***Spoiler thread***

This thread is to discuss and hopefully make sense of the Half Life story line.

Well beat HL2 and I still don't know what the hell is going on in it. Now I beat HL1:source just before i beat HL2 just so they sorta tied together. So far I've put together this.

The first game was Humanity's step into inter-dimensional travel and experiments with the "Border World" Xen. Xen appears to have already been conquered by grunts and strange floating babies (made even more apparent at the last levels like the mines and also how the aliens have bracelets and neck restraints of some kind). Then theres the strange crap the boss says such as "Dreamer" or "Know the Truth" before you blow his head open (this was the being that was creating the portals from xen). So after you kill it, the G-man appeared with a job but who the hell does the G-man work for? It appears he has control over time and space (which is made even more apparent by how Gorden hasn't aged in HL2 and in the end when he saves Gorden from the nuclear blast). In the end of HL2 it also appears that the G-man's agency can even be hired by other beings which really raises the WTF meter.


So HL2 begins 15 years after HL1, Gorden wakes up to a world enslaved and forced into Labor Camps dubbed Cities . At first I thought the Combine were aliens but instead they are sometype of hybrid Human thing and there are clues how the Earth was dominated (Eli's office contains newspapers about Earth Surrenders and a 7 hour war). So it appears you're thrown into a world with tons of backstory that you aren't even aware of. For instance the Aliens from the first game are now freed (no more bracelets and neck thing) and are helping the underground , becaus their world of Xen is gone (in fact i spectullate Xen was alot like Earth till it literally got torn apart with all the dimensional traffic).

The dimensional tech can also change time (which is a science the G-man has somehow mastered) since when Gorden and Alex escape the Combine they are gone for a week yet it only seemed like seconds for Gordy. Also WTF is up with Alex? They refrence her to being at Black Mesa but she was just a kid back then, why would she be at a top secret institute, I'm sure all the scientist lived in the base and no civilians were allowed. Then again there was that picture of a baby in Gordan's locker (another WTF?)..
Then lets look at the administrator, he ran black Mesa and now he's running the cities? We know he's working to some type of evolution where mankind will evolve to more then he is, he belives he's helping and giving humanity imortality. Yet he's a peon to the Benefactors (or benefactor) which is some kind of celestral being in a completely different universe. Also why is it that the scientist from Black Mesa (a New Mexico Based facility) somehow end up in City 17 (definatly a European city) and also are still scientist with cooky inventions and all part of the resistence. I can Understand Gordan's reputation for putting to rest the first invasion of earth but he's refered to a near god like status here and yet no comments on how he just sorta dissapeared for 10 years (didn't all these black mesa guys stick together..... i mean Barney's there for crying out loud).

So to recap the only things Im sure about are:

City 17= modern day WWII Guetto, simply a control for the masses where people are forbidden to have children and have no rights

Earth Lost to a impossible alien foe (no war ever lasted 7 hours)

G-man doesn't work for the government (or if he did, it was only so he could infultrate it or even stranger maybe he's working for the Government of the Furture ).

Gorden isn't just a normal person, there is something extremely special about him. More then just a HEV suit, almost like a divine protection, almost like "THE ONE" from the matrix

The dimenisional teleporters aren't just a gimmick for warping in enemies anymore or an excuse for why you're fighting aliens. There is more profound things going on.

Its out? ARRRRGGGGHHHHH! I DONT HAVE IT YET!

Yea, I agree with your points.

I didn't really know what was happpening during the game.
More background information would have been nice.

I didn't know what was going on with the whole City thing.

I missed the part of the Earth surrendering in a war though..

So did the whole City thing get created after this war, and the invading force is what we are rebeling against?

And so on. Little bit confusing, but overall a kick *** game,

Theres no doubt how great HL2 is, one of the coolest apsects i love about the HL series is that there is no narations or briefings, the storyline is basically what you observe and put together (even though its confusing).

Sounds like I should actually get HL before getting HL2...

I hate storylines

but overall HL2 was a worthy adversary to HL, even though the first one had a much better story. HL2 has better graphics of course, but I prefer the controls in HL2 to HL, and the creatures were definetly cooler.

Oh yeah, have any of you found the secret ending yet?

You havn't played HL1?
Die now, sir.
Please.


Yea, go get it in your bargin bin. Play it. You will enjoy, that's an order.

I hated it. *shrug*

There was something I didn't like about Half Life. I own it and play it on occasion and love it. But when I played it the first time, it froze the PC. The second time I was getting errors and warping to different levels and couldn't get anything to work right. I think finally on the 3rd installation it worked and has worked well since then. But every time I play it, I think back to when I had the problems and how much I hated the game originally.

HL always felt, I dunno, 'Skiddy' when I played it. It did kick arse, and it is fab and groovy and groundbreaking, but I was never in love with it. It took System Shock 2 and Deus Ex for that.

Deus Ex

\m/

Was that an attempt at a <3 but the right way up? :p

Nope, it's a rock on sign. See, \=finger m=fingers /=finger

\m/

\mm/

Too much rock for one hand.

Don't you get HL:S with one of the HL2 packages?

And what kind of enemies are you fighting in HL and HL2?

Half-Life:
Human grunts, alien grunts, alien slaves, headcrabs, zombie headcrabs, assassins, tentacles, gargantuans, bullsquids, baby headcrabs, Big Momma (the walking testicle), Nihilanth (a.k.a. DA BABY), Apache chopper, and turrets.

Half-Life 2:
Combine grunts, special Combine grunts in white suits, headcrabs, nuero-toxin-injecting headcrabs, weaker headcrabs, monkey zombies, neuto-toxin-headcrab-carrying zombies, regular headcrab zombies, striders, gunships, female antlions, male antlions, Combine snipers, Man-hackers, turrets, and Combina APCs.

There are probably others that I've forgotten.

Not having Half-Life is like not having a cell phone.

/me just notices he doesn't own a cell phone.

Ahem... let me rephrase that. Not having Half-Life is like not owning a car.

/me just notices he doesn't own a car either.

Ahem... let me try this again. Not having Half-Life is like not having a girlfriend

/me just notices...

ALRIGHT ALREADY! I'll shut up and go away now! Sheesh!

/me walks away.

Ok Ive decided to go back and take my time and play the game talking to everything and everyone.

So far we know they put something in the water to help people forget and that the trains always have people coming in but no one hears from people going out (they end up in that Citidal thing). Theres suppressors that some how stop us from breeding in the city, Breen says its to stop our instincts and we need to evolve. Also a side note in the trainstation you see a janitor Vognaught (or whatever they are called) and this one isn't Freed since he still contains the bracelets.

Theres some interesting things in Klieners office such as a picture of the scientist in black mesa with one picture etched out with an huge red X over it (Breen). Theres also some posty notes about feeding his pet headcrab and a small teleport device with a cactus (i wanted to see if it could teleport other things like books and radios and it did). If you click on the monitor you can catch a glimpse of the G-man. You also see the G-man on a TV that a Vognaught is watching in the "Underground Railroad" for a brief second.

Talking to one of the Vognaughts (where he puts the gun on your boat) he says interesting things how Gordan is their biggest Grief and biggest savior. He also mentions how even though the lesser master (da big baby) is dead someone has to destroy the greater master. He also says some goofy stuff about the eyes and minds within Gorden (I'm thinking reference to us players). You see the G-man here and there during the boat ride and on the dam.

When you finally reach Black Mesa East you get a recap on how Earth's dimensional technology is far ahead of the Combine. Since they no longer need to go to the Border world (Xen) and have a better understanding of dark matter (or whatever it is). This leads me to think that the events in HL1 where Gorden killed the puppet ruler of Xen alerted the Combine to our pressence so they invaded before humanity could be a threat to them. The Vognaughts are helping us because they have lived as slaves for eons and would either prefer absolute victory or absolute defeat. Then Earth is invaded and Breen negotiates surrender after 7 hour war. You get some nice info if you look at things in Eli's office, he gives you a description on the things (like his family photo). Talk to the Vognaught there and he states Eli was one of the first to help the liberation (Im assuming once Gorden killed the baby thing, the Vognaughts were free and helped Eli escape black mesa).

Heres a pick for anyone that missed the newspaper clippings

Apparently, the game considers the bulletin board an ally.

The G-man is an intergalatic space-pimp

ewww sorry about the nasty compression

You just roxed my box

There... that's a lot better...

I especially like the smirk on his face in the second pic... it kinda makes you wonder what's goin' on below the camera...

I personally miss the cutscenes, in the first game I was so lost until I actually started paying attention to what was going on, lol... for the first hour I was just like... ok, aliens, shoot them... and.... stuff? but to me the second does a lot better job of actually making the info more readily available to the player

Kick *** game...but a mega vague storyline and too short....not Max Payne 2 short, but still. I know the storyline is vague on purpose, but there still just wasn't enough meat to it. Given how long people have to wait between Half Life games revealing a little more would have been appreciated.

Hey....question.....what happened to the glowing yellow snake-like things that skewer the marine in one of the pre-release videos? I was really looking forward to them since they looked so freaky, but nada......did I miss something?

Jeff: You mean glowing blue, like that thing from "The Abyss"? If so, I've no idea. That would have been cool.

So, what is the "combine", anyway? You see deformed humans in the citadel, but what about Civil Protection and Overwatch? Barney infiltrates Civil Protection, so I assume that its members are made up of humans...

Is Breen's "benefactor" the large slug thing you see him talking to on the tv screen right at the end?

Does Alyx survive? I hope so. She rocked. I also think she's the first appropriately attired female to ever appear in a computer game.

Why are the zombies and such still around? Weren't they contained to Black Mesa, which was nuked at the end of Opposing Force?

What are the Antlions?

What happened to Race-X?

----

Dammit, Half Life 2 really needed more exposition. You find out basically nothing throughout the whole game... We'd better not be waiting six more years! We need an expansion! Right now!

This is the most burning question that I have in my mind right now, apart from the race-x thing.

WHERE THE HECK IS ADRIAN SHEPARD???!!!

What happend to him, I know he was put aside so to speak, but we should know what happens to him!

I'd be very surprised if Sheppard doesn't turn up in HL2's first sp expansion.

Am I the only one who didn't like most of the weapons? Of course the gravity gun rocked to say the least...as did the shotgun and the magnum...but there was a severe lack of a decent rifle for long range combat. I got so sick of the inaccuracy of some of the machine guns that I often found myself using the gimpy pistol :p

I really hope they have expansions planned which will make more sense of this...without having to wait too long.

Agreed Bob, after finishing HL2 and trying to make sense of the large amount of VAGUENESS I sat muttering to myself "If I have to wait 6 more years for some clarity I'm gonna hurt someone".

I really liked the end though. It was well-done...closure, but with so many unanswered questions that people will stay interested. Hooboy. I just beat it today, though, so i'l still all excited, heheh.

Ok the overwatch and Civil protection seem to be composed of Humans, i guess this makes it so that we get to govern ourselves which gives us an illusion of power. Nova Prospect is where they proccess political criminals (like Eli) with some sort of strange surgery that I assume either makes us more willing to be slaves or to make us immortal (highly unlikely, Breen probably wants that power for himself). The slaves are then shipped to the Citidel where we find out that all the Overwatch equipment is actually made by us (not aliens).


As far as headcrabs and zombies are concerned. Well they are either naturual residents of Xen or were used on Xen as some sort of biological weapon to help conquer the species there and of course the Overwatch uses them as a biological and fear weapon. Look at Ravenholm which was composed of free people mining and living off the land. Then the overwatch found out and instead of arresting them, they launched those headcrab missles to set an example to all those who dare appose the occupation.


The Antlions are also probably some type of biological control device used by the overwatch. They are only found near the cost but they can't swim (I remember in the prison levels that if you went into water and the antlions follow, they drown). So I think they are just there to stop people from going out to sea. Remember the Earth is defeated and now the "Benefactors" have to keep the population in control.


That brings us to why somethings we saw in E3 videos are not in the game. Personally i like that most of the E3 videos didn't happen in the game and I remember they said that all the E3 videos didn't actually showcase the finished game and that most levels were probably going to change.


Adrian Shepard was put on watch at the end of OP Force (they need to port that to source too) by the G-man. I don't think the G-man hires soldiers or gervenment types since he feels they are too pre-programmed and as such are not true individuals that can be used to help further his gains (Freeman causes absolute chaos and destruction).

Race X was probably conquered by the same people that conquered Xen when they found out about them. You see I think Humanity was way ahead in inter dimensional portal technology compared to the Benefactors. You look in Black Mesa and we were already doing experiments to both races or maybe RaceX didn't want to dominate Earth but instead were refugees that needed a home or maybe even wanted to join up and help us vs the bigger threat.


The guns in HL2 were great, the only thing i really want to change is the damage factor (make them more lethal) or make them more accurate (similar to how most games handle accuracy where if you crouch and fire in burst your accuracy is better). Im sure HL2 is gonna have some expansions and I can't wait since HL1's story is very vague but thanx to expansions and ports (THE PS2 version was about the 2 scientist that gave Gorden the crystal in the first game).

I just watched the "tunnels" trailer which has the blue Abyss thingy. It all occurs in Nova Prospekt (but during the day), however the level design is basically the same as in the final game (from what I remember). In fact, I even recall playing through the area where the thing appears. Maybe you were supposed to meet up with Alyx in Nova Prospekt?

Another thing that didn't happen was the attack on Kleiner's lab. In one of the trailers you see Striders and stuff attacking. I read that initially there was TWENTY MINUTES of exposition there, but they cut it down to two. Damn, that might have explained some stuff...

I remember seeing screenshots of aliens from the leaked version that are not in the game. For insance there was this one strange alien that shot a laser ray out of its cyclop eye and it was about as tall as humonoid only real skinny and creepy looking. There was also the leaked script that revealed that the G-man was actually Gorden Freeman from the future (along with the idea that G stands for Gorden and man stands for Freeman) and he went back in time to watch him save the earth again or to pay for mistakes he made. This however is probably false but it leads us back to what the G-man is. You remember he states in the begining "The right man in the wrong place makes all the difference" . So he basically screws up time so something that was never suppose to happen (Gorden being in City17 yet still being 27 years old) happen. also remember the week laspe after nova prospect? That was also probably done by the G-man, he delayed Gorden's arrival cause he wanted Gorden to show up when the Resistence made it's move. Its too much of a coincedence that you show up just in time for the full blown assault and there is no reason why the time laspe happened (you've teleported lots of times before then in HL1 and HL2 so there no reason for time distortion).




Also remember how in HL1 you could type in noclip and look at what's inside the G-man's breifcase (it was a photo and a computer). I wonder if you can do the same in HL2, someone needs to get a screenshot of what's in the G-man's breifcase again (or extract the texture from the game for an even clearer view).

Hey, could you PM me a version of the leaked script? It would be interesting to see the differences...

If that "Gordon from the Future" thing is true then I'll be a bit disappointed to have been spoiled about it here when it won't even occur until a future game!

Might have to track down the leaked version of the game, too... I guess it's murky, ethically, since I've already paid for the final game, but the leak isn't official. Still, seeing extra stuff is always cool.

Interesting theory about the g-man being a future version of gordon freeman. it makes some sense. The only way to be sure )outside of reading a script from the future) would be to get a beardless gordon and compare him with trhe g-man.

when people age, their skin may sag a little bit, but their general bone structure probably wouldn't change much unless they had some sort of facial trauma/reconstruction or plasic surgury. If gordon is a younger version of the g-man, then there should be some striking similarities.

however, I also find flaws with the theory:

1. Why would the g-man be watching gordon all the time in HL1? At the end, it is revealed that the g-man had been assessing freeman's performance throughout the game. So, if the g-man is really an older version of freeman, wouldn't the g-man simply remember what he did in black mesa instead of watching his past self? Why would he be trying to assess his own performance? How could he offer himself a job at the end? How could he offer himself a choice if he could remember the choice he actually made?

2. if the g-man knew about the future, why didn't he try to intervene in the past and stop past gordon from causing the whole accident in the first place? If the g-man was only there to spectate , why even go to the past at all? It wouldn't really solve anything.

3. Why would he offer himself a battle that he had no chance of winning? (at the end of hl1) wouldn't this destroy the g-man, too? If he knew how past gordon would choose, why even give the choice?

I don't have the leaked script, it was included in a release of Counter Strike source and some people found it then it was promtly removed. I've been googling around to find the dialog since I believe either it was all mishmashed or completey false (Valve released it on purpose through CS:S) but that's just theory.

Also interesting new combine developments




Then lets not forget that everyone you meet is expecting you and in one instance before you meet the british colonel guy. You can look through some combine spying equipment (future binoculars) and see the G-man talking to the colonel. Also have you noticed the posters that say resist and the lamda complex spray painted everywhere. Also the rebel base is called Black Mesa East (which is probably to symbolize the first black mesa in New Mexico as being a victory). Then theres the instance where you meet the 2 youths in sandtraps, one of them is wounded and the other warned of antlions in the sand. When you save the other one he says something about how his friend died "He was the greatest mind of his generation" , the added with how Breen describes to the trans-human army "Im trying to convince our benefactors that you are the best the species have to offer". Does this mean everyone in the cities are actually scientist? Or even freakier does the term "His generation" refer to scientist from other times?. Barney disproves this a bit (not being a scientist... but one doesn't need to be smart to be the best of the species).




Ok there are many ways this could work. You are thinking more like the back to the Future way of time travel. However it could be more like the "Bill and Teds:Adventure time travel" where everything there always happened meaning you can't change time (if you saw the movie everything they said to their past selves were the same thing they said when they met them again, and the reason his dad's keys were missing is cause he went back in time and moved them ect....). This would explain the whole G-man being involved. Also remember opposing force? If you followed Gorden in the teleporter the game would end explaining you created a time paradox (meaning that was never suppose to happen).

Theres also the possibility of creating alternate dimensions. Such as in one dimension/timeline Gorden caused the resonance Cascade and unleashed Xen. Later he helped in City 17 and probably joined up with Breen instead of fighting him or maybe City17 played out differently and he found an opposing alien force and worked for them and unlocked time travel.

The other crazy theory would be that the G-man is like Tyler from the fight club. Maybe Gorden has a split personality problem. Maybe the time portals created a real version of his alter ego or split Gorden into 2 people.

Also note on the leaked Dialog, from what I've heared, it doesn't come right out and state the G-man is Gorden, it simply alludes to some strange things from what I remember the script had Alyx being a double agent (saying Sorry to Gorden and that she hated her father for her mother's death...ect) and contained dailog that never made it into the game (like the E3 videos).


Another cool note. The voice actor that does the voice for Barney also does the Voice fo the Gman (stated in the credits of HL2). Probablly nothing though

Where did you get that picture of the combine and monkey diagrams? Breen also notes that "combine" is what people call them, not what they call themselves ("the so-called 'combine'"). I still think the Overwatch and Cops are at least partly made up of humans, as the speech Breen gives in Nova Prospekt about being very disappointed indicates that the troops are supposed to be "the best humanity had to offer". So where are the aliens? How did humanity lose the 7 hour war? Moreover, I doubt the Combine gave humanity much notice before attacking, so how did the newspapers already know to call the "the Combine"?

I hadn't noticed the G-Man and the colonel. That's interesting. It seems like there's heaps of stuff I missed on the first time through.

Was Mossman really a traitor? Because it seemed at the end it was all a ploy to trap Breen.

Did Breen survive? Even if he survived the teleporter malfunction, he probably didn't survive the resultant explosion.

So many questions... Give us some resolving, Valve!

I found the picture of the Combine in some other forums. The guy that took it said it was somehwere near nova Prospect behidn some tanks. Ive also heared that the tennements section of the game contains lots of clues and tidbits to what happened (it appears one needs to play detective to squeeze more out of the cryptic storyline).

As for if Alyx Survives, well we all remember Dog and how he was trashing a transport near the end (I think I remember him flying on top of one), maybe he swoops down and saves Alyx.


All I know is I really need to play Oppossing Force again (gonna wait till its ported to source first) since that game clued you in on what was going on in Black Mesa more then the original and hopefully the next expansion for HL2 will do the same.