A letter from Nerfgun to Gabe Newell

Written by Jim Squires

Tuesday, 11 December 2007 07:45

Fellow blogger and Canadian gamer extraordinaire Nerfgun has recently finished up Half Life 2 courtesy of The Orange Box, and like many of us, had no idea what the fuck was going on. If you've ever played Half Life 2 (and you've all played Half Life 2) you should really pop over to citizengame.ca and give this one a read.

Here's a taste;

Never once in the entire game does anyone explain, or even really hint at, the peculiar state the world seems to be in, where Gordon has been, or what happened to those other aliens at the Black Mesa lab. You begin the game on a train (I sense a theme) and enter what seems to be a militarized city. Gas-masked soliders are everywhere shuttling people around. I came around the corner and saw a goddammed alien sweeping the floor. So Iâ€™m thinking, ok, we have alien janitors now. See, my years of videgame playing have granted me keen adaptive powers. I just roll with it. But then some college professor starts orating at me from large video screens and itâ€™s pretty much a Rorschach after that.

[via Citizen Game]

Comments (6) Add Comment

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written by Xav de Matos, December 11, 2007

Actually, a lot of those concerns are outlined in Half-Life 2.

The only real omission is where Gordon has been... but that's part of the story that we don't know.

The general consensus is that he's in some kind of stasis.

As for the rest, lets see if I can explain (Kev will know this stuff too):
-Breen (a Doc from HL1) made a deal with the Combine, an alien being, to hand over the world to them. They are like the Covenant in that they take over planets of species and move on to the next
-The Vortigaun were the last species you fought and the last the Combine took over, so they are now slaves to the Combine army
-The world is under martial law by the Combine
-Black Mesa was destroyed
-Those pulse pounders that hit the earth are used to safeguard people from Ant Lions
-The flashlight concern is taken care of in Episode 2, but is a good point!
-Everyone know Gordon because he is made into a legend after Black Mesa, even though it was his fault
-The G-Man is supposed to be a mystery

All of that is in the context of Half-Life 2, I didn't finish HL1 either.

Hope it helps you buddy Jimbo.

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written by Kevin Alexander, December 11, 2007

Yeah, what Xav said.

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written by Muffin Man, December 11, 2007

I haven't finished HL2 yet smilies/sad.gif

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written by Xav de Matos, December 11, 2007

I don't think any of what I said are spoilers Muffin Man, if they are I'm sorry!

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written by Muffin Man, December 12, 2007

Lol, it's ok. Never cared too much for spoilers anyway. I'm just saddened that I haven't finished HL2 yet, lol.

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written by Mookie, December 12, 2007

This is the site for anyone who has problems figuring out the Half Life story.

http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/

It's actually really intriguing.