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1. Changelog
2. Controls
3. Allies
4. Enemies
5. Weapons
6. Walkthrough
7. Story Overview and Common Speculation
7a. Gman Theory's [Thanks to Soul Harvester]
8. Half-Life 1 Story Summary
9. Useful Console Commands
1. Changelog
Version .01 - Started FAQ on 11/23/04
2. Controls
This is an overview of the default controls for
Half-Life 2. These settings can be changed from
the options menu.
-= HL2 =-
2) Allies
Alyx Vance - The Young daughter of Eli Vance your Co-Worker in Black
Mesa. She accompanies you shortly several times throughout the game
sporting a modified Glock18 Pistol. Though most of the time when you
see her it is only for a short moment and will only see her in combat
once or twice throughout the entire game.
Barney Calhoun - One of the smarter security guards that made it out of
Black Mesa. He also starred in his own expansion pack Blue-Shift.
Barney is the leader of the rebel movement in City17 and will play a
major part in the story as well as in combat alongside of you. Same
rules apply with Barney as Alyx unfortunately you will see him more in
story related scenes than you ever will in combat.
Eli Vance - One of your Scientist friends that didn't meet your crowbar
in Black Mesa. Even though you did not kill him he lost his leg during
the incident. Eli plays a major role in the Rebel movement in City-17 by
supplying the technology that is needed to run it.
Dr. Kleiner - Another survivor of the black Mesa incident. Like Eli he
concentrates on the science part of the movement rather than the combat.
He initially develops the unstable teleportation technology that allows
movement in City17. He also has a pet headcrab Lamarr who also seems to
stir up trouble when it is least needed.
Judith Mossman - This scientist has "issues" ill just leave it at that.
She's very jelious of Gordon and thinks that if it was up to her the
Resonance Cascade would have never happened.
Father Gregory - A new character in Half-Life 2. You meet Father Gregory
in Ravenholm. Sporting a double barreled shotgun he will be essential
to your survival. While quite insane he has set up various traps
scattered around Ravenholm that will also help you safely navigate the
city.
Dog - Alyx's pet dog is a robotic "guardian" Eli built to protect Alyx
as a kid. Alyx has been adding to him ever since and at this point
in time is about 8 feet tall and can throw combine APC's like they are
baseballs.
Vortigaunts - Little is known about these allies in this game. In
Half-Life they were your most common enemies throughout the game
firing bolts of lightning at you. When you destroyed Nihilith at the
end of Half-Life you apparently set them free from their slavery.
Resistance Members - You will not see many of them until the end of the
game but when you do they are incredibly strong allies. Medics will
randomly pass out health kits and the others will pick up the strongest
weapon on the ground. Keep them alive at all costs.
G-Man - Very little is known about this mysterious person other than he
always has a teleportation portal at his hands and he put you in some
type of stasis at the end of Half-Life. Keep your eyes open you can
see him 8 times in the game not including the opening and ending
sequences.
4. Enemies
Headcrab - Possibly the most annoying enemy in the game. The headcrab
attaches to a host body and controls them turning them into a zombie.
There are other headcrab varients such as the Poison Headcrab which
turns its host into a Poison Zombie.
Zombie - The result of a headcrab attaching to a host body. On harder
difficulty's it will take quite a few pistol and MP-7 rounds to kill
one. If you can find an object such as sawblades or explosives barrels
use them instead of your weapons. They are always an instant kill.
Poison Zombie - A zombie which has 4 poison headcrabs attached to it.
This is the strongest zombie you will encounter it will take a minimum
of 4 point blank shotgun hits to kill one on the harder difficulties.
This zombie will actually throw poison headcrabs at you, if one bites
it brings you down to 1 health which slowly goes back to full but if
the poison zombie hits you with one health your dead....
Fast Zombie - These zombies are actually weaker than normal zombies but
are extremely fast and can climb up walls and jump across buildings
making them hard to hit. If climbing up a pipe whip out your .357
Magnum and pop one in their head for a quick kill. Otherwise use your
Spas-12 and put 2 rounds in their head.
Barnacle - These attach to ceilings and let their toung hang down.
Kind of resembling a venus flytrap they suck in any prey that touch
them. Best way to kill them is to find an explosive barrel and throw
it into their tounge. They usually hang around in packs of 4-8
Antlion - These enemies are exactly what they sound like, vicious
insects. Resembling the aliens from Starship Troopers these enemies
will appear out of nowhere and swarm you in packs. Stay off the sand
in order to avoid them. Later in the game you can use antlion pheromones
to control these vicious beasts.
Ant Lion Guard - Momma antlion hasn't liked you slaughtering her babies.
Larger and Stronger than a normal antlion it will take at least 18
point blank shotgun hits to kill, your best bet is running and throwing
large objects at her, such as exploding barrels, sinks, and radiators.
Metro Police (Civil Protection) - The combine use these "police" to
guard areas of city17 without using brute military force. Sporting
pistols and stunsticks they wont hesitate to beat you to death if you
look at them the wrong way.
Combine Soldier - The grunt of the combine forces. Usually sporting
Pulse rifles, MP7's and Shotguns, these grunts will usually attack in
packs of 4-5. Not much is known about the combine but several rumors
are floating around. More on that later.
Combine Elite - The special forces of the combine. Take these guys out
as soon as you see them, they have extreme accuracy and will not
hesitate to bury you.
Strider - A gigantic walking spider which has a large pulse cannon
mounted underneath. The Strider also has a large powerful laser that
will blow up parts of City17 in scripted events. Even if you do not
get caught in the beam itself the splash will do considerable damage.
Scanner - These fly around City 17 taking your picture and reporting
back to the combine. These are more annoying than they are effective.
Later in the game an upgraded version of the scanner will appear being
slightly more armored.
Rollermines - These will appear around Highway 17 attaching to your
dung buggy causing it to go out of control. While not driving they will
attempt to roll around and shock you. Only way to dispose of them is to
grab them with your gravity gun and throw them elsewhere.
ManHack - These are built on the same technology as the scanner.
They will fly around and attempt to kill you with their spinning
sawblade. Your crowbar or gravity gun is your best bet for taking them
out. If you feel like having some fun grab a manhack and press it into
an enemy for a slow painful death.
Combine APC - These tanks will set themselves up on various areas of
the game. They don't pose much of a threat but can take a beating when
you need to kill them. They fire heat seeking rockets and a machine gun
when you get too close to them.
Hunter-Chopper Gunship - This gunship will follow you from the beginning
of the game up until the end of the airboat chapters. They will attempt
to sweep over you firing their machine gun at you. Towards the end of
the fight they will start to drop mines in your path which can esally
be destroyed with your mounted gun on your boat.
Combine Gunship - These flying organic looking gunship only fires a
machinegun at you. Though its armament is a bit low it is incredibly
hard to get a shot off on them as they have incredible reflexes and
shoot down your RPG's with ease. Attempt to steer the RPG's above the
gunship and come in from behind
5. weapons
Crowbar
Ammo: N/A
Range: Melee
Your Crowbar returns in Half-Life 2 though its effectiveness is lowered
quite a bit. I only used the crowbar maybe 4 times in the game, it is
quickly replaced by the Gravity Gun early in the game.
Gravity Gun
Ammo: N/A
Effective Range: Small
Right click to activate the guns "tractor beam" which will pick up
objects and make them hover in front of your gun. Leftclick to punt the
object farther away. A tutorial section within the game will explain
the Gravity Gun is slightly larger detail.
USP Match
Ammo: 9MM
Capacity: 18 rounds; 8 Spare Magazines (150 rounds)
Range: Long
The pistol is rather weak normally. Though it does have the longest
range its recoil will quickly throw you off target. The USP has a
secret secondary fire mode though. If you hold your right mouse button
and your left mouse button at the same time it charges bullets 1 at a
time. If you wait 18 seconds and release your secondary fire (right
mouse button). It will fire all 18 rounds at once without a recoil
penalty.
Magnum Revolver
Ammo: .357 Magnum
Range: Long
Capacity: 6 rounds; 2 Spare Magazines (12 Rounds)
The revolver makes its return giving you the maximum damage for any
ballistics based weapon in the game. A headshot on most if not all
enemies in the game will result in a kill even on the highest difficulty
setting. It's deadly accuracy and high damage make this one of the best
weapons in the game.
This is perhaps the weakest gun in the game offset but its incredible
rate of fire. The 4.7 round will leave you wondering why they even put
this in the game but if you learn how to aim for the head correctly it
is rather deadly on antlions and zombies. Combine soldiers are another
story however, it takes almost an entire magazine to kill a combine
soldier.
Combine Pulse Rifle (IRIFLE)
Ammo: Combine Energy Packs
Range: Long(er) than most
Capacity: 30 rounds; 2 Magazines (60 rounds)
Secondary: Ricocheting Energy Ball that materializes anything it
touches[3]
This is one of the new weapons in Half-Life 2. Usually found with
combine elites and some grunts the IRIFLE, as it's known by most
of the community, packs quite a punch against any enemy. 5-8 direct hits
will take down a zombie. But this guns true power lies in its Secondary
Fire. If you see a room you cant clear bounce one of these balls off
a wall and it will kill most enemies in that room if not all.
Spas-12
Ammo: 12ga Buckshot
Range: Close
Capacity: 6 Rounds; 30 spare shells
Secondary: Fire 2 rounds at once
The shotgun is most likely going to be your most used weapon in the game
next to the gravity gun. The shotgun borders on unbalanced compared to
other weapons. 1 shot kill to the head and with its secondary fire it
will kill anyone that is made of an organic composition. This IS the
ultimate weapon in the game, don't waste it.
The Crossbow is perhaps the most original in a game considering how
it's used. The crossbow appears to have a heating mechanism on it which
heats up rebar to fire essentially molten metal sticks at people. The
physics on this gun is really what makes it stand out. The rebar does
not instantly hit whatever you aim at it fires very slowly and has
ballistics which means that it will drop with distance. If you manage
to kill someone standing next to the wall it will pin them to the wall
which makes for a rather comedic kill.
HE Grenades
Capacity: 5
Range: Small
Secondary: Roll the grenade
The grenades don't have much range but are still just as effective. The
secondary fire rolls a grenade which can do one of two things. Drop it
at your feet or make the grenade roll far away which is useful for
taking out turrets. If you stand up while doing it you'll drop it, if
you crouch before rolling the grenade will roll across the ground. The
HE grenade, Contact Grenades, and RPG have the exact same damage and
splash radius.
RPG - Advanced Rocket Propelled Grenade
Ammo: 3 rockets onboard
Effective Range: Long
Rockets have stayed almost the same from Half-Life. The RPG has a laser
sighting mechanism on the bottom and the rocket is laser guided.
Needless to say wherever you point the laser the rocket will go. The
rocket doesn't appear to have a "life span" so if you keep it circling
a target it wont die.
Antlion pheromones ("Bug Bait")
Ammo: N/A
Effective Range: Medium
The bugbait is perhaps the most amusing "weapon" in the game. If you
throw this even in the vicinity of a target antlions will swarm from
all directions flying over fences, brick walls, up towers, etc. A
tutorial section will trigger in the game explaining how to use them
a bit more.
6. Walkthrough
6a. Point Insertion
This chapter starst with a nice meeting with Gman which leaves some
speculation about what happened the past 10 or so years. But when that
is over walk forward and talk to the people on the train if you wish.
When the train stops walk off the train and make a left turn. If you
want to catch the entire story talk to as many NPC's and listen to as
many messages from Dr. Breen as you can. Take another left turn and
walk through the bars. Walk through the cage and follow the combines
instructions until you get to an interrogation room. After your meeting
go into the next room and climb up the ladder. Press "E" to "use" the
boxes and stack one under the window to climb out of it. Proceed through
the door on the right and you will be greeted with one of many loading
screens.
Walk forward and make a left. Pick up the can and you can do one of
two things, Throw it in the Metro Cop's face, or put it in the trash
can. One of the outcomes is humorous but one is safe, you decide. Keep
following the path until you get to the double doors. Welcome to the
city 17 Plaza.
When you get outside make a right and follow that path until you can
make another right into an alley. Jump on top of the dumpster and climb
up the ladder. Look to your right there is a hole in the walkway. Drop
down onto the crate and keep going forward. To your left is a body with
a few combine, you don't want to mess with them, make a right and
follow that path until you come to a building with an unguarded door.
Enter that door and you will be greeted with your 2nd wonderful load
screen.
Make your way up the stairs and down to the end of the hall. Now heres
where the rest of the game starts, keep running the combine are after
you. When you get to the top floor someone will motion for you to come
into their room. All citizens will never mislead you, always listen to
them. When you get in there they will tell you to run for the roof, keep
going until you get to an attic.
When you move towards the opening the door will bust open, from this
point on you must keep running to avoid being killed. Go along the
roof and make your way into an open window to your right. Make your
way down the stairs and let the combine beat you with their sticks.
Get used to this girl, she saves you more than once in the game. This
is Alyx. Follow her until you get to Kliener's lab.
6b. "A Red Letter Day"
Listen to all Kliener's moaning until you get your HEV suit. Then power
up your suit next to the I-Beam. Enter the teleportation chamber. Wait
for Alyx to be raised up and wait for the plug to fall out, look at it
and press "E" (use) so that you pick it up and move it towards the
outlet to put it back in. After another few seconds they will say
"Gordon pull the switch". Look to your right there will be a box with
a red lever in there, Press "E" again. After Alyx is teleported wait
for it to come back down again for you, after a few "smart" comments
by Barney you will be able to enter the chamber. Wait another few
seconds and after a few "difficulties" you will be outside.
/=============\
/ Bug Report \
===========================================================
|More Than once I've had system crashes after the teleport|
|Sequence, I belive it is something to do with Advanced |
|shaders that are being used. If you experience any type |
|of crashing or difficulty in this section turn down your |
|Shaders. If this does not work skip to the next map which|
|would be d1_trainstation_06.bsp. Type ..... |
|"Map d1_trainstation_06.bsp" in your "developer" console |
|which you can enable from options->keyboard->advanced |
===========================================================
After you are outside look to your left, there should be a dead end in
the walkway. Jump down through that hole and look to your right there
should be a door that allows you to enter the transformer cage. Don't
worry they wont fry you, look to your right again and you should see a
cement wall. Wait for Barney to give you your crowbar and break the
wood on the door. Drop down and enter the first train in front of you.
Break the boxes and continue through the back of the train. Now look
to your right and sprint (Shift) as fast as you can until you can get
in front of the train on your left. Once you do keep going down that
path until you can enter another train car. This time go up the ladder
to the top of the train, and jump OVER the fence and continue through
the path. Break the wood on the doorway and enter the building. Welcome
to another load screen.
6c. Route Kanal
Walk forward and recharge your health if needed at the station, if not
don't forget about its location, you will be engaging in a little
crowbar to head combat in a second. As I said you will be engaging in
combat ahead. in front of you are two Metro Cop's, one will pull out a
stunstick and one will pull out his handgun. He will not fire his
handgun until you kill one of them. So don't worry about both just kill
one at a time. Recharge your health when your done and be sure to pick
up the handgun. Continue down the hall and up the stairs shooting any
combine who get in your path. Always aim for the chest if shooting
multiple times because the recoil will not allow you to keep a bead on
their head. When you finally make it outside stand on the top of the
rusted stairs and wait for the train. You must jump on top of the train
car and onto the other platform across the tracks. Don't attempt to do
this with the train in motion. Break the wood on the door and enter
the building. Stand back a bit and fire two shots into the red barrel
let it blow up and exit through the area you just blew open. While
waiting for the barrel to explode there is a medkit and USP ammo to
your left in between some floor boards. When you get outside of the
house there will be two combine to your right, blow up the barrels
with a few shots in them, I recommend the barrel on top of the dumpster.
After they are disposed of "use" the metal door and continue down the
path a few more combine will pop up ignore them and keep running if you
attempt to kill them more will come. Jump over the bent fence make a
right continue down the path make another right and duck under the
shipping containers in a path that you cant miss. When you get through
the path continue right to the end and jump down where the fence ends.
Head right and near the stairs combine will appear....You can shoot the
barrels but if your unlucky they will blow up next to you so do as
you see fit. Continue through the path shooting whatever combine you
see. You'll eventually get to a skybridge connecting the two sides of
the train tracks. Kill the combine below and break the boxes blocking
your path with your trusty crowbar. Continue through the path until
you get to the train tracks again. Head left and dispose of the 3
combine you see. If you need to turn around and kill the other 3
combine. After your done with your combine slaughter there is an open
section in the fence which allows you to jump onto a walkway. Even
though the water is very dirty suck it up and jump down into the water
and navigate between the bent sections of fence. On the left of the
rusty train car is a ladder. Climb up it and drop down into the opening
in the train car and speak with the vortigaunt and civilian. After a
conversation they will open the car door for you. Exit the car and
break the shipping crate blocking your path. You will be greeted with
yet another loading screen at this point.
in front of you are some wooden support beams. Break a few of them and
the entire thing will collapse. Continue down the path, making note of
the barnacle, until you meet some new combine troops. GO right and
sprint into the open sewer. Turn on your flashlight you will encounter
1-2 combine in this sewer. Grab the health at the end of the path and
climb up the ladder killing the combine at the top. Now the fun start,
use the combine turret and blast the crap out of anything that comes
towards you. When you see the missiles start coming towards you it's
your sign to blow up the barrel on the shelf to your right and run
across that path as fast as you can. Continue down this linear path
avoiding the barnacles until you get out into the open. At this point
a woman will scream "over here" you can listen to her but she doesn't
say anything useful. Next to her though is another sewer you can enter,
you've probably figured out by now that you need to get in there.
When you reach the end of the sewer you will see two combine above you,
ignore them. Get to the oposet side of the room and crouch-jump onto the
ledge and continue into the next room. Now you must jump into the water
and stay under it, combine will be throwing flaming barrels at you
from above. Wait till they're done and shoot them while your underwater.
When all the barrels are exploded jump up into the open sewer tunnel.
When you reach the outside again 7 or 8 combine will be waiting for you.
Kill them, blow them up, do whatever you need to do until you get to a
wooden bridge. When you do blow up the barrels under it and proceed
through. Look up to your right you will see a small area with barrels
blocking it, duck under the cement ceiling and hit the middle barrel
with your crowbar to move it out of the way and hopefully hit a barnacle.
This part is a little tricky if your not innovative luckily your
reading this FAQ because you got lost. Take the red barrel to your
left "use" it, run forward and let go of it to let a barnacle pick
it up. On its ascent shoot it twice, when it blows it will take out 9
barnacles with it. Go through the path until you get outside again.
This parts also a tiny bit tricky, swim underwater until you reach the
bridge, ignore the combine shooting at you. Climb up the ladder on the
right connected to the bridge and swim underwater again till you get to
the end of the canal. To your left should be a wooden "ramp" leading you
out of the water. Now you can dispose of the combine, I recommend using
the explosive barrels. Now jump across the peices of wood making a U
turn into the sewer tunnel to your left. Here is the next section of
the level.
When you are finished loading pick up as many cinder blocks as you can
and place them on the oposet end of the sea-saw type thing. Continue
through the path but be wary a Hunter-Chopper is hovering overhead you
can probably hear it by now. sprint through the next area heading left
down the ramp and left again onto the walkway. If you sprinted the
entire way this should be the second time the chopper is taking a shot
at you, When you get to the door hide behind the barrels until the
chopper is done shooting at you. When it is move the barrel out of the
way of the blue door and head down the stairs into the sewer. Head left
then make a quick right and yet another right. Use the same explosive
barrel technique for the two sets of barnacles ahead. Continue down
the linear path until you get to another door. Head left and follow the
other linear path through the sewers. Welcome to the next loading screen.
Break the boxes down the path and grab one of the explosive barrels and
bring it with you. When you meet up with the next resistance member the
explosion will definantly help. After a small conversation he will head
to a door. Several manhacks will break through but luckily you have
your conveniently placed barrel. When you see the first manhack or
two blow up the barrel with a few well placed shots and that should
destroy most, if not all of the manhacks. Don't worry about harming the
civilian nothing in this game that you do can kill or hurt them at all.
Continue through the door following the path until you meet some more
manhacks, its crowbar time, get your timing down and wack them just as
they charge you, if your good enough you wont get hurt at all. After
they are killed continue through the path, more manhacks will appear.
This time you have more conveniently placed barrels to blow up, shoot
the one in the middle of the hallway 3 times to blow it up immedietly
and run away because the barrel closest to you will blow up shortly.
Head down the path and through the door to your left. Two combine will
appear shoot them and head through the next door. More manhacks will
appear (aren't these persistent little buggers) but you do not have to
engage them. Just close the door behind you they can't get in. Move
down the path and jump on top of the pipes near the red light. Bust
open the vent and head through it, up ahead is another manhack but
it's easy enough to dispose of them. Ahead of you are several supply
crates, I haven't listed the locations of others because they don't
really mean much but these help greatly. Backtrack through the vent
and elminiate the combine at the end. Jump down into the sewer and
head forward. Several combine will appear, dispose of them whichever
way you'd like.
After killing the first combine you will pick up your first automatic
weapon, the Mp7 machine pistol. Don't worry about ammo for this little
thing everyone has it from this point on. You will see a rotating
"thing" in front of you. Jump into the water and down to your left will
be an opening to swim through. Head left and walk up the stairs. Dispose
of the two combine pick up their ammo and then jump on the large pipe,
turn around and you should see some steam coming out of the pipe. DO NOT
run into the steam it will hurt you greatly, walk up until you get to
the first steam vent and shoot the barnacle up top, wait for the steam
to go away and run across quickly. To your left is some ammo if you wish
to grab it and do the same for the rest of the steam until you reach the
end. At the end of the pipe will be a manhack dispose of it and look to
your right. There is some wooden planks, as you can guess you must
destroy them. After you drop down from the pipe proceed through the
small opening to your right. When you get outside watch out for the
barrels. I accidently blew one up next to me and I had a VERY hard
time going through this area. If you happen to hurt yourself severely
run through the next part going through the opening to your right,
running past the manhacks and grabbing health from the supply crates at
the end of the linear hall.
To be Continued...
7. Story Overview/Theory's
7a. Gman Theory's
I've read this on the steampowered forums. I have full permission
from "Soul Harvester to include these writings in my FAQ and have
enjoyed reading them. You should too. These are strictly copy and paste
and have not been checked for grammar errors.
G-Man Does NOT = Gordon Freeman
Valve, as a collective, are not morons. They understand that
a) due to the various and sundry theories of the manner of space and
time, going back in time and interacting with yourself is impossible.
b) they know that time travel has been done to death, and using such
a method to explain the mystery of the G-Man would be the lamest thing
mankind has ever seen.
G-Man Does NOT = Old Man Freeman
The G-Man is not Gordon's father, either. Why? Let me throw a line at ya.
"I am your father."
What does this conjure up? A fitting end to the greatest gaming
experience ever? No! It conjures up Darth ****ing Vader, that's who!
The Father Ending has been done already! There is no way Valve is going
to cheapen us, the fans, and themselves as men of art by ripping the end
from Star Wars.
G-Man = God or Satan, and Gordon = Jesus, Messiah
I sure as hell hope this isn't the case, or I'm going to take a
crowbar to Gabe's sack.
G-Man is David Bowie
This is quite possible. Further research will be needed.
Right, so now we know who the G-Man ISN'T, we can start thinking about
who he is. There've been a few very interesting theories tossed about
so far, and then there have been many more truly retarded ones, mostly
from people with no concept of the difference between "u" and "you". I
think I've read most of the useful ones...spread out, for some reason,
across a number of threads. It might be worth the mods time to make a
"Half-Life 2 Theories Thread" or something. Back on topic I go.
Right, who is the G-Man? Let's think about it.
First of all, the dude with the dark eyes in the picture in Kleiner's
office is NOT the G-Man. Go and play HL1 again if you don't remember
this guy. The scribbled out face is Breen, btw, Dr. Kleiner can't stand
the bas...er, the jerk.
So that rules out the possibility of being the guy behind the Black
Mesa Anomalous Materials Research Team. The administrator, as we all
know, was Dr. Breen, so G-Man couldn't have been that guy. So he would
have to be even higher than that.
So we have one possibility. Climb the ladder of the Black Mesa
heirarchy, and at the top is the G-Man. It would explain his heavy use
of teleporting, appearing and disappearing at random throughout both
games.
So that's one at least passable theory. On to the next, the "President
of the Universe" theory.
This one paints each universe, or dimension, as having a "overlord" of
sorts...a guy who's in charge of everything, is omnipotent, and rules
the roost. Like a God, yes, but not in the biblical fire and brimstone
sense. Each Universe has one, and the theory goes that the G-Man is our
one. He's currently at loggerheads with another one, the one Breen is
allied with. So they fight through their pawns, like a game of chess.
Freeman is the G-Man's most bada$$ pawn, but he has others...like Eli,
Alyx, Barney and Dog. This would explain a quote by Dr. Breen in "Dark
Energy".
"Having {Gordon and Eli} in my keeping means I can dictate the terms
of any bargain I care to make with the combine."
Thinking again in terms of chess, Gordon is the Queen, trans-genderal
issues aside. He does the most damage. Eli is the King...without him,
the whole deal falls apart, and humanity gets pwned.
This is a complicated theory...to say the least, and has more holes
than Swiss cheese. Personally, I deem it extremely unlikely, even
"looney". It IS workable, however, and therefore warrants a mention.
The Eye Question.
The similarities between Gordon and the G-Man are hard to miss. It's
hard to tell due to various art and so on depicting the characters
differently. What colour are the G-Man's eyes? I've seen them a deep
black, deep blue, and a green colour very similar to Gordon's. Which
one is correct? They looks blue at the start of Half-Life.
Additionally, what's the story with Gordon's hair? In the photo in
Dr. Kleiner's lab, his hair looks to be a lighter brown, almost ginger.
The same colour it appears to be in Blue Shift when you catch glimpses
of Freeman. Yet on the game box, sure enough, it's the dark brown we're
all familiar with. So which is it? Freeman's eyes, at least, seem to
retain their bright green hue more often than not. There are a few
theories on that, too.
What colour do things turn when exposed to radiation? Bright green.
Well...they don't, really, but it's a popular fancy that they do. So
one school of thought is that prolonged exposure to many different
forms of harmful radiation, diluted by his HEV suit, has turned
Gordon's eyes a bright green colour...AND granted him unusual strength,
speed, and reflexes, which would explain why he can kill an alien army
by himself, sew his leg back on, save the girl, kill another alien race,
brush his teeth and still be home in time to help Ma with the washing
up.
ANOTHER theory is that he was modified at a genetic level by Da G-Man,
and/or his associates, for an undisclosed purpose. It seems likely this
purpose would have something to do with explosions, or crowbars.
What reason or results this mutation may have had is pure speculation.
However, it would explain the G-Man's interest in you...he's keeping
an eye on his, or his boss', experiment. Could Alyx be another such
experiment? She DOES kick more a$$ than your average bear, after all.
There's a considerable age difference, it's true, but...as the G-Man
seems to love showing off, when he's in the room, time can just take a
damn number and wait in line like everyone else thankyouverymuch.
This is all very interesting (maybe) but we're still no closer to
figuring out who the G-Man is, or what his relationship to Gordon is.
Let's recap quickly.
- G-Man is not Gordon.
- G-Man is not Gordon's father.
- G-Man may be a higher power of some sort, but is not God in the
biblical sense, nor is he Satan.
- G-Man may be one of the high-ups in charge of the Black Mesa
facility, and may have had a hand in orchestrating the cascade.
- G-Man may be David Bowie.
- G-Man may have "created" Gordon Freeman for his own sinister reasons.
- It's spelt "you" not "u".
What is the G-Man, really? It's been suggested, and possibly even
confirmed, that he is not human...thus his odd manner of speech and
obsessive compulsive tie-adjustment. Someone who's read the Prima
Strategy Guide: Giving The Full Story To The Rich People, While The
Poor Keep Guessing! may be able to confirm or refute that. This leads
to an all new realm of pointless speculation. I can hardly wait!
In Dark Energy, Breen has the following to say in order to try and
save his own measly hide:
"The portal destination is untenable...There's no way I can survive
in that environment!"
After a brief pause, he says this:
"A host body? You must be joking!"
Aha! So we know body-swapping is possible. Perhaps that's the G-Man's
deal, as has been suggested. Perhaps he took over the body of
David Bowie, which would incorporate TWO theories for the price of one! Mr.
Laidlaw, you're a genius.
The Vortigaunt Mystery
One of the things that has plagued me most about Half-Life 2 is the
"WTF is with these green guys?" question. Eventually I've managed to
piece together the following info:
- They are the "Alien Slaves" from the original Half-Life, the green
lightning-hurling, one-eyed, three-armed beings from Xen.
- They're sentient, which they showed little sign of in the original
game.
- They work with the humans. I'm ruling out, at this stage, the
possibility that the human's have enslaved them. I just can't see Eli
and Alyx doing that.
That's pretty much all I can get for certain. However, they drop a
million and one hints. One of them says this:
"We remember the Free Man. We are coterminous."
Coterminous? WTF? So I asked Dictionary.com, who were strangely
unhelpful, giving me something vague about shared borders.
"Having the same scope, range of meaning, or extent in time."
Hmm...Gordon has something in common with Vortigaunts? It's certainly
not skin tone. There are more hints in this general direction, though.
"The Eli Vance almost perceives the All-In-One."
possibly the most suspicious:
"We serve the same mystery."
The first I originally took to mean the Vortigaunts all share a common
conciousness...what one sees, they all see, what one remembers, all
remember and so on. It seems to fit with their attitude, and number of
things the other characters say as well.
"Every now and then a Vortigaunt gets captured and sends back
information..." - Alyx Vance, Entanglement
"According to the Vortigaunts, he's a prisoner in the Citadel." -
Dr. Kleiner, Entanglement
"The Vortigaunts traced the ship {to Nova Prospekt}..." - Alyx Vance,
"We Don't Go To Ravenholm."
It starts to sound more and more like the Vorts have SOME sort of
psionic powers, or a collective conciousness. They certainly seem to
know, or be able to find out, things that us measly humans can't.
The former, however, is the most interesting. "We both serve the same
mystery." It could just be a load of Zen garbage BUT, it could also be
an allusion to the G-Man. Perhaps the Vortigaunts know about the G-man?
He may not be a guy in a suit to them, sure, but it may well be the
same entity.
