Progression of the story theory (spoilers)

C

Chuwak

Guest
So Half life series is basically you following Valve's perfectly laid out train tracks on which you are steaming through the game like a train.

A lot of people don't like not having the choice or ability to alter the game (i.e. alternate endings because of the choices you made making a game more personal and fun imo)

I think the reason behind this is that because Gordon was just a weak human at first he was being manipulated and the story was perfectly laid out like train tracks or w/e.

BUT.

As we all know in Episode 2 Gordon is now becoming more than human. He's fused with Alyx and the Vorts are beginning to suspect he has more power than he appears to have.

Because of this increase in power Gordon can now deviate from the train tracks kinda. With the inclusion of achievements in Episode 2 you can choose to have the story go a disparate way if just a tiny bit. Like for example you can beat dog in a race to the base and Alyx says something different than if you had lost the race.

In the end of Episode 2 you are presented with two conflicting points of view about the Borealis... Kleiner's "USE IT" and Eli's "DESTROY IT"

Maybe in Episode 3 and as the story progresses and as Gordon hastens his evolve into a beyond human killing machine that he slowly is becoming that he will break away begin to break away from the control of the Gman and the combine and the train tracks even! (Becoming somewhat airborne) Hopefully Episode 3 will have 2 different endings in which you either "USE IT" or "DESTROY IT" and you can choose each one and not be forced to pick one.
 
He's fused with Alyx
Click to expand...
What?

And I doubt we'll get such a choice. I want Gordon's story to end one of two ways:
Having the g-man say that Gordon's services are no longer required and pretty much having him stop meddling with humanity
or
Having Gordon making a single, meaningful choice (USE IT and DESTROY IT seem a bit too simple and arbitrary to me)

But I don't want EP3 to end Gordon's story either.
 
I really don't want choice. It leads to shoddy, unstructured narrative. I much prefer linear progression in both the game and the storyline. Single, conclusive ending for EP3 please.
 
Yeah, what he said.

And Gordon become more than human? WTF? Is he becoming a furry, like Alyx?
 
Theres a billion games, why do you have to pick the one game where its linear story telling is part of its charm, to bitch about it not being the way you like your games?.

Don't play it?.

Glad we sorted that out.

And the only way those two will fuse is if they go through a portal to a dimension based off of a bad Star Trek episode. :LOL:
 
You're actually going to find very few people want Half-Life to deviate from a linear storyline and want more choices in how the story unfolds. You have to understand that Valve's telling a story here, not a "Choose Your Own Adventure." In fact throughout the series there has been only one choice the player has ever had to make, and that was Half-Life's ending; but obviously the choice was moot once Valve decided to continue the franchise.

Were Valve to give you multiple choices, multiple ways you could influence the story, how could they make sequels? If one person uses the technology aboard the Borealis, and another person destroys it, how do they make the next game? They can't make two games catering to both choices, and they couldn't preclude a choice because then fans would say, "Well that's not what I did!"

You see the problem with your suggestion.

Herr Mike said:
Is he becoming a furry, like Alyx?
Click to expand...
...what did you say?
 
Now that I think about it I really don't want a choice to end episode 3 with. I value valve's decisions on the story plot, which what got me hooked in the first place of course, but I'm just saying that Freeman is becoming more Free and less man. Don't be denying that he isn't because he clearly is from what the vorts say about him and his actual participation in the fusion of Alyx's and his souls when he heals her (they fuse their souls!! or maybe destinies one of those or a variation)

Small in game choices that are a little bit bigger than the achievements in Episode 2 would be pretty sweet. Like if you take one road instead of the other like in Gears of War kinda how you can choose which path to go so that the game will have a higher replay value.

I'm not wanting episode 3 to end in a choice of USE IT or DESTROY IT.. I want that to be a part of the game like you can either use it and theres a separate fight or destroy it and theres a separate fight but in the end in clashes back into the sweet story we all love. I'm not trying to be "bitchy" about this series at all I love it and wouldn't trade the experience of the series so far for a different one but maybe this is what valve intends is the freer and less human man freeman and this is my theory based on experiences from mostly HL2 ep1 and 2.
 
Well I do think that Valve has been making a bit more of an open game experience in some ways. With the larger open spaces, different paths to take, various ways to approach puzzles and battles. The final battle in Ep. 2 is a great example. I really do appreciate this type of openness and variability and I'm pretty sure they'll continue in that way for Ep. 3. The major story elements are set in stone though. Although it did seem they at least left it open for a choice in Ep. 2, but you'll probably be forced to destroy the Borealis technology, because it was Eli's last wish and there's no way Alyx would go against that now. Unless Kleiner comes up with a really persuasive argument? It will be interesting to see how this conflict resolves.
 
He's onto something though. I think it should be viewed more as 'open', not having 'choices'.

I can see Episode 3 ending with Gman doing this all as some kind of catalyst to get humanity to prove it's worth to leave earth and become a universally connected species in a huge war against the real Combine. Form corridors to city streets to vast forests to glacial landscapes and oceans to SPAAACE. Maybe Half-Life 3(4 because of the episodes?) will be a space combat sim.
 
mrhotapples said:
I can see Episode 3 ending with Gman doing this all as some kind of catalyst to get humanity to prove it's worth to leave earth and become a universally connected species in a huge war against the real Combine. Form corridors to city streets to vast forests to glacial landscapes and oceans to SPAAACE. Maybe Half-Life 3(4 because of the episodes?) will be a space combat sim.
Click to expand...

....Hundreds of millions of people are dead if not billions, any significant infrastructure and natural resources have been destroyed or taken and humanity is reduced to living in only a few cities which surround Combine citadels....

They are not in any position to fight an empire that spans multiple UNIVERSES. Now this dosen't mean that Gordon won't and maybe a few ppl will go on to fight combine on other worlds but I think that after the Combine are gone, humanities top priority will be picking up the pieces.
 
Pardone moi, but what the Ef-asterisk is "furry"?!
 
You don't wanna know.

If that's what he meant.
Click to expand...

Where does one sign up for Combine memory replacement procedures? I need to start ASAP!

This stuff is sooo combine propaganda.

Or, rather, advertising. Because under these circumstances, Memory Replacement is a service.
 
Choice is good... for other games. Half-Life excels in part due to its focused linearity. I don't like the idea of choice in its narrative because:

A) It disrupts the continuity. I'd like to see Valve push their creative direction instead of trying to accommodate various branching storylines.

B) There's little in the way of Gordon Freeman expressing such change without it boiling down into simple, binary, and ultimately lame choices. As a being whose sole exertion on the world is through his weapons and the "E" key, I struggle to think of ways this could be handled satisfactorily. "GORDON, PUSH THE BUTTON" or "GORDON, DON'T PUSH THE BUTTON"?

C) It is precisely the lack of control Gordon has that makes the story, and by extension the G-Man, so compelling. No matter what illusion of free choice you may think you have, you are ultimately acting in the service of one well-orchestrated scheme or another. I can't help but think of rails in the game as a recurring motif. As obscure as your direction or aims may seem, there is a fixed path you cannot deviate from. And should you go off-track, there's always a way to work you back in. The beauty is that you're often none the wiser until the G-Man pops in with his congratulations.
 
Saruke said:
....Hundreds of millions of people are dead if not billions, any significant infrastructure and natural resources have been destroyed or taken and humanity is reduced to living in only a few cities which surround Combine citadels....

They are not in any position to fight an empire that spans multiple UNIVERSES. Now this dosen't mean that Gordon won't and maybe a few ppl will go on to fight combine on other worlds but I think that after the Combine are gone, humanities top priority will be picking up the pieces.
Click to expand...

I'm a Star Trek fan. I like to think that Gman is working on the other side of the conflict and that if we can save ourselves (or Gordon can save us), whomever he works for will extend their help and protect us as we, as a species will have proven resolute enough to deserve that kind of attention.

My point wasn't necessarily, anyways, to guess what's going to happen, but to kind of point out that we've gone from a small disaster to understanding that it had huge, huge global repercussions, and that whatever the outcome of this part of the series is, it will send shockwaves throughout the greater part of whatever we'll see next and that will be the focus.

Has anyone wondered if the Combine, having dark matter reactors, have space vessels that can travel between planets quickly enough for their influence to have affected other parts of our solar system? If they can terraform earth, maybe they can do the same thing to Mars or have begun doing something similar to the moon, maybe the next tier of the series can explain that.

It's just gonna get bigger. There will never be a choice. Just more ways to reach one end.
 
I think some people fail to take into account that the combine are already in the artic and likely have found, or stolen the information about the location of the borealis MANY days ago,(remember that the trasmission was found in the begining of ep.1), and was prob in combine possession for a time before that. sooooooo...

Unless there is a GLaDOS unit or something on board that is activly defending the borealis, my money is on the combine forces already having the tech on-board, so im betting either we have to destroy said tech, or its some kind of portal they open to the homeworld and you have to go inside and take it out from the inside(unlikely)
 
mrhotapples said:
I'm a Star Trek fan. I like to think that Gman is working on the other side of the conflict and that if we can save ourselves (or Gordon can save us), whomever he works for will extend their help and protect us as we, as a species will have proven resolute enough to deserve that kind of attention.
Click to expand...

What did the G-man ever do that made you think hes a cuddly care-bear full of warmth and fuzziness?

The g-man only is not humanities friend he is no ones friend this is evident by his attempt to take gordon away from earth which would have doomed the resistence had the vortigons not interfered.

The g-man don't give a s*** about humanity.
 
Anticitizen1 said:
I think some people fail to take into account that the combine are already in the artic and likely have found, or stolen the information about the location of the borealis MANY days ago,(remember that the trasmission was found in the begining of ep.1), and was prob in combine possession for a time before that. sooooooo...

Unless there is a GLaDOS unit or something on board that is activly defending the borealis, my money is on the combine forces already having the tech on-board, so im betting either we have to destroy said tech, or its some kind of portal they open to the homeworld and you have to go inside and take it out from the inside(unlikely)
Click to expand...

Ep1 was in the course of a day. Ep2 was probably over the course of a day or two. Plus there were rebel fighters there who could be fending off the combine until reinforcements arrive.
 
LandStander said:
Ep1 was in the course of a day. Ep2 was probably over the course of a day or two. Plus there were rebel fighters there who could be fending off the combine until reinforcements arrive.
Click to expand...

That assuming they're alive for this whole time since the message. (unlikely)
 
Chuwak said:
So Half life series is basically you following Valve's perfectly laid out train tracks on which you are steaming through the game like a train.

A lot of people don't like not having the choice or ability to alter the game (i.e. alternate endings because of the choices you made making a game more personal and fun imo)

I think the reason behind this is that because Gordon was just a weak human at first he was being manipulated and the story was perfectly laid out like train tracks or w/e.

BUT.

As we all know in Episode 2 Gordon is now becoming more than human. He's fused with Alyx and the Vorts are beginning to suspect he has more power than he appears to have.

Because of this increase in power Gordon can now deviate from the train tracks kinda. With the inclusion of achievements in Episode 2 you can choose to have the story go a disparate way if just a tiny bit. Like for example you can beat dog in a race to the base and Alyx says something different than if you had lost the race.

In the end of Episode 2 you are presented with two conflicting points of view about the Borealis... Kleiner's "USE IT" and Eli's "DESTROY IT"

Maybe in Episode 3 and as the story progresses and as Gordon hastens his evolve into a beyond human killing machine that he slowly is becoming that he will break away begin to break away from the control of the Gman and the combine and the train tracks even! (Becoming somewhat airborne) Hopefully Episode 3 will have 2 different endings in which you either "USE IT" or "DESTROY IT" and you can choose each one and not be forced to pick one.
Click to expand...

This description of the story using traintracks I've seen before on Facepunch.;)

Still. Good thinking if you didn't copy it. ;)
 
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