So much unexplained......

[Entity99]

Ok, I just finished the game, and I'm honestly confused as hell as to what just happened. Don't get me wrong, the gameplay was AMAZING, but story information wise, the game was hardcore anemic. Here's the list:

1. What did ANY of that have to do with HL1? Besides people saying Breen was the administrator during the accident, characters occasionaly saying something like "good work at Black Mesa Dr. Freeman" (or something equally pointless), and random pointless science talk about slingshotting (is that a word?) around Xen, this honestly could've been a game in an enitrely seperate series and I wouldn't have noticed. Yeah, enemies and the main character and things are the same, but as far as the story goes, this game seems to have zip to do with HL1.
2. Who/what is the combine? At first I thought they were just kind of a sort of Independence Day type alien race, going from world to world, enslaving the population and taking their resources (via those mining-pounding things). But are they enemies of the Xen aliens or their buddies? Do the two groups even know about each other? How did they get here from their universe? At no point do we see a starship, and the doctor that supposedly goes traitor halfway thru-can't remember her name-tells you straight up they haven't mastered teleportation when you first get to Black Mesa East. Are those zombie-ish things you see in the citadel emaciated humans or combine aliens in their true form? Who are the one-eyed white-armored enemies you fight later in the game?
3. Dr. Breen, in one of the very first speeches you see in the game, said "immortality is now within the reach of humanity." This is never explained and never brought up again. WTF?
4. Speaking of Dr. Breen, it's never made clear whether or not he's really acting for the good of humanity or whether he's just saying this stuff to pacify people. Am I right or did I miss something?
5. Why the hell does the G-man need you to do stuff for him? The ending shows that the guy is probably only second in power to God, why the hell didnt he just blow that citadel thing up himself (barring the possibility that he's a lazy bastard)?
6. While on the subject of the G-man, what do we know about him? Here's all I can think of-
-He's got crazy-assed powers
-He's employed by someone/something ("my....employers")
-Gordon Freeman is his bitch, but he may not have exclusive whoring rights to Gordon, as Breen kinda alluded by saying "his contract is open to the highest bidder"
-He seems interested in making deals with others for Gordon's services, even though I have no idea what someone could offer a God-like being
7. What did Gordon push into the resonance cascade at the beginning of the first one? We see another sample of this rock in HL2 (in Eli's lab I think) but are still told nothing about it.
8. Who/what is Gordon Freeman? This question was explicitly stated in Nova Prospekt, but absolutely no attempt was made to answer it.

Meh, that's all I can think of now. Answers appreciated.

 

[Entity99]

Forgot to add, whatever happened to the soldier you played in Opposing Force?

 

[Razak]

lol you view the story through gordons eyes. You only pick up tidbits of what happen if you look hard enough. It is the whole aspect of the way the game is played. There is no narrator, but only what you hear from hear say or pictures. The only person who can tell you wtf is going on is the G-man. I dont think hes going to tell you much.

 

[Joshua]

The white guys are elite Cp's... Aka they are better. That is on like every character list on any site...
Dr. Breen is a guy, who is looking out for HIMSELF. You should be able to pick that much up. He doesn't care about anyone. He just talks on those screens because well, that is just what political people do, they talk.
HL1 ties in... As such... The project gone wrong was a teleporting device. Apparently the thing teleported in some aliens or the g-man made some deal with a foreign entity... That isn't clear. Hopefully it will be later explained, personally, I believe it all has to do with the G-man. It could all turn out to be a dream, or a mind-game he is playing on you, who knows.
Gordon is a humanoid. I'm guessing he is human, could turn out he works for the aliens too. I don't know. It is alluded to that Gordon is either a mercenary... a covert operative... or just some guy... Who really knows? It isn't in stone what Gordon is doing for the G-man... Double agent-styling him, or really doing a job for the guy.
Now back to HL1... We know the goal was to escape Black Mesa. To survive. You fight in Xen... Meet up with the G-man, make some kind of deal. Well time elapsed between then and HL2... What happened was, the world got taken over. It seems to me the Combine are the soldier-like, rifle-bearing people of some race. What kind of race? Who knows, seems humanoid anyway. They may even be humans, I don't know. But I think they have many slaves, those energy shooting guys use to be one. Perhaps they brought the aliens with them and lost control of them?
Or maybe the story isn't supposed to make sense at all, 10 guys down at Valve are collaborating some broad storyline with no real answers, just to make a buck. You be the judge. This concludes my 10 cents.

 

[Entity99]

Razak-I'm taking your response to mean that you don't know the answers to those Q's either.
Joshua-But the white armored guys clearly have one eye on their faceplate. Everybody up until then had been human-combine forces (or whatever Breen calls them in his Nova Prospekt speech) and had two eyes, but the whites are obviously different. Perhaps real combine aliens? Also, how do you KNOW Breen was just working for his own interest? In public broadcast speeches he says basically, yeah life sucks now, but it'll get better soon. In messages broadcast only to Freeman or close allies, he talks about how the alternatives to collaboration are extinction and stuff like that, so collaboration is the only viable option. So yeah, he may be full of crap, but we don't KNOW if he is or if he's really just protecting humanity from something worse.

 

[Flitwick]

I doubt anyone will be able to piece together many answers until HL3 or an HL2 expansion (if they make one). As for what HL2 had to do with HL1, I think the events at Black Mesa are significant because they drew the Combine's attention to Earth. I think Xen was a normal alien world until they were defeated and taken over by the Combine. (this is a guess, explains why vortigaunts are wearing collars and shackles, i also recall the Nihlianth wearing some shackles around his wrists.) The Combine probably left Nihilanth behind to watch over Xen after they left. Kind of like they gave Dr. Breen control over Earth. So then Gordon goes to Xen in HL1 and kills Nihilanth and sets the Xen world free again. The Combine are like "wtf?!" They then go back to Xen to investigate and find United States Marines there kicking major ass. (remember at end of HL1 Gman teleports u to Xen and there are marines and tanks in the background, he says "thanks to u Xen is in our control for the time being". then the Combine find out these humans are from Earth, see us as a threat and go kick our ass. As for those pounding mining things u mentioned. I dont think they were mining things. They are meant to keep ant lions away from Combine bases. Thats why the ant lions u used wouldnt go past them unless u turned them off.

 

[Silarn]

Even though you have two eyes, your helmet does not have to. They're just elite units with a single large visor instead of one for each eye.

It ties to Black Mesa in the fact that the whole teleportation mess started there. Xen and Earth merged spreading native fauna across the planet. Nihilanth, who ruled Xen (likely taking orders from the Combine, as it was enslaved as well), was killed by gordon. Gordon is then hired by the G-Man and held is stasis or something. In the following years while he is gone, headcrabs and other Xen life spread across earth, focalizing around where it began - Black Mesa. In other words, North America is in chaos.

When they decided the time was right, the Combine fortresses were teleported to the center of every major remaining human city. Which are mostly located in Europe - at least in-game. (If you listen to Dr. Mossman she explains that the Combine teleportation is apparently ONE WAY - as in you can only teleport from one world to the other. Then they must travel conventionally about the world. Eli, Kliner, and Alyx etc have a way to be able to teleport around the same world.)

Their invasion of the now weakened earth populace with advanced technology brings total surrender after only 7 hours, orchestrated by the former Black Mesa Administrator - Dr. Breen. Thus it is labeled the seven hour war. The combine follow suit by taking control of the cities, harboring 'selected' citizens in their relative safety now that the world is becoming increasingly hostile. And they begin to drain the Earth's resources.

Several surviving members of Black Mesa end up together in City 17, of all places. An underground movement begins to oppose the new rulers. The Vortigaunts, freed at the destruction of Nihilanth, team up with the humans to fight against a common opressor - the Combine. (Evidence of this is seen by the 'shells' used by the Combine. Where did they gather all those headcrabs? Who was controling Nihilanth?)

On the day that the resistance finally complete a working interdimensional teleporter, Gordon arrives. You'll note that he is expected, only his arrival date was unknown. After all, the G-Man is seen talking with many people. Nobody is completely surprised that you've come, and more people than might be expected know about Mr. Freeman.

His arrival is not seen as a good thing by the Combine, in fact they take it quite badly. You get the feeling that they know you are 'working' for the resistance. As Dr. Breen states near the end, you are open to the highest bidder. I think you know how the rest of the game plays out.

As for the mention of immortality - it probably has something to do with assimilation into the Combine. Those near-zombie looking things in the Citadel are indeed human - modified and made into slaves.

For Dr. Breen, it is a matter of opinion, but I believe he is looking out for himself, even if he once used to believe he was doing things for the good of humanity. His values have become somewhat warped now, however.

When Breen poses the question 'Who/What is Gordon Freeman?' it is more literally taken as propaganda. He is trying to make the citizens believe in the values he spouts - to make Gordon seem like a figment of the mind. It can be read into however. Perhaps Gordon isn't entirely human.

If you have a chat with a Vortigaunt (meaning using it thirty or so times) there are a few juicy clues. They seem to think Gordon (who is being seen through by 'many minds') has the ability to communicate on the vortessence-

In the end however, we ARE left with more questions than answers, and that is how it is supposed to be. It has already been stated that HL2 is the middle chapter. All we can do is wait for HL3 and answers.



As for Colonel Shephard - he wasn't in the original Half-Life either. And there are many inconsistancies in that game that have no apparent tie to the official HL story. It was made by a different company, after all. Race X is completely unmentioned - Shephard gets a teleportation GUN - they're still having trouble with teleportation in HL2 - seems a bit odd to have this advanced gun that can fire teleportation pulses...

If he were to make an appearence in the future - he was apparently imprisoned by the G-man at the end of OF, so what happened to him is a mystery.

 

[Titar]

Good stuff, but a few additions (corrections?).

Sheppard's gun didn't teleport, it trasported Sheppard between Xen and Earth (or vice versa).

In Black Mesa there were several point to point teleporters, apparently this is a big deal...

It is very odd that the Administrator of Black Mesa would surrender for the Earth, he should have no where near the needed authority. Perhaps he was in contact with the Combine since the early Black Mesa experiments. That would also explain why the government, had they been tipped off, would have reacted so violently to the scientists at Black Mesa, perhaps they didn't really know who was or wasn't a traitor.

Obviously the G-Man has access to time/space/dimension technology. It does bring up the question of why he needs Gordon, then again how could a handful of humans defeat the combine when a fully populated earth had only lasted 7 days. Could be that both the Combine and whoever the G-Man works for are stretched thin (infinite worlds can do that to you), while in force both sides might be unstoppable, perhaps usually have to work through other races or local forces to get the job done.

I like the comment that Gordon's services are up for the highest bidder. Breen should have offered Gordon $1, since the G-Man never pays him anything.