I understand his grudge more and more each day: Imagine getting ready to eat a casserole you've brought to work only for someone to ruin it, and as you think to yourself "I'll just bring another tomorrow", cataclysmic event occurs in the place you work and not long after, a alien species arrives and takes over the Earth in 7 hours. THEN 20 years later, the same dude who ruined your very last casserole shows up finally.
How could a casserole take enough time to "come back later" in a microwave though? It isnt an oven that takes time to heat up the entire thing ... and leaving any food in a shared office / kitchen unattended is simply a NO NO NO NO NO! People will eat "free food" or mess with it because they like pranks. Thus it might be the most illogical part of the plot ... portals and stasis and time travel being less offensive.
Imagine being a former Black Mesa researcher and finding out that your rival company, Aperture Science, had not only beaten you to developing portal technology, teleportation, a gravity gun, and AI, but they also did so decades before you in secret 😂
@@Freelancer837 I'd consider them evil, but the type of advancements they made compared to Black Mesas... I'd almost venture to say they were justified.
I love how Black Mesa is portrayed as (at the very least) not as flagrantly disregardful of safety standards as Aperture, and yet they’re the ones who accidentally doom the world in the end.
as a fan of the Portal franchise, Half-Life story is so wild to me. like here I was thinking Chell and Doug were experiencing the craziest and most traumatizing shit a person could ever go through, and then it turns out humanity is being wiped out... Portal series sounds like such cozy and wholesome games in comparison 😅
At least Chell didn't have to face the HECU, Xenian aliens, Race X aliens, the Combine aliens, the Nihilanth and it's minions, and the thing called "Unforseen Consequences".😂 Adrian Shephard signed up to serve his country and his first mission was crashing, getting abandoned by the whole USA, fighting Xens and Vortigaunts, killing 60% of Black Ops forces and disarm the nuke, and kicking Race X off Earth all by himself, and get abducted by G-Man, what a first day of draft😭.
guys please know that we have all did evil (sin) and we are punished to death and since we do evil and reject God we will go to hell but God lovingly provides a way out through Christ where we can be saved if we trust in Gods work on the cross. Turn from your sins and tell your sins to God as Christ makes it possible for us to be forgiven (read John 3:16 please)
I like how Aperture is so isolated and hidden from the apocalypse going on at the surface, in a way, Chell's real sanctuary, was Aperture, the outside world has changed.. It's not what she remembers.
The combine: -Can control an entire planet in like 7 hours -Can harness dark energy (whatever that means) -I dunno, can geneticly moddify other creatures Aperture Science: -Put a black hole inside a gun then uses that to make teleportation tech with barely any setup -Made gels that can manipulate physics and is even a completly unknown element -Made almost human-like AI with thoughts, personalities, and free will -Discovered and harnessed the multiverse -Kinda managed to upload a human mind into a disk -One of the best turrets in the business -Does not tolerate witchcraft
@@Hoolahups exactly why I believe the answer to the combines defeat lies in the technology that exists within aperture, who knows what insane things they could have made that were undocumented
The portal gun works by putting a black hole in it? Where is this from? I thought it used quantum effects, not black holes. I cannot fathom how a blackhole in a gun would lead to a gun shooting portals. To open a portal like that would require quantum entanglement and mass ripples through spacetime; but the black hole could be entangled on a quantum level with the spacetime rippage. I just don't know where this is stated in the lore. Do you have a source for this information?
“On the way to the test chamber, Gordon stopped in the kitchen and for some reason turned on the microwave which destroyed a casserole that did not belong to him. This moment began a grudge that would last for decades” This is the best line in a document I’ve ever heard
“Are you trying to escape? Things have changed since you last left the building. What’s going on out there will make you wish you were back in here. I have an infinite capacity for knowledge and even I’m not sure what’s going on outside, all I know is I’m the only thing standing between us, and *them.”* -GLaDOS
You forgot the"Ơ̵̧̢̨̺̬̮̙̖̩̹̙̯̤̭̹̜̥͇̘̠͙̭̭̟̞̝̺̣̇͂͒̏̍̒̔̒̓̓̈͌̑̿̒̽̓̃̄͋͂̏̂͛̑̕͜͝͠ͅͅO̵̢̨̩̞̝͉͙͕̻̹̙͕̮̬̫̬̣̙̯̭̯̣͓̠̬̯̊̍̐̏̔͂̒̿̍̆̽͑̀̈́̍͐͐͛̔̉͑̉͒̓̈́͘̚͝͝͝͠ͅO̵̧͔͙̫͖̮̤̼͈̟̬̦̥͇̣̳͎̱͍̜̳̦̥̽̎̇́̾̇̾͌̂̽̓̿̆̈̀̊̌͆̋̉̈́̂͑͐̃͊́͒̿̚̚͜͠͝Ą̵̨̡̛̛̱͖̠̼͙̞̟͙̹̲̫̰͙̪͉̖̳̞̦̤̲͎̞̦̊̓̔͆̋͆̈́̑̂͑̓͆̇̊̓̐͌̃͋͆̂͛́͌̽͆͌͂͆͗̀̀̈̎̀̂͗͂̚̕͘͜͜͝͝͝Ḧ̸̛̛̯̪̪̥͓̟͓̑̓͐̈̃͑͌̈́͐̿̋́̅̿͌̄̓̉̀̈́̈̆̚͘͝A̶̟͖̥̤̞̦̰̱͑̽͌̎̀̎͂̈̏̓͊̓̅̒͊̈̽̋̍̾͆̾̍̈́̌̊̉̕͜͠Ḩ̸̧̡̡̢̡̝̼͚͈̼̹̲̬̗͓͙̻̜̩̖̦̦̫̂̈́͊̀̄̎̆͛̏̔̎̅͆̅̐̆̍̑̀̽̉́͗̄͑̚̕̕͝͝͝H̷̨̡̨̨̲͖̞̠̟̼̣͔̲͚̩̲̙͈̞̭͎̠̰͙̭̖̠̱͇̰̱͍̥̖̫͍̮̺̯͇̼͓̜̖̩̭͚̫͋̓͛͋̀͜͜͜͜ͅẢ̷͓̯̻̮͚̭̰̹̗͖̖̗͈͇̲͖̬̯̾̈́̆͒̌́͐̽͂̓̇͛̑́̀́́̋͛͆͘͜͠H̶̡̧̢̡̛̖͖̗͇͇̤͎̞̳̙̗͔̤͍͚̗̪͎̣̟̠̮͈̲͉̙̫̣̩͕̩̣̥͚̼͈̩̘͇̟̹̞̥͑̀͗͗̽́͑͂̆̈̈́̈̈̍͑̅͗͊̋͂̓̎̍͋͆̓̃̍̅̔̈́̈́̾̂̅͑̔̕̕͘͜͜͠͠ͅA̷̢̛̖̱̙̼̜̮̼̩̖̬̖͊̐͊̓̐̈́̐̋̎͐̓͌̈́̋͂͆̔̈́̄͐̋̀͛̀͒̓̈̀̃͑͌̿͊̚̕̕͝ͅḢ̶̨̧̢̡̤̥̪͖̻̪̮̻̩͗͊̿͂̿̍̔̈́͗̿̎͗̽̏͂͌͂͒̌͛͊̃̉̆̈́́̾͋̀͐̀̕͜͜͝͠A̷̡̧͎͇̮͉̬͉̩͈̺̤̮̳̘͈̣̞̟͔̬̘̹̤͚͖̼̬̫̋̆̐̐͒̅̂̒͗͌̏̾̇̽̋̍̎̃̏̑͊̽̓̿̍̐̾́̉̊͌̌͊͋̈̐̄̓̓͑̚͘̚̕̕͜͜͜͜͜͝͠͠͝͝͝"
@@user-ru2sb9yk8k yes. it’s in portal 1 during the glados fight. before you put the last core in the incinerator, just wait a while and listen to her lines.
The only thing i have to add is In Portal Bridge Builder, it is mentioned that the "Rope" type bridge material is made of tightly twisted shower curtains. Because they had a lot of them laying around, and they were very strong with some elasticity. This implies that Aperture Fixtures (at least initially) Shower Curtains were extremely strong as a safety measure in the bathroom to prevent falling via grabbing onto the curtains. The military contracts (again, initially) were probably to use the same fabric/material of the shower curtains for military purposes.
Tbh i thought they would relate to optical camouflage like since curtains are for privacy, one of the best ways to keep that privacy is making the things behind it invisible. But a super durable material also makes sense
I love how portal is a very comedic game with some dark undertones and dark stuff and then halflife is dark story with a few pieces of comedy sprinkled it but they are both in the same universe
@@tgiacin435I think he's talking about that one easter egg in the left 4 dead 1 campaign in left 4 dead 2, (I think) if you crab all crowbars, Louis will mention Gordon Freeman
@@tgiacin435they technically are but its been talked about how Gabe doesnt want it to be anymore. In an interview in 2011 he talked about how in portal 1 they wanted it to be connected but once work on 2 began they decided against it and started to try to drift the two apart. So its more likely than not that if half life does continue that they will ignore portal lore
Aperture: -Develops a portal gun -Develops liquids with different effects -Develops super advanced AI Black Mesa: *Ayo let's put the weird crystal on the shiny thing, c'mon guys i wanna see what happens if we put the weird crystal on the shiny thing* 🗿
@@popcornfilms1 nah, it's more like they didn't do shit with their inventions. IIRC they never even tried to sell the Portal Gun to get money, they only used the PG to test.
Ah yes, hiring people that had/has potential then traps them to an unknown space time and releases them if he needs them like in 20 year gordon freeman situation
My personal head cannon with GladOS is that she has this resentmen against the facility because Caroline was forced to upload her consciousness into a machine and her personality was suppressed by this anger and hatred while the transfer is being done. Meaning, GladOS is just a very angry and resentful AI because of her "unconsenting transfer" decades ago.
That's my headcanon aswell. It makes sense why she would immediately try to murder everyone when they forced Caroline to become GladOS. Makes me wonder if they could've given GladOS like a therapist instead of giving her access to the facility asap lol. Like if a human consciousness was detected inside of GladOS, then who's to say she wouldn't benefit from it. Thinking more, I wonder if the events of Portal 2 was the therapy? Clearly it changed her personality at least a little with bird trauma and letting Chell go. Guess we'll find out when Valve releases their next Portal game... in a few more decades
I think that the metody they used to transfer Caroline to GladOS was like, activating every single part of her brain and transfering that to GladOS and that would be like, the worst pain a human being could experience. And because GladOS is eternaly the most painfull moment of Caroline, her first though was to murder every single human being
I think the fact that plant life is alive and well, and reclaiming the areas in portal 2, it tells us that the combine have stopped as they are no longer draining all the life of the planet 50/100 years in the future
We don't know if Advisors are the true leaders of the Combine. Even if they are/'nt, they may not possess the abilities necessary to reform the combine presence on Earth. What's left of them, may be all there is on Earth, and all the Overworld knows is that the connection was severed permanently with the only problem being the symbol of the Resistance, Gordon Freeman. 1 man, 1 member of a species, and now, utter silence from an army made to conquer whole worlds. That would scare me, if I were in their position. Alternatively, we don't know what their lifespans are, nor if they can reproduce. I assume reproduction is out of the question, seeing how they are made. Given their susceptibility to gunfire or basic blunt force, my headcanon is that they died in darkness, having no way to perform their function, hunted down by the remaining Vortigaunt population with no backup to call on. Unlike the soldiers, if an Advisor dies, there are no replacements as far as they're concerned. It's a war of attrition they cannot win. I mean Dog literally almost killed 1 just by hitting it multiple times, imagine he had a gun, or threw a truck at it.
Fun Fact: According to Aperture Desk Job, Cave Johnson actually *did* get to be turned into a machine, in which his intelligence was uploaded into a big head. Unfortunately, he scared all his scientists away. Oh, and at the end of the game, there's a small cutscene of him humming along with the newly-invented turrets, teaching him to sing, which makes me think he's the Turret King.
Holy… I am speechless, you deserve the golden crown for effort, all this research plus editing, free cam scenes and so on for nearly 3 hour’s video in high quality. Endless respect from me, this video deserves many millions of views. Hope you get some money for it as a return, for me as a half life (valve) fan, this video is priceless and mindblowing.
First of all - thank you so much for the donation! That is incredibly generous! I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. This video came from a pure love of the Portal/ Half-Life universe. I've had an amazing response so far from Valve fans and the algorithm is treating this much better than my other content. Here's to more timelines in 2023 for other Valve games :D If you haven't checked already - I do have shorter lore videos on specific topics in which I deep dive and explore all of the smaller details. Thank you again!
@@Skyrionn no problem, your welcome. i already checked all the other videos and added some to my playlists for later viewing, and i dont know why i didnt find your channel earlier when i searched some half life video. keep up your awesome work, i appricate your work behind all this. realy thanks for all this, this is litteraly what i haved missed from valve. so in the end i have left an abo and wish a good start into 2023 :)
As a big fan of "Valve Universe" from a little kiddo to this day when I'm watching this as an adult in work I can say this video is a masterpiece. It didn't feel like 3 hours, more like 15 minutes, you are a hero to this fandom
Thanks for watching the whole thing! The amount of people that have called this video "a masterpiece" is pretty overwhelming. I really appreciate it! A big thank you from the UK.
@@simonwyzik8661 holy fuck that’s brilliant. TF2 still happens in the half life universe, just in the 40’s. I now wanna see scout beating the shit out of Gordon with his own crowbar, that or use the mutated milk against Gordon and watch the war flashbacks.
I thoroughly enjoyed the flagrant abuse of the word "Where" throughout this video. Great narration and a fantastic summary of one of gaming's most essential franchises.
Yeah, the usage of adverbs of location as conjunctions threw me for a loop. It often felt as though the sequence of events was being set in space rather than time.
Being told the absolutely bonkers and batshit crazy story of Aperture Science in a completely serious and dark tone is peak comedy. But seriously, this is really impressive work. One of the most consistent timeline videos. Good job.
One tiny tiny detail you forgot is that it was infact the g man who pushed doctor breen to use the specified crystal and that’s why he’s at the facility early on. They had a crystal they were planning to use and on that morning, doctor breen was approached by gman with the purer crystal and insisted this be used.
@@Tikky503 he doesn’t mention the g man. Just that the administrator wants to change the crystal for more clear results when it was infact g man’s influence on breen
@@flowee9452 if you look on the half life wiki it’s there. It’s referenced very briefly in hl2 part 2 during one of gmans encounters. But it is general knowledge on the series!
That would also tie Borderlands as well as the other 7 games each character is from into the universe. It would also mean that GLaDOS dated Claptrap for a time, which would make everything way too confusing
@@bobbygreg6619 Poker Night 2 had Claptrap actively flirting with GLaDOS in the game and theres multiple voice lines calling each other 'babe' and moving in together, but they break up soon after the fact. I personally never got the relationship lines, only the occasional flirting with Claptrap but the voice lines are on TH-cam
Hoping to hear you mention about Gordon's descent into hyper violent madness in Black Mesa and becoming the very model of a Modern Major General expecting soldiers to sing along with him as he commits multiple acts of heavily armed self defense.
Why would the combine be interested in earth? Only place with casserole. There's a physics theory that basically states that all casserole are holograms originating from the one, true, originator casserole - sometimes known as 'dark casserole'. Seeking this power, the combine invade earth. But Gordon somehow pre-empted this, using the microwave he must have caused the dark casserole to skip over into a parallel dimension - 'dinnerasium'. The combine have no means to reach this dimension due to lactose intolerance.
A crack pipe dream of mine is to see a portal 3 game where Glados manages to find a way to repel the combine because she decides they are impeeding her work. An unvolontary team effort between her and the resistence, both of which are unaware of eachother. Perhaps the resistence weakens the Combine enough that Glados manages to deploy some Aperture tech that completely wreks them. Could be a nice way to tie up both series. Black Mesa's well intentioned scientist caused the problem and Apertures evil Ai fixes it
Thank you Mr. Skyrionn, THIS IS the video I've always wanted, a complete overhaul of this mysterical universe with all the lore in it. Can't wait to get over it while doing my homework
@@Skyrionn it is pretty great. Hearing the lore from some of the games I'm more familiar with gets a bit repetitive, but this is great considering it's from many other sources than the common "did you know xyz 123 that everyone with more than a cursory knowledge of these games knows?"
can we just apprechiate how much of a mad lad doug is, not only did he survive the takeover of glados and the resonance cascade, but he also knew how to destroy glados (kinda succeeded) and literally sacrificed himself just to safe chell and possibly starting the era of a personality core ruled Aperture facility
Every few months I would check for a video on the complete timeline. Around 2 years ago, I gave up. I decided to randomly look up the half life and portal timeline, and found this gem. Thank you for your hard work and effort. It's crazy, millions of views but only 180k subscribers? That's bs. I'm definitely subscribing.
The thought that Caroline may regain her complete consciousness some day, feels great and equally terrifying, imagining her conscious self to be stuck in a machine for the rest of her potentially infinite life.
@@cynicaltheastrocreep4504 glados isn't technically hateful / evil. The perspective of the scientists who built her is reflected in her behaviour. She is an AI with a function and she will go to any lengths to make sure her purpose is fulfilled... Even if that means advancing science at the expense of others. In my opinion, Cave Johnson's intent of becoming immortal was interpreted wrongly by glados as "do whatever it takes / test as much until immortality is reached" (just an opinion) Glados' morality came from algorithms. She does not have subjective humanity, only an objective understanding of goal-driven behavioural modulations. Humans to her are what lab rats are to humans. She uses positive reinforcement to drive subjects to test for her, and in case of chell, she is resorting to hateful vengeance as punishment to keep her going.
@@panicpowerhouse8158 eh it's consistently mentioned in the comics that Caroline's integration with the AI had a lot go wrong. Glados is irrationally murderous at first and the personality cores make her more rational but she is still prone to murder. It's not 100% why she is how she is but it's a good indicator to start with. I think it also says a good amount about rogue ais and the lack of empathy/morals with the birth of suck ais. They do reflect their creators, and the people at aperture were far from ethical. Glados had a very chaotic/traumatic birth so it explains a lot, this along with the nature of her creators.
of note with the name "the Combine" - it's actually a bit of a double meaning. While they combine every species they come across into their forces, they also act almost like a combine harvester - traveling across the field of the multiverse, ripping out everything they find for the harvest.
Which is also a correction for the author of the video - Barney was not just so happen to be "working" on the day Gordon arrived 1:38:14, he was undercover. Real combine soldiers are modified versions of humans, with altered physique and mental capacity, fused together with their combat suits. Barney was disguised.
As a primary Portal fan, I have always wondered how these two games interact since they are in the same universe. A video like this that combines both stories into one is a nice surprise, and man is this going to take a while to watch. Full on movie uploaded to the channel huh?
When I initially decided to put this together, I thought it would only be around 1h 30 but as I added more games into the correct parts into the timeline, it just got bigger and bigger. Lemme know what you think! There should be more timelines to come too!
@@Skyrionn For one I adore how you add cutscenes to the aperture sections, with a custom Cave Johnson model and everything. Don't know if you use SFM or what but it looks amazing and really helps make the video unique and immersive.
Entropy: Zero 2 is a game that nicely ties Portal and Half-Life together into a cohesive sense. I personally consider it canon to the lore of both games regardless if it’s fan made
@@versace6609 I agree. I just finished EZ2 yesterday and it was the most enjoyable game I’ve played this year. It’s the Episode 3 we never got. Except it’s also the Opposing Force 2 we never got because it’s from the Combine perspective. Truly the ultimate Half-Life/Portal game.
This video immersed me in a universe I have been so desperately wanting to get myself into, however I had no idea (or the time) on how to start. I consider this $20 as the equivalent as the purchase of a half life game as it will allow me to better enjoy these games. Edit: If you had to recommend other lore videos that you think meet your more modern standard of story telling, I'd love a playlist or just a recommendation of what to watch next. I've got a summer of just relaxation ahead of me (after a long stressful year) and your videos have been just what I needed.
Thanks so much for the donation! I appreciate you. I'm so glad you enjoyed this video. I loved putting this together as it is one of the best stories I have ever played through. I'm currently working on a few more long form videos like this for other games. I also have multiple lore series on other games. Oh and a buddy of mine, Wisefish also makes similar content :D Thanks again!
You can always still hop on, I started at half life 2 not knowing anything about the story and I was still very immersed and learning more of the lore of both HL and portal only made it better
I highly recommend ThePatientWolf. He makes videos extremely similar to these and I love his Assassins Creed videos. It’s like watching a movie. He also has a very relaxing British accent just like this guy
21:32 anybody else notice that the molecule on the board when they’re talking about “increasing their understanding of how the universe functioned” is Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol also known as THC which is the main active component of cannabis. This indicates that marijuana does in fact have universal importance and that the question to life, the universe, and everything is just 420/10.
You know, Chel really fits the bill for GMan's future subjects It wouldn't even matter how far into the future she was considering he can move through time...
I think she would have been a perfect character for the Half-Life series. I would have even liked a Half-Life: Chell. She's trained in a completely different way to Gordon.
@@Skyrionn now that she's free of Aperture she could show up in a half life related game. Sure, she's far in the future but her survival ensures that she would pique the G-Man's interest.
@@resyntax The developers of Opposing Force and Blue Shift wanted to release a Half-Life project with the participation of Team Fortress Classic mercenaries. So, yeah... It could be part of the Half-Life universe.
@Black Mesa theres a headcannon floating about that cs takes place in hl universe. Or at very least csgo is prior to zombie infection(left4dead). I would love them to find a way to combine all valve properties into one lol. Can you imagine I homestly just hope we get more hl/portal lore games. Alyx was great, but I want a true sequel not something that progresses the story by 5 minutes.
I like how certain player-choice events in the games are made canon here to make sense, plot-wise. For example, Gordon Freeman blowing up the casserole, or putting the can into the trashcan, while the players had the choice to either not do the first h thing or throw the can at the cop.
Best part is, according to the wiki, the in-game scientist whose casserole belonged to (the one that says "My god! What are you doing?") isn't fully comfirmed to be Anne Magnusson, the one who holds the grudge against Gordon. So my new headcanon is that Gordon blowing up other people's microwaved food was a pretty common occurence in the Black Mesa facility... Oh Gordon, what a silly, whimsical guy!
@@alexb.7053I like the idea that he's just so fascinated by physics, and is kinda dopey / a day dreamer like Einstein, that he just couldn't help but microwave that casserole. He had to watch it happen and think about how invisible waves of energy could physically affect an object. Maybe he was calculating in his head how long it would take to burn or explode. It was all just a theoretical physics experiment.
One of my earliest childhood memories was sitting on my father's lap as he played through the original Half-Life. Since then I have played all of the games but never truly had a full understanding of the lore and how it was all connected. The amount of work that had to have gone into this video is remarkable. I'm extremely grateful for you bringing so much more life to this series for me. Huge kudos to you Skyrionn, that's a sub from me.
41:17: A Gus Cameo! He's my favourite character. I remember his iconic line where he says to Gordon "It's over Gordon! I am now forklift certified!" You see, Gus made himself Gordon's Rival(without Gordon even knowing he exists at all.) And through his sheer spite, he managed to get into Black Mesa first before Gordon.
Okay. I've watched this video several times. This is good stuff. Documented, thorough, and everything. Great job, and very informative. But the word "where" souldn't be used that way, it doesn't want to be used that way, and I hear it crying everytime you say it. And boy did it cry. Jokes asides, thanks for the immense work you put in this video.
I thought this was just going to be a compilation (which would still have been an awesome and easy way to watch all your work). Once again you go above and beyond!
Wow Chris! Thanks so much for the donation! A compilation would have been sooo much easier, but doing it fresh meant that I could add all of the small details and tell the interconnected story properly. The months of work was absolutely worth it! I appreciate the support :D
Im a huge portal fan and have watched many lore videos, but the inclusion of half life was new to me. Always had this video saved and never watched it, SO HAPPY I DID!!! I had no idea half lives timeline was competing w/ Aperture science, it adds so much more depth to both stories! Ty for this
I just need to leave a comment saying how fucking phenomenal this video was from the way the story was told to the camera shots. This video obviously took a tremendous amount of effort and as a life long valve fan I really appreciate the work youve done. Keep up the great work brother
I really like the idea of the main characters being puppets in a behind-the-scenes conflict between interdimensional entities. I'm a sucker for that theme. I have fun imagining how the pieces fit together in terms of what might be happening behind the scenes. Essentially I think there is a timewar between the Combine and the faction Gman represents (other aliens or future humanity). Gman is like a Scout or representative from this rebel faction trying to keep the Combine from acquiring more technology from planets the Combine invades and to redirect the advantages for their own uses, in turn planting seeds like gordon and alyx which they can harvest as allied resources later (like gman's foresight in saving alyx because he would need a literal get-out-of-jail card). Between worlds there is a border dimension which can serve as a relay for teleportation (Xen) by bouncing you back to your dimension to a specific point. The combine do not have this technology yet and can only jump world-to-world. The Nihilanth race was once a powerful Empire of telepathic overlords the Combine warred with. I imagine the Gman faction manipulated events so the Combine would wipe out the Nihilanth race down to the last one (probably harvesting their organic time crystals), and gman's faction knew they needed to corner it just right, so they could grab power when it died. The last Nihilanth fled the Combine into Xen and found us close to the border, a burgeoning scientific power close to the discovery of point-to-point teleportation. I get the sense over and over Gman is trying to make small adjustments and give warnings to manipulate people like pawns into solving problems much much bigger than they could solve if they knew the truth, like a fulcrum in history, "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world..." So yeah, half life 3 for me would be about how there is the time war, and gman's faction can send back a few agents (like Terminator). Once Aperture Science opened the first multiverse telephone it put us on the radar because the gman's faction was watching Xen (or we were influenced to discover that so we would be useful when shit hit the fan). Gman scouted us out as a perfect battlegrounds for a critical moment in their timewar. By the end it would be implied this is a bit of a time loop gman's faction set up as a tool to help themselves once Earth showed up on the dark-energy-radar. Dark energy and the anti-mass crystals being all timey-wimey because of the idea of mass and time being related etc In fact now that I think about it I love the idea of gman's faction discovering us through Xen proximity, then manipulating events here. Aperture Science is a genuine effort on Cave Johnson's part, but what we weren't told yet, is that Cave Johnson is an unknowing puppet for gman's faction, who's been supplying Aperture with data for years and years and that's the reason it was really successful despite being run by an unhinged man. This was all to prepare Earth for combine invasion, like developing the gravity gun, refining teleportation, the borealis secrets, and developing defenses the combine couldn't get into with the facility.
Half Life is truly one of the greatest games of all time. One of the first games I ever played as well as a child during the new milllenium. The game is so great that its STILL being talked about, being made videos about with so much depth and research on them in current year and possibly beyond
This is my most favorite video on Half-Life/Portal lore I have ever seen. It's cleverly and concisely written, greatly addresses nuances and yet also important pieces of Half-Life/Portal lore, and makes sure that only what is canon is described. I thank you for this experience and for making this video in the way you did. Cheers!
This is probably my favourite comment so far. It took so long to put together to put the correct information in without dragging the whole thing on. It seems to have worked well. Thanks for watching the video - I really appreciate you taking the time to watch the video and comment.
@@Skyrionn But did glados really convince chell to incinerate the morality core, or was glados actually telling her to leave it alone? I recall differently from your video, altough it is just a minor detail as chell would destroy it regardless of what glados says.
Surprisingly , this video gave me peace of mind and a bit of finality on the story of 5 nerve wrecking endless gameplay always leading to an anti climactic ending . This video is the perfect ending to wrap the series from my mind until they release another Half Life which they will but with this video i can find some peace of mind . Thank you for your sacrifice of making this video and it has been worth it
That must have been a lot of work. Thanks! On a side note, your frequent usage of adverbs of location as conjunctions ("so 'X' happened, *where* 'Y' followed") initially threw me for a loop. It often felt as though the sequence of events was being laid in space rather than time. That and the repeated peculiar delivery of those conjunctions made me feel like there was some sort of inside joke that I was not getting...
This video has to he the peak of content creation on this and any other online platform's existence. You are certainly talented and devoted to this beautiful community, Mr. Skyrionn. What a wonderful job you did here!
Portal and Half Life are very special to me not only for being brilliant, but also for nostalgia because I've played them in very special moments in my life. Thank you so, so much for this video explaining the stuff I couldn't understand or connect, it's amazing!
Thank you for watching. It was a tough one to get in the correct order but it all seemed to play out well. It was a jigsaw puzzle I very much enjoyed figuring out.
A resonance cascade is like setting an old radio to scan for frequencies, except it just runs through them all one after the other. Xen was always a very open frequency, as you can see by all the things that fell in there over time. It's also like dominoes falling in a way. Such an evocative name for a degenerative process that unwinds the bindings of reality.
This is the first video of yours that I've come across and safe to say that I am incredibly impressed! I can't imagine how much time and effort this beautifully intricate video took and I'm honestly quite thankful that you took that time. I'm a university student so I actively try to seek out longer videos like this in order to have something to listen to in the background while I'm studying. Your narration through the video was pleasing to listen to and very easy to follow along, even for someone who was studying at the same time. But I did find myself listening into the video every now and again and thus decided to rewatch it due to my own intrigue. I can definitely see myself returning to this video again and again in the future due to this. But with that, I hope you Keep up the brilliant work, I can't wait to watch more of your content!
Hey! Thanks for the comment. I hope university is going well too! I'm the same as you. I listen to video essays in the background as I edit videos as it helped me focus more. I think I ran out of TH-cam video essays to listen to during this monster of a video. Stick around - I have more ideas for timelines coming too!
@@Skyrionn I honestly can't wait to see them! I have my notifications turned on so hopefully TH-cam will do its job and let me know when they're out. Thanks for kind comment and heads up!😄
It's insane how high quality this is! Not only the writing and performance, but the machinima and free cam clips as well! This must have been so much work, and I think it's all amazing
This is the second time I’ve listened to this while at work, and both times now I’ve gone home and played half life Alex and bonelabs on my vr, thank you for actually recording yourself reading this rather than using an ai like many other TH-camrs, hope your doing alright brother
Took me 5 days worth of driving around town to finish watching this video. This has been my source of entertainment while stuck in traffic and i cannot imagine the amount of work you have done to make this video. Thank you and i look forward to more lore videos like this soon
My theory involves glados' line "I'm the only thing standing between us and them" GLaDOS was keeping them out. Maybe even paying them off. Notice how aperture has the name energy pellets seen in HL2? Maybe they have only given some technology to the combine? It also helps that they're probably far away from the rest of the remains of humanity so its probably a chore for the combine to actually get to them.
Thanks for watching it! 3 hours is dedication to one video :) I'd recommend a rewatch... I do have another 2 timelines in the works for the next few months.
Just wanted to say you did an absolutely phenomenal job on this. I last played half life two in maybe 2005. So this was great to catch up and relive the story.
@@WeAintJokinHereI remember buying HL2 and being asked to download Valve’s new platform, Steam, to install and update it. I was 14 at the time, 33 now.
I first encountered this legendary game in 1999 and I did not regret a single moment of it. I've finished it dozens of times. Half-Life is undoubtedly the best game in gaming history. The game world is divided into two parts; Guys who have played Half-Life and guys who will play it.
This was epic to watch. I've played through most of these but never grasped the story at this level. This has left me with an immensely boosted respect for the Half Life and Portal. You did a tremendous job here, well done.
Hey John! Thanks so much for the donation - I really appreciate that. It's super kind. It took a while to combine all of the informaiton into one chronological timeline but I'm really happy with how it came out. I'll be looking at more timelines in the Valveverse too.
This one was extremely interesting, as I grew up with Half-Life 2 being my first Steam game I have ever played. Being a child, I never really understood the story fully, nor played through all of them chronologically in a good timeframe for me to remember. Having this video was a great way to fill in the blanks that I had regarding the story. The animations you did for the video were amazing, this feels like a Half-Life narrarated movie and it was great. Also shout out to taking the time out of your busy day to make this and also reply to your community. Def an amazing YT creator and amazing video.
This is now one of my favorite videos. It's so well produced, and the work that went into it is astounding. I've only played portal 2, but nonetheless this is so interesting. Seriously, I found myself completely focused on this video. Well done man, this is a masterpiece! Edit: forgot to add, I love the way you tell the story, you make a wonderful storyteller lol
Thanks so much! It was one of my favourite ones I've put together. I'll be attempting to put more timelines together too. I did just create a SOMA timeline which I think HL fans will like. Thanks for watching!
@@Skyrionnoh goddaammn i love hl, source n1 and n2 is either sona or Disco elysium. I will have to finish this and go check ur soma video then You should do a video on disco elysium and Dredge as well(small indie boating game with a fantastic mystery story in the background)
Big respect to you for doing all this work for this video. I love seeing someone that’s so passionate about something to be able to do a big project like this
as one who's played all HL games (except for Alyx) all I can say is wow!!! The effort and time put into this, as well as the amount of detailed explanations (not to mention the soothing voice) with clear timeline is simply astonishing. Thank you for creating this and most of all, thank you for sharing. simply amazing!
This series is such a fascinating study of the dangers of science. How humanity is a technological giant yet a moral infant. This series is just fantastic storytelling with philosophical undertones.
I've always wanted to see a video that orders all of these stories on the timeline. Amazing work - I can't imagine how long this video took you to make! Thank you!
This is absolutely incredible. Thank you for making it. I can't imagine how long the research alone took, never mind piecing it all together, editing, narrating, etc
ive probably seen this 6 or 7 times now a couple of weeks in between and honestly every time i come and revisit this video i fall in love more and more with it and the format of it
As a fan of half life 2 and portal 1/2, I never dived into the half 1 story or anything beyond. You captivated me for almost three hours and I now have this ache of wanting more. Such great storytelling with the ppl at valve. I just hope one day for a continuation in the story but not crossing fingers. 😢 Either way terrific job on this video!
I'm so incredibly grateful for this video, and for the immense amount of effort you put forth constantly analyzing the Half Life/Portal universe on this channel. Perhaps this is uncommon, but I've always found this universe incredibly beautiful in a way. Aperture, a massive, long forgotten underground facility, Black Mesa, a rival company, and how that all ties together in the events of Half Life 2 is, in my opinion, nothing short of beautiful. I'm thankful for your shining light on this incredible universe.
This stuff deserves more attention.Ik theyre decades old games but still.someone put 2 hours in JUST making the video,cant imagine how many hours were spent making the script of this and stuff.Congratulations
I like how this all starts as rivalry between a company that makes shower curtains and what is essentially a government-protected nuclear research facility. That's just great.
2:07:39 The sounds and visuals during the train escape are just amazing. The first time I played the game I was stunned. I always have to reload a few times to experience that spine tingling effect it has on me.
Well done! The video you used for the closing thoughts. I tell ya this is one of 3 games in my life that pulled me in and made me feel like I was on a real adventure, half life 2 when you are in the air boat moving from location to location on the run. Amazing game and memories. Thanks for the revisit!
this is pretty much the best video i've seen in quite a while. thank you for doing this and for all the time and effort you put into this. half-life and portal lore has always been super fascinating to me. so hearing about it in it's entirety is just really nice!
The fact that a 3 hour video has 7 million views in an age where 5 second videos that use every technique possible to keep engagement are the norm, is a real testament to the quality displayed here
Who is your favourite Half-Life/ Portal character?
Mine is easily Adrian.
I like Adrian but I think Glados is my favourite
glatatos
Ha ! I called it! Right from the start Portal + Half Life
Dr. Isaac Kleiner, he is the 'stereotypical scientist' and I love it
The g man
I understand his grudge more and more each day: Imagine getting ready to eat a casserole you've brought to work only for someone to ruin it, and as you think to yourself "I'll just bring another tomorrow", cataclysmic event occurs in the place you work and not long after, a alien species arrives and takes over the Earth in 7 hours.
THEN 20 years later, the same dude who ruined your very last casserole shows up finally.
The Casserole Incident is probably the worst thing that happened in this timeline.
@@Skyrionn One could only speculate what would happen it that casserole lived to see The Black Mesa Incident.
How could a casserole take enough time to "come back later" in a microwave though? It isnt an oven that takes time to heat up the entire thing ... and leaving any food in a shared office / kitchen unattended is simply a NO NO NO NO NO! People will eat "free food" or mess with it because they like pranks.
Thus it might be the most illogical part of the plot ... portals and stasis and time travel being less offensive.
@@Skyrionn The Casserole is the Unforeseen Consequences.
the worst part is that magnusson probably never ate another casserole after that
Imagine being a former Black Mesa researcher and finding out that your rival company, Aperture Science, had not only beaten you to developing portal technology, teleportation, a gravity gun, and AI, but they also did so decades before you in secret 😂
ikr! Aperture were great even though their leader was pretty odd
Yeah, Aperture was able to do more due to, let's say a lower care for humans morals
@@Freelancer837 I'd consider them evil, but the type of advancements they made compared to Black Mesas... I'd almost venture to say they were justified.
@@shamefuldisplay9692 I think all the Olympians, astronauts, etc would beg to differ lol
And don't forget to mention, they still continued to run possibly thousands of years after black mesa was destroyed
I love how Black Mesa is portrayed as (at the very least) not as flagrantly disregardful of safety standards as Aperture, and yet they’re the ones who accidentally doom the world in the end.
Cave even recorded saying that the idiots over at black mesa will cause a ressonemce cassade
Cave even recorded saying that the idiots over at black mesa will cause a ressonemce cassade
To be fair GMan was the one who pushed things that way at Black Mesa, meanwhile Aperture was like that by itself
Aperture would’ve bs-ed their way out of the apocalypse
@@ItachIBrolly2 the g-man was scared of Cave Johnson
as a fan of the Portal franchise, Half-Life story is so wild to me.
like here I was thinking Chell and Doug were experiencing the craziest and most traumatizing shit a person could ever go through, and then it turns out humanity is being wiped out... Portal series sounds like such cozy and wholesome games in comparison 😅
At least Chell didn't have to face the HECU, Xenian aliens, Race X aliens, the Combine aliens, the Nihilanth and it's minions, and the thing called "Unforseen Consequences".😂 Adrian Shephard signed up to serve his country and his first mission was crashing, getting abandoned by the whole USA, fighting Xens and Vortigaunts, killing 60% of Black Ops forces and disarm the nuke, and kicking Race X off Earth all by himself, and get abducted by G-Man, what a first day of draft😭.
guys please know that we have all did evil (sin) and we are punished to death and since we do evil and reject God we will go to hell but God lovingly provides a way out through Christ where we can be saved if we trust in Gods work on the cross. Turn from your sins and tell your sins to God as Christ makes it possible for us to be forgiven (read John 3:16 please)
@@thesterraveshut the fuck up bro. no one gives a shit. stop spreading pro christian crap
Different kind of scary
I like how Aperture is so isolated and hidden from the apocalypse going on at the surface, in a way, Chell's real sanctuary, was Aperture, the outside world has changed.. It's not what she remembers.
The combine:
-Can control an entire planet in like 7 hours
-Can harness dark energy (whatever that means)
-I dunno, can geneticly moddify other creatures
Aperture Science:
-Put a black hole inside a gun then uses that to make teleportation tech with barely any setup
-Made gels that can manipulate physics and is even a completly unknown element
-Made almost human-like AI with thoughts, personalities, and free will
-Discovered and harnessed the multiverse
-Kinda managed to upload a human mind into a disk
-One of the best turrets in the business
-Does not tolerate witchcraft
WITCHCRAFT WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.
We don't know combines full potential
@@josephleebob3828 we don't know apertures either.
@@Hoolahups exactly why I believe the answer to the combines defeat lies in the technology that exists within aperture, who knows what insane things they could have made that were undocumented
The portal gun works by putting a black hole in it? Where is this from? I thought it used quantum effects, not black holes. I cannot fathom how a blackhole in a gun would lead to a gun shooting portals.
To open a portal like that would require quantum entanglement and mass ripples through spacetime; but the black hole could be entangled on a quantum level with the spacetime rippage. I just don't know where this is stated in the lore. Do you have a source for this information?
“On the way to the test chamber, Gordon stopped in the kitchen and for some reason turned on the microwave which destroyed a casserole that did not belong to him. This moment began a grudge that would last for decades”
This is the best line in a document I’ve ever heard
It was the most important part of the timeline! Gordon did Arne dirty there!
Thanks for watching!
The casserole burning line and then this 2:14:09 is just absolutely phenomenal
The gnome is also really good
stop fucking with the microwave!
I had to pause to thoroughly digest this statement and to enjoy the flavors of what i just heard
“Are you trying to escape? Things have changed since you last left the building. What’s going on out there will make you wish you were back in here. I have an infinite capacity for knowledge and even I’m not sure what’s going on outside, all I know is I’m the only thing standing between us, and *them.”*
-GLaDOS
You forgot the"Ơ̵̧̢̨̺̬̮̙̖̩̹̙̯̤̭̹̜̥͇̘̠͙̭̭̟̞̝̺̣̇͂͒̏̍̒̔̒̓̓̈͌̑̿̒̽̓̃̄͋͂̏̂͛̑̕͜͝͠ͅͅO̵̢̨̩̞̝͉͙͕̻̹̙͕̮̬̫̬̣̙̯̭̯̣͓̠̬̯̊̍̐̏̔͂̒̿̍̆̽͑̀̈́̍͐͐͛̔̉͑̉͒̓̈́͘̚͝͝͝͠ͅO̵̧͔͙̫͖̮̤̼͈̟̬̦̥͇̣̳͎̱͍̜̳̦̥̽̎̇́̾̇̾͌̂̽̓̿̆̈̀̊̌͆̋̉̈́̂͑͐̃͊́͒̿̚̚͜͠͝Ą̵̨̡̛̛̱͖̠̼͙̞̟͙̹̲̫̰͙̪͉̖̳̞̦̤̲͎̞̦̊̓̔͆̋͆̈́̑̂͑̓͆̇̊̓̐͌̃͋͆̂͛́͌̽͆͌͂͆͗̀̀̈̎̀̂͗͂̚̕͘͜͜͝͝͝Ḧ̸̛̛̯̪̪̥͓̟͓̑̓͐̈̃͑͌̈́͐̿̋́̅̿͌̄̓̉̀̈́̈̆̚͘͝A̶̟͖̥̤̞̦̰̱͑̽͌̎̀̎͂̈̏̓͊̓̅̒͊̈̽̋̍̾͆̾̍̈́̌̊̉̕͜͠Ḩ̸̧̡̡̢̡̝̼͚͈̼̹̲̬̗͓͙̻̜̩̖̦̦̫̂̈́͊̀̄̎̆͛̏̔̎̅͆̅̐̆̍̑̀̽̉́͗̄͑̚̕̕͝͝͝H̷̨̡̨̨̲͖̞̠̟̼̣͔̲͚̩̲̙͈̞̭͎̠̰͙̭̖̠̱͇̰̱͍̥̖̫͍̮̺̯͇̼͓̜̖̩̭͚̫͋̓͛͋̀͜͜͜͜ͅẢ̷͓̯̻̮͚̭̰̹̗͖̖̗͈͇̲͖̬̯̾̈́̆͒̌́͐̽͂̓̇͛̑́̀́́̋͛͆͘͜͠H̶̡̧̢̡̛̖͖̗͇͇̤͎̞̳̙̗͔̤͍͚̗̪͎̣̟̠̮͈̲͉̙̫̣̩͕̩̣̥͚̼͈̩̘͇̟̹̞̥͑̀͗͗̽́͑͂̆̈̈́̈̈̍͑̅͗͊̋͂̓̎̍͋͆̓̃̍̅̔̈́̈́̾̂̅͑̔̕̕͘͜͜͠͠ͅA̷̢̛̖̱̙̼̜̮̼̩̖̬̖͊̐͊̓̐̈́̐̋̎͐̓͌̈́̋͂͆̔̈́̄͐̋̀͛̀͒̓̈̀̃͑͌̿͊̚̕̕͝ͅḢ̶̨̧̢̡̤̥̪͖̻̪̮̻̩͗͊̿͂̿̍̔̈́͗̿̎͗̽̏͂͌͂͒̌͛͊̃̉̆̈́́̾͋̀͐̀̕͜͜͝͠A̷̡̧͎͇̮͉̬͉̩͈̺̤̮̳̘͈̣̞̟͔̬̘̹̤͚͖̼̬̫̋̆̐̐͒̅̂̒͗͌̏̾̇̽̋̍̎̃̏̑͊̽̓̿̍̐̾́̉̊͌̌͊͋̈̐̄̓̓͑̚͘̚̕̕͜͜͜͜͜͝͠͠͝͝͝"
@@SixtyFourJr that's a good point
“… well… i was.”
is this a real qoute? i literally just finished 1 and 2 and don't remember this no more.
@@user-ru2sb9yk8k yes. it’s in portal 1 during the glados fight. before you put the last core in the incinerator, just wait a while and listen to her lines.
I love how Cave Johnson is basically Willy Wonka if he decided to make military and scientific equipment instead of candy.
I hadn't thought of him that way but yes, absolutely.
@@thesterrave bro your copy and pasting this reply to every comment you see chill out you aint some missionary
I prefer Austin 3:16@@thesterrave
@@thesterravego away wannabe missionary bot
@@KL8T0N_SLU2HIE im not a bot D:
I like the idea that GLaDOS sent up the Companion Cube specifically so that Chell wouldn't have anything to come back for.
Still more closure than half life lol
Oh by far@@stevenrodgers3619
@@stevenrodgers3619 LMAO
@@thesterraveno.
@@thesterraveNuh uh
The only thing i have to add is
In Portal Bridge Builder, it is mentioned that the "Rope" type bridge material is made of tightly twisted shower curtains. Because they had a lot of them laying around, and they were very strong with some elasticity. This implies that Aperture Fixtures (at least initially) Shower Curtains were extremely strong as a safety measure in the bathroom to prevent falling via grabbing onto the curtains. The military contracts (again, initially) were probably to use the same fabric/material of the shower curtains for military purposes.
That's a cool way of taking one of the more comedic parts of aperture science history, and making it more believable.
"What are these new vests made out of?"
"Shower Curtains."
"Who makes shower curtains that can stop machinegun fire!?"
"Aperture Science."
@@Sorain1 The Enemies seeing hundreds of soldiers wearing bathroom Curtains, firing at said Soldiers and watching the bullets ricochet
Tbh i thought they would relate to optical camouflage like since curtains are for privacy, one of the best ways to keep that privacy is making the things behind it invisible.
But a super durable material also makes sense
The black ops invisibility camo also came from somewhere, but it could have been Black Mesa.
I love how portal is a very comedic game with some dark undertones and dark stuff and then halflife is dark story with a few pieces of comedy sprinkled it but they are both in the same universe
They are opposites just like apperature and black mesa
It’s kinda hard to believe they’re in the same world
@AzrielsLament what Easter egg?
@@tgiacin435I think he's talking about that one easter egg in the left 4 dead 1 campaign in left 4 dead 2, (I think) if you crab all crowbars, Louis will mention Gordon Freeman
@@tgiacin435they technically are but its been talked about how Gabe doesnt want it to be anymore.
In an interview in 2011 he talked about how in portal 1 they wanted it to be connected but once work on 2 began they decided against it and started to try to drift the two apart.
So its more likely than not that if half life does continue that they will ignore portal lore
I can't explain how many years i've waited for someone to explain the entire timeline in a quality video like this. Great content man, Subscribed.
Glad to help!
Aperture:
-Develops a portal gun
-Develops liquids with different effects
-Develops super advanced AI
Black Mesa: *Ayo let's put the weird crystal on the shiny thing, c'mon guys i wanna see what happens if we put the weird crystal on the shiny thing* 🗿
Fr how was aperture going out of business
"hey guys why is the shiny thing getting more shiny"
@@spartanmon7116 they flew too close to the sun
@@WOKEchair “oh no i can’t shut it down”
@@popcornfilms1 nah, it's more like they didn't do shit with their inventions. IIRC they never even tried to sell the Portal Gun to get money, they only used the PG to test.
It's just so nice of Gman to be giving out jobs like that. He seems like a really cool guy.
He is solving homelessness and Joblessness
Ah yes, hiring people that had/has potential then traps them to an unknown space time and releases them if he needs them like in 20 year gordon freeman situation
@@LambdaMcI mean who gets 20 years off with their job? Sounds like a sweet gig.
@@yermom014and you get free health benefits because you don't suffer literally anything unless you F**k up!
@@LambdaMc Imagine being handed your own little section of space time and being ungrateful smh
My personal head cannon with GladOS is that she has this resentmen against the facility because Caroline was forced to upload her consciousness into a machine and her personality was suppressed by this anger and hatred while the transfer is being done. Meaning, GladOS is just a very angry and resentful AI because of her "unconsenting transfer" decades ago.
That's my headcanon aswell. It makes sense why she would immediately try to murder everyone when they forced Caroline to become GladOS. Makes me wonder if they could've given GladOS like a therapist instead of giving her access to the facility asap lol. Like if a human consciousness was detected inside of GladOS, then who's to say she wouldn't benefit from it.
Thinking more, I wonder if the events of Portal 2 was the therapy? Clearly it changed her personality at least a little with bird trauma and letting Chell go. Guess we'll find out when Valve releases their next Portal game... in a few more decades
I think that the metody they used to transfer Caroline to GladOS was like, activating every single part of her brain and transfering that to GladOS and that would be like, the worst pain a human being could experience. And because GladOS is eternaly the most painfull moment of Caroline, her first though was to murder every single human being
Her name is GLaDOS, the genetic lifeform and disk operating system.
*Canon*
Totally makes sense 👍
I think the fact that plant life is alive and well, and reclaiming the areas in portal 2, it tells us that the combine have stopped as they are no longer draining all the life of the planet 50/100 years in the future
I should add that I mean they didn't return, not that they left in general since we knew so alr
We don't know if Advisors are the true leaders of the Combine. Even if they are/'nt, they may not possess the abilities necessary to reform the combine presence on Earth. What's left of them, may be all there is on Earth, and all the Overworld knows is that the connection was severed permanently with the only problem being the symbol of the Resistance, Gordon Freeman. 1 man, 1 member of a species, and now, utter silence from an army made to conquer whole worlds. That would scare me, if I were in their position.
Alternatively, we don't know what their lifespans are, nor if they can reproduce. I assume reproduction is out of the question, seeing how they are made. Given their susceptibility to gunfire or basic blunt force, my headcanon is that they died in darkness, having no way to perform their function, hunted down by the remaining Vortigaunt population with no backup to call on. Unlike the soldiers, if an Advisor dies, there are no replacements as far as they're concerned. It's a war of attrition they cannot win. I mean Dog literally almost killed 1 just by hitting it multiple times, imagine he had a gun, or threw a truck at it.
I believe Portal 2 takes place 500 years after the HL2 EP2 time period.
Close i think its like 50,000 @@DarkSide360-0
"i think the fact that *plant life* ..." say that again??
Fun Fact: According to Aperture Desk Job, Cave Johnson actually *did* get to be turned into a machine, in which his intelligence was uploaded into a big head. Unfortunately, he scared all his scientists away. Oh, and at the end of the game, there's a small cutscene of him humming along with the newly-invented turrets, teaching him to sing, which makes me think he's the Turret King.
Aperture desk job isn't a par tof the main timeline and he mentions the universe the the Cave Johnson head later in the video.
If that happened in the main timeline Caroline would’ve never become GLaDOS.
Different timeline
Sad he was never reunited with caroline (Glad-oss)
@@Jdjdjdjdhfjbgdgjd GLaDOS*
Holy… I am speechless, you deserve the golden crown for effort, all this research plus editing, free cam scenes and so on for nearly 3 hour’s video in high quality. Endless respect from me, this video deserves many millions of views. Hope you get some money for it as a return, for me as a half life (valve) fan, this video is priceless and mindblowing.
First of all - thank you so much for the donation! That is incredibly generous! I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.
This video came from a pure love of the Portal/ Half-Life universe. I've had an amazing response so far from Valve fans and the algorithm is treating this much better than my other content. Here's to more timelines in 2023 for other Valve games :D
If you haven't checked already - I do have shorter lore videos on specific topics in which I deep dive and explore all of the smaller details. Thank you again!
@@Skyrionn no problem, your welcome. i already checked all the other videos and added some to my playlists for later viewing, and i dont know why i didnt find your channel earlier when i searched some half life video. keep up your awesome work, i appricate your work behind all this. realy thanks for all this, this is litteraly what i haved missed from valve. so in the end i have left an abo and wish a good start into 2023 :)
I wish you the same! I have big plans for the channel for 2023. I'll see you there ☺
@@Skyrionn you made me originally play on the Xbox then I got it on the Nintendo switch portal I mean
That's the biggest genuine donation I've seen. Twitch streamers or creators like ishowspeed don't count
As a big fan of "Valve Universe" from a little kiddo to this day when I'm watching this as an adult in work I can say this video is a masterpiece. It didn't feel like 3 hours, more like 15 minutes, you are a hero to this fandom
Thanks for watching the whole thing! The amount of people that have called this video "a masterpiece" is pretty overwhelming. I really appreciate it! A big thank you from the UK.
feel*
@@Skyrionn still waiting to find out Cave hired an “elite” team of mercs to screw with Black Mesa
@@simonwyzik8661 or maybe to fuck with TF industries
@@simonwyzik8661 holy fuck that’s brilliant. TF2 still happens in the half life universe, just in the 40’s. I now wanna see scout beating the shit out of Gordon with his own crowbar, that or use the mutated milk against Gordon and watch the war flashbacks.
I thoroughly enjoyed the flagrant abuse of the word "Where" throughout this video. Great narration and a fantastic summary of one of gaming's most essential franchises.
wuhhhEhhr. suhhhOhhh. heeEEerre.
Average number of a among us public lobby in 2020
Yeah, the usage of adverbs of location as conjunctions threw me for a loop. It often felt as though the sequence of events was being set in space rather than time.
There were 114 WÆhHs
@void7814and Ooo'
Being told the absolutely bonkers and batshit crazy story of Aperture Science in a completely serious and dark tone is peak comedy.
But seriously, this is really impressive work. One of the most consistent timeline videos. Good job.
Thanks for watching!
most goofiest story I ever heard
Nah aperture is more darker than black mesa
@@NovaBoi7 But, dark humor is the best kind of humor.
One tiny tiny detail you forgot is that it was infact the g man who pushed doctor breen to use the specified crystal and that’s why he’s at the facility early on. They had a crystal they were planning to use and on that morning, doctor breen was approached by gman with the purer crystal and insisted this be used.
He mentions that.
@@Tikky503 he doesn’t mention the g man. Just that the administrator wants to change the crystal for more clear results when it was infact g man’s influence on breen
@@Jwallworth source? that interests me
@@flowee9452 if you look on the half life wiki it’s there. It’s referenced very briefly in hl2 part 2 during one of gmans encounters. But it is general knowledge on the series!
@@Jwallworth ok ok I will check this out thanks
It's so strange yet intriguing to see third-person Gordon Freeman during Half-Life's events, instead of in first-person.
Yeah cause Gordon doesn't even look like a person in actual third person
@@SixtyFourJrGordon skinwalker
@@Boooiiiiii the one skinwalker
Because there is no third in the Half Life universe.
@@flameguy3416well if you count half life Alyx then yes but main games I don’t think valve has ever made a third game
You forgot the part where Glados became a poker dealer for an underground gaming club
That would also tie Borderlands as well as the other 7 games each character is from into the universe. It would also mean that GLaDOS dated Claptrap for a time, which would make everything way too confusing
Wait, what?
@@bobbygreg6619 Poker Night 2 had Claptrap actively flirting with GLaDOS in the game and theres multiple voice lines calling each other 'babe' and moving in together, but they break up soon after the fact. I personally never got the relationship lines, only the occasional flirting with Claptrap but the voice lines are on TH-cam
@@TheIce_Demon didn the person refer the count to three song?
Hoping to hear you mention about Gordon's descent into hyper violent madness in Black Mesa and becoming the very model of a Modern Major General expecting soldiers to sing along with him as he commits multiple acts of heavily armed self defense.
and the third timeline where he leaves black mesa in a conveniently placed jeep with the keys inserted
I sold my soul to Scott Ross
I have the head cannon that eventually the G Man recruits Chell as well, seeing as she basically survived every test Aperture threw at her and more.
Imagine how many pants would be shat if G-man appears at the end of Portal 2
@sixtyFourJr that is what I would like In portal revolution
@@captainomc3802when tht come out
@asherjenkins4258 the game is now released
@@sent4444games been out 😂
44:33 You can not underestimate the importance of this moment to the whole story, it's an integral part of the lore
It's the most important tbh.
Why would the combine be interested in earth? Only place with casserole. There's a physics theory that basically states that all casserole are holograms originating from the one, true, originator casserole - sometimes known as 'dark casserole'.
Seeking this power, the combine invade earth. But Gordon somehow pre-empted this, using the microwave he must have caused the dark casserole to skip over into a parallel dimension - 'dinnerasium'. The combine have no means to reach this dimension due to lactose intolerance.
@@fubar12345 Houndeye gaming created casseroles using 4% of his power
@@Skyrionn q
is this a meme i don't get? I'm not acquainted with Half Life lore
A crack pipe dream of mine is to see a portal 3 game where Glados manages to find a way to repel the combine because she decides they are impeeding her work.
An unvolontary team effort between her and the resistence, both of which are unaware of eachother. Perhaps the resistence weakens the Combine enough that Glados manages to deploy some Aperture tech that completely wreks them.
Could be a nice way to tie up both series. Black Mesa's well intentioned scientist caused the problem and Apertures evil Ai fixes it
It would he a fun game, i presume we would ether be glados or one of the aperture or black masza employees
Thank you Mr. Skyrionn, THIS IS the video I've always wanted, a complete overhaul of this mysterical universe with all the lore in it. Can't wait to get over it while doing my homework
It took a while to put together completely but I'm hope you enjoy it while doing homework!
same
now want one that dose this entire storyline but instead dose beta line.
@@Skyrionn it is pretty great. Hearing the lore from some of the games I'm more familiar with gets a bit repetitive, but this is great considering it's from many other sources than the common "did you know xyz 123 that everyone with more than a cursory knowledge of these games knows?"
can we just apprechiate how much of a mad lad doug is, not only did he survive the takeover of glados and the resonance cascade, but he also knew how to destroy glados (kinda succeeded) and literally sacrificed himself just to safe chell and possibly starting the era of a personality core ruled Aperture facility
he is referring to Doug Rattmann (ratman)
I love how you recreated scenes from the games and unseen parts. Really adds to the immersion and feels like a movie
He used this same method on the full bioshock lore video
Every few months I would check for a video on the complete timeline. Around 2 years ago, I gave up. I decided to randomly look up the half life and portal timeline, and found this gem. Thank you for your hard work and effort. It's crazy, millions of views but only 180k subscribers? That's bs. I'm definitely subscribing.
The thought that Caroline may regain her complete consciousness some day, feels great and equally terrifying, imagining her conscious self to be stuck in a machine for the rest of her potentially infinite life.
Imagine how mad she'll be
Maybe that's why glados is so hateful/evil.
@@cynicaltheastrocreep4504 glados isn't technically hateful / evil. The perspective of the scientists who built her is reflected in her behaviour. She is an AI with a function and she will go to any lengths to make sure her purpose is fulfilled... Even if that means advancing science at the expense of others.
In my opinion, Cave Johnson's intent of becoming immortal was interpreted wrongly by glados as "do whatever it takes / test as much until immortality is reached" (just an opinion)
Glados' morality came from algorithms. She does not have subjective humanity, only an objective understanding of goal-driven behavioural modulations. Humans to her are what lab rats are to humans. She uses positive reinforcement to drive subjects to test for her, and in case of chell, she is resorting to hateful vengeance as punishment to keep her going.
@@panicpowerhouse8158 eh it's consistently mentioned in the comics that Caroline's integration with the AI had a lot go wrong. Glados is irrationally murderous at first and the personality cores make her more rational but she is still prone to murder. It's not 100% why she is how she is but it's a good indicator to start with. I think it also says a good amount about rogue ais and the lack of empathy/morals with the birth of suck ais. They do reflect their creators, and the people at aperture were far from ethical. Glados had a very chaotic/traumatic birth so it explains a lot, this along with the nature of her creators.
Idk didn’t she delete Caroline’s conscious from her files at the end of portal 2?
of note with the name "the Combine" - it's actually a bit of a double meaning. While they combine every species they come across into their forces, they also act almost like a combine harvester - traveling across the field of the multiverse, ripping out everything they find for the harvest.
In that case perhaps Chell leaving Aperture and seeing endless wheat fields would suggest the Resistance succeeded in stopping the Combine for good.
Never thought of that before, Great fuckin’ call dude!
IIIIIIIVE GOT A BRAND NEW COMBINE HARVESTER
@@crocodilerock4662 AND I'LL GIVE YOU THE KEEEEEYYY!!!
Which is also a correction for the author of the video - Barney was not just so happen to be "working" on the day Gordon arrived 1:38:14, he was undercover. Real combine soldiers are modified versions of humans, with altered physique and mental capacity, fused together with their combat suits. Barney was disguised.
As a primary Portal fan, I have always wondered how these two games interact since they are in the same universe. A video like this that combines both stories into one is a nice surprise, and man is this going to take a while to watch. Full on movie uploaded to the channel huh?
When I initially decided to put this together, I thought it would only be around 1h 30 but as I added more games into the correct parts into the timeline, it just got bigger and bigger. Lemme know what you think!
There should be more timelines to come too!
@@Skyrionn For one I adore how you add cutscenes to the aperture sections, with a custom Cave Johnson model and everything. Don't know if you use SFM or what but it looks amazing and really helps make the video unique and immersive.
Entropy: Zero 2 is a game that nicely ties Portal and Half-Life together into a cohesive sense. I personally consider it canon to the lore of both games regardless if it’s fan made
@@versace6609 I agree. I just finished EZ2 yesterday and it was the most enjoyable game I’ve played this year. It’s the Episode 3 we never got. Except it’s also the Opposing Force 2 we never got because it’s from the Combine perspective. Truly the ultimate Half-Life/Portal game.
@@shinymk6562pretty sure a good bit of this is gmod too
Take a shot every time he says “Where,” or “So,”
The WÆhHs alone would be 114 shots
@@TaccoToast The fact you counted.
You deserve a medal.
It's not just a question of numbers. His use of the word "where" is... interesting, to say the least.
Drink some water every time he says “Here,” so you can survive
This video immersed me in a universe I have been so desperately wanting to get myself into, however I had no idea (or the time) on how to start. I consider this $20 as the equivalent as the purchase of a half life game as it will allow me to better enjoy these games.
Edit: If you had to recommend other lore videos that you think meet your more modern standard of story telling, I'd love a playlist or just a recommendation of what to watch next. I've got a summer of just relaxation ahead of me (after a long stressful year) and your videos have been just what I needed.
Thanks so much for the donation! I appreciate you.
I'm so glad you enjoyed this video. I loved putting this together as it is one of the best stories I have ever played through.
I'm currently working on a few more long form videos like this for other games. I also have multiple lore series on other games.
Oh and a buddy of mine, Wisefish also makes similar content :D
Thanks again!
You can always still hop on, I started at half life 2 not knowing anything about the story and I was still very immersed and learning more of the lore of both HL and portal only made it better
Man what
I highly recommend ThePatientWolf. He makes videos extremely similar to these and I love his Assassins Creed videos. It’s like watching a movie. He also has a very relaxing British accent just like this guy
I feel a little bad for you. You really should have played the games before watching this video, unless you don't care about spoilers or story.
The combine are truly horrifying. A fate worse than death, resist and you become a stalker or dont, and you die under subjugation.
Basically the timeline summed up.
Has a lot of similarities with marathon or 40k
they remind me of the Qu of "All Tomorrows"
@@miguelmackay4851 except with the qu, no matter what you do, you get the same fate - mutilation
The combine are the WEF in real life. Too many humans are stupid and arrogant and willingly submit to them
I can't sit and watch a 3 hour movie. But a half life lore timeline?! Hell yeah! This is so well made!
literally so valid i just actually did that
21:32 anybody else notice that the molecule on the board when they’re talking about “increasing their understanding of how the universe functioned” is Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol also known as THC which is the main active component of cannabis. This indicates that marijuana does in fact have universal importance and that the question to life, the universe, and everything is just 420/10.
This is easily going down as the best half life universe recap, great work and quality here Skyrionn, as always!!
Thanks Linus. Very high praise of a compliment there!
You know, Chel really fits the bill for GMan's future subjects
It wouldn't even matter how far into the future she was considering he can move through time...
I think she would have been a perfect character for the Half-Life series. I would have even liked a Half-Life: Chell. She's trained in a completely different way to Gordon.
@@Skyrionn Hear me out on this one: "Portal Life 3". Neither series could ever get to three on its own, maybe together they can lol
Wow I never even thought of that interaction. Totally possible
@@Skyrionn now that she's free of Aperture she could show up in a half life related game. Sure, she's far in the future but her survival ensures that she would pique the G-Man's interest.
@@shamefuldisplay9692 * Half-Portal Fortress 3
Black mesa actually had a TON of issues with privacy, due to the 18 mercenaries fighting each other not super far away
based tf2 fan
@@resyntax The developers of Opposing Force and Blue Shift wanted to release a Half-Life project with the participation of Team Fortress Classic mercenaries. So, yeah... It could be part of the Half-Life universe.
@Black Mesa theres a headcannon floating about that cs takes place in hl universe. Or at very least csgo is prior to zombie infection(left4dead).
I would love them to find a way to combine all valve properties into one lol. Can you imagine
I homestly just hope we get more hl/portal lore games. Alyx was great, but I want a true sequel not something that progresses the story by 5 minutes.
Nevada (badwater, gravel pit, etc.) is pretty far away from New Mexico tho.
@@blackmesa2526 oh God no. If gearbox did that they would all be voiced by jon st John again like they were in opposing force and blue shift.
after avoiding spoilers for alyx for 3 years im glad i finally can watch this video
GLaD
I like how certain player-choice events in the games are made canon here to make sense, plot-wise. For example, Gordon Freeman blowing up the casserole, or putting the can into the trashcan, while the players had the choice to either not do the first h thing or throw the can at the cop.
Best part is, according to the wiki, the in-game scientist whose casserole belonged to (the one that says "My god! What are you doing?") isn't fully comfirmed to be Anne Magnusson, the one who holds the grudge against Gordon.
So my new headcanon is that Gordon blowing up other people's microwaved food was a pretty common occurence in the Black Mesa facility...
Oh Gordon, what a silly, whimsical guy!
@@alexb.7053 It was probably Magnessun's, only that he wasn't in the room during Gordon's debacle with his microwave casserole
@@alexb.7053I like the idea that he's just so fascinated by physics, and is kinda dopey / a day dreamer like Einstein, that he just couldn't help but microwave that casserole. He had to watch it happen and think about how invisible waves of energy could physically affect an object. Maybe he was calculating in his head how long it would take to burn or explode. It was all just a theoretical physics experiment.
One of my earliest childhood memories was sitting on my father's lap as he played through the original Half-Life. Since then I have played all of the games but never truly had a full understanding of the lore and how it was all connected.
The amount of work that had to have gone into this video is remarkable. I'm extremely grateful for you bringing so much more life to this series for me. Huge kudos to you Skyrionn, that's a sub from me.
Thanks for the really kind comment Austin. I'm glad I could bring back or reignite those memories!
There's more content to come too!
Same for me! I also played half life with my dad, 😄😄
same for me except it was my grandpa instead of my father. im in the process of playing the games right now :)
41:17: A Gus Cameo! He's my favourite character. I remember his iconic line where he says to Gordon "It's over Gordon! I am now forklift certified!" You see, Gus made himself Gordon's Rival(without Gordon even knowing he exists at all.) And through his sheer spite, he managed to get into Black Mesa first before Gordon.
fr?
I like the part where he jumps on the forklift and says "its Guss'n time"
@@toompyfloyd4074 thats gussin
@@genericTC2ber Indeed my man, indeed...:D
Fring
Okay. I've watched this video several times.
This is good stuff. Documented, thorough, and everything. Great job, and very informative.
But the word "where" souldn't be used that way, it doesn't want to be used that way, and I hear it crying everytime you say it. And boy did it cry.
Jokes asides, thanks for the immense work you put in this video.
I thought this was just going to be a compilation (which would still have been an awesome and easy way to watch all your work). Once again you go above and beyond!
Мужик красава👍 Продолжай поддерживать ютуберов своими донатами, это их мотивирует выпускать видео чаще ;)))
Wow Chris! Thanks so much for the donation! A compilation would have been sooo much easier, but doing it fresh meant that I could add all of the small details and tell the interconnected story properly. The months of work was absolutely worth it! I appreciate the support :D
@@Skyrionn sorry if I'm stupid but we're you just theorizing about them being in the same universe or is this cannon
@@strikerfett6624 it’s canon. The borealis is me mentioned in both game as well as the science war between black mesa and apature
Im a huge portal fan and have watched many lore videos, but the inclusion of half life was new to me. Always had this video saved and never watched it, SO HAPPY I DID!!! I had no idea half lives timeline was competing w/ Aperture science, it adds so much more depth to both stories! Ty for this
Doesn't Cave Johnson talk shit about black mesa in portal 2?
@@CAMSLAYER13Yes
I just need to leave a comment saying how fucking phenomenal this video was from the way the story was told to the camera shots. This video obviously took a tremendous amount of effort and as a life long valve fan I really appreciate the work youve done. Keep up the great work brother
I really like the idea of the main characters being puppets in a behind-the-scenes conflict between interdimensional entities. I'm a sucker for that theme. I have fun imagining how the pieces fit together in terms of what might be happening behind the scenes. Essentially I think there is a timewar between the Combine and the faction Gman represents (other aliens or future humanity). Gman is like a Scout or representative from this rebel faction trying to keep the Combine from acquiring more technology from planets the Combine invades and to redirect the advantages for their own uses, in turn planting seeds like gordon and alyx which they can harvest as allied resources later (like gman's foresight in saving alyx because he would need a literal get-out-of-jail card). Between worlds there is a border dimension which can serve as a relay for teleportation (Xen) by bouncing you back to your dimension to a specific point. The combine do not have this technology yet and can only jump world-to-world.
The Nihilanth race was once a powerful Empire of telepathic overlords the Combine warred with. I imagine the Gman faction manipulated events so the Combine would wipe out the Nihilanth race down to the last one (probably harvesting their organic time crystals), and gman's faction knew they needed to corner it just right, so they could grab power when it died. The last Nihilanth fled the Combine into Xen and found us close to the border, a burgeoning scientific power close to the discovery of point-to-point teleportation.
I get the sense over and over Gman is trying to make small adjustments and give warnings to manipulate people like pawns into solving problems much much bigger than they could solve if they knew the truth, like a fulcrum in history, "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world..."
So yeah, half life 3 for me would be about how there is the time war, and gman's faction can send back a few agents (like Terminator). Once Aperture Science opened the first multiverse telephone it put us on the radar because the gman's faction was watching Xen (or we were influenced to discover that so we would be useful when shit hit the fan). Gman scouted us out as a perfect battlegrounds for a critical moment in their timewar. By the end it would be implied this is a bit of a time loop gman's faction set up as a tool to help themselves once Earth showed up on the dark-energy-radar. Dark energy and the anti-mass crystals being all timey-wimey because of the idea of mass and time being related etc
In fact now that I think about it I love the idea of gman's faction discovering us through Xen proximity, then manipulating events here. Aperture Science is a genuine effort on Cave Johnson's part, but what we weren't told yet, is that Cave Johnson is an unknowing puppet for gman's faction, who's been supplying Aperture with data for years and years and that's the reason it was really successful despite being run by an unhinged man. This was all to prepare Earth for combine invasion, like developing the gravity gun, refining teleportation, the borealis secrets, and developing defenses the combine couldn't get into with the facility.
Nice essay, I’ll read it later
@@MmgxmerYou read it yet?
@@ic0nic707 working on it
This video was fantastic! It must have taken hundreds of hours to research and produce! Thank you for your contribution to the half life franchise.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Half Life is truly one of the greatest games of all time. One of the first games I ever played as well as a child during the new milllenium. The game is so great that its STILL being talked about, being made videos about with so much depth and research on them in current year and possibly beyond
The series is a masterpiece. I hope we get a new one at some point.
😬😬😬
i can already tell that i’m gonna watch this video multiple times. i love the Half Life and Portal games so much.
Watch it as many times as you want! Thanks for the support.
Robot *wants to kill people*
Scientists "Let's give it some neurotoxin"
Robot *uses neurotoxin*
Everyone 😮😮😮
This is my most favorite video on Half-Life/Portal lore I have ever seen. It's cleverly and concisely written, greatly addresses nuances and yet also important pieces of Half-Life/Portal lore, and makes sure that only what is canon is described. I thank you for this experience and for making this video in the way you did. Cheers!
This is probably my favourite comment so far. It took so long to put together to put the correct information in without dragging the whole thing on. It seems to have worked well. Thanks for watching the video - I really appreciate you taking the time to watch the video and comment.
Not to mention saves a playthrough of HL OF and BS unless you want to play the nostalgia of GoldSource
@@Skyrionn But did glados really convince chell to incinerate the morality core, or was glados actually telling her to leave it alone? I recall differently from your video, altough it is just a minor detail as chell would destroy it regardless of what glados says.
Surprisingly , this video gave me peace of mind and a bit of finality on the story of 5 nerve wrecking endless gameplay always leading to an anti climactic ending . This video is the perfect ending to wrap the series from my mind until they release another Half Life which they will but with this video i can find some peace of mind . Thank you for your sacrifice of making this video and it has been worth it
I'm glad this video gave you peace. It was a tough one to put together but I feel it was worth it!
maby becuase it appears the "combine" wants to invade humanity has allready control of the upper echelons of government
That must have been a lot of work. Thanks! On a side note, your frequent usage of adverbs of location as conjunctions ("so 'X' happened, *where* 'Y' followed") initially threw me for a loop. It often felt as though the sequence of events was being laid in space rather than time. That and the repeated peculiar delivery of those conjunctions made me feel like there was some sort of inside joke that I was not getting...
This video has to he the peak of content creation on this and any other online platform's existence. You are certainly talented and devoted to this beautiful community, Mr. Skyrionn. What a wonderful job you did here!
That's very kind of you to say! Incredibly high praise. I plan on making more too at some point!
Portal and Half Life are very special to me not only for being brilliant, but also for nostalgia because I've played them in very special moments in my life. Thank you so, so much for this video explaining the stuff I couldn't understand or connect, it's amazing!
Thank you for watching. It was a tough one to get in the correct order but it all seemed to play out well. It was a jigsaw puzzle I very much enjoyed figuring out.
A resonance cascade is like setting an old radio to scan for frequencies, except it just runs through them all one after the other. Xen was always a very open frequency, as you can see by all the things that fell in there over time.
It's also like dominoes falling in a way. Such an evocative name for a degenerative process that unwinds the bindings of reality.
A token of appreciation for making such a fantastic video. Portal is my favorite game, and this could seriously be an audiobook!
This is the first video of yours that I've come across and safe to say that I am incredibly impressed! I can't imagine how much time and effort this beautifully intricate video took and I'm honestly quite thankful that you took that time.
I'm a university student so I actively try to seek out longer videos like this in order to have something to listen to in the background while I'm studying. Your narration through the video was pleasing to listen to and very easy to follow along, even for someone who was studying at the same time. But I did find myself listening into the video every now and again and thus decided to rewatch it due to my own intrigue. I can definitely see myself returning to this video again and again in the future due to this.
But with that, I hope you Keep up the brilliant work, I can't wait to watch more of your content!
Hey! Thanks for the comment. I hope university is going well too!
I'm the same as you. I listen to video essays in the background as I edit videos as it helped me focus more. I think I ran out of TH-cam video essays to listen to during this monster of a video.
Stick around - I have more ideas for timelines coming too!
@@Skyrionn I honestly can't wait to see them! I have my notifications turned on so hopefully TH-cam will do its job and let me know when they're out. Thanks for kind comment and heads up!😄
It's insane how high quality this is! Not only the writing and performance, but the machinima and free cam clips as well! This must have been so much work, and I think it's all amazing
Wow, thank you! It was a huge undertaking but it came out well. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Machinima? Lol
"machinima" pure cringe
This is a true HL love letter.
Thank you for the dedication and time you took to do this.
Greetings from Brazil.
Hey thank you. It is. I love the series and wanted to blend everything together. Greetings from the UK.
This is the second time I’ve listened to this while at work, and both times now I’ve gone home and played half life Alex and bonelabs on my vr, thank you for actually recording yourself reading this rather than using an ai like many other TH-camrs, hope your doing alright brother
Gonna watch it while I work for the rest of the day. Almost 3 hours of Half Life lore is a blessing!
Thanks for the support. I hope you like it!
Took me 5 days worth of driving around town to finish watching this video. This has been my source of entertainment while stuck in traffic and i cannot imagine the amount of work you have done to make this video.
Thank you and i look forward to more lore videos like this soon
I just skipped school to finish watching this today lol
I love the idea that somehow aperture is unbreachable by the combine but they can build cages that can contain the g man
Aperture are just built different I guess!
Priorities
The combine may have conquered universes, but Aperature has exploited the multiverse.
My theory involves glados' line "I'm the only thing standing between us and them"
GLaDOS was keeping them out. Maybe even paying them off. Notice how aperture has the name energy pellets seen in HL2? Maybe they have only given some technology to the combine? It also helps that they're probably far away from the rest of the remains of humanity so its probably a chore for the combine to actually get to them.
That’s why the apocalypse would’ve been completely avoided if Aperture were the ones that summoned the Combine
This was so well done. Its not often that i watch a 3 hour video and when it reaches the end, im sad its over.
Thanks for watching it! 3 hours is dedication to one video :) I'd recommend a rewatch... I do have another 2 timelines in the works for the next few months.
Just wanted to say you did an absolutely phenomenal job on this. I last played half life two in maybe 2005. So this was great to catch up and relive the story.
So you are 40 now?
@@WeAintJokinHereI remember buying HL2 and being asked to download Valve’s new platform, Steam, to install and update it. I was 14 at the time, 33 now.
@@jeanstark8425old
I know what I’m doing for the next 3 hours of my life, guess this is what we were waiting for, totally worth it
It was a long one to put together. So much in one video. Enjoy!
Agreed!
I love this universe! „Prepare for unforeseen consequences“ is such a cool quote as well
I first encountered this legendary game in 1999 and I did not regret a single moment of it. I've finished it dozens of times. Half-Life is undoubtedly the best game in gaming history.
The game world is divided into two parts; Guys who have played Half-Life and guys who will play it.
This was epic to watch. I've played through most of these but never grasped the story at this level. This has left me with an immensely boosted respect for the Half Life and Portal. You did a tremendous job here, well done.
Hey John! Thanks so much for the donation - I really appreciate that. It's super kind. It took a while to combine all of the informaiton into one chronological timeline but I'm really happy with how it came out. I'll be looking at more timelines in the Valveverse too.
dope pfp
I absolutely love the little bit of humor Valve has placed into these serious themed games😂
The best humour is the difference between the Portal and Half-Life storyline. One is completely silly and the other is pretty dark.
Yea, like "we will never do HL3 coz we need MORE MONEY"😅 Thats a good one👍
Wheatley was a fantastic character, robotic yet quite human appearance made him a reason for me to return to Portal 2 from time to time.
I agree. He's absolutely up there as one of my favourites.
It was really funnny when Glados said he was made just to be stupid.
Gordon doesn’t need to hear all this, he’s a highly trained professional.
This one was extremely interesting, as I grew up with Half-Life 2 being my first Steam game I have ever played. Being a child, I never really understood the story fully, nor played through all of them chronologically in a good timeframe for me to remember. Having this video was a great way to fill in the blanks that I had regarding the story. The animations you did for the video were amazing, this feels like a Half-Life narrarated movie and it was great. Also shout out to taking the time out of your busy day to make this and also reply to your community. Def an amazing YT creator and amazing video.
This is now one of my favorite videos. It's so well produced, and the work that went into it is astounding. I've only played portal 2, but nonetheless this is so interesting. Seriously, I found myself completely focused on this video. Well done man, this is a masterpiece!
Edit: forgot to add, I love the way you tell the story, you make a wonderful storyteller lol
Thanks so much! It was one of my favourite ones I've put together.
I'll be attempting to put more timelines together too. I did just create a SOMA timeline which I think HL fans will like.
Thanks for watching!
I’ve only played Portal 1+2, and I’m playing Half Life now, and the series is amazing, and so is this video
@@Skyrionnoh goddaammn i love hl, source n1 and n2 is either sona or Disco elysium.
I will have to finish this and go check ur soma video then
You should do a video on disco elysium and Dredge as well(small indie boating game with a fantastic mystery story in the background)
Big respect to you for doing all this work for this video. I love seeing someone that’s so passionate about something to be able to do a big project like this
I do love the series! There are other series I love just as much too which I'll explore too.
as one who's played all HL games (except for Alyx) all I can say is wow!!! The effort and time put into this, as well as the amount of detailed explanations (not to mention the soothing voice) with clear timeline is simply astonishing. Thank you for creating this and most of all, thank you for sharing. simply amazing!
This series is such a fascinating study of the dangers of science. How humanity is a technological giant yet a moral infant. This series is just fantastic storytelling with philosophical undertones.
You're joking, right? Please tell me you're joking.
@@mattpace1026 what do you mean by that? Are you ready to get political or some shit?
@@B90-y6n I mean you're taking these games way too seriously...which appears to be caused by you taking yourself way too seriously.
@@mattpace1026 wow, you sound like a total douchebag.
@@mattpace1026 bro get yo goofy ass outta here with that trash ass roast
I've always wanted to see a video that orders all of these stories on the timeline. Amazing work - I can't imagine how long this video took you to make! Thank you!
This is absolutely incredible. Thank you for making it. I can't imagine how long the research alone took, never mind piecing it all together, editing, narrating, etc
It took around 2 months. Hundreds of hours but it was worth it.
ive probably seen this 6 or 7 times now a couple of weeks in between and honestly every time i come and revisit this video i fall in love more and more with it and the format of it
Admiring your dedication, an almost three hour long video must be a monumental effort to make
It was but it was so worth it! Thanks for watching the video :)
I wouldn’t even be mad to get rear ended by a guy watching this while driving
Love how Portal and Half life’s universes connects
man what a unit of a video. mad respect for putting this together. i cant imagine how long this must have taken
It took about 2 months to put together but I'm so happy with how it came out. It was worth it.
Please stop youtube, please, you play this or another long form lore video every single night jesus christ, IVE ALREADY WATCHED THEM ALLL PLEASE
As a fan of half life 2 and portal 1/2, I never dived into the half 1 story or anything beyond. You captivated me for almost three hours and I now have this ache of wanting more. Such great storytelling with the ppl at valve. I just hope one day for a continuation in the story but not crossing fingers. 😢 Either way terrific job on this video!
I'm so incredibly grateful for this video, and for the immense amount of effort you put forth constantly analyzing the Half Life/Portal universe on this channel. Perhaps this is uncommon, but I've always found this universe incredibly beautiful in a way. Aperture, a massive, long forgotten underground facility, Black Mesa, a rival company, and how that all ties together in the events of Half Life 2 is, in my opinion, nothing short of beautiful. I'm thankful for your shining light on this incredible universe.
This stuff deserves more attention.Ik theyre decades old games but still.someone put 2 hours in JUST making the video,cant imagine how many hours were spent making the script of this and stuff.Congratulations
It took 2 months to put together completely. I don't want to think about how many hours I put into it 😂 😂
Thanks for watching it. I appreciate you.
I like how this all starts as rivalry between a company that makes shower curtains and what is essentially a government-protected nuclear research facility. That's just great.
2:07:39 The sounds and visuals during the train escape are just amazing. The first time I played the game I was stunned. I always have to reload a few times to experience that spine tingling effect it has on me.
Well done! The video you used for the closing thoughts. I tell ya this is one of 3 games in my life that pulled me in and made me feel like I was on a real adventure, half life 2 when you are in the air boat moving from location to location on the run. Amazing game and memories. Thanks for the revisit!
this is pretty much the best video i've seen in quite a while. thank you for doing this and for all the time and effort you put into this. half-life and portal lore has always been super fascinating to me. so hearing about it in it's entirety is just really nice!
Glad you enjoyed it!
The fact that a 3 hour video has 7 million views in an age where 5 second videos that use every technique possible to keep engagement are the norm, is a real testament to the quality displayed here