Alcatraz connected to HL2's plot?

Stigmata

Stigmata

The Freeman
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In the Alcatraz thread, I think dis started on something good. Maybe HL2 starts in Alcatraz? Gordon could have been arrested by the authorities while working for the G-man, and gets sent to Alcatraz. Then when the huge invasion reaches Alcatraz, the Combine go in and kill the guards who are all in different areas. Then the G-man reaches your cell and lets you free, then goes thru a teleportation portal leaving you to get yourself out of the mess. You find a dead guard's USP Match, and fight your way out to a boat. The boat has a bunch of survivors and guards, and they start driving you to City 17. But a bunch of headcrabs and Combine got onto the boat right before it left, and that's how the zombies and Combine are in the boat screenshots.

What do you all think?
 
That seems like a good hunch. And then once you escape alcatrez, the next level winds up being Docks from the Docks video.
 
that would be quite the boat ride since city 17 is in europe...:D

(don't think that i would'nt love an alcatraz theme in the start, just seems odd...i dunno)
 
They did mention a prison level in the game.......
 
The only thing that's keeping me from really believing this is that Alcatraz is in Calififornia, not Europe
 
The prison in City 17 is probably based on Alacatraz. There's a big big big ship that you go on that's seen in some of the earlier screenshots and that's based on a real big big big ship. Some of the level designers spent a day on it, and made a near exact replica of it in HL2 I think.
 
Originally posted by Kschreck
They did mention a prison level in the game.......
Click to expand...

Go to Fileplanet and download the 'Bug Bait' movie. Pretty sure thats in the prison.
 
Lyrids, remember that City 17 looks EAST-european , so the boat could go west from California, then go southwest to bypass India, then end up at City 17.

Just a thought, it probably won't end up this way but still...
 
is bug bait in the prison? how come you think that?
 
Originally posted by Chris_D
The prison in City 17 is probably based on Alacatraz.
Click to expand...
Yes it is. The prison in BugBait is part of the game and based on Alcatraz. Hence, all this stuff about a big show put on there.

I doubt you start the game there after having been arrested or whatever because remember that you miss nothing Freeman sees. I don't know...
 
Well apart from the fact that it looks like a prison, there's also a screenshot of Hammer, and it seems as though the bug bait demo level is open in it because it says e3_prison.xxx on the title bar. I'll try and find the screenie.
 
Originally posted by @bel
is bug bait in the prison? how come you think that?
Click to expand...

Watch the beginning of it before Gordon reaches the area where the bug pheromes are. You can see wire mesh cages lining walls and a frame of a cell door. Not too many architectural plans for buildings come with bars around the doors unless its a prison.
 
Alcatraz is a tourist attraction nowadays.

The Prison is similar to Alcatraz and is in the middle of dried up sea bed. This is mainly mentioned in older previews.

And I'm sure someone from Valve has said that it's a prison in Bug Bait.
 
Originally posted by spitcodfry
I visited Alcatraz a couple years ago when I went with my folks on vacation to San Francisco. I have to say, the screenshot in the link I've provided below bares a striking resemblance to the main foyer/ cell area there. Then again, I'm sure most prisons are designed this way. Correct me if I'm wrong.

http://www.planethalflife.com/screenshot.asp?src=/half-life2/screenshots/01.jpg
Click to expand...
I've been to Alcatraz as well and yes, that looks a lot like it.
 
Originally posted by Feath
The Prison is similar to Alcatraz and is in the middle of dried up sea bed.
Click to expand...

Then what's the deal with the big boat? I think that maybe Alcatraz, after the Xen invasion was well under way, was used as what it was, a prison, to hold human captives and what not. Perhaps the Combine organized this or the U.S. government. Then aliens attacked the prison, where possibly you, Gordon Freeman, were being held captive, and you escape amidst all the chaos. And obviously have to fight your way through Combine and alien forces.
 
It was just an idea that occurred to me; I don't know if it's really plausible. But I see a bunch of people doubting it simply based upon the fact that they said the game takes place in Eastern Europe so you couldn't be in Alcatraz. Have all you guys forgotten about one of the most vital forms of transportation that existed in HL1? Teleportation So it's not completely out of the question. At the same time though, maybe the game starts out at the docks. Who knows, this idea just popped into my head so I thought I'd share it. I thought, at the time, that Valve might have more of a reason to hold a launch party at Alcatraz other than it would be quite an attention getter and there happens to be a prison area in the game.

Edit: It would make for an interesting beginning if you woke up in the prison and then you have to fight your way out, not knowing how you got there or any of the current circumstances in the world. But I really hope I'm wrong because I would hate to have figured out a part of the plot before playing. Damn my brain, damn you, I stab you!! j/k
 
Originally posted by spitcodfry
Then what's the deal with the big boat? I think that maybe Alcatraz, after the Xen invasion was well under way, was used as what it was, a prison, to hold human captives and what not. Perhaps the Combine organized this or the U.S. government. Then aliens attacked the prison, where possibly you, Gordon Freeman, were being held captive, and you escape amidst all the chaos. And obviously have to fight your way through Combine and alien forces.
Click to expand...
Do you ACTUALLY think this? Like someone said - by no stretch of the imagination is San Fransisco part of Eastern Europe. And your plot idea is... interesting, to say the least.
 
Umm... codfry, that's exactly what was in my first post.
 
Originally posted by el Chi
Do you ACTUALLY think this? Like someone said - by no stretch of the imagination is San Fransisco part of Eastern Europe. And your plot idea is... interesting, to say the least.
Click to expand...

I am aware it isn't in Eastern Europe, I have visited Alcatraz. I referenced the big boat as a possible transporatation method to City 17. That would be one hell of a long boat ride, though.
 
Originally posted by spitcodfry
I am aware it isn't in Eastern Europe, I have visited Alcatraz. I referenced the big boat as a possible transporatation method to City 17. That would be one hell of a long boat ride, though.
Click to expand...

That's why I think if there's any shred of plausibility to this whole hypothesis, that you'd have to teleport from Alcatraz to City 17.


Hey Stigmata, I just noticed your sig. I enjoyed 28 Days Later for what it was - a lower budget zombie flick. Good luck on the mod, sounds like it could be very interesting. Too bad, I don't have any modding skills otherwise I might offer to help.
 
Originally posted by spitcodfry
Then what's the deal with the big boat? I think that maybe Alcatraz, after the Xen invasion was well under way, was used as what it was, a prison, to hold human captives and what not. Perhaps the Combine organized this or the U.S. government. Then aliens attacked the prison, where possibly you, Gordon Freeman, were being held captive, and you escape amidst all the chaos. And obviously have to fight your way through Combine and alien forces.
Click to expand...

In the Buggy section of the E3 Demo you are actually in the middle of a dried up sea bed, but if you look in the background, you can see the sea.

Maybe the tide was just out, but it looks like it's been dry for a while.

PC Gamer also talked about this.

http://www.planethalflife.com/screenshot.asp?src=/half-life2/screenshots/30.jpg

There's a dried up seabed, and a submarine (You actually drive past this in the BUggy Video). That could be the Prison in the background.
 
Considering the Buggy video, in which you can clearly see Alcatraz, maybe you drive to a non-dried-up area of the ocean and find the boat there?
 
By the way, if you look in the Valve Info thread Gabe says this about the event:

"Yes I will be at the ati event"

So I don't think it's a Valve thing.

Also, Gabe wasn't aware that the event was at Alcatraz.
 
guys, guys...geography is no limit to sci-fi stories! didn't anyone see reign of fire? the americans show up on the tank in jolly old england? how did they get there? how did their tank get there? who cares? lets kill dragons!

lol.
 
Well, if that is really a dried up seabed, then the Prison must have been built after the sea dried up. Otherwise, it appears from that pic that the prison would have been underwater with the ocean in place.

Edit: Scratch that; after reexamining the pic, the prison does look like it's up on an island. But still, based upon the pic, either 1) the water was shallow to begin with, which begs the question, how was the submarine in such shallow water or 2) the water was deeper and the prison must have been built after the water dried up.
 
No the prison IS alcatraz, the ocean just dried up so now it's on a big hill.
 
Originally posted by Feath
There's a dried up seabed, and a submarine (You actually drive past this in the BUggy Video). That could be the Prison in the background.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm staring to think that Alcatraz isn't the prison you're actually in. Although the idea of being in a cage-like structure, surrounded by water on all sides gives me the willies.
 
Originally posted by dis
Well, if that is really a dried up seabed, then the Prison must have been built after the sea dried up. Otherwise, it appears from that pic that the prison would have been underwater with the ocean in place.

Edit: Scratch that; after reexamining the pic, the prison does look like it's up on an island. But still, based upon the pic, either 1) the water was shallow to begin with, which begs the question, how was the submarine in such shallow water or 2) the water was deeper and the prison must have been built after the water dried up.
Click to expand...
what pic?
 
Now that it's apparent that this prison is up on a hill in what appears to be a dried up seabed, I feel certain either this prison is meant to be Alcatraz or is simply based on Alcatraz. Does anyone know if there are any islands either in the (poop, my geography skills aren't so great) Baltic Ocean (that's near Finland, Denmark, right?) or the Mediterranean Sea that have prisons on them?

Edit:

The pic that Feath posted a link too - a page back, I think.

Perhaps more likely, they used Alcatraz as a model and simply just made up their own island prison somewhere near City 17.
 
Even if it is a dried up seabed, It would take quite a bit of driving to drive from California to Eastern Europe...

And since Valve is keen on never leaving the player's eyes, I doubt they'll make you sit and watch a 20 hour trip :p

Maybe there'll be a teleporter?
 
Hey, good find! They do look kind of similar. I guess we'll know for sure once we play the game!
 
also, in THIS pic, the rocks on the side of the island, look pretty similar to those in Feath's pic.

/EDIT
In the Buggy section of the E3 Demo you are actually in the middle of a dried up sea bed, but if you look in the background, you can see the sea.
Click to expand...
(Feath)
could you take a screenshot of the part where you think you see the sea?
 
I think he's talking about the part where the buggy is driving and Gordon looks to the right and you see the flying gunship flying back at you and you can see the bridge you have to jump across later in the distance. I make a screenie, but I'm at work.
 
Has it occured to anyone that maybe Gordon will work with the guided tours in the beginning of the game?
 
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