The ending of Half-Life 2 (Spoilers, obviously)

[MrGalactus]

As someone who has never played Half-Life 1, but finished Half-Life 2, I didn't have the slightest clue what the hell was going on at the end.

Spoiler

Ok, you blow up the Citadel, you get caught in the explosion,

then some WTF hit me in the face.

Spoiler

The dude from the train shows up, stops time, tells me he's been getting 'offers for my services' like I'm some sort of intra-dimentional mercenary and he's my agent, then takes me on a journey on a time space train.

WTF?
What did all that mean? Is Half-Life suppost to be some sort of exsistentialist game?

 

[IBlackKiteI]

I havent played the first either, I think Half Life is just a lot of mindfuckery.

In a good way.

Have fun.

 

[Palademon]

All I know from watching Freeman's Mind is that the first one seems to have been saving the world from the aliens...only for them to be your friends in Half life 2...WTF?

 

[MrGalactus]

All I know from watching Freeman's Mind is that the first one seems to have been saving the world from the aliens...only for them to be your friends in Half life 2...WTF?

Oh I know the general story of HL1.

 

[Kollega]

The "dude from the train" is named G-Man, and he is the one who "hires" Gordon Freeman at the end of the first game (not that you really get an option to decline) to do his bidding. You are kind of like an interdimensional mercenary, and he is kind of like your agent.

But really, the plot of Half-Life is rather mysterious and limited. Nobody knows what the hell this G-Man is up to, what the Vortigaunts are up to, and how all this relates to the Combine and their all-encompassing conquest.

 

[MrGalactus]

The "dude from the train" is named G-Man, and he is the one who "hires" Gordon Freeman at the end of the first game to do his bidding. You are kind of like an intra-dimensional mercenary, and he is kind of like your agent.

Is that your impression or fact of the story?

 

[BrionJames]

I know, awesome right.

 

[blankedboy]

You need to play the end of the first game for it to make sense.
There's also another game in the Half-Life series that almost no-one knows about, I forgot the exact name but it started with 're'. It takes place between HL1 and HL2, and you're doing work for G-man. I'm pretty sure it's a third-party game, but since G-man sounds so similar it's hard to tell. Either way, that game was fucking awesome. I have it on a particularly rare edition of Counter-Strike, but it's not installed at the moment.

I feel like playing that now...

 

[Kollega]

The "dude from the train" is named G-Man, and he is the one who "hires" Gordon Freeman at the end of the first game to do his bidding. You are kind of like an intra-dimensional mercenary, and he is kind of like your agent.

Is that your impression or fact of the story?

It's the fact of the story. At the end of the first game (i didn't play it, but read things online), G-Man approaches you and basically says "you get to either work for me or die". And in the second game you apparently do what he wants - fight evil alien overlords opressing humanity.

 

[olendvcook]

The "dude from the train" is named G-Man, and he is the one who "hires" Gordon Freeman at the end of the first game to do his bidding. You are kind of like an intra-dimensional mercenary, and he is kind of like your agent.

Is that your impression or fact of the story?

fact

 

[PredatorKing]

The "dude from the train" is named G-Man, and he is the one who "hires" Gordon Freeman at the end of the first game to do his bidding. You are kind of like an intra-dimensional mercenary, and he is kind of like your agent.

Is that your impression or fact of the story?

That's the story.

All I know from watching Freeman's Mind is that the first one seems to have been saving the world from the aliens...only for them to be your friends in Half life 2...WTF?

There's a reason they're called "alien slaves" in Half-Life 1. I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out.

 

[Spineyguy]

In HL1 an experiment involving portal-related technology goes wrong and freeman is caught in the middle of it, the experiment opens a portal to the world of Xen which is home to many hostile and friendly creatures. After quelling the alien incursion, Freeman escapes the Black Mesa research facility in Nevada, which is now subject to a cover-up operation by the US government, and teleports into Xen. Once there, Freeman kills a creature called the Nihilanth, who had enslaved some of the more intelligent Xen lifeforms to its will. With the Nihilanth dead, the Xen lifeforms (well, most of them anyway) go back into the portal and the world is saved.

The G-man appears a lot in HL1, often just passively, but toward the end he informs Freeman that he has been being manipulated all along. The G-man is still an enigma and I believe that that is part of what makes Half-Life such a great series, Valve don't underestimate their audience and don't feel the need to explain every part of their plot in words of less than 2 syllables.

 

[MrGalactus]

Off topic fun-fact: Borderlands is based almost entirely off of an add-on for Half-Life 1 that Gearbox never finished, right down to the bosses, particularly the last boss
Back on topic time.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well this is the beauty of the Half-Life story for me, not everything is explained, there is alot of food for thought (if you like that sort of thing).
And it's quite a brain tease thinking about how it could all fit together.

 

[Balgus]

through out every half life game in certain areas if you look around you will see the Gman wonder in and out of existence, so far away from you that you have no chance of catching up to him. In HL1 you start in a 5 minute long tram tour of black mesa at the end of the game you're on one of those same trams with the Gman, after a conversation (him talking to you only) you get the choice of dying or becoming his mercenary. you choose the latter so starts HL2.

 

[Wieke]

In HL1 an experiment involving portal-related technology goes wrong and freeman is caught in the middle of it, the experiment opens a portal to the world of Xen which is home to many hostile and friendly creatures. After quelling the alien incursion, Freeman escapes the Black Mesa research facility in Nevada, which is now subject to a cover-up operation by the US government, and teleports into Xen. Once there, Freeman kills a creature called the Nihilanth, who had enslaved some of the more intelligent Xen lifeforms to its will. With the Nihilanth dead, the Xen lifeforms (well, most of them anyway) go back into the portal and the world is saved.

I'm quite certain that the Vorts were enslaved by the Nihilanth and were freed when Freeman killed it (in HL1 they wear some kind of slave/control collars). Apparently they chose to stick around. Also the Nihilanth and its slaves were working for (or possibly subjugated/enslaved by) the Combine. Who turned up in force when the initial invasion failed.

The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference... in the world.

Basically G-man's job description right there (imho), he puts the right man in the wrong place in order to make a difference, for a price of course.