Gotta love G-Man and that voice acting.We Asked the G-Man Himself About 'Half-Life 3'
Voice actor Michael Shapiro reveals all he’s legally allowed to say about the G-Man and ‘Half-Life 3.’www.vice.com
Gotta love G-Man and that voice acting.We Asked the G-Man Himself About 'Half-Life 3'
Voice actor Michael Shapiro reveals all he’s legally allowed to say about the G-Man and ‘Half-Life 3.’www.vice.com
Some actual cool information came from this:
It refers to the start of Ep.1 when the Vortigaunts interveneG-Man openly says that Gordon has not been performing as they want him to. So clearly people conscripted into G-Man's service retain some amount of free will, and can choose not to follow his instructions.
What I question is, to what extent could he previously travel back and forth in time this freely. It seemed more like dimension travel before, so for instance, he made sure the Xen object ended up in Black Mesa that would cause the backfire, and he made sure to trap Freeman himself between dimensions between HL1 and HL2 and HL2's ending and Episode 1 once the Vortigaunts freed Gordon and locked up Gman.G-Man is the linear construct of the narrative in the sense that he witnessed Eli's end in Episode 2 and then went back, thus changing events for Alyx when this new game takes place. He's the linear throughline from Half-Life, to Half-Life 2, the Episodes, and now Alyx.
Yeah it was great. I still don't understand the recast much when Merle was what made Alyx, Alyx to me. But the new one wasn't bad, just felt like a different person.Despite the major recasts (#JusticeForMerle) it was such a rush hearing Shapiro's G-Man and Tony Todd's Vortigaunts again. Whether it's because we've never heard G-Man speak as much as he does in Alyx, or because I'm coming off a Deep Space Nine binge, I was getting strong Jeffrey Combs energy from his dialogue at the end.
Bear in mind what I'm postulating isn't abandoning VR to turn Half-Life into a service franchise, but like this:Resident Evil has proven multiple times how to do co-op with story-heavy content and action gameplay. But the last thing Half Life needs is something like L4D. A successful and popular service entry in the HL series would be the death of the IP.
For me this ending = Two new Half Life. One with Alyx (Half-Life: Alyx 2 ? in VR) and Half Life 3 in classic flat screen with Gordon.
Call me a G-Stan!
Just beat the game, holy shit I need to get my thoughts down lol. OK so here's what I think happened:
Sometime between the ending of HL1 and HLA the Combine manage to capture/contain the Gman using the harvested powers of the Vorts. At the end of HLA, 19yo Alyx unwittingly releases the Gman from the vault. The Gman then takes her to the future to Save Eli(similar to how Eli apparently made a deal with Gman to save Alyx as a baby from Black Mesa during HL1) and "hires" her in that same moment. Gman then wipes Alyx's memory and places her back in her own original time. Eli probably knows something must have happened involving the Gman, but never says anything to Alyx because hes worried and wants to protect her. Then the events of HL2/ep1/ep2 go on to play out (with Alyx never being aware that she was under Gman's watch/influence the entire time), but now Eli lives at the end of Ep2 because of Gman/Alyx's actions. From Eli/Gordon's perspective, they're both restrained by the Advisors and all of a sudden there's a flash and a bolt of lightning or something fries the Advisor out of nowhere and 25yo Alyx is just gone, disappeared. Eli knows Gman must have taken her(being the "unforeseen consequences"), and gives Gordon the crowbar to continue in HL3, with all the same original stakes still present like the Borealis and saving Mossman, but now with the added stake of finding/saving Alyx.
There are obviously several big questions remaining, such as who was the shadow-woman talking to the Advisor? Why does she mention Gman was a "survivor of Black Mesa"? And how/when did Gman get captured by the Combine? And did Gman still have Gordon in stasis while he was imprisoned?
This is my take too. He let himself be captured.
In that sense, it's an in-continuity retcon where the emotional stakes were still very much relevant to Episode 2 in that timeline as it existed, and then G-Man used his knowledge of those events to go back, as a non-linear time-traveller, to create a new future to benefit himself and his employers going forward.
I really like it actually. It's still actually quite linear when you look at the major beats as they now exist in tandem with Episode 2.
I agree you with folks, and it's in large part why I kinda really love this ending. It wasn't a blanket reset, it wasn't even Alyx's first choice, it relies on Eli's death as being something that factually happened (both G-man and at least one Vortigaunt know it), and it doesn't let any of the characters off the hook practically or emotionally.One of my favourite things about what the ending means is how it totally recontextualises the events of Half-Life: Alyx once you've seen the ending. All through my playthrough I was under the impression that everything here was supposed to have happened in the lead-up to Half-Life 2's events. That this being a "prequel" meant it was going to add colour and a little more context to things we saw in HL2, but that it was going to be self-contained enough as to not step on anything major in that game's story or canon-wise. But now I don't think that's the case.
G-Man is the linear construct of the narrative in the sense that he witnessed Eli's end in Episode 2 and then went back, thus changing events for Alyx when this new game takes place. He's the linear throughline from Half-Life, to Half-Life 2, the Episodes, and now Alyx. But what I initially took as an early tale in the life of Alyx is, in actuality, altered events leading to her getting to him. It's not a case of Valve saying this game's events all happened but rather, this game's events leading up to the ending happened ONLY BECAUSE of what G-Man witnessed at the end of Episode 2.
I really love it.
https://www.usgamer.net/articles/half-life-alyx-behind-the-scenes-part-2-feature said:"It's important that it's not just a genie out of the bottle, snap your fingers and anything you want can happen whenever," Remo says. "There's just the ability to shift this one particular thing, and as usual, the consequences are strange and difficult to predict, and not necessarily what you want them to be."
1) We can't say with absolute confidence how time in Half-Life works, but she remains in stasis after the end of Episode 2. G-man has shown before that he has the ability to implant submerged directives into human beings (Episode 2), so it's likely that in HLA she exits the Vault after meeting him with a memory block or a mental directive that negates her saying or doing anything that would terminate the deal. If it's the former, her memory returns at the end of Episode 2 as G-man pulls her into stasis awaiting her first assignment. From G-man's hypothetical perspective, she leaves and arrives at the same moment.Okay, I've not played the game but I'm a little bit confused about two things since games involving time travel always end up being confusing:
1) If Alyx from HL:A ends up being 'recruited' by the G-Man and is trapped in limbo at the end of HL:A, how do the events in HL:A logically follow into the events of HL2 where Alyx meets Gordon in City 17? Would she not be trapped in time and space per the ending of HL:A?
2) How did the Combine end up capturing the G-Man after the events of HL1? Is this ever explained or hinted at?
Okay, I've not played the game but I'm a little bit confused about two things since games involving time travel always end up being confusing:
1) If Alyx from HL:A ends up being 'recruited' by the G-Man and is trapped in limbo at the end of HL:A, how do the events in HL:A logically follow into the events of HL2 where Alyx meets Gordon in City 17? Would she not be trapped in time and space per the ending of HL:A?
2) How did the Combine end up capturing the G-Man after the events of HL1? Is this ever explained or hinted at?
1) We can't say with absolute confidence how time in Half-Life works, but she remains in stasis after the end of Episode 2. G-man has shown before that he has the ability to implant submerged directives into human beings (Episode 2), so it's likely that in HLA she exits the Vault after meeting him with a memory block or a mental directive that negates her saying or doing anything that would terminate the deal. If it's the former, her memory returns at the end of Episode 2 as G-man pulls her into stasis awaiting her first assignment. From G-man's hypothetical perspective, she leaves and arrives at the same moment.
2) Vortigaunts are similarly able to see/experience past and future (it's suggested that they still experience the events of the Black Mesa incident to this day), can manipulate them, can stifle G-man's own abilities (Episode 1), and the Combine have shown since HL2 that they're able to capture, enslave, and siphon them for their energies. The Vault itself kept him contained because of like energies from live Vortigaunts.
1)After letting 19yo Alyx rescue Eli and Hiring her, Gman wipes her memory and puts her back into her own time as sort of a "sleeper agent". Eli probably knows something happened to Alyx in the Vault involving Gman, but never says anything to Alyx to protect her. Then the events of HL2 and the Episodes go on to play out with Alyx never knowing she was under Gman's watch/influence the entire time, but now Eli lives at the end of Ep2 because of Gman/Alyx's actions. From Eli/Gordon's perspective, they're both restrained by the Advisors and all of a sudden there's a flash and a bolt of lightning or something fries the Advisor out of nowhere and 25yo Alyx is just gone, disappeared.(This is the moment when Gman takes her and puts her in stasis.) Eli knows Gman must have taken her(being the "unforeseen consequences"), and gives Gordon the crowbar to continue in HL3, with all the same original stakes still present like the Borealis and saving Mossman, but now with the added stake of finding/saving Alyx.
The moment when she was hired (at the end of HLA) and the moment she was put in stasis (at the end of Episode 2) are separate moments. (Though "time" is seemingly irrelevant/displaced in Gman's "realm", and from that perspective they seemingly happened at once, its complicated.)
2) We dont know when/how Gman was captured by the Combine. It was sometime between HL1 and HLA. As for containing him, the Combine harvested the power of the Vorts to power his prison. (Its been established in Ep1 that the Vorts' powers can affect Gman.)
1)After letting 19yo Alyx rescue Eli and Hiring her, Gman wipes her memory and puts her back into her own time as sort of a "sleeper agent". Eli probably knows something happened to Alyx in the Vault involving Gman, but never says anything to Alyx to protect her. Then the events of HL2 and the Episodes go on to play out with Alyx never knowing she was under Gman's watch/influence the entire time, but now Eli lives at the end of Ep2 because of Gman/Alyx's actions. From Eli/Gordon's perspective, they're both restrained by the Advisors and all of a sudden there's a flash and a bolt of lightning or something fries the Advisor out of nowhere and 25yo Alyx is just gone, disappeared.(This is the moment when Gman takes her and puts her in stasis.) Eli knows Gman must have taken her(being the "unforeseen consequences"), and gives Gordon the crowbar to continue in HL3, with all the same original stakes still present like the Borealis and saving Mossman, but now with the added stake of finding/saving Alyx.
The moment when she was hired (at the end of HLA) and the moment she was put in stasis (at the end of Episode 2) are separate moments. (Though "time" is seemingly irrelevant/displaced in Gman's "realm", and from that perspective they seemingly happened at once, its complicated.)
2) We dont know when/how Gman was captured by the Combine. It was sometime between HL1 and HLA. As for containing him, the Combine harvested the power of the Vorts to power his prison. (Its been established in Ep1 that the Vorts' powers can affect Gman.)
Isn't the only combine weapon in HL2 is the overwatch rifle? All the rest are resistance weaponsI don't have a VR headset, and don't really plan on getting one for quite a while. I ended up watching a full playthrough on youtube and have to say, the ending was super impactful when watching it in the context of the full game. I can only imagine what it would have been like to actually play it! The post credit scene almost brought tears to my eyes. I'm like..."It's actually going to happen!!!" I'm also ok with Eli's death being retconned. We will just have to see if that story point was worth it whenever a follow up happens.
I know these specific things where done to fit the VR gameplay, but they are kind of lore inconsistent. Alyx explains that combine guns are genetically encoded, but Gordan was able to just pick up and use combine guns fine. There's also the healing stations requiring slugs. Granted, HL1's healing and armor stations were designed around the HEV suit for use in Black Mesa. Them being available all over City 17 never quite made sense.
Isn't the only combine weapon in HL2 is the overwatch rifle? All the rest are resistance weapons
Yeah well, it's been 13 years and they just retconned the ending of EP2, I'm ok with it hahaYou're technically correct, though the majority of them carried SMGs and pistols.
Yeah well, it's been 13 years and they just retconned the ending of EP2, I'm ok with it haha
I hope they're seeing all the positivity and go forward with VR or whatever they see fit.lololol. I'm just happy we have true hope for a real sequel to Half-Life 2: Episode 2! Whatever they have for us, I'm ready!
I avoided this thread until I finished the game and wow was it good. Definitely felt like a very soft reboot. With that said, Alyx being hired as an "agent" and awaiting an assignment has a lot of potential. They could totally have a follow up of Alyx in VR and one game where you play as Gordon on flat screens. This would probably make everyone happy, but time will tell. See ya'll in 13 years lol.
Same, I hope this leads into HL3 in VR. Any new HL game not in VR going forward will be a massive downgrade and disappointment as far as I'm concerned.That was probably my favorite ending in gaming. This is a very exciting time! I can't wait for more!
I really hope you're wrong. It does kind of make sense but VR got the devs excited to make a new Half Life. I hope the mainline series continues in VR. I don't want two separate games on separate platforms ;-;
This is not an original concept, and it reaffirms your suspicion.Something I wondered about Gman
When he's walking around and starts talking about nudging things, he seems to split off into another Gman who looks fuzzy. He does this at least one other time (not when he splits into many versions of himself). I was thinking that maybe when he's doing this, the second fuzzy gman is from a different outcome of this situation in a different timeline. Its hard for me to put into words but to me it came off that we were seeing rifts in timelines when he was doing that. Similar to how the apartments and scenery were split in half prior to getting to him.
I think this is dead-on. Doesn't quite excuse the usage of time dilation as a plot-element IMO, but yeah, in the meta sense it works. And I think it might also be exactly what the franchise needs in this particular situation where there's a road forward to not just a conclusive chapter in the series but many new possibilities, now that they're reopening the franchise.Just finished and wanted to say I thought that the ending was fantastic. Maybe I'm reading into things a bit too much, but I sort of took what happened at the end as a bit of metacommentary from Valve on the state of Half-Life as a series, and where they see things now.
I wouldn't say it's impossible for it to be a flat screen game, but it still very well could be with some new mechanic they came up with. I'd be okay with it either way.I don't understand how a lot of you people can think Half-Life 3 will be flat screen when the whole point they put you in Gordon's hands in the last segment of VR is to signal "HEY WE'RE DOING HALF LIFE 3 IN VR".
At least as I understand it.
Vorts energy can affect and contain GMAN. This was also touched on in Half Life 2 episodes.I find the ending really intriguing, it seems very very good. A question I have though for people that have played it, because I won't get to for a long time if ever. What exactly are the G-man's powers and limitations? Considering he was imprisoned in the game, but he has the seemingly strong ability of rewriting reality or stopping time, how was Imprisoning him even possible? Is that addressed.
Vorts energy can affect and contain GMAN. This was also touched on in Half Life 2 episodes.
Yep, and I'm wondering if the reason the Combine captured so many Vortigaunts was entirely to imprison him.I find the ending really intriguing, it seems very very good. A question I have though for people that have played it, because I won't get to for a long time if ever. What exactly are the G-man's powers and limitations? Considering he was imprisoned in the game, but he has the seemingly strong ability of rewriting reality or stopping time, how was Imprisoning him even possible? Is that addressed.
Vorts energy can affect and contain GMAN. This was also touched on in Half Life 2 episodes.
That's really interesting. I don't recall that plot point from the episodes because it's been quite a while since I've played them, but that's a really well executed idea of interlocking all of the different parts of the background lore.Yep, and I'm wondering if the reason the Combine captured so many Vortigaunts was entirely to imprison him.
In Episode One the G-man's about to say/do something to Gordon, and the Vortigaunts warp him and Alex away from the explosion, and they surround G-man and are able to push him back, so he says "We'll see about that". In Episode Two he talks to you when the Vorts are all busy healing Alyx, and says he waited until then to talk to you because they were busy.That's really interesting. I don't recall that plot point from the episodes because it's been quite a while since I've played them, but that's a really well executed idea of interlocking all of the different parts of the background lore.
I don't understand how a lot of you people can think Half-Life 3 will be flat screen when the whole point they put you in Gordon's hands in the last segment of VR is to signal "HEY WE'RE DOING HALF LIFE 3 IN VR".
At least as I understand it.
Also lol how did that conversation go down when Alyx got out of the vault...?
Eli: "Honey you're okay! So what was in the vault? What happened?"
Alyx: "Yeah it wasn't a super weapon, I just released a creepy interdimensional dude in a blue suit"
Eli: "........."
Wait, whose voice actor died?Since the thread is labeled "SPOILER" do we really need to use spoiler tags?
Something feels kind of weird and not right about resurrecting a character whose voice actor has died, after he gave a pretty memorable and iconic performance. They should have just left things as they were. Retconning the end of HL2 is also kinda cheap. I do like the twist that Alyx is now stuck being "employed" by the G-Man's organization.
Wouldn't be surprised if gman wiped it from her memory or some shitIn terms of regular A to B story telling, the retcon is certainly a bizarre story beat (eg to someone played all the games for the first time right now). But its been 13 years, the previous story outline is out there and picking up that crowbar was the hypest shit ever, I can easily forgive it.
I have a story question though, how does everyone know Gordon survived Black Mesa? Wouldn't they all assume he died or got lost in Xen? Definitely caught me off guard when Alyx asked what hes been doing and no one had an answer. Surely you'd assume he died if they had no other information.
Also lol how did that conversation go down when Alyx got out of the vault...?
Eli: "Honey you're okay! So what was in the vault? What happened?"
Alyx: "Yeah it wasn't a super weapon, I just released a creepy interdimensional dude in a blue suit"
Eli: "........."
Yeah Vault Alyx is likely a sleeper agent whos back in her place for the events of Half Life 2.Wait, whose voice actor died?
Wouldn't be surprised if gman wiped it from her memory or some shit
Just experienced it for myself completely unspoiled and man you are right. I can't put into words how unbelievably cool it felt to be back there and grab that crowbar. I did not see that coming at all and it was absolutely insane. I'm hoping the reason they showed us that was to signal a sequel is coming in the not too distant future.Also, I can't stress how powerful that moment felt playing it in VR and unspoiled. The difference between reading about the story beats vs. experiencing them for yourself is as significant as the difference of playing a game in VR vs. on a flat screen. Time travel shenanigans can be a cheap narrative tool, sure, but my Alyx had earned the right to make that final choice; and she was clearly young, naive and desperate enough to make a foolish bargain.
And honestly, so much time has passed since Episode Two's release, and expectations for the story by hardcore fans had calcified (especially with the reveal of Epistle 3.) The ending felt like the left hook the narrative needed to feel shocking and unpredictable once again.