God damnit. Half life 2's ending sucked. Discuss.

Here's my take on things. Note that they are not answers, but opinions. .. obviously.

What the hell are the combine?

What the hell is going on in the background?

Who are the benefactors? Is this some implied other-dimensional stupidass shit?

Or Xenfags?

Alright. So I didn't play ep1-3 or lost coast,

Play episode one. It continues the story.

gdorf wrote:Play episode one. It continues the story.

++

They aren't done with it yet. The story will continue it's just a matter of when they are going to release episode two. I haven't heard anything about it either.

Okay - the Combine is a race of imperialistic aliens from another dimension (the benefactors are just another name for them). Breen is their lackey representative here on Earth. As it turns out, they had conquered Xen, too. The aliens from the original Half-Life weren't evil, they were slaves to the Combine. The portal experiments from the original Half-Life had attracted the Combine's attention, and it's heavily implied that Breen made a deal with them, and that the experiment at the beginning which opened the portals was deliberately tampered with by Breen in order to create the portals and allow the Combine to invade.

After Half-Life, the Combine created their own portals to Earth, and after a portal storm that led to places being overrun by headcrabs and the like, the Combine invaded and world powers fell within seven hours. Breen was then appointed to his current position as representative for the Combine.

One major theory about the G-Man is that he's working for a group of rebel aliens who want to overthrow the Combine (but no one can say for sure).

In the meantime, check out The half life saga story guide. Its an interesting read that points out many details you probably missed.

Half-Life 2 didn't have an ending. It just stopped. I don't like games that do that. I don't like them ever!*

You asked questions. Let's answer them as best as is humanly possible, and then let's insult everyone else for saying anything different. Y'know, like everyone always does on the interweb. Onward!

"What the hell are the Combine?" - For this, I shall summarize the blurb found upon Wikipedia's rather excellent page upon the subject. Sadly, it proves rock_nog slightly wrong, but I'm sure he doesn't mind. Not that I care.

The Combine is a vast empire spanning multiple parallel universes, which expands its empire by conquering and enslaving populated worlds. By genetically altering the most intelligent races, the Combine (Pronounced COM-bine, with the emphasis on the first part of the word) create advanced soldiers adapted for individual worlds, allowing for the easy destruction of rebellion factions.

Prior to conquering Earth, the Combine had previously tried to enslave the as-yet un-named race which human beings refer to as the Xen race. This race were defeated by the Combine on an entirely different world to Xen, but managed to flee to their final retreat - a dimensional transit bottleneck, or an area of continual contention. This area, which subsequently 'bled' into our dimension, was known as Xen.

Following the death of the supreme being of this race, known as Nihilanth, at the hands of Gordon Freeman, the Combine were able to use the massive portal storm to invade Earth. This resulted in what has since come to be known as the Seven Hour War. Dr Wallace Breen, the former administrator of the Black Mesa Research Facility, was able to negotiate a surrender on Earth's behalf, and as a result was appointed administrator of the Combine's forces on Earth – also known as the Overwatch.

"What the hell is going on in the background?" - I'm not sure what you mean by this one. If you mean the background of the game, then essentially Gordon Freeman, having 'arrived' in City 17 and subsequently going on to destroy countless Combine forces, inspires many of the City's remaining inhabitants to rise up against their oppressors, while the Combine try to track Freeman down and kill him.

"Who are the benefactors? Is this some implied other-dimensional stupid ass shit? Or Xenfags?" - The benefactors are the Combine. That's just what Dr Breen calls them. Interestingly, he only properly refers to them as 'The Combine' once, near the end of the game. There are a couple of theories behind this - either that's what he really thinks of them and can't be bothered to hide his feelings anymore, or it's just a slip of the tongue caused by the heat of the moment.

"Alright. So I didn't play ep1-3 or lost coast, but I might. Should I? Would it provide any additional story info? Is a sequel planned?" - Yes, you should. Just remember what they are - short. Lost Coast gives you nothing plot-wise, it's just a setting they cut out during development and then subsequently felt would be a good place to try out HDR lighting while giving fans a bit more HL2. Episodes I, II and III, once finished (only Episode I is currently out. Episode II's release date has slipped to around the end of the year. Don't even ask about Episode III), should reveal a whole lot more plot.

As for sequels, well. These HL2 Episodes as, essentially, Half-Life 3. Gabe Newell, uber-god regarding all things Half-Life, has admitted that a more correct title for these episodes should have been 'Half-Life 3: Episode One', etc, but whatever. A proper Half-Life 3 does seem likely, however nothing's been confirmed. There will be an Episode IV, but it'll be developed outside of Valve and will start a new story arc, so if there's going to be a proper sequel, chances are Valve will start work on it after Half-Life 2 Episode III - Not inspired by Star Wars.

"Not actually a question, but what the hell is up with that ending?" - It's not an ending. Half-Life 2 didn't have one. It just stopped. However, before it did that, a couple of things happened, which I shall now point out to you in a manner making me feel incredibly superior to you. Since there are spoilers, I'll use the appropriate tags.

[Spoiler]At the end of the game, Gordon is captured by Dr Breen, who already holds Alex and Eli Vance. Judith Mossman, who had earlier betrayed Dr Vance, is with Breen. Dr Breen takes this opportunity to brag about the situation, revealing that Gordon's services are 'open to the highest bidder'. As he threatens the Vance family, however, Mossman turns on Breen and frees the pair, along with Gordon. Alex and Gordon chase after Breen while Eli and Judith escape. At one point, when they catch up to him, he is apparently bargaining to be removed from Earth via a host body. He agrees to do this, and flees to a teleportation chamber. This, due to the Combine's teleportation technology being far clunkier by comparison to Earth or 'Xen', is a massive chamber powered by a dark fusion reactor, which Gordon manages to destroy. Does Breen escape? We don't know. The G-Man pulls Gordon out of reality and shoves him back in stasis. Presumably Episode II will tell...[/Spoiler]

*I've just finished re-reading the entire archive of 8-Bit Theater. My brain-meats will not recover for days. Days, I tell you! DAYS! And I was just on the way top slaughtering an entire planet full of Jedi. Alas, it shall have to wait until I've watched a couple of episodes of Frasier. Now that's using the old noodle, which is surprising, given that I can't for reasons I have already divulged in my previous utterance. Or something. Also, I notice that rock_nig is viewing this thread at the same time as me. If he posts before I do, I will end him. That is all.

OK, I'm not done reading everything, but to clarify, when I said backround, I meant G-man's existance, what he's doing, and gordons' "higher purpose"

EDIT
OK.
Somehow I got the idea there was an episode 1-3 already finished. I guess not.

I completely agree with the "no ending" thing on half life 2. I mean, there could have been some kind of big fight in the game... but it was pretty much dry of bosses, and didn't have much of a finale. Woo super gravity gun woooooo game over. I thought I got the bad ending by accident or something.

Thanks for all the info, that one site someone linked to is very helpful. Looks like I should play all those half life 1 things too. Opposing force and blue shift and stuff.

Man.. I wish all of this would come together faster. This is almost as bad as golden sun.

EDIT
Holy crap do I want Episode one now! Man, I wish there were cracks for steam games. Oh well. I'll have 10 bucks eventually.

Ah. Well, then I can't really help you. No-one knows who the G-Man is. That's probably not even his name. There are theories, but nothing's been confirmed. I like the one that he's a member of an incredibly ancient race, older then the Combine, who seek their destruction, and who realizes that Gordon is the one who can do that. One thing is for certain - he is NOT Gordon from the future. Totally.

Opposing Force and Blue Shift don't really add much to the general plot - they're more side-stories that happen to occur during the Black Mesa incident. You should still give them a go if you haven't, they're great fun, just don't expect any mind-blowing revelations.

PM me about a steam-less version of HL2. Y'know, if you're interested.
If you own the HL2 DVD like I do, then technically it's not illegal. Kinda.

It's quite simple, really. Half Life 2 is the matrix, and Gordon Freeman is the One.

If I remember correctly, he has never actually been addressed as g-man. But gman is what's he's called in half life's deathmatch mode.

It's also the filename of the model - gman.mdl - which is where the name came from. Some people thought it was short for 'Government Man', but the events of HL2 kinda disprove that. Truth is, we just don't know.

He's called Gman in the first game because he looks like a government official. And yes, it most likely is short for "Government Man". Of course thats not his name. He never had a name, but thats what Valve calls him, thats what his model name is called, so therefore everyone calls him that. I don't think there is any hidden meaning behind it. Much like the security guard being called Barney. He never had a name either, but his model was Barney, so people referred to him as that, even though every security guard looked the same. They're all Barney. Anyway, just because he doesn't work for the government, and isn't even human, that doesn't mean we can't call him G-Man. It doesn't have a meaning, and probably never meant to have one, but if Valve is content on calling him by that alias, I am to. So I don't see any reason to form theories about it when isn't anything to form it from.

There is only one time when a Half-Life character refers to the G-Man by that name. The instruction manual for Opposing Force contains a journal written by the player character for that game, Adrian Shephard. In it, he says that he's seen the Gman around the base, and muses that he might be a "G-Man", which is military slang for a Government Man.

Thus far, the only characters known to have come into contact with G-Man are Gordon, Adrian, and strangely, Odessa Cubbage. However, it appears that Alyx is going to come into contact with the G-Man in Episode Two.

A big point of interest that I want to see revealed is the fate of Dr. Breen. Episode One made a very bold and also somewhat subtle hint that [spoiler]Dr. Breen didn't die in the explosion at the end of HL2, and that the Combine managed to transfer his mind to a host body in the form of one of the slug-like Combine Advisors.[/spoiler]

Yeah, the only Gman sighting I caught in HL2 was the one where he was talking to cubbage (and I was like WTF I thought he was invisables?)

Hey, is there any information on how long the half life series is going to be?

punkonjunk1024 wrote:Hey, is there any information on how long the half life series is going to be?

There is definitely going to be an Episode Three. That's been known since Episode One was announced, as the three episodes are supposed to be a trilogy of a story arc.

It has also been said that a 3rd party will be creating a 4th episode after that (in a similar manner to how Gearbox made Op4 and BlueShift,) and that it will begin a new story arc. Details are limited on this, however.

As far as what the main company of Valve does afterwards, they have stated many times that they want to wait until Episode Three has been shipped so that they can stand back and observe before deciding on a next move. The episodic trilogy is an experiment for them, and they want to finish the experiment first.

But they did mention that they would really like to do more titles that chronicle the experiences of other characters (like Op4 and BlueShift did), and they said they'd really like to go back and tell more of Adrian's story.

So, basically what I said regarding sequels. Love the repetition in this thread.

Personally, I think the episodic thing doesn't work for FPS games, especially if you have to wait nearly a year for a few hours of gameplay. Adventure games, yeah - Sam & Max was a clear example of just how well the system could work if designed and managed properly. But for an action-adventure game, the format doesn't lend itself too well.

Well, I don't really think Valve intended it to be that long a wait between each one. I haven't played the first episode, and I'm glad, because its taking way to long for the 2nd to come out, and I can get the whole package in the orange box. Episode 1 came out in June 2006, and here it is almost 15 months later and Episode 2 won't be out until October. Last year, they said Ep 3 was suppose be finished by the end of 2007.

I thought the whole point in episodic content was to make it easier on the developer to deliver a smaller package to players every few months, instead of spending years on a game that wouldn't last long enough to compensate for the effort put in them and in the end not cost as much to produce.

Again, see the new Sam & Max games. They worked because the new content was limited and could be done within a month. It's difficult to essentially create a whole new FPS within a year, no matter how short that FPS is. You've got new maps, models, voices, coding... it takes a long time, and I think Valve were kidding themselves when they gave us those predictions. Ask any mod team and they will tell you it takes an age to get even one map up to professional standards.

As I say, if used properly, say in adventure games, then episodic gaming can work a treat. Just don't try to do it with an action game, or it won't work anywhere near as well. I'm still waiting for the second SiN Episodes... 😛

Darth Marsden wrote:It's difficult to essentially create a whole new FPS within a year, no matter how short that FPS is. You've got new maps, models, voices, coding... it takes a long time,

The reason Episode two is taking so long is that Valve intends it as a technological demo as well as a new leg of the story. I believe episode two will contain both the portal gun and threaded gaming for multi-core systems. It'll be worth the wait. 😊

Some more unmentioned things that are causing the delay:

-We aren't waiting for just Episode Two, but also two other games being released by Valve simultaneously in one package (Portal and Team Fortress 2)

-A big reason is that this game is seeing a simultaneous multi-platform release. I heard that Episode Two's PC version was done several months ago, and the delay is to wait on the damn XBox360 and PS3 versions.

Glenn the Great wrote:Some more unmentioned things that are causing the delay:

-We aren't waiting for just Episode Two, but also two other games being released by Valve simultaneously in one package (Portal and Team Fortress 2)

-A big reason is that this game is seeing a simultaneous multi-platform release. I heard that Episode Two's PC version was done several months ago, and the delay is to wait on the damn XBox360 and PS3 versions.

Fuck the console versions of HL I want episode two out now. Seriously why do we need to wait for them to port it to consoles? They haven't done that in the past so why start now?

Grasshopper wrote:So other types of games don't involve maps, models, voices? I've never played Sam & Max, so I'm not sure where you're coming from. But I would assume, regardless of it being a FPS or another genre, developers will still have to create new content for each new episode. Any type of game that is turned into episodic content will probably face the same issues, it doesn't necessarily have to be an FPS, unless they do what TV series do, by developing all episodes at once, then shipping them in intervals.

I doubt we're waiting for them to port Ep2 to consoles. More likely is that they're still working on Portal and Team Fortress 2. Since I don't do multi-player games, I don't particularly like that trade-off.

Well, I'm interested in Portal because it's a single player game that is set in the HL universe and it's events will tie into Episode Two.

Oh yeah, they said it would, didn't they? Funny how I forgot about that. Wonder how they'll do it?

Darth Marsden wrote:Oh yeah, they said it would, didn't they? Funny how I forgot about that. Wonder how they'll do it?

I've heard speculation that you might find the Aperture Science labs (the setting of Portal) in the Arctic towards the end of the game. No one really knows though.

I've long theorized that at the end of the Half-Life series it will be revealed that the butler was behind it all along.

punkonjunk1024 wrote:OK, bazillions of questions unanswered.
What the hell are the combine?
What the hell is going on in the backround?
Who are the benefactors? Is this some implied other-dimensional stupidass shit? Or Xenfags?

Alright. So I didn't play ep1-3 or lost coast, but I might. Should I? Would it provide any additional story info?
Is a sequel planned?

And dear god... was this game anti-climactic. That whole gravity gun thing just kinda ruined it. I thought it was a just-for-fun thing, not the final heading in the game. I thought I'd go through the portal or something...
Half life and half life 2 are the absolute best FPS's I've ever played. They truly define the genre, and I do not understand why some faggot would want to play shitty FPS's like halo and the tons of other drab, exactly the same FPS games.

But man, did this game lack some ending material. And answers.

So you know, plot analysis, ect. Any answers I missed.

Also, do any of the other ones (besides coast, which I started for a sec, and seems to star freeman) build on freeman's story, G-man, or the backround of the benefactors and breen?

You want to know the answer? Play the episodic games thats why they are being made for story connection to 3!

1) The episodic games ARE Half-Life 3.
2) Even if he does play the Episodic games, there's no guarantee that they'll have all the answers.
3) The Episodic games are being made to make Valve money.
4) Don't bump topics like this unless you honestly have something new to add to the conversation. In fact, just don't bump old topics, period. n00b.
5) You sig is irritating. Loose the smilies.