Half-Life Storyline
Gordon Freeman rides a tram from his dormitory deep into the heart of the Black Mesa Facility, on his way to the Anomalous Materials Lab to begin his work. Upon arriving at the lab, front desk security guard informs him that a system crash has complicated communications between the Black Mesa scientists, and that Freeman must acquire his Hazardous Environment suit (or H.E.V suit) before proceeding to the test chamber. Freeman reports to the Anomalous Materials Lab, where he then meets up with Dr. Arne Magnusson and where he is tasked with pushing a “specimen” into the scanning beam for analysis. Following that, he inadvertently causes a fictional time-space catastrophe called a “resonance cascade,” opening a portal between Earth and a bizarre world called Xen. Freeman is sporadically teleported there and catches glimpses of various alien lifeforms, shortly before blacking out.
Freeman awakens in Black Mesa, exits the test chamber and sees that many scientists and security personnel are dead. After discovering survivors, Freeman learns there are no means to communicate with the world beyond Black Mesa. Freeman gradually makes his way to the surface to get help, sidestepping Black Mesa’s structural damage and defending himself against hostile aliens randomly teleporting in from Xen. A survivor Eli Vance was then seen helping another scientist and then tries to aid Gordon through a closed door. The other surviving scientists claim that human soldiers are en route as part of a rescue mission, only to discover that the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, which has taken control of Black Mesa, is killing both the aliens and everyone at Black Mesa as part of a government cover-up. Freeman fights the soldiers before finally reaching the surface of Black Mesa, where he learns that the secretive Lambda Team may have the means to solve the problems brought on by the cascade. Gordon must then reach the Lambda Complex at the other end of the facility to assist them.
The player is subsequently faced with several tasks, such as killing a giant, rapidly growing tentacle creature, riding across the facility on a railway system in order to reach a satellite rocket that must be launched in order to reverse the resonance cascade, and fighting a group of mysterious Black Ops, before being captured by Marines and dumped in a garbage compactor. It was seen in Half-Life: Blue Shift that while Gordon was being carried away, the main protagonist of Half Life: Blue Shift, Barney Calhoun, saw Gordon being captured by the marines. Gordon escapes without being crushed and makes his way to an older, secret part of the Facility where he discovers an extensive collection of specimens collected from Xen long before the resonance cascade.
Gordon again reaches the surface, which has become a warzone. The Vortigaunts, along with Alien Grunts and a giant monstrosity, have begun fighting the Marines, who are beginning to lose. They call in reinforcements, but it isn’t enough to turn the tide. The player must scale cliffs and navigate bombed out buildings while avoiding both sides. Finally, Gordon reaches relative safety underground.
The Marines begin to evacuate Black Mesa and airstrikes begin. At one point, the player must use the military equipment to call an air strike to re-enter the base. Gordon navigates underground water channels and tries to avoid scores of alien soldiers as they pick off remaining Marine stragglers. After much struggle, Gordon finally reaches the Lambda Complex, which is revealed to be the location where scientists developed the teleportation technology that allowed them to travel to Xen in the first place. Gordon reaches the handful of surviving personnel, who are holed up in a small stronghold, and discovers that the satellite he launched failed to reverse the effects of the resonance cascade because an immensely powerful being on the other side of the rift is keeping it open. Gordon must kill this being to prevent the Xen aliens from taking over completely. The scientists activate the teleporter and Gordon is relocated to Xen. In the first expansion of Half-Life, Half-Life: Opposing Force, the main protagonist of the game, Adrian Shephard, witnesses Freeman running into the portal. The player has the option to follow Freeman into the portal, but doing so causes the game to end with Shephard being accused of ‘Attemping to create a temporal paradox’.
On the strange border world, Gordon encounters many of the alien species that had been brought into Black Mesa, as well as the remains of HEV-wearing researchers that came before him. The player engages in one of the game’s few boss-style battles against Gonarch, a giant headcrab with a huge egg sac. After fighting his way through an alien camp, Gordon arrives at a huge alien factory complex, which engineers and builds the Alien Grunt soldiers. After fighting his way through mysterious levitating creatures, he finds a giant portal and enters it.
In a vast cave, Gordon finally confronts the Nihilanth, the creature who was maintaining the rift, and destroys it. As the creature dies, it explodes in a giant green blast that overpowers Gordon’s senses. After awakening, Gordon’s movement is restricted as he is confronted by the G-Man. Both are transported to various locales around Xen, while the G-Man praises Freeman’s actions in the border world. The G-Man explains that his “employers”, believing that Gordon has “limitless potential”, have authorized him to offer Freeman a job. The final teleportation takes the player to the original tram car, which is depicted as flying through space. If the player refuses the job offer, the G-Man teleports him to a location in front of a considerable number of alien enemies, stating, “No regrets, Mr. Freeman,” as the screen fades out. If the player accepts, by stepping into a portal, he finds himself floating in nothingness and hears the G-Man’s voice one last time: “Wisely done, Mr. Freeman. I will see you up ahead.”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life
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