Story connection

[altceva]

I have 2 issues that I need to clarify. Maybe you guys help me.

1. The time before HL2. Why do the survivors from Black Mesa stay in Eastern Europe, near City17? There are many other citadels in the world, why here? Were they following Breen, waiting for the ocasion to kill him? There is no other explanation. They hide near the most important enemy city and wait, studying portal technology meanwhile. Can this be true? Is there any other reason?

2. How come NO ONE asks Freeman where the hell he was all these years? ("Nearly two decades", as we understand from the game). Ok, some of them are suprised, others are glad and overjoyed for seeing Gordon but, ffs, he wasn't missing a few months, he was missing 20 goddam years! And suddenly, Barney finds him ...where? In the middle of Europe, in a convict train to Nova Prospekt! Ok, they noticed that "he hasn't changed a bit" (which is weird, because it's weird!), but they don't ask him anything! Barney is almost proud when talking to Eli: "look who I found in the train to NP" and the others are cheering. Well, wouldn't be NORMAL for everyone to freeze and say..."Wait a minute, wtf is going on? How do YOU got here anyway, and where have you been until now?"

 

[banana_f]

I have 2 issues that I need to clarify. Maybe you guys help me.

1. The time before HL2. Why do the survivors from Black Mesa stay in Eastern Europe, near City17? There are many other citadels in the world, why here? Were they following Breen, waiting for the ocasion to kill him? There is no other explanation. They hide near the most important enemy city and wait, studying portal technology meanwhile. Can this be true? Is there any other reason?

2. How come NO ONE asks Freeman where the hell he was all these years? ("Nearly two decades", as we understand from the game). Ok, some of them are suprised, others are glad and overjoyed for seeing Gordon but, ffs, he wasn't missing a few months, he was missing 20 goddam years! And suddenly, Barney finds him ...where? In the middle of Europe, in a convict train to Nova Prospekt! Ok, they noticed that "he hasn't changed a bit" (which is weird, because it's weird!), but they don't ask him anything! Barney is almost proud when talking to Eli: "look who I found in the train to NP" and the others are cheering. Well, wouldn't be NORMAL for everyone to freeze and say..."Wait a minute, wtf is going on? How do YOU got here anyway, and where have you been until now?"

IIRC he said something like: "look who i found - he was about to board a one way ticket to nova prospekt"

 

[Pesmerga]

1. Because that's where the resistance is at.
2. It's likely Kleiner and Eli Vance knew about the G-Man and his capabilities- but even if they didn't, it's not like Freeman was ever around either of them for an extended period of time. They're just happy to see Freeman, and it's a game.

 

[altceva]

Well, it's almost the same idea. Gordon is near City17 after so many years, he didn't use resistance teleporters to get so far in Europe, nobody knew anything about him after sending him to Xen, so, finding Gordon in City17 IS weird, and no one asks. They all behave as if he was in a holiday the last 2 weeks. Any normal human being in use of LOGIC would consider in the first 2 seconds that Gordon is a spy sent by the Combine. Despite this fact, Barney shows Gordon to everybody and Alyx leads him to Kleiner's lab (where, btw, is a teleportation device that must not fall in the hands of Combine).

Why no one suspects Gordon of anything?


@pesmerga: I doubt Kleiner knows something about G-man. He is too....absent and focused on his research. Anyway, let's presume they KNOW about G-man and his abilities (Eli surely did). It's not like G-man is the family friend, damn it! In the first second they would have been knocked out by surprise and then they would start asking: "What did HE do to you?"
I'm sorry, but your theory is ... wrong.

 

[ApoJapo]

I think you must accept some things in the half-life story without wondering to much. Gordon says nothing at all so they couldn't do it in another way. Why in Eastern Europe? because there is where city 17 is. Why city 17, because there is Brean and he is in some way the boss. Why did the combine picked him? Probably because he knows everything about portals?

 

[altceva]

It's not about Breen. It's about Eastern Europe. Breen said he choosed City17 because it's one of the finest remaining cities on Earth. Ok with that. All the survivors from Black Mesa joined him in Black Mesa East, closely (and secretly) following any of his moves. Ok with that too. I was still a little confused why they chosed to hide near City17 (and not, let's say... Canada), but probably their intentions were to fight and eradicate Breen's forces and they chosed to get their base near Ravenholm.

But on my second question, taking the fact that "it's a game" and denying one major issue (in my opinion) is a little bit too much. Half Life is a beautiful game having some solid elements in its story. Still, to me, between HL and HL2 there are some missconnections, like this one above. Everybody forgets about Freeman soon after his depart on Xen, thinking that he might be already dead. And, as if the creatures from Xen were not enough, Combine invaded Earth in 7 hours and took control. I bet they all (all the characters in HL2 game) suffered in this war. Now, Gordon shows up 20 years later -exactly in Eastern Europe - and, because "it's a game", no one suspects anything. With all do respect for HL universe, this sux.

 

[JacksoK]

maybe nobody thought to ask because of the war and poverty and fear for there life every twenty minutes?

maybe once it's all over and the combine are gone someone will say 'so gordo, where the **** have you been anyway?'

 

[ApoJapo]

It's not about Breen. It's about Eastern Europe. Breen said he choosed City17 because it's one of the finest remaining cities on Earth. Ok with that. All the survivors from Black Mesa joined him in Black Mesa East, closely (and secretly) following any of his moves. Ok with that too. I was still a little confused why they chosed to hide near City17 (and not, let's say... Canada), but probably their intentions were to fight and eradicate Breen's forces and they chosed to get their base near Ravenholm.

But on my second question, taking the fact that "it's a game" and denying one major issue (in my opinion) is a little bit too much. Half Life is a beautiful game having some solid elements in its story. Still, to me, between HL and HL2 there are some missconnections, like this one above. Everybody forgets about Freeman soon after his depart on Xen, thinking that he might be already dead. And, as if the creatures from Xen were not enough, Combine invaded Earth in 7 hours and took control. I bet they all (all the characters in HL2 game) suffered in this war. Now, Gordon shows up 20 years later -exactly in Eastern Europe - and, because "it's a game", no one suspects anything. With all do respect for HL universe, this sux.

But Gordon can't say anything. Its like asking your dog where he was. In hl1 the conversations were much more simple than in the second part. Beceause off this handicap everything about gordon must be clear without questions.

 

[PimpinPenguin]

I think America and Canada would have gotten pretty much wiped out during the Black Mesa incident as Black Mesa was in New Mexico and the problem starts around it. The portal storms would have started there and the Americans being what they are probably nuked themselves.

As for Gordon in City 17, i believe they were expecting him. Certain things like "i was expecting more warning" and "nice to finally meet you".This tells me they were expecting him getting his HEV suit ready, they knew he wasn't dead. Breen mentions that your contract was open to the highest bidder. I believe Eli knew about Gordon being employed by the G-man and he managed somehow to get you, and they were expecting him to take Gordon back at the end of HL2.

 

[altceva]

How could Eli know about that?

 

[JacksoK]

I think America and Canada would have gotten pretty much wiped out during the Black Mesa incident as Black Mesa was in New Mexico and the problem starts around it. The portal storms would have started there and the Americans being what they are probably nuked themselves.

As for Gordon in City 17, i believe they were expecting him. Certain things like "i was expecting more warning" and "nice to finally meet you".This tells me they were expecting him getting his HEV suit ready, they knew he wasn't dead. Breen mentions that your contract was open to the highest bidder. I believe Eli knew about Gordon being employed by the G-man and he managed somehow to get you, and they were expecting him to take Gordon back at the end of HL2.

i reckon you have more or less got it right there.

 

[PimpinPenguin]

How could Eli know about that?

Eli seems to know alot more than he lets on. For starters we know he knows about the G-man and his power, that was clearly shown in EP2. He knows what the G-man is capable of and seems to know more about him than we do, as he believes he knows how to stop him. If you look back at the intro of EP1 when Alyx mentions to him that she found Gordon, he was in disbelief, i think he knew that your job was done and that the G-man was going to take you back, hence he never thought Alyx would find you.

 

[FISHY CRACKERS]

I've actually been wondering about that, the beginning of Episode one, i mean how exacly did Eli and Judith both make it from the top of the Citadel, to White Forest in less then a day? Most of the time the player finishes the final area of the game in just a few minutes so i doubt they could have made it to a teleporter, and even if they did as said by Dr. Mossman it takes a long time to charge and i doubt the Combine had warmed it up for them.

 

[Tenebrais]

Breen set up in City 17 because he liked it there. In doing so, City 17 became the Combine's capital. This means that the resistance would have focused on that city, and it would also be the largest city with the most people to help. Kleiner and Vance must have moved there to help the refugees and rebels.

I reckon Penguin has it about why nobody asks Gordon where he was. Clearly someone in the Resistance hired Gordon from the G-Man, and Eli seems to know about him. We don't know, though, how much if anything he told the others. Assuming it was Eli who hired Gordon, he must have said Gordon was coming but did he say where he'd been?

Mossman and Eli must have used some sort of escape pod to flee the citadel. They wouldn't have needed to get far, since the Citadel simply shutting down like it did wasn't as dangerous as the explosion at the end of Episode 1. They evidently had the chance to reach White Forest then for Judith to go further north, but then you could have been out of it for a long time - certainly enough time to have otherwise got well out of harm's way.

 

[PimpinPenguin]

Well said i also think they would have used the escape pods to flee the Citadel. The only thing i'm confused about is where the Kleiner transmition was done(the one where he replaces Breen on the jumbo) by the looks of it it was done in the Citadel, but Kliener was never there. And i believe for definite they were still in City 17 by the tone of the message as they were rushing the message and were also getting the trains running. So i don't think they left straight away, but then we don't know how long we were under that rubble.

 

[Asknoone]

Kleiner was never in the Citadel and he hacked into the Combine network. Also, we were under the rubble for a few hours at most.

 

[PimpinPenguin]

Oh cool that makes sense. But where did he hack it from? Did they do that at White Forest or before they left City 17. Because the background of where Kliener speaks looks like Combine Technology and they seem to be in a rush.

 

[chimpmunk]

I have 2 issues that I need to clarify. Maybe you guys help me.

1. The time before HL2. Why do the survivors from Black Mesa stay in Eastern Europe, near City17? There are many other citadels in the world, why here? Were they following Breen, waiting for the ocasion to kill him? There is no other explanation. They hide near the most important enemy city and wait, studying portal technology meanwhile. Can this be true? Is there any other reason?

2. How come NO ONE asks Freeman where the hell he was all these years? ("Nearly two decades", as we understand from the game). Ok, some of them are suprised, others are glad and overjoyed for seeing Gordon but, ffs, he wasn't missing a few months, he was missing 20 goddam years! And suddenly, Barney finds him ...where? In the middle of Europe, in a convict train to Nova Prospekt! Ok, they noticed that "he hasn't changed a bit" (which is weird, because it's weird!), but they don't ask him anything! Barney is almost proud when talking to Eli: "look who I found in the train to NP" and the others are cheering. Well, wouldn't be NORMAL for everyone to freeze and say..."Wait a minute, wtf is going on? How do YOU got here anyway, and where have you been until now?"

1: People have been relocated by the combine troughout cities in the world, as Breen's message of welcome lets us know at the beggining of half life 2, so that's how the survivors of black mesa ended up in eastern Europe.

2: It's pretty clear that Gordon was hired by the resistance through Gman, hence why they are not surprised about his arrival.

PS: this threads needs less "it's a game" answers.

 

[altceva]

Err, wait... what? Call me stupid, but I don't uderstand this statement:

It's pretty clear that Gordon was hired by the resistance through Gman, hence why they are not surprised about his arrival.

How exactly that works? G-man told Eli that he would bring Freeman, and Eli spread the news? Where in the game do we find that? All the reference of G-man made by Eli was that about Black Mesa before the incident and that about G-man saving Alyx. Nothing about Freeman, as far as I know. At least, I don't remember him anywhere saying something like "He told me you would come".

 

[poll]

Err, wait... what? Call me stupid, but I don't uderstand this statement:


How exactly that works? G-man told Eli that he would bring Freeman, and Eli spread the news? Where in the game do we find that? All the reference of G-man made by Eli was that about Black Mesa before the incident and that about G-man saving Alyx. Nothing about Freeman, as far as I know. At least, I don't remember him anywhere saying something like "He told me you would come".

At the start of the game where Barney saves Gordon from being transported to Nova Prospekt. I remembered that Kleiner said "We were expecting more warning." on the combine monitor right before you escape to his lab.

 

[PimpinPenguin]

Err, wait... what? Call me stupid, but I don't uderstand this statement:


How exactly that works? G-man told Eli that he would bring Freeman, and Eli spread the news? Where in the game do we find that? All the reference of G-man made by Eli was that about Black Mesa before the incident and that about G-man saving Alyx. Nothing about Freeman, as far as I know. At least, I don't remember him anywhere saying something like "He told me you would come".

Well like i said in my previous post, none of them seemed surprised to see you. And it infacts looks like they were waiting for you, getting your HEV suit ready, i'm not going to repeat myself. But when Breen talks about your contract being opened to the highest bidder, Eli immediately begins protesting telling you not to listen. Now we know that Eli is linked to the G-man, so it's only logical that he was the one who made the deal. He knows where you've been and what happened to you. The game is never going to tell you outright, you have to look into the small details to find out.

 

[altceva]

Really, I would never figured that out... although I still don't completely agree, it seems it makes some sense now.

So, the "highest bidder" is(was) Eli?

 

[Xevrex]

I'm just wondering, why the hell is Gordon up for bid anyways? Was he born into the world just to serve as a mercenary, without even knowing about it? Has the G-Man been his "agent" ever since Gordon was a child? It would be kind of weird to be a hired killer without even knowing. At least to me.

 

[PimpinPenguin]

I'm just wondering, why the hell is Gordon up for bid anyways? Was he born into the world just to serve as a mercenary, without even knowing about it? Has the G-Man been his "agent" ever since Gordon was a child? It would be kind of weird to be a hired killer without even knowing. At least to me.

Have you played Half-Life1? Cause then you would know that the G-man was impressed that you managed to survive, and that's the reason he hires you.

 

[altceva]

Bidding implies more "clients" willing to buy/rent something. In Freeman's case, if Eli was the highest, who was the less bidder, Breen? Besides, what did Eli exactly payed for Freman, 'cos I highly doubt it was money...

 

[Xevrex]

Have you played Half-Life1? Cause then you would know that the G-man was impressed that you managed to survive, and that's the reason he hires you.

Ahh ok. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

 

[ríomhaire]

At the end of Half-Life 1 the g-man gives you a simple choice: Work for him, or die. Half-Life 2 assumes that Gordon chose the former.

 

[Syme]

I have 2 issues that I need to clarify. Maybe you guys help me.

1. The time before HL2. Why do the survivors from Black Mesa stay in Eastern Europe, near City17? There are many other citadels in the world, why here? Were they following Breen, waiting for the ocasion to kill him? There is no other explanation. They hide near the most important enemy city and wait, studying portal technology meanwhile. Can this be true? Is there any other reason?

2. How come NO ONE asks Freeman where the hell he was all these years? ("Nearly two decades", as we understand from the game). Ok, some of them are suprised, others are glad and overjoyed for seeing Gordon but, ffs, he wasn't missing a few months, he was missing 20 goddam years! And suddenly, Barney finds him ...where? In the middle of Europe, in a convict train to Nova Prospekt! Ok, they noticed that "he hasn't changed a bit" (which is weird, because it's weird!), but they don't ask him anything! Barney is almost proud when talking to Eli: "look who I found in the train to NP" and the others are cheering. Well, wouldn't be NORMAL for everyone to freeze and say..."Wait a minute, wtf is going on? How do YOU got here anyway, and where have you been until now?"

Well clearly the G-man had placed him on that train, on that specific time so that barney would find him and send him to the right place. He does seem to have the ability to puppeteer events and such things in time.
The theory that the resistance, or at least the leaders of it such as eli, knew he was coming, is new to me but sounds pretty legit. and now that i think about it, it has to be because yea no one was exactly in shock to see him.
to add to that though, the G man seems to be against the combine other wise u think he would have prevented gordan form obliterating most of their earth bound combine forces. So perhaps he made a deal with eli to use him during hl2. to aid the resistance and what ever master plan the g man has. and he was supposed to be done but the vorts saved him from returning to the g mans control at the beginning of epi1
And obviously gordan was in some state of cryogenic freeze or in between dimensions void of time. When i first started playing and watched the alyx and gordan relationship evolve i was grossed out because gordan is like 40 something and alyx is like 20. but what good would gordan be to the gman if he aged and was old. And eli says u haven't aged a bit. So gordan was just sitting there in a void, whether he was conciseness of his existence during this time is beyond me, but just waiting around untill he was needed by the Gman. Who apparently worked a deal with eli, and carefully placed him into city 17 to be the catalyst of its fall. Now we assume gordan's services were to be done after hl2, but he has escaped the grasp of the gman. but i have a feeling that the Gman either has a hand in gordans continued destruction of the combine, and or is just letting things play out because they are working in his favor.

And you ask why is ever one around city 17. well like some other people said its supposed to be the nicest of the citys. And if thats the nicest its probably the most developed combine wise. so most of the humans in the world have probably been located there. So to have a organized resistance to shuttle people out of the city would make the most sense. I mean yea it would nice to be far away from all combine doing their experiments but what good is the resistance with out numbers to fight back. And they are supposed to be "resistance" so being close to their enemy to combat it and save people is ideal. Plus eastern europe makes for some amazing landscapes and neat graffiti.

Obviously things have been planned out so that small things like having his HEV suit ready and people being kinda surprised to see him were over looked until the story later unfolded with eli telling gordan of his knowledge of the gman etc etc. So now that we look back you can piece things together to really show what's happening.
if u ask me the story is pretty damn extensive and in depth. Which i think its great.

 

[fadi299]

Eli, dr kliener, barney and even alyx were all expecting gordon to arrive to city 17 especially Eli, who wasn't surprised at all when kliener told him about the arrival of gordon!, how did he know?? from the G-man of course. most likely it was Eli who asked the G-man to bring back gordon!. even though i think that most of you already know that, Eli and the G-man know each other long before the events of the original half-life, it was the G-man who provided Eli and his crew at the black mesa with the info required to open that portal....

 

[Earthdeath]

in ep2 he talks to you about him, but cannot tell you much.

 

[lefty]

I don't know if there's any point in this, but people in C17 didn't bother asking where gordon was because they figured he'd been under combine rule like everybody else, being transported around to different cities randomly, and finally ended up being transferred there.

 

[Earthdeath]

i guess.or they thought he was doing something else.

 

[ríomhaire]

I don't know if there's any point in this, but people in C17 didn't bother asking where gordon was because they figured he'd been under combine rule like everybody else, being transported around to different cities randomly, and finally ended up being transferred there.

Ah no. Gordon was known as the One Free Man. He'd hardly be called that if everyone thought he was just another Combine citizen.

 

[Earthdeath]

that was only after he was recognized by the citizens and was on the run.before that, they didnt give 2 shits.

 

[lefty]

Ah no. Gordon was known as the One Free Man. He'd hardly be called that if everyone thought he was just another Combine citizen.

Didn't they call him that because the vorts called him that?

 

[fadi299]

Eli, kleiner and even barney know about the G-man long before the start of HL2, most likely since the events of black mesa. i guess that Eli was the first one to be contacted by the G-man followed by dr.kleiner!, or maybe kleiner was told by Eli!!, nothing is for sure, but barney also knows, maybe he too was informed by Eli...but alyx knows nothing about the G-man since she was a child back in black mesa and Eli obviously doesn't want her to know anything about it!, maybe he just doesn't want her to get involved in all that mess, but that was too late anyway since she is a huge part of the events now and the G-man might have some use of her in the future, maybe that has something to do with Eli's death in EP2!!..

 

[Tenebrais]

Besides, what did Eli exactly payed for Freman, 'cos I highly doubt it was money...

Perhaps he bid Alyx. Or she offered her own services in exchange for Gordon's - if the G-man took her from Black Mesa during the incident it would be unsurprising that she knows about him too. Though I think it's unlikely that she offered herself since a) the G-man never speaks to her directly (that she knows of, anyway) and b) Eli gets her to leave the room before speaking to Gordon about the G-man.
The more I think about it, the more it seems to make sense that Alyx's service was the payment for Gordon's, and that she doesn't know about it. I could still be wrong, of course.

Edit:
I'm intrigued by the idea that Gordon had been put down for service his whole life. It may not be true, but it could easily be that he was chosen before the Black Mesa incident. The G-man was clearly involved in and probably caused the incident - perhaps the whole thing was a means to hire certain people?

 

[ChiliFan]

Edit:
I'm intrigued by the idea that Gordon had been put down for service his whole life. It may not be true, but it could easily be that he was chosen before the Black Mesa incident. The G-man was clearly involved in and probably caused the incident - perhaps the whole thing was a means to hire certain people?

I think the Black Mesa Incident was caused by the Gman to find someone suitable to hire. A test, if you will. Since Gordon survived and battled his way through the destroyed facility, the Gman hired him for future use.

 

[fadi299]

I think the Black Mesa Incident was caused by the Gman to find someone suitable to hire. A test, if you will. Since Gordon survived and battled his way through the destroyed facility, the Gman hired him for future use.

do you mean that the G-man started the black mesa incident by opening that portal, causing all those creatures to come to earth, thus resulting the combine to find about and invade earth just so that he finds someone to hire!!!!, sounds very unlikely to me!..

obviously the G-man's plan was to bring the combine to earth, we don't know why but that was pretty sure his intention by providing the scientists in black mesa with the equipments and technology required to open that portal. hiring gordon came as a coincidence. while the G-man was observing the events at the black mesa he was impressed by the progress that gordon made and how he managed to survive against all these hazards, so the G-man thought that gordon could prove to be useful to him!..

 

[Tenebrais]

do you mean that the G-man started the black mesa incident by opening that portal, causing all those creatures to come to earth, thus resulting the combine to find about and invade earth just so that he finds someone to hire!!!!, sounds very unlikely to me!..

obviously the G-man's plan was to bring the combine to earth, we don't know why but that was pretty sure his intention by providing the scientists in black mesa with the equipments and technology required to open that portal. hiring gordon came as a coincidence. while the G-man was observing the events at the black mesa he was impressed by the progress that gordon made and how he managed to survive against all these hazards, so the G-man thought that gordon could prove to be useful to him!..

We still have no idea really who the G-man is or how powerful he is. We know that he "hires" out merecenaries (whether they know it or not). We know he started the Black Mesa Incident because he provided the sample which triggered the resonance cascade.
How important is Earth to the G-man? That's the key question here. It may be nothing more than a potential source of mercenaries and clients. He could easily have triggered the incident, hired the survivors and left the Earth to rot. Perhaps he would have until he started to receive offers for Gordon's services on Earth...