Oh YOU HAVE TO BE JOKING!!!!

[HunterSeeker]

Half Life 2 redefines cliffhanger ending.

Not only that but it reinforced the position of GMAN as the best character of all time, he makes everyone else, game or movie, cry.

 

[Mr Neutron]

ending point was fine, but they should have made it interactive, with some hint of what comes next

I understand why they leave it totally blank (because they have no idea themselves, or just want to leave themselves free to change their mind, but it was unsatisfying that the player doesn't get to "pull the plug" on the game themselves. It should have taken you to a place where you can look around, then carry out the G-man's final orders to bring up the credits.

 

[Blood.Bullet]

God, I wish you would stop posting spoilers, luckily I only read the first 3 worlds.

 

[CR0M]

Bosses are the epitomy of all that is clichéd in fps games now. I liked the ending because there was no boss. I hate bosses.
Most players were probably disappointed because they were expecting exactly that, so the final battle at the horse - the biggest challenge of the game - was overshadowed by the expectation of something more.

 

[not28]

I loved this game. It's the best PC (or otherwise) videogame I've ever played. The scenery was breathtaking. Technologically astounding. I had never felt motivated to finish a game like this one.

That said, the ending--the very ending--was absolute garbage. And not because it was a cliffhanger ending, either. I didn't have a problem with the ending in Half-Life 1, even though the premise is the same as that in Half-Life 2. Half-Life 2's ending was dull, vague, and unemotional. Why did I play through all of that just to see the G-Man gracing a black screen? It was unrewarding, and I don't care if it is leading into the next installment. There was no resolution at all.

Half-Life 2 is an excellent game, but its finale will never be remembered as such.

 

[Tkmaster]

welcome to the idea of what it means to be a trilogy!!!

The first part tends to set up the main characters..
The middle part of a trilogy almost always never resolves anything...
The third part you will see the end of the fight... either who wins or loses you wont know till its done...

 

[otter]

HL3 is the ending

Cool, we should see that around 2010.

 

[not28]

welcome to the idea of what it means to be a trilogy!!!

The first part tends to set up the main characters..
The middle part of a trilogy almost always never resolves anything...
The third part you will see the end of the fight... either who wins or loses you wont know till its done...

I didn't feel the same way about the endings for Attack of the Clones, The Two Towers, The Empire Strikes Back, or The Matrix Reloaded. Using the "it's a trilogy" excuse would imply that the game's plot is comparable in depth and structure to a motion picture, and that is completely not the case.

 

[porus]

why do people keep calling it the end? as far as i know, this is just the beginning? right....i mean isnt there going to be a HL3? and Gordon is just realizing his place in history. this, friend, is the beginning, not the end, and HL1 was the foreword.

 

[Cole]

Cool, we should see that around 2010.

Valve said they probably wont be doing any more 6 year games for a while.
First of all, I bet everyone here who disliked the ending would of been happy with it if they could keep playing HL3, HL4, HL5 etc..until they hit the last cd and then it showed them what it was all about, and what you were about. They simply are so excited that they need to know what happens next, this is known as. NeedToKnowWhatHappensNextITIS. This can cause by to great of a cluiffhanger, and it looks like some people have it.
Im a game doctor, I know this stuff.

Note: This is diffrent than Thelastgame\moveofitsseriesneedtoknowwhathappensnextITIS. I believe the last matrix had this..

 

[not28]

why do people keep calling it the end? as far as i know, this is just the beginning? right....i mean isnt there going to be a HL3? and Gordon is just realizing his place in history. this, friend, is the beginning, not the end, and HL1 was the foreword.

Don't give me that philosophical bullshit, either.

 

[Cole]

not28, but that is the truth. Gordon is just relizing and can only start to put the pieces togeather on what is going around him. He really dosn't know. Remember, telling you nothing is just as good as telling you everything.

 

[not28]

Valve said they probably wont be doing any more 6 year games for a while.
First of all, I bet everyone here who disliked the ending would of been happy with it if they could keep playing HL3, HL4, HL5 etc..until they hit the last cd and then it showed them what it was all about, and what you were about. They simply are so excited that they need to know what happens next, this is known as. NeedToKnowWhatHappensNextITIS. This can cause by to great of a cluiffhanger, and it looks like some people have it.
Im a game doctor, I know this stuff.

Note: This is diffrent than Thelastgame\moveofitsseriesneedtoknowwhathappensnextITIS. I believe the last matrix had this..

Listen, I don't care if we never found out who the G-Man really was, or what happened to Gordon. I don't care if we didn't find out anything about the Combine. I'm sure, in a few decades, this will all be explained in the third episode.

But what about Alyx? or Barney? or Eli? or the resistance? Was all that fighting for naught? What was the point of the game? The first fourteen chapters were somehow cheapened by the baseness of the finale. I am not going to wait around for another game to be released in order to find out what happened to the most basic aspects of the game I just finished. I demand instant gratification. I want to see something more elaborate than a black screen and a dusty old man in a suit. Hell, if the Valve team put so much time and effort into this game, and even delayed it for a year, then why did they slap a dull, uninteresting, three-minute bit at the end of it? It was way too open-ended and nothing will change my opinion on that.

 

[johnnypoopoopant]

i think half life series is gonna be gordon being called by g-man for work

 

[not28]

not28, but that is the truth. Gordon is just relizing and can only start to put the pieces togeather on what is going around him. He really dosn't know. Remember, telling you nothing is just as good as telling you everything.

Wow, you make it seem as if Gordon himself was in charge of the plot.

 

[Mickeey]

All you guys take this as: OMFG i've waited 6 years on this, why didn't the g-man die and gordon got alyx?! What happends? ARghH

Get over it, the ending is perfect...period...why are you all complaining over the ending anyway

half-life2's ending means= Half-life 3

Would you had liked that the whole story ended with some kinda speech from the G-man or some kinda last level that maked things come together......So we can't get half-life 3?....

 

[Cole]

NOT THAT IS WHY HL3 IS TO BE FOR. We will probably see it in like 2 years!
Like I said, if you could just pop in HL3 right now and see what happens to them you would be HAPPY. What I just said perfectly understood you, onsept that you don't wanna wait. It's called a cliffhanger. What about in HL1? Didn't you want to know who this guy was, why he was offreing you a job, what was happening to the rest of earth, why the whole thing happened because you pushed the cart it, why he was following you etc... Well it turns out it was a job offer, and that can be fully proven in HL2. Wern't you all pissed off cuz of that? Wern't you pissed off that you didn't know what the next job was?

It's like a few movies that make up 1 bigger movie.
HL Series if a few games that make up 1 huge game. It isn't like 2 movie that have nothing to do with eachother. But 2 movies that are covering 1 big movie. Like the titanic, you see the first half, then you see the second half(It was split into 2 tapes).

Look, if you got to know what your next assignment was, what happened to everyone etc.. then really what would be the cliffhanger, what would make you want to play the next game.

I think you have a thing called
"ExpressingExcitmentWronglyitis"
--Symptoms
---Playing a great game, then wanting to know exactly what happens, thus making you get mad then and there and converting the excitment that should be twords the next game but into "MaD".

It looks like you have it pretty bad.
Heres a cure.
Stop getting mad at HL2, you can't change it. Now look twords HL3, and remember that your questions will be answered.

Whats the use of aruging over something you cannot change. Just wait till HL3, and you questions will be answered and more will be opened up(if it's not the end).
If you think HL2 had a bad ending then you must of though HL1 had a bad ending. Well guess what, alot of people loved HL1's ending, and what the community loves well thats someting you can expect in a broad form. As HL1 had Great Graphics, physics, AI, shading, ending, storytelling for its time. HL2 continues that, in a broad form I mean it wont have HL1 graphics but it will have great graphics as HL1 did. So HL1 had a ending that everyone liked, and left a huge cliffhanger. Most of the communitly likes it, so Valve decides to do another huge cliffhanger, not exactly like the first(though it could be in this area).

 

[not28]

All you guys take this as: OMFG i've waited 6 years on this, why didn't the g-man die and gordon got alyx?! What happends? ARghH

Get over it, the ending is perfect...period...why are you all complaining over the ending anyway

half-life2's ending means= Half-life 3

Would you had liked that the whole story ended with some kinda speech from the G-man or some kinda last level that maked things come together......So we can't get half-life 3?....

Could that be more one-dimensional?
You guys seem to think that, because we didn't like the ending, that we wanted something else that explained everything. This is entirely not the case. I didn't like the ending because it was dull. It accomplished nothing. Not because it was a cliffhanger. They could have just ended it when Breen's teleporter exploded, and I would feel the same way.

 

[Cole]

Wow, you make it seem as if Gordon himself was in charge of the plot.

To you, But I'm trying to say that Gordon himself is just peicing it all togeather, because he knows nothing of whats really going on or why the G-Man is doing this to him.

 

[Cole]

This is entirely not the case. I didn't like the ending because it was dull. It accomplished nothing. Not because it was a cliffhanger. They could have just ended it when Breen's teleporter exploded, and I would feel the same way.

How would you have it ended when breens teleporter exploded? If you thought HL2's ending was dull then you must think HL1's ending was dull and therefor you show of known was to expect.

 

[Mickeey]

Could that be more one-dimensional?
You guys seem to think that, because we didn't like the ending, that we wanted something else that explained everything. This is entirely not the case. I didn't like the ending because it was dull. It accomplished nothing. Not because it was a cliffhanger. They could have just ended it when Breen's teleporter exploded, and I would feel the same way.

I didnt make an example on this particular thread...its just that so many moaning over the ending cuz they didnt found out what happened... and have to wait furter 4-6 years...

 

[not28]

How would you have it ended when breens teleporter exploded? If you thought HL2's ending was dull then you must think HL1's ending was dull and therefor you show of known was to expect.

Not really. The G-Man explained a lot more in the first than in the second. In the first one he offered an entirely new concept of the game, and in the sequel he left us with ambiguous dribble.

 

[Cole]

I guess you got me there not. But what is there really left for him to say? Personally I like how he says everything and what he said. Personally I liked it, because I guess I don't always see(sometimes I do) what happened at the very end as the end itself. I see Hl2's end as, the teleporter exploded, whats going to happen? Is the explosion large or big? Who is going to die? Why is G-Man taking me back into a stasis. Whats going to my next mission?
In the end, I channel everything to this thought:
I need HL3.
Since I don't have HL3 I channel that into:
I must put much excitment into the ending, and how much I want the next ending.

It's how I work. Though well, valve cannot please everyone. But hey, is there really a use of arguing over what you think? Thus we cannot change what you think so why even start this? If it were possible to change what you think then it would be a decent argument.

Personally, expressing opinons is ok. But arguing over something in which the subject wont be changed.
The subject - Donoran thinks HL2 has a bad ending
Argument - Donoran thinks HL2 has a bad ending vs HL2 dosn't have a bad ending.
Can Donorans mind be changed? - No.
Why? Well, it his opinon, it's usless trying to change an opinon.
My Resolution: This topic would have been great if people would have just said, "Well I like the HL2 ending" and other people said "I didn't like the HL2 ending", yet not aruging and trying to changes peoples opinons and minds.

Yes, I did argue over a useless thing, but I recovered quickly and mannerfull. So all in all, why try and change something that can't really be trueley changed? Expressing your opinons is ok though.

Like,
"I think HL2 had a great ending"
And no get getting mad\ saying No Hl2 had a bad ending.
or
"I think Hl2 had a crappy ending"
And no getting mad\ saying No HL2 had a good ending.

 

[RakuraiTenjin]

Is that your excuse for the pathetic ending for every trilogy. Trilogy or no trilogy, bottom line amazing shooter, but a poor ending. You can try to defend it all you want but in the end Valve cheaped out in what could have been a great ending movie.

I am sick of everyone chanting "IT'S A TRILOGY." HL2 sets a whole new standard for shooter fans, but really a three minute ending movie with pointless crap is not everyone's taste.

Anyways, these kinds of forums are meaningless and pointless now, as no one ever excepts the facts and only burns the person who started it.

You can't have the ending yet if the last of 3 hasn't come out in the trilogy.

It's like getting pissed at Star Wars (although, with all chapters, not a trilogy) because we don't know who the Emporer is at first (Had they been released in order)

 

[Elite_Mongoose]

Ok so I finished the game.
What must have been the best (END LEVELS) I have ever played.
But the Ending FALL FLAT ON ITS Face! I won't give anything away but it is SO dull. They could have made it even a bit more fun or informative. I would be ok with the ending if there was some expansion or something. but I mean there was the most Grind to a halt endings I have sat through. If there is an Alt ending I would love to know about it. I was also told that the ATI version of the game has more then the store bought version. Any truth to that? Sorry for flaming what I beleve is one of the best shooters I have ever played, But other then wishing it was longer I wish they would have put in more endings

thats just a matter of opinion. i happened to think the ending was very well done. it leaves u thinking about wat hl3 will be about.

 

[Cole]

thats just a matter of opinion. i happened to think the ending was very well done.

Don't take this as offensive but thats your opinion.

 

[spencerjrus]

Unless half life 3 turns out to be the longest game ever made, I highly doubt it will be the end of the series. There is still a crapload of story to explain, not to mention millions of aliens in other universes to kill.

 

[Greatgat]

I don't know. I rather liked the ending. The big climactic battle, a fun little enigma to keep me interested, and all is well with my world. I know saying 'Wait until HL3 to find out what happened" is kind of a cop-out, but damnit, I will wait until HL3 and be content.

 

[epmode]

welcome to the idea of what it means to be a trilogy!!!

The first part tends to set up the main characters..
The middle part of a trilogy almost always never resolves anything...
The third part you will see the end of the fight... either who wins or loses you wont know till its done...

HALF-LIFE 2 IS NOT PART OF A PLANNED TRILOGY. THERE WILL BE A HALF-LIFE 3, BUT AT NO POINT HAS VALVE EVER SAID OR IMPLIED THAT IT WILL BE THE LAST ONE.

the reason that people are disappointed in the ending is because it resolves next to nothing, other than informing you that you are, in fact, the g-man's ass-kicking, time-travelling intergalactic bitch.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Why is everyone saying it's a trilogy? Sorry if it's been said before but... source?

 

[IHATEMANHACKS]

Why is everyone saying it's a trilogy? Sorry if it's been said before but... source?

There is speculation that Half life 3 will be built on the source engine.

 

[Varsity]

HL3 was confirmed at the same time as HL2 in an official intervew.

All of Valve's future games will be built on Source.

 

[rebb]

Lest just hope Valve doesnt pull a Wachowski

I bet HL3 ends with Gordon waking up from a short nap in the Black Mesa Tram. Oh my.