How will the episode open?

[losttheskyagain]

How do you think the opening sequence will unfold? Will it fade in from the white screen Episode 1 left us? Will the G-Man mess around with time again and say something cryptic? Will the train immediately crash and send Alyx flying?

Disssssscusssssss.

 

[Asknoone]

I'm thinking it will pick up with a "Previously on Episode", and we'll get a few scenes detailing what happened in the previous game, as well as quite possibly returning to the perspective of Freeman as we see the Citadel collapse completely.

Then we'll pick up with the train crash, and go from there.

 

[ríomhaire]

I hope there isn't a "Previously on Episode" thing. They didn't do it with EP1 and I don't think it's nessisary to do it here.

My guess:
It starts with the citadel exploding and perhaps the Vortigaunts will do something again. Then the train crashes.

 

[Kon]

Gordon will probably be knocked out and it'll open from a black screen showing alyx's face hovering over you or something like that.
How many times has Gordon been knocked out?

 

[ríomhaire]

Gordon will probably be knocked out and it'll open from a black screen showing alyx's face hovering over you or something like that.
How many times has Gordon been knocked out?

Resonance Cascade
Ambushed by grunts
Ambushed by metrocops
Being dumped into rubble Vortigaunts

 

[Iron_cube]

Spoiler

The players face is in a small pool of water, Gordon is stuck under a pile of rocks and Alyx uses the gravitygun to get you out.

It was mentionned in one of the previews.

 

[McGooTheWise]

Spoiler

The players face is in a small pool of water, Gordon is stuck under a pile of rocks and Alyx uses the gravitygun to get you out.

Now... How come in half-life 2 Gordon can't pick up that big of rocks, or move them, but now alyx can push piles of debris off you? Makes me mad. :hmph:

I think it'll begin in the same basic way that ep1 did. Gordon and alyx will have just passed through the underpass, and then the pods will do the "mind attack" or w/e they do, and then it'll end where ep1 ended, then you'll wake up in the way Iron Cube said.

 

[Iron_cube]

Now... How come in half-life 2 Gordon can't pick up that big of rocks, or move them, but now alyx can push piles of debris off you? Makes me mad. :hmph:

Because she's using the gravitygun? :burp:

 

[Asknoone]

Spoiler

The players face is in a small pool of water, Gordon is stuck under a pile of rocks and Alyx uses the gravitygun to get you out.

It was mentionned in one of the previews.

Ah, but that isn't how it directly opens.

 

[Tomu]

Resonance Cascade
Ambushed by grunts
Ambushed by metrocops
Being dumped into rubble Vortigaunts

And when in the citadel Breen uses the super gravity gun on you causing a explosion and your knocked out.

I believe that the game will start with the episode 2 screen then following another flashback of one of Breen's speeches like in episode 1 then we see a glimpse of the G-man maybe we will appear in his office at that moment and he will give us another one of his cryptic speech although I doubt it. then we are awakened in the train crash.

 

[soulslicer]

i want it with some awesome vid of the citadel exploding. i don't even care if it is rendered..

 

[scotland1]

I hope they show the train crash. That would be sweeeet.

 

[Godron]

I don't get how Gordon and Alyx could even survive the Citadel's explosion, I mean from the end of Episode 1 it looked like the energy wave had caught up with them. In fact, it would have to touch the train to derail it, so wouldn't that mean vapourising Gordon and Alyx anyway?

Oh well... suppose it's just a game...

 

[Asknoone]

I don't get how Gordon and Alyx could even survive the Citadel's explosion, I mean from the end of Episode 1 it looked like the energy wave had caught up with them. In fact, it would have to touch the train to derail it, so wouldn't that mean vapourising Gordon and Alyx anyway?

Oh well... suppose it's just a game...

That wasn't the explosion though. That was the energy unleashed from the Core. The actual explosion was yet to follow.

 

[Godron]

That wasn't the explosion though. That was the energy unleashed from the Core. The actual explosion was yet to follow.

You mean that was just light or something, basically? And therefore not capable of derailing the train and killing Gordon and Alyx? So the explosion that would derail the train and glass City 17 would come later? But it sent that car flying and smashed that Combine wall to pieces...

 

[Asknoone]

It isn't light, it's the contents of the Core you see earlier in the game. I don't suspect the train Alyx and Gordon are on de-railed at that point, no. Infact, I'd say that's for definite.

 

[Kevin]

Actually Gordon Wasn't knocked out during the Resonance Cascade. He was just teleported everywhere.

 

[Asknoone]

He was knocked out a little.

 

[McGooTheWise]

Actually Gordon Wasn't knocked out during the Resonance Cascade. He was just teleported everywhere.

Actually, warping around that much, that fast, would be a wear on your body, or maybe Gordon was scarred to death by the aliens staring at him.

 

[HL2Fanatic]

it will open just like the first episode, a mini scene showing the vortagaunt saving alyx and introducing the new character etc...

 

[leib10]

Nah, they already used the Vortigaunt deus ex machina once.

 

[Planetary]

Let Valve do what Valve does best, hmm? It's not as if we can change what's going to happened in-game anyway.

 

[Terrel]

To recap on a few things, The Dark Energy would not disintegrate our Heroes because as you can well see, nothing would be left. However you would notice the car flying at them. I more then expect both of them to be knocked out because that much force would send them flying. I'm not sure we'll see the GMan in the intro because if you recall, the Vorticens "stole" Freeman from GMan. I definately believe we'll see much, much more of GMan because after all, he does own Freeman.

 

[el Chi]

I hope there isn't a "Previously on Episode" thing.

Good call. Unless of course they get a breathy voice over from Kiefer Sutherland.
"The following takes place between one unspecified hour of the day or night and some other unspecified hour of the day or night."

 

[Tomu]

Ya I think that we will start the episode with us knocked out and waking up finding out that we're stuck in the train crash with Alyx helping us with the gravity gun.
I think that maybe we won't see the G-man in the intro but of course later in the game I just wonder what he is going to do next and what he is going to say to us will it be like we come to the silo and then we see the G-man standing next to the satellite then giving us another long speech I wonder how it will all turn out in ep2.

 

[Ohcanep]

Well there is to wonder whether Gman would amuse us with another of his great speeches somewhere in the middle of the episode, or typically in the end scene.

 

[Tomu]

I got a feeling that we won't be getting one of the G-man's speeches at the ending of ep2 I think it will end like ep1 did with a crash maybe in that helicopter that was shown in one of the concept arts maybe the G-man will say something like he did in ep1 where he said we'll see about that. Maybe he might say something along the lines of you'll never escape me or bad choice Dr.Freeman and then causing the crash or we might not crash at all but I don't think that we will be getting another one of the G-man's speeches at the ending it's been done twice and with the ending of ep1 being a crash I think ep2 will be something else other than getting a speech from the G-man.

 

[DannyC.]

What I'm picturing in my mind is "Half-Life 2: Episode 2" fading in and out like they did with Episode 1, then re-showing the scene of the message going out and the citadel exploding from Gordon's view, screen goes black, a few seconds later it shows the name of the chapter, and the game begins!

 

[cyk]

I like to think another Breen quote, specifically, "Didn't you know your contract was open to the highest bidder?" Though, that probably won't be explored much in Episode 2.

 

[McGooTheWise]

I like to think another Breen quote, specifically, "Didn't you know your contract was open to the highest bidder?" Though, that probably won't be explored much in Episode 2.

What if gordon remembered Eli saying "Just promise me, Alyx... Promise me you won't take a single unnecessary risk..."



*Goosie bumples!*

 

[Ridge]

That would be a good one...or how about the cut sound file from Eli that suggests something is amiss with Gordon...ah, right, when he is suprised to see that Alyx actually found Gordon! That its....impossible.

 

[<=anders=>]

If we do get 'Previously on Half-Life2' we'll probably get Morgan Freeman narrating it, as he narrates everything else lol

 

[Azner]

Opening Intro with theme music and then a little battle/sequence where the player does not fight then the opening title.

 

[Godron]

It isn't light, it's the contents of the Core you see earlier in the game. I don't suspect the train Alyx and Gordon are on de-railed at that point, no. Infact, I'd say that's for definite.

If it's the contents of the core then surely the radiation would fry Alyx's ass (no HEV suit). And anyway, if it could blast that car along the track and smash the Combine wall to pieces, then it must be powerful enough to de-rail the train.
And even if it's not the core's contents which de-rails the train, wouldn't the explosion that you said would come later also have to touch the train in some way to de-rail it?

I suppose... you're probably right about the energy wave at the end of Ep1 not being what de-rails the train, otherwise it would probably kill Gordon and Alyx at the same time. I reckon the train will actually escape the explosion all together, and end up being de-railed by a break in the track or something. Classic Valve, really - counter-intuative (we thought the explosion would de-rail it) yet totally plausible. Seriously though, I can't think of a way the explosion could get away with de-railing the train without invoking another deus-ex-machina to explain Gordon and Alyx's survival. Which would make Ep2 the third installment to open with a deus-ex-machina, a.k.a. cop-out.

 

[Asknoone]

Which would make Ep2 the third installment to open with a deus-ex-machina, a.k.a. cop-out.

Huh? EP1, sure, but not HL2.

 

[Godron]

Huh? EP1, sure, but not HL2.

Alright, he's not exactly saving you from something or explaining some cliff-hanger problem, but I'd still class it as a deus-ex-machina, seeing as he explains how you got to City 17. Not as much of cop-out as Ep1 though, admittedly.

 

[Narvi]

Alright, he's not exactly saving you from something or explaining some cliff-hanger problem, but I'd still class it as a deus-ex-machina, seeing as he explains how you got to City 17. Not as much of cop-out as Ep1 though, admittedly.

It only counts as a deus ex machina if it's not properly set up beforehand.

In this case it's just plot framing.

 

[Godron]

It only counts as a deus ex machina if it's not properly set up beforehand.

In this case it's just plot framing.

Alright, 2nd deus ex machina. But would still be repetative if they made Gordon wake up at the start of every game.

 

[Asknoone]

How else would it work? I see what you're saying, though the HL2 isn't a cop-out in any way, shape or form.

 

[Godron]

How else would it work? I see what you're saying, though the HL2 isn't a cop-out in any way, shape or form.

OK, no cop-out. I suppose it would be deus ex if didn't fit too well with the plot, but it was of course an essential part of the plot. It's just the idea of using G-man or vortigaunts to explain the transition between chapters all the time I don't like. But that's not going to happen this time. I think.