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Pre-Release
Russell dies during the events of the game.
Considering he's nowhere to be found or mentioned in Half-Life 2, combined with the fact that the gun he lets Alyx borrow looks a lot like a prototype version of the gun she'd use in the future, things aren't looking super bright for him.- I felt this was pretty heavily implied by Russel's insistence that the pistol he gave her is his gun, not hers, and he wants it back eventually. The fact that she still hasn't returned it to him in the years between this game and Half-Life 2 implies that Russel isn't still around to return his gun to.
- Jossed. Russell is still alive by the end of the game, and Alyx ends up losing the pistol she borrowed from him.
The game will end with a Flash Forward to the aftermath of Episode 2's ending.
To finally give fans at least some form of closure to the series' infamous Cliffhanger. Valve themselves have said that players should play Episode 2 before Alyx and that Alyx was just the beginning of their return to the series.- Confirmed, somewhat. At the end of the game, G-Man allows Alyx to prevent her father's death from happening in the ending of Episode 2.... But then immediately afterwards, she's "hired" and put into stasis. In The Stinger, taking place after the ending of Episode 2, Gordon and a now-alive Eli get ready for whatever's next.
The game's story will change in subtle ways on repeated playthroughs, a la Undertale.
In an interview, Robin Walker said that virtual reality games are more fun on subsequent playthroughs, once you already understand the mechanics and can pull off cool moves easily. Well, what better way to incentivize multiple playthroughs then by having some events or dialogue play out differently depending on how many times you've played through the game, or even what choices you made on your previous run? Plus, it would fit perfectly with the alternative timelines narrative of Epistle Three and Portal 2.- Jossed. While something similar to this idea was considered during development, in the final game you only play through the story once.
Post-Release
The Combine didn't really capture the G-Man
The G-Man simply let himself be "contained" in order to monitor them more closely, perhaps assess how much of his realm could be influenced by their technology.- And also, maybe he knew that Alyx would break him out after awhile anyway.
Alyx will be an antagonist in a future Half Life game
The ending seems to imply that Valve is at least somewhat serious about finally continuing the adventures of Gordon Freeman (dare we say it? Half Life 3 confirmed?) but it seems they'll be going in a different direction than what Marc Laidlaw described in Epistle 3. With that in mind, if Gordon is still going to try and destroy the Borealis, it's possible that the G-Man will want to preserve it per the demands of his employers...and Alyx will be sent to stop Gordon (as well as allow the G-Man to get some proper revenge against him for breaking free of his control in the first place).- Otherwise, it is possible that G-Man and his employers will want to have Gordon and Eli killed as they know about G-Man's existence and may try to expose him, possibly using Alyx as a Brainwashed and Crazy sleeper agent for that. This may lead to Mêlée à Trois situation; while the war between Combine and Resistance rages on, G-Man and his employers will try to secure their interests in a much more aggressive fashion, using assassination and sabotage to undermine both sides of the conflict for their purposes. As Gordon and Eli get closer to the Borealis, G-Man will get more and more pissed off and in end may try to outright blackmail them with Alyx's life as a last resort. Finally, if G-Man will be portrayed as an outright antagonist, his appearences may indicate extreme danger: every time he's seen watching, something terrible will try to kill Gordon, as his former 'employer' actively directs danger at him.
Russell will return in a future Half-Life game and meet Gordon for the first time
He didn't die at any point during Half-Life: Alyx, so he might well still be alive and kicking.The G-Man's "unforeseen consequences" from Episode 2 was him hiring Alyx.
Eli's death at the end of Episode 2 was a setup by the G-Man to get Alyx to (unwittingly) agree to be hired by him in order to save Eli's life. Therefore, it can be said that Alyx being hired was an "unforeseen consequence" of her saving Eli's life, as nobody, not even Alyx, saw it coming. Eli's dialogue at the end implies this is his interpretation of the G-Man's words.The Shadow Scientist's identity is Colette Green.
In addition to the scientist seemingly showing some familiarity with the Black Mesa incident, she is the one player character whose fate after Black Mesa is completely unaccounted for, and the Shadow Scientist's datamined model's facial features somewhat resemble those of Colette Green's model.Armored Headcrabs are juvenile Gonarchs
Their anatomy is really similar to the Gonarch when you think about it. They have bulletproof shells covering their bodies, and their weak point is their belly. Maybe an Armored Headcrab is a sort of "breeder" subspecies that, given enough time and sustenance, eventually grows into a Gonarch, with their belly growing an egg sack that gives birth to regular, unarmored Headcrabs, as the Gonarch does in its Half-Life appearance.The next game released will not be Half Life 3, but Half Life:Shephard
And will go to explain the line "We've struggled to find a suitable replacement..."The Shadow Scientist is Minerva
For those who played the mod, the arrogant attitude of the Shadow Scientist will be rather familiar. Before the events of Metastatis, Minerva was a Combine collaborator who believed that the multiuniversal alien empire would definitely appreciate her ambition and scientific capabilities. But after her warnings about the Vault had been ignored and Alyx allowed the G-Man to escape, Minerva concluded that the Combine are a bunch narrow-minded, ineffectual buffons who were unworthy of her loyalty. She defected, grabbing a reprogrammed Combine soldier - the protagonist of the mod - to do her bidding, which is to expand her never-ending hunger for knowledge and to get back at the Combine for not respecting her talent.Russell invented the Gravity Gun
Given their similar functionality, it seems likely that the Gravity Gun and the Gravity Gloves - AKA Russells - use the same technology and principles to do their thing. Therefore, it would stand to reason that Russell is responsible for both devices and that one was an adaptation of the other. My guess would be that the Russells came first, given their cobbled-together, experimental appearance (also because it's amusing to imagine him building such a device just so he wouldn't have to get up to get something from across the room) and the fact that neither he nor Alyx mentions the Gun at any point despite the obvious similarities. The Gun was likely a refinement of the technology, as it can exert both a continuous attracting force and a repelling force, both more powerfully than the Russells (although that may just be a consequence of the Russells needing to be small and light enough to wear on the hands).The thing that Gordon fails to do for the G-Man is betraying the Resistance
After being stopped by the Vortigaunts at the beginning of Episode 1, the G-Man may have subliminally ordered Gordon to eliminate the entire Resistance in revenge for them defying him, thus explaining the defiant "We'll see about that" line as he's being locked away. However, free from the G-Man's direct influence due to the Vortigaunts' interference, Gordon sees no reason to actually carry out this order and continues to fight for the Resistance, thus earning the G-Man's ire and dissatisfaction. Heck, it's even entirely possible that the G-Man spends his absence during Episode 1 and most of 2 setting up the event of Alyx he can replace the insubordinate Gordon with her in the present.