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Asbsand

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
9,901
Denmark
Gotta love G-Man and that voice acting.
Some actual cool information came from this:
  • Gman is singular. It means there is only one person who can do what he does in this universe. He is not like Q in Star Trek.
  • "There is a story about Gman that hasn't been revealed yet."
  • "He is in it for the long game", about the possibility of a Half Life 3.
 

Zor

Member
Oct 30, 2017
11,321
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.
 
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Asbsand

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
9,901
Denmark
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.
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.

But it never occured to me that time was part of the scheme here. I know with theory of dimensional travel we instantly talk about time as well, but that seems like a thing they deliberately avoided previously because that opens everything up to "They can just revert time and undo stuff."
 

Deleted member 11637

Oct 27, 2017
18,204
Gotta love G-Man and that voice acting.

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.
 

TheRed

Member
Oct 31, 2017
2,658
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.
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.

Maybe that is the point though hmmm. Could it be they wanted 2 Alyx's with what happened here so that the one from HL2 actually is a different Alyx? Would be weird because Eli and other characters don't notice anything but idk. Probably not.

I liked the ending, but it did open up a lot more questions that we just have to hope get answered still.
 

Sibylus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,728
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.
Bear in mind what I'm postulating isn't abandoning VR to turn Half-Life into a service franchise, but like this:

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.

Where the campaign scaling starts at 1 and can optionally add more players and co-op mechanics (essentially taking the Sven Co-op or Synergy concept and blowing the wheels off of it). Maybe it would make the most sense given HL's atmosphere to bring 1 friend along tops, and lean hard into splitting the party often to add tension.

Gotta love G-Man and that voice acting.
Call me a G-Stan!
 

Sibylus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,728
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.
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.
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.

Gordon is seemingly a free man for the first time in literal decades but has made very powerful enemies, Eli has had another prominent torment inflicted upon him by the G-man, and Alyx had her father's live saved... and now they're still as good as dead to each other because she's been torn away. And the finger on the monkey's paw has only begun to curl:

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."
 

TheRed

Member
Oct 31, 2017
2,658
I was thinking of the implication the ending has and what Valve will do next and its really interesting. I think story wise they actually have most of what they want to do for the next Half Life game, possibly called Half Life 3 planned out. But it's gonna big a bigger more expansive project possibly with an even bigger budget. They were fine with making Alyx as a proof of VR design and to provide more backstory going forward, but it was less risky for them then going all out in VR straight out with Half Life 3. With the ending here they are, to use Gman's words, "nudging" the series plot just enough to get people excited and talking again, but they leave it at the starting point for the next adventure still.

In the interview with Gabe on IGN he said they are very interested in the reception critics and players of Alyx give, not interested in the sales numbers. He said that will shape the discussions at Valve for the next 18 months. I think they are planning to have the next Half Life game be in full scale production at least 18 months from now. The discussions before that will be about if they should continue down the VR path for it or go back to making it for flat screens.

I'm personally hoping for more VR with how great the reception has been and after the fact Alyx felt like a big introduction to something more. More unique and ambitious game design, more unique and ambitious storytelling and just a lot more focus on combat even in VR since you'd be playing as Gordon again.

Might be wrong, but I hope this is the case. Just really want more of this. Thanks Valve for the awesome game. Glad to have the series back.
 

Shevek

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,530
Cape Town, South Africa
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?
 

Sibylus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,728
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.
 

Mad_Rhetoric

Banned
May 7, 2019
3,466
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)
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.)
 

Shevek

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,530
Cape Town, South Africa
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.)

Props for taking the time to lay this out for me. This ending is probably the best we've seen in the franchise and leaves the player with so much to deconstruct and speculate on. It's all really fascinating and just makes me so much more excited for where this series is headed in the future.
 

edwardvh

Member
Dec 11, 2018
125
So I have a question: if Dr. Moss works for the resistance, and she definitelly knows that G-Man is there, would not Eli know that the prisoner is not Gordon but G-Man? An I missing something?

Btw i just realized that the cheff Vortigaunt in this game could be the same you find cooking crabs hidden in a very deep pipe in HL2. And of course the ones you save feeding energy to the boat are the ones that save Alyx in the mines.
 

Cindres

Member
Oct 28, 2017
647
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.)

I think your number 1 is definitely what I'm going with at the moment, the mind wiping theory is the one that makes the most sense to me. I see it as either the event of Ep2 happened or G-Man saw this timeline occuring and showed it to her ahead of time, i.e. Alyx hasn;'t been through it twice so to speak.

(though on point 2 as I've said before I think he let himself be captured)
 

TaterTots

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,962
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.
 

EchoSmoker

Member
Jan 29, 2018
928
Oh my god I was shaking at the after-credits scene I was fanboying so hard. Letting the player change the cliffhanger ending that fans have been stuck with for over a decade is a hell of a thing though.
 

VaporSnake

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,603
Those final moments blew my goddamn mind. I expected a hl3 tease of course but seeing Dog again, being given the crowbar, exceeded my wildest expectations. They did it.
 
Oct 25, 2017
4,798
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. Like, at the end of Episode II, Eli dies, and Episode III was all about waiting to continue *that* particular story. Obviously, that never happened. Now, with Alyx, it feels like we're going back in time to just as that moment happened in HL2 and the universe got put on hold, so-to-speak. Suddenly, the G-Man shows up and disturbs the timeline, almost as if to say: "Oh, yeah, that game [HL Ep3]? You're not getting that. But you are going to get a different version of it." Now, everything in HL is recontextualized as others have said, but I do feel that this is Valve's way of saying: we're back, but we're not doing the same thing. That version of events never took place; we're jumping off that timeline as developers, and jumping onto a new one where HL is back in a totally new and unique way.

Either way, Alyx absolutely confirms that HL will return and we're going to get a continuation of the story. I think Alyx is a fantastic game, my favorite game of the year easily -- but the bit at the end was both unexpected for me and desperately needed. I finally feel like Valve is really, really back, and HL:A is an absolutely insane start for this new arc of their development.
 

coldsagging

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,867
Can't help but find it funny that after 13 years they've taken the plot to...literally the exact same place they left it, just in a new context.
 
Oct 27, 2017
3,892
ATL
I 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.
 

s0l0kill

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
856
I 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
 

Ionic

Member
Oct 31, 2017
2,734
I don't think the writers intended it this way, but looking back at the Gman conversation, I really like the line "They authorize me to nudge things in a particular direction from time to time". Then immediately after taking you briefly to the future, literally nudging something from one time to another time.
 

Dmax3901

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,864
Just finished it, everything was incredible but that post-credits scene? Quite possibly top ten gaming moments ever for me.

Realising I was in that hangar, fully detailed and witnessing events that took place AFTER Episode 2's ending, then hearing and seeing DOG come down, then ELI handing you the FUCKING crowbar... Jesus Fucking Christ absolute bliss.
 

Rygar 8Bit

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,848
Site-15
Not going to lie I got misty eyed from the after credits scene. The noise it makes when you take the crowbar and the fade out are perfect.
Want to replay the game just thinking about it.
 
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HylianSeven

Shin Megami TC - Community Resetter
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,026
I was thinking more about the ending last night, and noticed some things on my second playthrough. I'm currently on Chapter 3 on my second playthrough:

- My initial impression was there was more than one Gordon or Alyx, and that Alyx replaced Gordon, so the Gordon after the credits was actually HL Alyx's Alyx. However thinking more about it, that doesn't make any sense. Gordon is no longer "employed" by the G-man, but that doesn't kill him or make him disappear. Alyx only disappears BECAUSE she was "hired" by the G-man, but she disappears specifically at the time of the Episode Two ending because that was the moment she changed in time.
- The G-man doesn't perceive time linearly, and neither do Vortigaunts I believe, even ones that are severed from the Vortessence. In Chapter 3 ("Is or Will Be"), the Vortigaunt says "The Eli Vance is dead....or will be". He doesn't perceive time literally, and as it is at that time, Eli Vance is indeed dead for him, but not in the way Alyx thinks. Alyx expects that if he was dead then, he would have been killed when he was captured by the Combine. She didn't know about what happens at the end of Episode Two.
- The same Vortigaunt also says that Alyx Vance alone cannot change his fate. This is referring to the fact that the G-man has to offer her that ability.
- The above two points, I think are because this Vortigaunt in particular is so literal. She asks what he's doing there and he says "Cooking", as that's literally what he is doing. There's the whole thing about him saying to "Look to the Northern Star", and it being about the hotel. He says he has a brain injury, he literally does.
- I still found it curious that when the G-man gave Alyx the glimpse at the future when Eli was still dead, you would be standing where Gordon was during that event. This is part of the reason I thought maybe Alyx was now Gordon, but thinking more about it it was kind of an illusion and G-man was just using Gordon's perspective so Alyx can see herself crying over her father's body.
- Something I'm going to see if I can catch, especially listening to that woman's conversation (presumably Mossman), is what the Vault actually is for. I thought maybe Gordon really was in there but I wonder how true that was. G-man says "You wouldn't need all that to hold Gordon Freeman", but if the G-man could easily get out of something like that, how would the Combine have even captured him in the first place? The only way I could see this being possible is that that's the reason they kept capturing Vortigaunts, because they are the only thing G-man is afraid of. The other thing to note is that depending on how Gordon was held in stasis, he could have TECHNICALLY been in there along with the G-man.
- The other thing I have to wonder is if the Vault existed before Alyx altered the future. If the Vault really was capable of holding the G-man captive, how did he get out and wake up Gordon?
- Something else that bothers me about HL2 in general, is how did Gordon lose the HEV suit? At the end of HL1, the G-man says he took Gordon's weapons, but he thinks he's earned the suit and can keep it.
 

TheUnseenTheUnheard

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
May 25, 2018
9,647
That was probably my favorite ending in gaming. This is a very exciting time! I can't wait for more!

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.

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 ;-;
 

sleepnaught

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
4,538
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 ;-;
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.

Absolutely loved the ending, getting to hear G-Man talk at length was so great, absolute superb performance.

Ton of emotions poured over me when you come to as Gordon Freeman and see Eli and Dog again soooooo long. When Eli handed me the crowbar, I was so pumped and ready for more. I can't wait to see where Half-Life goes from here. I just hope wherever it takes us, it's in VR
 

TrashHeap64

Member
Dec 7, 2017
1,675
Austin, TX
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.
giphy.gif
 

Mariolee

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
10,305
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.
 

Asbsand

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
9,901
Denmark
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.
giphy.gif
This is not an original concept, and it reaffirms your suspicion.
 

Asbsand

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
9,901
Denmark
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 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.

In fact, Half Life's storytelling was always highly dictated by the ambitions of its game design. Key features in the story of HL2 were there because they had to get mechanics across, and the GMan was always a literal metaphor for the developers coming in and halting your game to bring you to the "Next level." or to tell you that the game is over.

So in that sense I'm excited for the future, lest they don't use this time travel stuff too many times.
 

HylianSeven

Shin Megami TC - Community Resetter
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,026
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.
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'd kind of like it to be a VR game though, as that worked out really well with Alyx.

I'm still unsure where I rank Alyx among the rest of the series, but it's stiff competition and that says a lot.
 
Oct 27, 2017
12,374
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.
 

TheUnseenTheUnheard

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
May 25, 2018
9,647
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.
 

HylianSeven

Shin Megami TC - Community Resetter
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,026
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.
Yep, and I'm wondering if the reason the Combine captured so many Vortigaunts was entirely to imprison him.
 
Oct 27, 2017
12,374
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.
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.
 

HylianSeven

Shin Megami TC - Community Resetter
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,026
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.
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.

In HL Alyx, he said Gordon was uncooperative...that's likely referring to what happened in Episode One when the Vortigaunts blocked the G-man.
 

Deleted member 11637

Oct 27, 2017
18,204
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.

Exactly. It wasn't subtle.

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.
 

Heid

Member
Jan 7, 2018
1,807
In 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: "........."
 
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Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

Teyvat Traveler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,077
China
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: "........."

The GMan can alter/delete memories. In one of the episodes Alyx forgot that she delivered a message to Eli.
 
Mar 29, 2018
7,078
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.
Wait, whose voice actor died?

In 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: "........."
Wouldn't be surprised if gman wiped it from her memory or some shit
 

Plumpman

Member
Jan 24, 2018
1,021
Just finished my gnome play-through and 100%. Super fun.
Some of the achievements are great. Nothing too difficult.
The chapter 7 achievements are the most creative.
D179ACAD1AC4351FF065269BEF020A9527C274F1
 

The Benz

Member
Oct 27, 2017
771
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.
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.