Half-Life: Alyx has officially released on Steam 13 long years after the release of the previous Half-Life game. This Virtual Reality based game is Valve's latest entry into the franchise, set in between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2. It follows Half-Life 2's deuteragonist, Alyx Vance, during the intervening years of the Combine's occupation of Earth.
The Half-Life series has been one of the most ground-breaking game series and Valve's flagship franchise for many years, serving as an innovative platform that many subsequent game developers have strived to emulate while simultaneously immersing you into the journey of series protagonist Gordon Freeman. Half-Life: Alyx promises to continue that style of gameplay innovation with the use of VR. Now that the new game is out, let's look back at the story of the Half-Life series.
Half-Life
The original Half-Life follows the events of the Resonance Cascade at the secret Black Mesa research facility. You play as Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist indirectly responsible for the events that transpired. A Resonance Cascade wreaked havoc throughout the facility, allowing an extradimensional alien invasion to begin as hostile alien life forms began teleporting randomly throughout the facility.
As Gordon Freeman makes his way through the facility, he eventually comes across the US Military forces of the HECU, who were deployed to contain the invasion and silence the scientists and the witnesses responsible for the Resonance Cascade, including Freeman himself. Between battling his way through an alien invasion and his own country's military, Freeman eventually ends up on the alien homeworld, an extradimensional plane known as Xen.
After battling his way through the strange dimension and killing the Nihilanth, the mastermind behind the invasion, Freeman is approached by the mysterious entity known as the G-Man. The unknown cosmic being forcibly recruits Gordon Freeman and puts him in stasis, setting the stage for the events of Half-Life 2.
Half-Life 2
In the second game in the series, Gordon is suddenly awoken and deposited on a train 20 years after the events of Half-Life. Over the past two decades, a multiversal empire known as the Combine used the resulting Portal Storms from the Resonance Cascade to invade and conquer the entire Earth, in a conflict simply called "The Seven Hour War." The Administrator of Black Mesa, Doctor Breen, became the face of the Combine's rule, as they transformed the ruined world into a dystopia straight from the pages of George Orwell's 1984.
Dropped into this changed world with nothing but the clothes on his back, Freeman is intercepted by the Resistance, a rebel group fighting against the Combine. He is saved by Alyx Vance, who becomes the main NPC companion throughout Half-Life 2 and the following games, as well as the main character in the new VR game.
With the help of the Resistance, Gordon eventually makes his way to the top of the Combine Citadel in City 17, defeating Doctor Breen and destroying the Dark Energy Reactor at the top of the Citadel. As the Core explodes, the G-Man returns, freezing time and coming to collect Gordon for another task, leaving Alyx to her fate.
Half-Life 2: Episode One
Half-Life 2: Episode One picks up immediately after the events of Half-Life 2, as Alyx and Gordon are saved by the Vortigaunts, one of the alien species enslaved by the Nihilanth back in Half-Life who now revere Gordon as their savior. Episode One follows the duo as they stabilize the Citadel's reactor long enough to evacuate City 17 before it explodes, and are able to flee just as the Combine detonate the Citadel.
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Half-Life 2: Episode Two follows the aftermath of the previous game as Gordon and Alyx race to deliver an important data packet to the Resistance base of White Forest. Along the way, Alyx is heavily wounded and nearly dies, but is saved with the help of Freeman and the Vortigaunts. While unconscious, the G-Man leaves a subliminal message for Alyx's father in her own daughter, showing an interest in Miss Vance as he does.
Once she and Gordon reunite with the Resistance leadership, Alyx delivers the message, leaving Eli terrified of what the G-Man is planning. After a long battle that ends with the Resistance launching a satellite that would prevent the Combine from opening a superportal, Alyx, Gordon and Eli make their way to a helicopter that would take them to the lost Aperture Science freighter, the Borealis (a tie-in to Portal, Valve's other popular franchise).
Before they can leave, they are attacked by a pair of Combine Advisors, who kill Eli right in front of Alyx and Gordon. The Advisors are driven off by D0G, the robot Alyx built as a companion when she was a child, but is too late to save Eli. Episode Two ends with Alyx crying over her dead father, leaving us on a cliffhanger that lasted until this year.
Hopefully, fans won't have to wait another 13 years for the next Half-Life game.
Half-Life: Alyx is now available on Steam.