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[Eric-GCA]

I recently played through the game and the expansions (Opposing Force and Blue Shift) in preparation for the release of the sequel, and I never really got what actually happened at Black Mesa.

All I can figure out is that Gordon (whether accidentaly or instigated by someone else) created some kind of event that allowed an invasion of the facility. Though it wasn't some unknown force, at least to other scientific teams, as we learn in later areas and the expansions (The BioDome in Opposing Force, and the old pre-Lambda teleportation center in Blue Shift) that contact had been made with this other world Xen and research was being conducted on its inhabitents.

At the end of Half Life, Gordon defeats some big-headed creature and is then confronted by G-Man who thanks him and gives him an offer he can't refuse, and thats the end.

So, maybe the events from Black Mesa will be explained more clearly in the sequel, or maybe I didn't catch some important conversations. Hopefully more will be learned about the aliens of Xen and how they relate to the new Combine forces in the sequel.

Anyone here know more than I do?

 

[Bregor]

That's pretty much it.

 

[firex]

You can deconstruct some of the sounds in the .pak files from the Xen portion of the game. These are apparently supposed to be messages from the big brain thing. From what I can get, killing that wound up letting the G-man (whoever he really is) and his group take over Xen.

 

[Badabing]

How long are the expansions?

 

[Eric-GCA]

Thats kind of what I was thinking, that G-Man probably was behind the Black Mesa incident and used Gordon to destroy the resistance in Xen. I guess now, we'll just have to see how the Combine fits into all this, from what Ive seen of the recent video, it looks like City 17 is a Combine facility and all the humans working there appear to be prisoners (they wear prinson-type uniforms) along with some Xen aliens.

EDIT: Regarding the expansions, Opposing Force is a decent sized adventure (about 2/3rd's length of the regular game) but Blue Shift is awfully short, though that character Barney Calhoun gets to return as an ally in HL2.

 

[Dr Zhivago]

Yeah, there's some interesting stuff if you listen to Nihilanth's wav files (you can't really hear him talking in game) including an implication that

Spoiler

the G-Man isn't human.

 

[Andy787]

Spoiler

the G-Man isn't human.

Spoiler

That's what I assumed when the G-Man's voice "glitched" in one of the HL2 E3 videos. I think how he talked at the end of the first game kind of foreshadowed that idea, too.

Anyway, I didn't know Opposing Force was a single player expansion, fucking awesome. I'm going to jump into that in a little bit. As for Blue Shift, where do you get that? I remember it was supposed to be an original addition for the DC version a long time ago, but I hadn't heard anything after that, and it isn't on Steam (I have the HL GOTY key, though, so it might not be included). I remember hearing there was some kind of incompatibility with Blue Shift and Steam or something, though.

 

[Drexon]

What was that 'offer he couldn't refuse'? I've only watched the speed run and the guy just stayed in the train, what happens if you go through the portal?

 

[tenchir]

What was that 'offer he couldn't refuse'? I've only watched the speed run and the guy just stayed in the train, what happens if you go through the portal?

Spoiler

You end up in a room with an army of those aliens

 

[Black Deatha]

Wasnt it that if you went through the portal you accepted G-Mans offer, and if you stayed on the train he sent you to Zen, or what it the other way around? it's been quite some time since I last beat it, so I can't recall.

Edit:

Spoiler

You end up in a room with an army of those aliens

Oh, right...

And yeah, you pretty much had it Eric-GCA, though I never knew about the voices thing in the .pak files, intresting. Also I never thought about

Spoiler

G-Man not being human, but it makes sence I suspose

I really hope HL2 delvs further in to the story, because I really loved the story and the way it was told in the first.

~Black Deatha

 

[MrPing1000]

The specimen that Gordon used was issued by the gman, he was very specific in using that sample although something wasn't quite right with it (you hear the sci's talk about it) The G-man also put pressure on them to get results thus they increased the machinery to a higher level, which increases the chance of an accident.

The G-man is able to teleport, without any visible device, Gordon, Adrian and Barney all had to use teleporters. But despite this he also uses a few trains at the beginning. Perhaps not willing to reveal it until all hell has broken loose.

The Alien slaves were just that slaves, either slaves of the xen world or slaves of an unknown entity. Nihilanth also has the shackes around his wrist like the slaves, perhaps it was also under control of an unknown entity.

The xen species are definately not all hostile anyway *sci talking to one in the HL2 trailer*

 

[Eric-GCA]

I kind of thought the G-Man wasn't human in the original when I heard him speak and I thought his voice sounded a bit off at the end and he hissed somewhat.

 

[shibbs]

Do you guys think its better to play opposing force and blue shift before HL2? I did beat the original.

You can deconstruct some of the sounds in the .pak files from the Xen portion of the game. These are apparently supposed to be messages from the big brain thing. From what I can get, killing that wound up letting the G-man (whoever he really is) and his group take over Xen.

Where can i find these .pak files?

 

[Eric-GCA]

Well, its up to you of course, they offer a couple of nice new things (mainly in Opposing Force with some new enemies and a few new Xen weaponry).

I mean, in Opposing Force, you get to use one of them Barnacles as a kind of grappling hook.

You can deconstruct some of the sounds in the .pak files from the Xen portion of the game. These are apparently supposed to be messages from the big brain thing. From what I can get, killing that wound up letting the G-man (whoever he really is) and his group take over Xen.

Yeah, I remember trying to figure out what he was saying during the battle, but of course thats kind of tough to do. All I can distinctly remember is him telling Gordon that he didn't know the truth.

 

[RaymondCarver]

I recently finished HL. Color me impressed. First, I chose not to work for the G-man, and I was welcomed by a room full of bee-arm aliens. Yay.!

 

[firex]

Well, its up to you of course, they offer a couple of nice new things (mainly in Opposing Force with some new enemies and a few new Xen weaponry).

I mean, in Opposing Force, you get to use one of them Barnacles as a kind of grappling hook.



Yeah, I remember trying to figure out what he was saying during the battle, but of course thats kind of tough to do. All I can distinctly remember is him telling Gordon that he didn't know the truth.

I can't remember it all, but it's not just the Nihilanth battle, but also the introduction to a lot of the Xen stages (beyond killing the big thing in the first stage). What's interesting is ALL of these messages are focused on not trusting the G-man. And it's also cool, if you think about playing the game, to realize that the whole time, Gordon is actually kind of the "bad guy." The aliens aren't invading in the beginning (hence why you see mostly headcrabs, a few bullsquids, houndeyes and alien slaves early on), but after you kill a few alien grunts (the "bee arm" guys Raymond mentioned) it really breaks out into more of an all-out war, with grunts and controllers being sent in. Naturally, if you go through the game trying to kill as few things as possible, you aren't going to get different scripted events (the game's from 1998 and designed to run ok on a 200 mhz system, after all) but basically, the aliens don't send in real fighting forces until after you've killed the tentacle things and a gargantua, and discovered the grunts in the level "Questionable Ethics."

Also, one of the last levels before Nihilanth is really interesting when you think about it and how the game flows: it's pretty much an alien factory/resource facility, not a war zone. Just like how you start the game in science labs, you also end the game in a work environment. And it's worth noting that not everything in Xen is on the same side, either. If you wait around in some levels, you can see headcrabs and bullsquids fight it out (I don't think there are any times where bullsquids spawn close to slaves, so you can't see if they fight) and Nihilanth doesn't bring in houndeyes or bullsquids when he spawns in reinforcements during the fight.

edit: Also, for the person who asked about the .pak files... I'm not sure if they're still there or not in the steam version of half-life (probably, but I should look to make sure), but there's a program called "pak explorer" that lets you decompress them and pick out individual files. I believe Nihilanth's stuff should be in the later .pak files, although I can't remember how many HL has (it's been awhile since I played it).

 

[Slo]

This makes me want to play HL all over again. I missed a lot of the hidden meanings on the first play through.

 

[shibbs]

edit: Also, for the person who asked about the .pak files... I'm not sure if they're still there or not in the steam version of half-life (probably, but I should look to make sure), but there's a program called "pak explorer" that lets you decompress them and pick out individual files. I believe Nihilanth's stuff should be in the later .pak files, although I can't remember how many HL has (it's been awhile since I played it).

I also have non-steam HL installed so...

 

[firex]

Just look in the HL directory, it shouldn't be hard to find the .pak files. They're all named stuff like "pak0.pak" and so on.

 

[Evenball]

Anyway, I didn't know Opposing Force was a single player expansion, fucking awesome. I'm going to jump into that in a little bit. As for Blue Shift, where do you get that? I remember it was supposed to be an original addition for the DC version a long time ago, but I hadn't heard anything after that, and it isn't on Steam (I have the HL GOTY key, though, so it might not be included). I remember hearing there was some kind of incompatibility with Blue Shift and Steam or something, though.

Opposing Force is one of the best single player add ons ever. It doesn't just rehash the game, it adds a lot to the gameplay and further fleshes out the story. As for Blue Shift, I got it from the platinum collection, but it used to be sold seperately (and it came with opposing force for free). Blue shift came with a high def pack that added higher poly monsters and made all versions of half life look a little better, but it also caused some incompatibilty.

BTW, the character in Blue Shift, Barney, is the same guy you see at the beginning of half life trying to get through a door in the middle of nowhere while you are on the monorail.

 

[shibbs]

So in blue shift, do you really open the monorail door for freeman?