Much of Laidlaw's carefully constructed world is revealed only in passing, as an overheard broadcast denies that this will truly be the last generation of humanity or the fallen ocean levels suggest Earth's state of environmental degradation. Most of the game is set in "City 17", the Eastern European capital of the new Earth, where the remnants of Communist rule mingle with the aliens' bioengineered Posthuman soldiers and unceasing propaganda. The script was again written by Marc Laidlaw, who creates a nightmare vision of a totalitarian future in which the Combine takes the place of George Orwell's Big Brother. The "portal storms" that covered the planet after the incident described in the first game attracted the aliens' attention after a swift war the administrator of the Black Mesa project negotiated a surrender in which he rules humanity on their behalf. ![]() The sequel, Half-Life 2 ( 2004 Valve, Win 2005 XBox 2007 PS3, XB360), is set many years later, after Earth's conquest by a Parallel World Empire known as the Combine. The game ends with the G-Man offering Freeman a chance to escape from Xen and be preserved in stasis for unknown purposes if the player refuses, Freeman will inevitably die. Throughout, they are often observed by the mysterious "G-Man", an ambiguous figure who shares much with the "Men in Black" of UFO folklore. A strong vein of conspiracy runs through the game the player can discover that members of the Black Mesa facility have been secretly investigating the border world for some time. There, the portal can be sealed, stopping the invasion. Ultimately, the player has to enter the portal and journey to Xen, a strange "border world" where dimensions intersect. However, it soon becomes apparent that a military team have been sent in with orders to kill both the invading aliens and the human scientists, in order to guarantee secrecy. Initially, the player will be attempting to reach the surface and summon medical assistance for the injured. As in Doom ( 1993), a disastrous experiment leads to a portal being opened to a Parallel World inhabited by hostile nonhumans. The player character is Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist at the Black Mesa underground research complex. Gameplay focuses on combat and physically based puzzles the environmental design is ingenious and challenging. The player is guided through an entirely linear plot (see Interactive Narrative) until the end, when they can choose one of two paths. Similar techniques have been used in many later games. While the storyline itself is not particularly notable, this approach, combined with Marc Laidlaw's well-crafted dialogue and convincingly created world, gives the player a strong sense of being involved with the narrative. Instead, the story is integrated with the gameplay, using such techniques as overheard conversations and prescripted events triggered by player actions. It was the first FPS in which a storyline was presented without the use of non-interactive scenes interposed between levels set in different locations. Half-Life is a First Person Shooter, notable for its depth of narrative immersion (see Game Design).
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