water without falling into it. But in the game, it’s also referring to how you’re running along the surface, getting into the most tense confrontations with the HECU thus far.
Apprehension works on an emotional (being apprehensive or worried about something) and literal (getting arrested) levels. The clever thing about this chapter is how it’s doing the Ichthyosaur and the Assassin scene together, so you might think that the Ichthyosaur is what “apprehension” is referring to.
When they aren’t double entendres, they are usually locations instead. LIke Office Complex, Blast Pit, etc. I don’t think there’s any double meaning to those names. And lastly, they can be quotes, like “A Red Letter Day” or “We Don’t Go To Ravenholm.”