End game discussion *spoilers of course*

S

SpaceBot2

Guest
Well after 14 hours of playing, its done. I was kind of hoping for more out of the gman at the end..no? Anyway overall it seemed kind of short, but overall it was massive. I dont think I rushed it, but I dont know. Anyone else?
 
Worst ending ever.......We have to wait six more years to find out what the hell is going on.......Worst ending since matrix 3......Awesome game, levels were huge and I had a blast. Took me about 12 hours. I just expected so much more at the end, it was almost like it just stopped and the power went out at my house. I was like "Is that it, it can't be it, wait lets see what happens after the credits there will be some crazy ending? Nope just lamar and the professor. Urgh." I give it a 9/10 for no ending." Time to play it again on hard.
 
Yes, ending was kind of annoying. I mean, no long speech, no long explanation or anything? What happened? More time is spent on the color b/w transitions than gman talking. No train ride while we get talked to? Overall, pretty big cliff hanger, if you can call not enough info a cliff hanger.

[edit]
MORE: Also, going into the start, did I miss something there too, or do we have NO info on what happened, where we are, etc...
I mean they kind of gave us an idea, but not nearly enough to really say "Oh, now it all makes sense" Just feels like I showed up for a movie a half hour late and left 10 minutes before it was over.
 
gman was to the point, but i was expeting a longer hl1 type ending.

Oh well, time for valve to announce HL3

edit, you think alyx will be back for hl3 or did she get owned in the blast?

I think she will be back :p
 
I would expect alyx back in hl3, as well as most of the main characters. Similar to how they did it this time around, they are just older or different.
 
HL3 should be here within 2 years. Can't wait to see what happened to everybody :)
 
I was very dissapointed, very. I didn't wait 6 years to have nothing answered, and only more questions asked.

I finished in about 8 hours, and I DID rush through. So I have to start a new and take it a little bit slower and really look around.

Remember that "big surprise" we were supposed to get near HL2 release? Heres my theory on that; HL3, maybe they pulled a Matrix and made HL3+HL2 at the same time and plan on releasing them 6 months apart or so. I just think that this game is good, but it does not seem to have 6 years worth of content. (How long did the engine take?)

So my vote on that "surprise" announcement is either an expansion that might actually ANSWER SOMETHING, or the announcement of Half-Life 3.

Because that ending didn't answer a single damn question. I feel like they dropped us in this world and were too lazy to actually formulate a story behind it, so they hoped we would run wild with our imaginations.
 
I was very impressed with the super gravity gun, but I was disappointed with the lack of a final boss. Very disappointed. What kind of game ends without a finale fight?
 
Very very sad with the ending, loved the game LOVED some of the "James BOnd" movie type sequences like the wind boat and the falling smoke stack ;)

I was literally pissed when the ending rolled out for me, plus the final fight was VERY simple it seemed, maybe I just got lucky and ill have to try again?

Just like everyone said I really wanted a TAD bit of an answer, I would have been happy with just a couple extra lines of dialog with a bit of info. :( Sad, oh well.
 
I think its been discussed, but where did the hydra go again?
 
Weedums said:
Remember that "big surprise" we were supposed to get near HL2 release? Heres my theory on that; HL3, maybe they pulled a Matrix and made HL3+HL2 at the same time and plan on releasing them 6 months apart or so. I just think that this game is good, but it does not seem to have 6 years worth of content. (How long did the engine take?)
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I've been thinking the same thing, maybe a lot of the stuff taken out will be in HL3 and it'll continue on almost straight after HL2 ended.. Though would be easier to work out if I knew how to complete the damn thing lol bloody thing :E
 
They did say they would be releasing new single player missions via steam, possibly from Alyx and Barney's Perspectives, as well as standalone episodes. They're also adding much more stuff ass time goes on. These announcements were a surprise to me, anyway.
 
son of a bitch, I hate that Gman... First, of all He dresses better than I do, Second! He just walks around like he owns the place, WHEREVER he is , 3rd I can't bitch slap him with the gravity gun and Fourth and Foremost He Steals me away from my Woman!... also... Who does HE work for?... and why is he pimping me out like a 2 dollar hooker?
 
Umm ... Did I miss something? That was the shittiest ending i've seen in a game.
 
Hey, you come to on a train with the gman waking you up, now at the end of the game he says he has to go after he gives you that speech and then a door slides open and he says his stop has arrived or something along those lines, maybe you have been on the train the whole time and that you never go off and it was all a dream and then in HL3 you wake up on the same train and do the same thing as you dreamed of in hl2? Haha jk. But it could of all been a dream since it seems that the gman was getting off some sort of train and it was all dream like.
 
Bizzare. The gameplay is great, and I had a true blast playing from the beginning to the end. But the story, particularly the ending, is just way too inconclusive.
 
VodkA-HLC- said:
Hey, you come to on a train with the gman waking you up, now at the end of the game he says he has to go after he gives you that speech and then a door slides open and he says his stop has arrived or something along those lines, maybe you have been on the train the whole time and that you never go off and it was all a dream and then in HL3 you wake up on the same train and do the same thing as you dreamed of in hl2? Haha jk. But it could of all been a dream since it seems that the gman was getting off some sort of train and it was all dream like.
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thats creepy but true. In Half-Life 1 the gman wasnt transparent ghostly like was he? Maybe I am wrong.

I do like peoples theories about possibly half-life 3 fairly soon. I doubt it would be in 6 months, they will milk half-life 2 for long than that, but maybe a 2 year stretch? I could live with that a hell of a lot better.
 
Motherf...

There i was having a blast, trying to get everything explained in the end.
You go up the tower, awaiting a bigass final boss thingy...

and then..

F#CK!

Seriousely worst ending ever, they'd better have something for us in say the next 6 months, because this is just FUBAR!

Game rocked though, aside from the ending, there was quality dripping from every minute of gameplay.
 
VodkA-HLC- said:
Hey, you come to on a train with the gman waking you up, now at the end of the game he says he has to go after he gives you that speech and then a door slides open and he says his stop has arrived or something along those lines, maybe you have been on the train the whole time and that you never go off and it was all a dream and then in HL3 you wake up on the same train and do the same thing as you dreamed of in hl2? Haha jk. But it could of all been a dream since it seems that the gman was getting off some sort of train and it was all dream like.
Click to expand...

Donnie Darko, aye? :eek:
 
Hmmm, my theory is that the big alien thingy that breen was talking to wants to take over earth but needs a host body to do it. Now, in hl1 the resonance cascade was arranged by breen so that the big alien guy (b.a.g) could start his invasion and also maybe they could find a body strong enough to handle hosting the b.a.g. If you think about it headcrabs need a host body so this might be a big headcraby thing. So gordon shows up as this viable candidate for teh host body ( wether it be he's naturally gifted or the resonance cascade he was in somehow made him superman :p).
Here is where it splits into seperate paths and where it could go either way:
Path 1
This could be why he ends up in xen and the end of hl1. Plus the big bad guy was a baby, could be a hint towards re-birth of the b.a.g in gordon. But they get defeated. Then for some reason or other the gman (who's an emmissary of teh b.a.g) gains gordons services and wishes to test gordon out to see if he really is tough enough for the b.a.g so they put him through the events in hl2 and once again he wins proving he is good enough and thats where it ends for now.

Path 2
Gordon goes renegade and defeats the ninilanth and then the gman (who works for a party against the b.a.g) gets gordon so they can use him to fight against them and they only risk bringing him out when he's needed (hl2).

Either of these could be possible and show that hl2 was a test to see if he was worthy of being a hero or being a possible host body for the b.a.g. It would explain why we find out very little as he's just being tested and watched from afar by some higher power. Other things to show the incidents are tests are how the gman shows up in various to check whether gordons on the right path and is performing well and when you die the gameover screen is like a scientific test (yeah it could be because gordons a scientist but it could have a different meaning, if the scientist himself was involved in one huge test it would be a good ironic ending for the series).

Also why did gman take gordon but not barney? they both survived black mesa and did a fair bit of arse kicking on the way.Maybe because he's deemed barney unsuitable as he doesn't have gordons strength and possibly because gordon got pumped up in the resonance cascade.

Anyway this is just me getting out my first thoughts after hl2 ended. It's unstructured and needs some work. If anyone likes this and has anything they've noticed to add then please do.

OR

Path 3
Gordon Freeman is the new doctor who and he just goes from time to time solving humanities problems without a real general story arc.
 
I will agree, the ending was definetly week. I was just wondering though, how can the G-Man, employee of probably no less than God,
stop the blast at the end and just go around talking to you whilst Alyx just stands there. Everything else in HL 1 and 2 actually seems realistic within the set perimeters of the world, but that just seems strange...
 
because he can mess with time. He basically says it himself
 
I wonder if replaying will make things for example Breen says more meaningful in a new way...
 
I hate to say it, but I think Valve just couldn't figure out what to do after you beat Breen. A perfect example of Dues Ex Machina I guess.

Seriously, its like they were sitting around discussing the ending and someone said "Ok, so it blows up, then what?" and they all crapped their pants. Then someone said, ok G-man comes in and that's the end. GG.
 
Yea I was pretty disappointed in the ending, but the game as a whole was so damn good that I'm going to give Valve the benefit of the doubt that there is something bigger in meaning around the corner for us.

What really pissed me off was the absense of the hydra. Now why in the hell would they EVER take that out? It was by far one of the coolest sequences in the first E3 videos.
 
i liked the ending. as soon as time froze my jaw hit the floor.

i think the ending is more functional than anything. it's sort of preparing you for HL3 i reckon. and if you read the Prima Guide's description of the G-Man, it'll clue you in a little as to why the ending is plausible.

the ending also puts things into perspective. here you were, for the past 15+ hours battling Breen and his minions, as well as his 'benefactors', with their huge towering spire of technology and teleportation etc, and along comes little old g-man and....freezes time. imagine that. he's got more power than Breen/Benefactors if he can do that. so the story is telling you there's something bigger than Breen/Benefactors/Combine, something more powerful and even more elusive, and you're the right arm of this entinty.

great stuff really :D


EDIT: G-Man reminds me of 'Q' from Star Trek: The Next Generation. a quieter, more sinister version ;)
 
It answered more than you probably spent time to think of.

a) The gman contracts you out to save diffrent worlds
b) Gman uses you when he wants
c) Breen + strategy guide explain that the combine invaded earth and set breen as the master. The towers build alien gunships and soforth by crushing buildings and streets - things created are used to invade other earths.
 
Here's a thought...If the Gman is more powerful than anything so far, maybe in the third HL, or last HL, gman will be the boss or enemy at the very end, and you wont have a clue until the very end of the game.
 
Uh. Maybe you guys should go back and play HL1. You fight Nihilanth and win, suddenly stuff starts exploding, right when you start to think "wtf am I gonna do next?", you're suddenly talking to this dude in a suit. No questions get answered.

HL2 ends the same way. You defeat Dr. Breen, blow up the citadel, there's a huge explosion - and then time stops, and suddenly you're talking to the gman again. No questions get answered.

I loved the ending. It fit so perfectly with the series. In fact, I'm astounded that no one else even noticed the similarities, when the line "I'm not going to give you the illusion of a choice" or whatever, was blatantly referring to the choice you had at the end of HL1.

The ending owned.
 
Its weird im not really sure how to react, Alyx isn't dead shes gonna be the happy ending in 3... or will there be a happy ending? G-man is like some sort of galactic agent for freeman whos like this kind of bounty hunter almost... like i heard earlier in this thread (sorry can't remember the name) but whoever said its gonna be like matrix, where they just release hl3 like within the year, but they said that they were gonna work on TF2 next soooo i don't know, i can't wait till 3 this was the best game ever, the strider battle was sooooooooo awesome
 
azz0r said:
c) Breen + strategy guide explain that the combine invaded earth and set breen as the master. The towers build alien gunships and soforth by crushing buildings and streets - things created are used to invade other earths.
Click to expand...
A game should not require it's owners to buy an official strategy guide/other book to fully explain the story. If it was required, it should have been in a manual that comes free with the game.
 
Lanthanide said:
A game should not require it's owners to buy an official strategy guide/other book to fully explain the story. If it was required, it should have been in a manual that comes free with the game.
Click to expand...


well if you want to find out about the story bad enough, i'm sure you can do a bit of searching on the net and come up trumps.
 
Lanthanide said:
A game should not require it's owners to buy an official strategy guide/other book to fully explain the story. If it was required, it should have been in a manual that comes free with the game.
Click to expand...

I totally agree - there was so many chances for the game to sit you in a room with someone and have them explain what happened to earth - I dont know what Valve was thinking by just leaving us completely clueless.
 
azz0r said:
I totally agree - there was so many chances for the game to sit you in a room with someone and have them explain what happened to earth - I dont know what Valve was thinking by just leaving us completely clueless.
Click to expand...


it's because they wanted to put you into the character of Gordon Freeman as much as possible.

Freeman has been 'away' since the black mesa incident. our confusion in HL2 is pretty much how Gordon would be feeling, don't you think? it's just a story device, it's not meant to tax your brain or make you frustrated.

if there's any gaps that valve haven't filled in, then i'm sure they either intend to fill them in in the future, or they're leaving them up to your imagination.

you guys are too used to having stuff spoon fed to you in games like Max Payne, Far Cry, hollywood films etc, it seems. the greatest stories sometimes aren't told, but implied.
 
Man, what a great game.
Even better than expected.
A little short perhaps but compensates with an abundance of quality.
I like how the game got more and more exciting from the start until just before the intentional anti-climax ending.
Definitely money well spent.

But what am I going to do now?...

Edit:
So, have anyone found any eastereggs?
There's bound to be some..
How many times did you spot gman?
I only saw him once, through a camera in a house on the coastline.
 
SpaceBot2 said:
I would expect alyx back in hl3, as well as most of the main characters. Similar to how they did it this time around, they are just older or different.
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Older? I hope not. I really don't want to have Alyx get older without me (that sounds weird, but I am Gordon...).

It was fairly obvious to me what's told in the strat guide.
 
Idolon said:
But what am I going to do now?...
Click to expand...

I am kind of scared. Because I have nothing to keep me entertained as much as HL2 did, for a long time.
 
Oh man that game was amazing!

The ending was good too. Only disappointed in the lack of plot throughout. Questions like why are we there, how long have we been away? why have the combine invaded? Who are these combine? At what point did we join forces with the zen alien guys?

They didn't need to answer those questions outright, but a few hints at an answer to them throughout the game would have been nice. Like a history lesson off eli or something.

But overall very good. Gonna go play on hard now.
 
Dedalus said:
Freeman has been 'away' since the black mesa incident. our confusion in HL2 is pretty much how Gordon would be feeling, don't you think? it's just a story device, it's not meant to tax your brain or make you frustrated.
Click to expand...
Even more reason for the other characters to sit down and tell him what's going on. "Gordon, you've been gone so long! Why don't we fill you in on what's been going on?"

The fact that the other characters don't do this IS a failing of the storyline and the realism of the other characters - no one IRL would really be that stupid - here is our saviour, hey, lets not tell him anything about what's going on and let him bumble through things himself! We don't need to give him any help at all, he'll work it out in the end!

I mean, they really should have at least given Gordon a device like Alyx's that lets her open combine doors - or explained why they couldn't give him one "we stole it from a combine" or something.

Another problem is the Ant Lions. Gordon has been away. The only place we ever encounter ant lions is on the coast. It would be reasonable for the other characters to assume Gordon has never met ant lions before, and so they could explain where they came from/what they do etc, but no. Even the vortigaunt that gives you the pheripods doesn't tell you anything, I mean they could have said "the ant lions have long been a foe to us on Xen", but no, NOTHING.

So many missed opportunities to give us INFORMATION about things. Everyone keeps saying "it's all in the details, just pay attention", but the thing is - the information is simply NOT there, unless it's hidden very well, which it shouldn't be.

I'm not asking for everything to be explained, but a few small tidbits would be nice, but we don't even get that.
 
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