End game discussion *spoilers of course*

[SpaceBot2]

Well after 14 hours of playing, its done. I was kind of hoping for more out of the gman at the end..no? Anyway overall it seemed kind of short, but overall it was massive. I dont think I rushed it, but I dont know. Anyone else?

[VodkA-HLC-]

Worst ending ever.......We have to wait six more years to find out what the hell is going on.......Worst ending since matrix 3......Awesome game, levels were huge and I had a blast. Took me about 12 hours. I just expected so much more at the end, it was almost like it just stopped and the power went out at my house. I was like "Is that it, it can't be it, wait lets see what happens after the credits there will be some crazy ending? Nope just lamar and the professor. Urgh." I give it a 9/10 for no ending." Time to play it again on hard.

[SpaceBot2]

Yes, ending was kind of annoying. I mean, no long speech, no long explanation or anything? What happened? More time is spent on the color b/w transitions than gman talking. No train ride while we get talked to? Overall, pretty big cliff hanger, if you can call not enough info a cliff hanger.

[edit]
MORE: Also, going into the start, did I miss something there too, or do we have NO info on what happened, where we are, etc...
I mean they kind of gave us an idea, but not nearly enough to really say "Oh, now it all makes sense" Just feels like I showed up for a movie a half hour late and left 10 minutes before it was over.

[Bling]

gman was to the point, but i was expeting a longer hl1 type ending.

Oh well, time for valve to announce HL3

edit, you think alyx will be back for hl3 or did she get owned in the blast?

I think she will be back :P

[Doppelgofer]

i loved the ending...it messes with your mind

[SpaceBot2]

I would expect alyx back in hl3, as well as most of the main characters. Similar to how they did it this time around, they are just older or different.

[Zento]

HL3 should be here within 2 years. Can't wait to see what happened to everybody :)

[Weedums]

I was very dissapointed, very. I didn't wait 6 years to have nothing answered, and only more questions asked.

I finished in about 8 hours, and I DID rush through. So I have to start a new and take it a little bit slower and really look around.

Remember that "big surprise" we were supposed to get near HL2 release? Heres my theory on that; HL3, maybe they pulled a Matrix and made HL3+HL2 at the same time and plan on releasing them 6 months apart or so. I just think that this game is good, but it does not seem to have 6 years worth of content. (How long did the engine take?)

So my vote on that "surprise" announcement is either an expansion that might actually ANSWER SOMETHING, or the announcement of Half-Life 3.

Because that ending didn't answer a single damn question. I feel like they dropped us in this world and were too lazy to actually formulate a story behind it, so they hoped we would run wild with our imaginations.

[krameriffic]

I was very impressed with the super gravity gun, but I was disappointed with the lack of a final boss. Very disappointed. What kind of game ends without a finale fight?

[o2slim]

Very very sad with the ending, loved the game LOVED some of the "James BOnd" movie type sequences like the wind boat and the falling smoke stack ;)

I was literally pissed when the ending rolled out for me, plus the final fight was VERY simple it seemed, maybe I just got lucky and ill have to try again?

Just like everyone said I really wanted a TAD bit of an answer, I would have been happy with just a couple extra lines of dialog with a bit of info. :( Sad, oh well.

[SpaceBot2]

I think its been discussed, but where did the hydra go again?

[The Dark Elf]

Remember that "big surprise" we were supposed to get near HL2 release? Heres my theory on that; HL3, maybe they pulled a Matrix and made HL3+HL2 at the same time and plan on releasing them 6 months apart or so. I just think that this game is good, but it does not seem to have 6 years worth of content. (How long did the engine take?)

I've been thinking the same thing, maybe a lot of the stuff taken out will be in HL3 and it'll continue on almost straight after HL2 ended.. Though would be easier to work out if I knew how to complete the damn thing lol bloody thing :E

[shadow6899]

i loved that game omfg.... the end w/ the ragdoll gun ill call it was so pimp and creative... the phermones were awsome too. the ending did piss me off but i do realize that it is in the better. i mean we all knew there would be a hl3 so now we have a REAL reason to get it :D

[jb2002smg]

They did say they would be releasing new single player missions via steam, possibly from Alyx and Barney's Perspectives, as well as standalone episodes. They're also adding much more stuff ass time goes on. These announcements were a surprise to me, anyway.

[Old School Hero]

son of a bitch, I hate that Gman... First, of all He dresses better than I do, Second! He just walks around like he owns the place, WHEREVER he is , 3rd I can't bitch slap him with the gravity gun and Fourth and Foremost He Steals me away from my Woman!... also... Who does HE work for?... and why is he pimping me out like a 2 dollar hooker?

[Touchi]

Umm ... Did I miss something? That was the shittiest ending i've seen in a game.

[VodkA-HLC-]

Hey, you come to on a train with the gman waking you up, now at the end of the game he says he has to go after he gives you that speech and then a door slides open and he says his stop has arrived or something along those lines, maybe you have been on the train the whole time and that you never go off and it was all a dream and then in HL3 you wake up on the same train and do the same thing as you dreamed of in hl2? Haha jk. But it could of all been a dream since it seems that the gman was getting off some sort of train and it was all dream like.

[Touchi]

Bizzare. The gameplay is great, and I had a true blast playing from the beginning to the end. But the story, particularly the ending, is just way too inconclusive.

[SpaceBot2]

Hey, you come to on a train with the gman waking you up, now at the end of the game he says he has to go after he gives you that speech and then a door slides open and he says his stop has arrived or something along those lines, maybe you have been on the train the whole time and that you never go off and it was all a dream and then in HL3 you wake up on the same train and do the same thing as you dreamed of in hl2? Haha jk. But it could of all been a dream since it seems that the gman was getting off some sort of train and it was all dream like.

thats creepy but true. In Half-Life 1 the gman wasnt transparent ghostly like was he? Maybe I am wrong.

I do like peoples theories about possibly half-life 3 fairly soon. I doubt it would be in 6 months, they will milk half-life 2 for long than that, but maybe a 2 year stretch? I could live with that a hell of a lot better.

[Synthaxx R-or]

Motherf...

There i was having a blast, trying to get everything explained in the end.
You go up the tower, awaiting a bigass final boss thingy...

and then..

F#CK!

Seriousely worst ending ever, they'd better have something for us in say the next 6 months, because this is just FUBAR!

Game rocked though, aside from the ending, there was quality dripping from every minute of gameplay.

[Para]

Hey, you come to on a train with the gman waking you up, now at the end of the game he says he has to go after he gives you that speech and then a door slides open and he says his stop has arrived or something along those lines, maybe you have been on the train the whole time and that you never go off and it was all a dream and then in HL3 you wake up on the same train and do the same thing as you dreamed of in hl2? Haha jk. But it could of all been a dream since it seems that the gman was getting off some sort of train and it was all dream like.

Donnie Darko, aye? :eek:

[Rog]

Hmmm, my theory is that the big alien thingy that breen was talking to wants to take over earth but needs a host body to do it. Now, in hl1 the resonance cascade was arranged by breen so that the big alien guy (b.a.g) could start his invasion and also maybe they could find a body strong enough to handle hosting the b.a.g. If you think about it headcrabs need a host body so this might be a big headcraby thing. So gordon shows up as this viable candidate for teh host body ( wether it be he's naturally gifted or the resonance cascade he was in somehow made him superman :P).
Here is where it splits into seperate paths and where it could go either way:
Path 1
This could be why he ends up in xen and the end of hl1. Plus the big bad guy was a baby, could be a hint towards re-birth of the b.a.g in gordon. But they get defeated. Then for some reason or other the gman (who's an emmissary of teh b.a.g) gains gordons services and wishes to test gordon out to see if he really is tough enough for the b.a.g so they put him through the events in hl2 and once again he wins proving he is good enough and thats where it ends for now.

Path 2
Gordon goes renegade and defeats the ninilanth and then the gman (who works for a party against the b.a.g) gets gordon so they can use him to fight against them and they only risk bringing him out when he's needed (hl2).

Either of these could be possible and show that hl2 was a test to see if he was worthy of being a hero or being a possible host body for the b.a.g. It would explain why we find out very little as he's just being tested and watched from afar by some higher power. Other things to show the incidents are tests are how the gman shows up in various to check whether gordons on the right path and is performing well and when you die the gameover screen is like a scientific test (yeah it could be because gordons a scientist but it could have a different meaning, if the scientist himself was involved in one huge test it would be a good ironic ending for the series).

Also why did gman take gordon but not barney? they both survived black mesa and did a fair bit of arse kicking on the way.Maybe because he's deemed barney unsuitable as he doesn't have gordons strength and possibly because gordon got pumped up in the resonance cascade.

Anyway this is just me getting out my first thoughts after hl2 ended. It's unstructured and needs some work. If anyone likes this and has anything they've noticed to add then please do.

OR

Path 3
Gordon Freeman is the new doctor who and he just goes from time to time solving humanities problems without a real general story arc.

[Prodigal Monkey]

I will agree, the ending was definetly week. I was just wondering though, how can the G-Man, employee of probably no less than God,
stop the blast at the end and just go around talking to you whilst Alyx just stands there. Everything else in HL 1 and 2 actually seems realistic within the set perimeters of the world, but that just seems strange...

[Rog]

because he can mess with time. He basically says it himself

[Para]

I wonder if replaying will make things for example Breen says more meaningful in a new way...

[numlocked]

I hate to say it, but I think Valve just couldn't figure out what to do after you beat Breen. A perfect example of Dues Ex Machina I guess.

Seriously, its like they were sitting around discussing the ending and someone said "Ok, so it blows up, then what?" and they all crapped their pants. Then someone said, ok G-man comes in and that's the end. GG.

[Desperado]

Yea I was pretty disappointed in the ending, but the game as a whole was so damn good that I'm going to give Valve the benefit of the doubt that there is something bigger in meaning around the corner for us.

What really pissed me off was the absense of the hydra. Now why in the hell would they EVER take that out? It was by far one of the coolest sequences in the first E3 videos.

[Dedalus]

i liked the ending. as soon as time froze my jaw hit the floor.

i think the ending is more functional than anything. it's sort of preparing you for HL3 i reckon. and if you read the Prima Guide's description of the G-Man, it'll clue you in a little as to why the ending is plausible.

the ending also puts things into perspective. here you were, for the past 15+ hours battling Breen and his minions, as well as his 'benefactors', with their huge towering spire of technology and teleportation etc, and along comes little old g-man and....freezes time. imagine that. he's got more power than Breen/Benefactors if he can do that. so the story is telling you there's something bigger than Breen/Benefactors/Combine, something more powerful and even more elusive, and you're the right arm of this entinty.

great stuff really :D


EDIT: G-Man reminds me of 'Q' from Star Trek: The Next Generation. a quieter, more sinister version ;)

[azz0r]

It answered more than you probably spent time to think of.

a) The gman contracts you out to save diffrent worlds
b) Gman uses you when he wants
c) Breen + strategy guide explain that the combine invaded earth and set breen as the master. The towers build alien gunships and soforth by crushing buildings and streets - things created are used to invade other earths.

[SpaceBot2]

Here's a thought...If the Gman is more powerful than anything so far, maybe in the third HL, or last HL, gman will be the boss or enemy at the very end, and you wont have a clue until the very end of the game.

[A Big Fat CoW]

Uh. Maybe you guys should go back and play HL1. You fight Nihilanth and win, suddenly stuff starts exploding, right when you start to think "wtf am I gonna do next?", you're suddenly talking to this dude in a suit. No questions get answered.

HL2 ends the same way. You defeat Dr. Breen, blow up the citadel, there's a huge explosion - and then time stops, and suddenly you're talking to the gman again. No questions get answered.

I loved the ending. It fit so perfectly with the series. In fact, I'm astounded that no one else even noticed the similarities, when the line "I'm not going to give you the illusion of a choice" or whatever, was blatantly referring to the choice you had at the end of HL1.

The ending owned.

[Dark2Light]

Its weird im not really sure how to react, Alyx isn't dead shes gonna be the happy ending in 3... or will there be a happy ending? G-man is like some sort of galactic agent for freeman whos like this kind of bounty hunter almost... like i heard earlier in this thread (sorry can't remember the name) but whoever said its gonna be like matrix, where they just release hl3 like within the year, but they said that they were gonna work on TF2 next soooo i don't know, i can't wait till 3 this was the best game ever, the strider battle was sooooooooo awesome

[Lanthanide]

c) Breen + strategy guide explain that the combine invaded earth and set breen as the master. The towers build alien gunships and soforth by crushing buildings and streets - things created are used to invade other earths.
A game should not require it's owners to buy an official strategy guide/other book to fully explain the story. If it was required, it should have been in a manual that comes free with the game.

[Dedalus]

A game should not require it's owners to buy an official strategy guide/other book to fully explain the story. If it was required, it should have been in a manual that comes free with the game.


well if you want to find out about the story bad enough, i'm sure you can do a bit of searching on the net and come up trumps.

[azz0r]

A game should not require it's owners to buy an official strategy guide/other book to fully explain the story. If it was required, it should have been in a manual that comes free with the game.

I totally agree - there was so many chances for the game to sit you in a room with someone and have them explain what happened to earth - I dont know what Valve was thinking by just leaving us completely clueless.

[Dedalus]

I totally agree - there was so many chances for the game to sit you in a room with someone and have them explain what happened to earth - I dont know what Valve was thinking by just leaving us completely clueless.


it's because they wanted to put you into the character of Gordon Freeman as much as possible.

Freeman has been 'away' since the black mesa incident. our confusion in HL2 is pretty much how Gordon would be feeling, don't you think? it's just a story device, it's not meant to tax your brain or make you frustrated.

if there's any gaps that valve haven't filled in, then i'm sure they either intend to fill them in in the future, or they're leaving them up to your imagination.

you guys are too used to having stuff spoon fed to you in games like Max Payne, Far Cry, hollywood films etc, it seems. the greatest stories sometimes aren't told, but implied.

[Idolon]

Man, what a great game.
Even better than expected.
A little short perhaps but compensates with an abundance of quality.
I like how the game got more and more exciting from the start until just before the intentional anti-climax ending.
Definitely money well spent.

But what am I going to do now?...

Edit:
So, have anyone found any eastereggs?
There's bound to be some..
How many times did you spot gman?
I only saw him once, through a camera in a house on the coastline.

[Varsity]

I would expect alyx back in hl3, as well as most of the main characters. Similar to how they did it this time around, they are just older or different.
Older? I hope not. I really don't want to have Alyx get older without me (that sounds weird, but I am Gordon...).

It was fairly obvious to me what's told in the strat guide.

[SpaceBot2]

But what am I going to do now?...

I am kind of scared. Because I have nothing to keep me entertained as much as HL2 did, for a long time.

[PlasmaBurnz]

Oh man that game was amazing!

The ending was good too. Only disappointed in the lack of plot throughout. Questions like why are we there, how long have we been away? why have the combine invaded? Who are these combine? At what point did we join forces with the zen alien guys?

They didn't need to answer those questions outright, but a few hints at an answer to them throughout the game would have been nice. Like a history lesson off eli or something.

But overall very good. Gonna go play on hard now.

[Lanthanide]

Freeman has been 'away' since the black mesa incident. our confusion in HL2 is pretty much how Gordon would be feeling, don't you think? it's just a story device, it's not meant to tax your brain or make you frustrated.
Even more reason for the other characters to sit down and tell him what's going on. "Gordon, you've been gone so long! Why don't we fill you in on what's been going on?"

The fact that the other characters don't do this IS a failing of the storyline and the realism of the other characters - no one IRL would really be that stupid - here is our saviour, hey, lets not tell him anything about what's going on and let him bumble through things himself! We don't need to give him any help at all, he'll work it out in the end!

I mean, they really should have at least given Gordon a device like Alyx's that lets her open combine doors - or explained why they couldn't give him one "we stole it from a combine" or something.

Another problem is the Ant Lions. Gordon has been away. The only place we ever encounter ant lions is on the coast. It would be reasonable for the other characters to assume Gordon has never met ant lions before, and so they could explain where they came from/what they do etc, but no. Even the vortigaunt that gives you the pheripods doesn't tell you anything, I mean they could have said "the ant lions have long been a foe to us on Xen", but no, NOTHING.

So many missed opportunities to give us INFORMATION about things. Everyone keeps saying "it's all in the details, just pay attention", but the thing is - the information is simply NOT there, unless it's hidden very well, which it shouldn't be.

I'm not asking for everything to be explained, but a few small tidbits would be nice, but we don't even get that.

[Geronimous]

Eli was the one that colaborated first with the Xen aliens. Because that is what one of the aliens in the very beginning tells you if you interact with him. Or am I stating the obvious.

I guess we'll have to wait and see what is to come.

[Para]

Lanthanide: You don't have to buy any books to get the info about Breen's position and what has happened to Earth. All you need to do is to literally LOOK AROUND in the game.

It seems like that no one else in the game seems to realize that Gordon literally hasn't been around for a while and Gordon doesn't say anything about G-Man to anyone (maybe he's suppressed in some way by The Man With The Briefcase to prevent this, I don't know) and since the whole thing is apparently global it's more than likely from others point of view that Gordon already knows all they know and no one bothers to ask. For spoilers, I suggest you check this thread out: http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=52203 (shade70's replies)

Oh yeah. The very first thing a vortigaunt says to Gordon is "We serve the same mystery." Replaying this game is paying off :)

[Burn]

Now that was one ****ed up ending. I did like it, but at the same time I am VERY pissed off we got NO answers, nothing at all. We found out nothing about the Gman, about Gordon, or about anything really.

Sure, we found out Breen was the admin from black masa. Sure, we found out he is working with the aliens (or at least one of them) with something about a host body, and is also trying trying to turn the human into combine.

But when it all comes down to it. We know nothing more about half life then we did before the game was out. Real disapointed in it, unless hl3 is coming out VERY soon, then well.. beh, me angry.

[ksimm]

I think the game is simply stunning, the ending, well it leaves a lot of questions, but hey I am sure they will become clearer in HL3... or will they ;)

Money very well spent !

[ksimm]

Oh and did anyone else feel GODlike when they had the Zero point gravity gun ? So cool, although the last chapter was so damn easy :P

[Dedalus]

Even more reason for the other characters to sit down and tell him what's going on. "Gordon, you've been gone so long! Why don't we fill you in on what's been going on?"

The fact that the other characters don't do this IS a failing of the storyline and the realism of the other characters - no one IRL would really be that stupid - here is our saviour, hey, lets not tell him anything about what's going on and let him bumble through things himself! We don't need to give him any help at all, he'll work it out in the end!

I mean, they really should have at least given Gordon a device like Alyx's that lets her open combine doors - or explained why they couldn't give him one "we stole it from a combine" or something.

Another problem is the Ant Lions. Gordon has been away. The only place we ever encounter ant lions is on the coast. It would be reasonable for the other characters to assume Gordon has never met ant lions before, and so they could explain where they came from/what they do etc, but no. Even the vortigaunt that gives you the pheripods doesn't tell you anything, I mean they could have said "the ant lions have long been a foe to us on Xen", but no, NOTHING.

So many missed opportunities to give us INFORMATION about things. Everyone keeps saying "it's all in the details, just pay attention", but the thing is - the information is simply NOT there, unless it's hidden very well, which it shouldn't be.

I'm not asking for everything to be explained, but a few small tidbits would be nice, but we don't even get that.



that sounds a little too extreme.

it's not like they had time to put the kettle on, open the biscuit tin and generally have a good natter about things. everything happened so fast. i mean, sure they could've told him all that stuff, but it's not a practical story or game element. i can imagine the physics on the biscuits being mind blowing, it's a whole game in itself...but it's always boring to sit through exposition.

and it's partly the reason i like to compare Half-Life to the original Die Hard film. i hope you've seen it? McClane turns up to his wife's Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza. everything's going smoothly, then all of a sudden hell breaks loose. McClane is caught in the middle of something with nothing but his trousers and vest. no-one sits him down and tells him "well John me boy, some unpleasant Euro-trash types have decided they want to shoot the place up a bit, and they're after what's in the vaults of this very building etc etc...". that's really....really...boring. instead, McClane discovers this through listening to conversations, observation and first hand experience. it's exactly the same formula in Half-Life, and rightly so, the same in Half-Life 2. it's more fun that way.

you might think the game is too light on story explanation, but you have to remember, if Valve haven't told you something, it means they're telling you something: "work it out". there's enough evidence through NPC speech, main character speech, clipped conversations, newspaper cuttings etc, for you to draw some sort of conclusion about what's going on and what's happened.

maybe they'll explain everything in HL3. personally i don't think they'll break the habit of a lifetime to spill the beans. also, leaving out large chunks of story stimulates the community to fill in the gaps (like we are) and this in turn spawns mods. the golden nugget of retail games. once you get mods rolling in, your game is set for life.

so after all this waffling on have i got a point? yes: don't stress over it so much, you're the one who's meant to do the speculation/theorizing etc, valve haven't failed in their storytelling job. it's a story device, so why not tell us what you think happened?

[Burn]

Regarding a post made eariler (to lazy to quote)

The ending was the same as hl1, yes. But we where not angry with hl1, as it was the first game, there were not real questions that people wanted answers for, this time, however, we have waited 6 years to get some answers, and what do we get? A good game, good storyline, but no ending to back the greatness up. I dont want to wait anouther god-knows how long to play hl3 and POSSABLY get some answers.

[Samon]

The ending was fantastic, really opens up alot of other possiblilites.

The thign that breen was talking to, was clearly an actual combine, unlike what we have seen so far. (The combine soldiers and stuff are modified humans afterall, as seen in Nova Prospekt)

When Breen was talking about the host body, i think he was referring to the fact that the combine creature just told him that if he wants to survive in the enviroment that the portal takes him to, he msut use a host body.

He wasnt happy about this, but if thats what it takes!

However at the end i am not to sure Breen actually dies, sure you destroy the portal but all you see is him drift further down the reactor, and then the top explodes (not the whole citadel i might add).

Also i think your actual mission from the gman was to destroy the dark fusion reactor because if you remember Alyx says that this powers there tunneling entanglement system, and then if you remember further back when you first met mossman, she mentioned that the combine can tunnel through from there universe.

So clearly Gman simply wanted you to cut the combine off from earth.

[Lanthanide]

that sounds a little too extreme.I don't think so at all. I never suggested they just sit you down and explain everything. It doesn't take very much at all to explain any specific thing, or at least give some background for it. Like my example for the explanation of the Ant Lions - it doesn't tell you everything, but it tells you they're from Xen and that the Vortigaunts have known about them for a long time, and this is how they can get the pherapods. Right now, we have 1) no clue where they come from or why they are on Earth, 2) how the vortigaunt learnt how to get the pheripods from the guard, or what they are even used for.

you might think the game is too light on story explanation,Because it is
but you have to remember, if Valve haven't told you something, it means they're telling you something: "work it out". there's enough evidence through NPC speech, main character speech, clipped conversations, newspaper cuttings etc, for you to draw some sort of conclusion about what's going on and what's happened
Yes, but you don't have any details about any of it.

So there was a portal storm. Then the combine attacked. Then Breen surrenders the Earth and takes control and is collaborating with the combine. He says it is for the future of the human race, but we don't know what his plans are or anything at all. It's mentioned somewhere that all of Earth's resources are being depleted (factories churning out bad air, sucking all the water up) but this is never explained at all - not even any conjecture by any of the characters as to what this could mean - it seems no one actually gives a crap why the combine are doing what theyr'e doing, they just want to stop them.

also, leaving out large chunks of story stimulates the community to fill in the gaps (like we are) and this in turn spawns mods. the golden nugget of retail games. once you get mods rolling in, your game is set for life.
If the reason is purely and simply marketing, that's even more reason to be upset. Valve sold-out on a storyline in order to make more money. Disapointing.

so after all this waffling on have i got a point? yes: don't stress over it so much, you're the one who's meant to do the speculation/theorizing etc, valve haven't failed in their storytelling job. it's a story device, so why not tell us what you think happened?
I can't tell you what I think happened because there aren't enough details to even ground speculation on.

[Samon]

Actually if you used your brain you would udnerstand the story, its shown rather than told.

In fact you would also understand why the antlions are there if you had a look around and listened some more..in fact you would even know what breens plans are..

[Lanthanide]

Then why stop being such a big "I'm smarter and more observant than you are" wanker and just tell me and everyone else stuck in this boat these big revelations?

[zapper]

Take a look at my interpretation of the game.

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=52605

[Nid Banikeri]

One of my biggest problems with the ending was that I was expecting it to be a big more er...'bigger' heh like in HL1 you had the huge alien to fight...

...in this you just blow up some machine. Maybe they should of shown what actually happened after you blew it up?

The confusion surrounding this all is probably intended. I SERIOUSLY doubt valve would do such an ending without a purpose.

+we have the add ons to look forward too :D

And also...HL3 won't take 5/6 years to develop as they won't have to develop an entire new engine

[Dedalus]

Lanthanide, if you didn't pick up on any story tips/elements, then it's no-ones fault but your own. simple as that.

[marksmanHL2 :)]

The end was great fun.... but a little too easy and I wanted more of a chat with the G_Man.... I love that character... :)

[Kangy]

Yeah, I expect HL3 with maybe some slightly improved graphics, or maybe lighting and that's it.

Didn't you guys see the "Earth Surrenders" newspapers, or the "7 Hour War is Over" ones? The story is all around you, just take a look. From start to end, it's showing how humanity has been forced into the arms of the Combine, rather than physicallly herded.

Remember in Raveholm, there were shells all over the place? The headcrabs haven't somehow moved from Xen to Earh by themselves...the Combine put them there. People don't want to move into the new City [#] areas? Shell them and make their town a wasteland.

Heck, even at the start, where you get teleported to those random locations, you see the Icythosaur coming at you...yet there are none in the canals. The Combine are obviously making everywhere they don't want you to live a shithole, so everyone crowds in.

The Vortigaunts...they no longer have their collars, and call you "The Freeman". They seem to believe you've freed them, and everyone. Breen refers to you as "The One Free Man", and a "Messiah" for "romantically minded individuals".

See? Questions answered.

[marshmallow]

I honestly was expecting an ending like this, but the lack of a true boss was somewhat disappointing (although I did beat the game with a staggering 5 hp). The thing I don't understand...if the Gman can literally control the fabric of spacetime (teleport out of nowhere, freeze time) then why does he need little old me? Seems like he could do it himself without too much effort.

I am somewhat confused about what Breen was actually doing. Did he REALLY believe all that BS he was spewing or was that just to subdue the populace? What was he getting out of the deal? What's up with the combine soldiers? =(

I just laughed, realizing I spent more time being transported around in those body containers than listening to the ending. =/

[Lanthanide]

Not in nearly as much detail as I, and many others, would like, Kangy.

That is what we are complaining about. The detail.

[Lep]

Anyone happen to know the weapon name of the "last" gun? I want a chance to mess with it earlier in the game.

[numlocked]

VALVe is brilliant. I take back what I said before. It's so clear to me now.
Valve intentionally leaves the ending up in the air, and leaves clues in the game. Now, how many of you rushed through the game just to get to the ending? I did. Now I am playing it on hard mode to see the details and challenge myself. Valve is forcing us to go through the game again!
Also. The boss at the end... was not a real boss. IT WAS A FIGHT AGAINST TIME! So brilliant. HL2 is a fight against time. Which is also a reason why I think HL3 will reveal something to us about time... perhaps when we lost the week in the teleport, the time afterwards was false? I wonder if we will wake up like in the Matrix and be plugged into a machine.

[SpaceBot2]

I am planning on replaying through it on hard here soon and looking and talking to more people. I really wish to understand this all better.

[YellowPeril]

OMG i just finished the game, and i must say, that i thought that was a really cool ending. i was kind of dissapointed by the lack of information provided, but its ok because now valve has to make a hl3 :D and its fun to think about then ending anyway

[Icarusintel]

I loved the ending, lets you think about everything, what happens to who, what is going on, and whether the whole thing actually happened

[c0nduMp]

I think that HL2 was a "test" thats why gman said something like "WE were impressed" and why he froze everything, and why theres a tripyy asss intro to the game.

so he wanted to see if you were badass enough to take on what he REALLY needs you for, HL3.

my theory: HL2 = test (maybe a VR type of thing?)

[Fliko]

Valve just does that, they leave you hanging, Intill the VERYend
It was a good ending, Life is like a train, it keeps on going intill the end, which may be death. You are working for Gman, a right man, in the wrong place to solve all problems, listen to the game. There is no time to tell all of what happened, you were always ambushed, there was no time.

[el Chi]

Worst ending since matrix 3
Oooh a bit harsh, seeing as that was so bad it nearly gave me an anneurism. The Wachowski brothers are offensively bad writers.

But yes, disappointing and slightly hollow. I wasn't exactly expecting a happy ending - picnics in the square followed by a game of frisbee with Lamar - but I was hoping for so much more out of the G-Man. Not the full whack but something a bit more tantalising. I was under the impression that we'd learn a lot more about the G-Man in this game, but we learn bugger all. Except for the fact that he's more evil than we maybe thought before.
I just hope that in HL3, they don't rush in all this information to try and explain things in one whole heap. I also hope that it's actually related, plot-wise; it doesn't seem to make sense that Valve would take a Final Fantasy "they're-all-sequels-but-the-stories-aren't-the-same" direction. I also hope that it doesn't take them another six years - I doubt it will, somehow.

Finally, I do so hope Alyx is ok...

[Ghost Freeman]

i think the ending is more functional than anything. it's sort of preparing you for HL3 i reckon. and if you read the Prima Guide's description of the G-Man, it'll clue you in a little as to why the ending is plausible.

If it's too much of a problem can we get a quote of that?

Oh yeah, HL2's ending was awesome. Bring on HL3.

[krameriffic]

I am somewhat confused about what Breen was actually doing. Did he REALLY believe all that BS he was spewing or was that just to subdue the populace? What was he getting out of the deal? What's up with the combine soldiers? =(
You know who Breen reminded me of? The presidential candidates, spewing all their BS all over the TV and the radio. Making false promises and exaggerated claims about everything. You have to admit that they did succeed in making him a very charismatic character.

[nrjizer]

Alright, here's my take on it:

1) I doubt Alyx dies. She's as much a part of the HL franchise now as Gordon and the G-Man - plus Gabe Newell has also said he really wants to do some side episodes featuring Alyx and Dog. Whether or not these side episodes take place after the explosion, I think she's too important a character at this point to get knocked off so needlessly. I'd bet Dog jumps in and saves her, he was already trying to get into the Citadel to get to her anyways.

2) I very highly doubt that one explosion way up at the top could knock down the mile high, solid steel Citadel. Maybe start a chain reaction that would finish it off eventually, but to take that huge thing down in one blow would take a MIGHTY amount of firepower. Plus, notice how the explosion of the portal doesn't look like a regular explosion, it's the same solid brownish orange solid color of the portal itself (notice when you're up at the very top, the two gunships come through the portal to help out). Perhaps Alyx gets teleported away by that? Something to speculate on.

3) The ending was a pretty abrupt kick in the nuts, but I won't mind it much if they really do release hl3 within a reasonable time period. If it takes > 1.5 years, that would probably be a bitch, but I don't see why it would. The engine is already done, a whole shitload of content (textues and sounds) are already done, I just don't see a team of 80 guys having that much difficulty churning out voices and maps, with the occasional model here and there.

4) The story did not bother me at all. You were meant to see the whole game from Gordon's perspective at all times, and discover the story yourself. It's not like they exactly had lots of time to discuss things. Barney had to get you to Dr. Kleiner's asap, where you were just stopping by on your way to be teleported to Eli's. You got interrupted and separated from everyone else shortly after, and the rest of the game was spent raiding Nova Prospekt and finally helping to raise hell with the uprising (and get in the Citadel of course). I found adequate bits of story here and there. If you notice in one of the labs (I think Eli's), there's a great big tackboard with all sorts of headlines, EARTH SURRENDERS, Portal Storm Continues, 7 Hour War, etc. It's not too difficult to piece it together, if you're observant. And on that note...

5) My theory, on the big perspective is this: Dr. Breen was cooperating with the Combine in HL1, and arranged the Resonance Cascade. Why? Remember, in Blue Shift, Dr. Rosenberg explains to Barney "teleportation isn't as simple as going from point A to point B. We discovered a border world that we must slingshot around..." All the talk in HL2 about Xen, looping through Xen, etc. I beleive that the Combine couldn't reach Earth directly, so they needed a big dimensional breach between Earth and the Border World (xen) in order to do so. There had been many human trips into Xen prior to the events of HL1, perhaps they came in contact with Breen somehow during, or as a result of, those trips.

[Peqkx]

Can someone copy the G-Man stuff from the Prima guide?

[nutcrackr]

i loved the ending...it messes with your mind
I was completely spent, a game hasn't made me care so much for an ending before. It grabbed me by the balls and shook me around until I thought I was female. It was a satisfactory ending, suprising, interesting, open for thought. Compared to Doom 3's god-awful ending. I want more though.

[Varsity]

The fact that the other characters don't do this IS a failing of the storyline and the realism of the other characters - no one IRL would really be that stupid - here is our saviour, hey, lets not tell him anything about what's going on and let him bumble through things himself! We don't need to give him any help at all, he'll work it out in the end!
It's like they don't realise you've been held in stasis by a shady little-known inter-dimensional figure for the past 15 years! Anything the player doesn't understand is because the player didn't pick up the hints from around him, as Gordon would.


1) I doubt Alyx dies. She's as much a part of the HL franchise now as Gordon and the G-Man - plus Gabe Newell has also said he really wants to do some side episodes featuring Alyx and Dog. Whether or not these side episodes take place after the explosion, I think she's too important a character at this point to get knocked off so needlessly. I'd bet Dog jumps in and saves her, he was already trying to get into the Citadel to get to her anyways.They would be backstory. :)

[Dark2Light]

so the whole we were gone for a week in the teleporter might explain a few things, i don't think Gordon aged at all in the time period between HL1 and HL2 remember what Vance said, "you havn't changed one iota" (spelling?) so maybe you have to go to xen and fight off the combine? but what world was that through that big teleport in the end, almost looks like a whole bunch of big towers like the citadel.

[omnimutant]

Personally as Much as I like the Game I think the ending and lack of real plot thats is supossed to be this big secret is a cop out. It's much easier to make a game with all this neet stuff and cool new inovative features, and then just have some ambigious at best ending. It does'nt make you think it makes you stupid! Endings like that spur conversations about what if this what if that, making it seem like a big mystery when there isn't one. Like Valve has this big secret that there gona unleash on the world, but I doubt it.

As a game it was probably one of the best I ever played, I'd just like a bit more substance next time.

[OCybrManO]

Anyone happen to know the weapon name of the "last" gun? I want a chance to mess with it earlier in the game.I don't know, but I know how to find out. Turn on "weapon_proficiency" (I think...) and it will show the names of the weapons you use and your proficiency with them. In HL2 they all seem to be "perfect." Maybe they were toying with the thought of making Gordon have to use a weapon for a certain amount of time or go through some sort of training with it before he knows how to handle it well... either that or it was a built-in feature to help RPG mods.

[omnimutant]

Actually I think it was to help out the AI rebels and such that fight with you. Most of them are really bad shots.

[jacen]

sry guys, but this was the best ending a pc game ever saw.
valve took the liberty to give us only a feeling of whats going on behind all this fighting without letting the characters say a single word.

tbh:
the only character that could explain everything is the gman
he is the only consistend character.
didnt noone of u notice that he didnt old a day since hl1 while alyx grew up and kleiner and barney grew old?
i do think that the gman stands somewhere out of this whole vortican/human/combine thing.
he has some interests or works for something with interests and is USING YOU to make things he wants.
remember him saying: "the right man in the wrong place can make aaaaaaaaaaall the difference" ?
remember him saying: "wake up, wake up mr. freeman" ?
like gordon was asleep or something ...
dont u ppl wonder WHERE gordon was all this years since the nihiland was defeated?

[Element Alpha]

There definatly is an unknown party. The g-man feels like an agent to me, promoting his warrior - gordon.

I think the idea is that gordon, by nature, will choose to fight the "bad" guys. G-man knows this and uses the predictability of Gordon's nature for his (or his clients) own ends. This implies that there at least is one other party, even though it could be more. There could be an alliance trying to bring down Dr Breen's "benefactors". But we didn't get to find out.

I loved the ending. Especialy how g-man took the dust off of Alyx and twisted it between his fingers while talking to you. Also the white door? Damn that was cool! This game was awesome. I haven't replayed through it yet, but I'm sure there'll be lots of clues I missed on the first run.

Dr Breen is just a peon. He got himself in a position where he could promess his "benefactors" that he'd be able to supress human rebels and make humans a usefull resource if they'd let him try. His plan almost succeeded, except he didn't count on gordon. His "benefactors" knew gordon ment trouble because they massively went after him from the moment they knew he was in town. So I'm pretty sure they know about the g-man as well. Breen is a fool, nothing more. He thought he could get the "benefactors" to spare the humans, if they would submit themselves.

The combines are half alien and half human combined. From the testlabs in novaprospects is seemed clear they messed with brains, and Breen talking about moving to a host to teleport to his "benefactors" confirms this. I strongly suspect the combines are human bodies with alien minds.

Also, the HL1 resonance cascade was not an accident. It was planned by Dr Breen, who was probably following orders from the "benefactors" already back then.

A question that remains for me is how could the "benefactors" get to earth if they just lost Xen, the connecting world between theirs and earth? The only answer I see is that there was another portal built before HL1, that we don't know anything about, and is directly connected to earth (or slingshots undisturbed around Xen).

[KagePrototype]

My interpretation...

My guess is that the Gman is fighting the combine, only using other people to do his dirty work, having people like Gordon act as "the muscle". I reckon he is from another world that was once under Combine control, but was liberated, and now he sp[ends his time helping others get rid of the combine (I doubt he really looks human, it's probably some sort of disguise). Xen is simply another world that the combine has over-run, eating up it's resources and enslaving it's population (the vortigaunts, or "alien slaves", who created the alien grunts in the factories you visited in Xen). By sabotaging the original experiment (Gman convincing the science personel to overload the capacitors, through whatever means), Xen aliens flood onto Earth. I'm guessing that the Gman wanted the two species to start some sort of inter-galatic war, and I'm also guessing that Gman thought the humans could win. Eventually, Freeman manages to kill Nihilanth (who also seems to be enslaved by Combine, or appointed like Breen), and pave the way for other forces to take over Xen (Gman says that Xen is "under our control" at the end of the game). Gman, now impressed by Freeman's actions, forces him into employment, storing him for whenever he is needed again.

Now, I'm guessing that the combine took back control over Xen, and then targetted Earth as an act of revenge. The 7-hour war happens, and Breen (the admin of Black mesa) manages to form a pact, and thus is appointed the administrator of Earth. Now, because of Freemans almost messianic status amongst the citizens, the Gman thought it would be a good idea to drop Freeman into the middle of this mess, hoping that his presence might start a second retaliation to the combine. Well, suffice to say, he did just that, and as soon as the citadel exploded at the end, the Gman figured the job was done and pulled Gordon out right at the last second. This is why the game ends here, your mission is effectively complete. He says that he has received some "interesting offers" for Freeman's handywork, which leads me to beleive that he might sell your "contract" to other people in need (Breen mentions something about Gordon's contract "being open to the highest bidder" when you talk with him at the end).

So, to tie up a few other loose ends...why are the vortigaunts helping the rebels? Well, because they were freed when killing Nihilanth, they seemed to be also dedicated to the cause of fighing against the combine. I'm guessing that Freeman's messianic status came from them, because of what you did for them. The citizens seemed to have just latched onto the idea over time. The rest of the Xen aliens (headcrabs, barnacles) are used to keep people in the cities (as well as the Ant Lions, who I think are either from yet another world the combine invaded, or just more Xen wild life we didn't see before). Because these animals are just wild life, they don't care much for their liberation. So headcrab shells are used on places like Ravenholm, to keep the resistance to a minimum. Barnacles and Ant Lions are placed in certain places, to keep people from trying to escape the cities.

Nova Prospekt acts as a prison of sorts, where people are tortured and turned into "stalkers", who are the skinny things that walk around the citadel. I can't be the only one that made the comparions between these stalkers, and the alien slaves working in a factory from HL1? The metrocops are the "civil protection units", who seem to be volunteers. The actual combine soldiers might also be volunteers, I'm not sure. I'm guessing that volunteers are shipped to Nova Prospekt and given the appropiate brain-washing procedure.

I think that's it...

[AJ Rimmer]

2) I very highly doubt that one explosion way up at the top could knock down the mile high, solid steel Citadel. Maybe start a chain reaction that would finish it off eventually, but to take that huge thing down in one blow would take a MIGHTY amount of firepower. Plus, notice how the explosion of the portal doesn't look like a regular explosion, it's the same solid brownish orange solid color of the portal itself (notice when you're up at the very top, the two gunships come through the portal to help out). Perhaps Alyx gets teleported away by that? Something to speculate on.
Look up doing the end sequence. The tower is already falling, and a building of that size falling down on city 17? That's bound to wipe out round about absolutely everything that side of the citadel. I just hopes Barney was on the other side...
didnt noone of u notice that he didnt old a day since hl1 while alyx grew up and kleiner and barney grew old?
like gordon was asleep or something ...
dont u ppl wonder WHERE gordon was all this years since the nihiland was defeated?
Nope. I thought everyone assumed he was in stasis the entire time. Never gave it a second thought.

[Samon]

I wouldnt say the tower is collapsing...all it is the fusion reactor exploding and the tower falling down is merely a piece of the reactor.

[AJ Rimmer]

I wouldnt say the tower is collapsing...all it is the fusion reactor exploding and the tower falling down is merely a piece of the reactor.
No matter if it's the tower or a piece of reactor housing, either way, it looks to be around 1 mile long and anyone that gets caught in its way is royally butt-fecked.

[numlocked]

Just a guess, but I bet HL3 will be you vs the G-man. Then who knows what. Probably just another abrupt ending. The possiblities for a storyline in HL3 are pretty much endless though, so who knows.

You know what would be cool? If they released mini-games or expansions that have Freeman running around for G-man fighting bad guys on different worlds, while getting new guns and fighting new villians.

[jimbones]

Oh god I just finished HL2 and it ends with a cliffhanger!! Nooo. This game openend up more questions than it really answered. Seriously the ending was like "*theme music* Find out what happens next in the next episode airing in three years or so!" man, great game but the ending is seriously ****ed..

I wanted a bit more info about the background going on in black mesa. Why didn't they cover at least that?
that's it I'm pissed.. :flame:

[jimbones]

J The possiblities for a storyline in HL3 are pretty much endless though, so who knows.


you mean the game got limitlesssss potential? xD

[Varsity]

No matter if it's the tower or a piece of reactor housing, either way, it looks to be around 1 mile long and anyone that gets caught in its way is royally butt-fecked.
No way is it THAT long. It's big, but not that big.

[AJ Rimmer]

No way is it THAT long. It's big, but not that big.
Still, it's big.

[Winters]

Alright I finished the game late last night and saw all of your opinions on here so I thought I would add my two cents worth.

To go along with everyone else the game is amazing. The graphics, gameplay, and environment are remarkable and intriguing. The ending is something else. You fight to save Eli from Dr. Breen's clutches, going from the Nexus through undergrounds until you find yourself at the base of a huge Citadel that towers over you. You get inside and basically spend about 5 minutes in the pods being transported from the bottom to the top. After using a very nice A-grav gun you make it to the end and stop the Doctor. This last chapter just gets your adrenaline pumping because you can taste the end. WHen the explosion hits I seriously was in awe of it all. Then time froze and I was like "what the crap."

Like everyone else said the ending doesn't answer anything, it almost opens more doors than closes them. Yes, the environment provides more answers than most people think but I believe that there could be more room for exposition (in small doses) throughout the game. Kliener (sp?) could have said a few words or Alyx for that matter.

HL3 in the works? I guess time will tell. Everyone has to remember that in the final sequence with Gman he says "when and if." So there might not be another one. They could just leave this in lingo and have it be one of those things where you decide what happens to Gman, Gordon, Alyx... etc.

I hope that they release an expansion to this soon but as much as I want them to get it out as soon as possible I don't want a rushed product. There was an article on gamespot.com that said that Gabe could have came out with HL2 much faster than this but he didn't want to have a sequel like all the rest of the games out there that was rushed and basically ruined the game as a whole.

[markabey]

My interpretation...

Nova Prospekt acts as a prison of sorts, where people are tortured and turned into "stalkers", who are the skinny things that walk around the citadel. I can't be the only one that made the comparions between these stalkers, and the alien slaves working in a factory from HL1? The metrocops are the "civil protection units", who seem to be volunteers. The actual combine soldiers might also be volunteers, I'm not sure. I'm guessing that volunteers are shipped to Nova Prospekt and given the appropiate brain-washing procedure.

I think that's it...

i like your thinking, you'ra a clever guy. i didnt notice the factory similarities. On xen the factories were making alien grunts, made by alien slaves. On earth the factories were making combine soldiers made by human stalkers. both the alien slaves and human stalkers seemed to be controlled, probably both by combine.

Im thinking that alien grunts in hl1 were maybe combine soldiers too, but "made/grown" from a different species from xen. Just as the combine soldiers are "made/grown" from part human part machine (as seen in the naked combine model). The technology is also used to make the synths (sriders, gunships etc) but i think the basic biomaterial for that is from antlions (notice the similar colours and textures), why else would the combine bring antlions to earth and know how to control them so well? (thumpers) The antlion guards outer shell is an ideal material to make protective bioskins from, as seen on striders etc.

Thats the only way i can see antlions in the hl universe story, otherwise they just appeared randomly.

Now, I'm guessing that the combine took back control over Xen, and then targetted Earth as an act of revenge.
That fits perfectly.


also the idea of the humans knowing about what freeman has done through means of the vaugtigauts telling them is a very good idea.

[thatdudekevin]

Just beat it on normal in 13 or so hours. Horrible ending ;( Now we wait for the mods..I dont think i can wait half a decade for another game :(



EDIT: i heard at the end you hear dr kleiner or whatever bickering about something..i didnt hear that,in order to hear that do i need to see all the credits?

[Rumik]

I just watched the ending again, and now it makes sense ;)

well kinda...

GMan says that everything will become clear at.. well, he's not at liberty to say.

With the rumours that HL3 will be out within 6 months to 2 years (or an expansion pack even sooner) everybody who's pissed off that more of the story wasn't revealed, it's clear to me now that it will be in the follow-up.

So fret ye not, we'll be enlightened at some point.

[thatdudekevin]

oh btw ive got 5 pages of ss's from hl2
http://photobucket.com/albums/v62/MGSexistenz/
first pages = tons of end pictures of gman and that core ..last pages=earlier in the game

[StardogChampion]

There was a gap between HL1 and HL2, so I really hope HL3 sticks you into the gap.

[Absinthe]

I liked the ending. The final moments in the citadel were great. The modified gravity gun was amazing. And it was just darn cool to toss energy balls at Combine soldiers and then toss their corpses into the energy beams, watching them desintegrate. The time-freeze shizzle when the G-Man showed up was also really cool as well.

Was I a bit ticked that I didn't get any resolution? Of course. I wanted to know more about the G-Man. I wanted to know what exactly Breen was talking to on that giant screen. And I wanted to know what happened after I blew the citadel up.

But then I realized that not knowing this was all for the better. I liked that it gave me more questions than answers. It gave me something to ponder and savor. It gives me a reason to play through it again and pick up all the little details. It also gives me something to look forward to. Just like the original, it opened up more doors as it closed a few. Come to think about it, I don't I think I would have liked any major answer/resolution in Half-Life 2. I liked that it built things up and then, once again, left you in the dark.

I'd much prefer to see all the holes filled in Half-Life 3.

[Varsity]

i like your thinking, you'ra a clever guy. i didnt notice the factory similarities. On xen the factories were making alien grunts, made by alien slaves. On earth the factories were making combine soldiers made by human stalkers. both the alien slaves and human stalkers seemed to be controlled, probably both by combine.
Look at their faceplates: they ARE the combine, sans armour, dalek-style.

I'm starting to think that story wise HL2 was designed not to introduce anything to radical for the sake of the people who never played HL1 all those years ago. Then in HL3 (yes, guy who posted above, it's been confirmed there is a trilology) we'll be seeing the real story unfold.

[thatdudekevin]

speaking of hl3 will the forums convert to halflife3.net? lol :o

[Glo]

Just finished hl2
though i didnt really get the plot. can someone fill me in?
what has happened actually? since gordon left the train at hl1's end

[Xenome]

I LOVED the ending..best ending ever..

Also the game was long..I played all day since 16 sept lol, and only finished now..took me about 16-20 hours.

Best game I ever played by FAR, no discussion.

[Robert]

Can anyone tell me what G-man said exact in the end? I didn't hear :/

[Varsity]

I've just realised this thread doesn't have the obligatory screenshot yet! For shame!

http://www.btinternet.com/~varsity_uk/HL2/Game-End.jpg

Rob, turn on closed captions. They helped me to hear what the combine were saying at the start of the game.

[SpaceBot2]

Lol Varsity, hilarious how nobody did post one until then.

[Big Fat Duck]

The ending of hl2 should have been Gordon waking up in bed at his Los Angeles penthouse and being like... "holy crap, what a horrible nightmare"

[Dsty2001]

Just seen the ending, and let me say........I'm confused as ever. Lol

[bobbydigital]

Wait, so do Eli and Alyx know where Gordon has been or anything? They act as if Gordon was on vacation for whatever amount of years he's been idle in time.

[Rhalle]

Wait, so do Eli and Alyx know where Gordon has been or anything? They act as if Gordon was on vacation for whatever amount of years he's been idle in time.


Nope. That's just clever ol' Valve messing with everyone.

[bobbydigital]

They don't care as to where Gordon has been, and what he's been doing while they've been aging?

[A2597]

I can't see why no one knows whats going on...

Gman is selling you to the highest bidder, a mercenary of sorts.
the resistance got you, and you did the job they wanted. as soon as job was done, you were pulled out. Simple as that.

As soon as I saw time stop and the gman pop out I relized what had happened. (Mixed with Breens speech) GAH. Stupid G-man.

Valve. I beg of thee. in HL3, we get to finally kill this cold hearted SOB!!!

[DoctaBu]

Oh MAN!

That was an AWESOME game! As many of you have said, the ending was leaving me a bit... confused and a smidge disappointed, but it just makes me more excited for what's next.

The game really put you into the position of Gordon Freeman. You don't exactly know what's happening, just like the actual character would. There's no third person, like Freeman talking, acting as a guide for the story. It's all you, baby!

I mean, when you're running around with the UBER-gravity gun (which I must say was f-ing AMAZING), you see Breem on those screens, trying to stop you and asking you to basically "join the dark side." And you can actually feel yourself breaking through this prison of evil to get to the center and destroy Breem from the inside.

----------

On a separate note, I have a ton of questions, as many people do.

What happened inbetween the end of HL1 and the beginning of HL2? You get off of this train and you can throw bottles at people. I don't really get where you come in completely.

Ok. Zen. The Combine. Humans. What are the similarities/differences in these three? Are the combine completely different than Zen? You see those shells hit the earth and out come headcrabs. That seems to be a mix of the two. It's as if...they're working together. Yet, you do see Ant Lions attack Combine the whole time. The Ant Lions are from Xen, aren't they?


That's pretty much all I can think of from now. But, man. What an awesome game.

[Rhalle]

O.K. I agree with all of Kage's big, explanatory post, except on a few points.

1. (This is a minor one) The humans heard about Gordon, and so see him as their hero, without having to hear about it from the Vortiguants.

2. When the G-Man says "We," it's possible that you still can't know who exactly he is talking about. It is possible that he could mean himself and Gordon, Himself and the combine, Himself as some kind of 'hive' being? Himself and....whoever he is working for?

3. This is connected to number two: Combine taking over again, after Gordon wins, is speculation. It's possibble thatt happens afterwards is maybe the G-Man's doing after all, whatever that doing is, lol.

Confusing. I hope Laidlaw knows where it's all going, lol.

[B_MAN]

Worst ending ever.......We have to wait six more years to find out what the hell is going on.......Worst ending since matrix 3......Awesome game, levels were huge and I had a blast. Took me about 12 hours. I just expected so much more at the end, it was almost like it just stopped and the power went out at my house. I was like "Is that it, it can't be it, wait lets see what happens after the credits there will be some crazy ending? Nope just lamar and the professor. Urgh." I give it a 9/10 for no ending." Time to play it again on hard.
like everyone else you're frustrated
but at the same time it was almost the perfect ending because we know that there will be another game and another story to unfold
i absolutely loved how time froze and so muich was left untold because you cant help but wonder whats going to happen in the future(or the past?)
:cheers: to an amazing game.... no to an amazing work of art 9.5/10

[ironpooch]

One thing which just hit me -

If G-Man was truly working for the good of mankind - dont u think he would have stepped in earlier? Why wait untill the proverbial s**t hits the fan to make a move. Also - He seems to acknowledge that you have completed your mission succesfully, yet you did not kill Dr. Breen. I think the question we need to be asking here is what are the G-Mans motives - and who are HIS "benefactors" as Breen would say. As far as the ending - I think its amazing, and I think within a few months we will have peiced together a solid ending that'll satisfy anyone willing to look for it.

-ironpooch

[slayertx]

loved the gameplay
hated the story!

no hydra, no xen, No alein fighting.(the aliens say WE REMEMBER THE FREEMAN, but do you remember me puting bullets in your friends head?)
NO true incounter with the ichosaurus, no claw things from the ground,
no big bosses unless you count a antlion gaurd and strider that can get hit 1,000 time but won't die un till you hit it with 5 MAGIC rockets.
they did not explain the howlers, spider crabs, along with the zombie that tosses them. No bullsquid, no bug eyed puppy dogs.

SO many thing were just wrong, valve team didn't you guys atleat play the 1st hl? Hire me and I will help you keep your storys streight!
I can't belive we waited so long and went through all thoes lies for this, no major cliffhanger.....wait ya there was ...everone thought we would get somthing answerd.... and none were!!!......ha ha...didn't see that one comming did ya.......sucker.......

anyways, they should rethink all there stratagies, aside from great game play!
maby gearbox will fill in the gaps again!!

[AzzMan]

As for the question why no one had told you what happened in game, I'm pretty sure they think you already know what has been going on, just in hiding or something. I mean, how would it ever come across their minds that you've been in stasis for the past 10-15 years or however long its been? Do you really think they know who the Gman is too?

Another thing I heard Breen saying at the part where you first enter his office (not the beginning of the game) talking about "Beings that can span across different dimensions" or something like that. I believe that points to something much larger than any of what we know of right now (gman's employers perhaps?)

[epoch-]

Didn't read the whole thread but....

Here's what I think of the WHOLE story and ending and whatnot...

Throughout the game you are imersed in a world where the earth has surrendered and we've entered into a "Big Brother" day and age. Your sole mission becomes to help the resistance in various ways, and the story develops well for that.

Put yourself in Gordon's shoes.

Sure, you are someplace you don't know, in some time you don't know, with some people you don't know, in some situation you don't know. But I don't think you'd have much time aside from random points in the story when you are picking up supplies to say, "Wait a sec, wtf happened these last x ammount of years???"

Obviously we learn more about what's going on with G-man, that he's basically your pimp for the services of galactic and multiversal justice working for a force we can safely assume is AT LEAST as powerful as the 'benefactors' if not more.

I liked the ending. I was like "Holy crap... This is gonna be it... explosion, gordon dies, wake up as barney... restart story. Gay." But much to my suprise, Freeman survives. It made me happy to know that he survives as well as gave me something to look forward to/contemplate/discuss whether or not alyx is dead or not.

My predictions:
-Eli is alive with Mossman and is conducting studies or something somewhere about more things to aide the resistance after much deliberation as to whether or not Eli should trust Mossman... That dirty whore.
-Breen is dead or reincarnated into a higher life form to become your ultimate enemy alongside the 'benefactors'
-You find out eventually G-man represents fate/death/the devil/devine intervention, sort of like Death in NWN's latest expansion.
-Alyx was saved by DOG's massive awesomeness or was saved by another G-man-esque person.
-Barney is alive leading the evolving armies of earth.
-Kleiner is alive studying the combine technology of the citidel/bugbait/lamarr to aide the resistance.
-Combine/benefactors is decimated around city 17, which will lead benefactors from other places around the world (Note: Earth surrenders article in one of the combine checkpoints somewhere in the game, i forget exact location.) to come and aide the fallen benefactors.
-DOG keeps pwning.

[VodkA-HLC-]

Does anyone else see a face in that explosion?http://www.btinternet.com/~varsity_uk/HL2/Game-End.jpg

[DarkStar]

Does anyone else see a face in that explosion?

Holy shit. There is a face there. Kinda looks like Breen.

[smeesh]

Just finished the game. Definitely best game overall I have ever played. I was hoping for more reolution though...

Anyway, food for though in regards to the ending:

Breen makes reference to Freeman being able to be bought off and the G-Man makes reference to requests for Gordon services.

G-Man clearly has some sort of immense power, but we also havent seen him affect the physical world, so it would seem he is limited in some way.

[Trp Werewolf]

HL3 should be here within 2 years. Can't wait to see what happened to everybody :)
Maybe they'll have a patch by then to fix the problems the rest of us are having with keeping the game running! :naughty:

[Deputy J Garcia]

am i going crazy or did i hear breen say that he genetically altered freeman as a little kid. he says it when you are on one of the elevator things, it kind of explains why gordon kicks so much ass.

everybody is saying what they think will happen in hl3, but it seems pretty clear that we all haven't come to a conlusion as to what exactly happened in hl2, i think everybody should say all the story elements that they saw in the game, cause i'm sure we all missed something/a lot of things.

[Apos]

I don't think people are really getting the ending, or indeed Valve's entire take on storytelling. Valve is all about SHOW DON'T TELL. The storytelling is subtle and deliberately leaves a lot open to interpretation and investigation. You have to piece together what's gone/is going on from scraps of overheard conversation, little clues, and so on. And keeping your eyes open. I think most of the major questions about what's going on in the world, what happened since HL1, are answered in the game. It's not exactly THAT big of a mystery.

As for the larger movers and shakers beyond our world... no, we don't know who or what Breen is talking to, though we do overhear him saying some things about intelligent galaxies and weather formations and a lot of truly crazy stuff. The vortiguants hint at all sorts of crazy stuff having to do with time and unity, putting your role far above some measily resistence leader. But the point is not to solve these mysteries outright, it's to vastly expand the range of the HL universe. At the end of HL2, we now know that the stakes are huge: far greater than we ever imagined. The G-Man is far more powerful than we knew even at the end of HL1. We don't know all the answers to the greater mysteries of the HL universe, but then in a way that's GOOD: it leaves us with some very, very deep mysteries to ponder. And, like HL1, it leaves us unsure if we've done the right things, sided with the right side. Did we just doom humanity? Doesn't Breen have a point?

And frankly, would you all really have been happy with a conventional, boring ending where Gordon kills Breen, then kills some random alien overlord, the G-man claps and then you kill him too, everyone in City 17 cheers and Gordon gets to have teh sex w/ Alyx?

I wouldn't have been impressed with that. Instead, we get a stunning and wildy divergent end to a stunning game. You may be a little put off by what you got, but appreciate it for what it is and what Valve was trying to do. They could have tacked on a goofy teh sex ending. They didn't. They chose to keep us intrigued and guessing and talking. Much better, I think.

[stoo]

I think everyone has missed something pretty important.

When Gordon reaches his office, Breen says that it's ok that Eli has chosen not to join him because Gordon has become the people's new leader and that Gordon has turned out to be a, "fine pawn for those who control him."

He then turns to Gordon and asks, "did you know that your contract is open to the highest bidder?"

Add that to the remarks by the G-man at the game's end scene, where he tells Gordon that he has, "received some interesting offers for [his] services."

He goes on to say: "Ordinarily I wouldn't consider them, but these are extraordinary times."

Leads me to think that, at the beginning at least, HL3 will see Gordon working for the Combine.

[Cabb]

Very interesting point, I only read up to page 4, but no one seems to have mentioned up until then that G-Man can be spotted communicating with what must be a resistance leader (maybe the tally ho pip pip british one) when you look through the combine camera across the water, top floor of the house, I forget the chapter, green grass, rocky, buggy, the telescopic camera is in a house.

This of course suggesting that the g-man is not hostile to the resistance, possibly suggesting that Gordan was hired to help, but by whom?

[Absinthe]

am i going crazy or did i hear breen say that he genetically altered freeman as a little kid. he says it when you are on one of the elevator things, it kind of explains why gordon kicks so much ass.

No, he was talking about how he was disappointed with Kleiner and Eli Vance for dragging you over to their side, and he accuses them of planting ideas of iconoclasm in your head when you were young and gullible.

The ass-kicking was a result of something screwing up during the confiscation of your weapons, I believe.

[Dee]

i just beat the game and man it was great from start to end although i didnt like the final areas of the game too much seemed to remind me of matrix and i just wasnt feeling the whole futuristic stuff but man the ending was great had me wondering what happened to everything was the city destroyed did everyone die or what.....i might be the only one that actually enjoyed the ending.


One more thing I donno if its just me but the game seemed kinda short... -shrugs-

[shade70]

OKay, my take on the story, with bits Ive picked up in the game, plus from hints in the game guide.

The Black Mesa Incident created a Dimensional Rift (as in HL Decay) - the Combine were attracted to Earth by this rift and attacked. The Earth surrended after 7 hours of fighting - mainly due to Dr Breens interference. When Earth surrenders the Combine make him the Human populations Administrator

There is more than one City on Earth - at least another exists - City 14, however City 17 is the main base of Operations for Dr Breen.

The Citys inhabitants are drugged and violently supressed, and randomly taken away by the Combine to Nova Prospekt to be assimilated.

To help control the human population Dr Breen is the Combines mouthpiece on Earth, the Combine stop sexual reproduction (probably through drugs) and also try to restrict other 'basic' instincts as well. This is to make the human popualtion less likely to resist, however Dr Breen tells the people is too make them a Super-race.

With no babies being born, and the Earths remianing population slowly being turned into unthinking Slaves this is basically mass genocide.....the slow extermination of the human race.

The Combine Soliders and Stalkers are all adapted Humans - Dr Breen calls them trans-humans, basically superhuman - fitted with implants to control them, and their brains tinkered with. This is what usually happens to any undesirables - they are sent to Nova Prospekt to be assimilated.

Xen has nothing to do directly with the Combine. Xen is the key to teleportation in 'our' universe, however the Combine are only able to teleport from 'their' Universe to Earth (they are from another Dimension), probably through the remains of the Dimensional Rift, but they are unable to teleport 'locally' so to speak (thats why they use Dropships/Trains/APCS etc & dont just teleport directly) if they had access to Xen they would have the power of Teleportation on Earth, but they don't.....Dr Mossman had betrayed Humankind by building the Combine a working 'Local' teleporter and showing them the power of Xen.

The teleporter Bleen uses at the end is the Teleporter to the Combines dimension. The interdimensional Teleporter takes gigantic amounts of power to charge and takes along time to prepare, making it almost useless as a gateway for Combine control. This is why the Combine use the human population & machines built on Earth as Soldiers and a workforce....it would be impossible to teleport everything they needed for Earths supression from their dimension

The Vortigaunts are Alien Slaves from HL1. When Gordon attacked Xen and killed the Nilliath (or whatever its called) they were freed. The ones still left on Earth decided to help the Resistance, as they didnt want to become enslaved again by the Combine.

The big slug you see Breen talking to at the end is the true face of Combine. This is an actual Combine alien. They obviously have telepathic powers (he never actually talks to Breen, but Breen is having a conversation with it) and are completely dependant on Technology for survival. (If you ever read the War of Worlds by HG Wells basically they are the same as the Martians - me thinks Laidlaw got the idea for the Combine from this book......Striders=Fighting Machines)

Striders are biomechanical machines as are the gunships.

The Portal storms caused by the Black Mesa incident transported local Xen life to Earth - Antlions, headcrabs etc. This is why the Vortigaunt know how to create bugbait. Both species are from Xen.

The Combine, seeing how effective Head crabs were against the Human popualtion, captured breeded and mutated them, and used them as a Bioweapon against 'Troublespots' of Human resistance.

G-Man has contact with the Resistance.....it is possible the reason they knew Gordon was coming is that because the G-Man told them.

One of the Vortiguants in a hidden area tells you alot about yourself. He does say they realise about how many of his race they killed, but accepted this for the Freedom he gave them. Another thing is how Gordon was like they were - a Slave, and when you think about it, its true. The gigantic irony of the whole story is that the 'One Free Man' - the hope of all of the Human slaves to the Combine- is actually a Slave to the G Man!

Vance, Kliener and Barney all knew what Gordon did in Black Mesa - they would have spread the Legend of how he saved Earth from the Xen invasion & freed the Vortigaunts.Hes a big hero on Earth.Thats how everyone knows who you are (the HEV suit with the Lambda sign would have been a big giveaway as well) and why the Combine throw everything at you once they know you are on Earth (when you teleport accidently to Breens office) - you give the population hope.

Thats what Ive come up with so far. Who or what the G-Man is, and what his motives are, are still unclear.

[Ezekial]

I think everyone has missed something pretty important.

When Gordon reaches his office, Breen says that it's ok that Eli has chosen not to join him because Gordon has become the people's new leader and that Gordon has turned out to be a, "fine pawn for those who control him."

He then turns to Gordon and asks, "did you know that your contract is open to the highest bidder?"

Add that to the remarks by the G-man at the game's end scene, where he tells Gordon that he has, "received some interesting offers for [his] services."

He goes on to say: "Ordinarily I wouldn't consider them, but these are extraordinary times."

Leads me to think that, at the beginning at least, HL3 will see Gordon working for the Combine.

Yeah man, I should have noticed that, but the Gravity Gun on the desk was distracting me... I just wanted to get back to hanging people by there foot off ledges!

I expect we should be expecting HL3 or at least an add-on in the not to distant future.

I would still really like to know what the GMan is, he oviously isn't human, unless humans have the power to stop time and walk through doors of light that pop out of nowere that we just don't know about yet.

[markabey]

Xen has nothing to do directly with the Combine. Xen is the key to teleportation in 'our' universe, however the Combine are only able to teleport from 'their' Universe (they are from another Dimension), they are unable to teleport 'locally' so to speak (thats why they use Dropships/Trains/APCS etc & dont just teleport directly) if they had access to Xen they would have the power of Teleportation on Earth, but they don't.....Dr Mossman had betrayed Humankind by building the Combine a working 'Local' teleporter and showing them the power of Xen.

Im not sure on this, i had a feeling that the combine controlled xen but had no real use for it (or didnt know how to exploit it), they made the vortigaunts slaves, and made nilhilanth the controller, he floats on a sort of mechanical base so is part combine himself. There the slaves made alien grunts which are also combine im sure (synth anyway)

The teleporter Bleen uses at the end is the Teleporter to the Combines dimension. The interdimensional Teleporter takes gigantic amounts of power to charge and takes along time to prepare, making it almost useless as a gateway for Combine control. This is why the Combine use the human population & machines built on Earth as Soldiers and a workforce....it would be impossible to teleport everything they needed for Earths supression from their dimension

i also think that is why the towers are so high, the energy in the dark energy reaction is so great that at ground level it would blow up everything


Striders are biomechanical machines as are the gunships.

The Portal storms caused by the Black Mesa incident transported local Xen life to Earth - Antlions, headcrabs etc. This is why the Vortigaunt know how to create bugbait. Both species are from Xen.

Im not sure about this, i think that the combine brought antlions from their world. Look at the similarities between the combine synth (striders/gunships, and those things u see near the end in the citadel) and antilions (antlion guards especially), they are both very hard to kill and the same colour and texture. Its as if the combine assimilated antlions into themselves aswell. That is why they brought the thumpers as well, to control the antlions.




Vance, Kliener and Barney all knew what Gordon did in Black Mesa - they would have spread the Legend of how he saved Earth from the Xen invasion & freed the Vortigaunts.Hes a big hero on Earth.Thats how everyone knows who you are (the HEV suit with the Lambda sign would have been a big giveaway as well) and why the Combine throw everything at you once they know you are on Earth (when you teleport accidently to Breens office) - you give the population hope.

i would have thought that the vortigaunts would have told the people, as they could telepathically know what was happening on xen and now they are free from nilhilanth they can speak independantly.


Great ideas though
:thumbs:

[PrivateerLunatic]

I think most of you guys rushed through the game too quickly. I agree with Apos.

Many of the answers you've been asking for in all these pages are there. The thing is that the game avoids expositition in dialogue or whatever completely. However, if you take the time to investigate, there are tons of clues and if you look carefully and think logically you can fit together a lot of details about who the combine are, why they came, where they're from, what your role is, what's going on, what you're there to do, and many, many more things.

The only one who truly remains an enigma is the G-Man, but I think we know more about him than we did in Half-Life 1.

We know that he has control over time/matter (much like Q in Star Trek, as someone previously mentioned), we know that he is almost certainly not human, we know that he is trying to stop interdimensional intervention with Earth and the rest of our universe, and we know that he's not the only one involved -- he's contracting you out to someone, he says at the end.

I think many of you who hated the ending just missed most of the literally hundreds of clues that help to help you at least formulate well-founded theories to answer your questions.

[MickeyAsh]

so the whole we were gone for a week in the teleporter might explain a few things, i don't think Gordon aged at all in the time period between HL1 and HL2 remember what Vance said, "you havn't changed one iota" (spelling?) so maybe you have to go to xen and fight off the combine? but what world was that through that big teleport in the end, almost looks like a whole bunch of big towers like the citadel.

Negative on that... if you throw on sv_cheats 1 and noclip, you can pan around the top of the tower during the phase where you see the "towers" and they actually appear to be spires of a simlar tower that is elsewhere in the universe. If you look to most science fiction interpretation (even some science FACT interpretation) of the use of black holes used as transportation (which is what is being used in the instance of HL2... numerous references to a singularity [Astrophysics. A point in space-time at which gravitational forces cause matter to have infinite density and infinitesimal volume, and space and time to become infinitely distorted.]) there is sometimes the portrayal that the location of departure and location of arrival require two similar devices... (anyone see Stargate?)

About Breen's mentions of a host body... he doesn't request a host body. His word's were something like "A HOST BODY!? Why, I couldn't possibly... well, if that's what it takes, then fine." Sounds more to me like Breen will become a host body for someone/thing, himself. Perhaps the "Combine Liaison" (large worm-like thing he's talking to in the final scene) wants to use Breen as a host body?

[sprinterboy]

I dont think anyone will have died, because the g-man intervened and holted time, so know one will die, he will take freeman forward in time to the next level, hl1 was alien based but hl2 was never supposed to be loads of aliens, i was expecting it to be more combines, but hl3 will go back to loads of both combines and aliens

[nuttymi2]

Maybe in HL3 Freeman just wakes up in a shower (Dallas style) :laugh:

Half life 2 was the best thing in my life (having to wait for it, then getting to play it), now its over what am I to do for the next 2/3 years?

Playing other games now just isn't going to be the same!

HL2 ROCKS!

Guess I will have t play it again and again! :sniper:


EDIT: The pulse gun thing looks crap when your holding it, shame you couldn’t have a sniper rifle.

[Asuka]

Well after 14 hours of playing, its done. I was kind of hoping for more out of the gman at the end..no? Anyway overall it seemed kind of short, but overall it was massive. I dont think I rushed it, but I dont know. Anyone else?

Worst ending ever.......We have to wait six more years to find out what the hell is going on.......Worst ending since matrix 3......Awesome game, levels were huge and I had a blast. Took me about 12 hours. I just expected so much more at the end, it was almost like it just stopped and the power went out at my house. I was like "Is that it, it can't be it, wait lets see what happens after the credits there will be some crazy ending? Nope just lamar and the professor. Urgh." I give it a 9/10 for no ending." Time to play it again on hard.


14 hours/12 hours wtf? Iv been playing fps games for a very very long time. (hl1 doom etc) I dont think hl2 is hard but you guys are clearly rushing through the game. Took me give or take 24-26 hours to beat. (Puzzles 90% on 1st try, i didnt die much on battles ether.) I mean did you guys stop to hear what ever civilian said? Listen to breens moniter? explore? How many gmans did you guys see 1-2? (Saw about 5) Did you guys just run and gun down enemys? Really because i find it hard to believe you beat the game in 12-14 hours if you played it like it should be played.

[MindCrafter]

I think everyone has missed something pretty important.

When Gordon reaches his office, Breen says that it's ok that Eli has chosen not to join him because Gordon has become the people's new leader and that Gordon has turned out to be a, "fine pawn for those who control him."

He then turns to Gordon and asks, "did you know that your contract is open to the highest bidder?"

Add that to the remarks by the G-man at the game's end scene, where he tells Gordon that he has, "received some interesting offers for [his] services."

He goes on to say: "Ordinarily I wouldn't consider them, but these are extraordinary times."

Leads me to think that, at the beginning at least, HL3 will see Gordon working for the Combine.Do you think that Gordon is a mindless pawn?
Remember at the end of HL1 you agree to work with the G-man?
All I know is that Valve made an excellent and mysterious game, again.
It's all so confusing :P

Edit: I used 24 hours or something to finish the game btw.

[Para]

I dont think anyone will have died, because the g-man intervened and holted time, so know one will die, he will take freeman forward in time to the next level, hl1 was alien based but hl2 was never supposed to be loads of aliens, i was expecting it to be more combines, but hl3 will go back to loads of both combines and aliens

You do realize that if/when Gordon is taken further in to the future, the time must restart again and the explosion starts expanding again, among other things.

[Zeus]

This took me about 30 hours to beat on normal

[markez]

just thought i would give my 2 pence (yes, im british :cheers: )

has anyone played half life 1 after completing number 2. it just opens up even more questions.

for example:

when you first start the game and your heading to the test chamber, remember the Gman talking to another scientist in an office and he stares at you? i was just contemplating that he could be Dr Breen. maybe he planned the experiment to go wrong :eek:

another is in Opposing force when you defuse the nuke, when you go into the security chamber you see the Gman setting it up again? one theory is that he just wants to kill the vortiguant, or cover up traces of the accident to prevent public uproar. paving the road for the combine uprise :naughty:

i mean, if you listen to alot of the conversations from breen and others you can almost piece together the fact that everyone wants gordan freeman.

another part in HL2,(correct me if im wrong) when your in the elevator with alyx, heading up towards breen. you hear him talking about a host of some sort and how they need one before they can do something (i know, your loving the details). then you see that giant alien thing onscreen. my guess is that they need gordan to be the host for the aliens mind. as i said, load of questions.

other things like the weird stick human things with no hands or faces working for the combine. not to mention those giant mechanical bull squids that you see on your "cocoon trip". so many things that you see but never see again only to be exploited in the future.

anyways, thats all i have to say, i would of gone into my own "conspiracy theory" with all the bells and whistles, but that will have to wait till later (need to play OF and BS more).

see ya around

MARKEZ

"A man who never made a mistake, Never made a discovery"

[Samon]

Well i dont think at all that Gman has connections with breen...i also think that shade70 is spot on with his plot overview..with a few niggles.

Your goal through the game for gman is clearly: Destroy Dark Fusion reactor. This is obvious, alyx tells you that the reactor powers the combines tunneling entaglement device..tunneling through from there universe...however without it they are screwed and as soon as it blows up your taken out of there. Job done.

And also when Breen is talkign about the host body, he is referring to the fact that the acual combien alien told him that if he wanted to survive the enviroemtn the portal woudl take him to then he would need a host body to do so.

[markez]

i too understand that your mission is complete when you gank the generator. there is no other explanation to that, why else would Gman pull you out.

but the fact that the xen creatures and the combine seem to have the same likeliness is starting to get pretty convincing. like other posts have said, the factorys have similaritys but i have notice that the way some of the combines machinery has been constructed is veering the same way.

the main one being these huge mechanical things you see when your on your second trip round the citadel. before you see the 4 or 5 flying craft pull out, you see 2 bridges with these lumbering things that in a way resemble bullsquid.....need to get a screeny.

[A2597]

I just had an interesting thought...

OK, I was really pissed that the G-Man was selling my "services" to the highest bidder...

but then at the end he was getting some interesting offers he wouldn't normally concider.

And from this ending, it's safe to say the G-Man exist outside time.

So, He can see the outcome of placing Gordon at a point in time before it happens. So he can choose which contracts to give gordon, based on the outcome of doing so.

What motive the G-Man is working towards I have no clue, but he's working to some greater goal, I'm hoping it's not the destruction of Earth. That would be a massive surprise if at the end of HL3, we learn that we are responsible for the death of the human race...

[Asuka]

I just had an interesting thought...

OK, I was really pissed that the G-Man was selling my "services" to the highest bidder...

but then at the end he was getting some interesting offers he wouldn't normally concider.

And from this ending, it's safe to say the G-Man exist outside time.

So, He can see the outcome of placing Gordon at a point in time before it happens. So he can choose which contracts to give gordon, based on the outcome of doing so.

What motive the G-Man is working towards I have no clue, but he's working to some greater goal, I'm hoping it's not the destruction of Earth. That would be a massive surprise if at the end of HL3, we learn that we are responsible for the death of the human race...


That would be awesome.

[MiccyNarc]

Markez, I disagree with you 100% on your theory.
Why would the Gman make you help the combine get to earth, and then make you massacre them?

Makes 0 sense.
Oh, by the way, I think the end result will be the destruction of the human race. It's very possible.
"Gordon, look at everything you have destroyed. Can you name one thing you have created? That's what I thought."
Sobering.

[MrWynd]

there are posters on a wall saying "humanity surrendered in 7 hours" and "portal storm continues" it looks like the combine are using the aliens to take over earth, and now Breem is using this Projekt to mutate humanity into more powerful aliens - he believes it's the only way to further humanity.

[pooter]

This isn't anything big, but I found it interesting nonetheless. Notice how the Combine use headcrabs as weapons? Yet, from time to time, we see the Overwatch fighting headcrabs and zombies. This suggests to me that the Combine don't give a crap about the humans, whether they are for or against the Combine, since they employ weapons that will hurt their own "allies." Kinda shows their ruthlesness.

Also, regarding Breen, I think he knew what was going to happen all along with the experiment in HL1. Like Wynd said, he wants to advance humanity into the Superman, and he probably felt this was the only way.

[AzzMan]

About everyone arguing about what Breen was saying about a host body, that thing he was talking to told him that he would need a host body in order to survive on the Combine world, because of the conditions there.

[Samon]

Thats pretty much it Azzman, he needs a host body to survive in the combien universe...

Althought after that he says "Alright dammit if thats what it takes!"

Now the actual combine creature is talkign to him telepathically...so i wonder what conclusion they came to...

[Tyrsenus]

Now the actual combine creature is talkign to him telepathically...so i wonder what conclusion they came to...
If they were talking telepathically, why did they need the screen? :naughty:

I think the idea from the combine was influenced by 2001 (the book, this wasn't in the movie). Towards the end of the book, it describes an alien race that began to rely more and more on technology. Eventually they had no more need for their bodies, they just lived within their technology. And then after that, they had no more need for matter at all, and existed in the "lattices of light." Whatever that means.

[Samon]

Well its either the prima guide or rainsing the bar which mentions telepathy...

was the book called 2001 Tyrsenus?

[AJ Rimmer]

Well its either the prima guide or rainsing the bar which mentions telepathy...

was the book called 2001 Tyrsenus?
You don't know 2001: A Space Odyssey? And you call yourself british...
Now the question is: Did Dr Breen die?
Right after you blow up the reactor, you hear Breens voice echo: "No. You need me." Did the combine teleport him at the last moment or what?

[Samon]

Oh Space Odyssey...he didnt mention that!! :D

I dont think Breen does die actually, he simply drifts down to the bottom of the reactor in his little control bubble.

When he says "You need me.." I think he is referring to 2 of these:

He is talkig about how the human race needs him to survive and how if he were to achieve his goal of teleporting then he would have saved them...because remember if he goes to the combine unvierse then he will become immortal...

Or he is talkign to the combine..."you need me" as in "dont leave me..."..Because liek he said when he was talkign to that combine "I canstill deliver earth but not without your help." Perhaps the combine arnt interested in breen anymore because Mossman turned on him and mossman was the key to the teleportation tech that the combine wanted

[AJ Rimmer]

Oh Space Odyssey...he didnt mention that!! :D

I dont think Breen does die actually, he simply drifts down to the bottom of the reactor in his little control bubble.

When he says "You need me.." I think he is referring to 2 of these:

He is talkig about how the human race needs him to survive and how if he were to achieve his goal of teleporting then he would have saved them...because remember if he goes to the combine unvierse then he will become immortal...

Or he is talkign to the combine..."you need me" as in "dont leave me..."..Because liek he said when he was talkign to that combine "I canstill deliver earth but not without your help." Perhaps the combine arnt interested in breen anymore because Mossman turned on him and mossman was the key to the teleportation tech that the combine wanted
I'm betting on your second one, although I think the combine does want his help. They were willing to use up considerable resources during their biggest crisis yet to teleport him even after mossman was out of his hands.

[Dr. Shim]

Damn it, you guys are STARTING THE HYPE TRAIN AGAIN! At full force! I'm not being mean, just sarcastic. :)

It took me 6 hours to beat the game. The ending was rather a... Disappointment. I wish I knew more about the Combine in the end, but what I did know what from speculation prior to the game's release. (Some of it was correct; although I can't mention any specifically.)

I am hoping for a back-to-back style release for HL3. However, this seems unlikely. Source is an engine like no other, and I wouldn't be surprised if it took them three to four years to make the game; and two to three making the engine. I could be full of crack too...

I loved the game. Keep the story-guessing going. This is fun. :) (Seriously!)

[Samon]

I'm betting on your second one, although I think the combine does want his help. They were willing to use up considerable resources during their biggest crisis yet to teleport him even after mossman was out of his hands.

Yes true, although i am more interested in how he got a portal workign on the reactor...all alyx said was it powered there tunneling entaglement system so i am assumign that the reactor is powering the combien portal which is in Nova Prospekt...but that exploded.....

However it seems as if they are getting a bit annoyed at him, judging from his speech to the combine soldiers in Nova Prospekt and such and how the combine are gettign nervous at the fact that freeman simply cannot be stopped...

Well overall, refering to the original question i really think he survived..although you cant be to sure because the reactor exploded right above him and i am betting that that cant be good for him whom is simply below...

[Wraithen]

Valve need a new publisher now so they should go with EA Games. Then we'd get a new half life game every year!

[A2597]

and if we got a new HL game every year, they would all suck

[Wraithen]

Well I was kidding, but I really don't think Valve could make a shit game. Or I don't think they would anyway. But with Source finished, how long would it really take?

[Muskrat]

I think its been discussed, but where did the hydra go again?
I wondered the same thing. And the OICW gun, and the traptown level from the videos. I wanted to blow that dumpster on the combine SOOOO bad! There seemed to be quite a lack of clever traps to kill the combine with physics.

I also get the feeling I missed something important about the story, besides the basic understanding the we were helping the humans be free from the combine.

[CountShockula]

Perhaps the combine is our own human race from the future?

[Tyrsenus]

Valve need a new publisher now so they should go with EA Games. Then we'd get a new half life game every year!
I think once their contract with Vivendi expires, they're going to Activision. I think they owe Vivendi one more game under the contract agreement.

[satch919]

Just finished it on the hard setting like 10mins ago.

MASTERPIECE!!! :thumbs:

Game of the Year X 10

I felt used and abused at the end. So helpless. I also felt like Im part of something absolutely massive. But.....

WHO THE F*** IS THE GMAN?!?!? ARGHHH.

Talk about friggen mysterious.

I was very pleased with the ending.

This is the very pinnacle of gaming. It was: amazing, astounding, bewildering, breathtaking, extraordinary, impressive, marvelous, miraculous, spectacular, staggering, startling, striking, stunning, stupefying, stupendous, wonderful, and wondrous.

[Tyrsenus]

In case this hasnt been stated recently, I think its obvious that Nihilanth was a combine (btw, he (she?) actually looks freeky in HL:S). This explains why the vortigaunts are assisting the human resistance.

[TaiFong]

Anyone see the Gman, or at the very least, a face, in the final explosion? Maybe my mind is fooling me, but...just take a look

http://img62.exs.cx/img62/1604/gmanexplosion.jpg

[Jade Falcon]

I don't know if this has been mentioned before but: If the Gman can stop time, then isn't it plausible that he brought Freeman into the future, hence why he hasn't aged at all and theres no recolation of what happended in between?

[Kaboomenstein]

well, the way i saw the game was that everyone assumed you knew what was going on (they probably thought you were just in ANOTHER city, and understood the world around you already). to me, it seems that gordon teleported onto the train (the guy says "i didnt see you get on") and between hl2 and hl1 he was in a sleeping, stasis type state. the transiton from hl1 to hl2 may have been instantaneous for gordon.

[Lemartes]

first off wtf was up with the combine advisor, we get a glimpse of him really quickly, he must play a role in HL3.
Also a speculation on the combine, what if since we were playing with time so much here, what if the combine were humans in the future trying to reclaim earth in some way. I dunno it just dawned on me. anyways Ive been waiting for HL2 for a while and I thought we would have answers and by the time HL3 comes around I wont be here, Ill be serving the the United States military so it kinda stinks i wont get to play it. =/

[Deputy J Garcia]

first off wtf was up with the combine advisor, we get a glimpse of him really quickly, he must play a role in HL3.
Also a speculation on the combine, what if since we were playing with time so much here, what if the combine were humans in the future trying to reclaim earth in some way. I dunno it just dawned on me. anyways Ive been waiting for HL2 for a while and I thought we would have answers and by the time HL3 comes around I wont be here, Ill be serving the the United States military so it kinda stinks i wont get to play it. =/

you have a very good idea here, but i think that the combine are the humans from the future and they are trying to assimilate all the humans so that they can survive forever instead of being like the combine and wasting all their resources and becoming dependant on technology. (breen says in the beginning- "when we get rid of instinct we will be able to complete the transformation and live forever.") so g-man could be working for aliens from another planet that want to invade earth for its resources.

damn, when i started writing that it made perfect sense. everytime i think i start to understand the story i end up more confused than before.

[PoeticRocker]

Its quite obvious that people dont tell you about their surroundings cause G-Man wants to keep you in check. They're all traitors, you cant trust any of them! Also remember that G-Man was talking to that british dude near the coast and later he acts like an ally...

[Pibborando San]

I wondered the same thing. And the OICW gun, and the traptown level from the videos. I wanted to blow that dumpster on the combine SOOOO bad! There seemed to be quite a lack of clever traps to kill the combine with physics.

I also get the feeling I missed something important about the story, besides the basic understanding the we were helping the humans be free from the combine.

Well, after I beat HL2, I realized that ALL of the E3 2003 videos were just tech demos and really nothing more. Trap town was re-worked into Ravenholm, the shooting down the Combine drop ship on the coast was totally reworked, battling the Striders is nothing like in the 2003 vids. The closest one was Nova Prospect, but in the 2003 vid antlions come from the celings and windows when Gordon throws the bugbait, but in HL2, you are already being followed by antlions and you can't shoot out the windows anymore.

Sorry if that had nothing to do with the actual thread.

[Samon]

Originally Posted by Lemartes
first off wtf was up with the combine advisor, we get a glimpse of him really quickly, he must play a role in HL3.
Also a speculation on the combine, what if since we were playing with time so much here, what if the combine were humans in the future trying to reclaim earth in some way. I dunno it just dawned on me. anyways Ive been waiting for HL2 for a while and I thought we would have answers and by the time HL3 comes around I wont be here, Ill be serving the the United States military so it kinda stinks i wont get to play it. =/

No, thats just not plausible me thinks. Theyre alien, and they go around stripping planets of resources...also i remember from reading the script eli had a line "Their only use for this technology is to enslave more races." so that proves it i think.

Also something tells me breen has already been to the combine universe...he mentions "Gas giants inhabited by vast, meteorogical essences...worlds streched thing across the continium where the dimensions...intersect.."

He is clearly describing it to eli

[venturon]

I loved the ending. This is the second game of three, the development of the story, so if any questions are going to be answered, you best wait for the third.

[grevez]

Didn't you watch people watch Lord of the Rings? Star Wars? The Matrix? The END doesn't come until ... well, the end. Right now we are only 2/3 through the game. Why would you want to know everything now? Then there is no reason for HL3 and no more games in the HL series. Don't you know why Alfred Hitchcock is the best thriller writer of all time? Because of the suspense. Valve has done an amazing job on this story - leaving us with question upon question. Don't you see we're doing exactly what they want us to? We have no clue about what happens next to Gordon Freeman, and we need to find out, because they've sucked us into this wonderful world of Half-Life.

I just finished it and I absolutely loved the ending, can't wait to play through it again this weekend! :)

P.S. Why do you all talk about the "years" between HL1 and 2? As if Eli doesn't give a big enough hint with his little speech "Gordon Freeman... you haven't aged a bit, how do you do it?" G-Man meets Gordon + Eli says Gordon hasn't aged + G-Man controls time = ??? ;)

[DarkGhost86]

I like that END...but i am little disappoint because some weapon was taken off!

[Para]

P.S. Why do you all talk about the "years" between HL1 and 2? As if Eli doesn't give a big enough hint with his little speech "Gordon Freeman... you haven't aged a bit, how do you do it?" G-Man meets Gordon + Eli says Gordon hasn't aged + G-Man controls time = ??? ;)

Exactly. Seems like most of the people here seem to lack the skill of thinking in four dimensions. What a shame. I guess the illusion of slow teleporting is perfect for them though.

About slow teleporting, didn't anyone of you consider that if the matter stream is interrupted in any way, it will just shatter around causing "the thing with the cat" effect and even if the explosion in Nova Prospekt didn't interrupt the matter stream, then a simple power surge could've done it in the other end and considering how much power that teleport sucks I don't think it's very likely that Kleiner just left it on for a whole week. So, G&A were teleported just enough "late" to be in a wrong place at the right time, but by what...or who? ;)

[meppe]

i loved the game and the ending too. when time froze and i started to hear g-man.. wow. and the shifting colors were cool. the only complaint i have is that at times the game was just travelling without specific reasons no other than youve been told to do so. what a great game!

[Wraithen]

I think once their contract with Vivendi expires, they're going to Activision. I think they owe Vivendi one more game under the contract agreement.

VU Games really did shoot themselves in the foot with the way they handled Half Life 2. It'll be interesting to see where things go between them and Valve.

[indy]

personaly i was not impressed with alot of this game.

Why dint they add any zen levels? combine homeworld would be nice.
maybe even have some new enemies besides recycled old ones and two types of headcrabs and zombies? one was enough imo.

vehicles were cool but nothing new "farcry"
models looked great but again nothing new "doom 3"
levels were open and detailed but guess what ...nothin new "unreal 2"
weapons were trite and boring with the ecception of the pheremones and grav gun. unfourtunatly the pheremones only were usefull on one level.

im not gonna even get into how the lack of a real storyline and the worst ending ever ruined it even worse.

my point is if your gonna take soooo long to release a game that doesnt offer anything new. at least give me a fekin storyline to enjoy.

[Absinthe]

indy, then you must not have been that impressed with the original Half-Life either. After all, it didn't do anything that hadn't been done before.

But what made that game great was that it managed to take on all aspects and do them well. Really, the only thing that's "new" about the Half-Life games is that their quality shines in almost everything.

[A2597]

new = gameplay important physics and facial animation.

The rest is refining what everyone else did, and doing it ALOT better.
HL1 started the true FPS genre, after that, everything that can be done has been done. So Valve has taken all the stuff thats been done and refined it. Taken it all to it's best possible.

I AM curious as to what you expected.

and lack of story? Sure, the story is forced in your face. same for HL1. You have to pay attention to get the story. If you didn't, well...no one to blame but yourself.

[Absinthe]

Might want to scratch gameplay important physics from the "new" list, as this was attempted by an ambitious little experiment called "Trespasser". :)

Just another example of Valve taking something that's been done before (albeit didn't turn out that popular) and improving on it in every way.

[Wraithen]

personaly i was not impressed with alot of this game.

Why dint they add any zen levels? combine homeworld would be nice.
maybe even have some new enemies besides recycled old ones and two types of headcrabs and zombies? one was enough imo.

vehicles were cool but nothing new "farcry"
models looked great but again nothing new "doom 3"
levels were open and detailed but guess what ...nothin new "unreal 2"
weapons were trite and boring with the ecception of the pheremones and grav gun. unfourtunatly the pheremones only were usefull on one level.

im not gonna even get into how the lack of a real storyline and the worst ending ever ruined it even worse.

my point is if your gonna take soooo long to release a game that doesnt offer anything new. at least give me a fekin storyline to enjoy.

Yeah, I hate games that aren't completely original, that's why I stopped playing games after Pong. Everything else was just so derivative.

Please note: Sarcasm

[defect]

i was dissapionted that the parts we saw in gamespy e3 demo wasn't actuually in the game (well not that i saw). Like where you shoot you go up some stairs, shoot the vending machine cans came out which nothing happens in hl2. Also when you go in that room and block your self in etc.

Also i never saw the part where in gamespy demo they go in streets, and you can grab the letters of the bulding at shoot it at striders.

But overall its the best game ever!!!

[SFLUFAN]

The 2003 E3 videos were essentially "proof of concept" demos rather than representations of the actual game itself.

The 2004 E3 videos are closer to the finalized game that we are playing now.

[Rock_Hardly]

A game should not require it's owners to buy an official strategy guide/other book to fully explain the story. If it was required, it should have been in a manual that comes free with the game.

Actually, you don't need the strategy guide to tell you that - the game's whole final level is the ending.

Seriously - the majority of this was explained during gameplay.

This game, as well as the first HL, show exactly why it's best to actually pay attention to what's going on instead of rushing through to have some hackneyed explanation served to you at the end.

[Jadewolf5675]

I love the story telling, and I love the plot, but I was disappointed about the lack of new information. I obviously didn't expect them to explain everything, but after beating it, I barely know anything more about the HL2 storyline than I did on November 15th. The only major plot developments I learned from playing the game (that I didn't know before the game was released) are: G-man can control time, Eli gets captured at one point, what the Combine looks like under the suits. Other than that, nothing new was learned really.

[Dei Castigator]

Just my own take on things here, but after watching the ending with the G-Man, I am almost certain that Alyx will live. Actually, I will go out on a limb here and say the G-Man probaby makes her go into the grey-status-place-where-Gordon-Doesn't-Age and she will awake when Gordon does. My basis for this is the G-Man's gestures, if you notice, when he pauses time he goes over to Alyx, puts a hand on her arm, and gives just a barely noticable smile. Between the good friendship she has with Gordon(maybe more, your own interpretations are free here :P) and the important role she played, I'm thinking she will probably accompany Gordon to where-ever the G-Man is sending him :P

Thanks.

[SimonomiS]

Speaking of the G-Man, he talks of selling Gordons services onto others, contracting him to whomever. For what? Cant be money, he can freeze time! What DOES he get out of all this??

[mayfer]

g-man said he recieved some interesting offers for gordon's services. and we also know that dr. breen offered us a job, and also said "did you know your contract was open to the highest bidder?"
so obviously one of the offers came from dr breen (combines), which means g-man has something to do with the combines?
but it doesn't really make sense since what g-man is trying to do is getting us to destroy the portal.

[L337_Assasain]

Jus for those who hate the ending to HL2, it was supposed to leave questions open. HL1, 2 and 3 are basically 1 game, so you will learn barely any in the first two, then everything at once in the third, the game is an epic, not even a trilogy. It's supposed to show how he progresses in one long story, that's why it ended like that, so keep an open mind and enjoy the third one, because ALL will (most likely) be explained.

[mega maniac]

I dont beleive the amount ofpeople here expecting an 'ending' or conclusion. Assasain just said it, its the middle part.

But anyway the "SURPRISE" valve were planning i think was the multplayer. If you look at other posts here you will notice people have 'found' a multiplayer element.

So its like a christmas pressie that been opened early for those who cant wait and want to play with their friends ho have also opened their pressie early.

[OFM]

Regarding a post made eariler (to lazy to quote)

The ending was the same as hl1, yes. But we where not angry with hl1, as it was the first game, there were not real questions that people wanted answers for, this time, however, we have waited 6 years to get some answers, and what do we get? A good game, good storyline, but no ending to back the greatness up. I dont want to wait anouther god-knows how long to play hl3 and POSSABLY get some answers.

People were angry... and there were real questions - we were told that HL2 would answer them

[OFM]

Added because of timeout:

What I find interesting is people have forgotten what has happened. the supposed code theft... remember?

No orange suited people were seen in my game roaming City 17, I never found that part in Ravenholm where you set off that trap with the swinging tractor trailer box. and of course the hydra.

I found myself easily getting through this game until the end too. I had a hard time finding out how to get over that little fence seeing that you can't jump. and then at the end with that portal. Alyx simply tells me to "see what you can do" ok that's helpful - I got no idea what to do. it made sense to fire a ton of those energy balls at breen but it never worked

Here is a neat hint
Ripping consoles off of walls and putting them in front of where combine troops will likely enter - before doing certain "quest flags" - (actions that further the script and set the next steps in motion) in the end will ensure you don't have to go into god and no clip mode just to figure out what to do next.

Ok back the the overall ending and what is going on behind the scenes...

Not only was valve forced to change things because of the theft - they also had to leave alot out of this release too ( it's been explained in various places as to why). HL3 of course will solve this.

Multiplayer... I think Valve knows that people are going to be finished with this title rather quickly and they'll want more.

[Solver]

Whatever the surprise is, I hope it's not multiplayer. BTW, wasn't there mention of some surprises to come in the game? And, wasn't there a quote that we would find out something about the GMan? I'm not complaining, mind you, just pondering. I wonder if the discovery about GMan's abilities to manipulate time was what was meant...

[DaFreak]

I don't think anyone has pointed this out yet...

It seems like prety much every member of the resistance knows who the g-man is. In the beginning of the game, i think it was the first level, you have to escape from city 17 (to ultimatly get to eli and alyx). Somewhere along the way you drop down in a container. Inside the container there is a member of the resistance and a vortigaunt. Now the interesting part is that when you are realy fast you can get a glimpse of the vortigaunt watching television. On the screen you see the g-man and the vortigaunt and the other guy were watching him. But about the second you drop in the vortigaunt sees you and turns of the tv. Almost like he doen't want you to see him watching the g-man. So i am guessing that the resistance payed g-man (or the people he works for) to hire gordon's services. I wonder in what they payed. Whats important for beings that can alter time :/

[SimonomiS]

Exactly what i was saying DaFreak, and whom out of the Resistance hired him? And how? Barney? Kliener? Eli? The mystery continues...

[darkl4805]

I am not sure the combine use Xen to relay teleporting?

If I remember right doesn't Alyx say that the Combine haven't quite figured out teleportation yet? And thats what her dad's key role is and why Breen wanted him (or Judith).

My guess has always been that the combine were just other alien race that happened to attack after the black mesa incident... so the combine had to deal with the xen aliens on earth and resistance at the same time...

[01000101]

Umm ... Did I miss something? That was the shittiest ending i've seen in a game.


Um... no. Finish Halo 2 and then come post that again :)

Halo 2 has to be the worst ending ever.

I liked HL-2's ending. Makes you want hl-3 even more.

[Rusty100]

Maybe Alyx was hire by the G-Man, at the same time you were, or hired by someone else? I mean, love interest should live to die another day!

[Samon]

Well done for bumping this 4 month old thread.

[Blakeb155]

I could get a post count of about 3000 if I went to every ancient thread and gave it my 0.02c. Why oh why did you have to dig this up? :hmph:

[MarcoPollo]

well now that it is up from its 3 and a half month long dirt nap...we might as well KILL RUSTY100 and close this damned thread....What was going through his mind? hmmm i dont like these new threads ill click this "last" button WEEEE thread resurection w00t!!

[trizzm]

maybe the ending will be in the start of HL3. they wanted to have the citadel fall on the city destroying everything in front of your eyes but couldnt since our PCs are too weak yet.

[half lunatic]

For the citadel to fall on City 17 wouldn't an explosion have to come from the bottom not the top?Also i just came up with a wild idea of DOG saving Alyx at the last second from the explosion.

[JesusChrist]

At nearly the end, Breen talks to a big-bug like creature but we do not have a final boss..........Just shoots down two crap planes and stops breen.....But I really like the EX gravity gun....Its is a very creative and I grab and shoot like a monster.

[JesusChrist]

It is uexplained becoz sierra wants us to buy a copy of hl3

[>>FrEnZy<<]

not enough gun, not enough big bosses. should have had some big high tech syth thing to battle at the end. Or just before the end anyway.

[FireCrack]

there are only two ways alyx could possibly live

1: g man saves her

2: explosion turns out to be not too big.

[Hazar]

there are only two ways alyx could possibly live

1: g man saves her

2: explosion turns out to be not too big.

really only one IMO, the first of course. Even if the explosion wasn't that big (which it was, 'cause it was the citidel's power source) the whole citadel prolly colapsed. There's no walking out of that

[FireCrack]

Who says it collapsed? if it wasn't that big it wouldnt collapse.

What our'e saying is basicly like,



If the sun exploded, but the explosion for some reason happened to be realy tiny, like a hand grenade, you wouldnt survive anyways becasue the earth would be blown up.

[irjoe]

shows that G-man is indeed yo daddy.

[Samon]

I dobut the citadel is going to collapse, the top was probably just blown right off.

[Jintor]

That'd be funny. To Freeman, It'd look like the explosion was gonna become massive. But in reality, it just expands and goes out.

*then there's a power cut*