Ravenholm
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Ravenholm is a fictional Eastern European themed town (the actual geographic location is never revealed) in the 2004 computer game Half-Life 2.
Ravenholm is a former mining community inhabited by escapees from the Combine-controlled City 17. Due to recent bombardment with Combine artillery containing headcrabs, however, Ravenholm is now swarming with several varieties of headcrabs and the zombie-like creatures the headcrabs create with the use of a human host. Gordon Freeman, the game's main character, must travel through Ravenholm when the Combine attack nearby Resistance base Black Mesa East, during the chapter called "'We don't go to Ravenholm ...'". The level has also been given the nickname "Resident Half-Life", a pun on the Resident Evil series due to the massive number of zombies in the town.
While fighting off hordes of zombies, Gordon meets the lone (human) occupant of Ravenholm, the old pastor, Father Grigori. Although Ravenholm may have other "survivors" since a Wilhelm scream can be heard as well as Grigori telling Freeman "another life to save?" (although he may have been referring to killing the zombies and freeing their souls. More likely, he was referring to Freeman himself.) The zombie-hunter priest provides assistance and advice to Gordon, such as arming him with a shotgun, and eventually leading Gordon to an abandoned mine, which becomes his route out of the town. Many areas of Ravenholm are littered with large sawblades, propane cylinders, barrels of flammable material, and booby traps which have been contrived by Father Grigori. Due to the severe scarcity of ammunition in the area, Gordon must rely on the traps and Gravity Gun (with which he can fling blades and other projectiles) to destroy the zombies. The entire town is also littered with people and headcrab zombies that have been hanged, burned, sliced and suffered other horrific fates by Grigori's traps.
Just before escaping from the aerial bombardment of Black Mesa East where Alyx, Judith and Eli reside, there is a large door which is the entrance to a tunnel completely closed off from the main base. The door simply looks sealed, but a quick glance through the glass indicates that the tunnel may also have been blocked off artificially with junk. This is further confirmed when Alyx mentions that 'through there is Ravenholm'. Alyx also mentions how everyone used to be able to travel to and from Ravenholm at will until the bombardment from the Combine.
[edit] Other Information
Ravenholm was initially named Quarrytown, and featured both Combine soldiers and zombies, as seen in the E³ 2003 demo, "Traptown".The way the player was introduced into Ravenholm was also different, as seen in the "Docks" demo, where the player is walking on some docks, which lead to Ravenholm.
