Grand Unified HL2 Theory (the end of all Questions)

[Sprafa]

Where to start?

well, let's start on the original HL story. I'm basing everything from here, excepting the fact the G-man is not the Administrator, as is wrongly stated in that site.

I'm doing this so when anyone ask anything about the HL2 storyline, I'll just link this instead of having all the work to write it all again.

*WARNING - FOLLOWING CONTAINS SEVERAL ASSUMPTIONS*


WTF is going on with the World ? And Xen?

After the Black Mesa incident, the World had suffered from a small resonance cascade. That is, Earth & Xen came close and started merging, but two ladies stopped it from reaching "no return" point. So, we had several teleportation around the world of Xenians and so on, that if given freedom could reproduce.

Xen, after the fall of the Nihilant, presumably past to Human control, in coop with the genetically engineered army that Nihilant had made, maybe to protect Xen from things like this (alien control of Xen). Taking Xen as the mid-point in teleportation, and subsequently absolutely required for successful long-range interplanetary teleportation, that makes it a major point of control in the Universe/galaxy.
Therefore, I do not believe Human control lasted long b4 other races started competing with them.

After the loss of Xen, that seems to an alien/human conflict on Earth, although with others than the races in control of Xen, as the primitive looking Antlions that might have just "travelled" to Earth after getting a "green pass" by the race in control of Xen, possibly even to finish us off.

Possibly some are saved on the "numbered cities".

These cities are militarily controlled for protection against the apparently unstoppable wave of alien fauna that keeps coming to Earth. One of them, 17, goes under control of a new faction that I shall discuss later on....


Gordon Freeman & the G-man - Allies or enemies?

10 years in stasis after the incident in Black Mesa. Possibly a technology adquired by the G-man from his employers - still unknown. Not even going to speculate about them, we are in the total black zone about them.

But after 10 years in total time freeze, Freeman is back into activity. the G-man gives him a mission, still unclear if it is to go against the forces in City 17 or help them. In the 1st case, it would look like Freeman betrays the G-man later in the game, since he goes against the Combine.

Since the Combine authorities swiftly take him into an interrogation/execution room, it doesn't look like his objective is to help them, but maybe the Combine just don't know what his objective is and do it anyway.

After that, he escapes the Combine authorities and joins the Resistance against them. Still unknown whether that was his initial, primary objective, or he is going against G-man orders.

Freeman presumably meets Dr. Breen after a few conflicts with his forces in his Citadel (the BIG tower remember?).

the G-man, after Freeman completing the mission, presumably gives him another dose of stasis for some time, until he is needed again, or he is immediately sent into another mission in another point of the globe.....


Combine & Breen : The Neo World Order or just "a few bad apple"?


Dr. Breen. The former Administrator of the Black Mesa, and presumably an accomplice of the planning of the BM incident, in order to cause the Nihilant Fall and subsequent human control.

The Combine are known to be his acolytes, a Collective of biomechanoid beings, raging from small "converted" humans posing as security forces (metrocops & general Combine Armed Forces), flying Gunships and 3-legged, and insanely tall Striders.
How did he came across that technology? Xen looks like a nice scenario for extraterrestrial technology exchange. I believe that whoever supplied him are indeed his "benefactors" that also deployed his Citadel into City 17. They must have some sort of interest on Earth and are using Breen as their link.

Now, he turns City 17 into a massive concentration camp with worldwide propaganda - "It's safer here”.

Why would he do that if his goal is other than Combine proliferation? With such concentration camps as City 17, he gets a massive number of new assimilated Combines, preparing for his "benefactors" arrival and possible take over.

Now, to the main stuff.....

What it's all about - Genocide vs playing around with the Time-space continuum

The overall sense of the Combine seems to be to turn over the table on the alien invasion, and possibly even invade back, take Xen and all the worlds attached to it.

The Science Resistance, in coop with the Vortigaunts however, that were released from Xen and emigrated to Earth after the Human Fall in Xen, freed, are trying to make some "other way", that I speculate to be some good old time travel back to Black Mesa, and never allowing the BM Incident happening and so forth.

However, Gabe stated that one faction was "wrong and that other is terribly wrong". That might mean that Time-space interference may cause more problems than it solves, or the other way around. We'll just have to wait and see.....



IMPORTANT - Since this was made a Sticky (at least it looks like it) I would like everyone to discuss this and, if you are able to convince me that any of the info stated above is wrong , I'll aske Abom and he says he might update it.

So, start posting fellows!

 

[Brian Damage]

Fairly good summary... I'd say Striders are way taller than five meters, though...

 

[Sprafa]

Prenote by Abom: The 10000 character limit wouldn't let me add this update to the first post, so I've had to shove it in here, sorry.

WTF is going on with the World? And Xen?

After the Black Mesa incident, the World had suffered from a small resonance cascade. That is, Earth & Xen came close and started merging, but two ladies (Gina Cross and Colette Green), stopped it from reaching "no return" point. So, we had several teleportation around the world of Xenians and so on, which if given freedom could reproduce.

After the fall of the Nihilanth, Xen fell into Human control or at least of the G-man’s “employers”, in cooperation with the genetically engineered army that Nihilanth had made, maybe to protect Xen from things like this (alien control of Xen).

If Xen is the mid-point in any teleportation, and subsequently absolutely required for successful long-range interplanetary teleportation, that makes it a major military-strategic point of control in the Universe/galaxy.
Therefore, I do not believe Human control lasted long before other races started competing with them. “War is coming….”

After the loss of Xen, it seems that the conflict that doomed it spread to Earth.
Whichever other races have expelled us from Xen for whatever reason, they don’t seem to have travelled all the way to Earth to wipe us out for good. Instead, it seems that some minor races were allowed to come to Earth to finish us. The Antlions seem too primitive to have single-handedly annihilated the Xen army, so they must be one of those races that the race in control of Xen allowed or even encouraged to come to Earth, or they just took advantage of the anarchy reigning and tried to expand their dominions. The Xenians seem to have been kicked off Xen as well, with some of them coming to Earth.

There is an alternative theory, that another resonance cascade has happened, result of abuse of Xen teleportation.

Now Earth becomes a “no man’s land”, with aliens’ teleporting in mass, anywhere, anytime.
Possibly some last remaining specimens of the human race are saved on "numbered cities".

These cities are militarily controlled for protection against the apparently unstoppable wave of alien fauna that keeps coming to Earth. One of them, numbered 17, goes under control of a new faction that I shall discuss later on....



Gordon Freeman & the G-man - Allies or enemies?

10 years in stasis after the incident in Black Mesa Research Facility. Possibly a technology acquired by the G-man from his employers - still unknown. Not even going to speculate about them, we are in the total black zone on that.

But after 10 years in total time freeze, Freeman is back into activity. The G-man gives him a mission, still unclear if it is to go against the forces in City 17 or help them. In the 1st case, it would look like Freeman betrays the G-man later in the game, since he goes against the Combine. Note : it is apparent from the E3’04 video that the G-man is not happy with the situation on Earth, so he would most likely send in Freeman against the Combine. But we never know with him, he might be leading you the wrong way, knowing that you shall fail, but still achieving his initial objective.

Since the Combine authorities swiftly take him into an interrogation/execution room, it doesn't look like his objective is to help them, but maybe the Combine just don't know what his objective is and do it anyway.

After that, he escapes the Combine authorities and joins the Resistance against them. Still unknown whether that was his initial, primary objective, or he is going against G-man orders.

Freeman presumably meets Dr. Breen after a few conflicts with his forces in his Citadel (the BIG tower remember?).

The G-man, after Freeman completing the mission, presumably gives him another dose of stasis for some time, until he is needed again, or he is immediately sent into another mission in another point of the globe, or even the Universe.....


Combine & Breen: The Neo World Order or just "a few bad apple"?


Dr. Breen is confirmed to be the former Administrator of the Black Mesa Research Facility, and presumably an accomplice or even the leader on the planning of the BM incident. He was probably one of the top dogs regarding the Nihilanth Fall and subsequent Human control.

The Combine are known to be his acolytes, a Collective of biomechanoid beings, ranging from small "converted" humans posing as security forces (metrocops & general Combine Armed Forces), flying Gunships and 3-legged, and insanely tall Striders.
While the infantry can be easily explained as simple humans “assimilated” (the Borg reference had to be here…) the Striders, Gunships and maybe more that we haven’t seen yet are increasingly difficult. But the most likely is that they are the product of the extensive alien specimen research that must have been conducted during the short-span Human control of Xen. The Gunships, in example, seem to be quite rare and/or expensive, since the Combine also utilizes helicopters for air support. The Striders seem to be the Combine version of tanks, with extreme firepower and near invulnerability, and not so rare, although, again, the Combine uses an alternative to them (check the videos for the armoured vehicle). And the Combine Armed Forces & the Strider-Gunships don’t seem to work as close as one would think. They rarely appear on the same battlefield together, and in case of the Striders, we can see them with utmost disrespect on an infantry APC and we never had a sight of cooperation between these and the infantry.
How Breen did come across that technology? Xen looks like a nice scenario for extraterrestrial technology exchange. I believe that whoever supplied him are also his "benefactors" that also deployed his Citadel into City 17. They must have some sort of interest on Earth and are using Breen as their link.

Now, he turns City 17 into a massive concentration camp with worldwide propaganda - "It's safer here”. His promises appear to attract many people, escaping from more “hot” zones. Selecting these individuals, Breen is allowed to have the “crème de la crème”, that is, only acceptable subjects for subsequent assimilation are allowed into City 17.

Why would he do that if his goal is other than Combine proliferation? With such great concentration camps as City 17, he gets a massive number of new assimilated Combines, preparing for his "benefactors" arrival and possible take over.

Breen simply erases long-term memory, suppresses any sign of rebellion with heavy weaponry and then, when the city is fully “assimilated” and totally empty with exception of Combine, he makes his own personal fortress to eat through it.

Now, to the main stuff.....

What it's all about - Genocide vs. playing around with the Time-space continuum or destroying Xen

The overall sense of the Combine seems to be to turn over the table on the alien invasion, and possibly even invade back, take Xen and all the worlds attached to it. I believe the true Combine, the ones that initially supplied the technology to Breen, are likely to just be playing Breen in a greater plan, of total galactic, or even universal domination. Although Breen may also be high in their ranks, I would say that that’s highly unlikely. To him, they are “benefactors”, not “friends”. He might even know their true goal, but uses their offers to pursuit his own personal agenda.

The scientist resistance, in cooperation with the freed Vortigaunts however, that were released from Xen and emigrated to Earth after the Human Fall in Xen are trying to make some "other way", *that I speculate * (I had to do this, due to that fact that people disagree with what that is said next) to be some good old time travel, and never allowing the BMRF Incident happening and so forth.

Other suggested option for the Scientist resistance is destroying Xen, therefore ceasing with teleportation for good, but also ending with the impending anarchy in the galaxy with the alien invasions.

However, Gabe stated that one faction was "wrong and that other is terribly wrong". That might mean that Time-space interference or taking out Xen may cause more problems than it solves, or the other way around. We'll just have to wait and see.....

 

[Brian Damage]

Just me being pedantic...

 

[Axyon]

Yeah, I decided to sticky this because it's a good collaboration of information, almost a FAQ. I think with everyone's help, we could get a true unified theory of what might be going on, and Sprafa can decide what to add; different theories, branching theories or whatever.

 

[jabberwock95]

Personally, I think Gordon is fighting the Combine with the blessing of the G-man.The gmans says:

"Wake up and smell the... ashes."

That, and the slightly sick look of the gmans smile, tells me that hes not completely happy with whats going on with the world.

Plus, the gman is just not the type of person to lose control over one of his employees. He had the power to locate and teleport Gordon away from Xen at the end of HL1, how could he be careless enough to lose him in one city? Especially wearing his Hazard Suit, which is 'full of tracking devices'.

Just my opinion. Great thread BTW, it'll be good to have all the info in one place. :cheers:

 

[Eejit]

My first contribution is my theory on the whole vortigaunt situation.

Like the controllers and Nihilanth (you've left out the last 'h' sprafa) the slaves have some form of 'power' whether it's based on the crystals as theorised on that site or some telekinetic-related ability. The collar/bracelet combo are needed to channel this energy into the lightning attack (shown in Decay). However, the collars were also used to enslave the vortigaunts, hurting them if they tried to disobey their master(s) - shown in the animations of their models as well as ingame.

The vortigaunts shown in the HL2 video got to earth whatever way the new generation of headcrabs and other Xen life did - ie I'm not sure, but don't think they're survivors of the BMRF. Unless they're particularly telepathic they won't know that it was Gordon killed the Nihilanth, just that it died. Some kind of contact between them and the former BM scientists (the humans who presumably knew most about them) was formed by HL2.
They are free of the controlling collars, but at least some have the bracelets - we see one with neither, and some shooting. The strange blue light between the 'free' vortigaunt and the machine I guess could be one of several things. It could be a way of letting the slaves survive without the controlling collars (there would probably have been a 'failsafe' to stop them freeing themselves before the Nihilanth's death), it could be the ex-slave powering the machine in some way, or (most likely) something I haven't thought of.

Uhh, that'll do for now. Comments?

 

[Sprafa]

hmm.. I think the Vortigaunts are simply energizing that machine, since the scientists have no alternative power source. Since the Lady Scientist with you in the elevator mentions teleporting, I would think that's what they're preparing for.

But good stuff on the Vortigaunts. I also claim that I think there are survivors from the resonance cascade in the original post.


Now that I read it again, there seems to be too many "possible" & "possibly". I'll edit it out on ver. 2.0

 

[Asknoone]

very good story summary....but i to believe the G - Man is against the combine and you are there to stop them....thus Freeman doesnt turn against him

i think he will be working for him for the whole game. "You hour has come again."

but other than thats a great theory!

i dont like the time travel bit. i h8 time travel :frown: i dont think we will be going back to Black Mesa...in HL3 however i think it will be a dead cert

 

[Eejit]

hmm.. I think the Vortigaunts are simply energizing that machine, since the scientists have no alternative power source. Since the Lady Scientist with you in the elevator mentions teleporting, I would think that's what they're preparing for.

But good stuff on the Vortigaunts. I also claim that I think there are survivors from the resonance cascade in the original post.


Now that I read it again, there seems to be too many "possible" & "possibly". I'll edit it out on ver. 2.0

Well some vortigaunts could have survived the explosion, they can still teleport between earth locations, even after the Nihilanth's death (I've seen it happen in OpFor). Though if this were the case there wouldn't be many of them, a) since I don't think they realised they should try to escape, b)with no more teleporting in from Xen after a certain stage I think the Black Ops, Grunts and Race-X would have killed a large proportion of them and c)they'd have to survive for 10 years on a world alien to them.
If there's going to be a significant no. in HL2 most likely most of them arrived on earth during the next large teleportation event after the initial resonance cascade - whatever covers the planet with headcrabs and barnacles etc.

 

[Sprafa]

but i to believe the G - Man is against the combine and you are there to stop them....thus Freeman doesnt turn against him

i think he will be working for him for the whole game. "You hour has come again."

but other than thats a great theory!

I left that in the open because I no one has a big idea. Since the G-man is a manipulator (in pshycological terms) he might just give you the wrong orders, knowing you shall fail, but accomplishing his true goal.....

i dont like the time travel bit. i h8 time travel :frown: i dont think we will be going back to Black Mesa...in HL3 however i think it will be a dead cert

That's just some of my wild speculation. So far no one really knows what are the Scientists & Barney up to, other than that they opposing the Combine.
I imagined that the only way to "fix" what happened to the World would be going back and stopping the BM incident, and since teleportation is possible...

 

[Sprafa]

If there's going to be a significant no. in HL2 most likely most of them arrived on earth during the next large teleportation event after the initial resonance cascade - whatever covers the planet with headcrabs and barnacles etc.

As I've said in the original post, there might be some survivors from the original resonance cascade, but I think most of the aliens that came to Earth were a result of the impending anarchy in Xen, with maybe thousands of races competing for control and some actually trying to invade other worlds. the Xenians, i.e. don't even seem to be a single race, but more like a bunch of them thrown together, possibly by other teleportation events.
But the race in control of Xen in the moment may have kiked off/intetionally directed the Xenians and other races to Earth to finish us off after taking control.

 

[Sprafa]

So, I'm adding the info on the Vortigaunts & the fact that the time travel theory is *highly contested*.

Anything else I should add?

 

[M1RAG3]

"interrogation/execution room" haha... i know something you don't know...

 

[Ames]

"interrogation/execution room" haha... i know something you don't know...

Bah...don't tempt us with the beta.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

hmm.. I think the Vortigaunts are simply energizing that machine, since the scientists have no alternative power source.

I'm not sure about this, but the energy streaming to his hand is blue.
That's also the colour of the 'Rejuvenation chambers' in the Xen factory.
I bet he's eating.

Also, it's entirely possible that the striders and gunships are a combination of the weapons research and extraterrestrial biology studies that Breen was overseeing at Black Mesa.

 

[Asknoone]

Originaly posted my Mechagodzilla

Also, it's entirely possible that the striders and gunships are a combination of the weapons research and extraterrestrial biology studies that Breen was overseeing at Black Mesa.

i think thats a good theory. i think alot of the black mesa that did survive would have been taken under the employement of Breen to work in the citadel. he couldnt have done it all himself

 

[Sprafa]

"interrogation/execution room" haha... i know something you don't know...

I know what happens in that room from ppl like you in these forums, that spoiled it for me. I just did not include it since I don't want to spoil it for anyone else.

 

[Sprafa]

I'm not sure about this, but the energy streaming to his hand is blue.
That's also the colour of the 'Rejuvenation chambers' in the Xen factory.
I bet he's eating.

Since that machine seems only to be a pile of mysteries, I'm really not going to speculate on it, similarly to the G-man's employers.

Also, it's entirely possible that the striders and gunships are a combination of the weapons research and extraterrestrial biology studies that Breen was overseeing at Black Mesa.

Hmm... nice theory, and I agree. Breen must have some sort of acess to Xen, and that would be a perfect place to adquire new species for Combine assimilation.

 

[Darkside55]

Of the Earth in General

We know it's being overrun by alien species even after the merging with Xen was stopped, so how the creatures are still coming in a mystery. I propose two theories:

1. Enough landmasses in Xen merged with Earth that the creature populations living there were sufficient enough to breed in large quantities, or perhaps their adaptation to Earth's environment has caused that to happen.

2. As we all know the G-Man's employers controlled Xen at the end of the first game, to use it for whatever purpose they intended. Even though the "embarassing" Black Mesa Research Facility was destroyed, they would not limit their excursions to Xen now that they owned it. Therefore, more teleportation facilities would have been opened, and perhaps another cataclysmic event tore open even more resonance cascades into Xen, allowing the creatures to come through en masse.
It may have even been that these new facilities were not hidden from the public like Black Mesa; rather, perhaps after the incident happened a more successful teleportation facility was opened, and the discovery of the technology was announced to the world. It might've even had seen some commercial use.

Whatever the situation behind it was, Earth is infested with these things living there, and portions of its surface are covered with Xen flora and fauna, and possibly even its sky (as seen in one picture). Large numbered cities are created (more on the cities later).

The Earth's resources are also being drained, for unknown reasons by unknown forces. Seabeds have been dried up. It may be weather phenomena, connected to the exposure to Xen's landmasses or atmosphere, or it may be that someone is stealing these resources.

The Cities, and Earth's Population

Large, numbered cities have been created "for the peoples' safety." In reality there are ulterior motives going on here, but what motives cannot be said. We know that these motives are enough to strike up an underground resistance to them, and this has prompted the use of extreme force through the Combine Metrocops. There are also Combine soldiers, an armed force, so whatever motives they have it appears that they require an army to achieve them.

Breen's welcoming recording in the train station says that the people who are arriving have been selected to live in City 17. Why? If these places were designed to keep people safe, why would you need to be selected to join? What types of people are being selected?
Also curious is how Eli mentions that there aren't many scientists anymore (I think he says "MIT grads," actually, but I can't recall), and that he needs Gordon to get back into his lab coat and help out. Where did all these people go? Perhaps they have been "recruited" into the Combine. Maybe some of them, or most of them, have been killed.
Another question about City 17 is the absence of children seen in the City. Where are all the children?

The G-Man Connection

I can almost say for certain that the G-Man is with the resistance movement, and not the Combine. Or rather, that he supports the resistance movement, if only because they will help Gordon achieve the G-Man's objective.

I say this because of another of the G-Man's quotes from the E3 2k4 videos that hasn't been mentioned yet in this thread: "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world." If the G-Man were in league with the Combine, why would it be the wrong place? Surely the resistance is too small a movement to pose a serious threat to the Combine and their resources. Were it the right place, and the Combine were on the right track to achieving the G-Man's ends, he would have kept Gordon in stasis and let things pan out the way they were going.
But no, Gordon is woken and sent in to do something, to change something, something he doesn't know what it is yet. But whether it's to keep quiet and not incriminate himself in case Gordon fails, or simply to be the malicious suit that he is and stack the odds against Gordon, he continues to be cryptic.

The G-Man admires people who triumph against all odds, and an armed force plus mobs of aliens seems just like the odds that he would set Freeman against. Freeman is like the ultimate test subject to him because he's smart, thinks on his feet, and is resourceful. The perfect man to send in, the man whose hour has come again. The G-Man has been evaluating him since before he even began work at Black Mesa, he's already judged his character; there is no reason to believe that the G-Man would send in a person who could potentially turn against him and his aims. And he's spent a lot of preparation time to see those ends met. Therefore it's only right to assume the G-Man is NOT with the Combine.

Deciding What to Do

"One group is wrong, the other is spectacularly wrong." -Gabe Newell

Whatever decision Gordon and co. make at the end of the game, it's going to be the wrong one. We've been told we won't see Black Mesa whatsoever in HL2, so it will not be time travel back that far to stop the resonance cascade from ever happening. That's not ruling out time travel, however, it just won't be that far back into the past, if we go to the past at all.

And whatever theories the resistance had for stopping the Combine, they were divided on them (Kleiner's Lab video, E3 2k3). I'm going to assume that the Combine want to use their armed forces to storm Xen and take down everything that moves, subjugate it, and retake it for themselves. The resistance is going to try and close the gateway to Xen, but going about it in the wrong way...possibly to destroy Xen altogether, thus ceasing teleportation for good.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

For the 'cities and earth's population' section: Many of the City 17 citizens suffer from the same memory loss as Gordon. Also, trains only arrive with passengers, never depart. It would appear that the 'selection' process is involuntary.

 

[Element Alpha]

About the teleportation/Xen situation of hl1, we know that:

1) Gordon wasn't the 1st person to go there
Other scientists had gone to Xen before. We know this from the corpses wearing suits, from the teleporter weapon, and different teleporting installations throughout BMesa.

2) The administrator wanted the cascade to happen
We know this for several reasons, but the most obvious is having Gordon handle the experiment on his 1st day of work. Also, their were problems happening right before the incident (coincidence? noway), but the scientist still had clearance to perform the experiment, while they were themselves worried and would've rather cancelled it.

Taking account of the above, we can say that the administrator has foreseen everything until the point where we start in hl2. There are no coincidences. It is all coming from a very calculative mind. And just knowing this can narrow down the possibilities.

I don't think there has been a real attack on earth. I expect the administrator uses the so called 'invasion' as a cover up. Just think about it. If you have such a strong army, with striders, flying saucers, hundreds(thousands?) of men, why would you be scared of a few headcrabs/antlions/zombies/other animals. It's very probable that Breen is just a puppet, thinking he's taking the right decisions, while in fact he's enforcing the doom of mankind. If the combines are here to preserve order, they hardly have anything to do, since it all looked so empty. They have another job to do. We just don't know what it is.

Something's fishy.

Also, keep in mind the different parties involved:

-general human population: wants to be safe
-combine: follow orders, are somewhat of an instrument
-admistrator(&gman):hell if I know what they're after(power, suppremacy, money, ???)
-scientists:they probably have an alternative plan
-barney & rebellion: they probably have even another alternative plan
-xen aliens (the ones we know from hl1): no real intelligence, they're probably an instrument as well
-other aliens(antlions, big antlions, blue tentacles, ?): probably an instrument as well, they just fight to survive(or as an instinct)
-vaurtigans: they have a weird spot in the story, but they probably have their own agenda

If we look at what we think went wrong according to the administrators plan, we might figure it out. The main thing here, is that the gman, at the end of hl1 and op4, knows he'll be needing gordon/shepard again. Why is that? What didn't we witness in hl1 that explains it? And what is it that the administrator didn't expect to happen (this is probably what they are after in hl2)?

Also, the resources. It's clear to me that the waterlevel is rather low. Also, all the houses seem pretty empty. Where did it all go? Who took it away? What's up with "they put something in the water to make you forget"? Forget what? What is everybody after? the technology? Xen? earth maybe? survival?

Somethings fishy indeed...

 

[Asknoone]

i belive there has been a major invasion of xen aliens. Besides I know that there has, Doug lombardi said so. "The Alien invasion gets worse as you progress through the game" and "the aliens have started a major invasion.

I think the ocean drying up is a natural thing happening, not caused by somone. The resources are are probably real low because the combine use them up real quick in there efforts against the alien invasion.

 

[Eejit]

Remember that there was some seemingly random teleportation between Earth and Xen even before the incident...

HL1, first time you meet and Icthyosaur a scientist says:
"Did you see it? They said it was hauled from the Challenger Deep, but I’m positive that beast never swam in terrestrial waters until a week ago."

It's certainly rather strange, and afaik it has never been properly explained.

 

[Brian Damage]

I think that means that the scientist is suspicious of their explanation for where the Icthy came from. He suspects that it's an alien that hasn't been on Earth for very long...

 

[jabberwock95]

Remember that there was some seemingly random teleportation between Earth and Xen even before the incident...

HL1, first time you meet and Icthyosaur a scientist says:
"Did you see it? They said it was hauled from the Challenger Deep, but I’m positive that beast never swam in terrestrial waters until a week ago."

It's certainly rather strange, and afaik it has never been properly explained.

Black Mesa was pulling animals from Xen for study quite a while before the resonance cascade. In the chapter 'Questionable Ethics' you see headcrabs and houndeyes in cages, and grunts behind glass.

My guess on the Icky is that it was captured by being pulled from Xen deliberately. They needed someone to study it and not ask questions so they cooked up that flimsy explanation about the Challanger Deep. When aliens started popping into the facility the scientist studying it must have got a bit suspicious...

 

[Eejit]

I thought that might be it... but that is the only scientist in the entire BMRF who doesn't seem to know anything about teleporting or aliens? Seems fishy to me.

 

[PvtRyan]

Sprafa, I'm not gonna read this thread, but I thought I recall you saying somewhere that by listening to all the sound files (of the *cough*leak*cough*) you pretty much figured out the whole story of HL2? My apologies if I got the wrong person

 

[Sprafa]

Sprafa, I'm not gonna read this thread, but I thought I recall you saying somewhere that by listening to all the sound files (of the *cough*leak*cough*) you pretty much figured out the whole story of HL2? My apologies if I got the wrong person

In an ocasion that ppl were saying that the leak had nearly no spoilers at all, I did say that the sound files did. But I have not downloaded nor seen it anywhere nor spoke about spoilers beyond that point with that person.

I have not based any info from here from the beta. I do not know any info from the beta.

 

[Sprafa]

1. Enough landmasses in Xen merged with Earth that the creature populations living there were sufficient enough to breed in large quantities, or perhaps their adaptation to Earth's environment has caused that to happen.

This is excluded by the fact that in Decay, the resonance cascade was stopped and nothing merged entirely, just temporarly during the resonance cascade.

2. (...) more teleportation facilities would have been opened, and perhaps another cataclysmic event tore open even more resonance cascades into Xen, allowing the creatures to come through en masse.
It may have even been that these new facilities were not hidden from the public like Black Mesa; rather, perhaps after the incident happened a more successful teleportation facility was opened, and the discovery of the technology was announced to the world. It might've even had seen some commercial use.

I highly doubt that. Human control wouldn't last long, and anyone but a madman would even suggest to open public portals expecting a War....

The Earth's resources are also being drained, for unknown reasons by unknown forces. Seabeds have been dried up. It may be weather phenomena, connected to the exposure to Xen's landmasses or atmosphere, or it may be that someone is stealing these resources.

That theory is unfortunately wrong. Nothing was "dried up" intetionally. If you see , you can see that City 17's (real Russian military compound, that I believe that the City 17 from the game has been based off) original purpose was to serve as a dismantling dock. So ships are normally scattered around.

Breen's welcoming recording in the train station says that the people who are arriving have been selected to live in City 17. Why? If these places were designed to keep people safe, why would you need to be selected to join? What types of people are being selected?
Also curious is how Eli mentions that there aren't many scientists anymore (I think he says "MIT grads," actually, but I can't recall), and that he needs Gordon to get back into his lab coat and help out. Where did all these people go? Perhaps they have been "recruited" into the Combine. Maybe some of them, or most of them, have been killed.
Another question about City 17 is the absence of children seen in the City. Where are all the children?

Considering the fact that Breen was the BM Admin. and the general state of the World, I would say that scientists are either on the Combine/military side or dead.

And no children? I don't think we saw enough to say that, but the Combine don't seem to need them, so they wouldn't select them anyway for City 17.

The G-Man Connection

I can almost say for certain that the G-Man is with the resistance movement, and not the Combine. Or rather, that he supports the resistance movement, if only because they will help Gordon achieve the G-Man's objective.

I say this because of another of the G-Man's quotes from the E3 2k4 videos that hasn't been mentioned yet in this thread: "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world." If the G-Man were in league with the Combine, why would it be the wrong place? Surely the resistance is too small a movement to pose a serious threat to the Combine and their resources. Were it the right place, and the Combine were on the right track to achieving the G-Man's ends, he would have kept Gordon in stasis and let things pan out the way they were going.
But no, Gordon is woken and sent in to do something, to change something, something he doesn't know what it is yet. But whether it's to keep quiet and not incriminate himself in case Gordon fails, or simply to be the malicious suit that he is and stack the odds against Gordon, he continues to be cryptic.[/quote]

You convinced me. I'm adding some alterations saying the the G-man is probably sending you to help the Resistance, possibly even quoting this share.

Deciding What to Do

"One group is wrong, the other is spectacularly wrong." -Gabe Newell

Whatever decision Gordon and co. make at the end of the game, it's going to be the wrong one. We've been told we won't see Black Mesa whatsoever in HL2, so it will not be time travel back that far to stop the resonance cascade from ever happening. That's not ruling out time travel, however, it just won't be that far back into the past, if we go to the past at all.

And whatever theories the resistance had for stopping the Combine, they were divided on them (Kleiner's Lab video, E3 2k3). I'm going to assume that the Combine want to use their armed forces to storm Xen and take down everything that moves, subjugate it, and retake it for themselves. The resistance is going to try and close the gateway to Xen, but going about it in the wrong way...possibly to destroy Xen altogether, thus ceasing teleportation for good.

Hmm..then the time travel theory is not viable.....

Well, I guess I'll switch it for your theory, as it seems quite plausible. Ending with teleportation for good would be a way to generally "fix" the galactical anarchy.


I admire your effort on putting all this together, but please, next time, just say what you disagree and/or wish to add on, instead of making a new post on your overall theory. The point of this is to make a general theory on the HL2 storyline, and if you make these long posts with several lines saying the same thing I said in the 1st post it only makes your contra-theories against my 1st post much more difficult to find and include, because I have to browse around several lines of agreements with the original Grand Unified HL2 theory instead of focusing on alternatives.

I hope you understand, nice stuff overall. I'll be sending Abom a revised txt sometime this weekend.

 

[Asknoone]

where is this interview with Gabe Newell where he says one group is wrong the other is very wrong. i wanna read it!

 

[Darkside55]

Sorry for my post being so long, I tried to organize it how you had it set up so that it would be easy to pick through. I tend to get long-winded with my posts sometimes.

However some of the things I posted were confirmed by Valve.

Even though Gina Cross and Colette Green stopped the merger, Valve's said on numerous occassions that while we won't be going to Xen, they'll be bringing Xen to us. Therefore some parts of the world must have been Xen-ified. So some parts of Xen are forming on Earth. We've also seen a picture with some ant lions on Earth, and the Xen sky behind them. It was a magazine shot, if I'm not mistaken. I'll look for it later. Xen is still merging with Earth, or at least suffering the consequences of the last merge (or perhaps a NEW merge).

Also, Earth's resources are being dried up. The official site says, quote:

The player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling.

Of the children, I'm not saying there aren't any...they just aren't running around playing, or haven't been seen in the apartments or things. We know that there's a playground in C17 though. At one point, the city must not have been under such tight control.

And of the teleportation, well, we know that people in power tend to be haughty and feel infallible...I doubt they would've anticipated being repelled from Xen by other alien races, and certainly not from the Xenians themselves, since they were all subdued. I don't think they anticipated a war at all.

Edit: Samon, when I go look for that Xen sky picture later I'll look for the interview where Gabe says that too. There's also one, in the PC Zone magazine I believe, where he says that Gordon is going to win because he's the better scientist, which suggests that Breen is also a scientist.

 

[Asknoone]

thanks darkside, yeah i got that issue of PC Zone. thats where it mentioned about valve wanting Breen to be a reasonable opponant (sp?) and for you to beat him, because your the better scientist, like you said. i dont remeber any picture of an ant lion with Xen sky behind it though

 

[Kouler]

Ant Lion with Xen sky behind it? Where was this?

 

[Cybernoid]

IMPORTANT - Since this was made a Sticky (at least it looks like it) I would like everyone to discuss this and, if you are able to convince me that any of the info stated above is wrong , I'll aske Abom and he says he might update it.

So, start posting fellows!

I think you could just remove pure speculation from the message. We have enough of that already.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

I'm sure I've seen all the screenshots out there, but the Xen sky one doesnt ring a bell.

 

[Darkside55]

Blah, I just went through some screenshots, and the one I thought had a Xen sky in it really doesn't. Now I feel like a jerk for getting peoples' hopes up, and I also wasted Kouler's first post. You can scratch that one out, then. I'd mention the weird sky from the E3 traptown video, but that was just weird video artifacts I think. Nothing to that.

Still, aside from the sky, Xen still has to be merging. There's no other way Valve could "bring Xen to the player."

 

[Kouler]

Heh thats alright Darkside, ive been readin these forums for months now. Decided to participate today.

Maybe there could be portals from Xen that kinda bring in the Xen territory to place in Earth. Kinda like when u see the Geneworm in Opposing force. The Xenian landscape started coming through the portal...

 

[Asknoone]

darkside did you find that interview???

 

[Eejit]

Blah, I just went through some screenshots, and the one I thought had a Xen sky in it really doesn't. Now I feel like a jerk for getting peoples' hopes up, and I also wasted Kouler's first post. You can scratch that one out, then. I'd mention the weird sky from the E3 traptown video, but that was just weird video artifacts I think. Nothing to that.

Still, aside from the sky, Xen still has to be merging. There's no other way Valve could "bring Xen to the player."

Um, Xen flora (including the fungusy ground covering) and fauna all over the place might consitute bringing Xen to the player. And all that wouldn't necessarily need a 'merging', just teleportation of seeds/spores etc.