► SOME CREDITS I NEED TO GIVE!: - ALEX23 for the rock remix used towards the end of the video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Y6mgeJepx6_Xomw.html - For lore and footage: www.youtube.com/ @Skyrionn - More lore and footage: www.youtube.com/ @RadiationHazardYT - Breencast Mod: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/q62TaMJo367edIk.html - Father Grigori Dancing: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fp1hjLOJ1Melg30.html - Beta digger footage: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aK2Adph1r526mHU.html ► TIMESTAMPS ⏱ 0:00 Intro And Background 2:03 What The Hell Happened Since Half-Life 1? 7:49 Cut Content 10:39 I Will Not Tolerate Water Hazard Slander 11:50 My Favourite Worst Nightmare 18:49 HALF-LIFE IS A HIGHWAYYYYY... I WANNA RIDE IT ALL NIGHT LONG 21:46 The Ultimate Uprising 31:14 Resistance Is Futile... Right? Up next we got Half-Life 2 Episodes One, Two and Thr-... Oh...

I love how Eli the entire game was either captured or trying to rizz his daughter for Gordon

How tf did this silly video make me realize breen not only knows about the g man but also gordon and g mans situation it makes his “you need me” when he falls to his death more unsettling

....It still sad that the original voice actor for the Vortigaunts has joined the vortessence. RIP Louis Gossett Jr.

I was so jumpy in my first play through of ravenholm that as soon as father Gregory showed up I immediately mag dumped him and than ran away not realizing he was helping me

HL2's atmosphere and level design are absolutely immaculate to this day.

The fact that one of the funniest games ever made also takes place in the same universe as one of the most bleak and sad dystopian worlds is absolutely bonkers to me. Brilliant video as always, I'm glad you enjoyed the game and came to appreciate it for what it has done, and I'm excited to see your thoughts on the episodes next.

Breen is in an impossible position. The combine were fine wiping earth out and sucking its resources dry then moving on, but he managed to negotiate a surrender by selling humanity itself as a resource worth harvesting. We constantly get little hints that he's desperately trying to prove to his overlords that humans could make good soldiers, that humans could have some value to the combine eventually, and then humanity could then survive in some part. Given the alternative was total extinction, I think Breen deserves some credit. And at the end of HL2 he mentions that capturing everyone and the teleporter tech gives him a massive advantage in negotiations with his overlords. Perhaps he could have negotiated a much better deal for humanity, with more self rule and a more "normal" existence so long as we pay a conscript tithe. I'd love to have explored what a Breen victory would look like for the half life story.

It's quite nice that you understand breen's character cause i have seen many who just take him as a cartoonishly evil mindless puppet

The thing about Breen I find interesting is I think he began with truly noble intentions. He surrendered Earth to The Combine because he believed it was the only way humanity could survive, buying time to rebuild and hopefully overthrow The Combine. However, years of being the administrator of Earth, he came to truly comprehend the scale and power of The Combine, and lost all hope they could be defeated. The Combine seem to use their occupation of planets to separate the masses from the best and brightest a species has to offer, like how a combine harvester separates the valued grain from the worthless chaff. The chosen few are able to join The Combine empire proper, rising through the ranks and obtaining the privileges and benefits Breen promises "humanity" in his propaganda, while the masses are just transformed into cannon fodder for the Combine's armies. Breen probably came to accept that the masses were doomed as soon as The Combine discovered Earth. Either they would be converted into slaves or wiped out. Rather than focusing on the masses that were as good as dead, Breen chose to work towards the elevation of those he could save. It is easy to think that people act in ways that conform to their beliefs and thoughts, however, beliefs and thoughts often dictated by your circumstances. Breen saw the Combine as impossible to defeat. That revolution would only cause The Combine to write humanity off as more trouble than they're worth, wipe them out completely and strip mine the planet at full speed. Remember that, unlike Gordon and the player, Breen lived through the 7 hour war. Remember that what we face in these games are not the armies of The Combine, but merely an occupational force. Gordon brings hope to humanity, which is why he is such a good foil to Breen, who succumbed to despair. Breen, who feared humanity's extinction at the hands of The Combine Empire to punish rebellion, internalized his own propaganda and embraced a pragmatic future where at least some of humanity could survive and thrive. Breen, IMO, didn't join the Combine because he agreed with them, but came to agree with them because opposing The Combine seemed like certain extinction, and that seemed the lesser evil. If humanity is doomed to die anyway, why not have some survive? It's pragmatism, choosing survival of the species over extinction, but it asks the question if humanity deserves to survive in any form it it willingly collaborates with such evil. Isn't it better to face extinction that to be complect with the genocide and extinction of other worlds? And accepting that, you can find the courage to fight the good fight and maybe even find a way to overcome the odds and achieve victory against that seemingly impossible to defeat evil.

I'm addicted to watching people discover Half-Life in the year 2024.

Gordon the true Freeman! ~Guy gave hope to humanity, saved the entire Vortigaunt species, scared a interdimentional faction, went against the will of a godlike being and his employers*... quite a achievment don't you think?

It feels surreal to see that answer to Breen's question. Since I've read a comment on another Half-life 2 related (don't remember what unfortunately) video that has the same answer. It still is a very, powerful answer.

17:16 That's Marc Laidlaw's (HL2 writer) screams reversed. Why the writer and not the voice actors?, because at Valve everyone can do whatever the hell they want, if you're the music composer and want to do a map, a model, the HUD, a triple backflip or give a kiss in the forehead to Lord Gaben, you can XD

I remember my first time in Ravenholm. I accidentally jumped past the trigger for Father Grigori to toss you the shotgun, so it took me a little while longer to get one, I think it was just before the poison headcrab zombie.

3:40 my man doing the Komegatze's gordon freeman lock in meme when he sees the vort in the train station 😆

i like Gman, he's like a showmaster or a kintergarten teacher who wants to see his young braincritters to learn and play arouind, always presenting and telling when the playthrough has begin or it hhas ended He can also be interpretated as a Ringmaster, he's a character that didn't necessarily talk with the characters, but with ourselves too.

I actually like the fact that HL2's arsenal is smaller and more limited. HL1 had a ton of cool weapons but imo it was too many, cause it got to the point where I just couldn't even find a place to really use them. It felt like a bloated arsenal where there was several things that I rarely if ever used. HL2 felt like it trimmed out the fat in favor of a more concise arsenal where every weapon has it's clear place in the combat that it neatly fits into.

About the teleportation. I heard and had a long lore discussion with someone else once and came to the conclusion that the combine most likely possess the ability to teleport inside of a universe, however due to the fact that any universe or dimension has different physical properties, their teleportation *technology* most likely wouldn't work inside said universe. Since it's just technology constrained by the physical properties of said dimension. You can sort of come to this conclusion when you simply consider the fact that Judith may not be talking about the portal storms here but instead *their* portals, the combine's portals. After all the portal storms through which they invaded did not originate from the combine, *their* portals are something else. "Eli thinks *their* portals are string-based, similar to our Calabi-Yau model, but they've failed to factor in dark energy equations." Personally I find this to be the most likely case, since it is pretty outlandish to think the combine which own most of the multiverse, conquered the entire earth with most likely a minimal amount of effort and units in 7 hours and so on and so forth, can't do what the humans are doing there. Although it is important to note that judith also mentions "miscalculating the capacity of the Combine thyristor" when talking about what happened with the portal, so it's safe to assume they're using combine technology to make it possible in the first place.

At this point we could have an official live action adaptation of Half-Life with Bryan Cranston as Gordon and Bob Odenkirk as Gman, definitely Aaron Paul as Barney. Before we get a Half-Life 3.

I still remember getting chills when time froze at the end. One of the greatest gaming experiences that I'm so happy I could experience blindly

Watched the full video and did not even notice this guy only has about 3.8 thousand subs. Small youtubers need more love.

half life 2 is basically just about the indomitable human spirit

crazy how the start didnt involve jak and daxter - until i heard the "mission failed" sound a minute later

Hearing your initial fears of what the mines could be really has me wanting someone to make a mod set partially in some mines, maybe linked to Ravenholm's mines, a layer of hell below hell itself.

Other enemies like the Houndeye, bull squid, and Gargantua were going to return as well but they were cut out since there wasn't much reason for more enemies. However it is confirmed that bull squids are still in the world somewhere.

Man, that was a great video to keep the withdrawals away for another week! And it wasn't a cruel April fools joke that I was fearing. Although I do want to ask you something: Why no poison zombie? What do you think of the designs and types of the Combine enemies you face? Any particular comment, thing you noticed, or theory about the designs of the ranks of the Combine Soldiers and Civil Protection? Do you ever plan on releasing the original recordings of your first HL2 playthrough? How long do you think it will take until you finish the Episode 1 script? That's all from me, can't wait to see the reviews on the episodes!

man i love watching people discover this gem

finally someone took the time to appreciate my favorite, and perhaps the most complex, Half-Life 2 character: doctor Breen. too often fans write him off as a fascist dictator, even going to the lengths of saying he probably pushed for the experiment at Black Mesa specifically to bring about the Combine invasion, but I don't think that's the case. in the end, he's not a moustache-twirling villain who planned 20 years ahead to take over the world, in his core he is just another scared man who does everything he does in order to keep himself alive, selling himself as seeing the wider picture, as being collected, but in reality he still acts on his own instinct of survival, dooming humanity in the process while trying to convince himself that he is the savior

You know the thing about the "all knowing vortigaunt " is that he really isn't special, he just has crammed all the generic lines you can trigger off several vorts in the game, some even have the same access to all lines as he does.

after the episodes if you don't feel burnt out I highly recommend the Entropy Zero mods (specifically 2). Another fun bit of information, there is a unreleased Episode 4 Return to Ravenholm where you play as Adrian Shepard from Opposing Force and it's made by Arkane Studios.

I hope the algorithm bless this video because this was simply great

I'm really happy to see how much you enjoyed Half-Life 2, especially the driving segments! I feel like as of late I've seen a lot of people trash HL2, but honestly I think it's amazing even with how much content and story they cut. I trust Valve that they know what they were doing and in the end still delivered an awesome product!! I can't wait to see your thoughts on the episodes!!😎

I love your commentary on Highway 17 ambience, I've always felt like that myself. Also agreed with a lot of other stuff. Waiting for Ep1 review!

Talking about the sparing music, the song that plays as you leave ravenholm is one of my favourite vg tracks of all time. It really makes you feel comfort and relief after.. . That.....

Doctor Breen has been believed to have survived the events of Half Life 2 as his "self" was transferred to a Combine Advisor body. The one seen being produced in Episode 1. Possibly the same Combine Advisor that "killed" Doctor Eli Vance in Episode 2. Vengeful for what was done to him.

25:09 When you hear beeping sounds but it's not the microwave *SHIT*

with the under the bridge part, i completely agree, it was so calming and nice being there to the point i got into post apocolyptic stuff and made a entire thing on my channel for it

22:27 actually those ARE real time camera's, its not an trick

that was actually realtime, whenever a moniter like that is used in hl2 and some other games it is a camera to another area in the map for example the area in nova, barney talking to kliener in the beginning and even the mossman transmission (turtleneck lady)

The amount of editing is amazing. I hope this video gets popular

I just found your channel and I have to say your editing of clips from games I assume you played growing up is so refreshing to see referenced because I played a fair few of them myself. You somehow made them work with this video in particular which to me shows good skill or a load of checking of it makes sense. Wish you the best and hope to see more great content from you from now on. Be safe and healthy please. We all saw that shot on the vortguant at 5:27

You still have Ep 1 and 2 my brother. Cant wait.

It’s always cool to see someone discover this game for the first time! 20:27 the whole bridge set piece made a huge impression on me the first time I played it as well!

Just got recomended this video, and I gotta say, your video essays are really good. I subbed immediately looking forward to your video on Episode 1 and 2. Keep it going! Your channel deserves more subs.

To make half life 3 more revolutionary they should add boiling lobsters.

Same dude, I was 4 years late to half life alyx, but I had just got a VR headset a few months ago and seen it on steam and remembered how much noise that game made when it dropped, so I played it, LOVED IT, then watched a half life lore video by a brit with a beautiful voice, then went back and played the old games. Worth the 20 year wait.

This video was so well put together! I'm dying to see you cover the Episodes purely because of how tight and funny your commentary and editing style is, had me laughing multiple times throughout as I was watching, keep up the amazing work, and I can't wait to see more videos like this!

04:52 That really got me LOL. Great video, anyway. Good narrative.

Half life Alex was one of the most mins bogglingly amazing VR experiences, and completely win me over to what VR can do! I will forever be endeared to the Half life franchise!

5:49 Kinda like Roland convinced the remnant of the Crimson Lance to join the Crimson Raiders in the Borderlands saga. 9:20 With the tau cannon, use charge blasts as primary and bursts as alternate. It's at its best when firing charged blasts. 9:38 Most fitting would be any of the various Bulgarian AKs (like the AR-F or "Arf" as I call it), especially with a GP-25 grenade launcher. But the launcher should have its own reload animation like in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games. 12:55 The Gravity Gun is WALL-E. The Portal Gun is EVE. 14:04 First time I played HL2, I got the impression Ravenholm was an homage to They Hunger. 20:14 OSHA Violation 23:25 If you bring all the turrets you find along the way, and combine them with enough sturdy props to act as stabilizing bracers or whatnot, you can set up a pillbox that does the work for you. 24:01 A callback to a scene toward the end of the Lambda Complex chapter of Half-Life 1 (right before you go to Xen). 30:32 "Tiiiime," not "timeeee." Why does everyone get that wrong nowadays?! 31:40 Looks like an homage to the ending to 'The Beyond'. 34:29 "It is not...hands...that call us. It is...desiah." ~Pinhead, Hellraiser 2

One important thing about cut content is that almost all of the cut content you're showcasing isn't cut content, but fan made recreations / fixes of underdeveloped concepts, not something that was "cut" late in dev

10:10 there are burnt corpses in the sewers The cremators still canonically exist

8:40 Fun fact the crossbow bolts actually deflect off of surfaces if you hit them at the right angle… I’ve used it… twice…. Still though it’s there!

Amaizing video! The way you analyzed and broke down the story makes it really hard to believe you had never played the game before so standing applause from me to you good sir! Now on to the episode 1 and 2.

Excellent video! I really love that you went as well in some of the half-life 2 beta elements not a lot people do that. Looking forward to see what you will do for Episode 1 and 2 also giving by the footage from Black Mesa possibly that as well. But anyway i am definitely down to see you talk about the hl2 beta i highly recommended to look into half-life modding community there two mods that showcase the half life 2 beta universe on the same quality as valve games there called Dark Interval and Raising The Bar Redux and while speaking of mods definitely give the Entropy Zero legacy a go. One of there entries genuinely is the close thing we are gonna get as Half Life 3 and the fact is free on steam is mind blowing!

Rip Louis Gossett Jr

that second turret room before the teleporter in Nova Prospekt really drags. I die quite often because combine love to spam grenades (and with MMOD, 40mm grenades too) so I usually just stack some props and climb onto a balcony to set up there until they're all dead.

36:51 I remember when I first played through this hl2 when I heard breen asking this question I audible responded with hope

Ironically I just got half life 2 for the first time last week after hearing about it for years too lmao

Well dissected towards the end and a pleasant watch. Good job. On the weapons complaint, it's easily summerized by a GLaDOS quote- "You just have to look at things objectively, and trim out the fat". The developers concentrated the weapon roster to its basics in order to underline the gravity gun, the so-called "cool weapon" of the game and its usage and seemingly endless use cases from the moment you get it in Black Mesa East and to the absolute end of the game. You have to admit, you never really got to use the tripmines and satchel chargers, and the hivehand, also a personal favorite from the first game, was more of a get-out-of-jail card, rather than a proper weapon. I will be looking forward to the episodes video.

The runners and your reactions make me CRY lol. Fresh new subber here!

Great video man. I'll be waiting for the Episode 1 and 2 video.

LOOK TO YOUR OWN... SALVATION! 🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

You really did your research on the lore. You are even aware of the beta ideas and concepts. By the way I recommend you look at the Entropy Zero games. Entropy Zero 2 is like the episode 3 we never got.

The Half-Life exposure helps but its the way you edit and deliver the videos that earned that subscribe! Great work! I love Crash and Spyro so will be binging those videos next!

Your edits are hilarious. Looking forward to more!

you are underrated

About that beer I owed ya ;)

Such a great video! Perfect mixture of humour, gameplay and analysis. Still can't believe that you haven't blown up yet! Looking forward to future videos!

I absolutely love your presentation and editing! Great video man!

dont worry bro i was 19 years late

On an unrelated note my steak just fell off my plate and now I feel like I'm about to lose it

This is content man. I dont know how you ended up in my feed, but I"m glad you did. Keep up the good work!

The ending with just one word "hope" brings back the main purpose of getting rid of the combine, and I dig it

Underrated channel, underrated video. Awesome! Im like you, and was late to the half life series but WOW im glad i got to experience in my early adult years :)

Man, your memes and jokes are what made me subscribe. Top shit dude

I have a similar story, only started playing half life 2 a month ago, and loved it. Only stopped when I got to the final strider section of ep 2, because I knew the end was quick after that. But now I've played a ton of mods, and the best ones that I can recommend are Thunder's Leaves and Swelter. There's a lot of good mods, and admittedly I haven't played them all(Transmissions, Snowdrop Escape, and Zero Entropy 2 being the last major ones I haven't played), although it does take some technical knowledge to get mods running in most instances 💀

Looking forward to seeing your take on the Episodes c:

I love the wrestling clips you put in these videos. You a real one

6:30 Idk if I am late and you have mentioned it in the next video, but there's also the fact that Combine don't have the technology of "local" teleportation, only between different universes. Which is absolutely funny if you consider that Aperture could have made that technology more available and advanced way before Black Mesa could, yet Cave Johnson was doing some other stupid stuff instead, giving Earth more time it needs

Very well made video, looking forward to the next one!

Dude. Wtf. Subscribed only because of this one and only video of you that I've seen

Can't wait to hear your thoughts on modded HL2, especially MMOD with Project HL2

The dentist part was so funny cus you slowly turned into the Scout as you went lmao

Wow, it's been a while since I've been able to see HL2 with fresh eyes, thanks for that!

Good vid dude, it’s cool that I’m going through this half life discovery with you through the vid. The gravity gun is one of the most iconic weapons in gaming history I feel like, it’s all crazy that it shares the same universe as Portal of all things. I’ll for sure get this game next time it’s on sale

I recently experienced halflife2 and the episodes all over again in VR, amazing!

considering your recent work on Half life, it'd be cool to see a video on some of the half life mods that expand the world. I think Swelter is the most recent one, and definately one of my favourites, as it shines a light on the rebel movement, and posits a view that the rebels aren't as unified as the mainline games make it seem

Immediate sub. Fantastic video imo from a Half Life fan.

You and me both pal, finally got it working on my Mac 2 nights ago

37:00 You've got me so insanely fucked up bc this is the *exact* reaction I had when Breen asked that on my first playthrough. You managed to capture that feeling with the buildup to the reveal and the montage afterwards so fucking perfectly. Absolutely magical.

8:06 "I hate those things!" -Peter Parker, in Spider-Man 3

Really great video 👍 Half life 2 is such a masterpiece, first PC game I played and wow what a game!

You just dropped the hardest edit and the most introspective review of Breen's and Gordon's situations and thought we wouldn't notice.

I have played Half-Life 2 seven times by this point, and this video really shows the feelings i got when first playing and everytime i replay it. Great video!

oh my god. i just finished hl2 for the first time a few days ago. what a beautiful coincidence

This video and its Editing is Criminally Underrated

Can’t wait until you cover the episodes and possibly the aliased 3rd

I feel ya. Literally only knew what Half Life: Alyx was and I never even played it till recently. Then I discovered the others.