Half Life Alyx ending doesn't line up with half life 2 story

[SoNiC]

I just watched a gameplay footage of the ending of half life alyx where she saved her father from an advisor changing the ending of half life 2 episode 2 which is fine but then she get's hired by g-man against her will leaving her in stasis which means she shouldn't appear in half life 2 at all but she's is.

Now that being said the developer would have to rewrite the half life 2 story so it matches up otherwise the game series they made from half life 2 onwards becomes completely useless.

I think the developer had forgotten the half life 2 story when they did that part.

I wish there was a way to let the developers know about this stuff up.

So what are everyones thoughts on this???

[Mister Creosote Vomit]

Originally posted by Dagoth Lrrr:

That's something that bothers me about the HLA ending as well. They pretty much created an entirely new timeline. In HL2, it's clear that Alyx has not been in stasis and has no idea about her father's impending death. So, basically what's happened is that Half-Life 1, 2 and its episodes are set in a "failed timeline" that's going to be brushed to the side for the "new timeline" that HLA has created.

I don't like that the timeline that we had in 4 games is pretty much just going to be "nope, not anymore"

I agree that this is weird.

[Kaamalauppias]

Originally posted by Dagoth Lrrr:

That's something that bothers me about the HLA ending as well. They pretty much created an entirely new timeline. In HL2, it's clear that Alyx has not been in stasis and has no idea about her father's impending death. So, basically what's happened is that Half-Life 1, 2 and its episodes are set in a "failed timeline" that's going to be brushed to the side for the "new timeline" that HLA has created.

I don't like that the timeline that we had in 4 games is pretty much just going to be "nope, not anymore"

Did you read @rpkeating0's comment? The alyx who was put in stasis was the older alyx, not younger alyx.

[Gavyn]

Originally posted by Kaamalauppias:

Did you read @rpkeating0's comment? The alyx who was put in stasis was the older alyx, not younger alyx.

There's still the implication that younger Alyx went on to help Gordon Freeman, apparently not knowing anything about the possibility of her dad dying. They've created a time paradox now. I'm genuinely curious if the writers even know the implications of what they've done; I wouldn't be surprised if HL3 starts off the exact same way HLA ended and they don't address any of the millions of questions and problems that arise from something like this. There's a reason that most writers don't like touching time travel in long-going stories, it's because most competent writers know that they're not smart enough to keep the rules of their timeline consistent and it just creates a bunch of obvious plotholes.

[SilentCaay]

If she remembers everything, she would know for certain her dad was not going to die. Sheesh, an alarming lack of critical thinking going on here.

[Gavyn]

Originally posted by SilentCaay:

If she remembers everything, she would know for certain her dad was not going to die. Sheesh, an alarming lack of critical thinking going on here.

Okay, which in HL2's continuity creates a paradox. Only one who's not thinking is you.

[Kaamalauppias]

Originally posted by Dagoth Lrrr:

Originally posted by Kaamalauppias:

Did you read @rpkeating0's comment? The alyx who was put in stasis was the older alyx, not younger alyx.

There's still the implication that younger Alyx went on to help Gordon Freeman, apparently not knowing anything about the possibility of her dad dying. They've created a time paradox now. I'm genuinely curious if the writers even know the implications of what they've done; I wouldn't be surprised if HL3 starts off the exact same way HLA ended and they don't address any of the millions of questions and problems that arise from something like this. There's a reason that most writers don't like touching time travel in long-going stories, it's because most competent writers know that they're not smart enough to keep the rules of their timeline consistent and it just creates a bunch of obvious plotholes.

I agree with you, unpopular opinion: I don't think any of the Half-Life games have very good stories, the lore and setting is amazing, but the storylines and character building fall flat. I wish Valve would put more effort in Half Life 3 once it comes out.

[SilentCaay]

Originally posted by Dagoth Lrrr:

Originally posted by SilentCaay:

If she remembers everything, she would know for certain her dad was not going to die. Sheesh, an alarming lack of critical thinking going on here.

Okay, which in HL2's continuity creates a paradox. Only one who's not thinking is you.

No it doesn't. Lacking an explanation is not a paradox.

[splinter3d]

Originally posted by Dagoth Lrrr:

Originally posted by SilentCaay:

If she remembers everything, she would know for certain her dad was not going to die. Sheesh, an alarming lack of critical thinking going on here.

Okay, which in HL2's continuity creates a paradox. Only one who's not thinking is you.

Don't talk to them. They are VR cultists. Almost every scientist will agree that Alyx's time concept is pure nonsense from physical and especially logical point of view.

No statement about this story will be sane. It was written by the same clown who wrote Portal 2 and the author of Firewatch - the leftist smug, and we all know what the leftists think about facts and objective reality (that there's no one) and that the leftists destroy, don't create. With such degenerates the story was doomed to begin with.

The same thing happened to Frictional Games. Their amazing writer (who wrote Soma) has gone and they hired a leftist activist "writer" and Amnesia Rebirth turned out to be trash.

So to my greatest sorrow within current tendencies we won't get good art anymore. I meam it will be much more rare now.

[Gavyn]

Honestly, Portal 2's writing wasn't that great either. Ruined what was supposed to be beautiful in its simplicity and apparently there have always been wacky and super-sentient robots living in Aperture's facilities. Just doesn't fit in anywhere in the Half-Life universe...

Maybe it's best that we don't get a proper Half Life 3. I'm going to wait on "Project Borealis" to finish up Epistle 3's concept and that will be good enough for me.

[splinter3d]

Originally posted by Dagoth Lrrr:

Honestly, Portal 2's writing wasn't that great either. Ruined what was supposed to be beautiful in its simplicity and apparently there have always been wacky and super-sentient robots living in Aperture's facilities. Just doesn't fit in anywhere in the Half-Life universe...

Maybe it's best that we don't get a proper Half Life 3. I'm going to wait on "Project Borealis" to finish up Epistle 3's concept and that will be good enough for me.

That what I said. Portal 2 writing was good example of degenerative infantilisation with all of that childish humor. Notice that unlike Portal, Portal 2 left no trace in the culture. It seemed great when it was released but it didn't age well whatsoever.

I didn't actually like Epistle 3. Laidlaw lost his talent unfortunately. Now he just suffers with TDS in his Twitter and doesn't really do or say anything interesting.

[The deep]

Originally posted by splinter3d:

Originally posted by Dagoth Lrrr:

Honestly, Portal 2's writing wasn't that great either. Ruined what was supposed to be beautiful in its simplicity and apparently there have always been wacky and super-sentient robots living in Aperture's facilities. Just doesn't fit in anywhere in the Half-Life universe...

Maybe it's best that we don't get a proper Half Life 3. I'm going to wait on "Project Borealis" to finish up Epistle 3's concept and that will be good enough for me.

That what I said. Portal 2 writing was good example of degenerative infantilisation with all of that childish humor. Notice that unlike Portal, Portal 2 left no trace in the culture. It seemed great when it was released but it didn't age well whatsoever.

I didn't actually like Epistle 3. Laidlaw lost his talent unfortunately. Now he just suffers with TDS in his Twitter and doesn't really do or say anything interesting.

Schizophrenia ↑↑↑

[SiEgE]

Originally posted by Nightwing:

I just watched a gameplay footage of the ending of half life alyx where she saved her father from an advisor changing the ending of half life 2 episode 2 which is fine but then she get's hired by g-man against her will leaving her in stasis which means she shouldn't appear in half life 2 at all but she's is.

Now that being said the developer would have to rewrite the half life 2 story so it matches up otherwise the game series they made from half life 2 onwards becomes completely useless.

I think the developer had forgotten the half life 2 story when they did that part.

I wish there was a way to let the developers know about this stuff up.

So what are everyones thoughts on this???

They've tried to reboot the series. You should keep in mind, that:
There are no "old Valve" anymore. Those are newer pack of devs.
Many programmers are no longer part of Half-Life development team.
Alyx and Eli have different voice actors.
Mark Laidlaw is no longer part of the script writing team.
Music is written by a different compositor.
It is VR and not PC, so story telling has also been changed.

Basically, Half-Life/Half-Life 2 team no longer exists. You cannot ask those new people to create canon, as they have their own standards.

Now, as all that aside:
1) I kinda disliked Half-Life 2 as Half-Life sequel. Too many things were lost and rethought. Style has changed.. BUT I still love Half-Life 2 as a game of its own, even though it claims to continue HL1.
HL2:Beta was supposed to be more like HL1, but, looking at things that were left from it, I, actually, didn't mind it being lost in time. New Half-Life 2 is much better IMO, by many parameters, and I'd choose HL2 over HL2:Beta.
2) I see HL2 to HL:A progression the same way I see HL to HL2 - they've changed some core things, but I still don't mind it being different, as the result was worth it. Maybe it screws with lore or feel of the game, but, hell, whatever. They've done it again. As if I didn't expected it to happen.

[Daddy Shark]

Originally posted by Dagoth Lrrr:

That's something that bothers me about the HLA ending as well. They pretty much created an entirely new timeline. In HL2, it's clear that Alyx has not been in stasis and has no idea about her father's impending death. So, basically what's happened is that Half-Life 1, 2 and its episodes are set in a "failed timeline" that's going to be brushed to the side for the "new timeline" that HLA has created.

I don't like that the timeline that we had in 4 games is pretty much just going to be "nope, not anymore"

We don't really know that. Alyx could have been under Gman's direction the entire time in HL2. She's not worried about Eli's death because she knows she has already prevented it.

[Gavyn]

Originally posted by Star Trucker:

We don't really know that. Alyx could have been under Gman's direction the entire time in HL2. She's not worried about Eli's death because she knows she has already prevented it.

The problem is that we, the player, know damn well that the writers did not intend for her to be under Gman's influence at the time. There is nothing indicating this in HL2 or any of its episodes and the writers admitted that it was kind of a wildcard that they threw in while writing HLA. That would be a retcon, and the problem with such retcons is that they really require you to stretch your imagination when watching/playing previous material because, like I said earlier, there is absolutely nothing alluding to this and if anything there's evidence to the contrary.
There's also the fact that Alyx's dad dies at the end of Ep2 anyway.

The only way I can see any of this making sense would be if the ending of HLA created 3 timelines.
Timeline #1 is the normal timeline where Eli dies.
Timeline #2 is the timeline where Eli was saved.
Timeline #3 is the timeline that Alyx from HLA is put into stasis to prevent a time paradox.

But like I said, I somehow doubt the writers understand the implications of what they did in the story. With this, they have 2 or 3 different timelines in the Half Life universe all with different events happening, does this mean that we're going to see standalone sequels to HLA exploring her timeline? I don't think we are.

[Hicks - ITA (Girolamo)]

I think that there's an original timeline where the G-man actually agree (apparently) to Alyx's request.

Maybe in this timeline he says to her that Gordon Freeman will be released in 5 years near the train station for help the resistance... and that would also explain why in HL2 everyone seems to wait for Gordon almost "magical" reappearance.

I think it's possible to catch a glimpse of this original interaction between the G-man and Alyx during their dialogue at the 02:12 mark

https://youtu.be/5FY7ScBWdvw?t=130

you can see one G-man's mirrow image spliting and diverge, like on an alternate timeline.

BTW, on this original timeline things proceed as shown in HL2 until the Vortigaunts steal Gordon from the G-Man, so he is forced to "nudge" the timeline on another rail for try to achieve his own agenda.
And events shown in the finale of HL-ALYX take place on a new timeline where he manage to make alyx kill the advisor.