Half-Life 2 storyline

This article describes the Half-Life 2 storyline, chapter by chapter.

Setting
The original Half-Life takes place at the Black Mesa Research Facility. During an experiment, researchers at Black Mesa accidentally cause the Resonance Cascade which rips open a portal to the alien world Xen. Creatures from Xen flood into Black Mesa via the portal and start killing everyone in sight. The player takes on the role of Gordon Freeman, one of the research scientists who had been involved in the accident and who now must escape the facility.

At the end of the game, the G-Man extracts Gordon from Black Mesa and "offers" him employment. Gordon is subsequently put into stasis.

Point Insertion


Half-Life 2 begins with the G-Man taking Freeman out of stasis and inserting him into a train en route to City 17 about twenty years after the Black Mesa incident. Official sources differ on the actual length of this intermission. A story fragment written by Marc Laidlaw for the development team puts the intermission at ten years, while Half-Life 2: Episode One's website puts this intermission as "nearly two decades" after the end of the events of Half-Life. While Episode One is the more recent source, "twenty years" is probably the more accurate figure since in-game references like the picture of the Vance family in Eli's lab portray Alyx as a small child, no older than 5 years of age.

This is the first chapter of Half-Life 2. It serves as both an introduction to City 17 and the game itself. Here, the player learns (roughly) the events that took place during the 20 years between Half-Life and Half-Life 2, and what the Earth has become in the intervening time period. The player is also given glimpses of levels and events to come as the G-Man is talking in the introduction cut-scene, in effect almost vaguely telling the whole story.

Gordon Freeman appears on a train to the city. On the train, a couple of citizens mope about city life and the process of being transferred to City 17. Arriving there, Gordon comes across Civil Protection and Breencasts, welcoming the new citizens to City 17. Gordon is commanded into a room in which he meets Barney Calhoun, who is undercover as Civil Protection. He contacts Isaac Kleiner who greats Gordon. After a bit discussion they decide to send Gordon over to Kleiner's Lab. He meets alyx vance.

"A Red Letter Day"
This is the second chapter of Half-Life 2. It mostly consists of character interaction and introduction and plot exposition, and sets Gordon Freeman's goal for the next two chapters.

Gordon Freeman finds his way to Kleiner's Lab with Alyx Vance's help and is briefed on what has happened during his stasis. It is decided that both he and Alyx should be teleported to the lab where her father is heading resistance and scientific research operations. After receiving the Mark V HEV Suit, Alyx is teleported to Black Mesa East successfully. When trying to teleport Gordon however, the teleporter malfunctions, teleporting him to various places, and finally, ending up outside the lab. Barney meets Gordon outside and gives him the infamous crowbar, telling him that he will have to go on foot through the extensive canals to get to Black Mesa East.

Trivia

 * If the player were to cheat and start the game with HEV suit and all weapons, this chapter will not work. Dr Kleiner, Alyx and Barney just stand around waiting for Gordon to put on the hazard suit. If the player kills Lamarr before she jumps up onto the platform, Dr Kleiner will still carry on talking to Lamarr as if she was still there. Also, During the teleport sequence, if the player had any weapon it is actually possible to kill Dr.Breen While he's speaking to gordon, leaving the player unable to advance to the other maps.
 * It is possible to move during the teleport, albeit very slowly,
 * It is not possible to explore Dr. Breen's office using noclip. Any attempt to enter will land the player back outside the lab.

Route Kanal
This is the third chapter of Half-Life 2. It details the first leg of Gordon Freeman's journey to Black Mesa East through the City 17 canal network. In this lengthy chapter, the player acquires their first firearm, experience a lot of combat with Civil Protection forces and encounters alien enemies such as Barnacles and Headcrabs for the first time.

Water Hazard
This is the fourth chapter of Half-Life 2. It details the second leg of Gordon Freeman's escape from City 17 through its canal system to Black Mesa East. Aboard an airboat, he fights off the attention of Civil Protection units and a few Hunter Choppers.

Black Mesa East


This is the fifth chapter of Half-Life 2. This chapter sees Gordon Freeman reaching his destination, Black Mesa East, after a series of chases through the canals. Gordon meets Judith Mossman for the first time and is reunited with Black Mesa scientist and Resistance leader Eli Vance. Gordon is also introduced to the Gravity Gun, a physics manipulator that becomes indispensable later in the game, and Dog, Alyx's robotic pet. Like "A Red Letter Day", this chapter is full of insight and dialog about the current state of the world, the people in it, and the aftermath of the original Black Mesa.

"We Don't Go To Ravenholm..."
This is the sixth chapter of Half-Life 2. It details Gordon Freeman's journey through the deadly zombie-infested town of Ravenholm after escaping the Combine raid on Black Mesa East whilst also introducing two new headcrab variants - the poison headcrab and the fast headcrab - and their zombie counterparts. The title is a reference to a comment made by Alyx Vance in the preceding chapter while showing Freeman around the base.

Highway 17
This is the seventh chapter of Half-Life 2. It details Gordon Freeman's journey along Highway 17 to reach Nova Prospekt. The player encounters Combine Soldiers for the first time as well as the deadly Antlions. The eccentric Odessa Cubbage is also met in this level, giving Gordon the valuable RPG.

Sandtraps
This is the eighth chapter of Half-Life 2. It details the second half of Gordon Freeman's journey to Nova Prospekt. This level is noteworthy due to the fact that Antlions become allies to the player.

Nova Prospekt
This is the ninth chapter of Half-Life 2. In this chapter, Gordon Freeman attacks Nova Prospekt, a Combine stronghold and prison to the unluckiest of Citizens, and breaches its defenses with the help of an army of Antlions, with the goal of finding and rescuing the captured Resistance leader, Eli Vance. This is also the last chapter where Antlions are encountered, because the player soon leaves Antlion Territory.

Entanglement
This is the "ninth a" chapter (designated "9a" in the game) of Half-Life 2. In it, Gordon Freeman meets up with Alyx Vance in the Nova Prospekt train depot. They then discover that Dr. Mossman was actually a Combine spy working on behalf of Breen. Together, they search the complex for Eli Vance and Judith Mossman, all the while fighting off security forces. Eventually, they find both though the reunion is short. Mossman teleports herself and Eli out of the facility, forcing Alyx and Gordon to take the risk in using the same teleporter to get back to Kleiner's lab.

Trivia
If one is to point a weapon at Dr Mossman, the gun points down, like it does with allies. However, Alyx says "Let me do the talking, Gordon. We may need her alive." It also does this during the Black Mesa East chapter, but Mossman is still considered an ally.

Anticitizen One
This is the tenth chapter of Half-Life 2. In it, Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance, having been stuck in a teleport 'loop' for a week's time, return to City 17 to find that the destruction of Nova Prospekt has triggered the uprising against the Combine by the Resistance. The player is able to form small squads of citizens to help as they fight their way through the city towards Barney's location. Near the end of the chapter, Alyx is captured by Combine soldiers and taken to the Citadel.

"Follow Freeman!"
This is the eleventh chapter of Half-Life 2. In it, Gordon Freeman links up with Barney Calhoun, and together they lead a battle on the Overwatch Nexus, and then fight to the foot of the Citadel. This section involves heavy urban combat, aided by resistance members, against Striders, Gunships, and elite Combine Soldiers.

Our Benefactors
This is the twelfth chapter of Half-Life 2. It details Gordon Freeman's infiltration of the Combine Citadel. Again, like "Black Mesa East" and "A Red Letter Day", this chapter has little fighting but is mainly an expansive and in depth player controlled cut-scene.

Dark Energy
This is the thirteenth and final chapter of Half-Life 2. It details the climactic confrontation between Wallace Breen, Gordon Freeman and the leaders of the Resistance. Mossman eventually regrets ever helping Breen, and in a desperate attempt to flee he heads for the Dark Energy Reactor at the very top of the Citadel where a portal to the Combine Overworld is to be open for him. In the end, Gordon causes the reactor to fail and begin to go critical. Gordon is taken back into stasis by the G-Man at the last moment, just as the Dark Energy reactor atop the Citadel is about to explode. The fate of Breen and Alyx is unknown at the ending of this game.

Narrative
Like in its predecessors, Gordon never speaks and the player views the action through his eyes only throughout the entirety of Half-Life 2. There are no cut scenes, nor are there any discontinuities or jumps in time from the player's point of view. Some have criticized these design decisions as narrative holdovers from Half-Life, that effectively limit how much of the backstory is explained. Due to the lack of cut scenes, the player never directly sees what happens in Gordon's absence.

Ultimately, it is not clear to what extent Gordon exists as a separate character outside of the player's influence. Since the start of Half-Life, Valve has made sure that the player's and Gordon's experience are one and the same. An example of Valve's player strategy is shown during the scene in Eli's lab. Investigation of certain props (most notably the newspaper board) triggers Eli to give some explanation to their meaning and history, thus indicating that Gordon presents emotions (or dialogue) that the non-player characters can detect but the player cannot.

The ending of Half-Life 2 is also very similar to that of the original: after completing a difficult task against seemingly overwhelming odds, Gordon is extracted by the G-Man. Gordon is smugly congratulated and told that further assignments should follow. The fates of many of the major characters, such as Alyx, Eli, and Judith, go unexplained. Very few of the questions raised by Half-Life are answered, and several new ones are presented. The identity and nature of the G-Man remains a mystery. A number of these issues are addressed, however, in the sequel games, Episode One and Episode Two.