Fill me in on the story of Half Life (1)

So I've decided to buy Orange Box (from eBay) and start playing some FPS again... But one thing though, I've never beaten the original Half Life game, so I don't know the entire story. I've gotten up to the part where the government was sending troops to kill me (but that was three or four years ago, so I don't remember much of the parts I played anyway). Can anyone fill me in on the story? What happened? How did it end?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life#Storyline

or speedrun of Half-Life in 36 mins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTUOn2EUFhk

 

Just look it up.

I can shorten it (never played this game so you know): Everyone except the main character dies and he only has 4 and 1/2 lives instead of his usual 9

 

Buy Orange box... from Ebay?
That sounds like a reeeeeally bad idea... You know that it's a Steam game, right? It's tied to your Steam account when you install it. I'm not aware of any way to *remove* it from your steam account again, which means it'll still be tied to the original owner's account. Unless of course, he never opened it.

I'd be careful, at least.

 

It's only $45 new.. not that much for 5 games.

 

I know, I'm buying new ones though

 

Yayyy!!

You will have loads of fun playing Half Life 2, which is in my opinion, one of the very best games of all time. The graphics may be slightly dated, but you will be able to turn the resolution up to very high levels to make up for it. Still one of the best looking games of all time in my opinion.

The revolutionary aspect is the immersiveness and the storyline. It never spoon-feeds you with text messages or cut scenes, everything is witnessed from the perspective of Gordon Freeman. Which also means that you may miss the storyline if you're speed running the game. It's the ultimate cinematic experience.


The basic storyline of Half Life 1: Some scientists in a secret government compound are trying to "play God" with portal technology. Needless to say, they mess up big time. They rip a hole into another dimension, opening the path for a powerful alien race to overrun and destroy the Earth. The govt sends in some elite troops to destroy the base and to kill any human survivors.

Freeman works with some scientists to find a way to close the portals, and eventually travels to the alien world of Xen in order to kill the proverbial "gatekeeper". Once he suceeds, he is overpowered by the mysterious G-man, who gives him a choice. He can either work for the G-man's "employers", or die. According to canon, Freeman accepts the offer, and is placed in temporal stasis until "his time comes round again".

[Possible Spoiler about the beginning of Half Life 2]
In the beginning of Half Life 2, it turns out that the Xen invasion was the least of Earth's problems. The portal storm caused at the end of Half Life 1 gained the attention of an incredibly powerful alien empire, known as "The Combine". They conquer Earth in the 7-hour war, and turn humanity into a slave race.


That's where you step in. The G-man alerts you to the fact that your "time has come again..."
[End Spoiler]

The G-man is the greatest enigma in videogaming, no one knows who, or what he is. All that we know is that he is immensely powerful, and not human.


I'm sorry for the ridiculously long post, but as you can see, I'm a huge Half Life fan lol. If you really don't like FPS games, you can treat HL2 as an adventure game, because it is (in a way). Happy gaming man.


Edit: Added spoiler tags and removed some things

 

nice read and thats half life 1 in a nutshell. dam combine scum

 

Jeez, way to spoil the HL2 storyline... You might want to edit (most of) that out a bit, since you were only asked for the HL1 story...
The Combine doesn't appear in HL, you know. There's also no mention of anyone being a slave race, or in fact, any information about who's invading Black Mesa.

A lot of what you described isn't actually known until HL2. (In HL1 you're pretty much clueless about who's invading and why)

But yeah, you're a scientist at the Black Mesa research complex (huuuuge underground top-secret place researching a ton of stuff, including advanced weapons technologies and dimensional portals)

You're on the dimensional portal team, and as said above, the experiment goes wrong, you open a dimensional portal and aliens start pouring in.

As for the G-Man (serious-looking guy in a suit and carrying a briefcase), he shows up from time to time throughout Halflife, observing what's going on. He always walks away before you can catch up with him (or attack him) though.

In the beginning, before the experiment goes to hell, he's seen in a meeting with some of the senior scientists, and afterwards, you occasionally spot him observing (you) through windows, or just walking around in the complex doing whatever it is he does. Big mystery.

When it all blows up, your main objective is to simply get out of the complex, which is getting flooded with aliens.

At some point, as said above, the government sends in the military to put an end to the invasion, and incidentally kill all human witnesses as well, so you have to flee from those as well as the aliens. Near the end, you meet up with some scientists who are working to stop the invasion by closing the portal, and as said above, travel to the alien dimension where you kill the big monster that seems to be leading the invasion. (Seems to. You don't actually know this, or who the aliens are, or why they're attacking, and so on. In general, most of what happens is a mystery, which is what makes the game so damn cool.

In the end, you are "employed" by the G-Man, as said above. After the final battle, he teleports you into some little pocket dimension or something. It looks like you're in space, standing in a train similar to the one you rode into the Black Mesa complex during the intro. So there's no doubt he's a pretty powerful guy with a few tricks up his sleeve.
He says that his superiors (whoever they are) have authorized him to offer you a job, and while you can choose to decline it (you are then teleported, without your weapons, into a room full of aliens), HL2 obviously assumes that you chose to live.
He puts you into stasis, and the on-screen text says that you are "Awaiting assignment".

 

Yeah sorry I got a bit over excited back there, as I usually do when the word "Half Life 2" pops up.

I've edited my post, but I don't know how to use spoiler tags or how to disguise the text. Any help people?

Cheers for pointing that out Jalf, I hate spoilers as much as anyone.

 

I'm losing more and more trust in my FPS abilities as I am dying every five minutes in Crysis on easy. I think, out of all the games in OB, I'll be playing Team Fortress the most. And it's Team Fortress that made me want to buy OB. But if I buy it, I can't just play only one game, so I'll play HL2 as well. I hope aren't anything too irritating about it =)

 

I would say finish Half Life 1,2 and the 2 episodes. It's worth it, even if you use the God Mode cheat.

Orange Box? Portal is a must play (Yeah I know you're the one who hates the "annoying robot voice"). Mute the speakers, turn on subtitles and play. But play you must. Oh turn it on when you reach the end of the game. The song is a must listen. Best ending credits I've seen in a long long time.

 

They're all fun in the OB. You will appreciate cake much more after Portal.

Crysis is somewhat of a stealth game. You gotta use cover to protect yourself, and your other abilities to infiltrate the enemy covertly. Plus the destructible environment and the fact that the flammable barrels, gas cylinders, and vehicle explode when you fill them with bullets helps take out the bad guys quickly.

The AI is dumb but has great eyesight. You can be 300 yards away lying prone and they can see you and start shooting. But sometimes they just walk right past you and you can shoot them in the head with your pistol.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack this post with Crysis, but since it came up and I'm playing it right now, had to comment.

 

How many hours of gameplay does it take to beat the HL2 series?
I will definitely play Portal (again) first, don't worry

What's cake?

 

There is no cake...

 

The cake is a lie...

Well, HL and HL2 are both full length FPS games, so there's probably a good 20-30 hours in each of those. Episodes 1 and 2 are somewhat shorter, perhaps around 10 hours each.

As for Portal, I think you'll come to appreciate the voice when you play through it. It really is some of the best voice acting in any game ever, and contributes a lot to making it more than just a puzzle game. It conveys the whole storyline.

 

I know the feeling...

And I don't think you can make spoiler tags on this forum, unfortunately...

 

But what's cake and what is it all about?
(If it has anything to do with the stories of HL2 or Portal then don't tell me)

 

Haha, it will take 5 hours to finish them
http://speeddemosarchive.com/gamelist/PC.html Check these guys`s demos on super fast finishing games

 

Just play Portal all the way through.. You'll get it.

 

You don't know what cake is? You often get it for birthdays, where it may or may not have candles stuck in it. It's delicious and moist...

Yes, we're just talking about regular cake, and yes, it's to do with Portal.

 

There is no faster way in explaining the story of HL than this video :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slRsexrhbG8

 

Everyone knows the whole half life universe revolves around my fave character

 

Just bought the Orange Box myself off Ebay (new sealed) $29.99. Almost through HL2 on my desktop and I wanted to play the additional episodes and I'll be sure to check out Portal after I load it on the Laptop.

 

LOL! chrusti that was so funny, especically the ending with the g man hahaha. maybe you should tell people that it also contains the story for hl2 in it? oh well, doesnt give away much, except that gordon freeman is the man.

 

I love this video, however it gives some massive spoilers about the end of Half Life 2, which AmazingGracePlayer hasn't played yet.

You should add some

Spoiler

tags to your post.

 

We are happy that you completed the training of buying Orange Box. We are throwing a congratulation's party in the party room. There will be cake.

 

WARNING ! CONTAINS SPOILERS !

: The cake is a lie...

 

Other types of pastry will also do
I don't get my OB for another two weeks though, because my default eBay/PayPal shipping address is my school's PO Box, and I forgot to change it to my home's address at check out. I'm still on my winter break and don't get to go back until the 20th