Half life themes

[Billybarbara]

Has any one else noticed reocering themes in hl I dont know if thay are on purpose or just me reading to deeply into it but I wondered so here are some examples. Transport: well first there is the portal/teleportation stuff but more importantly is trains, trains are evry where the bigining of hl1 and hl2 gordan arives by train at the end of hl2 g-man leaves and it is implied that he is geting off of a train in hl2 episode 1 there are to trains one about midway through and one at the end (ignoring Barny's train) so whats with all the trains. Black and White: where did this all start? at BLACK mesa and where does the final part of hl2 ep 2 where the super portal is closed and hope is given back to the peaople WHITE forrest im shure there are more and i would like to hear what other peaople have to say.

 

[Schwad]

I don't think Valve ever set out to make a thematic game, make a statement, or anything like that. A lot of their games are really entertaining, with pretty intriguing stories and scenarios, but I don't recall Half Life ever making me consider my actions or anything like that. Gordon is a clear good guy against the invading Xen life-forms, a government trying to keep the whole incident under wraps (admittedly kinda reminiscent of Roswell, both it and Black Mesa are in New Mexico), or an oppressive extraterrestrial authority. The most cryptic the whole thing gets are the G-Man's statements.

Valve makes good games. Granted, it's all fluff, but it's quality, entertaining fluff. With video games burgeoning as an art form, I wouldn't be surprised if Valve tried something actually thematic at some point in the future, but before that, they need to put out HL2: Episode 3 and Portal 2...(Orange Box 2 in 2010?)

 

[pigeon_of_doom]

As far as trains go, their recurrence might be used to draw attention to the games design. Freeman's path is just as linear as the trains, with a possible exception being the strider sequence at the end of episode 2.