XEN and beyond

[DEATH eVADER]

My Mistake

 

[Sulkdodds]

Hmm. I always thought HL was meant to be a contemporary game. Oh well.
But seriously, when abouts do you think they first fired up the very first teleporter? I'll stick to 1978, or thereabouts anyway. Maybe 1981 or something.

 

[Brian Damage]

Maybe... 1947 ?

j/k

 

[Mechagodzilla]

Well, after the first survey team failed miserably (not before bringing back a load of shit) Xen was locked down tight by Nihilanth and no-one could get in. All the caged aliens and biodomes and stuff were bred or engineered from the samples brought back before Xen was barred. Now, if, as I said, Xen is the crossroads between the other dimensions, the G-Man wants access once again so he can invade verything else. So. When the time is ripe (about 20 years later...in 1998!) he conducts the experiment. Putting a Xenite crystal under an anti-mass spectrometer causes a similiar effect to that of the tragetting array in Blue Shift, only more violent - actually ripping a hole in the fabric of reality and causing an inter-dimensional breach. I'm guessing the G-Man knew that Xen would send its armies through to earth and that would leave the way open for any would-be userper. Enter Freeman and a load of other 'heroes', plus the troops of the G-Man.
So the G-Man controls Xen. But what he didn't expect is that tearing a hole between dimensions is not a good idea. Xen and Earth start to merge. This is where Half-Life 2 comes in...

Or alternatively, do you think that maybe there was something you don't know at the end of HL1. The G-Man's actions have caused Xen and Earth to merge then and there, and so the world of HL2 is that of one dimensionally wedged halfway through another world. I just thought this because at the end you see a sandy crater with broekn vehicles and dead bodies but Xen sky. Opinions?

Holy crap, that's almost exactly my theory.
The main difference to me, though, would be the last half because I'm not so sure about the merging worlds thing, although I wouldn't be surprised. G-man just doesn't seem like the kind of guy who makes mistakes.

After Nihilanth was obviously pretty pissed about having all his stuff taken by the survey dudes
("Thieves...You all are thieves..."),
G-man and/or The Administrator used the resonance cascade to 'accidentally' kidnap a whole pile of Nihilanth's buddies. This pushes Big N over the edge, so he sends in the alien grunts to retaliate.
(The Administrator is officially the one who ordered the fatal extra 10%.)
(In Decay, you find out that the aliens don't warp in intentionally until a few hours after the resonance cascade, the point when the alien grunts start to appear. The first wussy bugs to arrive were sucked to earth against their will.)

To the US Gov, the 'accident' looks like the opposite, that Xen is declaring war on earth. They send in the best marines they've got to fight back and cover up: The grunts, along with Adrian Shephard's squad, who have co-incidentally been training under G-man's observation for the big secret mission weeks in advance.
(Shephard's journal, the military's orders to kill everything.)
G-man watches the marines as they enter Black Mesa, in the hopes that they find out about the Big N causing the invasion, and teleport to Xen to kill him.
(The BM scientists knew that the only way to stop the bugs was to kill Big N, and would try to send someone there.)

The marines were obviously outclassed though, so G-man focused on the two most skilled and resilient soldiers: Adrian and, unexpectedly, Gordon.
G-man watches them, and guides them to the final teleportation chamber, knowing that they are strong enough to kill Big N.
(You didn't think all those convieniently placed collapses and locked doors were random accidents, did you? )
(And wasn't it convenient that both Aidrian and Gordon were watched and helped by G-man, and then both ended up in the same room, at the same time, and that it just happened to be the only one that led to Xen?)

So, Gordon gets to Xen, kills Big N, and gets a new job, and not killed.
With that over, G-man's plan to assassinate Big N is complete.
(Y'know, the whole ending sequence.)

Now he cleans up the mess.
Shephard doesn't manage to get to Xen, so he's now useless.
But, luckily, G-man takes pity on him, and continues to watch him out of curiousity until he kills the (nuke-proof?) Op4 boss. Aidrian is then put in storage for later
Everyone else is really useless though, so the black ops are sent in, and G-man makes sure their nuke goes off. No more aliens, no more witnesses (except for some barney and a few scientists) and the whole thing looks just like the US laying the nuclear smackdown on an invading E.T.
(Op4 ends)

No-one ever finds out that G-man actually provoked the innocent Xenians and marines to attack each other, or about the whole scheme to get Big N killed.
Now, G-man has employed Gordon to fight in HL2 for some reason. Gordon also has Xen slaves on his team. It's safe to assume that both are under G-man's control.
(It's been confirmed that Gordon and Xen slaves are pals now, and G-man did sic a few hundred grunts on Gordon when he displeased him.)
So, how did G-man get to control the slaves? By killing Big N, and becoming their new master, I bet.
So, HL1 was all about how Gordon, the marines and the aliens were all fooled into making G-man king of teh bugs! I'm sure of it! I'm not crazy!
:rolling:

Oh, and as for the teleporter, all that was given away in-game was that the alien kidnappings by the survey teams continued until less than approximately one week before gordon showed up for his job.
1978 is a good guess, because black mesa was a missile base during the cold war. They would have shut it down around the time of disarmament, so 1980-something sounds about good.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

OMG, I don't know what to say

 

[Sulkdodds]

That's exactly how I thought the story goes. Where does it say the surveys ended so recently? Because I thought that they only lasted a few weeks before the Xenians caught on...

 

[Zetahl2world]

Exellent post mate - pretty much how i figured how it went down. However, i haven't played op4 and hl1 in years so i'd forgotten about all the little plots and stuff. I think it's great how they made games - the stories there for you to get involved in, but if you just want to shoot things, they cater for that aswell !

 

[el Chi]

And the last is that in Decay we find out it was sabotaged. So all in all this thing was meant to happen by someone.

Right, now seeing as it was a PS2-only co-op section, I'm gonna take that with a pinch of salt as to whether it'll get into HL2. But then that's partly because I don't WANT to believe it.
Half the pinch of salt is to do with the fact that I doubt Laidlaw had much to do with that as it seems quite small, but maybe I'm completely wrong (same goes for Blue Shift).
The other half pinch is that I'm stubborn: I just like the idea that it was man meddling with what it wasn't supposed to rather than some pre-planne doobery. Who was supposed to have sabotaged it and how do you find out? Any more info on Decay would be splendiferous as it didn't come out on PC. Grrrr.
On the other hand though, it looks like the end of Blue Shift will be included. And that was AWFUL.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

That's exactly how I thought the story goes. Where does it say the surveys ended so recently? Because I thought that they only lasted a few weeks before the Xenians caught on...

The main evidence that points out that the surveys lasted a long time are that, first, the facilities used for finding and storing the aliens are huge (I'd guess half the base) and are mostly still staffed by scientists and quite functional.

Also, when you first encounter the icthyosaur, the scientist that doesn't get eaten says that the fish was brought in "a week ago".

Right, now seeing as it was a PS2-only co-op section, I'm gonna take that with a pinch of salt as to whether it'll get into HL2. But then that's partly because I don't WANT to believe it.
Half the pinch of salt is to do with the fact that I doubt Laidlaw had much to do with that as it seems quite small, but maybe I'm completely wrong (same goes for Blue Shift).
The other half pinch is that I'm stubborn: I just like the idea that it was man meddling with what it wasn't supposed to rather than some pre-planne doobery. Who was supposed to have sabotaged it and how do you find out? Any more info on Decay would be splendiferous as it didn't come out on PC. Grrrr.
On the other hand though, it looks like the end of Blue Shift will be included. And that was AWFUL.

I once wrote a post explaining what happens in Decay because someone wanted to write a text version of the entire HL series plot. Sadly, it was lost when they redesigned the forums. Is there any way to retrieve those older posts?
I might re-write it later, but I'd rather just cut and paste the original.

All the other versions hint that the disaster was intentional too, but it's never spelt out. All that is known for certain is that the Administrator ordered that the experiment be done incorrectly, despite being repeatedly warned of the consequences.

Decay actually is, as far as I can tell, tied in completely with Laidlaw's story. It also has cool stuff in it like Freeman's BM Apartment and an alien autopsy lab.

I'd say it's better than Blue shift, but you have to remember that Decay and blue shift were both bonus missions for HL1 console versions, so that's why they don't have any new enemies, bosses or weapons.
(Blue shift was going to be bundled with the dreamcast version of Half life, but we all know what happened to that. )
Considering their origins, I'm surprised they're as fun as they are.

OMG, I don't know what to say

Is that a good OMG or a bad OMG?
I found most of this stuff out just by paying close attention to what's said in game.
After beating each game about three times, focusing entirely on plot, I think I've got a good idea of what's going on.
Yup, I'm a :dork:

 

[OHH]

Ok!

i listened to you guys, i went out and bought Half-life. the story, now that i understand it, is kinda ahhaahha... he goes throught hours of aliean killing because he did something wrong???

 

[Mechagodzilla]

i listened to you guys, i went out and bought Half-life. the story, now that i understand it, is kinda ahhaahha... he goes throught hours of aliean killing because he did something wrong???

Well, that's a pretty basic plot description. Like saying Titanic was just about a boat that sucked .
There's a lot of nuance to it, like the G-man's role, and the weird crap going on in the base.
Plus, it's generally accepted that the accident was a result of sabotage. It seems that Gordon was actually being tested for something.
A lot of it so far is open to interpretation. That's why this thread is so many pages long. There's tons of detail if you look for it.

 

[<RJMC>]

I am sure the "accident" was not a "accident"
why?
in the begining apear
ESTATUS: EVALUATION IN PROGRESS
so.....
that was a test,all that people who has died just for a test
no?

a litle detail in op4 is this:
in the chapter "we are not alone" before we get the barnacle weapon,in a hologram,apear a cientific who in one time say "the administrator call this morning about a important experiment in the anomalous materials"
maybe is nothing important
or yes?

 

[dæmon]

I think you've got most of it right, Mecha, below are some of my own ideas:

I agree that the experiment was sabotaged, but I think the G-Man's original orders would have been to secure Black Mesa and stop the invasion. When it became apparent that the Nihilanth could keep the portals open, a counter-invasion was needed to gain control of Xen, by military means, which is why you see burning tanks on Xen at the end.

The scientists at the Lambda Complex chose instead to pin their hopes on Freeman, because I think it is likely that the scientists knew more clearly what was going on compared to the G-Man. As the military will kill them on sight, however, they have to rely on Freeman, hoping that a single man would have more chance of reaching Nihilanth - not least a badass like Gordon.

When he kills the Nihilanth the G-Man recognises his real potential and employs him. To start with, he had simply taken an interest in the resilient scientist who seemed to survive against all the odds.

I don't think he was testing Freeman, as not even the G-Man would dispose of him so readily (if he refuses the offer) after all that effort of guiding him to Xen. Perhaps he thought Shepherd was the man for the job, but as Mecha points out, Gordon got there first.

 

[Foxtrot]

He never wanted Shepard IMO.

 

[Chainer]

It all really depends on how high up you think te G-Man is. Is he associated with the group that sent in the Marines or is he associated with the one who sent in the Black Ops. Or is he associated with Black Mesa in an Administrative stand point? Or you can jump on the banwagon with the people who think the G-Man is an alien. Regardless I think Gordon/Adrian/Barney were al just individuals who functioned exceptionally well under a unique sort of pressure.

:imu: :imu: :imu: :imu: :imu:

 

[Foxtrot]

I think g-man is above all the things you listed. He is apart of something that has control over all of those.

 

[hokai]

It all really depends on how high up you think te G-Man is. Is he associated with the group that sent in the Marines or is he associated with the one who sent in the Black Ops.

Well, near the start of "Worlds Collide" in opfor, you see the G - Man reassembling the warhead that you just deactivated. That was the bomb that the Black Ops were responsible for 'setting off'. so....? Anyone else have any views on this?

 

[Brian Damage]

He certainly is multitalented...

Teleportation, nuclear warhead assembly, snappy dressing...

 

[Chainer]

He certainly is multitalented...

Teleportation, nuclear warhead assembly, snappy dressing...

Ahh!!!! Don't forget bulletproof and oblivious to anyhting and everything.