Half-Life's storytelling

Also, if you want a tangled web of a plot/series, look at Command And Conquer. So many interpretations, so little time...

Are they still sharing a universe, beyond names? Because they definitely warped Portal's canon to something... stranger.

I just finished HL 2 for the first time (fuck Striders). I'm getting into Episode 1 now. I have to say... the storytelling isn't as good as I was led to believe. Having never played Half Life 1, I only had a loose grasp of what was going on. I knew Gordon worked at Black Mesa. I knew they did something that opened a portal. I knew there were headcrabs. HL 2 did nothing to fill me in on anything. When I was on the train in the beginning, I wanted nothing more than to be able to talk to one of the guys there to figure things out. All through the game, I was only fed tidbits of information. I wasn't given enough to even make an outline of the big picture. I think the cat is a great in-game example. People know about the cat. They even mention it from time to time. Will they tell you what happened to it? Nope. Does Gordon care? Apparently not.

On an unrelated note, I've heard Aperture Science is supposed to be in Episode 3. Then again, I've also heard a few dozen release dates that have come and gone. I have to say, I would like to have a Portal Gun in addition to the Gravity Gun. The two together could be... devastating.

You're going to love Episode 2 then.

Well, what I hated in Episode 2 was not the striders themselves, thanks to a certain gameplay addition. Their friends on the other hand...

edited 31st Mar '11 6:15:47 AM by Medinoc

The cat thing is a classic Noodle Incident; it's not really meant to be explained, because that would make it less funny. The actual plot, though, is sort of a bigger deal. I hadn't even thought of what HL 2 must be like without having played HL 1. Yeah, I can see how that'd be ugly.

Brief summary of HL 1: Gordon works in the Hazardous Materials department of Black Mesa (which is why he has that nifty hazard suit). Black Mesa is doing (among other things) experiments with teleportation. At the beginning of the game, Gordon is involved in an experiment that involves doing SCIENCE(tm) to a big chunk of crystal of indeterminate origin. The experiment results in a Resonance Cascade and starts causing aliens to teleport into Black Mesa. Gordon has to fight aliens (and, eventually, the military, which comes in to "contain" the situation by killing everything in the facility) while trying to get the hell out of the place. Eventually he runs into the guys in charge of the whole teleportation thing, who tell him that teleportation works by actually moving you via another dimension (which they call Xen). The teleporting actually should've stopped a while ago, but something in Xen is holding it open, so you have to travel to Xen and stop it. Said thing turns out to be a giant flying fetus that you kill by shooting rockets at its brain. (Yes, really. It's called Xen Syndrome for a reason.)

Anyway, the only parts of all that that really apply to HL 2 are the origin of the monsters (headcrabs and barnacles and whatnot are from Xen), the origin of the Vortigaunts (they're one of the primary enemies in HL 1, called "alien slaves", and are thus the source of a billion and one WMG theories), the fact that humans can teleport crap around... sorta (thus the scenes with the resistance lab and the "slow teleport" out of Nova Prospect), and the G-Man (who shows up in random places in HL 1 similarly to HL 2, and at the end of HL 1 congratulates Gordon on everything he's accomplished before putting him "in storage" in some sort of between-dimensions void). Everything with the Combine, and 99% of the characters (basically everyone but the G-Man and Barney — with Barney only actually appearing in the Blue Shift Expansion Pack rather than HL 1 proper, and never actually interacting with Gordon during either game) are completely new to HL 2.

I just told you that's what I don't want.

I'm pissed off that Valve seem to have shafted their flagship series with a "eeeeehhh, so the episodic thing seems not to have worked out too great... oh here, have a zombie game. No, wait, take two! Erm, would you like some hats?"

I am hoping Portal 2 is going to throw the Half Life fanbase a bone, at the very least.

Anyway, about the original topic: I've heard this argument before, and while I agree with it, I think it's somewhat reductionist. The game's universe is fleshed out in dribs and drabs - after all, you're confined to one perspective that's been subjected to some wild time skips - and I think it's an effective way of creating atmosphere, especially compared to "RAMIREZ! DO SOMETHING THAT ADVANCES THE PLOT!"

^Half-Life is no better about being ordered around by NPCs. "Gordon, plug this in, will you?" "Gordon, head to Eli's lab on foot!" "Gordon, take out that gunship!" Following orders from NPCs is arguably all Gordon does.

edited 31st Mar '11 5:00:05 PM by PhiliusLupae

^About the second one: It technically is an overarching goal, fulfilled by progressing normally through the game over the course of several levels, and it kinda stops being "on foot" after a while and becomes "by boat."

The first one is kinda to remind you that the game boasts a physics engine (which, to some, is an improvement over the first game's method of sliding stuff around), and the third one is to give you a justified way of taking out what is essentially a giant alien cyborg.

@Rocket Dude: All true, but ultimately its still just you taking orders from just about every friendly NPC with a voice.

@Rocket Dude: And similar things can be said for all the orders you take in Call of Duty, so I don't see your or pagad's point.

edited 31st Mar '11 6:37:13 PM by PhiliusLupae