Can somebody explain Half-Life 1 lore?

[Dawido]

I can't understand things like why Black ops wanted to destroy black mesa but also wanted to kill hecu, and i just can't get it.
HL1 lore was actually pretty chaotic, while Black mesa made it more understable by adding nice details like vortiguants being xen slaves or level design that also was saying a lot about Black mesa Sciensist in xen etc.
But still, Half-Life lore overall has a lot plot holes, so i just wanted to ask :
What the ♥♥♥♥ happend in Half-Life 1

[KriKitBoNeZ]

https://half-life.fandom.com/wiki/Half-Life_storyline

[Dawido]

Originally posted by KriKitBoNeZ:

https://half-life.fandom.com/wiki/Half-Life_storyline

Half-Life lore is both interesting and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up.
I like that valve actually showed the dark side of USA military than making them big heroes that saved the day like other games

[Peter Brev]

Hi!

You are not looking at it from the right angle. It is not the story that really sells the original game; it is the narrative and the setting of the BMRF. Gameplay is pretty much Quake.

Additionally, you are assuming that Opposing Force's Black Ops looking to destroy Black Mesa is canon when it has never been officially defined.

[Dawido]

Originally posted by Peter Brev:

Hi!

You are not looking at it from the right angle. It is not the story that really sells the original game; it is the narrative and the setting of the BMRF. Gameplay is pretty much Quake.

Additionally, you are assuming that Opposing Force's Black Ops looking to destroy Black Mesa is canon when it has never been officially defined.

So, Black mesa has different story than Half-Life 1?

[Jarp]

Originally posted by DeWidox01:

Originally posted by Peter Brev:

Hi!

You are not looking at it from the right angle. It is not the story that really sells the original game; it is the narrative and the setting of the BMRF. Gameplay is pretty much Quake.

Additionally, you are assuming that Opposing Force's Black Ops looking to destroy Black Mesa is canon when it has never been officially defined.

So, Black mesa has different story than Half-Life 1?

No, Black Mess is not a different story than HL1, he was talking about HL1 story there, which is pretty much the same in BM, it recounts the same events but reimagined

[Peter Brev]

Originally posted by DeWidox01:

Originally posted by Peter Brev:

Hi!

You are not looking at it from the right angle. It is not the story that really sells the original game; it is the narrative and the setting of the BMRF. Gameplay is pretty much Quake.

Additionally, you are assuming that Opposing Force's Black Ops looking to destroy Black Mesa is canon when it has never been officially defined.

So, Black mesa has different story than Half-Life 1?

Story ≠ Narrative. The story is inherently the same, but the technology used with Black Mesa makes the narrative more coherent.

[madyb]

Assuming you've got the answer you're looking for, I'll just answer the specific question you've asked.

HECU were sent to maintain the situation. They started well, but they' were quickly overwhelmed by Xen forces and failed their task. They were pulled back and a more efficient force was sent for clean up: the Black Ops. However, not all HECU soldiers managed to exfil and Black Ops were tasked to clean up the whole mess, meaning destroying the Black Mesa Research Facility. At that point, any leftover HECU forces were to be eliminated as well.

Vorts being slaves is a Half-Life thing to be honest, it's not something Black Mesa added to the lore. HL doesn't have that many plot-holes, but there are some retcons here and there.

I hope that wiki post will answer all your questions. Have fun!

[Dawido]

Originally posted by madyb:

Assuming you've got the answer you're looking for, I'll just answer the specific question you've asked.

HECU were sent to maintain the situation. They started well, but they' were quickly overwhelmed by Xen forces and failed their task. They were pulled back and a more efficient force was sent for clean up: the Black Ops. However, not all HECU soldiers managed to exfil and Black Ops were tasked to clean up the whole mess, meaning destroying the Black Mesa Research Facility. At that point, any leftover HECU forces were to be eliminated as well.

Vorts being slaves is a Half-Life thing to be honest, it's not something Black Mesa added to the lore. HL doesn't have that many plot-holes, but there are some retcons here and there.

I hope that wiki post will answer all your questions. Have fun!

Thanks

[Cat]

Black Ops being hostile to marines was purely a Gearbox thing to give you human enemies in Opposing Force. The lore is simple: aliens start warping in the facility and government sent soldiers to contain the situation and eliminate witnesses.

[Waiting to Visit Japan (^.-)]

Originally posted by Cat:

The lore is simple: aliens start warping in the facility and government sent soldiers to contain the situation and eliminate witnesses.

Pretty much.

Be more like Gordon.
He didn't need someone to explain "lore" before he accepted the job of "saving the world".

Embrace your inner Gordon.
When someone shoots at you... their "motivation" is irrelevant... shoot back.

You are like a paramedic / EMT.
The "patient" is critical. Gordon doesn't ask the patient to explain how they got to this point.
He is focused on stabilizing the patient.

Be Like Gordon.

[Zacco]

I never thought of the perspective in this way. I always thought of it as the HECU being the clean-up, and then the black-ops being the clean-up of the clean-up, and I never questioned it.

[gromenawer]

To be fair, the HL1 lore is pretty chaotic. By the end of it (or the end of the last 22 years for that matter) you never get to know who is the G-man, why is Xen so important to conquest, who is giving the orders, or any of that.

[Dawido]

Originally posted by gromenawer:

To be fair, the HL1 lore is pretty chaotic. By the end of it (or the end of the last 22 years for that matter) you never get to know who is the G-man, why is Xen so important to conquest, who is giving the orders, or any of that.

Well , this all is just a secret

[KriKitBoNeZ]

Originally posted by Conscript:

the lore is a mess tbh basically aliens from the border world XEN start invading the Black Mesa facility because gordon put the xen crystal we all know in to the antimass spectrometer or something then he goes aground the facility in an attempt to reach the surface and call for help when he reaches the Sector D administration offices he learns that the epic USMC Special Force Unit HECU is sent to the base because they know how to handle urban warfare scenarios such as CQC and CQB (thats why the have Urban Camo and use MP5SD3s with grenade launchers and SPAS 12s it also appears the Army was sent alongside them to provide fire support from both air and the ground aswell as transport for the troops) when gordon reaches the marines he sees one shoot a scientist that only wanted to get rescued then he learns that the military is not there to help them anyways after some time with gordon gunning down the aliens and the troops aswell as launching a sattelite delivery rocket the military starts to leave the facility and they let the Air Force bomb the whole base to cover the retreat then gordon reaches the lambda complex and from there he gets to xen to kill the nihilant and when he does the mysterious G-MAN appears and offers him a job or else he would fight a battle he has no chance of winning obviously gordon accepts this and then the game ends btw in HL:OP4 we also learn that those hot assassins with big tits that you encounter in apprehnnsion and lambda core are part of another group called simply as the "Black Ops" who plant a nuclear device in a desperate attempt of the government to contain the situation after their urban warfare unit abandoned the base these "Black Ops" are also tasked to eliminate the remaining survivors of the base incluiding the HECU stragglers that were left behind BUT nobody knows if the gearbox expansion packs are canon or not i consider them canon since they dont mess up with the events of later games and because well... theres no canon actual to the hl series. (im serious theres no canon you could consider crack life canon and would still count but why would you do that tho lmao anyways im done with this ♥♥♥♥♥♥ comment i just did have a nice week or some)

This is unreadable.

[Cat]

Originally posted by gromenawer:

To be fair, the HL1 lore is pretty chaotic. By the end of it (or the end of the last 22 years for that matter) you never get to know who is the G-man, why is Xen so important to conquest, who is giving the orders, or any of that.

It's all a fiction story made by a writer who left the company before finishing it.