1984

[Foxtrot]

Anyone notice any 1984 references(the book)? One of the resistance guys is named Winston, but that is all I have noticed from the book. If there is a spoiler involved please mark it.

 

[fairuza]

well ever since the first pics of hl2 were released you could tell it borrows from 1984 heavely. the sparse city (city 17), the oppressive forces (the combine), big brother and his propaganda (dr. breen videos), the spying televisions (those floating cameras), the oppressed people in overalls (blue outfits) and other stuff like the interegation rooms.

 

[diluted]

yeah, the apartment scene at the beginning really reminded me of 1984.

 

[VodkA-HLC-]

Also breen talks about how you can't fornicate and that reproduction is handled by combine. Just like 1984. In the begging of the game when you get out of the trainstation theres a huge plasma screen where breen reads a letter from a concerned citizen. I swear I just sat on the steps, well crouched to pretend like I was sitting there and listned to his whole speech. I would never do this in any other game. This game is amazing. I have noticed that people who can't really think don't like the story line too much since they need to be spoon fed answers then there are people like us who take in all of the games atmosphere like pictures on the wall and newspaper clippings to figure out what the story is.

 

[Mr.Wotsit]

There's definitely an atmosphere of 1984 to bits of the game. But the comparison is pretty superficial I would say.

The most important bits of 1984 have no relationship to the situation in this game.
i.e. The point of it being a class war and all the amazing depth and systems of logic based around the three big slogans and all that. That book is better than I think any game could ever become.

 

[Spartan]

I have noticed that people who can't really think don't like the story line too much since they need to be spoon fed answers then there are people like us who take in all of the games atmosphere like pictures on the wall and newspaper clippings to figure out what the story is.

Enough with this bullshit. There is no story, and no one has yet been able to prove otherwise.

 

[azz0r]

What happened in 1984 ?

 

[Mr.Wotsit]

It's an amazing piece of work and truly inspiring as well as frighteningly clever.

Go here to see reviews and the amazon page to buy your own copy!

Big Brother is watching...

 

[azz0r]

Can you not sum it up for me ;p

 

[Mr.Wotsit]

lol
Well, if you promise to buy it and read it cover to cover...

The plot is essentially an excuse for Mr.Orwell to introduce you to a world that presents the fulfillment of many horrors of society that people worry we are slipping into... Devices everywhere film you while simultaneously beaming propa ganda into the room. News is retroactively changed to ensure that Big Brother is always and always has been right. The language is modified so that revolutionary ideas cannot even be phrased and so cannot be performed.

War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

And the masterful stroke is...
something you will have to discover for yourself by getting a copy! There's so much more than what I've listed and it's obviously phrased a bit more eloquently than my synopsis.

I reccommend it unreservedly and, certain sections are just so amazingly well written that you know you're in the hands of a manipulative and ingenious author. READ IT NOW!

 

[MikeH]

1984 is a great book, and the HL2 city that I have seen really reminded me of it, and it looks superb.

I like the tripod walkers aswell, sort of War of the Worlds meets 1984, two of my favourite books

 

[AmishSlayer]

Enough with this bullshit. There is no story, and no one has yet been able to prove otherwise.

Virtually no story...virtually. The main plot of a story should not be in the atmosphere. You should not have to read what happened in the last X years off the wall from some little newspaper clippings.

Translate the HL2 story into a book and see how that works. A story (no matter what kind or what context - Game, book or movie) should be told...not unveiled through the atmosphere. Face it...HL2 would make a bad movie or book.

Those that say "you don't have to be spoonfed a story" and "you have to piece it together yourself" (There's hardly anything to piece together!) should really take a step back from HL2 and just look at it as a game...just another game...not as if it's supposed to be the game to end all games. Some people here are just too wrapped up in the hype, graphics and physics still.

There are non-plot elements that I would've liked some more background on too...such as Ravenholm. Why is Ravenholm such a "scary" place overrun by zombies and such while all sorts of other places are just fine. Yes I know they "shelled" the place with headcrabs...but they did that elsewhere too and you don't see those places turning run-down and zombie infested.

They could've easily given more background through some monologue by Gregori or Alyx (rather than just saying, "We don't go to Ravenholm anymore"). Sure they just want you to walk in having no idea what will come next...but they could've told us more about what happened there without revealing the horrors that lurk within.

 

[Lanthanide]

Amish - glad to see someone else agrees with me about the plot background. I really would not have been hard to, as you say, simply add in some more dialogue lines that explain a few things here and there.

Eg: "Ravenholme was the first to be bombed... we were caught of guard, and when the shells came so many people were taken so quickly that we had no choice but to abandon it".

See, there we go. More explanation than you see anywhere in the game, didn't take very long to come up with and wouldn't take very long in-game for them to say it. My version is pretty cheesy and aweful, but I've not been working on the script for 6 years.

 

[SupaKoopa]

Virtually no story...virtually. The main plot of a story should not be in the atmosphere. You should not have to read what happened in the last X years off the wall from some little newspaper clippings.

Translate the HL2 story into a book and see how that works. A story (no matter what kind or what context - Game, book or movie) should be told...not unveiled through the atmosphere. Face it...HL2 would make a bad movie or book.

Those that say "you don't have to be spoonfed a story" and "you have to piece it together yourself" (There's hardly anything to piece together!) should really take a step back from HL2 and just look at it as a game...just another game...not as if it's supposed to be the game to end all games. Some people here are just too wrapped up in the hype, graphics and physics still.

There are non-plot elements that I would've liked some more background on too...such as Ravenholm. Why is Ravenholm such a "scary" place overrun by zombies and such while all sorts of other places are just fine. Yes I know they "shelled" the place with headcrabs...but they did that elsewhere too and you don't see those places turning run-down and zombie infested.

They could've easily given more background through some monologue by Gregori or Alyx (rather than just saying, "We don't go to Ravenholm anymore"). Sure they just want you to walk in having no idea what will come next...but they could've told us more about what happened there without revealing the horrors that lurk within.

half life 2 is not a movie or a book. in a GAME, there is a PLAYER who is an active participant in the world. it would be strange to walk into a room and have someone say "okay, out of nowhere, let me tell you what's happened in the last few years because you need to be spoonfed every detail."

ravenholm seemed obvious to me...its an area not controlled by teh combine. without the combine to hold them back, headcrabs overran the area.

Amish - glad to see someone else agrees with me about the plot background. I really would not have been hard to, as you say, simply add in some more dialogue lines that explain a few things here and there.

Eg: "Ravenholme was the first to be bombed... we were caught of guard, and when the shells came so many people were taken so quickly that we had no choice but to abandon it".

See, there we go. More explanation than you see anywhere in the game, didn't take very long to come up with and wouldn't take very long in-game for them to say it. My version is pretty cheesy and aweful, but I've not been working on the script for 6 years.

thats exactly what they were avoiding. they wanted to create the impression that you should know this stuff already...or most of it at least. you're THE gordon freeman! noone needs to patronizingly explain thigns to you!

 

[humplick]

I wonder how many people now will read, or re-read 1984 since the release of this game

 

[BanalityDUFF]

you're THE gordon freeman! noone needs to patronizingly explain thigns to you!

so they leave you to run aroung ignorantly wondering WTF is going on and wheres my pay check.

From what I can tell Gordan has been in stasis for the last errr how many years? so he has abosultely no idea what is going on. i wouldnt of know half of what was going on if i didnt visit message boards.

you've definately been in stasis too since Eli wonders at how you've managed to not age at all.


Barney and everyone else barely seems surprised that you've shown up. its like, hey nice to see you 10 years later.

im still wonder how they got your suit. at the end of HL the GMan said you can keep it, did he strip it off you while you're sleeping and give it to them? =/

 

[MikeH]

Who really cares, it's still just a game, and a damn good one at that

And yeah, I have taken 1984 off the shelf to read tomorrow

 

[Spartan]

half life 2 is not a movie or a book. in a GAME, there is a PLAYER who is an active participant in the world. it would be strange to walk into a room and have someone say "okay, out of nowhere, let me tell you what's happened in the last few years because you need to be spoonfed every detail."

The last thing Gordon remembers is talking to the G-man at the end of Half-Life. Next thing he knows, he's in some place called City 17, the world has been taken over by someone called the Combine and all the Black Mesa survivors are there.

And you're telling me that it's unreasonable for someone to explain what has happened? Besides, the game is mostly about "okay, out of nowhere, take this gun and go to place x."

 

[Griever]

so they leave you to run aroung ignorantly wondering WTF is going on and wheres my pay check.

From what I can tell Gordan has been in stasis for the last errr how many years? so he has abosultely no idea what is going on. i wouldnt of know half of what was going on if i didnt visit message boards.

you've definately been in stasis too since Eli wonders at how you've managed to not age at all.


Barney and everyone else barely seems surprised that you've shown up. its like, hey nice to see you 10 years later.

im still wonder how they got your suit. at the end of HL the GMan said you can keep it, did he strip it off you while you're sleeping and give it to them? =/

They don't know you've been in stasis for ten years. Remember, no-one else was on Xen with you, no-one else was there when the G-man offered you a job. They probably just assume you found a way off Xen and have been wandering from city to city for ten years.

And the suit is a new one. Probably a prototype from Black Mesa they managed to aquire. The old one was a Mark IV, Kliener calls this one a Mark V.

 

[aDidor22]

Everyone complaining that the game has no story have obviously failed to see what Valve what trying to do.

Every...other...fricken...games in this age, with all the perks of enomous dialogue, huge budgets ect, all do exactly what you guys mention. Many of them start with you involved (HL1)/ your reason there, the back story, what you have to do, ect

Half Life 2 actually plays from gordons role! I cant believe you overlook how realistic this is, instead of being some superfical narrative, you know exactly what you, gorden freeman, see. You directly play as him, so if you, say your name is player X, you start HL2, but never played part one, you dont remeber black mesa, unless you read online, and when playing, no ones gonna spend all this time refreshing you on what black mesa was and how the experiment went wrong ect.

Ths is one of the first games to truly treat you, the player, like the ongoing protaginist, not butchering your persona with a crappy gordon voice, or set of choices, no, its all you, and what you see is what you get.

It becomes obvious the average HL2 fan remembers the story and naturally peices together what is going on during the game, even if it does seem vague. You listen to the npcs, wether directly/story related or the static ones who mumble stuff. They never really say "The combine are the gestapo force and we are slaves to their will, the world has been reformed ect" They say things as if you know whats going on , because if you take a look around, its hard not too.

The game isnt revolutionary, it isnt all the answers you wanted to hear or see, all the backstory dreamed up for you to think is "deep". Its where the first one leaves off and its strictly from Gordons view, the player. They didnt waste time explaining things to you every time you see somthing new, they tried to make it seem discombobulated, with the main goal of staying alife to figure out, whats going on

 

[Shadow-warrior]

with the main goal of staying alife to figure out, whats going on

Thats all very well, but the trouble is they never tell you whats going on.

Its like Luke Skywalker was taken from the end of Star Wars and teleported into the middle of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Hes just thinking WTF is going on.

HL2 is superb in every way (except for the buggy stuttering ) but it was clearly written as a filler until HL3.

 

[Spartan]

They don't know you've been in stasis for ten years. Remember, no-one else was on Xen with you, no-one else was there when the G-man offered you a job. They probably just assume you found a way off Xen and have been wandering from city to city for ten years.

Strangely enough, Gordon doesn't mention that he doesn't remember the last ten years.

And the suit is a new one. Probably a prototype from Black Mesa they managed to aquire. The old one was a Mark IV, Kliener calls this one a Mark V.

Hmm, Kleiner also says that your suit still fits you like a glove. And he says that he made modifications (hence the upgrade to Mark V). It's almost as if he means that it's the same suit that you used. But that's not possible, because you lost it after the G-man inserted you into C17. Then again, he also said that you can keep it, so maybe he somehow arranged for the suit to end up in Kleiner's custody.

Everyone complaining that the game has no story have obviously failed to see what Valve what trying to do.

Same old bullshit again...

with the main goal of staying alife to figure out, whats going on

And how do I do that? Please tell me.

 

[Shadow-warrior]

How do these resistance fighters even know about you? why do they treat you like a God after you've only minced about in a science lab and nobody but Gman knew you survived? how do they even know that your crowbar was your weapon of choice?

The HL series is the Matrix of computer games (except the HL series is incredible!! )

Ahh, I can smell HL3 already...

 

[Asus]

Here's the thing. On non-important information, if they were to fill you in on what your character should already know or abstract information that would distance you from being Gordon. Gordon should know, you do not...yet. You are given enough information to piece the non-improtant information together as you go. It's like living the story, hence being Gordon.

In a book or movie you are told all or most of it anyway. Passed and Present, First and Third person. You are Gordon living the game out and you know only what you (Gordon) knows.

 

[Foxtrot]

Virtually no story...virtually. The main plot of a story should not be in the atmosphere. You should not have to read what happened in the last X years off the wall from some little newspaper clippings.

Translate the HL2 story into a book and see how that works. A story (no matter what kind or what context - Game, book or movie) should be told...not unveiled through the atmosphere. Face it...HL2 would make a bad movie or book.

Those that say "you don't have to be spoonfed a story" and "you have to piece it together yourself" (There's hardly anything to piece together!) should really take a step back from HL2 and just look at it as a game...just another game...not as if it's supposed to be the game to end all games. Some people here are just too wrapped up in the hype, graphics and physics still.

There are non-plot elements that I would've liked some more background on too...such as Ravenholm. Why is Ravenholm such a "scary" place overrun by zombies and such while all sorts of other places are just fine. Yes I know they "shelled" the place with headcrabs...but they did that elsewhere too and you don't see those places turning run-down and zombie infested.

They could've easily given more background through some monologue by Gregori or Alyx (rather than just saying, "We don't go to Ravenholm anymore"). Sure they just want you to walk in having no idea what will come next...but they could've told us more about what happened there without revealing the horrors that lurk within.

Is half-life 2 a book? No, get with the times. Half-Life 2 is just trying to do somthing new.

 

[Foxtrot]

Strangely enough, Gordon doesn't mention that he doesn't remember the last ten years.






Same old bullshit again...



And how do I do that? Please tell me.

So...do you remember the last 10 years when you play the game?