Half-Life 2

    i think the blue thing was one of those red eyed friendly alien beams. They shot a few of those beams in the game, and in the demo where the combine gets impaled u can see theres actually 2 of those beams, one for each hand

    Ok, here are some answers and speculations about the story and on what the hell is going on in general that game. Again, if you haven't finished the game yet, you shouldn't read it. SPOILERs.

    Spoilers?

    Yes.

    SPOILERS

    Okay, so here are answers to many of the common questions:

    First things first,

    This Book on the making of Half-Life 2 answers a LOT of questions. A lot of the answers mentioned here are excerpted from this book.

    How long has it been since the first game?

    The book says 10 years.

    Where the hell does this game take place? Where is City 17 located?

    One thing Valve has mentioned time and time again, and yes, in the book as well, is that City 17 is supposed to be a nondescript Eastern European city. Architecturally it looks like one, and much of the writing is in Cryllic. Valve liked this setting because it exemplified the theme of old versus new and the cost of technological change that is featured in the game (the shining new Combine structures and technology set against an old world backdrop).

    Some have speculated that it was probably a "Science City", a cold war relic from the days of the USSR, a settlement that sprang up around research facilities that the Soviets set up. If you think about it, Black Mesa was also a cold war relic (missile base converted into research facility), so it makes sense that Valve would feature a parallel like this.

    The City is filled with Americans and former Black Mesa personel because, well, it's one of the few population centers left in the world that people can relocate to. Why is the world like this? Read on:

    What the hell happened after Half-Life to make the world this way?

    Read this, it's an excerpt from the book that tells the backstory Valve was planning to include but didn't. Basically killing Nihilanth didn't end things, portals continued to open up all over the planet and all of the hostile Xen creatures ran rampant, making the world unsafe. The survivors flocked to population centers that were easily defensible against the Xen wildlife. However, sometime after that, the mysterious Combine simply teleported into the middle of each population center with their giant towers and incredible military might. What was left of earth's forces didn't stand much of a chance, and as you can see from bulletin board clippings in Eli's Lab in the game, it was over in 7 hours. Somehow, the mysterious Dr. Breen, the former administrator of Black Mesa, showed up and somehow negotiated humanity's surrender to the Combine. Apparently he promised humanity's cooperation (willing or not), subjects for experimentation, and access to earth technology.

    Who are the Combine? What do they want? Why are they here?

    According to the book, Valve envisioned the Combine as the ultimate Interdimensional Borg-like threat. They invade and enslave other worlds they consider advanced enough to pose a threat and add their biological and technological distinctiveness to their own. For example, the Striders and Gunships and similar ships seen inside the Citadel are from a self-adapting bio-technological robotic race (think cyborg replicators) that they conquered sometime in the past.

    It is likely that humanity added themselves to the "watch" list once they proved themselves capable of interdimensional travel and to the "imminent threat" list with their hostile takeover of the border world, Xen. Some theorize that the Combine themselves were the ones in control of Xen, and that humanity's incursion into what was essentially their territory is what prompted the invasion of earth. This is also plausible.

    Their interest lies in conquering humanity to make sure that they are no longer a threat to the rest of the multiverse and themselves and acquiring humans as potential members and forces (note most of the Combine troops you face in the game are in fact humans) and acquiring advanced human technology and weapons (which, if you think about it, are pretty advanced in terms of local teleportation technology and weapons like the Tau Canon and Gravity Gun). Essentially, they want to draft humanity into their ranks and pacify those who don't want to join. Also, they are either draining earth of it's natural resources or converting it into another home for themselves or perhaps both at once.

    What is Administrator Breen doing working for the Combine?

    Based on what we hear from him in the game, he does seem genuinely concerned about humanity and it's future, and wants us to survive, even if it means joining the Combine. Breen seems especially concerned about the performance of his Combine soldiers when he addresses them regarding their inability to stop Gordon Freeman ("he is not an assassin, he is a theoretical physicist!"). It is plausible he fears humanity's future is at stake if our performance is not satisfactory to the Combine masters ("Our Benefactors"). It is likely that in negotiating Earth's surrender he made certain promises to secure humanity's future, and keeping those promises is important. If he can't put down the resistance, then perhaps the Combine will conclude humanity is too great a threat to be pacified and must be eliminated?

    Also, The picture seen spraypainted on the wall in a couple of places appears to depict the Combine as the future evolution of man, as above our current state as we are above apes. This seems to tie into all of Breen's talk about "improving" humanity and "immortality being right around the corner", perhaps he is finally in the position of power he always wanted to be in? There are conspiracy theories surrounding Breen's role in the whole saga, remember, in the first game "The Administrator insisted that we go ahead with the experiment" and "The Administrator went through a lot of trouble to secure a sample this pure" - the same sample that set off the resonance cascade. Perhaps he has had a bigger role in all of this than he lets on? One thing is clear - there is no way that the former Administrator of Black Mesa being made the Administrator of earth itself under Combine rule is a coincidence...

    What were those weird things I saw inside the Citadel?

    Those biological ships that looked similar to the Striders and such, as mentioned above and in the book, were from a bio-technological race that the Combine conquered previously. They were engineered into living weapons.

    Those creepy gaunt humanoid creatures with metal faces are in fact former humans who have been experimented upon. Remember Nova Prospekt? The enemies of the state are taken there to be subject to inhuman experimentation. Apparently they are lobotomized and many organs are removed so that they are reliant upon direct intravenous feeding for sustenance, and then are shipped to the Citadel to serve as mindless drones for menial labor. The book mentions that Valve had originally planned to make them enemies that you fought (remember the red laser eye thing?) but would feel really bad about, but decided against it for some reason.

    What is that slug thing Breen talks to on the viewscreen?

    In the book Gabe talks about how Valve imagined the originators of the Combine as being a race that evolved to depend on technology so much that their bodies atrophied to the point that they were basically limbless slugs, but extremely advanced in intelligence and reasoning, allowing them to be very adept at manipulating and controlling everyone else.

    Why do the Combine use headcrab shells? They don't like headcrabs or headcrab zombies...

    They use them as inexpensive and effective area denial biological weapons. Human resistance fighters are smart and a formidable threat, they can plot, they can infiltrate, they can organize and coordinate, and they can use devastating weapons. Headcrab zombies are none of those things and nothing more than canon fodder. If you think about it, it's pretty simple, just let headcrabs loose, they are sneaky and tenacious predators, they will get into vents and hide in cielings and they will get onto people's heads. Once they turn into zombies they begin to indiscriminately kill any other resistance members that might be alive. They are a very serious threat.

    It is likely that the different varieties of headcrabs and headcrab zombies come from the Combine experimenting with them genetically and attempting to engineer a better biological weapon, hence the spider and neurotoxin varieties. Also, it's worth considering that headcrabs were nothing more than biological weapons intended for use on humanoid enemies all along. If you think about it, their primary function is to latch onto enemy heads and turn them into mindless berserkers intent on killing even more enemies. It's a very smart design, every headcrab is capable of disabling one enemy and crippling or killing dozens more from the inside. Xen was no stranger to biological weapons, remember the snarks and the bee-gun?

    Why the hell are those Vortigaunt creatures on our side now?

    They were just slaves forced to fight in the first Half-Life, they weren't actually hostile. If you paid attention, they were refered to as "alien_slaves" or somesuch and wore slave collars around their necks, which they no longer do in HL2. Also, when you see them in the factory on Xen, they are not hostile at first, and only begin attacking once the Alien Controllers (the flying fireball throwing guys) show up.

    Killing Nihilanth freed them, and if you talk to them in Half-Life 2, you will note that they are eternally grateful to "the Freeman". Of course, now they are just under the tyranny of the Combine.

    They also talk about how that "now that the lesser master is gone, the greater is sure to fall as well". This implies that even Nihilanth had a boss to answer to. If you notice, even Nihilanth was wearing a slave collar in Half-Life, and one of the things he says is "slaves, we are all their slaves". Some theorize that this may refer to the Combine, who might have been the ones in control of Xen. This is plausible.

    Do the Vortigaunt know about the mysterious "G-Man"?

    If you talk to them, they will often say that "we both serve the same mystery" (their mastery of english is hardly complete). One of them in the canals even has the G-Man on the television and says that line to you as he changes the channel.

    Who is the mysterious "G-Man"? Is he human? Alien? What is he up to? Is he "pimping" Gordon out?

    The book mentions that he has trouble pronouncing his words, as if he is not quite used to human speech. This pretty much spells out that he is NOT human. He looks human, however... given Breen's conversation at the end of the game, it would appear that the technology to transfer a being's "conciousness" or mind into a different body exists. Could the G-Man be using something like this? We don't know for sure.

    In the first game, he appeared to be a shadowy Agent of the US Government (hence the "G-Man" or "Government Man" monkier, which is also the name of his multiplayer model, "GMAN") in the first game, backed up by his briefcase, his pleasure at the fact that the US Government troops were successful at conquering Xen, and his confiscation of Gordon's weapons on the justification that they were "government property after all". Since the US Government no longer exists in the world of Half-Life 2, it is unclear what his role is now.

    He seems to possesses the ability to appear anywhere he needs to be, as well as the ability to teleport anyone he wants between dimensions as well as into a stasis holding dimension of sorts. Indeed, he has a great deal of power... but he doesn't seem to intervene directly in things. Instead he others to accomplish his goals...

    It is clear that he is using Gordon's extraordinary fighting skills in order to take down enemies of his at whatever opportunity he sees fit. He knew of Nihilanth and Xen in the first game and Gordon got it done. In HL2 he knows of Breen and the Combine and Gordon, well, gets it done, killing Breen, cripping the earth operations of the Combine, and destroying their means to easily teleport into our dimension. Breen also mentions that Gordon is just being sold to the highest bidder... however, the G-Man himself says that while he has gotten offers, he has NOT entertained the thought of going mercenary with Gordon YET. To some degree we can't really trust either of them, but the G-Man has been pretty honest about things so far, as he doesn't really need to lie, just to be really vague. Also, if we consider Opposing Force to be canon (see below regarding that issue), it would seem that the G-Man is building up his forces of extraordinary individuals with incredible survival instincts and combat skills... Gordon is just one of several agents he may intend to use for his purposes.

    As for the theory of G-Man being Gordon Freeman from the future... yes, well it's true they both have sparkling green eyes (based on the box art) and somewhat similar (though NOT identical) facial features... but it would be unlikely for Livestock's joke review posted on the SA front page to be right... I don't think anyone really expects writer Mark Laidlaw to go down this route.

    Okay, so what about Opposing Force and Blue Shift? Where's Col. Shepherd?

    Valve hasn't given a definitive answer on this but it is likely they are not strictly Half-Life canon. Valve is free to ignore or incorporate elements of the stories of both expansions, we will have to wait and see what they do.

    What the hell happened in Opposing Force and Blue Shift anyway? I didn't play them...

    In Opposing Force you play Col. Shepherd, one of the marines sent to kill aliens and stop Freeman. You don't, of course. It covers what happens at Black Mesa after Gordon travels to Xen (spoilers for OpForce) Another alien force, known only as "Race X", decides to take advantage of the dimensional instability and invade Black Mesa. Shepherd beats them back and kills their giant monster leader, presumably thwarting the invasion. Meanwhile the Black Ops and the G-Man nuke the entire facility. G-Man treats Shepherd much as he did Gordon, putting him in dimensional stasis of sorts until he needs him again. Again, Valve may not consider this canon.

    In Blue Shift you play Calhoun, one of the security guards caught up in the events, he helps a few of the scientists successfully escape from the facility. It features the only happy ending of anything Half-Life related. It also shows how humans had to set up a relay station in Xen itself in order to enable local teleportation on earth.

    But did Alyx really die? What about everyone else? How could they survive that explosion?

    We simply don't know. The game ends before settling any of these issues. Yes, from the last vantage point, it seems unlikely that Alex could have survived the dark matter cataclysm... however, Valve did invest a lot of effort into her character, and they have said that they intend to release mini-expansion packs or at least levels featuring her over Steam, so... it's not in their interest to kill her off. So, yeah, up in the air.

    It's plausible that the other characters were far enough away from the explosion to survive. At this point Valve is free to bring anyone they want to back.

    So what happened to all these weapons and levels and enemies that we saw in the videos and the leak and read about?

    Simply, they were cut. Most of the levels still exist in some reworked form, traptown is in Ravenholm, but there are no Combine there, for example.

    Some enemies were reworked as well, for example, the book talks about how the original Combine Assassin that you see in concept art was made into the Advanced Guard that you see in the Citadel. The berserker, originally a combine experiment, was reworked into the fast headcrab zombie. The book also talks about how the really cool water tentacle enemy was cut simply because as cool as it was to watch, it just wasn't any fun to fight against. It is likely the portion of the game that featured the water tentacle was cut along with it. Who knows why the bullsquid and sharky were cut, or where the houndeyes are now.

    As for weapons, well, who knows exactly why they were cut. Valve seems to have wanted to cut down on the variety of weapons in the game, perhaps to focus on the primacy of the Gravity Gun. The OICW was probably cut since the whole OCIW program was scrapped in real life. Other weapons like the sticky bomb launcher and the physics manipulator (blue beam in the physics demonstration movie) never made it past the prototypical stage.

    Thanks for that Friechamp, good read. Now for a joke.

    Quote

    In the book Gabe talks about how Valve imagined the originators of the Combine as being a race that evolved to depend on technology so much that their bodies atrophied to the point that they were basically limbless slugs

    GABE SI TALKING ABOUT HIMSELF!!#@!#@! AHEAGHAHAHA

    Quote from FrieChamp

    The book also talks about how the really cool water tentacle enemy was cut simply because as cool as it was to watch, it just wasn't any fun to fight against.

    I told ya

    About what -Stratesiz- said, I think its just the slow combine teleporter?

    and Im pretty sure the gman just left gordon in limbo~

    About what ol said, If you have half-life on steam, you can play Opossing force too, just download it and play~ its best evr. Blueshift isnt on steam

    i just skipped to the last level of opfor

    gman puts u in like a holding area untill the time is rite or something, he also mentions he has employers which i think is important.

    maybe gearbox is secretly working on opfor2!!!

    Quote from -Stratesiz-

    (SPOILER)What about the slow teleportation? It took a week for Gordon and Alyx to teleport back to the lab? What it Gordon's teleportation from Xen took 10 years?

    (SPOILER)

    I think the slow teleportation had to do with Dr. Judith Mossman sabotaging the darn thing.

    What I don't quite understand is why do I have to buy a book to find out about all these things? I mean yeah, the mystery in HL2 is cool but they really should have adressed these things in the game itself. If not all, then at least some or the majority of it.

    Quote from kleinluka

    What I don't quite understand is why do I have to buy a book to find out about all these things? I mean yeah, the mystery in HL2 is cool but they really should have adressed these things in the game itself. If not all, then at least some or the majority of it.

    Valve has already explained quite a lot of these things, in a subtle way, ingame.

    Though, they have to maintain a certain balance between story, conversations and the gameplay itself. So far they've been keeping that up quite well in my eyes. There could have been indeed, explained more through events or things you stumble upon in the game... but this might make things a bit too complicated after a while for players less immersed in the Half-Life universe.

    Good point though.

    My expectations were too high for Half-life 2. Don't get me wrong, I thought Half-life 2 was a great game, but from all the hype and trailers, videos, and concept art I thought it would of been a lot more than it was. Maybe it was that Valve felt rushed by the public to hurry along a release date.

    (Spoilers~)

    It felt like 80% the time I was driving around, 10% shooting combines or aliens, and 10% solving pointless puzzles!

    I didn't like the inclusive ending, it leaves so many unanswered questions, which for marketting is great giving a perfect setup for HL3. But to me and I am sure others feel this way, it's just like Half-life 1. Heres what I found strikingly similar to HL1:

    -Gordon's Past -- Ok I still never knew how Gordon got involved in Black Mesa from Half-life 1. Now I have no clue why he's in City 17 to help defeat Dr. Beene..

    -This whole expirement messed up crash thing. I mean look back in Half-life 1, Gordon fucks up pushing some gold lump into a spinny light and hell breaks loose. Why would he be dumb enough ever to trust these fuckers again? Again though Gordon jumps onto that teleporter and guess what? Yep! Another mess up! Maybe Gordon should stop hanging out with this crowd.

    -The ending, again just like in Half-life 1 we're with the G-Man. When I was destroying the portal at HL2 and the G-Man popped out and then into that dark room I was just opened-mouthed and angry that this was pratically the same exact ending as Half-life 1 it seemed. I mean they could of been a tad more clever with an alternative ending.

    -The whole background of the City 17, Dr. Beene, or Combine Soldiers. Ok I understand if I waste 20 bucks to get the stradegy guide I can get some bullshit background story to all this. I mean it was just so sudden, I mean I get off a train and then I talk to Barney and I am now apart of a militia to destroy this supression tower? WHAT? I DON'T REMEMBER AGREEING TO THIS! It was all so fast paced and left out so many details and stories.

    There's more but I can't think of them all, dang nabbit.

    It was an awesome game, I loved most the new weapons and enemies and even DOG! But honestly I felt like I was playing Half-life 1 on another engine.

    If I were to give it a rating I'd have to say probably 6/10

    (BIGGER SPOILERS THAN A RICERS CAR)

    A bunch of shit engineered so you don't understand it held together with plot devices that are either subtle or not actualy in the game doesn't exactly strike me as a good plot. In fact, I'd go as far to say as the plot in HL2 is the worst thing about it, and the availability of a book to explain it just throws in the notion that it was intended for you to buy the damn book just to understand it in the first place.

    There are games out there with things you don't understand in them, ones with elements you only notice after a couple of play-throughs, ones that make you slap your forehead, or even ones with deep psychological spins on all the characters, Silent Hill for example. But they have a main plotline that is easy to follow, whereas HL2 seems to be "LOL MYSTERY" and "HERE'S ENOUGH INFORMATION TO GET YOU TO YOUR NEXT CUTSCENE" every step of the way and the only piece of the mystery that you're sure about, is that you're a giant tool.

    Even ignoring the main storyline, the gman is quite unmistakably shown talking to that supposedly British commander with the rocket launcher and the rebels on TV. So everyone is collaborating together to use you as a giant pawn, as are the scientists, as is the gman himself to the point he freezes you in time to use you again (wow, Gordon you’re the coolest mute tool ever), in fact I was pleasantly surprised to see it didn’t end with a Hollywood style plot twist wherein Dr. Breen was manipulating you too, though he did say he would - I expect they’re saving that one for HL3, which they may as well advertised at the ending sequence. And even what you have has flaws in it, for instance all the zombies are clothed like BLACK MESA SCIENTISTS.

    There is nothing about the appearance of the combine or the 7 hour war - you tear down a regime you know literally nothing about because some scientists tell you to. You know nothing about what the combine are, what there motives are, and it doesn’t even explicitly say they were the ones controlling Xen (slaves, we are their slaves). But you do get treated to a lot of psychobabble, countless loose ends and a book that tells us that everything in the first game was a complete waste of time.

    (repost of HI forums follows:)

    As for the conclusion; you get what could be the most anti-climatic ending ever devised since "congratulation" so the gman can walk off all suspicious again and you can hope for answers in HL3, which presumably will end with obnoxious foreshadowing for HL4.

    "Gordon, this is a Dark Fusion reactor!" "Really? That's great honey, but I still don't even know what this fucking building is, you have noticed the way expands, right? And it’s all alien-like? And who are those skinny dudes? If they look like that under the gear, how did barney get a job? Did you not see the huge alien? WHY GOD? WHY AM I A MUTE?"

    "Gordon, you've destroyed lots of stuff! But what have you created? Betcha can't name anything" "You got me there, I'm not even sure what I'm fighting for, those guys I know who didn't say anything other than "he is bad" are here, right? I think my global scope for this entire sharade is just to save them so I can be their bitch again. I don't know what you're up to, where I am now, where I am geographically, what the year is, or if that's air I'm breathing now, but I'm sure coming up there you kill you with this gravity gun that, through reasons unknown, got really powerful touching that device that I don't understand."

    “Yes Gordon, you did it! (?)” “Fuck! Oh ok, quickly now, what was the deal with-–" "BUY THE SEQUEL, COMING SOON*”

    * not soon.

    Though, ranting aside, the game is pretty much flawless in all other regards.

    Quote from ShaDoW

    Valve has already explained quite a lot of these things, in a subtle way, ingame.

    Though, they have to maintain a certain balance between story, conversations and the gameplay itself. So far they've been keeping that up quite well in my eyes. There could have been indeed, explained more through events or things you stumble upon in the game... but this might make things a bit too complicated after a while for players less immersed in the Half-Life universe.

    Good point though.

    In my opinion they were a little too vague with the dialogue and could have told at least A BIT more about what had happened since the first game etc. instead of leaving it ALL to the player's imagination. Ah well..

    edit: I agree with most of what curman and taylor said.

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