Half-Life: Alyx - Valve's full-length flagship VR game set between HL1 and HL2

[Lyric Suite]

I am pretty sure that by this point, Valve is looking at mouse and keyboard mods and has already decided that if modders can't do it, they'll release it with a mouse+keyboard option for cheap when the game is a couple of years old.

Does it matter? The game is made for VR.

What Valve needs to do is release a single player game that isn't for VR but that won't happen.

 

[Rinslin Merwind]

More like Half Life 1 was a one hit wonder and Valve had the brain farts trying to come up with a follow up.

But at least Valve's "brain farts" resulted in something, meanwhile you trying to prove something to several people on Internet (and on codex, thats even worse) - a job that can be compared to lifting perfectly round stone on top of oiled up pyramid.

 

[Lyric Suite]

More like Half Life 1 was a one hit wonder and Valve had the brain farts trying to come up with a follow up.

But at least Valve's "brain farts" resulted in something, meanwhile you trying to prove something to several people on Internet (and on codex, thats even worse) - a job that can be compared to lifting perfectly round stone on top of oiled up pyramid.

He says, as he proceeds to do exactly the same.

 

[Rinslin Merwind]

He says, as he proceeds to do exactly the same.

Well I am at least self aware about things that I doing + I don't trying to shit on every game in existence for sake of cargo cult, it's your prerogative.
Also I trying right now to mod the shit out of Daggerfall Unity and has nothing better to do.

 

[Egosphere]

More like Half Life 1 was a one hit wonder and Valve had the brain farts trying to come up with a follow up.

But at least Valve's "brain farts" resulted in something,

Yeah, a botched storyline. HL2 relied on tech and art direction to carry it.

 

[Rinslin Merwind]

Yeah, a botched storyline.

Botched in HL2 or HL:Alyx botched it with retcon? Because depends on person, answer can be different.

 

[DalekFlay]

The praise HL2 got for its "story" was mostly all about setting, tone and visual design. Those are the things people love about it, not the plot specifically. Though I do think the story in HL2 is fine and it's the episodes that got stupid. HL2's ending is pretty solid, and should have set up a dynamic of Freeman hopping around in time solving problems, but gets immediately ruined by the episodes. Now Alyx shows that for most people Half-Life is about HL2's setting and characters, rather than a broader concept.

 

[Goldschmidt]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0WqAmuSXEQ

 

[Egosphere]

Yeah, a botched storyline.

Botched in HL2 or HL:Alyx botched it with retcon? Because depends on person, answer can be different.

HL2. Alyx, from what I've seen, plays it very safe.

 

[Rinslin Merwind]

HL2. Alyx, from what I've seen, plays it very safe.

Well, I do not find HL2 plot THAT horrible, except decision to introduce a stupid episodic system that (as history shows) don't do good to games at all.
Apparently "geniuses" at Valve was thinking about introducing episodes with short period in between them, but they completely forgot how their company works and in result we got abrupt ending with cliffhanger and more than decade of waiting.

 

[Lyric Suite]

They should have finished it. Who cares if the episodic model was a failure, or if it took two years to do something they expected should have taken six months to make. Just finish it and move on. Valve abandoning their flagship series like that really reflects negatively on them no matter what anyone says. I would have gone so far as finish it even if it meant losing money in the process just for the sake of maintaining good will with the fans, but i guess corporations gotta corporate no matter what.

 

[Morgoth]

They should have finished it. Who cares if the episodic model was a failure, or if it took two years to do something they expected should have taken six months to make. Just finish it and move on. Valve abandoning their flagship series like that really reflects negatively on them no matter what anyone says. I would have gone so far as finish it even if it meant losing money in the process just for the sake of maintaining good will with the fans, but i guess corporations gotta corporate no matter what.

You still don't get Valve.

 

[Lyric Suite]

What am i not getting?

 

[Morgoth]

What am i not getting?

The "corporations gotta corporate" part. Inform yourself how Valve operates. They have been talking about this for only over a decade, slowpoke.

 

[schru]

By the way, I was curious, Lyric Suite, did you dislike the Episodes even more than HL2 itself?

I don't remember much from them. I vaguely remember some interesting set pieces but that's about it. All i remember is that i had to force myself to finish both the main game and the expansions.

I was wondering because if anything, they should have annoyed you a lot more given the nearly constant presence of Alyx and the amount of time spent on ‘interactive’ cutscenes. They did flow well, though.

How exactly was the crow-bar thing pandering? It was an iconic weapon in the first game, so why not bring it back?

It's iconic to us. It makes no sense to be referenced as iconic in the game world. Why would Barney know or care about it? It was just something you picked up first because it was laying around in the lab. You, the player would remember the crowbar, but Gordon Freeman wouldn't care and neither would anybody from the lab assuming the guard you meet in the beginning, since this is who Barney is supposed to be, survived the ordeal.

Regarding the crow-bar, basically yes, if we're to look at it so literally. I just don't see a problem with the occasional funny line directed at the player. If we're to consider more pedantically what's probably and what isn't, though, there's nothing stopping Barney from having a vivid memory of Gordon with the crow-bar, if we assume he was the first guard we meet in HL. In HL2, it might just be the case that a crow-bar was lying around when Barney had to quickly improvise something and said his line because it was a way of relieving tension through humour. This kind of argumentation is stupid, I know, but the details of this sort aren't exactly the point in action hero plots, even a bit more grounded ones like Half-Life.

And don't forget, this is in a game that broke any continuity with the story in the original for no apparent reason, introducing a new random location and a new threat with no explanation on how anybody from Black Mesa ended up there and no reason anybody should regard Gordon as some kind of messianic savior, but that's how you are treated by the denizens of City 17.

I don't think there's any problem with continuity. It was Valve's intention to leave Black Mesa behind right away as it was they who told Gearbox to nuke it in Opposing Force. If I remember correctly, it was the single plot point they asked them to incorporate. The change of setting is obviously motivated by the desire to have something fresh and interesting, which City 17 is. The problem with the level design being less interesting in some important ways is another matter, as the new setting was big and diverse enough to accommodate mostly anything.

The way the continuity and change of setting seem to work—and a lot in the story is implicit, which I think is to be appreciated—is that the Combine organized mass scale relocations of populations to subjugate and control people better, placing them away from home and relations. Then, City 17 is particularly important because of the Citadel and Dr Breen's administration of earth being located there. The people from Black Mesa probably followed him there because only they know what is involved in teleportation technology that the Combine use to maintain access to earth and this is the key-point where it can be sabotaged. If we're looking for continuity, teleportation is one of the major motifs.

About the way Gordon is treated as a messianic figure, it gets a bit jarring later, but early on he is merely warmly received by his old acquaintances and the patchwork resistance network recognizes him because it was told to give help to Freeman along the way. Given the feats Freeman managed in the first game—and that didn't merely consist in surviving, because he launched the rocket as the Lambda team asked him to do, then went to the Lambda complex, and then to Xen to save the day—his having some reputation among the people who were at Black Mesa is reasonable. Then there are also the vortigaunts who were slaves in the first game, apparently both to Nihilanth and the Combine (check what Nihilanth says in the first game if you find the latter implausible), who sing Freeman's praise for freeing them and they work with the resistance.

As the game goes on, Freeman eludes the Overwatch forces repeatedly and destroys a prison, which again not unreasonably earns him popularity with the resistance. Why wouldn't the people fighting in the street war later in the game express excitement about fighting alongside Freeman when they get the chance? Their overly polite demeanour is silly and you do get showered with excessive attention over time, I agree, but this is more of a question of poor tone than some plot illogicality. And just to be clear, I do think he tone would have been better if you were more anonymous through the game. For what it's worth, the Marines in Half-Life also start recognizing Freeman later on and focusing on him to some degree, what with the chapter ‘Forget about Freeman!’.

It's worth noting that there was also that one resistance outpost on the coast where you can see the G-Man speaking to the commander ahead of your arrival. If anything, the whole plot of Half-Life 2 seems more like the G-Man is using you as an agent provocateur to provoke the resistance to start an uprising which they likely couldn't win (the Episodes messed with this unfortunately), but which served his interests in some way.

Half Life 1 had this nice, X-files style sci-fi story with secret labs, government cover ups and aliens from another dimension. Gordon was no hero he was just a guy who survived because he had the suit. They didn't explain why he was good with guns but you can retcon some military background as well, which wouldn't be unusual. But now you are literally Jesus and everybody has to constantly remind you how awesome you are for every thing you do. At that point in the game i had a few questions though:

I agree about Half-Life's setting, but the sequel also has some cool motifs: Eastern European city with this post-Communist æsthetic and the overlaid high-technology alien police state on top of it and alien-fauna-infested wastelands around it. The Combine's architecture has a particularly memorable look, too bad the level design in the Citadel was what it was. Instead of nineties secret government laboratories and outfits we get a development of the theme of transhumanism with this crude, industrial twist.

Gordon was indeed just out to survive initially in the first game, but it did change later on as I explained. Yet in Half-Life 2 he is also thrust into the whole situation without prior knowledge of what he's getting into and he basically stumbles around to get away from the police forces chasing him, later on helping the scientists by going to that prison, like in the first game he did with the rocket, and then going for the final show-down in the Citadel, as he did in the first game by going to Xen.

Retconning a military background for Gordon wouldn't really work as his biography, as outlined in the manual and in the opening titles of the game, indicates that he specialized in physics. But explaining why he happened to be so good at surviving doesn't really matter, does it? It just so happened and it's fine for this kind of a story.

1) Where the fuck is City 17, and how did everybody from Black Mesa ended up there?

It's and amalgamation of Central-Eastern European locations, but it probably fits best in Bulgaria where the lead artist is from. The Overwatch Nexus building later in the game is based on the Parliament of Serbia. As for why everyone is there, see above.

2) The alien invasion must have been world wide, where as the events of Black Mesa happened in a secret base in the middle of the desert how would anybody know what happened there or care? Did the scientists from Black Mesa spread the tale of Gordon Freeman? Why?

Well, since some of those scientists are key members of the local resistance, yeah, they probably spread the word to raise to morale. In a world without media or most other elements of modern life, such things would spread quickly through the word of mouth.

3) Who the fuck are the Combines? And if the military of all the world governments failed to stop them, what they expect you do to?

This is where the agent provocateur part might come in. You're actually never, at any point in the story, asked to do anything about the Combine as a whole. You were brought there by the G-Man for some reason and that's supposed to be a mystery that keeps things interesting. It's really astounding how many people complaining about Half-Life 2's plot don't get it. The Black Mesa team probably struck some deal with the G-Man, but he was actually getting something else entirely out of it, as Dr Breen implies at the end. The way the game ends, the resistance is fighting a hopeless war and then you blow up the Citadel's teleportation device, possibly killing everyone, after which the G-Man removes you from action as though you had accomplished your mission. It gives the whole plot a nice dark twist, as it seems that you weren't there to help the resistance at all. I don't like how the Episodes undermined this to a degree by minimizing the aftermath.

You know, somewhere in my brain i'm also starting to suspect they picked that setting because whatever retarded hipster came up with it probably thought he was making some kind of artistic statement by referencing WWII and the Nazis, which totally fits with the story of the original which was about the dangers of scientific experiments and even has a sciency name like "Half Life".

The hipster in question was Viktor Antonov, also responsible for the art styles and settings of Redneck Rampage and Kingpin: Life of Crime. If anything, the setting of Half-Life 2 rather alludes to Soviet totalitarianism (mass relocations, constant oversight, uniformity, transhumanism with some utopian scientific propaganda), with Nazi stuff only having minor influence on some uniforms or the way the APCs look. As for the theme of the dangers of scientific experiments, the story does deal with the aftermath of those and the plot in the Episodes was leading up to something like that again, if you recall.

* * *

Anyway, I think if the veneration Gordon receives were done away with and the game's plot didn't have that emphasis on character drama, but instead this eerie theme of your being inserted there by the G-Man to play a part unknown to you were emphasized a little more, the story would have been perfect. The way you are placed in a strange place and strange situation and how you stumble around around in the midst of events that spiral out of control is what makes the game's story good.

They should have finished it. Who cares if the episodic model was a failure, or if it took two years to do something they expected should have taken six months to make. Just finish it and move on. Valve abandoning their flagship series like that really reflects negatively on them no matter what anyone says. I would have gone so far as finish it even if it meant losing money in the process just for the sake of maintaining good will with the fans, but i guess corporations gotta corporate no matter what.

They are a corporation legally, but they are not publically traded and Newell remains the sole owner. I think only a few other senior employees were given shares, perhaps to secure the company's future for when Newell retires. I do agree that they should have finished it and that it's been disappointing. The reason for it was probably both that they were dissatisfied with how it was shaping up and kept extending development to experiment and because other lucrative projects required attention along the way.

Autism ratings here, please. ↓

 

[Stella Brando]

City 17 is in Russia.

It's deliberately not in any one country, but was partially inspired by the art director's home town - Sofia, Bulgaria.

Now Alyx shows that for most people Half-Life is about HL2's setting and characters, rather than a broader concept.

Yeah, that is strange. Setting the first part of something in Arizona and the second part in Eastern Europe implies a globe-hopping series.

Episode 3 was going to be set at the north pole, creating a trend of getting colder each time. Episode 4 in space?

 

[Morgoth]

City 17 is in Russia.

Actually, it's Bulgaria. This is where humanity goes to die.

 

[Egosphere]

It's deliberately not in any one country, but was partially inspired by the art director's home town - Sofia, Bulgaria.

Actually, it's Bulgaria. This is where humanity goes to die.

All the writing in Alyx, and in Episode 2 ( I think) is in russian (it was in bulgarian in the demos for Alyx). Also, there's that globe near the start which has a western bit of it circled. As for inspiration, Prague, Riga, Sofia, St P, Belgrade and probably a whole bunch of other cities can serve as the real world analogue for bits and pieces of 17.

 

[schru]

Apparently in Half-Life 2 itself the Cyrillic writings are in Bulgarian, while the Episodes have a few in Russian: https://half-life.fandom.com/wiki/City_17#Background_and_origins_of_City_17

 

[Alienman]

I guess the combine didn't care enough to do the research to get it correct.

 

[cosmicray]

If that has to become a central aspect of the game, i don't know, make them hard to solve? They don't seem any harder than the "puzzles" from Half Life 2 itself. The game is really less of a game and more of a walking simulator.

When Valve's puzzle-game wasn't even remotely hard, then what did you expect?

 

[Lyric Suite]

If that has to become a central aspect of the game, i don't know, make them hard to solve? They don't seem any harder than the "puzzles" from Half Life 2 itself. The game is really less of a game and more of a walking simulator.

When Valve's puzzle-game wasn't even remotely hard, then what did you expect?

Ok but Half Life 2 was still a shooter. This game seems to be more about interaction.

 

[cosmicray]

Ok but Half Life 2 was still a shooter. This game seems to be more about interaction.

Valve seems to be bent on pleasing playtesters, so you probably won't have anything hard to begin with. Then add VR to the equation. Valve wants it to be a smooth experience for a player. They aren't capable of being bold.

 

[Dexter]

 

[Dayyālu]

I have nothing to say (HL2 discussion is repetitive by nature at this point) but I saw this video too, and goshdammit 2020 and we purposefully get worse AI than the HECU

It's painful to watch at times, particularly the Heavy "AI"



FIFTEEEN YEARS