The Half-Life Iceberg: Explained

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Yo it's me!

Really well made and researched, I actually learned a few things myself from a few of the details you mentioned.

_hallucination_stuff is an unused visgroup from the second map's source file. It looks like it's a remnant of the original e3 demo that showed the gman.

The simulation thing is about a theory that the whole game is a simulation for gordon created by the gman, evidenced by the text that shows up when you softlock yourself, such as knocking a vehicle into an unreachable spot, or when a critical npc dies.

You pretty much got everything else though, so congrats!

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/Sockman1 📅︎︎ Dec 04 2020 🗫︎ replies

I saw your u/Sockman1's video and your video too and found my original iceberg (https://www.reddit.com/r/HalfLifeLounge/comments/j6nx8z/i_made_a_halflife_iceberg_meme/) to be rather lacking.

So I was inspired and then I decided to make a longer one. Because why not.

https://www.reddit.com/r/HalfLife/comments/keqks7/how_deep_are_you_in_the_halflife_iceberg/

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/LacklusterBeige 📅︎︎ Dec 17 2020 🗫︎ replies

The Borealis ship reminds me of the old Philadelphia experiment:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Experiment

There were various theories about it. Even some old movie(s) about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAmpXDi53YQ

Time travel, other dimensions. Stuff like that.

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/commodo28 📅︎︎ Dec 20 2020 🗫︎ replies
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(thematic music) - [Narrator] In this video, I will explain this Half-Life Iceberg created by Reddit user Sockman1. I'd also like to think Reddit user, sunchynee, who created the list of everything comment that provided basically the foundation of this video, And YouTube channel townCACtus, for creating the original Half-Life Iceberg video. On the bottom left there'll be a health meter that represents my confidence in my explanation. 100 HP means I have my fullest confidence, while one point means I probably don't know what I'm talking about. Now, I'm going to assume that you know most of the "Half-Life" storyline, but just to be clear, spoilers for the entire "Half-Life" series, including "Half-Life: Alyx" and a little bit of "Portal 1." With everything out of the way, let's begin. (engaging music) The Black Mesa and Aperture rivalry. "Half-Life" and "Portal" are known to share the same universe, with the two respective research corporations, Black Mesa and Aperture Science, being harsh adversaries against each other. During the escape sequence in "Portal 1," the player can come across one of the observation offices with a window that displays the Dollar$ and Sense slideshow. This slideshow details how Aperture Science gets treated unfairly by the U.S. General Services Administration. Aperture proposed for more funding than Black Mesa but would receive less than what Black Mesa got in turn. These slides represent how competitive the two were at acquiring government funding. Another example of the pair's competitiveness is the Borealis, a ship Aperture worked on that housed a project that involved powerful portals and teleportation. They rushed the project and neglected safety rules to beat Black Mesa in government funding, which resulted in the ship suddenly disappearing. Playground screams. At the beginning of "Half-Life 2" the player will stumble upon a small abandoned playground. If the player interacts with the playground, sounds of children's laughter and screaming can be heard. (children screaming) These screams serve as an eerie reminder of the absent children due to the Combine's suppression field. The consoling couple. While going through the civilian sector in "Half-Life 2" the player can encounter a couple where a man is consoling a woman as she expresses her concerns about the Combine invasion and the grim future of humanity. The couple can be seen again in "Episode One", inside one of the resistance outposts, kitted with rebel outfits. The player can overhear their conversation as they joke about Issac Kleiner, Odessa Cubbage, the Resistance, and their situation in general. In "Episode Two", two skeletons sitting on the couch can be found in the Outlands, implying that the couple had been killed and left behind. This is only a joke from the devs as the couple can be seen at White Forest near the end of the game. The G-Man's briefcase. The briefcase's interior is fully textured in "Half-Life 1" where a pistol, paperwork, pencils, some sort of computer, and his ID or passport- - My passport? - [Narrator] are shown. This point could also refer to "Half-Life: Alyx's" ending when the G-Man gave his briefcase to Alyx, resulting in the two of them time-traveling to "Episode Two's" ending with Eli's death. Black Mesa visiting Xen. When Freeman starts to go through Xen, it becomes obvious that Black Mesa has visited the border world before. Dead scientists with HEV suits are scattered around the landscape, with health and ammo near them. These dead scientists are the survey teams, who made secret expeditions to collect data from Xen through the teleporter in the top-secret Lambda Complex. The "Half-Life 2" beta leak. Around September 2003, "Half-Life 2's" early source code was leaked after someone cracked into Valve's internal network. Valve CEO, Gabe Newell, posted online to explain how he realized that Valve's servers had been compromised and asked the public for assistance in finding the culprit. In June 2004, Valve announced that they found the person responsible for leaking the game. The game had been leaked by German hacker, Axel Gembe, who admitted to Newell through email. This hatched a plan where Valve would invite him to a job interview, and the FBI would arrest him upon his arrival. The German government caught wind of the situation and arrested Gembe themselves in November 2006. He was put on trial for the beta leak and other crimes such as the creation of his trojan virus, Agobot. Gembe was sentenced to two years' probation. Valve never took any action against websites or people that hosted the leaked content. They tolerated the use of the beta material as long as they were used in free products. The beta showcased plenty of cut maps, enemies, and weapons. City 17's art style looked more like a bleak Washington D.C. rather than the familiar eastern European style we know today. The storyline was much darker with the Combine draining the oceans, filling the air with noxious gas, and utilizing child labor, a topic that will be discussed further soon. Epistle 3, around 2017, "Half-Life" series writer and former Valve employee, Marc Laidlaw uploaded on his blog a post titled "Epistle 3," which takes the form of a letter given to the player. Most of the "Half-Life" characters had their names replaced, such as Gordon Freeman now named Gertrude Fremont, and the G-man being called Mrs. X. So the story goes, after the funeral of Eli Vance, Alyx and Freeman journey out to the Arctic to explore the coordinates that Judith Mossman sent to White Forest. As they reach their destination, it turns out that the coordinates are the location of the Borealis, where the Combine have already begun their research on the ship. Freeman and Alyx then get captured and are presented to Dr. Breen, who had his consciousness implanted into a grub. Breen is fearful of Gordon as he remembers how he originally died and begs to be mercy killed. It's up to the player to choose whether or not to end Breen's suffering. The two then rescue Mossman from a Combine prison, causing a tense situation between Alyx and Mossman as Alyx believes Mossman is responsible for her father's death. They then board the Borealis, which continues to shift through time and space. They catch glimpses of the Seven Hour War along with traveling to distant alien worlds. Mossman and Alyx continue to argue over what to do with the Borealis. Mossman believes the ship should be delivered to the Resistance and be used against the Combine, a position similar to Dr. Kleiner's in "Episode Two". Alyx wants to destroy the ship to fulfill her father's dying wishes. She then kills Mossman, and arms the Borealis to self-destruct, intending to destroy the Combine's command center. All of a sudden, The G-Man appears. Alyx recognizes him from her childhood and the two depart reality together, leaving Freeman behind. He begins to realize that the ship's self-destruction would do little in destroying the Combine empire and begins to accept the resistance's futility. Then, the Vortigaunts appeared and rescued him from imminent death by re-teleporting her back Earth. Because Laidlaw wrote Epistle 3 after he had left Valve, the post had been the subject of intense discussion on whether or not it's canon to the "Half-Life" storyline. At the time, the story was a solid plot synopsis of the mystical "Episode Three". Now, Epistle 3's continuity with the series is non-canon since "Half-Life: Alyx's" ending retconned "Episode Two's" ending, with Eli being resurrected and Alyx being captured by the G-Man. Dr. Breen is a good guy. There's been a lot of discussion within the "Half-Life" community about whether or not Dr. Breen is the savior of humanity. He did negotiate with the Combine so that humanity got a somewhat better fate than what the Combine could have originally done, which was making the humans extinct. It could also be argued that he desperately tried to capture Freeman in "Half-Life 2" to use him as a trump card in negotiations with the Combine. Maybe Freeman surrendering could have provided humanity with more freedom. However, the conditions that the people live with are still pretty terrible, with them being heavily modified into soldiers, brutally mutilated into Stalkers, forcefully ruled under fear, disgustingly fed "food products" et cetera. The All-Knowing Vortigaunt. Near the end of the "Half-Life 2" chapter, "Water Hazard", the player destroys a hunter chopper and opens a sliding metal gate. After going through the gate, there's a drainage tunnel along the left side that the player can enter. After traversing through a river of toxic sludge, the tunnel opens up into a large cavern where the player meets the All-Knowing Vortigaunt in front of a fire while reciting chants and coughing. Each time the player presses the interact key on the vortigaunt, he remarks cryptic statements that can refer to the Black Mesa Incident, Xen, the G-Man, the Nihilanth, and Gordon's deep connection with the Vortigaunts, among other topics. He could say every single line of dialogue that a Vortigaunt can say in "Half-Life 2" if prompted enough. Some people speculate that the All-Knowing Vortiguant breaks the fourth wall by alluding to the player controlling Freeman with the lines, The G-Man nuked Black Mesa. During the Opposing Force chapter, "The Package," a black ops team was sent to the Black Mesa to arm a Mark IV Thermonuclear Device, in the underground parking structure of the Ordinance Storage Facility. Adrian Shepard needs to take out the black ops team and deactivate the nuke to prevent his immediate death. Afterwards, he enters a nearby room with a view of the nuke, and witnesses the G-Man reactivating it. He cannot return to the nuke, sealing the fate of the research facility. During the ending, the bomb explodes when Shephard is detained by the G-Man aboard the helicopter as a white flash covers the screen. Zombies are conscious. In the "Half-Life" lore, it has been implied that humans who become Headcrab Zombies may be able to stay alive and retain their consciousness. The groaning that standard Zombies constantly make in "Half-Life 2" can be heard as the victims' muffled screams for help. (zombie moaning) This could indicate that a victim is still alive and somewhat aware of their surroundings. Ripping a headcrab off of a victim shows a terrified look and a violent scream frozen onto their face. One of the most infamous examples would be the reversed zombie sound effect. When this zombie moan is reversed, the sound effect will become a creepy plea for help. (zombie screaming) - [Narrator] That was only the surface, and now we enter The Waters. (suspenseful music) Child labor in the "Half-Life 2" beta. As previously mentioned in the "Half-Life 2" beta leak, the game originally had children present in the world before they were written off with the suppression field. Child workers would be tasked with manufacturing Cremator heads, the head of a cut enemy that would remove corpses from the streets by incinerating them. A single Metrocop would be responsible for supervising the factory. The player could not directly interact with the children, only seeing them work from afar either on the street or a catwalk. The radio song. In the "Half-Life 2" chapter, "Anticitizen One," a television screen can be found in a closet playing a distorted song accompanied by an image of the G-Man. (playing radio1.mp3) The same song is also heard on the radio at the beginning of "Half-Life: Alyx." If the song is played backwards, a woman can be slightly heard saying. This discovery implies that the song is a poorly broadcasted message meant for either Freeman or the G-Man. What the woman's message would be is a mystery. Fun fact, the song uses two samples from the sample library "Cuckooland: Ghost in the Machine." The first sample is called "Distorted Trumpets" (playing "Distorted Trumpets") and the second sample is called "Is That the Door?" Get Your Free TVs was the first "Half-Life 2" test level to be created when Valve only had a small portion of the game developed. It consisted of a test sequence designed to highlight all the new technology from the source engine, along with testing the NPCs and physics. The level depicts a street war between rioting citizens and the Metrocops sent down to control the situation. APCs and tanks were rolling down the streets. Citizens would throw Molotov cocktails at the vehicles to make them explode. Other citizens would start looting stores and yell, "Get your free TVs!" Hand-to-hand combat was presented with the civilians and the Metrocops fighting each other. BreenGrub. BreenGrub is a Twitter account created by series writer Marc Laidlaw, where he assumes the role of Dr. Breen sending out messages from two host bodies at different locations. The purpose of Breen's messages is to reveal any information about the Combine Advisors so that the Resistance could use it to defeat the Combine. Fans have taken the tweets as hints or insights about the future of the "Half-Life" series. Its last post would be on July 6, 2014, where it appears that the Combine hijacked and ended Breen's broadcasts. Laidlaw has specified that BreenGrub was not canon to the "Half-Life" storyline and that these tweets were just something he did for fun. The G-Man is an advisor. Okay, bear with me on this. There's this theory that the G-Man is a Combine Advisor, which I mostly derived from this Reddit post, so thank you, deleted. Freeman's final objective in "Half-Life 1" was to kill the Nihilanth, which freed the Vortigaunts and made them join the Resistance in "Half-Life 2." Eli Vance, one of the leaders of the Resistance, is aware of the G-man and his capabilities. This in turn means that the Resistance represents the G-Man's operations on Earth. So, the G-Man could have the Vortigaunts under his indirect command through the Resistance. He could have easily ignored the Vortigaunts and left Xen creatures to fight against the Combine alone, but he was interested in the Vortigaunts, quite possibly about their Vortessence, the massive psychic energy that the Vortigaunts share. If the G-Man could gain control of the Vortigaunts, he could control one of the most powerful forces in the "Half-Life" universe. In "Episode One", the Vortigaunts may have caught on to the G-Man's plan, and they try to stop him from doing anything to Freeman or the Vortessence. Now the question is why is the G-Man against the Combine? He seems to possess powerful psychic abilities and can appear to his will. His human figure could be just a psychic projection from his real form. Nothing would fit this description better than a Combine Advisor, or Shu'ulathoi. Sorry for the bad pronunciation. According to the BreenGrub Twitter, the Advisors were forcibly enslaved by the Combine through virus-like thoughts. Somehow, the G-Man circumvented this and returned to exact his revenge against the Combine. By destroying the Combine and freeing the rest of the Advisors, the G-Man would be seen as a hero among them. If the G-Man and the other Advisors could combine the Vortessence and their psychic powers, they could be the most powerful force in the multiverse, effectively creating a brand new Shu'ulathoi Empire. Russell is Lazlo. Lazlo was a character that was briefly shown in the "Half-Life 2" chapter, "Sandtraps," where he was killed by antlions after he disturbed the sand or if the player walked on the sand. The character accompanying him said that he was During the reveal trailer of "Half-Life: Alyx" this shot of the character was briefly shown. This has caused speculation that this character was Lazlo, especially after "Half-Life: Alyx" was revealed to be a prequel to "Half-Life 2." The character is now known as Russel, who assists Alyx on her journey to rescue her father and reach the Vault. He was Lazlo during the early development of "Half-Life: Alyx," but the developers decided that he should be an original character. The final game does include some references to Russell's old identity. In Russell's Lab, a notepad with the password lazl0, with the O as a zero, can be found near a computer. Russell is still called "lazlo" in the game files. Chumtoads. Chumtoads are a cut NPC that resembles a small, purple creature resembling a toad. They make an appearance in "Half-Life: Opposing Force" and "Blue Shift." The Chumtoad's original role in "Half-Life" was to be the bait that a player could use to lure or distract aliens. This bait idea was reused in "Half-Life 2" as the pheropod to summon antlion allies. Gordon's child. At the beginning of "Half-Life 1," the player can open Freeman's locker which contains his diploma, some books, and a photo of a baby. According to Valve designer and artist, Harry Teasley, the baby in the photo is his daughter, Isabel. Series writer, Marc Laidlaw, offered the idea that this could be an infant relative of Gordon's, such as a niece or nephew rather than Freeman's child. Marc Laidlaw's VA placeholder. Early in the development of "Half-Life 1" series writer Marc Laidlaw had most of the dialogue voiced as a placeholder before the voice actors recorded their lines. This can be seen in the E3 1998 demonstration of "Half-Life 1," where the scientist and the security guard are voiced by Laidlaw. Here are some comparisons between the final voice lines and the voice lines that Laidlaw provided. - [Laidlaw VA] Let's get the hell out of here. - [Final VA] Let's get the hell out of here. - [Laidlaw VA] Okay, I better wait here and help anyone else that comes back. - [Final VA] Okay, I'll wait here and help anyone else who comes back. - [Laidlaw VA] I were a braver man, I would run for the surface. But I'm afraid if the world finds out what we were doing here, Gordon, but please, just don't make come with you. - [Final VA] I'm not so sure I want to go to the surface. What if the world finds out what we were doing down here? - [Narrator] Cheaple. Cheaple is the low-resolution Citizen model, used when Citizens are seen from afar. Each time he is seen, the model is walking from a point to another, re-spawning each time in a loop. He appears in the computer screens at Kleiner's Lab, where the G-Man can be seen, and at Black Mesa East, right before getting into the elevator with Mossman. His face texture is based on Warren Slough, who unfortunately died on July 3, 2006. Eli's Harvard shirt. Upon closer inspection of Eli's shirt in "Half-Life 2," the Harvard University name and logo can be seen on it. His shirt changes in "Episode Two" to a blue diamond-patterned shirt. Through this shirt, Eli may be a Harvard graduate. Gabe Newell did drop out of Harvard University and this shirt could refer to his "alma-mater." Originally, Eli wore a Yale University shirt as seen in the beta textures and the E3 2004 trailer. The Crab Synth. The Crab Synth is an incomplete "Half-Life 2" enemy that's briefly shown on a conveyor belt during Freeman's second pod ride. They appear as giant bulky creatures with heavily modified weapons carried on their backs. Game files reveal they could charge at their targets and fire the machine guns underneath their bodies. This enemy would never make another appearance in any of the other "Half-Life" games. Non-mechanical reproduction simulation. Throughout "Half-Life 2," the Overwatch Voice could say this line on the Metrocop's radio. This non-mechanical reproduction simulation that Overwatch refers to, could be allowing the Civil Protection to possibly either masturbate or have sex with another unit that receives this award. This award could also be a drug that simulates the pleasure of reproduction. The reproduction simulation seems to be an incentive for the Civil Protection to continue to carry out their duties. The cat, when Barney enters Kleiner's lab at the beginning of "Half-Life 2," he references a cat when Dr. Kleiner says that they have a working teleporter again. This cat was the subject of an attempted teleport, and the experiment went horribly wrong to the point that Barney had become traumatized by the experience. There is an allusion to what happened to the cat. In Kleiner's Lab, the player can interact with a small teleporter with a cactus on it. If the player teleports the cactus a few times, the teleporter breaks down, making the cactus disintegrate. The achievement, "What Cat?", is earned after breaking the mini teleporter. This suggests the cat was brutally disintegrated after the teleportation failed. On September 14, 2019, a user on the "Half-Life 2" Project beta forums posted an image of Alyx's presumed cat as a repo. The cat was going to have robotic legs and could be the subject of the teleport. Prospero. Prospero was one of Valve's first game designs and was supposed to come out shortly after "Half-Life 1." The game was to emphasize exploration, an intricate storyline, and combat via psionic powers. As the design of "Half-Life 1," known internally as "Quiver" at the time, started to take over some of Prospero's initial goals, Prospero evolved into a massively multiplayer game, which led to the goal of mixing official and user-created worlds, which then could be accessed through an in-game library, and each world would be running on its own server. Now we're just getting deeper, and deeper, and deeper. We're in The Deep Waters. (suspenseful music) Real-time moss. During the development of "Half-Life 1," Gabe Newell wanted to make the environment more lively by having real-time moss growth appear on the walls if the player stays in a certain area for an extended amount of time. The feature was cut due to technological and time constraints. Newell also hinted at real-time moss growing being implemented in "Half-Life 2" but that did not come to fruition. Is it possible that Newell's dream of moss can happen with the technological advancements of the next "Half-Life" game? "Half-Life: Alyx's" Zoo Zombie. In the "Half-Life: Alyx" chapter, "Captivity," Alyx goes through antlion tunnels which lead her to an abandoned Russian zoo. A Headcrab zombie can be seen admiring children's drawings posted on the walls. This ties back to the point where zombies can retain some form of their consciousness. Another moment similar to this happens at the beginning of the chapter, "The Quarantine Zone," where a zombie can be seen reading the subway map. Hallucination stuff. I'm not sure what the hallucination stuff is so leave a comment if you guys know what this is about. "Half-Life: Alyx's" alternate timelines. Now, this, this one is a doozy, man (exhales). Okay, so, at the end of "Half-Life: Alyx," The G-Man offers her a favor in return for her services, as he wants to replace Freeman who failed to carry out the duties that were assigned to him. Alyx asks for the Combine to be removed off of Earth but, the G-Man declines. Instead, he shows Alyx the future, where Eli Vance gets killed by a Combine advisor. The G-Man allows Alyx to kill the Advisor and save her father. He reiterates the consequences that Alyx will face after she killed the Advisor that puts her into stasis. The end-credit scene shows Gordon and Eli awaken in the White Forest helicopter hangar. Alyx is nowhere to be seen and Eli angrily ridicules the G-Man's consequences and states that he's going to kill him. Many fans have speculated that the ending has caused alternate timelines, one where Eli lived and one where Eli die. It's possible that right after Alyx was put into stasis, she would be returned to the Vault's ruins without the memories of the G-Man or killing the Advisor, and progress through the timeline into "Half-Life 2." So, this ending credit scene could possibly be a brand new timeline? Or maybe it's an alternate timeline, or it's this timey wimey stuff, I don't know! It's honestly kinda confusing so if you guys can clarify, can you do that in the comments, thank you. Gordon's personal holocaust. Gordon's personal holocaust refers to a cut line from the G-Man during "Half-Life 1's" ending if the player refused G-Man's offer. Gordon's personal holocaust most likely harkens to the numerous alien deaths that Freeman caused during the Black Mesa Incident. "Half-Life 1" reads your CD drive. When "Half-Life 1" was first released in 1998, it came out on a disk, obviously. The game was programmed to use the music tracks on the CD. When the game came out on Steam, the music came in the game files, but will still prioritize music from any CD put in the disk drive, assuming you have one in your PC. Not sure why this is deep in the iceberg but, Sockman1 admitted that they kept this vague to increase the creepy factor. It's all a simulation. This could be referring to the fact that the "Half-Life" series is a series of video games. Yes, it is a simulation of some nerdy-ass scientist who survives loads of violent confrontations where a random person would be decimated. Maybe it's possible that a Combine invasion could be a simulation? Maybe the Black Mesa Incident was a simulation. Maybe the whole "Half-Life" story is Freeman's dream. Maybe we're in a simulation. What if this video you're watching and me creating this video, and me reading this script to this video is a simula- Now we're past the point of no return. Now we're at The Bottom. (suspenseful music) Who's playing the piano? In the Vault, you can hear a piano being played in multiple areas, and sometimes it's played in reverse. You can also hear the piano right before going into Russell's lab. Now, I'm not quite sure why this entry is this deep in the iceberg because the piano could just be a part of the game's soundtrack. Am I missing something here? Let me know. Fast headcrabs are normal headcrabs. During the development of "Half-Life 2" fast headcrabs were developed first and were supposed to replace the original headcrab. Remnants of this idea remain in the final game as the standard headcrab model is called "headcrabclassic.mdl" while the fast headcrab model is just called "headcrab.mdl". d1_canals_04 and d2_coast_06. Neither of these maps exist in the final game of "Half-Life 2." The game skips from d1_canals_03 to d1_canals_05 and from d2_coast_05 to d2_coast_07. The answer is most likely that those two maps were cut out during development. It's probably an oversight in renaming the maps and it's unknown what these missing maps could have been. They may exist in the "Half-Life 2" beta leak or they never got any major development and got cut early, who knows? The G-Man is Valve. The G-Man's character and dialogue can be interpreted as a meta-commentary from Valve. This is the most evident when the G-Man is directly talking to Freeman, and henceforth, the player. Valve and the G-Man can put Freeman in whatever world they design, and whenever the date is right for Freeman to come around. Gordon's quote-unquote- From "Half-Life 1" represents the limitless potential that the "Half-Life" series has been in innovating video games. Freeman's limitless potential may have hit a limit, ironically, with the release of "Half-Life: Alyx." Valve has opted to create a game that revolves around Alyx Vance, instead of Freeman. This theory could also apply to G-Man's decision to recruit Alyx at the end, replacing Freeman as he was not meeting the G-Man's, or Valve's, expectations. Gordon has no free will. It is often implied throughout the games that Freeman possesses no free will. Gordon Freeman's name and the moniker, "The One Free Man", given to him by the Resistance is meant to be ironic. It's obvious that Freeman is controlled by the player and all the "Half-Life" games are linearly built with only one path to go forward. The G-Man also serves as a metaphor for Freeman's lack of free will. The G-Man heavily influences what Freeman does, to the point of making Freeman a puppet, and would follow him to keep him in check. This notion about the G-Man goes back to the previous entry where G-Man represents Valve, both guide the player's experience at all times. This lack of free will theme is also applicable to "Half-Life 1" where at the end, the player can decide whether to accept the G-Man's offer or not. The choice that the player made was ultimately irrelevant as "Half-Life 2" begins assuming that Freeman chose to accept G-Man's offer. Trains serve as a metaphor for the lack of free will. Every main entry in the "Half-Life" series, except for "Half-Life: Alyx," begins with the player riding a train. Trains are linear and move along a set path, symbolizing the G-Man's strict control over Gordon's path. Squeal1.wav, in the "Half-Life 2" beta, there is a window found in the map, d1_terminal_01. Behind it, there is a flashing room and a weird contraption making ticking sounds, almost like a clock. (clock ticking) You can hear it make weird noises, one of which is named squeal1.wav in the game's files. The only way to play the sound in the final game is in the chapter "Highway 17". After the player defeats their first gunship, if they decide to kill this rebel on top of the tower, squeal1.wav could be heard. (gun blasting) (clock squealing) It's unknown why this sound is here and how the rebel causes this sound to be played. Citadel screams. Many players have noted that screams can be heard throughout the Citadel. Theories have arisen about the true nature of these screams, from those noises being the true Citadel communicating with the Combine home planet, or otherworldly powers being held within the building. There is one mysterious claim which states that these screams are a recording of the astronauts screaming during the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, where on January 28, 1986, the shuttle exploded 73 seconds into its flight, killing all five astronauts and two payload specialists aboard. However, no such recording exists or is used in the game. The most likely answer is that these screams are from the process of making Stalkers, humans who have been drastically altered through extreme Synth engineering by the Combine. They become servants who mindlessly operate machinery and guard the core in the Citadel. The resistance can't win. Considering the sheer amount of Combine's multidimensional firepower that conquered Earth in only seven hours, it's pretty safe to assume that Resistance alone cannot defeat the Combine without some significant assistance. Epistle 3 reflects on the resistance's unreachable goal of liberation. As the Borealis, set for self-destruction, approaches the Combine command center, Freeman sees that it is protected by a Dyson sphere, a hypothetical megastructure that completely encompasses a star, or planet in this situation, and captures a large percentage of its power output. He recognizes the ineffectiveness of their rebellion before the Vortigaunts teleport him back to Earth. Although Epistle 3 is considered non-canon, that does not write off the Combine's potential to construct such a thing in future games. It's quite possible that outside forces, such as the Vortigaunts and possibly others, could provide the support that the Resistance needs to continue their fight against the Combine but, it's ultimately up to Valve to decide whether or not humanity has what it takes to defeat the Combine, and free their home once and for all. Thank you so much for watching. If there's anything wrong on the video, please leave me any feedback, and maybe I could do a follow up video. And to my regular viewers, yeah, all seven of you, this is definitely different from what I usually do, so, thanks for watching.
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Channel: accessiblefunky
Views: 1,025,546
Rating: 4.9088335 out of 5
Keywords: iceberg explained, iceberg, half-life iceberg, half life iceberg, half-life, half life, half life alyx, half-life alyx, half life 2, half-life 2, half life iceberg explained, half-life iceberg explained, gman, gordon freeman, video game iceberg, video game iceberg explained, iceberg explained game, video game essay, iceberg de half life, valve, valve iceberg, portal iceberg, portal 1, half life 2 iceberg, Video games, accessiblefunky, half, life
Id: LryI-0Fe4T8
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 33min 52sec (2032 seconds)
Published: Thu Dec 03 2020
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