*Spoilers* The Future of Half-Life?

[Merkwürdigeliebe]

I got HL2 the first time it came out, had a 9600XT at the time, and a P4, by the time I got to the Antilion part, it got so choppy I just put the game aside for a long while. It was only until about 3 days ago that I buckled into my desk chair and played HL2, HL2:Ep1 and HL2:Ep2 straight from start to finish.. and what an experience that was. It ends on such an intense cliffhanger!

Anyway, I got so infused into the storyline, it's completely consumed me. I've never had such an immersive experience - CoD4, GoW, Crysis, Bioshock - they're all garbage to me now. The disks are lying around collecting dust. I'd kill someone to get Episode 3 right now...


That all aside, I want to discuss the future of the Half-Life story. Sure Episode 2 came out a while ago, but Episode 3 is quite a while from now, so it's great to speculate and deriving pieces of information from clues within the story.

So firstly, what can we expect from Episode 3? What questions remain unanswered? Here's what I think:

Who is the Gman, and what is his purpose?
I believe he's a representative of a highly advanced rebel force that fights against the Combine empire. They've mastered time/space travel and are looking to end the Combine's inter-dimensional take-over. I think he's hoping to create so much chaos on Earth (with the help of Gordon) to divert the Combine's attention so that the forces that the Gman's allied with can make a striking blow on the Combine home world, causing their empire to collapse. At the end of HL2 and beginning of Ep.1, Gman tries to put Gordon back into stasis (slow-time-warp) but some Vortigaunts prevent this from happening, and Gman is quite upset about this. The Vortigaunts teleported Gordon right out of the Citadel, I'm assuming because they wanted him and Alyx to stop/delay the explosion and creation of the super-sized vortex. Gman wouldn't have wanted this because, as mentioned before, he wants the Combine to divert their attention to Earth as a distraction, so he'd want the distress signal to go out, and he'd also want that super-portal opened.

So that pretty much explains his purpose. I think it even covers the storyline all the way back to HL1. Black Mesa had been successfully engaging in portal technology and Gman sees an opportunity in this. He provided the unstable crystal sample that caused the Resonance Cascade which initiated the portal storms, opening portals to Xen, where the Vortigaunts and Nihlianth so happened to be fleeing from the Combine. The portals to Earth were just another way out, and other creatures we able to go through these portals as well. The Combine noticed the opening of these portals and they took the opportunity to invade Earth (conquering both humans and Vortigaunts in one swoop).

As for Portal and Aperture Science?
I don't think this plays a big role prior to Episode 2 and the discovery of the Borealis. It's safe to assume that the events in Portal took place either during the time of the Resonance Cascade and the 7 Hours War, or it could've taken place during the events of HL2 to Episode 2.

In Episode 3, the Borealis will play quite a huge role. The Combine Advisors are still roaming around Earth and the danger lies in them discovering the Borealis, giving them access to much more advanced portal technology, which might just let them re-establish their link with their home world (allowing them to open another portal) and engage in a second invasion of Earth. This portal tech might be so strategically critical that it might even pose a problem to the forces that the Gman is associated with. It would give the Combine a huge advantage.




I'm kind of unclear about the Vortigaunts' intentions. When Gman talked to you about the Vortigaunts, he seemed to be insisting that they have other plans in mind.. but - Gman just doesn't seem to be much of a straight talker. I'm still pretty convinced that the Vortigaunts don't have any bad or selfish intentions, they're just simply a former-slave race looking to survive.

I think that covers the more important things. What else have you guys thought about?

 

[Poizen22]

ive been trying to play from halife life 2 all the way to episode 2 but i have this stupid error, read about it in my cc:s error thread.

 

[Jorsoft]

I need to get back into HL2. Got like halfway through before I stopped playing for some reason. Haven't even installed it on my new comp and it's been up and running for over a year now! I'm going to look for the discs this weekend.

 

[Thresh]

Well apparently Gordon is going out to the highest bidder as the G-man said. I don't think G-man aligns himself with any faction, he may just be a representative for many different factions. He has plans for him because of this, and when the Vortigaunts (spelling) interfere, this upsets him obviously. So I don't think he's playing part in encouraging Gordon to cause destruction and distraction to the Combine, as the intentions of the G-man are keeping him to the highest bidder. Of course, if he is straight out lying about this, or means something else entirely, what you said would make sense.

 

[stalin90]

jw did u ever play hl1???? u see gman in there too he talks to the scientist so i think hes more of a high up in black mesa company, also in hl1 his breifcase has the black mesa logo on it.

also i know whats inside his breif case if ur at all intrested:
3pencils
paper(with writing)
a pistol
and a computer

also if you guys are wondering where the name gman came from, cuz it was never said in the game, that is the name of his model file in the game files

 

[Thresh]

"G-man" was coined from "Government Man" - shortened to G-man from Valve.

 

[Merkwürdigeliebe]

Gman has nothing to do with any human government or black mesa, he's an extraterrestrial lifeform, just like he visits Gordon from time to time, he visited Black Mesa administration and scientists, convincing them to use the unstable crystal sample that caused the Resonance Cascade. Eli refers to this in Episode 2.

Valve probably gave him that name for reference purposes, because he does look like a government man (that's the form that he decided to take), but in the actual story he is never assigned a name, just a few obscure titles like 'our mutual friend' and what's inside his briefcase doesn't mean anything, as it was never meant to be seen inside the game

 

[stalin90]

Gman has nothing to do with any human government or black mesa, he's an extraterrestrial lifeform, just like he visits Gordon from time to time, he visited Black Mesa administration and scientists, convincing them to use the unstable crystal sample that caused the Resonance Cascade. Eli refers to this in Episode 2.

ya and where did u find that???? cuz ive played all the games and nothin ever came up like that

 

[Merkwürdigeliebe]

Eli: "Unforeseen consequences... The last time I heard those words was at Black Mesa. You had just stepped into the test chamber when he whispered them into my ear. You know who I'm talking about - our mutual friend. When he brought in that crystal I knew I... I should've avoided that test but I didn't."

YouTube - HL2 Episode 2 Walkthrough: Our Mutual Fiend Part 4
3:05-4:30

And it's referenced to several times in HL1

I don't think you played the game at all - and if you did, you obviously weren't keeping track of the dialog and/or plot

if you've played everything up to and including Episode 2 there's no way you can conclude that Gman has anything to do with a human government or high-level Black Mesa administration... Gman has the ability to teleport or create visual hallucinations in the minds of others. He's able to manipulate their minds to an extent and even has the ability to submit people (like Gordon) into time warps, he talks in a way which is very unstable and inhuman, as if he's some sort of other life form struggling to talk at a balanced human pace... how's this in any way human?

and just for the record, in the storyline, he has no name associated with him, he is nameless - we as an audience only know him as Gman because of the filename and it makes it easier to refer to him in discussion

 

[eyeCpc]

Besides the G-Man did someone mention something about portals?



And of course you know who they had to piicture first on the insert.



How many screens do you need? I had a mountain of them accumilated after going through all of them.