(no subject)
A pointless Half-life 2 progress update:
Hours played - approximately 15.
Level reached - about 10 minutes into Entanglement (Level 10 of 14).
Estimated time to completion - at least another 5 hours or so. (Who was it that claimed this was a short game?)
I'm happy to report that the plot does seem to have developed a tiny bit - although less than I'd hoped. Thanks to various annoucements and wall-charts, it is fairly clear that the Combine are classic conqueror types from another dimension. They overcome a world, enslave its inhabitants, and then kill those who cannot be of use to them. The rest are incorporated, possibly forcibly or with brainwashing, into the Combine in a role to which they are suited.
This happened to Earth some time during Gordon Freeman's absence (frozen in time by the mysterious G-Man, himself an obvious reference to classic Man In Black sightings, with his odd speech patterns, immaculate suit and overly pale skin), and the resistance has been fighting a losing battle against them ever since. The vortigaunts, whose enslavement by the Nihilanth in Xen was probably the result of Combine interference in that dimension, are also helping in this fight - and apparently share a group consciousness and awareness (they also seem to eat headcrabs, but that's another matter).
Dr Breen, who was the Administrator of the old Black Mesa facility, probably arranged the incidents of the first Half-life in order to allow the Combine to enter our world (and failed that time due to the actions of Gordon Freeman, Adrian Shepard and Barney Calhoun, as well as the detonation of a thermonuclear device by the aforementioned G-Man). Obviously he succeeded in the ten or so years before Gordon's reapperance in our world, and was emplaced as the Combine's agent in controlling what little humanity remain - a position analogous to that of the Nilhilanth in Xen.
The process of indoctrination being used on humanity, according to a suggestive medical chart, involves the implantation of electronic devices into the brains of (presumably unwilling) patients, probably to promote loyalty.
Into this mess is catapulted Freeman himself, a symbol of the resistance due to his actions at Black Mesa, his mysterious disapperance during that event, and the coincidence of his name sounding like "Free Man". Apparently someone has arranged for the G-man to release Freeman against the Combine (and in fact, the G-man himself is obviously helping the resistance more directly - it's fairly clear that the first RPG you get was sold to the resistance by him, for example)... and presumably he is intended to free humanity from oppression, just as he did the vortigaunts.
Erm. So, yes, the backstory seems pretty filled out by now...
Hours played - approximately 15.
Level reached - about 10 minutes into Entanglement (Level 10 of 14).
Estimated time to completion - at least another 5 hours or so. (Who was it that claimed this was a short game?)
I'm happy to report that the plot does seem to have developed a tiny bit - although less than I'd hoped. Thanks to various annoucements and wall-charts, it is fairly clear that the Combine are classic conqueror types from another dimension. They overcome a world, enslave its inhabitants, and then kill those who cannot be of use to them. The rest are incorporated, possibly forcibly or with brainwashing, into the Combine in a role to which they are suited.
This happened to Earth some time during Gordon Freeman's absence (frozen in time by the mysterious G-Man, himself an obvious reference to classic Man In Black sightings, with his odd speech patterns, immaculate suit and overly pale skin), and the resistance has been fighting a losing battle against them ever since. The vortigaunts, whose enslavement by the Nihilanth in Xen was probably the result of Combine interference in that dimension, are also helping in this fight - and apparently share a group consciousness and awareness (they also seem to eat headcrabs, but that's another matter).
Dr Breen, who was the Administrator of the old Black Mesa facility, probably arranged the incidents of the first Half-life in order to allow the Combine to enter our world (and failed that time due to the actions of Gordon Freeman, Adrian Shepard and Barney Calhoun, as well as the detonation of a thermonuclear device by the aforementioned G-Man). Obviously he succeeded in the ten or so years before Gordon's reapperance in our world, and was emplaced as the Combine's agent in controlling what little humanity remain - a position analogous to that of the Nilhilanth in Xen.
The process of indoctrination being used on humanity, according to a suggestive medical chart, involves the implantation of electronic devices into the brains of (presumably unwilling) patients, probably to promote loyalty.
Into this mess is catapulted Freeman himself, a symbol of the resistance due to his actions at Black Mesa, his mysterious disapperance during that event, and the coincidence of his name sounding like "Free Man". Apparently someone has arranged for the G-man to release Freeman against the Combine (and in fact, the G-man himself is obviously helping the resistance more directly - it's fairly clear that the first RPG you get was sold to the resistance by him, for example)... and presumably he is intended to free humanity from oppression, just as he did the vortigaunts.
Erm. So, yes, the backstory seems pretty filled out by now...