Summary of the Story

[KyanVrezpor]

Hi.

I'm new to Half-life and Half-life 2. Although I am considering purchasing the Silver version using Steam, I'm probably going to start playing Half-life 2 straight away before I play Half-life Source.

I'd be quite interested in knowing the story of the original Half-life, so if anyone could either summarise it or give me a link to a site which summarises it, it would really be helpful.

Thanks in advance .

 

[T.H.C.138]

http://website.lineone.net/~wingerden/index.htm

interesting and informative stuff there

 

[KyanVrezpor]

Thanks, that is useful. But is there anything slightly shorter, and which does not have the invented fiction that this source has?

 

[Solver]

Oh whatever, I got nothing better to do, so I'll have a go at it.

You are Gordon Freeman, a MIT graduate, where one of your professors was Dr. Kleiner. Dr. Kleiner helped you get a job at the Black Mesa Research Facility (BMRF). BMRF is located in New Mexico, mostly underground, and conducts some top-secret research. Freeman does not have enough clearance to know about what's going on in the base.

The day the game story starts, Freeman wakes up to realise he's late for work. He quickly gets on a BMRF transit system train (that's where you are when you start the game). He passes through a section of the base, seeing scientists, security guards, etc., as well as a man in a blue suit in another train.

Upon arriving to his destination, Freeman is let into the Anomalous Materials lab by the security guard there. As Freeman enters, scientists tell him that he should have been in the test chamber half an hour ago. Freeman grabs his hazard suit and proceeds to the test chamber. Along the way, he can see the man in the suit arguing with some other scientist in a room.

At the test chamber, you find out in a conversation that some "purest sample" of something has been found, and will be analysed now. Scientists say that they have boosted the anti-mass spectrometer to 110% of its capacity, though they've warned the BMRF administrator about possible risks. Freeman goes into the test chamber, starts the machinery. Then, some sort of a crystal comes into the camber, which Freeman pushes into the beam created by machinery. Immediately, stuff starts exploding. Suddenly, Freeman finds himself in a strange place with aliens near him, then he's back again.

As Freeman gets out of the test chamber, he finds that the base is largely damaged, and strange creatures are taking over it - aliens and former scientists that are now zombies. The few survivors are frightened scientists and some security guards. Apparently, someone is trying to send out a distress signal so the military would come and rescue the place.

Then, the game goes with Freeman shooting stuff, etc. He also sees the man in the suit occasionally. Soon, the military appears. As one scientist rushes towards the marines, happily exclaiming that he's saved, the marine just shoots him. On seeing Freeman, marines try to kill him, too. It becomes obvious that the marines are actually there with orders to kill anyone and anything at BMRF. They don't attack the man in the suit, though, when he can be seen.

As Freeman makes his way through the base, he's eventually captured by two marines and dumped into a trash compactor. With no weapons, he comes back to conscioussness and escapes in time through a residue processing plant, and back then into some labs. In the labs, Freeman sees specimen of invading aliens in jars, containers, etc., with security systems in case they got out of control. It becomes evident that the aliens have actually been studied before the accident.

Freeman gets out on the surface, and witnesses basically a full-scale war between aliens and the miliary. Fighter jets are seen pursuing alien craft, heavily armored alien soldiers invade, the military responds with lots of troops and tanks. After making his way through all of that mess and more, Freeman eventually gets to the Lambda Complex, where, as he was told, the survivors of science team are taking shelter. At Lambda Complex, Freeman sees that teleporation experiments have been conducted for quite some time. However, apparently teleporation goes through some weird place, called Xen, also referred to as the borderworld. (An expansion reveals that apparently any teleporation over long range goes through it, or something to that effect). Scientists at Lambda Complex tell Freeman that currently a portal from Xen to Earth is still being held open by the will of one being, which is why the invasion can't be stopped. Oh, Freeman has seen the man in the suit use the teleporters, by now.

Freeman loads up on weapons and goes to Xen. There, he kills many aliens, till eventually he gets to the Nihilanth, the creature mentioned above. It looks like a giant baby floating in the air. Freeman destroys three crystals on the walls (which are the same crystals that he pushed into the beam to start all the mess), and then kills the Nihilanth. As the Nihilanth is seen floating away with electricity shooting through him, Freeman is teleported away.

Freeman finds himself standing in front of the GMan (the proper name for the main in the suit). The GMan tells him that "the borderworld, Xen, is in our control then, for the time being, thanks to you, Mr. Freeman". You can see that Xen has been a big battleground, and tanks are now stationed there. The GMan tells Freeman that he's impressed by his work and has recommended Freeman to his (GMan's) employers.

Freeman and the GMan are now on a BMRF transit train, flying apparently through space. GMan tells Freeman that he basically has two options - to accept the job, or to die. HL2 assumes that you, as Gordon Freeman, accepted the GMan's offer.


Note: GMan's voice acting is something you need to hear!

 

[KyanVrezpor]

That's really helpful, thanks .

Just a few things:

1. I've seen some pre/reviews of Half-Life 2. Is it explained anywhere in the original Half-Life how the world changed, and City 17 came about, or will that probably be revealed in the new game?

2. I know this is an irritating question to ask, but what about the single-player expansion packs? What is their story?

If you can answer these questions I would be very grateful. Thanks.

 

[TriggerHappy]

That's really helpful, thanks .

Just a few things:

1. I've seen some pre/reviews of Half-Life 2. Is it explained anywhere in the original Half-Life how the world changed, and City 17 came about, or will that probably be revealed in the new game?

Not really.

2. I know this is an irritating question to ask, but what about the single-player expansion packs? What is their story?

If you can answer these questions I would be very grateful. Thanks.

Personally, I'm a little skeptical of the authenticity of the expansions' storylines, since they were made by another company and don't seem to mesh all that well, but here goes.

Opposing Force: You play as Corporal Adrian Shephard. You are one of the soldiers sent in to contain the accident. However, your plane is shot down on the way to Black Mesa, and by the time you are revived by scientists/doctors, the military is already pulling out of the base. Even though you're a soldier, the scientists and guards you meet are friendly to you, maybe because they don't know about the military killing them.
You try to make it to the extraction point to leave the base, but the GMan intervenes by shutting a door before you can get on the last plane out. So, you instead spend the rest of the game fighting Xen aliens, "Race-X" aliens (an assortment of new, xen-like creatures), and "Black Ops," who are elite special forces sent in to finish the grunts' (you) job and even silence the remaining grunts. The game ends with you killing this big slug-like thing and the GMan teleporting you out, bombing the base with a nuke, and explaining that you impress him and will be held somewhere where no harm will come to you, in order that you don't blab about the incident to others.

Blue Shift: You're Barney Calhoun, one of the security guards. You blackout during the catastrophe and wake up later to sirens and stuff. You fight the same enemies as in Half-Life, Xen creatures and the military. Finally you rescue a special scientist named Dr. Rosenberg who can get you out of the base with teleportation equipment. You make a brief jaunt to Xen(without a hazard suit! Part of why I don't trust these expansions) to calibrate some system that the teleportation system depends on, and return to escape just as the military is breaking in all over the place.

There's also a Playstation 2 co-op mode called Decay. I haven't played it, though. Perhaps, in HL2, we can find out whether the expansions really happened or not by reference to Race-X or the BMRF being nuked or not.

 

[Solver]

You are not supposed to know anything about the story between HL1 and HL2. When you accept the GMan's offer as Freeman at the end of HL1, GMan puts you in some sort of a stasis or something. And since you are Gordon Freeman, you don't know anything about City 17 and that stuff as you start the HL2 storyline.

As for expansions. Opposing Force and Blue Shift ARE official expansions, story wise. Decay, however, is not - OF and BS are safe to be considered canon.

The OF storyline is described pretty well above...the new stuff you find out there is that the black ops (a few of whom Gordon Freeman meets in HL) are sent in to silence everyone, including the marines. As said, at the end of that game, BMRF is destroyed with a thermonuclear bomb.

In BlueShift, you indeed save a few scientists and yourself, teleporting outside the base and the military lockdown perimeter. Note that Barney Calhoun, the guy you play as in Blueshift, appears in Half-Life 2.

 

[KyanVrezpor]

Ok, thanks for all your help.

I'm considering getting the Silver version from Steam, so that I can play the original Half-Life as well as the new one.

 

[Solver]

Yeah, a good idea. Silver is the best option, IMO. Reasonable price, many games, including the original on a new engine.

 

[Didymium]

http://website.lineone.net/~wingerden/index.htm

interesting and informative stuff there

I've been looking for that site for months, thanks alot! Their "The Incident" section covers all four games (including Decay for ps2). Although it has some references to their fiction "The Special Projects Executive" it stays very close to the official games. It's a bit lengthy but it's a good read.

 

[Nephron]

That's really helpful, thanks .

Just a few things:

1. I've seen some pre/reviews of Half-Life 2. Is it explained anywhere in the original Half-Life how the world changed, and City 17 came about, or will that probably be revealed in the new game?

In my games magazine was a screenshot of ingame newspapers that explained the background

Spoiler

After the events in HL there was a huge invasion of aliens that came through a portal which caused the "7-hours-war". It was ended by Dr. Breen who surrendered in the name of mankind to prevent complete destruction.

City 17 is not explained there. It is only known that it is "1984" like and in the center of the city there is a secret giant tower.

 

[KyanVrezpor]

Thanks, I only wanted to know if we are meant to know before playing the game. I'm going to resist uncovering that spoiler .

 

[Vinnie_NL]

The OF storyline is described pretty well above...the new stuff you find out there is that the black ops (a few of whom Gordon Freeman meets in HL) are sent in to silence everyone, including the marines.QUOTE]LOL what if the Black Ops screw get stuck there too, the government has to send another militairy elite team to clean everyone up, including the Black Op

What I was thinking about, HL begins and ends when you are in a train. And when you start HL2 you are in a train too. Coincidence? And where will you be at the ending of HL2?

 

[Solver]

LOL what if the Black Ops screw get stuck there too, the government has to send another militairy elite team to clean everyone up, including the Black Op

What I was thinking about, HL begins and ends when you are in a train. And when you start HL2 you are in a train too. Coincidence? And where will you be at the ending of HL2?

Well, if the Black Ops screwed up, I guess.... the GMan would take a MP5 and wipe out everyone personally .

HL2 starts on a train as homage to HL. Many years have passed since the HL ending. It's presumed generally that the GMan put Gordon in some sort of a stasis or something like that.