HL2 completed SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Aada]

Anyone else completed it yet? what did you think to the ending? seems it was just a virtual reality game?



I did'nt think the ending was very good tbh spending like 10+hours finished the game and the ending is like 30 seconds long heh.. gah i dunno 5 years and they come up with this ending? lol

oh well guess its another 5 years for HL3

cya then.

 

[Bougs]

I just dont get it. any of it. why are you in city 17? the entire storyline from begining to end has left me well and truly confuzzled! anyone care to explain before my head implodes?

 

[Brynn]

G-man says that Black mesa was a test - and he was using your assitance.

The ending was like :eek2: really fucking confusing, and

Spoiler

what happens to the bird

 

[Aada]

I just dont get it. any of it. why are you in city 17? the entire storyline from begining to end has left me well and truly confuzzled! anyone care to explain before my head implodes?

tbh m8 i played through HL1 on sunday and the HL2 story has very little bearing on HL1 story..

The only explanation i can come up with is that Gordon has been captured and being brainwashed or some bs because that old git at the end says that people are interesting in hiring him..

Hell im just as confused as you..

anyone else think the end lvl dragged on abit too much? after 15 mins of pummeling people with the gravity gun i was like oh comon give me the end ffs.

 

[Brynn]

tbh m8 i played through HL1 on sunday and the HL2 story has very little bearing on HL1 story..

The only explanation i can come up with is that Gordon has been captured and being brainwashed or some bs because that old git at the end says that people are interesting in hiring him..

Hell im just as confused as you..

anyone else think the end lvl dragged on abit too much? after 15 mins of pummeling people with the gravity gun i was like oh comon give me the end ffs.

The very end confused me as waht to do with the thing in the middle - i just thought i stood and watched

 

[Lakashnik]

not even got to play it yet.
but hlf life 3 is meanna be done in about 2yrs or summat cos they got source code to do it on. and its meant to complete the puzzle.
all interviews that been had wit valve etc have said that ur not meant to understand it untill u get the whole thing.. i.e till hlf life 3 is out
so looks like yall jsut gonna have to wait abit to understand it all.

 

[Skaven]

I like it, use your imagination

 

[Cylian]

the end is disappointing, leaves just to many questions open.
but great game nonetheless

 

[Sar]

That's the point Cylian. It's meant to be a cliffhanger, which'll keep you ticking over until HL3.

 

[Cylian]

if they would atleast let the end end! ... instead of hitting the 'pause'-button

 

[Tom]

Its a cliff hanger fgs!

'Arise, Darth Gordon'

 

[Brynn]

Did anyone else watch till the end of the credits?

Least we found where the pet headcrab was

 

[Dillinja]

I always watch to the end of the credits, that's how sad I am.

And yeah, the ending was crap but the game was good enough to make up for it.. could've been a little longer though. When compared to HL1's length it is quite short.

 

[old.user4556]

Not 100% sure i'm satisfied with that, but superb game for sure. After reading some stuff on halflife2.net, it appears there are quite a few people stuck on what to do next but I never found it that taxing.

I just felt like it was easy compared to HL1, although I was just a kiddy when that came out and i'm now a leet0r .

 

[mank!]

I've just finished it, but I haven't played it much since playing it pretty much all day Tuesday/Wednesday and I'm slightly disappointed that the game is so short. I think even 007:Nightfire took me longer to complete.

Anyway, I thought the ending was pretty ambiguous - it left it blatantly open to interpretation and/or a sequel. I'm hoping for a sequel.

Spoiler

My interpretation of the ending was that you fucked it up and wiped out City 17, Breen wasn't bluffing when he rambled on about with his "think what you're doing, Gordon!" comments. You killed Alyx, Eli, Barney, the Doc. G-Man rescued you because you're too useful to let go and your services are required elsewhere. Then the credits end and you hear Dr Kleiner's voice and his headcrab jumps at you, were you rescued and everyone survived or did it just never happen and you've gone back in time?

Fuck knows. At first I thought they'd just tacked on a stupid ending because they couldn't think of anything else but after thinking, that's my theory.

 

[Cylian]

for the ending

How about this theory:

Spoiler

the explosion doesn't destroy the Citadel or City 17, but knocks Gordon out.
The image of Alyx being thrown back is the last thing Gordon sees, before the G-Man awakens him for his new Assignment -> Half-Life 3.
No funky time-warping abilities by Mr. G, just that Gordon has been drugged and is just 'waking' up.

 

[DaGaffer]

Not 100% sure i'm satisfied with that, but superb game for sure. After reading some stuff on halflife2.net, it appears there are quite a few people stuck on what to do next but I never found it that taxing.

I just felt like it was easy compared to HL1, although I was just a kiddy when that came out and i'm now a leet0r .

Yeah, my feelings exactly. I never really got 'stuck' or challenged at all, except for one point early on

Spoiler

(where I couldn't find a valve to flood a room)

, and even then I knew instinctively what to do, just couldn't find the switch. Much easier than HL1. Still enjoyed it though.

 

[Brynn]

The only place i got really stuck was with jumping over the lasers in the destroying the generator bit

 

[Gray]

them little razor flying things scare the fucking shite out of me, i was next to a vent once when loads come thru a doorway, one went missing up the vent.

I found i had to go into the vent for some stuff, i forgot all about the razor thing in there, when i turned the corner in pitch black the bastard started cutting me! little focker! heart skipped a beat

 

[Cylian]

those cutters become really funny with the gravity gun

just pull them, then throw 'em at some combine guy.

...and the crowbar is just excellent at handling them little buggers otherwise.

 

[Abel]

I kinda liked the ending, I was surprised by it and I like to be surprised. But indeed it came very out of the blue and made the game a little short.

- Remember Dr. Brein at one point tells you that Dr. Kleiner & Dr. Viace (sp?) have been your mentors bringing you up and he accuses them of putting all those bad rebilious ideas in your head.
So it seems you have been brought up for "some" purpose and G-Man uses you for an apparently different agenda.

- Also remember Dr. Freeman has been in a sort of limbo between HL1 & 2 and suddenly is being put on a train into City 17 years after the Mesa incident to do G-Mans bidding. Seems you're going into limbo again for a next assignment.

That's still all terribly vague though, so I guess HL3 will answer all our questions. The gamestory is clearly written to confuse the heck out of you.

 

[Dukat]

Completed Half life 2 yesterday.

Spoiler

Having waited for so long, I was initially suprised by the shortness of it. only got stuck at the prison bit where you get 3 turrets, then again it only took me 3-4 goes to get past that bit and the rest was kinda easy, the last bit was confusing till I realised what u had to shoot at, then it was kinda simple :\

I kinda expected more length, but it really was quality all the way through, the only bit i didnt really enjoy was the sandbuggy bit, the handling was kinda dodgy but it was only a minor thing, I REALLY enjoyed the rest of it.

I think i'll be playing through it again, most of the levels where amazingly well done, and i think i had my standards set a little too high, it was kinda short, but OH SO SWEET! longer than alot of games though nowadays.

I think that the ending was kinda cool, but again a little short and a tad less than expected (lets face it though our expectations where very high).

The graphics where AWESOME, like photographic and i didnt even have em on full. the sounds where pretty good, really well done. the storyline was engrossing, if a tad on ths short side, but still top stuff. the levels and puzzles where good and familiar without being complete copies from the original. have to say that all tho it was short, this game was all that I'd hope it would be.

 

[Dukat]

Been thinking about the Storyline for HL1 and 2 on the way home from college, had a hunch and rechecked a few levels to see if I was right, heres where I found:

Spoiler

The storyline of Half life (1 and 2) is easy enough to find if you look for it.

Admittedly, alot of things only make sense after you read the message board in Eli's lab in Black Mesa East. The message board contains newpaper clippings showing headlines proclaiming the "7 Hours War" and "Earth Surrenders to the Combine". From this you can probably gather that after the resonance cascade in HL1, a portal was opened to the combine's universe (galaxy, dimension, whatever). From then the skirmishes at Black Mesa between the beasties and the soldiers escalated into a full on war, which the combine went on to win.

After this the combine took everything over, reducing most of the human race into low level workers in combine factories. (producing what? no idea - yet). When Freeman gets to City 17, Eli, Barny and the others are in the middle of planning an attempt to overthrow the combine, they all seem to be expecting him. G-Mans talk about "All the effort in the world would have gone to waste" seems to me like an attempt to justify Freemans inactivity during the 7 hours war. Similarly, the talk about "Lets just say your hour has come again" and "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference" would mean that the time has come to start a revolution against the combine.

Why is it Dr. Breen from Black Mesa incharge of City 17? I reckon him being the administrator of the site of the original accident (maybe even being responsible for it?) means that hes in the combine's good-books, and so was put in a position of relative power.

Who is G-Man? To me it seems that he is some kind of 'manager' to Freeman, not to say that hes the 'top man' of whatever orginisation he 'works' for, the reason I dont think that is because at one point he says "I'm really not at liberty to say". I think that G-Man does not work for the same side as the Combine, as Freeman's being in City 17 was determental to thier cause. (he took out thier citadel).

Where does Gordon Freeman fit into all this? I think that the whole thing started in Black Mesa, when the initial incident happened, Freeman was supposed to be killed in the explosion, and so when he survived, G-Man watched him escape the Black Mesa facility. He or the originisation he works for then decided to use Freeman for special jobs because he was able to survive in an impossible situation. Dr. Kleiner said that "Trouble seems to follow in your wake", and I think this was one of the reasons Freeman was chosen for jobs in which chaos would achieve the required objectives.

Just one of many possible explanations though.

 

[Dillinja]

Who are the Combine? I thought they were just Nazi-style fascist humans, not aliens.

As for the HL2 story, I think it's just one of those things that's not meant to be looked into too deeply. They've paved the way for a HL3 and let's just hope that the third one is longer and explains itself a little better.

 

[Brynn]

They said that Freeman was the Wrong Man in the Wrong Time or something.

And the Combine are a Combination of Human and aliens

 

[Brynn]

Some guy on steam forums posted a SHIT lot of info :

G-Man Does NOT = Gordon Freeman

Valve, as a collective, are not morons. They understand that a) due to the various and sundry theories of the manner of space and time, going back in time and interacting with yourself is impossible. Also, b) they know that time travel has been done to death, and using such a method to explain the mystery of the G-Man would be the lamest thing mankind has ever seen.

G-Man Does NOT = Old Man Freeman

The G-Man is not Gordon's father, either. Why? Let me throw a line at ya.

"I am your father."

What does this conjure up? A fitting end to the greatest gaming experience ever? No! It conjures up Darth ****ing Vader, that's who! The Father Ending has been done already! There is no way Valve is going to cheapen us, the fans, and themselves as men of art by ripping the end from Star Wars.

G-Man = God or Satan, and Gordon = Jesus, Messiah

I sure as hell hope this isn't the case, or I'm going to take a crowbar to Gabe's sack.

G-Man is David Bowie

This is quite possible. Further research will be needed.

Right, so now we know who the G-Man ISN'T, we can start thinking about who he is. There've been a few very interesting theories tossed about so far, and then there have been many more truly retarded ones, mostly from people with no concept of the difference between "u" and "you". I think I've read most of the useful ones...spread out, for some reason, across a number of threads. It might be worth the mods time to make a "Half-Life 2 Theories Thread" or something. Back on topic I go.

Right, who is the G-Man? Let's think about it.

First of all, the dude with the dark eyes in the picture in Kleiner's office is NOT the G-Man. Go and play HL1 again if you don't remember this guy. The scribbled out face is Breen, btw, Dr. Kleiner can't stand the bas...er, the jerk.

So that rules out the possibility of being the guy behind the Black Mesa Anomalous Materials Research Team. The administrator, as we all know, was Dr. Breen, so G-Man couldn't have been that guy. So he would have to be even higher than that.

So we have one possibility. Climb the ladder of the Black Mesa heirarchy, and at the top is the G-Man. It would explain his heavy use of teleporting, appearing and disappearing at random throughout both games.

So that's one at least passable theory. On to the next, the "President of the Universe" theory.

This one paints each universe, or dimension, as having a "overlord" of sorts...a guy who's in charge of everything, is omnipotent, and rules the roost. Like a God, yes, but not in the biblical fire and brimstone sense. Each Universe has one, and the theory goes that the G-Man is our one. He's currently at loggerheads with another one, the one Breen is allied with. So they fight through their pawns, like a game of chess. Freeman is the G-Man's most bada$$ pawn, but he has others...like Eli, Alyx, Barney and Dog. This would explain a quote by Dr. Breen in "Dark Energy".

"Having {Gordon and Eli} in my keeping means I can dictate the terms of any bargain I care to make with the combine."

Thinking again in terms of chess, Gordon is the Queen, trans-genderal issues aside. He does the most damage. Eli is the King...without him, the whole deal falls apart, and humanity gets pwned.

This is a complicated theory...to say the least, and has more holes than Swiss cheese. Personally, I deem it extremely unlikely, even "looney". It IS workable, however, and therefore warrants a mention.

The Eye Question.

The similarities between Gordon and the G-Man are hard to miss. It's hard to tell due to various art and so on depicting the characters differently. What colour are the G-Man's eyes? I've seen them a deep black, deep blue, and a green colour very similar to Gordon's. Which one is correct? They looks blue at the start of Half-Life. Additionally, what's the story with Gordon's hair? In the photo in Dr. Kleiner's lab, his hair looks to be a lighter brown, almost ginger. The same colour it appears to be in Blue Shift when you catch glimpses of Freeman. Yet on the game box, sure enough, it's the dark brown we're all familiar with. So which is it? Freeman's eyes, at least, seem to retain their bright green hue more often than not. There are a few theories on that, too.

What colour do things turn when exposed to radiation? Bright green. Well...they don't, really, but it's a popular fancy that they do. So one school of thought is that prolonged exposure to many different forms of harmful radiation, diluted by his HEV suit, has turned Gordon's eyes a bright green colour...AND granted him unusual strength, speed, and reflexes, which would explain why he can kill an alien army by himself, sew his leg back on, save the girl, kill another alien race, brush his teeth and still be home in time to help Ma with the washing up.

ANOTHER theory is that he was modified at a genetic level by Da G-Man, and/or his associates, for an undisclosed purpose. It seems likely this purpose would have something to do with explosions, or crowbars.

What reason or results this mutation may have had is pure speculation. However, it would explain the G-Man's interest in you...he's keeping an eye on his, or his boss', experiment. Could Alyx be another such experiment? She DOES kick more a$$ than your average bear, after all. There's a considerable age difference, it's true, but...as the G-Man seems to love showing off, when he's in the room, time can just take a damn number and wait in line like everyone else thankyouverymuch.

This is all very interesting (maybe) but we're still no closer to figuring out who the G-Man is, or what his relationship to Gordon is. Let's recap quickly.

- G-Man is not Gordon.

- G-Man is not Gordon's father.

- G-Man may be a higher power of some sort, but is not God in the biblical sense, nor is he Satan.

- G-Man may be one of the high-ups in charge of the Black Mesa facility, and may have had a hand in orchestrating the cascade.

- G-Man may be David Bowie.

- G-Man may have "created" Gordon Freeman for his own sinister reasons.

- It's spelt "you" not "u".

What is the G-Man, really? It's been suggested, and possibly even confirmed, that he is not human...thus his odd manner of speech and obsessive compulsive tie-adjustment. Someone who's read the Prima Strategy Guide: Giving The Full Story To The Rich People, While The Poor Keep Guessing! may be able to confirm or refute that. This leads to an all new realm of pointless speculation. I can hardly wait!

In Dark Energy, Breen has the following to say in order to try and save his own measly hide:

"The portal destination is untenable...There's no way I can survive in that environment!"

After a brief pause, he says this:

"A host body? You must be joking!"

Aha! So we know body-swapping is possible. Perhaps that's the G-Man's deal, as has been suggested. Perhaps he took over the body of David Bowie, which would incorporate TWO theories for the price of one! Mr. Laidlaw, you're a genius.

The Vortigaunt Mystery

One of the things that has plagued me most about Half-Life 2 is the "WTF is with these green guys?" question. Eventually I've managed to piece together the following info:

- They are the "Alien Slaves" from the original Half-Life, the green lightning-hurling, one-eyed, three-armed beings from Xen.

- They're sentient, which they showed little sign of in the original game.

- They work with the humans. I'm ruling out, at this stage, the possibility that the human's have enslaved them. I just can't see Eli and Alyx doing that.

That's pretty much all I can get for certain. However, they drop a million and one hints. One of them says this:

"We remember the Free Man. We are coterminous."

Coterminous? WTF? So I asked Dictionary.com, who were strangely unhelpful, giving me something vague about shared borders.

"Having the same scope, range of meaning, or extent in time."

Hmm...Gordon has something in common with Vortigaunts? It's certainly not skin tone. There are more hints in this general direction, though.

"The Eli Vance almost perceives the All-In-One."

possibly the most suspicious:

"We serve the same mystery."

The first I originally took to mean the Vortigaunts all share a common conciousness...what one sees, they all see, what one remembers, all remember and so on. It seems to fit with their attitude, and number of things the other characters say as well.

"Every now and then a Vortigaunt gets captured and sends back information..." - Alyx Vance, Entanglement

"According to the Vortigaunts, he's a prisoner in the Citadel." - Dr. Kleiner, Entanglement

"The Vortigaunts traced the ship {to Nova Prospekt}..." - Alyx Vance, "We Don't Go To Ravenholm."

It starts to sound more and more like the Vorts have SOME sort of psionic powers, or a collective conciousness. They certainly seem to know, or be able to find out, things that us measly humans can't.

The former, however, is the most interesting. "We both serve the same mystery." It could just be a load of Zen garbage BUT, it could also be an allusion to the G-Man. Perhaps the Vortigaunts know about the G-man? He may not be a guy in a suit to them, sure, but it may well be the same entity.

There's another wacky theory that the G-Man is actually the Vortigon Overmind, the core conciousness. This is not impossible, actually, when you think about it. In the first game, you kill the Nihilanth...which according to popular opinion (I've yet to see evidence) was controlling the Vorts using bracelets. When Nihil finally bit it, a great many Vorts were left on Earth. By the looks, most, if not all, decided to team up with the rebellion. Some where captured, however, by the combine.

Then I'll be damned, just as some more Vorts get into trouble, G-Man wakes you up again to go forth and kick a$$. What a coincidence? You be the judge. It's thin, I'll grant you, but it's possible.

There's a trend in Half-Life 2 of almost everyone you come across knowing more than you, or at least more than they should. it continues right up until the end.

Dr. Kleiner, when hearing that Barney grabbed you at customs, says "Great Scott! Gordon Freeman! I expected more warning!"

To which Barney replies:

"You and me both, Doc!"

Neither seem very surprised at your appearance. Pleased, certainly, but surprised? Not really. Why? What do they know that you don't? Who told them you would be returning? Why did anyone assume you were alive in the first place?

Last anyone saw of you, you were heading through a portal to Xen, to single-handedly kill Nihilanth. You succeeded.

People would know you succeeded, because all they had to do was ask the nearest Vortigaunt. So that's easily explained.

BUT, how would they know you SURVIVED? If memory serves, Nihilanth exploded impressively after you killed him, but you're saved at the last moment by G-Man. That means only TWO PEOPLE could possibly know you walked away from the epic battle with Nihil. Those two people are you, Gordon, and the G-Man.

It's fairly obvious Gordon was in no position to tell anyone anything, because he was in some sort of weird dimensional nothingness. Plus he never talks. That leaves G-Man.

This would suggest the G-Man has been hyping you during you absence. How else would you have achieved the so-called "messianic reputation" that Breen suggests you have? That's exactly what you DO have...everyone you meet seems awed by you, and they all seem to believe that now that Gordon's returned, you can finally start striking back at the Combine. Why would they have this god-like image of you? It suggests that someone has been spreading rumours regarding your uberness, the fact that you survived your last trip to Xen, and that you would be returning. The only person privy to all this information is the G-Man.

We know G-Man occassionally converses with all the peons. The user "ritalin" posted somewhere a screenie of G-Man speaking with Colonel Cubbage(sp?) in Highway 17. You also see him on a television screen, being watched by a Vortigaunt in Route Kanal. You also see him talking to a few people in the original Half-Life, and in the Blue Shift expansion. What is he saying? Why, if he's the only person on the TV other than Dr. Breen, does no one ever mention him to you? Everyone you meet seems to know you're coming, except you. This suggests they have a source of information that you don't. The most likely place for this information to come from is G-Man, or the Vortigaunts. The Vortigaunts have more motive to spread the word of your survival and return, but the G-Man is more likely to KNOW about those things. Hmm.

Another quote that's been bothering me is this one, spake by Judith Mossman in Black Mesa East:

"I've been hearing about you since long before the Black Mesa incident."

WTF? Before the resonance cascade, Freeman was just another theoretical physicist. Eli Vance and Isaac Kleiner were the top in their field, certainly. They were probably reasonably well-known, BUT...how? Their work is ground-breaking, sure, but isn't it top secret? I assumed everything happening in Black Mesa was a secret. And how did she know about it? At Black Mesa, Alyx couldn't have been more than seven years old, and Alyx can't be more than 10 years younger than Dr. Mossman. How did Dr.Mossman, who couldn't have been much older than 20 at the time of the resonance cascade, been hearing about a theoretical physicist working on top secret teleport technology, in an underground bunker in New Mexico?

Could G-Man have been telling tales again? Or was Mossman just trying to sound cool? Perhaps Gordon was just more famous, and less top-secret, than I am assuming.

Onwards and upwards, to the mystery of the Combine.

The combine clearly aren't normal. So what are they? Aliens? Humans? Mutants? Let's take a look.

They look humanoid. Barney obviously can pass as a member of the Combine, so they must be very close to human, at least.

One thing about them is strange though. They all wear masks. They could just be standard issue masks to help them breathe in nasty stuff, like water, or toxic gases. Or, perhaps, it serves another purpose.

There are a few times in Half-Life 2 when you see mongy humans. On a security screen in Nova Prospekt, you see a humanoid lying on an operating table, with a large hole cut into his throat. You also see a number of weird creatures wandering around the Combine Citadel in Our Benefactors and Dark Energy. Perhaps they're not aliens at all, but humans, that have been messed with. Alyx tells you that Nova Prospekt "was once a maximum security prison, but is something much worse now." What is it now, then? By the looks, it may be where they take normal humans, and turn them into these bizarre mutants.

Perhaps the guy with the hole in his neck was only part-way through the process. Perhaps the hole in his neck is where they insert the breathing apparatus.

Think about it. These guys...these aliens Dr. Breen work for could easily have killed the entire human race, but they don't. They instead opt to enslave them. Why?

The Prima Strategy Guide, and that other book about Half-Life 2 I can't remember the name of describes these aliens as being creatures that rely so heavily on their own technology, they can't survive without it. Humans, on the other hand, can still walk around, breathe and do heavy-lifting without any such impediment. So the aliens decide they need a work force, maybe an army, and so they head off to Earth to recruit.

Of course, it's not that easy. As Dr. Breen so helpfully informs us in Dark Energy, humans can't survive on the home world of these aliens. Perhaps the air isn't breathable? So, therefore, you need to install a breathing apparatus on all your newly-acquired human soldiers.

The other theory is that you take humans, install the breathing apparatus to they can breathe easy in both dimensions, THEN you chuck an alien in the body. As I've mentioned, Dr. Breen also mentions a "host body". Perhaps these modified humans are host bodies for these aliens? That would explain why they just stop being human, and are suddenly fanatically loyal to the Combine. They're all aliens in human bodies! OMG bodysnatchers wtf. Ahem.

We can flatly rule out the combine, or their masters, being Xen aliens. ...or can we?

There's a quote by G-Man at the end of Half-Life, where he says something very akin to "Xen is completely under our control now."

OUR control now? Who is the "our" he speaks of? I'm pretty damn certain he didn't mean humanity as a whole...and that would be wrong anyway, seeing as we clearly aren't in control of anything. So who? It's possible G-Man works for, or is part of, the Combine. It would make sense, seeing as by popular opinion the Combine got to Earth via the repercussions of the Resonance Cascade. Perhaps G-Man was sent by his Combine masters to overseer the creation of the resonance cascade, and the subsequent nullification of Xen by Gordon Freeman, making for an easy takeover by the Combine. The Combine take Xen, then ensure the "portal storms continue", as they are stated as having been doing by a newspaper clipping in Black Mesa East. So they increase their stranglehold on Xen, all the while sending vast hoards of aliens through teleport storms to Earth. To loosen us up, you know?

Now, from hereon, this is stuff I read elsewhere.

Aliens keep popping up all over Earth. In the cities, the army and whatnot can keep the Aliens at bay, but out in the countryside it's not so simple. So the wilderness regions, farmland and so on, are surrendered to the ant-lions and other Xen wildlife. Those big shark things start popping up in the oceans, and eating all the other, native creatures.

This could also be an explanation for what happened to the water. The sea-line has clearly retreated a considerable distance. This may be due to the extreme ecological turmoil caused by an extremely hostile species of alien fauna suddenly appearing everywhere.

So everything's being overrun by aliens. People FLOCK (flock I say!) to the cities for protection. So you've got the majority of Earth's population either dead, or hiding in the cities.

Then, suddenly, a big hole appears in every major city, and out of it pops a Citadel. Out of the Citadels come Striders, and other Alien stuff. Seven hours later, Earth is in Combine control.

Side note: Where the Combine soldiers with this initial attack force? If so, that would be a big dent in the "Combine soldiers = mutated humans" theory. Where would they get the humans from, if that was their first attack wave?

Either way, Earth is now screwed.

If everyone HADN'T been cowering in the cities when the citadels appeared, conquering Earth so convincingly would have been alot more difficult. What a stroke of luck, that the Xen aliens had just chased everyone into the cities, ready for the Citadel's forces to enslave them. I don't believe in coincidence!

For them to do this, though, they would have to control Xen. And who, by his own admission, was in control of Xen at around this time? None other than Mr. G-Man himself.

 

[Brynn]

It's possible he was not, in fact, in control of Xen at all, and the G-Man was just running his mouth. Seems a bit out of character for him to do so, admittedly, but it's possible. It also seems unlikely, to me anyway, that NO ONE is in control of Xen at present. How would the Xen wildlife be teleporting to Earth in the first place? SOMEONE must be sending them through the storms to mess with Earth, either a Xen Alien like Nihil, a combine alien...whatever, or some mysterious faction we've yet to encounter. Somewhere in all this, is the G-Man, either allied with one of the above factions, or acting alone, or acting on behalf of a group we're not currently aware of.

I'm most inclined to go with the two latter. It's unlikely G-Man is allied with Xen. Even moreso than Earth, it seems Xen has copped the most harsh treatment from all this conflict. It's also unlikely he's allied with the Combine, seeing as he not only allowed to you destroy the Citadel in City 17, but seemed somewhat pleased when you did so. So either he's a solitary rogue element, or a rogue element with friends/employers/other employees.

That's an interesting question. Other people are clearly aware of G-Man, having been seen conversing with him, but are any others in the same boat as you? Employed? Either by choice, or against their will?

What exactly IS your relationship with G-Man? He pretty much just lets you loose in Half-Life 2...or does he? He's spotted a number of times, as anyone with that accursed Prima booklet can tell you. Keeping an eye on you, certainly, but does he in any way influence your path? It appears that by the end, you've done pretty much exactly as the G-Man intended...but how does he KNOW what you're going to do? For all he knows, you could join the Combine in the opening chapter. Unlikely, for sure, but how can he be so certain?

At the end, he states:

"I've received some interesting offers for your services. Ordinarily I wouldn't contemplate them, but these are extraordinary times."

Is the G-Man your agent? Plus what sort of offer could possibly interest a man who can manipulate time, and teleport seemingly without effort? Certainly not money. Technology? I would guess, looking at his antics, that G-Man is pretty much at the top of the technological ladder. People?

Perhaps. G-Man seems to trade in people with extraordinary abilities. Perhaps, in exchange for you, he receives the "contract" of...someone, with unusual abilities. Or multiple people. "I see your Gordon Freeman, and I'll raise you a fleet of imperial destroyers, a Nihilanth, and the Lord Captain Commander of {insert Alien army here}"? Is the G-Man a player in the inter-dimensional warfare equivalent of a poker game?

"All the effort in the world would have gone to waste until...well, let's just say your hour has come again."

A telling quote. This implies that the "incident" at Black Mesa, or parts of it at least, were arranged by G-Man. It also suggests that things weren't going to plan until you showed up and started crowbarring nine kinds of c*** out of everyone.

"The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world..."

This suggests further than G-Man didn't know you from a bar of soap at the start of the first Half-Life. It's possible I'm jumping to conclusions here, but the two quotes above are suggestive that the G-Man had NOTHING to do with you before Black Mesa, which is a blow to the "G-Man made Gordon from a test tube" theory.

Here's some more evidence to suggest that other people not only know about G-Man, but have a far better idea of what he's all about than you do.

"Did you realise your contract was available to the highest bidder?" - Dr. Breen, Dark Energy

A bit out of place, I know, but this is pretty solid evidence that G-Man doesn't only appear to you. Other people know about him as well, and also seem to know how he, and you, fit into the bigger picture.

DEDICATED TO SOUL HARVESTER OFF STEAM FORUMS, as we know steam is well unreliable and here is some interesting reading

 

[Gray]

What the fruck?!

 

[Dillinja]

It would be nice if the story was that deep, but I really doubt that it is.

 

[mank!]

Interesting read, I can't be arsed to think about it enough to make much of a response to that but cheers for posting it :>