Half-Life 2: Intellectual

[brad92]

So, I'm currently in the middle of an argument about whether HL2 (excluding the episodes) is an experience in an intellectual range. I'm arguing for it. The game is intrinsically thematic, and outside of the general 1984 Orwellian influences I think, for example, it has a lot to say on the nature of power, how it's wielded, and the consequences of that.

What do you guys think?

 

[ríomhaire]

I think the most obvious theme in Half-Life is free will/choice and the lack of it. Not only is it a very linear series with seemingly unconnected outside circumstances continuously pushing Gordon down a path but the g-man pretty much openly mocks you about this at the end of Half-Life 2. The ending for Half-Life 1 gave you the choice to work for him or die. Half-Life 2 picks up assuming you picked the former and completely ignoring the possibility of the latter. The g-man then says that he won't bother giving you the illusion of free choice this time as you never really had any.

There are also a large amount of train and railroad imagery in the games. Half-Life, Half-Life 2 and Episode Two all start on trains and Half-Life and Episode One end on trains. The hazard course ends on a train. There is an entire chapter of Half-Life dedicated to rails and several drivable trains apart from that. The Razor trains are a constant sight around City 17 in Half-Life 2 and you board two trains in Episode One. What makes a train unique is that is bound to a rail. It has no choice of where to do except where the rail takes it. The same is true of a linear FPS.

 

[brad92]

I had never noticed the train symbolism! That's a brilliant extrapolation, Riomhaire.

I think the most overt thematic device I've taken from the games over the years is the game's consideration of 'power'. We know this to drive home significantly in Ep2. We're brought into this developing circumstance involving Aperture Science and the Borealis, and drawing connections with the likes of that and Black Mesa.

"There's no controlling that kind of power".

I think that one line succinctly sums up a large part of what drives the intricacies of Half-Life narrative and, indeed, the motivations of so many of the characters.

 

[BillNyeGuy]

Of course half life 2 has intellectual elements!! In fact compared to a lot of other FPSs I think the Half Life series and the Bioshock games have a lot to comment on.

Just within Half Life 2 the argument of scientific and technological progress comes up with Breen and Eli at the end of HL2 and comes up again during Ep.2. Free Will is a interesting one and I think a joke by valve showing that in the end there isnt any/or its severely limited. If the next hl game offers you one, the one after that (?) will expect that one specific option was made.