Patreon: / leadheadyt Discord: / discord Second Channel: / porkbrain Twitter: / leadheadyt The music in this video is from the Half-Life 2 soundtrack by Kelly Bailey
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I like to think gman destroyed black mesa (if opposing force is cannon) so that people llike gordan could still live and maybe perhaps he was also the reason why aperture science (from the portal series of games) still remains unfounded by the combine perhaps he is like palpatine working all sides but loyal to neither, perhaps thus is meant to make humanity more human by threatening what makes us so unique as individuals not a collective
Actually, that's because you only get two or three chances to do it in the entire game. BUT! If you go into the console and type "give weapon_stunstick", it will give you 7 suit energy. I think.
Jesus, that's why you can charge your suit with the stun batons. The batons themselves are charged in the same way. Just when you think you know everything about the game all these years later...
That's what happens when science nerds make video games, everything HAS to look like it could plausibly work or they're not happy with it. Portal has a ton of background details like this too and it makes everything feel so lived in and real despite the outlandish scenario
Isn`t the other way around ? If you live in eastern europe, playing Half Life 2 must be chilling because it feels like you are a gun fight against aliens in your hometown.
@@TheOsamaBahama yes. I also happened to get familiar with HL2 just when riots broke out in the streets, so the angry police in riot gear was also present
Another human aspect, present throughout Half Life 2, is the irrational hope of overcoming the odds. Humanity was beaten by a vastly superior alien race in less than 7 hours. There is no way humans could defeat the Combine. And yet, some of us keep fighting. Keep organizing in underground groups and fighting against all odds for our freedom. Humans are probably the most annoying race the Combine ever had to deal with, because we just won`t give up. And that is beautiful.
I always thought the most likely way the humans could truly "get rid" of the combine would be if they simply lost interest in what remains on earth. They already drained a ton of the ocean, "harvested" enough humans to breed them in their home world, so maybe they already have what they wanted. After the super portal was neutralized at the end of Ep2, the combine have no way to travel to or from earth, so all that's remaining are the combine forces left on earth. Attempting to open another portal may be too much effort for them, so they could simply decide to abandon earth and work with the resources they got. They already have blueprints for a working local teleporter, so what else would they want with humanity? So if the humans could just defeat the rest of the stranded combine army, they might have the closest thing to peace they could hope for.
@@ShyGuyXXL But that's the thing about humans. They recognize when an enemy is too great for them, and when they can defeat it. Sun Tzu would say that there are better ways to defeat a foe a hundred times greater than you. In the humans' case, simply wearing down the enemy, the Combine, and preventing them from truly reaching you, is how we do that. We know how to truly defeat a giant.
The Kleinercasts summarize this sentiment perfectly: "For what the Combine fear the most is not any tangible human weapon, but our will, our intellect, our ability to respond selectively and rationally to every terror they turn against us. We place our firmest hope in the human spirit, even knowing how easily it may be shattered. We have all seen friends and family crushed by the Combine. Some of our neighbors have allowed themselves to be co-opted, and purged of their humanity, by the military machine. And those who resisted have met a most terrible fate. Still, I cannot overstate how important it is that we retain our humanity. Only this will allow us to hold together as we must for their inevitable return... and what is certain to be unimaginable retaliation." An even greater proof of our potential imo is G-man's interest in us. For me he gives off this vibe of an eldritch PMC who scouts the dimensions in search of "one-man-armies" to hire in the benefit of various factions in the universe. The feats of Gordon, Alyx and Shepherd have made him hire two of them and safe store one due "a fascination with those who adapt and survive against all odds". We're nothig if not... resourceful I'd say.
@@MrRobotman i wish i could play it, i don't have the money for it currently and with my current income i'll have to wqit another 14 months in order to get both the graphics card and index to play it...
Please accept this very heavy and beeping picnic basket filled with assorted and saved up food packets on behalf of the people at Ravenholm youth League. Now if you excuse me. I have to use the toilet down the street.
I feel like the Combine are almost religious in a evolutionary transhumanism kind of way. They're devoted to unify everyone and everything through this ideal of a greater cosmic intelligence, and Breen is almost like a prophet, spreading the word that they can break Humanity from bondage and remove them of their fleshy desires and impulses.
@@damonnugent1993 You're right. I think i also heard somewhere, that The Combine were destroying all the churches on Earth too, almost as if they wanted to "get rid of infidel scum". Intriguing...
@@svijj_ Never heard about that, I think the Combine probably tore down many things held sacred and precious to Humanity, rip out anything that suggests hope and freedom, break apart the old world and slowly usher in the new one, break people's spirits and convince them they are conquered and no different to livestock. It also kind of makes me think of the New World Order idea people talk about, and there's some interesting biblical allegories I found interesting, the tower of Babel that was built to reach the heavens (the Citadel) the mark of the beast that supposedly gives you immortality yet removes the chance for salvation (Combine technology and implants) the Antichrist that brings in the new order (Dr Breen) the beast (the Combine) the image of the beast (the Combine Advisors) and of course the messiah that returns to free Humanity (Gordon Freeman) and the all powerful deity or supernatural entity that can see you wherever you go, knows all and wants to fight against the dark forces of the world (Gman) Kinda makes you think, huh?
Leadhead: Gives examples of using ingenuity to defeat the Combine, explaining how special we are as a species due to our ingenuity Me having played all the games countless times: Oh, so you can hit the propellers instead of crouching under the trap to activate it...huh. And you can catch manhacks...seems logical. Wait, YOU CAN DO WHAT WITH THE STUN BATONS!?!?!?
@@TheDrewDarrow, you can pick them up as a power supply for the HEV suit(like the power cells you find lying around usually - be they batteries in Black Mesa and Combine batteries in City 17 and it's outskirts)
I just started playing half life 2 again yesterday and while going threw ravenholm I realize something, Gordon Freeman ( a man of science) and father Grigori (a man of religion) are both helping each other survive.
@@TheAkrillion nah, he survived, as you see when he fought the horde of zombies. He made a fire and went through it, if you hear it closely. You could hear him laughing. Unfortunately, During the events of the citadel explosion, it is unknown whether father grigori managed to survive the explosion or not. Through the wiki, it says he might've survived.
This was a really cool video, it's great to look back on the design of standout games like this. I think an aspect of the 'using the enemy's own weapons against them' theme is emphasised by another aspect of the Combine - the fact that they are, indeed, a combination of many different races and techs under one gigantic multi-universal force. Many of the larger-scale projects they do on Earth is about integrating all of Earth's power and technology into the greater whole, allowing that to be used across the entire domain of the Combine. But of course, by integrating human tech with the rest of itself, it in turn makes every human potentially compatible to use that tech themselves. And some of that is intended of course, with the legions of armoured and armed troops under the Combine's command. But it also makes them vulnerable to subversion and sabotage, much as a giant monster may swallow a warrior whole, only for the warrior to cut their way out of the monster's stomach and do incredible damage that they could have never achieved from outside. So yeah, really cool themes Half-Life 2 has. :D Maybe we can still hope for further expansion on those themes and this conflict, now that HL: Alyx is a thing that exists.
My favorite thing about half life is just how interesting the combine are. Their goal isn't to destroy any race as much as assimilate them and exploit them. It reminds me a lot about what we do to ourselves, they're like the worst parts of humanity exemplified in something else that isn't human, the kind of lack of respect for nature, the greed and industrialism (also love the twisted logic and propaganda as well). it makes fighting against them feel more like fighting against an idea more than a shallow fight against an alien race. most of the time you're not even fighting aliens but soldiers who have become less than human. It just gives the game a real grit and sense of reality to it, it's really grim stuff, but like I said, there's a hint of humanity in the combine actually, it's some soul crushing shit, and fighting against it almost has a spiritual vibe to me, like I said just fighting an idea, it's hella interesting to me
Great analysis. Yeah, the Combine are like humans who have become inhumane. It really makes you question what it means to be human. In a way, the fight between the resistance and the Combine can be seen as the struggle between the best impulses of humanity and the worst impulses of humanity.
It isn't exemplified at all. IF we had the technology to reach another planet with resources and intelligent life, we'd probably do the same, if not much much worse. Add genocide and mass rape to the mix if we were in Combine's position
@@pl3bx nah I don't think well ever be like the combine, mainly cause the combine only do what they do because its efficient, they're indifferent to all the suffering they cause, but we tend to be spiteful, sometimes destroying stuff for the sake of it.
Pssst, "the Combine" is a term coined by Ken Kesey in his novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest in order to refer to the human product of the way that our worst possibilities would be brought out through our society's internal mechanisms that are what make things like colonialism and destructive industrialism become possible.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but I think one other element of human ingenuity is Dr. Breen's negotiations with the Combine: If he really did negotiate a terms of surrender, he managed to end the most devastating war humanity ever experienced; I wouldn't be surprised if he mentioned teleportation as a "this is what we have, please don't murder us". During his address to the Nova Prospekt forces, he mentions how he's assuring his benefactors that Freeman will be dealt with (though their patience is running thin). Given how aggressive and destructive they are towards the first sign of defiance (see also Ravenholm), Breen is able to keep them from saying "screw this, kill them all". While I'm sure he didn't intend to, he's ultimately given humanity the time it needs to rally, resist, and overcome the Combine.
Yeah like in Portal Chell uses Aperture's/GLaDOS's portal gun and turrets to destroy GLaDOS as well as parts of the facility. Or in Portal 2 how we portal to the moon via the opening provided by Wheatly's plan's part 5(booby trap the stalemate button)
This reminds me of that one episode of Stargate, where this alien race that's far more advanced that humanity recruits a human soldier to help them plan their battle against the robots wiping them out. They adhere so firmly to pure logic that they can't think out of the box any longer, and need the help of a 'lesser' species.
@@mayorgeneralramirez1997 It's been years since I saw the episode, but I'm pretty sure she gets them to use their most advanced ship as bait, and then self destruct it in a suicide attack to destroy the enemy fleet.
@@ThejollyFrenchman okay that is fucking amazing because the lead writer of half life literally wrote out the ending as a letter from gordon where they were going to self destruct a teleporting luxury cruise liner directly into the combines overworld
@@anatolyFct Oh whoops, didn't notice your name! Turns out people don't care about looking at the usernames of people who have donated at the end of the videos, let alone recognize them... huh that's one of those oofers ain't it.
"For what the Combine fear the most is not any tangible human weapon, but our will, our intellect, our ability to respond selectively and rationally to every terror they turn against us. We place our firmest hope in the human spirit, even knowing how easily it may be shattered." ~ Dr. Kleiner
@@timothytimothy4854 They do teleport, but with a ''higher'' technology such as Multi-dimensional teleportation. But they can't teleport inside an universe (as we do). They're interesseted in our techonology because its an impressive primitive technology they can't recreate, similiar to how we see the egyptian pyramids.
If you like fiction in this vein, then the subreddit r/HFY has an insane backlog of stories with humanity prevailing or being the best as the core premise/theme. Some are better than others, but the good ones are GREAT.
@@venomousfrog5546 Idk, I tend to avoid that sub and most HFY stories in general as most of them feel like one being circlejerk, I like the trope but dislike most adaptations of the trope.
Che Guevara stressed in "Guerrilla Warfare" that all of your guns and ammo comes from the enemy so it makes sense that all the rebels are carrying combine weapons
Spoiler Ahead: And there is epistle 3: I know that its not cannon, just a "fanfiction" from the original writer (weird, right?). But i still love it, the fact that the combine is more powerful that we think, they build a fucking dyson sphere, dimensional teletransportation and if they want to, they will destroy our own planet before we know it. And still, in the games, there is a minimal fraction of what the combien really is. Like, we are a toy for them, like a monkey climbing a tree while we wait for the monkey to grab some fruit for us. They doesnt care for us, they only use us, and if they doesnt find us usefull, they destroy us within seconds. But still, the human fight, the human spirit prevails, that's why the vortigaunts are our friends. Because its not only ingenuity, but also hope. Hope that one day we defeat the great evil that is the combine, and that's the message for all the half life saga.
I remember seeing gameplay for Half-Life 2 in 2003 and could believe how they incorporated physics into everything. I thought my god that game looks amazing I have to get it. I bought it right when it was released. Its probably the best game ever made.
@@bogie8 *Says the person who wanted him dead by putting a trigger_kill on him and wanted him to serve a bigger role in the prequel before evolving into a older aussie dude.
There is a nice thematic parrell between the Combines attempt at disarming the player in the Citadel, and the Combines attempt at disarming humanity, incidentally leading to the powerful tool instrumental in their downfall.
I just what realized half life series message is. The third law of newton; every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The resonance cascade brought us an equal and opposite reaction to the humans experimenting on xen. G-Man itself is the "equal and opposite reaction" He literally brought back Eli and gave freeman a chance
Even from human history, one can see that enginuity and out-of-the-box thinking is a characteristic of the weaker and vulnerable. From the ancient people, who were weaker than predators, but used tools and acted tactically, to the Mujahideen, Viet Cong or Belarusian partisans, who were a real nightmare for invaders which were much better armed and with more resources. By the way, the trains at 6:45 are different. First, Gordon escapes from the Latvian DR1 diesel train - which demonstrates the rationality of the Combines in using of captured resources. Then he manages to break away from the chase thanks to the Combine's locomotive(?), which, judging by the game, is the only type of train that have access to the Citadel and other strategically important objects such as Nova Prospect - probably carrying valuable cargo, "sleeping" troops or stalkers. P.S. I love your videos. Greetings from Russia)
I really, really love leadheads video pacing. Somehow packs tons of information in a really short package. Gets the job done, with a nice atmosphere that isn't 3 hours long.
Thank you for being a fan of the air boat sections. I love them, the thing controls so smooth and quick, you feel so strong, and you are being put into situations where you would think being on foot would be better, but the boat is so versatile it just allows you to do everything from it. The high point of half like 2 for me
Half Life 2 is such a power fantasy, I love it! I love how the Combine basically shit themselves when you teleport into Breen's office. How you start running away through the sewers but come back to lead a world changing revolution. How Freeman survives everything the Combine throw at him and destroys everything he touches like a deadly virus. Man, I love this game.
In the fights before Gordon enters the citadel humanity is obviously overwhelmed though, it's kinda sad, it's mostly just Gordon who barely pushes through the never ending flow of Combine enemies.
Hey this is a great video! Your video essays are always a major inspiration, you're really good at taking games apart and looking through everything a game has to offer - narrative, gameplay, their intersection, and so forth.
One thing I noticed while watching this is that the Combine are similar to most real world totalitarian states in that they're extremely stupid. They focus on sheer force rather than smart tactics, and as soon as their opponents get smart they're completely useless. The Nazis, for example, kept on trying to make huge, powerful super weapons but they lost because their tactics were bad and their ideas ended up being a downside. In the snow, these huge weapons got stuck and often broke down. And the combine are sort of the same. They have huge forces but in terms of ingenuity, they're below humanity. Most of their tech is probably stolen from other species, just like how they're trying to steal teleportation technology from the rebels.
Eh, I think there is a reason that all combine stuff has the same style. What they seem to steal instead, are the things they used as a base for striders or those helicopter thingys.
I don't know if it's even much of a feat, but my favourite stunt I pulled in the game was getting past the "pick up the can" guard without even touching the can, even though he kept blocking the door. I somehow jumped on the trash can, crouch jumped onto his head, and eventually somehow squeezed through. I wonder if he would have chased me if I had picked up something other than the can and thrown it at him.
The half life series is known to me since childhood and is a huge part of my identity, so I can say I know almost all there is to know of it. This video is very accurate and also taught me new things about my beloved game series and lore :)
Absolutely loved this video, it puts into words my whole love of the series. I'm a bit sad you didn't mention "Kleinercast" in Episode One, which brings out a lot of points you made: "For what the Combine fear the most is not any tangible human weapon, but our will, our intellect, our ability to respond selectively and rationally to every terror they turn against us"
I think I speak for many of us when I say that easily the most irking feature in this game is how they decided to have the flashlight and stamina share the same meter. No idea why they did that. Other than that, I don't have many negative things to say about HL2.
I want to add just 1 more negative thing to the list. The vehicles. They are clunky as all video game vehicles from 90s to early 2000's . And the Antlions are just too annoying to drive with when on the Scout car. The scout car is worse than the water/airboat
@@rudrasingh6354 Maybe my view is a little tainted by nostalgia, but I had less issues with the car than with the airboat and actually enjoyed driving it. Of course it's no BMW, but it didn't need to be.
Limited flashlight battery in both HL1 and HL2 add pretty much nothing positive to gameplay and were, in my opinion, a bad decision. All it does is break up the flow of progression by making you wait for your flashlight to recharge.
@@ilpatongi 10 seconds of what they could possibly have us do during HL3 instead of just having Eli die and leaving us on a major cliffhanger although I will agree HL:A does leave us on another but we have better knowledge on what we are going to do, plus we understand that G-man has been pulling more strings behind the scenes and instead of just having it being exclusively a prequel, G-man hires Alyx.
After Laidlaw posted Epistle 3, I saw the HL stories in a very nihilistic standpoint, where humanity is so small and insignificant that even if we win a few battles, we can't win the war against the titanic forces of the universe. But this video made me see it in a different light. You cam't argue that the underestimated value of human ingenuity is probably *the* central theme of the HL series. Maybe it is enough to save/free us. Also, WHERE is that G-Man speech at the end of this vid from? I've memorized all his speeches from the games but never heard this. Not cannon?
Your game song analogy and the goal-oriented game design got me subscribed. As an aspiring gamedev, I'm so driven by the lack of this approach to contemporary game development.
The combine are the Cruel and Unforgiving Universe, they cannot be stopped and are too strong. But The resistance (And later on almost all humans) are the indominable human spirit.
Its a good game to get yourself introduced to the series, but I'd also recommend playing the original HL and it's expansions as well (To me, it doesnt matter if you play these before or after completing HL2 and its episodes) I hope you enjoy your playthroughs!
@@legacyofvrak thanks! I think I will start with Black Mesa, then Half Life 2, then maybe back to HL1. After seeing the trailer for Half Life Alyx, I wanted to play the entire series.
I really like the material on this channel. I'm from Brazil and my English is not very good, so, could you put subtitles so that I can translate and better understand the content? Thank you! s2
I've played the game, and what I've learnt is to bring piece to humanity, it needs common enemy. Combine invasion bring the spirit of collaboration and brotherhood to all human no matter what are their ethnicity, nationality, and other differences to fight Combine together.
your videos is what finally made me get half life and play through the games and they were great and learning more about the minor details and story is what truly what makes this game special
Thing you are overlooking is that combine is doing the same thing as humans, they use part of their own tech and ours to combat us, they mostly use human soldiers and a lot of "their" weapons are likely just taken from human stocks and made in human factories. You don't actually get a combine weapon(non vehicle) until the overwatch standard issue.
It's just a small storage room with health kits, small batteries for your Hev suit and ammo nothing special, a few CP's comes out of that room once you exit your airboat to check it out
It really stings when you see an amazing video like this that brings you right back to the wonder and excitement about the game when you first played it and then to realise that HL3 won't ever happen. Yeah I know the Epistle3 story was really dark and full of hopelessness, but just imagine with today's tech how it could have been. Sure we got Alyx but we all want to end the story and wield the crowbar one last time. Remember the whole chaos over the ending of Mass Effect? And then they fixed it...i would be OK with Gordon dying or warping back to Black Mesa to stop the cascade at the cost of his own life or something...one can dream but I just can't ever see it happening
One thing I really loved about HL2 is the sense of comradery between what little is left of humankind. The shared understanding that when facing such a serious threat like complete enslavement or even annihilation it's time to put aside any differences, band together and support each other as much as possible no matter what. When the stakes are that great there's definitely no place for silly quarrels... And something I dislike the sequels for is that they don't seem to get it, having many lines in the spirit of: "What idiot put Kleiner in charge?" Dr. Magnusson is of course the worst offender of such incohesive character writing.
What about civil protection? There are pretty much zero alien forces oppressing humanity on earth from earth. Breen is the evil overlord. Humans are the police force.
I have verbally declared the same exact thing- as well as (in)famously stating among my friends that; 'Half-Life is the most important pieces of media, game or otherwise- to be created by human-things. Thus far, to-date.' Full stop. Great piece.
One of my favorite things about Half Life 2 is that I never feel limited by the game itself. I may not be able to do something, but it always feels like it's because I don't know how to do it or something like that
Personally I would like to think there is military remnants of humanity’s army’s sitting in bunkers waiting for the call and the closing of the super portal gave the call
Sometimes, I get this feeling when I watch/play/listen to something amazing, but I can't put into words why I perceive it that way. I had this feeling with Blade Runner (also the second), Bitches Brew (Miles Davis), Inside, and also with Half-life 2. To have someone articulate somewhat of that mystery in a way that really resonates with me always feels really enlightening. And that's what you did just here. So thanks for that!
1:42 I think the final boss in DS1 was supposed to make you feel empty inside. Like “that’s it?” because you’re expecting an insanely hard boss fight with a literal god, but all you get is a moderately difficult boss fight with a husk of what was once a beacon of power set to a simple, sad piano piece as the fight music. They executed this feeling VERY well
2:36 It's not that the Combine can't teleport without using Xen, it's that they can't teleport within the same universe. They can teleport to other universes, but they can't teleport from one point to another within a universe. Teleporting by using Xen as a relay is what Black Mesa's teleportation does.
8:50 i remember back when i first played Half life 2, Water Hazard was the most nostalgic part of the game, is just got stuck inside my mind when i finished the game.
The Combine: Oh no, you're using my only weakness agh!!! The Freeman: using your own stupidity against you? The Combine: yes... The Freeman: **shoots with the AR2** The Combine: **Calling all powerful units and striders and xen creatures** The Freeman: **literally does nothing and wins the battle**
Thank you! I cannot express enough how much love I have for the half-life franchise and how well-thought-out the game was with other people. this video is perfect!
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
Hey guys! If you wanna join in on some games, and get involved with this cool community, you can join my discord at discord.gg/PVvXESU7WU
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Xcom? Survive. Adapt. Win.
What do you use to make the thumbnails
God these indepth thoughts about halflife make me feel stupid. I just running around killing the badguys...
You say that you're proud to be human, But really you want to be a cat. Because a cat's the only cat who knows where it's at
I like to think gman destroyed black mesa (if opposing force is cannon) so that people llike gordan could still live and maybe perhaps he was also the reason why aperture science (from the portal series of games) still remains unfounded by the combine perhaps he is like palpatine working all sides but loyal to neither, perhaps thus is meant to make humanity more human by threatening what makes us so unique as individuals not a collective
You used your antlions as cannon fodder? I treated them like my brothers we fought and bleed together. They were true heroes
Same! I fought along side them like brothers.
My antlion army was blown to pieces together dammit!!!
Busta
I still miss you, Antonio Leo
I gave them names, I don’t know how I kept track of them but I did
16 years later I never realized that the stun baton can be used to charge the suit. I guess I just never paid attention.
Mind blown
Actually, that's because you only get two or three chances to do it in the entire game.
BUT! If you go into the console and type "give weapon_stunstick", it will give you 7 suit energy. I think.
wait. WHAT?
I never knew that either
@@revolutionstudios5052 well there's a beta model with old hev hands holding a stunstick, so it was possible to actually use it
The Half-Life series is a beautiful tale of “you’re tiny compared to the universe but you can still be the difference that matters”.
It's like Lovecraft but a bit more hopeful.
you're tiny compared to the universe, but so is everyone else.
Mr. Personal Space ”your”
@@johnnybambam141 actually, OP is using the correct form. You're is short for "you are".
@Skitalets Until the Vorts decide to give him the finger and yeet you out of his clutches
It took me 16 years to realize that the orange circular port thing on wall mounted energy batteries are for the ends of stun batons
My god, I thought it was just a finger thing with charging ports, even in the original half-life, just jam your index finger in and you're charged
Jesus, that's why you can charge your suit with the stun batons. The batons themselves are charged in the same way. Just when you think you know everything about the game all these years later...
Instresting
That's what happens when science nerds make video games, everything HAS to look like it could plausibly work or they're not happy with it.
Portal has a ton of background details like this too and it makes everything feel so lived in and real despite the outlandish scenario
Explains why combine troops have no charged suits; they use those batteries for other tech like scanners.
There's two ways to play Half-life as a series:
Normal FPS gun shooty game,
and
*_Gordon "the" Freeman, Theoretical Physicist_*
P
@Stix N' Stones "I can recite the quantum chromodynamic gauge invariant lagrangian in MY SLEEP!"
and also
BREAK THE GAME AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE FOR S P E E D
And Gordon, the gnome carrier
Huh, Gordon is a strange guy, big fan though.
Living in eastern europe is really chilling if you love hl2
Isn`t the other way around ? If you live in eastern europe, playing Half Life 2 must be chilling because it feels like you are a gun fight against aliens in your hometown.
been to places there, it's amazing
@@TheOsamaBahama yes. I also happened to get familiar with HL2 just when riots broke out in the streets, so the angry police in riot gear was also present
Half Life 2 art director is from Bulgaria. City 17 was inspired by Sofia, Bucuresti, and Budapest (Nyugati station is the starting point in the game).
It does hit quite close to home.
Another human aspect, present throughout Half Life 2, is the irrational hope of overcoming the odds. Humanity was beaten by a vastly superior alien race in less than 7 hours. There is no way humans could defeat the Combine. And yet, some of us keep fighting. Keep organizing in underground groups and fighting against all odds for our freedom. Humans are probably the most annoying race the Combine ever had to deal with, because we just won`t give up. And that is beautiful.
This is also the theme for portal 1/2. Chell represents the last of humanity in aperture “never gives up”
Yes
I always thought the most likely way the humans could truly "get rid" of the combine would be if they simply lost interest in what remains on earth.
They already drained a ton of the ocean, "harvested" enough humans to breed them in their home world, so maybe they already have what they wanted.
After the super portal was neutralized at the end of Ep2, the combine have no way to travel to or from earth, so all that's remaining are the combine forces left on earth.
Attempting to open another portal may be too much effort for them, so they could simply decide to abandon earth and work with the resources they got. They already have blueprints for a working local teleporter, so what else would they want with humanity?
So if the humans could just defeat the rest of the stranded combine army, they might have the closest thing to peace they could hope for.
@@ShyGuyXXL But that's the thing about humans. They recognize when an enemy is too great for them, and when they can defeat it. Sun Tzu would say that there are better ways to defeat a foe a hundred times greater than you. In the humans' case, simply wearing down the enemy, the Combine, and preventing them from truly reaching you, is how we do that. We know how to truly defeat a giant.
@@craigmachinburg8038 Humans never gonna give the combines up
"the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself"
- sun tzu, the art of war
If fighting is sure to result in victory then you must fight!
Sun Tzu said that
@@fatis2745 And I'd say he knows a little more about fighting than you do pally!
@@GrayCatTheMemeMachine because he INVENTED IT!
@@8bitengie And then he perfected it so that no living man could best him in the ring of honor!
The Kleinercasts summarize this sentiment perfectly:
"For what the Combine fear the most is not any tangible human weapon, but our will, our intellect, our ability to respond selectively and rationally to every terror they turn against us. We place our firmest hope in the human spirit, even knowing how easily it may be shattered. We have all seen friends and family crushed by the Combine. Some of our neighbors have allowed themselves to be co-opted, and purged of their humanity, by the military machine. And those who resisted have met a most terrible fate.
Still, I cannot overstate how important it is that we retain our humanity. Only this will allow us to hold together as we must for their inevitable return... and what is certain to be unimaginable retaliation."
An even greater proof of our potential imo is G-man's interest in us. For me he gives off this vibe of an eldritch PMC who scouts the dimensions in search of "one-man-armies" to hire in the benefit of various factions in the universe. The feats of Gordon, Alyx and Shepherd have made him hire two of them and safe store one due "a fascination with those who adapt and survive against all odds". We're nothig if not... resourceful I'd say.
@@Marzsala my guess is Private Military Contractor, someone who hires mercenaries to do their bidding in a conflict/hard task
@@Marzsala exactly how Strike One put it. It's reinforced by G-man's talk of his "employers" and "restrictions" imposed on him.
Documentary of real life!
I must admit, I giggled heartily when I read this because I’ve played Half-Life: Alyx.
@@MrRobotman i wish i could play it, i don't have the money for it currently and with my current income i'll have to wqit another 14 months in order to get both the graphics card and index to play it...
Yeah, sure, but have you ever thought of ENHANCING being human even further? Report to your nearest Nova Prospekt train to know more!
@arabpoop69 Always, we always need new -cannon fodder- transhuman soldiers!
Please accept this very heavy and beeping picnic basket filled with assorted and saved up food packets on behalf of the people at Ravenholm youth League. Now if you excuse me. I have to use the toilet down the street.
I feel like the Combine are almost religious in a evolutionary transhumanism kind of way. They're devoted to unify everyone and everything through this ideal of a greater cosmic intelligence, and Breen is almost like a prophet, spreading the word that they can break Humanity from bondage and remove them of their fleshy desires and impulses.
@@damonnugent1993 You're right. I think i also heard somewhere, that The Combine were destroying all the churches on Earth too, almost as if they wanted to "get rid of infidel scum". Intriguing...
@@svijj_ Never heard about that, I think the Combine probably tore down many things held sacred and precious to Humanity, rip out anything that suggests hope and freedom, break apart the old world and slowly usher in the new one, break people's spirits and convince them they are conquered and no different to livestock.
It also kind of makes me think of the New World Order idea people talk about, and there's some interesting biblical allegories I found interesting, the tower of Babel that was built to reach the heavens (the Citadel) the mark of the beast that supposedly gives you immortality yet removes the chance for salvation (Combine technology and implants) the Antichrist that brings in the new order (Dr Breen) the beast (the Combine) the image of the beast (the Combine Advisors) and of course the messiah that returns to free Humanity (Gordon Freeman) and the all powerful deity or supernatural entity that can see you wherever you go, knows all and wants to fight against the dark forces of the world (Gman) Kinda makes you think, huh?
Sorry that I was late today guys... I've had an insane week, and I accidentally set the upload time wrong
This will forever be held against you... :p
It's alright, I didn't even know you have an upload schedule
thank you for the videos
This is a great video as per usual.
Also have you played psychonauts? If so, what are your thoughts on it?
Be careful about burnout. Remember to take care of yourself - nobody wants you to adhere religiously to a schedule at the cost of your mental health.
Leadhead's game video-essays make me proud to be a human
Karol Gutowski's comments make me proud to be a human
@@rudrasingh6354 Rudra Singh's appreciation makes me proud to be a human.
@@juicejooos juice.'s replies make me proud to be a human.
I’m proud to be a subscriber
True, the appreciation of knowledge makes me proud to be human.
The more I play Half-Life 2, I find more and more missed details.
Leadhead: Gives examples of using ingenuity to defeat the Combine, explaining how special we are as a species due to our ingenuity
Me having played all the games countless times: Oh, so you can hit the propellers instead of crouching under the trap to activate it...huh. And you can catch manhacks...seems logical. Wait, YOU CAN DO WHAT WITH THE STUN BATONS!?!?!?
I feel like a dumb ass now
I would just do the classic Doomguy style and beat everything to death with a crowbar or shoot it to death with a crowbar
I knew you could catch manhacks but I didn't know you can use them as a chainsaw, thats awesome
Wait, what CAN you do with stun batons!?
@@TheDrewDarrow, you can pick them up as a power supply for the HEV suit(like the power cells you find lying around usually - be they batteries in Black Mesa and Combine batteries in City 17 and it's outskirts)
Ikr. Played it plenty but still discovering tons about the game
I just started playing half life 2 again yesterday and while going threw ravenholm I realize something, Gordon Freeman ( a man of science) and father Grigori (a man of religion) are both helping each other survive.
And Grigori sacrifices himself so that Gordon may move forward.
@@TheAkrillion Grigori stays alive tho
@@e1532 We don't know that exactly. We see him fight through the horde but we don't know if he survived or died.
@@TheAkrillion nah, he survived, as you see when he fought the horde of zombies. He made a fire and went through it, if you hear it closely. You could hear him laughing. Unfortunately, During the events of the citadel explosion, it is unknown whether father grigori managed to survive the explosion or not. Through the wiki, it says he might've survived.
It makes thematic sense; knowledge and faith are humans' best tools for fighting the Combine.
This was a really cool video, it's great to look back on the design of standout games like this. I think an aspect of the 'using the enemy's own weapons against them' theme is emphasised by another aspect of the Combine - the fact that they are, indeed, a combination of many different races and techs under one gigantic multi-universal force. Many of the larger-scale projects they do on Earth is about integrating all of Earth's power and technology into the greater whole, allowing that to be used across the entire domain of the Combine.
But of course, by integrating human tech with the rest of itself, it in turn makes every human potentially compatible to use that tech themselves. And some of that is intended of course, with the legions of armoured and armed troops under the Combine's command. But it also makes them vulnerable to subversion and sabotage, much as a giant monster may swallow a warrior whole, only for the warrior to cut their way out of the monster's stomach and do incredible damage that they could have never achieved from outside.
So yeah, really cool themes Half-Life 2 has. :D Maybe we can still hope for further expansion on those themes and this conflict, now that HL: Alyx is a thing that exists.
2 days ago? How? This video was released an hour ago, are you a member?
2 days ago? Lmao I thought my eyes were playing tricks
269 likes lmao
That monster metaphor is amazing
@@Winrarnt Thank you! I am rather proud of that one. ^w^
My favorite thing about half life is just how interesting the combine are. Their goal isn't to destroy any race as much as assimilate them and exploit them. It reminds me a lot about what we do to ourselves, they're like the worst parts of humanity exemplified in something else that isn't human, the kind of lack of respect for nature, the greed and industrialism (also love the twisted logic and propaganda as well). it makes fighting against them feel more like fighting against an idea more than a shallow fight against an alien race. most of the time you're not even fighting aliens but soldiers who have become less than human. It just gives the game a real grit and sense of reality to it, it's really grim stuff, but like I said, there's a hint of humanity in the combine actually, it's some soul crushing shit, and fighting against it almost has a spiritual vibe to me, like I said just fighting an idea, it's hella interesting to me
Great analysis. Yeah, the Combine are like humans who have become inhumane. It really makes you question what it means to be human. In a way, the fight between the resistance and the Combine can be seen as the struggle between the best impulses of humanity and the worst impulses of humanity.
It isn't exemplified at all. IF we had the technology to reach another planet with resources and intelligent life, we'd probably do the same, if not much much worse. Add genocide and mass rape to the mix if we were in Combine's position
@@pl3bx I mean it kind of is genocide. But yeah you're right, the one thing missing from half life 2 is mass alien rape, ya got me
@@pl3bx nah I don't think well ever be like the combine, mainly cause the combine only do what they do because its efficient, they're indifferent to all the suffering they cause, but we tend to be spiteful, sometimes destroying stuff for the sake of it.
Pssst, "the Combine" is a term coined by Ken Kesey in his novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest in order to refer to the human product of the way that our worst possibilities would be brought out through our society's internal mechanisms that are what make things like colonialism and destructive industrialism become possible.
Half life 2 has got to to be one of the best works of art. Ever.
It's a close second to Shrek 2
it is my favourite game ever
Why does your brain skip the the 2nd the or in this case the second to
@@decmcelarn3363 you make a good point
Yes
"we get contiously beaten down and the pay off is this..."
Interupted by a facebook messager ad.
I can imagine the combine torturing a citizen by showing them Facebook ads
@@rey4874 god, imagine if they showed tiktok ads too, that would be real mental and physical torture
@@asincereman5297 They say that in Nova prospekt you can faintly hear whispers for help before the sound of 'sksksksks' ultimately wins it over
I got an ad that said “We made $50,000 in a hour”. Idk about you, but it seems like that’s a pretty good pay off.
Facebook is one shitty payoff, ngl.
“...and the payoff is this - “
“INTRODUCING THE NEW TACO BELL PARTY PACK”
lol same timing of food ads for me too
I got bacho fries
It was a Samsung Galaxy s21 ad for me
I got an EToro ad. SIMON AND JOE BOTH INVEST IN STOCK
I got a Lazada ad,
“And the payoff is-”
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!”
This might be an unpopular opinion, but I think one other element of human ingenuity is Dr. Breen's negotiations with the Combine:
If he really did negotiate a terms of surrender, he managed to end the most devastating war humanity ever experienced; I wouldn't be surprised if he mentioned teleportation as a "this is what we have, please don't murder us".
During his address to the Nova Prospekt forces, he mentions how he's assuring his benefactors that Freeman will be dealt with (though their patience is running thin). Given how aggressive and destructive they are towards the first sign of defiance (see also Ravenholm), Breen is able to keep them from saying "screw this, kill them all".
While I'm sure he didn't intend to, he's ultimately given humanity the time it needs to rally, resist, and overcome the Combine.
This accurately sum up the HL games for me. Or, really, valves games in genral. Pepole survive by useing there head and being stubborn little shits.
Yeah like in Portal Chell uses Aperture's/GLaDOS's portal gun and turrets to destroy GLaDOS as well as parts of the facility. Or in Portal 2 how we portal to the moon via the opening provided by Wheatly's plan's part 5(booby trap the stalemate button)
@@rudrasingh6354 Portal 1&2 pretty much explains that you can be too stubborn to die.
@@pasha_0791 its like "still alive" taunted chell to much to let herself die
They also cause chain reactions that wipe out most of humanity lol
*TEST SUBJECT LITERALLY THINKING TOO MUCH WITH PORTALS TO DIE*
This reminds me of that one episode of Stargate, where this alien race that's far more advanced that humanity recruits a human soldier to help them plan their battle against the robots wiping them out. They adhere so firmly to pure logic that they can't think out of the box any longer, and need the help of a 'lesser' species.
Fascinating. What did the human soldier give them, though?
@@mayorgeneralramirez1997 It's been years since I saw the episode, but I'm pretty sure she gets them to use their most advanced ship as bait, and then self destruct it in a suicide attack to destroy the enemy fleet.
R.I.P Alien tax payers
@@ThejollyFrenchman okay that is fucking amazing because the lead writer of half life literally wrote out the ending as a letter from gordon where they were going to self destruct a teleporting luxury cruise liner directly into the combines overworld
Yeah, the Asgard fleet needed less sophisticated means to deal with the replicators, so they sent Jack O'Niell to deal with it.
Hope you get a chance to play HL:A, the theme of abusing combine tech to the humans' and the player character's advantage is continued there
He made another video on that game as well
Wait.... how did you comment 6 days previously? I'm guessing you're a patron?
@@crittr nah its more plausible hes a time traveler
Crittr nah I’m a time traveler. Even mentioned in the video among all the other time travelers.
@@anatolyFct Oh whoops, didn't notice your name! Turns out people don't care about looking at the usernames of people who have donated at the end of the videos, let alone recognize them... huh that's one of those oofers ain't it.
"For what the Combine fear the most is not any tangible human weapon, but our will, our intellect, our ability to respond selectively and rationally to every terror they turn against us.
We place our firmest hope in the human spirit, even knowing how easily it may be shattered."
~ Dr. Kleiner
When LeadHead makes a video on anything half-life/valve, you know is gonna be amazing
Why would you be proud to be a human when the Combine is better than you in every possible way?
Sincerely,
Wallace Breen, Earth's Administrator
I for one welcome our new combine overlords
I Mean were good at teleporting... Don't know why a fucking empire cant even go to A and B without using a teleporter.
@@timothytimothy4854 They do teleport, but with a ''higher'' technology such as Multi-dimensional teleportation.
But they can't teleport inside an universe (as we do).
They're interesseted in our techonology because its an impressive primitive technology they can't recreate, similiar to how we see the egyptian pyramids.
cuz thats dumb
and combine smell like pee and poo
7:03 "And the pay off is this"
And then I got a ad about KFC
KFC is good tho
Not saying I was complaining
i got an ad about playstation
I got an ad about politics 😑🙄😒
I got a stretch bag ad.
"Fuck yeah humanity:" is one of my all-time favorite tropes in all of fiction, I love games that celebrate the better aspects of humanity.
I love just about _any_ media that does so.
@@mekingtiger9095 Yeah me too.
If you like fiction in this vein, then the subreddit r/HFY has an insane backlog of stories with humanity prevailing or being the best as the core premise/theme. Some are better than others, but the good ones are GREAT.
@@venomousfrog5546 Idk, I tend to avoid that sub and most HFY stories in general as most of them feel like one being circlejerk, I like the trope but dislike most adaptations of the trope.
@@THExRISER that's fair, searching the archives looking for the diamonds among the circle-jerk isn't necessary fun.
Remember Gman's famous words "A based man in a cringe place can make all the difference in the world."
Che Guevara stressed in "Guerrilla Warfare" that all of your guns and ammo comes from the enemy so it makes sense that all the rebels are carrying combine weapons
Spoiler Ahead:
And there is epistle 3:
I know that its not cannon, just a "fanfiction" from the original writer (weird, right?). But i still love it, the fact that the combine is more powerful that we think, they build a fucking dyson sphere, dimensional teletransportation and if they want to, they will destroy our own planet before we know it.
And still, in the games, there is a minimal fraction of what the combien really is. Like, we are a toy for them, like a monkey climbing a tree while we wait for the monkey to grab some fruit for us. They doesnt care for us, they only use us, and if they doesnt find us usefull, they destroy us within seconds.
But still, the human fight, the human spirit prevails, that's why the vortigaunts are our friends. Because its not only ingenuity, but also hope. Hope that one day we defeat the great evil that is the combine, and that's the message for all the half life saga.
"we are coterminous"
@@smji8874 Galanga
I think that's half life's theme overall, humanity's defiance despite being put up against an eldritch warmachine that is the combine empire
@@b.c.s.o4169 Nihilant, the combine or even the gman power
That dyson sphere things are cannon
Right before we enter breen's office breen talks about exactly that
it makes me fell comfortable when i meet an npc it just makes me feel safe
I remember seeing gameplay for Half-Life 2 in 2003 and could believe how they incorporated physics into everything. I thought my god that game looks amazing I have to get it. I bought it right when it was released. Its probably the best game ever made.
half life alyx is even more impressive
Every once in a while I find myself pondering over how things would have turned out if Lazlo had survived...
Who says he died
@@bogie8 the fact that he has a trigger_kill attached to him
@@RedWithTheLongTH-camHandle shush
@@bogie8 *Says the person who wanted him dead by putting a trigger_kill on him and wanted him to serve a bigger role in the prequel before evolving into a older aussie dude.
Wait that guy has lore ? The guy that got killed by air once I killed the Antlion
6:10 Classic Sun Tzu. "The opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy themself."
There is a nice thematic parrell between the Combines attempt at disarming the player in the Citadel, and the Combines attempt at disarming humanity, incidentally leading to the powerful tool instrumental in their downfall.
"the right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world."
Fantastic video. I really loved the breakdown with the chopper - truly one of the most powerful moments in gaming.
Fantastic game, i really loved Entropy Zero 2
I just what realized half life series message is.
The third law of newton; every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
The resonance cascade brought us an equal and opposite reaction to the humans experimenting on
xen.
G-Man itself is the "equal and opposite reaction"
He literally brought back Eli
and gave freeman a chance
Even from human history, one can see that enginuity and out-of-the-box thinking is a characteristic of the weaker and vulnerable. From the ancient people, who were weaker than predators, but used tools and acted tactically, to the Mujahideen, Viet Cong or Belarusian partisans, who were a real nightmare for invaders which were much better armed and with more resources.
By the way, the trains at 6:45 are different. First, Gordon escapes from the Latvian DR1 diesel train - which demonstrates the rationality of the Combines in using of captured resources. Then he manages to break away from the chase thanks to the Combine's locomotive(?), which, judging by the game, is the only type of train that have access to the Citadel and other strategically important objects such as Nova Prospect - probably carrying valuable cargo, "sleeping" troops or stalkers.
P.S. I love your videos. Greetings from Russia)
I really, really love leadheads video pacing. Somehow packs tons of information in a really short package. Gets the job done, with a nice atmosphere that isn't 3 hours long.
Thank you for being a fan of the air boat sections. I love them, the thing controls so smooth and quick, you feel so strong, and you are being put into situations where you would think being on foot would be better, but the boat is so versatile it just allows you to do everything from it. The high point of half like 2 for me
I like how easily you can interpret cp units as child predator units and it just makes any half life 2 video slightly funnier
Half Life 2 is such a power fantasy, I love it! I love how the Combine basically shit themselves when you teleport into Breen's office. How you start running away through the sewers but come back to lead a world changing revolution. How Freeman survives everything the Combine throw at him and destroys everything he touches like a deadly virus. Man, I love this game.
I .going to have to reply HL2, looks like I missed a few things from some of those clips
In the fights before Gordon enters the citadel humanity is obviously overwhelmed though, it's kinda sad, it's mostly just Gordon who barely pushes through the never ending flow of Combine enemies.
Hey this is a great video! Your video essays are always a major inspiration, you're really good at taking games apart and looking through everything a game has to offer - narrative, gameplay, their intersection, and so forth.
One thing I noticed while watching this is that the Combine are similar to most real world totalitarian states in that they're extremely stupid. They focus on sheer force rather than smart tactics, and as soon as their opponents get smart they're completely useless. The Nazis, for example, kept on trying to make huge, powerful super weapons but they lost because their tactics were bad and their ideas ended up being a downside. In the snow, these huge weapons got stuck and often broke down. And the combine are sort of the same. They have huge forces but in terms of ingenuity, they're below humanity. Most of their tech is probably stolen from other species, just like how they're trying to steal teleportation technology from the rebels.
Eh, I think there is a reason that all combine stuff has the same style. What they seem to steal instead, are the things they used as a base for striders or those helicopter thingys.
But what if there exists a totalitarian state that's actually smart?
I must say, that was a pretty good G-Man impression at the end.
I know right? Went looking for it online
I don't know if it's even much of a feat, but my favourite stunt I pulled in the game was getting past the "pick up the can" guard without even touching the can, even though he kept blocking the door.
I somehow jumped on the trash can, crouch jumped onto his head, and eventually somehow squeezed through.
I wonder if he would have chased me if I had picked up something other than the can and thrown it at him.
I literally just bought this game an hour before this video was uploaded.
have fun!
Welcome to the game, gamer!
The half life series is known to me since childhood and is a huge part of my identity, so I can say I know almost all there is to know of it. This video is very accurate and also taught me new things about my beloved game series and lore :)
SAME HERE MAN
A new video AND it’s Half Life? That’s a win-win.
Absolutely loved this video, it puts into words my whole love of the series. I'm a bit sad you didn't mention "Kleinercast" in Episode One, which brings out a lot of points you made:
"For what the Combine fear the most is not any tangible human weapon, but our will, our intellect, our ability to respond selectively and rationally to every terror they turn against us"
The kleinercasts are like a watered down version of that voice-actor's IRL persona "Dr Howl" and his speeches for the Church of the Subgenius
I think I speak for many of us when I say that easily the most irking feature in this game is how they decided to have the flashlight and stamina share the same meter. No idea why they did that. Other than that, I don't have many negative things to say about HL2.
I want to add just 1 more negative thing to the list. The vehicles. They are clunky as all video game vehicles from 90s to early 2000's . And the Antlions are just too annoying to drive with when on the Scout car. The scout car is worse than the water/airboat
It's not stamina it's suit power
@@rudrasingh6354 Maybe my view is a little tainted by nostalgia, but I had less issues with the car than with the airboat and actually enjoyed driving it. Of course it's no BMW, but it didn't need to be.
@@TheAgamemnon911 I still think the airboat is fine but it might be because I spent so many hours on gmod driving it
Limited flashlight battery in both HL1 and HL2 add pretty much nothing positive to gameplay and were, in my opinion, a bad decision. All it does is break up the flow of progression by making you wait for your flashlight to recharge.
What combine definitely didn't expect is to see Gordon running backwards while repeatedly jumping
I just finished playing the entire half life franchise (except alyx) a few hours ago, the timing
"except Alyx" that's a pretty major missing piece
@@naturesquad9174 Doesn't really advance the story in any way and it's not for everyone since VR headsets are still rare to find
@@ilpatongi "doesn't advance the story" whos gonna tell him
@@taxult Woah 10 seconds of fanservice..
@@ilpatongi 10 seconds of what they could possibly have us do during HL3 instead of just having Eli die and leaving us on a major cliffhanger although I will agree HL:A does leave us on another but we have better knowledge on what we are going to do, plus we understand that G-man has been pulling more strings behind the scenes and instead of just having it being exclusively a prequel, G-man hires Alyx.
Many years later, Half-Life 2 is still second to none. (Maybe to HL1, but only because of chronological order.)
Change my mind.
I totally agree with that, Born Again Skeptic
lol
After Laidlaw posted Epistle 3, I saw the HL stories in a very nihilistic standpoint, where humanity is so small and insignificant that even if we win a few battles, we can't win the war against the titanic forces of the universe. But this video made me see it in a different light. You cam't argue that the underestimated value of human ingenuity is probably *the* central theme of the HL series. Maybe it is enough to save/free us.
Also, WHERE is that G-Man speech at the end of this vid from? I've memorized all his speeches from the games but never heard this. Not cannon?
These half-life videos is what made me fall in love with this channel. So good to see yet another with just as much love put in.
Nothing makes me feel human like the people in half life 2... love to live like them
I mean, would you?
@@poly_blanka hell yea
Your game song analogy and the goal-oriented game design got me subscribed. As an aspiring gamedev, I'm so driven by the lack of this approach to contemporary game development.
" In Water Hazard, we are constantly beaten down by Hunter Choppers, and the payoff, is *this* "
*ad plays*
The combine are the Cruel and Unforgiving Universe, they cannot be stopped and are too strong. But The resistance (And later on almost all humans) are the indominable human spirit.
Never played the Half Life series, but I’ve heard multiple times they are really good! Is Black Mesa ok to start with?
YES ! BLACK MESA is absolutely amazing!! Speaking as a super long term HL fan
Yes
Its a good game to get yourself introduced to the series, but I'd also recommend playing the original HL and it's expansions as well
(To me, it doesnt matter if you play these before or after completing HL2 and its episodes)
I hope you enjoy your playthroughs!
@@legacyofvrak thanks! I think I will start with Black Mesa, then Half Life 2, then maybe back to HL1. After seeing the trailer for Half Life Alyx, I wanted to play the entire series.
@@GeorgeAndLennyGaming I'm sure you'll get to enjoy these 💪🏼
The Valve philosophy is "Make something an obstacle that's impossible to beat until you get something to tell it to fuck off"
I really like the material on this channel. I'm from Brazil and my English is not very good, so, could you put subtitles so that I can translate and better understand the content? Thank you! s2
Automatic subtitles has become really good recently, try it out!
@@unknown-otter Thanks! I will try!
@@fabiogoulart1987 your english is better than most people who speak english
@@krowta2062 it isn't professor of liberal arts
This brings a totally new feeling to hl2, It always made me feel like humanity and life is meaningless and useless but now I see it way better.
If this is about human ingenuity, speedrunners are the einsteins.
I've played the game, and what I've learnt is to bring piece to humanity, it needs common enemy. Combine invasion bring the spirit of collaboration and brotherhood to all human no matter what are their ethnicity, nationality, and other differences to fight Combine together.
I felt like a genius when I discovered you could zoom in with the crossbow, then switch to the magnum and hit ridiculous snipes with it
You can also use the normal zoom feature that came with the suit and still make ridiculous snipes
your videos is what finally made me get half life and play through the games and they were great and learning more about the minor details and story is what truly what makes this game special
"Kill everything with barrels. This is Donkey Kong warfare".
Thing you are overlooking is that combine is doing the same thing as humans, they use part of their own tech and ours to combat us, they mostly use human soldiers and a lot of "their" weapons are likely just taken from human stocks and made in human factories. You don't actually get a combine weapon(non vehicle) until the overwatch standard issue.
9:00 that's what Civvi called "Valve Blueballing" :'D
7:06 i skipped a heartbeat, that's my actual ringtone, shook me out of my body and back haha
8:48 whats in the room to the right? not once have i ever seen that door open.
It's just a small storage room with health kits, small batteries for your Hev suit and ammo nothing special, a few CP's comes out of that room once you exit your airboat to check it out
@@edwardwoods6096 Thanks.
It really stings when you see an amazing video like this that brings you right back to the wonder and excitement about the game when you first played it and then to realise that HL3 won't ever happen.
Yeah I know the Epistle3 story was really dark and full of hopelessness, but just imagine with today's tech how it could have been. Sure we got Alyx but we all want to end the story and wield the crowbar one last time.
Remember the whole chaos over the ending of Mass Effect? And then they fixed it...i would be OK with Gordon dying or warping back to Black Mesa to stop the cascade at the cost of his own life or something...one can dream but I just can't ever see it happening
One thing I really loved about HL2 is the sense of comradery between what little is left of humankind. The shared understanding that when facing such a serious threat like complete enslavement or even annihilation it's time to put aside any differences, band together and support each other as much as possible no matter what.
When the stakes are that great there's definitely no place for silly quarrels...
And something I dislike the sequels for is that they don't seem to get it, having many lines in the spirit of: "What idiot put Kleiner in charge?"
Dr. Magnusson is of course the worst offender of such incohesive character writing.
What about civil protection? There are pretty much zero alien forces oppressing humanity on earth from earth. Breen is the evil overlord. Humans are the police force.
In all fairness, Magnus' 'insufferable' personality could've been a face he puts on yo motivate his colleagues.
Fantastic video. You really articulated the symbiosis between gameplay and story in HL2 in a way that I couldn't before now.
I have verbally declared the same exact thing- as well as (in)famously stating among my friends that; 'Half-Life is the most important pieces of media, game or otherwise- to be created by human-things. Thus far, to-date.' Full stop.
Great piece.
One of my favorite things about Half Life 2 is that I never feel limited by the game itself. I may not be able to do something, but it always feels like it's because I don't know how to do it or something like that
"And the payoff is this" *gets ad*
Personally I would like to think there is military remnants of humanity’s army’s sitting in bunkers waiting for the call and the closing of the super portal gave the call
Unrealistic, but it sounds cool
Looks like you've played half life 2 a couple times
I remember buying this from Target on release, 5 cds in the box. I also found Stalker in target, back in the day.
2 great amazing games. You must of felt some serious warm fuzziness when u got home and played.
Next video: EA is why I'm losing faith in humanity.
Sometimes, I get this feeling when I watch/play/listen to something amazing, but I can't put into words why I perceive it that way. I had this feeling with Blade Runner (also the second), Bitches Brew (Miles Davis), Inside, and also with Half-life 2. To have someone articulate somewhat of that mystery in a way that really resonates with me always feels really enlightening. And that's what you did just here. So thanks for that!
Warhammer 40k also makes me proud to be human
I didn't think about it at all when I was playing HL2 recently, it all felt so natural and kinda true. Thank you for the video!
yeahhhhh new video
1:42 I think the final boss in DS1 was supposed to make you feel empty inside. Like “that’s it?” because you’re expecting an insanely hard boss fight with a literal god, but all you get is a moderately difficult boss fight with a husk of what was once a beacon of power set to a simple, sad piano piece as the fight music. They executed this feeling VERY well
Plot twist: The combine only invaded earth to help humans get their shit together and unify in the face of an existential threat.
No no no, that was the *nihilanth*.
2:36
It's not that the Combine can't teleport without using Xen, it's that they can't teleport within the same universe. They can teleport to other universes, but they can't teleport from one point to another within a universe. Teleporting by using Xen as a relay is what Black Mesa's teleportation does.
Some random kid who likes to play HL2 RP as the CP: ACKCHUALLY!
Pick up that can
@@madscientist1045 _laughs in supercharged gravity gun obtained via the console_
@@Zmeeed01 SHEEEIT!!!! _death sound_
@@madscientist1045 ''LOOK OUT BELOW!'' *throws molotov*
8:50 i remember back when i first played Half life 2, Water Hazard was the most nostalgic part of the game, is just got stuck inside my mind when i finished the game.
The Combine: Oh no, you're using my only weakness agh!!!
The Freeman: using your own stupidity against you?
The Combine: yes...
The Freeman: **shoots with the AR2**
The Combine: **Calling all powerful units and striders and xen creatures**
The Freeman: **literally does nothing and wins the battle**
Thank you! I cannot express enough how much love I have for the half-life franchise and how well-thought-out the game was with other people. this video is perfect!