HL story?

[Mr Neutron]

Front page of Shacknews today:

"As for what I've been playing lately, I spent my entire Saturday playing through Half-Life. Yes, that Half-Life. I let it slip that I never played the single-player aspect of the game and Maarten said he would have me fired if it wasn't completed by the end of the weekend. I did finish it and I really enjoyed it. Only complaint is I wished there was more development in the story. It was almost non-existent; DOOM 3 had more story than Half-Life. Luckily, Half-Life 2 is supposed to address this in a big way, and I'm glad I got through the original just in time for the sequel."

First off, wtf took him so long to get to it? Second, I know the 'no-story' debate has been done--but those threads are dead, so here's a new one.

He's half-right. HL had no real story development, but it still had more story than doom3. HL's story is all questions: 'who's he?', 'what's that?', 'why'd that happen?' Doom3 is the reverse, all answers--and sadly mostly predictable ones ('gee, I wonder if that insane looking scientist is the villain?'; the soulcube stuff was a little interesting, though). So HL2 should have a lot of answers, but the answers will probably only raise new questions. That's good storytelling at least.

So how 'bout a Half-life 1 story summary contest? Let's see how well this story stands up without being interactive. I'll start and someone fill in the next bit. I'll number the plot points.

Exposition:

1) Gordon Freeman arrives for another day of work as a research assistant in particle physics at a super-secret American military base, Black Mesa, somewhere in the (Nevada?) desert.
2) Late for doing the menial work in the test chamber, Gordon suits up in his HEV suit.
3) On the way, he notices a strangely generic government-man. [any more to this?]

Incident:

[fill in the rest]

 

[commando]

4) Gordon notices the G-Man talking to a scientist in a room about something.

5) Gordon is wanted in the Test Chamber

 

[Interl@ce]

6) Underway to the testchamber, an electric panel explodes, 2 colleagues rush towards it.
7) Gordon makes his way to the testchamber doors, annoyed by the long chatter of his colleagues, wishing their eyes would make their way out of their skulls and into the scanners so the doors would open
8) Some chatter about "boosting the antimass spectrometor to 80 percent"
9) Ah finally, the doors to the testchamber open, gordon steps into the humoungous chamber.

 

[commando]

6) on the way to the test chamber one of the mashines blow and scientist begin to work on it.

 

[Absinthe]

Technically, we're on 11.

11: Before entering the test chamber, Gordon is subjected to a somewhat uneasy conversation between two scientists about the safety of the test.

 

[Cybernoid]

1) Gordon Freeman arrives for another day of work as a research assistant in particle physics at a super-secret American military base, Black Mesa, somewhere in the (Nevada?) desert.
2) Late for doing the menial work in the test chamber, Gordon suits up in his HEV suit.
3) On the way, he notices a strangely generic government-man. [any more to this?]

Incident:

[fill in the rest]

Before the test, it can be noted that scientists in the lab are concerned about the safety of the experiment, but they are going ahead with it because the administrator said so. Unsuprisingly, the experiment blows in their face (they took too many risks and overloaded the equipment), and a a "portal" opens between Earth and Xen. Inhabitants of Xen find themselves on Earth, and vice versa. Gordon briefly visits Xen himself before the portal throws him back to Earth.

Black Mesa is a wreck, and creatures from Xen are everywhere. While trying to reach the surface, Gordon hears that the US military is coming in to rescue them. Later on, it turns out that the US military is just there to silence any witnesses (and black operations units are there to do something as well). Gordon learns that the only way to sort out the mess is to get to the Lambda complex at the opposite end of the research site (very, very far away). There, Gordon notices that the Lambda laboratory is used for teleportation experiments. A scientist tells him that once they discovered Xen, they went there to collect "samples" (=kidnap the natives and bring back artifacts), until the researchers started getting collected themselves.

I can't remember the rest very clearly, but apparently there is an enormous entity in Xen that is holding the portal together. This entity is Nihilanth. Basically, Gordon is transported to Xen where he kills Nihilanth. After this, things get strange. He meets the "G-Man" who informs him that the borderworld, Xen, is under their (=who?) control for the time being. Gordon is teleported around Xen while the G-Man explains things. Then, Gordon finds himself on a Black Mesa tram, only it's going through some bizzare tunnel (wormhole? interdimensional travel? huh?). The G-Man tells Gordon that his "employers" want to offer Gordon a job. Failure to accept the job will result in death. The end.

That's how I remember it, anyways.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

I think HL's plot gets about twice better when you factor in everything that happens in the multiple POVs provided by the expansions too.
Writing the whole thing out would require a good 30 pages.

 

[CR0M]

Before the test, it can be noted that scientists in the lab are concerned about the safety of the experiment, but they are going ahead with it because the administrator said so. Unsuprisingly, the experiment blows in their face (they took too many risks and overloaded the equipment), and a a "portal" opens between Earth and Xen. Inhabitants of Xen find themselves on Earth, and vice versa. Gordon briefly visits Xen himself before the portal throws him back to Earth.

Black Mesa is a wreck, and creatures from Xen are everywhere. While trying to reach the surface, Gordon hears that the US military is coming in to rescue them. Later on, it turns out that the US military is just there to silence any witnesses (and black operations units are there to do something as well). Gordon learns that the only way to sort out the mess is to get to the Lambda complex at the opposite end of the research site (very, very far away). There, Gordon notices that the Lambda laboratory is used for teleportation experiments. A scientist tells him that once they discovered Xen, they went there to collect "samples" (=kidnap the natives and bring back artifacts), until the researchers started getting collected themselves.

I can't remember the rest very clearly, but apparently there is an enormous entity in Xen that is holding the portal together. This entity is Nihilanth. Basically, Gordon is transported to Xen where he kills Nihilanth. After this, things get strange. He meets the "G-Man" who informs him that the borderworld, Xen, is under their (=who?) control for the time being. Gordon is teleported around Xen while the G-Man explains things. Then, Gordon finds himself on a Black Mesa tram, only it's going through some bizzare tunnel (wormhole? interdimensional travel? huh?). The G-Man tells Gordon that his "employers" want to offer Gordon a job. Failure to accept the job will result in death. The end.

That's how I remember it, anyways.

way to kill the only totally original thread concept i've seen on this forum in ages.

Dolt.

 

[Element Alpha]

Oh just ignore his post, it's not a big deal.

So, after the conversation between the two scientists, where he learns about their doubts. They assure him that nothing will go wrong, even though they'll have to push the spectrum analyzer over its 100% limit...

12) Once in the testchamber, Gordon has to submit himself to the scientist's microphone test, then has to flip the switch and wait for the specimen to rise on the platform with the flickering lights on everyone of its corners.