History TearJerker / HalfLife

* The ending of ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' Episode 2, where [[spoiler: Eli Vance is killed by a Combine Advisor. Made particularly tragic in that his last words are to tell his daughter to look away. Alyx's heartbroken sobbing, begging her dad not to leave her]] as the screen goes dark and the credits begin crawling, doesn't help matters either.

* ''Alyx'' spends a lot of time driving home just [[AfterTheEnd how far human civilization fell after the Seven Hour War]]. The younger generations have little to no knowledge of what life was like before; Alyx is a brilliant young woman, but Russell still has to explain simple concepts like animal husbandry and stock markets like one would to a child (when she's nineteen years old) simply because she has [[LostCommonKnowledge no frame of reference]] for the basic luxuries of modern life. You spend most of the game traversing [[RuinsOfTheModernAge the ruins of entire city blocks, moving through empty, decaying buildings whose inhabitants either died or fled long ago]]. Places that ''are'' inhabited are dirty and run-down, just barely maintained by a listless, fearful population that is shrinking day by day as the Combine abuse and exploit them, the only ones spared being those who [[TheQuisling sell themselves out to the alien occupiers in mind, body, and soul]]. The environment is [[GaiasLament being plundered of all its resources]], leaving nothing but the bare minimum left over for citizens. And of course, the Suppression Field is still up by this point, so [[ChildlessDystopia there's no more children being born]]. This is the fate of humanity without Gordon Freeman; [[CosmicHorrorStory a slow, pathetic walk into irrelevance and extinction as incomprehensible invaders pump our world dry simply because they can]].

* While the above-mentioned tearjerker was rendered false by the release of ''Half-Life: Alyx'', which confirms that the story is far from over, it ends on its own note of tragedy: [[spoiler: The G-Man allows Alyx to change the timeline and save Eli by killing the Advisor herself, but then he takes her away against her protests to serve him in place of Gordon, whom he no longer finds suitable. The very last scene, from Gordon's perspective, shows Eli alive and outraged over what has happened, cursing out the G-Man and vowing to kill him for using and kidnapping Alyx. It does end on a note of hope, though, with [=D0G=] returning Gordon's crowbar and Eli declaring they have work to do.]]

* The uncertain fate of Shephard. Somewhere, he's still stuck in Limbo.

* ''Alyx'' spends a lot of time driving home just [[AfterTheEnd how far human civilization fell after the Seven Hour War]]. The younger generations have little to no knowledge of what life was like before; Alyx is a brilliant young woman, but Russell still has to explain simple concepts like animal husbandry and stock markets like one would to a child (when she's nineteen years old) simply because she has no frame of reference for the basic luxuries of modern life. You spend most of the game traversing [[RuinsOfTheModernAge the ruins of entire city blocks, moving through empty, decaying buildings whose inhabitants either died or fled long ago]]. Places that ''are'' inhabited are dirty and run-down, just barely maintained by a listless, fearful population that is shrinking day by day as the Combine abuse and exploit them, the only ones spared being those who [[TheQuisling sell themselves out to the alien occupiers in mind, body, and soul]]. The environment is [[GaiasLament being plundered of all its resources]], leaving nothing but the bare minimum left over for citizens. And of course, the Suppression Field is still up by this point, so [[ChildlessDystopia there's no more children being born]]. This is the fate of humanity without Gordon Freeman; [[CosmicHorrorStory a slow, pathetic walk into irrelevance and extinction as incomprehensible invaders pump our world dry simply because they can]].

* While the above-mentioned tearjerker was rendered false by the release of ''Half-Life: Alyx'', which confirms that the story is far from over, it ends on its own note of tragedy: [[spoiler: The G-Man allows Alyx to change the timeline and save Eli by killing the Advisor herself, but then he takes her away to serve him in place of Gordon, whom he no longer finds suitable. The very last scene, from Gordon's perspective, shows Eli alive and outraged over what has happened, cursing out the G-Man and vowing to kill him for taking her away. It does end on a note of hope, though, with [=D0G=] returning Gordon's crowbar and Eli declaring they have work to do.]]

* While the above-mentioned tearjerker was rendered false by the release of ''Half-Life: Alyx'', which confirms that the story is far from over, it ends on its own note of tragedy: [[spoiler: The G-Man allows Alyx to change the timeline and save Eli by killing the Advisor herself, but then he takes her away to serve him in place of Gordon, whom he no longer finds suitable. The very last scene, from Gordon's perspective, shows Eli alive and outraged over what has happened, cursing out the G-Man and vowing to kill him for taking her away. It does end on a note of hope, though, with D0G returning Gordon's crowbar and Eli declaring they have work to do.]]

* On August 25th, 2017, the 21st anniversary of Valve, Marc Laidlaw shared the whole [[http://www.marclaidlaw.com/epistle-3/ story]] of Half-Life 2's third episode on his official site, initially disguised as FanFiction with [[GenderFlip genderswapped characters]] and [[WritingAroundTrademarks different names]], but mirrored on [[https://github.com/Jackathan/MarcLaidlaw-Epistle3/blob/master/Epistle3_Corrected.md other sites]] with edits that restored the ''Half-Life'' characters and names. It is incredibly sad to read, as it all but officially confirmed that ''Half-Life'' is done.

* The ending of ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' Episode 2, where [[spoiler:Eli Vance is killed by a Combine Advisor. Made particularly tragic in that his last words is to tell his daughter to look away. Alyx's heartbroken sobbing, begging her dad not to leave her]] as the screen goes dark and the credits begin crawling doesn't help matters either.

* [[spoiler: The crowbar]] gets incinerated at the beginning of the last chapter of Half-Life 2. It's a tragic way to lose a trusty companion.

* On August 25th, 2017, the 21st anniversary of Valve, Marc Laidlaw shared the whole [[http://www.marclaidlaw.com/epistle-3/ story]] of Half-Life 2's third episode on his official site, initially disguised as FanFiction with [[GenderFlip genderswapped characters]] and [[WritingAroundTrademarks different names]], but mirrored on [[https://github.com/Jackathan/MarcLaidlaw-Epistle3/blob/master/Epistle3_Corrected.md other sites]] with edits that restored the Half-Life characters and names. It is incredibly sad to read, as it all but officially confirmed that Half-Life is done.
** The final part implies that Gordon ends up on Earth so far into the future that few even remember his name or his deeds, and is uncertain if the resistance even won the war...or it could be a reflection on the current state of Valve, and how Half-Life has been forgotten by the very studio who had created it. In any case, it is depressing.

** While it's not 100% clear, another thing that is sad about this leaked story is it appears Alyx Vance would [[TookALevelInJerkass become much colder.]] She appears much more unforgiving and colder, especially toward Judith Mossman. After seeing her be very cheerful and optimistic in the previous games, it's sad that it appears the death of her father finally breaks her. There's also her leaving with the G-Man, it's not clear whether she willingly leaves Gordon knowing his fate or not. Makes it even sadder considering all they've been through.