I don’t mind being unable to move. Well, not a whole lot. At least there’s a reason to it, rather than simply restraining you for the sake of it. In HL2, you’re captured and held by one of those transports and in EP2 you’re held in place by the Advisiors. Cheap, perhaps. But it works.

Even though I knew what was going to happen (I tried to avoid spoiling it for myself, but it came up somewhere), I still wasn’t expecting what I saw. I thought the ending was well done, even if it was just a scripted event. Personally, the idea of making Gordon directly or indirectly involved in Eli’s death doesn’t sit well with me. It would seem that the G-Man has more to do with it, but I’m not so sure about that. He may have had something else in mind.

I think HL2 makes more sense if you’ve played the game – or at least know what happened other than that something bad happened. Sure, there aren’t a lot of references to the first game in HL2 and/or the episodes, but there are a few places where something other than the resonance cascade is mentioned.

Speaking of… I went back and played the original again. First, I started with HL: Source, since I couldn’t find my CD-ROM at the time. This time, I tried to pay a little more attention to what characters are saying, like the scientists and the soldiers sent in to clean up. But I also made it a point to listen to Nihilanth, extracting the sounds to listen to without anything to drown it out.

As you said, they hinted at something more with Half-Life. I don’t know if they had anything in mind at the time, and if so, whether HL2 is based on that or took a different direction. I’m still hoping that some of the blanks are filled in. Of course, there’s more than Gordon’s missing years to consider. There’s also Adrian Shephard, as well as Aperture Science’s role in the overall story to explore. Regardless, I want an actual ending with Episode 3, not another lame cliffhanger.

What would have made the ending much better is if Gordon had something directly to do with Eli’s death… maybe you gotta take out some of those tripod thingos and they script his movements such that he happens to get in the way of your bullets. But of coursde they can’t do this because it would necessitate an arc in the narrative which Valve just can’t abide.

I wouldn’t worry about knowing what happened in Half Life 1 – it doesn’t really add much information besides what you are told in the hl2 installments. hl1 really was just a creature feature with a few hints at a larger story.

I’m not sure what Episode I like more; both have their good points and bad points. Episode One was more about the immediate aftermath of the destruction of the Citadel and what’s going on in City 17 now that Gordon’s gone and messed things up again. I guess it feels more like an epilogue of sorts. Episode Two seems to be more like the opening chapter for a full sequel to Half-Life 2 than a continuation of the story.

You’ve focused on the gameplay and how Valve uses gates and scripted events to keep things going at a certain pace, while still offering the illusion of player choice. I will agree that it’s really hard to offer a lot of choices for something like a shooter. It’s going to be interesting to see how close Fallout 3 comes to being able to do that. The Elder Scroll series have offered a lot more choices for the player outside of the main quest, and while I don’t expect FO3 to be an Elder Scroll games with powered armor and machine guns, I would think that Bethesda would still be offering as much relative freedom to the player as before with their new radioactive playground.

I think the presentation in Half-Life 2 is flawed. I can sort of understand wanting to give players the feeling that they are Gordon Freeman, but I don’t think they accomplished that. At least, not completely. I have no problem with being unable to hear Gordon speak, but it doesn’t seem like you/Gordon has much choice in anything – if at all. You’re there, so you must be willing to do whatever the cast is asking of you? Even if Gordon were actually mute (hey, he could be), I’m sure he’s more than capable of communicating.

Other than the awkward lack of any response (or reaction) from Gordon, there are a number of visual features that betray the fact that this is just a game. Unless you’re holding a weapon, you don’t see your hands. Cinder blocks, barrels, pieces of wood and metal, and rocks you pick up all float in mid-air. Switches, cranks and levers all move magically. Vehicles steer themselves. I think it looks kind of silly. The lack of reflection is another thing. I can kind of understand why Valve doesn’t want you to see Gordon, but there are ways around that. Still would it be so bad if you actually saw yourself as Gordon in the game? Or even just an out of focus orange blur (thinking of the Stargate SG-1 episode dealing with implanted memories here, where Mitchell sees himself in a mirror, but since he’s seeing someone else, it’s blurry)?

Besides, when Dr. Magnusson talks down to me, I swing a crowbar at his head, but it doesn’t connect and he keeps talking. I guess they don’t want you to kill an NPC that’s part of the story, but still… Then again, I also can’t resist the urge to whack the gunship with my crowbar after Alyx says I should so so. What does that say about me?

I think Valve broke the seamless way of telling the story too with the start of Episode 2, using the scenes from Episode 1, which include camera angles and positions that are not where Gordon would/could be.

Now, in the beginning of HL2, there’s are things in Gordon’s vision that he’s not actually seeing at the time, though I would think that this is because of the G-Man and whatever his plan may actually be. I don’t know if Gordon was aware of anything while shelved following Half-Life or whether he’s in stasis. Did he ever dream during that ten to twenty years since Black Mesa?

Fast forward to Episode 1. We start off with Gordon seeing Dr. Breen on a monitor talking to him. Was this what Gordon was seeing or just something to set up the new game? It could actually be Breen’s words echoing through Gordon’s head, perhaps sowing seeds of doubt about what he and his crowbar have just done. I doubt the G-Man was showing this to Gordon, and it’s very unlikely that the Vortigaunts were doing so either. Speaking of the Vorts, would Gordon actually be able to see them free Alyx at the same time the G-Man was taking him away from the explosion?

I already mentioned the opening to Episode Two, which shatters their concept of telling the story through Gordon’s eyes in real time throughout the course of the game(s).

Now, it’s not all bad. Having Alyx at your side has helped. It makes the game feel and play a bit different. Alyx can crack jokes, help you out (in ways other than offering supporting fire) and ask for help as well. It’s not perfect, but the way Alyx acts in the game does make for a better experience than if Gordon were tagging along with an NPC that relied solely on what their AI said to do or using scripting as a crutch. Sure, there’s some of that there too, but Alyx is somewhat dynamic in what she does when at your side.

I did like how they hinted at Aperture Science being a part of the bigger picture as well, both in Episode Two and in GlaDOS’ rantings at the Testing Facility. It’ll be interesting to see how the two line up, with the trip to the Borealis and GlaDOS’ claims that she is the only thing standing between us and ‘them’.

I don’t know if you heard it or not, but when Magnusson and Kleiner were preparing to launch the rocket, there were two things that caught my attention. The one most might hear is the eight pound discrepancy – which would be because of Lamarr (does the gnome increase that). The one you might miss is the mention of a backup site (or something like that), which I think is going to come into play next time around. I like to sit around and see (er, hear) what people have to say and this was something that I thought could end up being very important, especially since it could fill in some of the blanks.

And that’s one of the other problems I have with how Valve’s presented the story. Gordon is dumped into the middle of things, with only a handful of references to what’s gone on before. Now, I don’t know how many people have played both Half-Life 1 and Half-Life 2, but I’m sure there are plenty know don’t know the back story, however limited it may be. And this could be a problem. If you haven’t played the first game, you’re not going to understand some of what the NPC’s are talking about – or at least, not completely.

But that’s a matter that comes to play anytime you’re dealing with sequels.

I’m hoping that Valve brings some closure to Episode 3, even if they don’t bring it all to an end. I won’t be satisifed with another cliffhanger ending or something that doesn’t really provide an answer.

HL’s ending worked, even if there wasn’t really much there. Yes, it was a bit of a letdown after all you went through, but it left the door open for something to follow, which eventually happened. The abrupt ending to HL2 didn’t work, even if Aftermath was supposed to be coming along at some point. At least Episode 1 picked up right where HL2 left off and not some undisclosed amount of time later. Kudos to Valve for doing the right thing there.

I don’t care if they end up announcing that HL3 proper will be coming out sometime later, the game needs to have a real ending point; there’s no excuse for what has passed as one up to this point. It’s taking four releases to get to one (hopefully), but there needs to be a point where we can reach and say, that part’s done, what’s next?

they must have had a genius on staff at the time who quit and went to work on bioshock.

Speaking of which – it has a great story. Gameplay bored me a little bit. But it’s worth working through just for the story. It doesn’t have the critical genius of Half Life 2 – but kinda reads as an essay against Ayn Rand’s philosophy. By the end of it your supposed to conclude against her. Which is fine – although I do prefer a story that leaves it up to the reader (player) to make their own decision. The best art does this.

Plus, what if we really are better off with the Combine here? Maybe we’re doomed without outside help. We don’t know what the Combine’s intentions really are, but chances are they know a lot more than we do and have taken over Earth for a reason that might not be just for them. The resistance could trigger the end to humanity as we know it.

From what I’ve seen in HL2 and E1, Gordon is blamed for the “Black Mesa Incident”, as it paved the way for the Combine arrival and the resulting war. Yet, somehow, he’s also seen as a saviour to those who still try to resist (or reject) the Combine. This is something I don’t get. Why praise someone who opened the door for invasion? Maybe there’s something I missed or I’m thinking about it all wrong.

Breen seems to me to be in the posistion that many politicians seem to be in. A lot of people who get involved do so because they want to help and believe in what they try to get done. However, many get caught up in the political machine. In order to survive and live to play another day, you’ve got to go along and play by the rules. Sure, there are many politicians who do care and who do try to help those who put them there, but it’s not always as simple as yes or no, do or don’t. You can’t please everyone and you can’t help everyone. You have to make choices. Sometimes its good and bad. Sometimes it’s the lesser of two evils. Sometimes it’s hard to tell at all.

Breen’s in a similar situation. As far as I can tell, he is the only thing standing between us and the Combine. Without him, we might have been wiped out or turned into slaves for the Combine. Even if drunk with power, he’s still fighting on behalf of humanity, though limited to playing under Combine rules.

So, who’s right? Either work with the Combine and accept the fact that it’s happened or fight the Combine, hoping to undo everything that’s been done. Can you truly win with either situation? Is there another option?

The only solution that seems to work for sure is to go back and make sure the cascade doesn’t happen. But in doing so, you create a bit of a paradox. How can you go back and stop something from happening if you know that it happens?

But that’s a discussion about time travel, something which has no place in Half-Life, unless one of the rumors is true.

Going back to the narrative structure of Half-Life 2, it is still one of the better examples of story in a game. Half-Life may have been one of the games that helped the genre evolve, but HL2 is one of the games that’s made story king among shooters. It’s well written, but more than that, it feels believable (which I think is a more important feature than ‘realism’), albeit with a few things that don’t seem quite there.

I don’t think there’s many other games that are able to provide the atmosphere or the mood that HL2 does. System Shock 1 & 2 come to mind, especially the latter. From what I’ve heard, Bioshock is another one that’s a prime example. Fallout 3 could bring the franchise to that point, although I thought Fallout 2 did a great job in presenting its post apocalyptic setting. And there’s the plethora of WWII based games that continue to beat the war is hell mantra into the ground. There are others, most others still use story sparingly or don’t put as much effort into it as they do with the eye candy.

But until we reach a point where everything in a game changs dynamically in reaction to what we do (or don’t do), we have to rely on what the developers give us to play with. And if that day comes… well, I’m not so sure I want to play a game that is actually smarter than a human.

Im glad someone agrees with me that Breen isn’t the character that isn’t ‘simply’ evil. I mean – he may be evil, but one has to really think through why, and one has to find answers to his ways of thinking.

I got into an argument with a guy on reddit about this – but I guess you can’t see eye to eye with everyone…

HL2′s story is pretty good and is a great example of how the genre’s evolved beyond the run and gun action of previous games. I thought the ending was very disappointing, even with rumors of Aftermath soon to come; it was no excuse for the “I’m going to put you on the shelf again” halt to the game.

The “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” ending of Half-Life was also a bit of a letdown after all you had done, but in all honesty, it wasn’t so bad and it did leave the door open for a sequel.

Unfortunately, when that sequel came, we were thrown into the middle of things with few clues as to what’s gone on, where we actually were or when it was. Gordon has somehow gained a cult of personality status, while at the same time being a scapegoat for everything that’s happened in the time since he was put away. No one bothers to ask where he’s been, what he’s done or if he even knows what’s happened. Everyone seems to assume that he’s just now decided to take reappear and take action after all this time.

Valve’s desire to keep the player in control of Gordon at all times, even if they do put stuff in the way to play at their pace and not ours, also seems to detach him from the world. Does he ever say anything – even if we don’t get to hear it – or is he a mute with a crowbar and an HEV suit that probably shouldn’t work in every environment that it does? Gordon doesn’t reflect in anything, you only see his hands once when he doesn’t have a weapon in them (when he first puts on his HEV suit, which he was supposed to have all along, according to what the G-Man says at the end of the first game) which I think breaks the illusion during the driving sequences and you have no clue why Gordon is seen the way he is by others.

I don’t really have a problem with never breaking away from Freeman’s point of view. But I don’t think Valve did as good a job at telling the whole story while restricted to Gordon’s eyes and ears as they could have. There’s only so much you can piece together from what’s presented in the game and I shouldn’t have to buy more than the games to know what really happened.

Now, I don’t have Orange Box yet (hopefully soon, depending on whether I have enough money to spare), so some of this may have been resolved already.