Half Life thread - Discussions about Valve's FPS magnum opus(es) and any related content (spin offs, expansions and etc)

[Involuntary Celebrity]

Update on Abiotic Factor now that I've finished the EA content: I'd hold off playing it for now since it turns out they're only like a third of the way through the roadmap. What's there is pretty long and surprisingly polished already* but it seems they're planning on making Not Black Mesa really fucking huge so it's something to check back on in a year or two.

*The exception is the very beginning of the game, which I avoided ranting about before but it seems almost like they've made some marketing decisions with the presentation for twitch/zoomer-bait. Like the character creation screen is appalling and reminiscent of all those my-first-Unity-game wacky Lethal Company clones, then it hits you with a bunch of tacked-on SCP crap, so it was kind of surprising to find a very competent HL1 sequel underneath.
Although the latter ends up justifying itself (I normally hate that shit) towards the end of the current game, as it's basically just Black Mesa's classification and containment system for entities and tech that fall out of Xen holes. So it ended up making sense and not pissing me off at all, and you can ignore it completely up until then.
It's definitely not one of those goofy run away from slenderman games and you don't need to have friends, anyway.

 

[Would]

The sheer irony of Black Mesa's devs refusing to do a proper length On A Rail chapter because it was "too long and repetitive" and then tacking on a huge-ass Xen section at the end which is EXACTLY that still boggles me.

They huffed their own farts too much.
Mentioning this to them will get you at best a response stating that they had a vision for Xen they couldn't compromise vs OAR which is unnecessary traveling from point A to point B.
I disagree.
You could expand OAR in several creative ways, like swapping the corridor-laden ride into a multi-environmental travel system that traverses subway tunnels, tall high speed bridges , and several Black Mesa complexes. It's the perfect place to stretch your creative muscles and create environments that expand the HL lore, showcasing the brutality of the HECU units as they exterminate the scientist populace and destroy the tech inside, which is exactly what Crowbar Collective claim they wanted to do with Xen.
Starting the chapter with a 6pm-ish afternoon sun and a lot of eggheads running all over the place in fear as you make the long trek all over the mesa, and climaxing with a black site that resembles a desolate, silent grave by the end of the chapter as you launch the rocket into orbit.
To say OAR is unnecessary while felating Xen is, as you say, sheer irony.
Now, I'm not saying the expansion of OAR is good or necessary, just that if there's room for improving the Xen chapters, then why not the other weaker chapters like OAR or Residue Processing?

They couldn't even get Xen right, it's supposed to be a Giger-inspired nightmare world

I'm kinda glad they didn't go for the Giger world, as they would've fucked it up.
The kind of minds needed to bring the sex-tech-alien chimera to proper life don't exist in gaming development anymore.

mind you, I was totally onboard with more Xen, I just meant more of the original Xen not the crap BM gave us and then had the devs throw temper tantrums when people criticized them for it.

Agreed.
I liked CC's idea of exposing just how aware of Xen Black Mesa was, and all the unethical experiments that were conducted.
Hell, I don't even mind the swapping of Giger-meets-Kubrick gehenna Xen for colorful aquarium Xen, for reasons already stated, but goddamn were they really high on their own shit compared to when the first beta dropped. It's like Valve's acknowledgment convinced them they were on Valve's level and above all criticism.

Half-Life 2 sucked ass in general too.

I know Valve went overboard with their love of Havok physics, but I remember being perfectly satisfied with my first playthrough.
Also, no ichthys. I hate those things and their choppy animations.

Because the first person platforming reaches a head, it's unclear where you're supposed to go and the nihilanth comes out of nowhere with no foreshadowing.

Playing Devil's Advocate, the Nihilanth is foreshadowed in Lambda Core and throughout your travels in Xen. You not understanding the who or why of this freak alien baby thing would've been fine if Valve had bothered to expand and explain his purpose in HL2 and beyond. But because he got replaced with Combine Advisors we'll never know.

I don't remember the exact reason that Valve scrapped the darker version, but I think it was due to the story and vision not working out the way they wanted to

Their own internal reviews stated they leaned on the Matrix influences too hard, which is why Gordon is touted as "The Chosen One" rather than just a relentless soul as he was in the first game.

 

[The Ugly One]

It horrifyingly implies the G-Man is so powerful he COULD remove the Combine off Earth single handedly if he so wished, he just simply doesnt because it goes against of the extremely vague plan of his employers. Its something that does and doesnt make sense for the G-Man to be able to do since it really makes one wonder just what ARE the limits of what he can do.

This kind of shit convinced me the whole series is a bunch of JJ Abrams-style mystery boxes. This series was on the road to becoming the gaming equivalent of Lost.

 

[The handsome tard]

This kind of shit convinced me the whole series is a bunch of JJ Abrams-style mystery boxes. This series was on the road to becoming the gaming equivalent of Lost.

Well, the question on if the G-Man was ever meant to be THAT powerful. It doesnt help that this is the first Half Life related thing not written by Marc Laidlaw so its technically not his vision anymore. Half Life 2 did establish that altho the G-Man seems limitless in his reach, that turns out to not be the case as the vortigaunt can interfere with it (and we see G-Man demonstrating legit annoyance for a brief moment, implying he didnt see it coming).

But yeah, the vagueness of his and the employers' motivations can get on a veteran's nerves after all these years.

 

[NSJAP]

Laidlaw even went for a weirdo Twitter account larping as the Breen-slug (must have been BreenGrub or something). It suggested that the Advisors themselves were nothing bar cloned grubs from a race of philosopher-dreamers that lived in a completely different paradigm compared to Man, and were essentially hijacked by whatever the leading intellects of the Combine are. In a transhumanist twist we discover the Combine adapt and use "patterns" that are stored in grubs and reapplied as needed, and Breen was cloned and terminated quite a few times until his mind broke. The Half Life 2 mod Entropy: Zero and its sequel play around with the concept and despite the amateur production values I found it interesting (the protagonist get "patterned" for his success in the first game, meaning the Combine kill his ass and extract his personality and dump it again and again on random Combine Elites. Hell, one of the bosses is one of your previous patterns).

Also, Lazlo is still there somewhere.

 

[The Ugly One]

Well, the question on if the G-Man was ever meant to be THAT powerful. It doesnt help that this is the first Half Life related thing not written by Marc Laidlaw so its technically not his vision anymore. Half Life 2 did establish that altho the G-Man seems limitless in his reach, that turns out to not be the case as the vortigaunt can interfere with it (and we see G-Man demonstrating legit annoyance for a brief moment, implying he didnt see it coming).

But yeah, the vagueness of his and the employers' motivations can get on a veteran's nerves after all these years.

There's very little continuity in the few games they actually made, particularly between 1 and 2. The G-Man always was a mystery box with legs, and I think it just became more apparent looking back on it that nothing about HL2 was really what they had in mind when they made HL1.

It's like the Jak games. They didn't really plan on a series but the first game was a surprise breakout hit, so they made more and tried to keep the plot going with mystery boxes right up until they realized Steam has a way better ROI.

 

[TheHarbinger]

This kind of shit convinced me the whole series is a bunch of JJ Abrams-style mystery boxes. This series was on the road to becoming the gaming equivalent of Lost.

It's pretty much into Game of Thrones or Lost territory. With tons of mystery boxes and almost impossible to resolve or satisfy questions. Plus the spinoffs like Portal without resolution of the actual main story and plot. And teams of writers replacing the original group who created the project.

Well, the question on if the G-Man was ever meant to be THAT powerful. It doesnt help that this is the first Half Life related thing not written by Marc Laidlaw so its technically not his vision anymore.

The original G-Man was literally a human CIA employee. Like Burke from Aliens who was manipulating events from center stage. He was the administrator over Black Mesa but when Laidlaw quit working on the Half Life series this was officially given a retcon and another character became the administrator. And the G-Man was turned into this godlike alien being which was way different than his original version. So different that Half Life 1's version of events might as well not even be canon anymore.

They didn't really plan on a series but the first game was a surprise breakout hit, so they made more and tried to keep the plot going with mystery boxes right up until they realized Steam has a way better ROI.

They didn't even make Opposing Force and Blue Shift. They already had moved on from Half Life and given it to other developers. They pretty much only return to the series to use it as a tech demo. To show off some gravity physics or a new VR headset.

 

[Coolio55]

This kind of shit convinced me the whole series is a bunch of JJ Abrams-style mystery boxes. This series was on the road to becoming the gaming equivalent of Lost.

Which is funny because both series referenced eachother.

 

[The Ugly One]

Which is funny because both series referenced eachother.

The fact that they were taking the mystery box path already in HL2 (it's pretty egregious in retrospect) suggest to me that if they'd kept going with the series, it would have become deeply unsatisfying if not hated.

 

[Involuntary Celebrity]

The original G-Man was literally a human CIA employee.

You'd have to ignore how he hisses and slurps about his EM-ploy-errs while magically teleporting you around and explaining to you, aboard his personal interdimensional space tram, how the event was used to set up a beachhead in Xen to come away with that; they were definitely at least suggesting something between a reptilian and a Lynchian weirdo entity.

I don't like where they went with it but it was always there.

 

[JesusChristDenton]

You'd have to ignore how he hisses and slurps about his EM-ploy-errs while magically teleporting you around and explaining to you, aboard his personal interdimensional space tram, how the event was used to set up a beachhead in Xen to come away with that; they were definitely at least suggesting something between a reptilian and a Lynchian weirdo entity.

I don't like where they went with it but it was always there.

IIRC the main theory surrounding the G-Man prior to Half-Life 2 was that he was a member of some sort of shadow government, and how he was definitely something like a reptilian or another non-human entity taking on a human appearance.

 

[NSJAP]

TWHL Tower: Source has released, development started in 2021. - Link for release article.
View attachment 6210890

God, just use 11.ai of rebels for voice acting, please.

 

[Super Hans v2]

Playing Devil's Advocate, the Nihilanth is foreshadowed in Lambda Core and throughout your travels in Xen. You not understanding the who or why of this freak alien baby thing would've been fine if Valve had bothered to expand and explain his purpose in HL2 and beyond. But because he got replaced with Combine Advisors we'll never know.

I thought that the explanation was that Xenians' invasion of Earth during the Incident was a fighting retreat from the Combine, and Nihilianth was their leader. It was probably from Raising the Bar though, I know I didn't get that idea from the games.

 

[The handsome tard]

The original G-Man was literally a human CIA employee.

A CIA agent that can teleport and watch you from a distance even when surrounded by threats? Its very obvious that the G-Man wasnt human or, even if he was, he was far from a normal one.

The trope of alien creatures and entities taking the form of humans to blend in is a classic trope in fiction. In some cases, their disguises can only hide so much and they still come off as awkward in their interactions. They may or may not have very vague motives.

G-Man fits the trope to a T

I thought that the explanation was that Xenians' invasion of Earth during the Incident was a fighting retreat from the Combine, and Nihilianth was their leader. It was probably from Raising the Bar though, I know I didn't get that idea from the games.

This video goes on detail over what is going on according to what Half Life 1 alone gives us. So the sequels, the expansions, none of it matters in this case. Strictly what the very original showed and implied to us.

 

[TheHarbinger]

A CIA agent that can teleport and watch you from a distance even when surrounded by threats? Its very obvious that the G-Man wasnt human or, even if he was, he was far from a normal one.

He's literally referred to as a government employee in all Half Life literature and file names before Half Life 2 was made. His teleporting was done the same way you travel to Xen. Through a literal portal. Traveling through portals was taken from The Mist story and became an inspiration for the Portal games. He's not some alien in the first game who can control time. This was changed in the second game. Lots of stuff from HL1 to the sequels and other spinoffs has been retconned. G-Man was a government employee who was overseeing Black Mesa according to Ken Birdwell who made the NPCs for HL1.

G-Man is based on the standard government CIA worker from something like the X-Files (the main G-Man from the French X-Files dub also does the HL G-Man). He's not an alien until the Half Life 2 writing team gets hold of the character and retcons him. His English voice actor also gave interview saying that he played the G-Man as human and even imagined him having a harsh childhood with very little friends. You say it's obvious that the G-Man is "not human" but then everyone who worked on his character says otherwise.

 

[Would]

I thought that the explanation was that Xenians' invasion of Earth during the Incident was a fighting retreat from the Combine, and Nihilianth was their leader. It was probably from Raising the Bar though, I know I didn't get that idea from the games.

IIRC that's been mostly fan theories. The notion that the Xen creatures were Combine slaves who fled to Earth were based on Nihilianth audio clips talking about them all being slaves, also mentioning that the Nihilianth you face is "The Last" and that the "G-Man is waiting for Gordon" and "don't trust him".
But it's never been canonically explained.
And Valve is kinda aware of the nonsense of it all by constantly inserting jabs that Gordon is idolized and protected by a bunch of Vorts whose kin Gordon massacred without a second thought.

He's not some alien in the first game who can control time.

No, but his manner of speaking and nonchalant attitude to the chaos around him do imply he's not of this world. No matter how cold and calculating one would be, a suit is not going to keep his composure at a time when Marines and Black Op elites are all panicking and being taken out. While he wasn't some ethereal demigod, he wasn't kept as a normal human by the release build either.

 

[Varretnon847]

TWHL Tower: Source has released, development started in 2021. - Link for release article.
View attachment 6210890

If I'm going to be honest, this one felt pretty underwhelming. While there were a select few maps (or floors I guess) that I enjoyed playing, with my favorite probably being that Resident Evil themed one, that was kind of it. The rest of the maps were either pretty mediocre, or just terrible. It reminds me the MapLabs challenges, and the issues I have with them, but those are made in a much shorter timeframe, while this was being developed since 2021.
It's been a while since I last played the previous two TWHL Tower mods for HL1 so my memory might be failing me, but I recall they both had a nice selection of good to decent maps.
Overall, maybe my expectations were too high, but this one was just disappointing to me, especially since I had been following it since last year.

 

[Stalphos Johnson]

the guy who makes these is great
View attachment 6201355
does anyone have a link to his deviantart or whatever

Found his Twitter, but wasn't able to find anything other than his print shop. He also does furry art, just from a quick scroll through. No porn or fetish art, but just letting you know. If you can ignore it, he does a lot of cool space art with a 1960s-1970s space race vibe to it.

 

[Godchu]

TWHL Tower: Source has released, development started in 2021. - Link for release article.
View attachment 6210890

Been kind of burnt out with source mods / maps for a while, but I quite enjoyed this one. All the levels felt unique in their own way, and the few that were objectively bad were blatantly unfinished and I didn't take seriously in any way. The detail / visual fidelity of the levels is a noticeable downgrade from the previous tower levels despite using a supposedly more advanced engine, but I think that's just because source takes significantly more effort to look good than the simple, building-block style that goldsource uses (and that's not even getting into custom assets).

The achievements were a really nice touch too, they really did help maintain my interest in this mod. And for some maps it made them all the more tolerable now that my mind wasn't focused on just how boring some of them are.

No idea what the anime robot thing was all about though. That was just weird.

 

[PunkinMan]

I thought this was interesting, top comment made me chuckle