User:PeturDarri/Half-Life

Half-Life (book)

Half-Life

Author	Gabe Newell
Language	English
Genre	Adventure
Published	2006 (Valve Corporation)
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (softcover)
Pages	243 pp (first edition)

Setting

Half-Life presents a dystopian alternate history of Earth, where the resources of the planet, including the human race itself, are being harvested by an oppressive multidimensional empire, known as the Combine. The game is set around the fictitious City 17. During Half-Life, the scientists, including Gordon Freeman, at the Black Mesa Research Facility, accidentally caused an inter-dimensional instability known as a resonance cascade and later as the "Black Mesa Incident", when an experiment on an alien crystal sample went wrong. Alien creatures, such as the Vortigaunts and headcrabs, from the borderworld of Xen, flooded into the facility. Gordon fought his way through them and the government cover-up response combat units, making it to the Facility's Lambda Complex. There, the Lambda scientists helped Gordon teleport to Xen, where Gordon destroyed a large alien entity keeping the rift open. Gordon was then suddenly extracted by the mysterious G-Man, who had been following him throughout his adventures. Impressed with his ability to survive against all odds, the G-Man offered him a job before placing him into stasis, which Gordon had no option but to accept. Some time after the ending of Half-Life, the instability at Black Mesa had attracted the attention of the Combine empire, and they invaded Earth. Humanity surrendered at the conclusion of the resulting "Seven Hour War". City 17 became the home of the gigantic Combine Citadel, and Dr. Wallace Breen, the Administrator of Black Mesa who had negotiated the surrender, was appointed representative and Administrator to supervise the survivors on behalf of the Combine. Unable to breed due to a Combine suppression field, humanity matured. The Combine implemented a brutal police state of Civil Protection officers and Overwatch soldiers by recruiting and biologically assimilating humans and other species. Meanwhile an underground "Lambda Resistance" of humans and Vortigaunts, now working together, was formed, and saw Freeman as a savior who would lead them to freedom.

Plot

Gordon Freeman is brought out of stasis by the G-Man, who inserts him into a train arriving at City 17. After arriving at the station and eluding Combine forces, Gordon joins Lambda resistance members including Barney Calhoun, a former Black Mesa security guard now working undercover as a Combine CP officer, and Alyx Vance, the daughter of one of Gordon's former colleagues, Dr. Eli Vance. After a failed attempt to teleport to Eli's resistance base known as Black Mesa East from Dr. Kleiner's makeshift laboratory in City 17, Gordon, re-equipped with the HEV suit and a crowbar, is forced to progress on foot through the city's old canal system. After obtaining an airboat, he battles his way to Black Mesa East, several miles from the city. Gordon is reintroduced to Eli and meets another resistance scientist, Dr. Judith Mossman. Alyx introduces Gordon to her large pet robot D0g and gives him a "Gravity Gun", an instrument which allows Gordon to pick up and move any large object with ease. Black Mesa East soon comes under Combine attack and Eli and Mossman are captured to be taken to a Combine prison, Nova Prospekt. Gordon and Alyx are forced to take separate paths to Nova Prospekt; Gordon takes a detour through the zombie-infested town of Ravenholm, receiving help from its last survivor, Father Grigori. After making his way through the town and a mine, Gordon arrives at a Resistance outpost. There, he is provided with a Dune Buggy, which he uses to travel along a crumbling coastal road to Nova Prospekt. Along the way, Gordon encounters frequent Combine patrols, and helps one of the resistance leaders, Colonel Odessa Cubbage, to defend a Resistance base from a Combine gunship. After crossing an antlion-infested beach, Gordon enters Nova Prospekt, where he is reunited with Alyx. They manage to locate Eli, but also discover that Mossman is a Combine informant. Before they can stop her, she teleports herself and Eli back to City 17's Citadel. The Combine teleporter explodes as Gordon and Alyx use it to escape Nova Prospekt. Upon reaching Kleiner's lab, Gordon and Alyx learn that they were caught in a "slow teleport", during which a week has passed. In their absence, the Resistance, who heard about what had happened at Nova Prospekt, has mobilized against the Combine, turning City 17 into a battleground. During the fighting, Alyx is captured by the Combine and taken to the Citadel, as Gordon fights through the city with the aid of D0g and Barney to reach it. Inside the Citadel, he is caught in a Combine "confiscation chamber" that destroys all of his weapons except for the Gravity Gun, the energy enhancing its capabilities and turning it into a superior weapon. Eventually, Gordon is captured riding in a Combine transport pod and is taken to Dr. Breen's office, where he and Dr. Mossman are waiting with Eli and Alyx in captivity. Dr. Breen begins to explain his plans for further conquest of the humans by the Combine, contrary to what he had told Dr. Mossman. Angered, Mossman frees Gordon, Alyx, and Eli before Breen can teleport them off-world. Dr. Breen tries to escape through a portal, but Gordon pursues him and destroys the portal reactor with the super-charged Gravity Gun. Breen appears to be annihilated in the resulting explosion. Just before Gordon and Alyx can meet a similar fate, time is frozen. The G-Man reappears, praising Gordon for his actions in City 17 and the Citadel. Making vague mention of "offers for [Gordon's] services", the G-Man places him back into stasis.