The Silent Protagonist You Never Noticed - Half Life 2

[@digitalblankx]

glad to see someone finally talk about the environment more, to this day Im still very much immersed in the world of Half-Life more than in the many games that came after it

[@cakeylies]

I think it is one of the strongest points in favor of Half Life! Now don't get me wrong I love the characters and the story is awesome but I don't think any of them would work with out such compelling environmental storytelling.

[@agallow]

City 17 is a *silent* protagonist for it was gagged by the Combine's oppression

[@cakeylies]

Yes, they have stolen the voice of the people and the place!!!

[@TheMetaKnightGuy]

They even took the Jerry's bait shop

[@gordonfreemen1920]

“Half life 2 is a game about a lot of things” you really said it all with that one

[@cakeylies]

At some point I need to find a new opening line as I fill like most of my scripts start that way. But especially with valve games I can't help but have so many thoughts that always feels that way.

[@RootVegetabIe]

City 17 in Alyx is incredible. It's the fully realised version of the location.

[@cakeylies]

@RootVegetabIe Yes, while City 17 feels incredible due to the time it came out and the cultural impact. But City 17 in Alyx feels like the developers' and artists' final image of the world. A final product not hindered by technology or time.

[@merrimentis]

How are there no comments here yet? This is a great video! I've seen a lot of games where the environment could definitely be considered a protagonist itself, but mostly people are too focused on the game and rarely mention it. This is the first time I've seen a video about it, and I love it. The way a city or even a house makes you feel and "acts" is so important for the atmosphere of the game and the player's next actions and thoughts. Some games are really good at this, sometimes it seems without even trying. In games like Naissance or Lorn's Lure, the protagonist being the structures themselves is very obvious. In games like Stray or Elden Ring, it's hidden a bit more, but it never goes completely unnoticed I believe. Half Life 2 is up on that list where you have to take a closer look at it to really explain the way it makes you feel throughout the game, and it seems once you start, you just find more and more little details, just like you said. I don't know what else to say, but yet again you've managed to captivate my interest right away. I know you're not the biggest video essay channel yet, but your videos in no way inferior to them. I'll be looking forward to the next video and to see you grow! Keep it up!

[@cakeylies]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I actually got the idea after rewatching Jacob Gellers video on Haunted House's! I still need to play Naissance sadly, I have only seen videos as of yet.

[@merrimentis]

@@cakeylies Yes, that video is really interesting as well. I can only recommend NaissanceE (typo in my comment, it actually has two E's). It's really immersive and just breathtaking!

[@termitetoxin7983]

I absolutely agree. The atmosphere and implicitly responsive way that City 17 and its internal components change as the story progresses is absolutely incredible, and perhaps my favorite element of the game by far, probably the most striking to me. Note that I have not actually gotten past Route Kanal (which is funny), but it, and I suppose the Combine presence (I'm not sure if I would consider them separate entities or not) feel like larger organisms, bodies that you are living in, which respond as you and its other denizens increasingly and more brazenly poke and prod at its components. I feel like this metaphorical viewpoint of mine is mostly facilitated by the way in which overwatch command refers to dispatching responses to problems, using weirdly medical terms like amputate, cauterize, and inoculate, when referring to dispatching the civprots and soldiers against you, makes you feel like a disease defying an immune system. I'm not sure how much further I can stretch this metaphor, because much like Spy- I mean Tom Jones's Sex Bomb metaphor, I feel like this body metaphor is falling apart as I type, but yeah. The way the citizens blurt out flavor text expository lines on the weary and downtrodden state of humanity, and resistance members usher you forward as the Combine are hot on your tail, with you see this underground railroad they've built up start to fall apart, which really goes to show that your arrival couldn't have been a moment sooner (wow isn't that cool how that links back to G-Man's first monologue? The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world? Your time has come again? Wake up and smell the ashes? [complete side tangent on how Gordon is always perceptibly the catalyst for massive chain reactions and paradigm shifts] [also I'm not sure if the early/initial police crackdown on the resistance was a result of the response to Gordon's appearance, or if it was merely happening concurrent with it]), the ever-escalating and ever-adapting methods in which the combine responds to you as you continue to thwart their attempts to stop you, the way the background ambiance changes as you move from location to location, indicating the purpose and population in each area, the way the Citadel blares to life on full alert, scrambling the airwatch by the dozens, maybe even hundreds, after Breen first becomes aware of Gordon's presence, UGHH, everything just feels so alive and dynamic, even if it isn't really. Not much to say about Ravenholm as I have yet to reach it, but wow. Valve knows a thing or two about environmental storytelling, even if things sort of fall apart upon closer inspection (I mean have ya seen Portal 1? Stellar stuff.). I have not actually played many games, so maybe there are a lot of games like this and I'm just singling out Valve because they're the only games I've ever played haha. Anyways sorry for gushing lawl. It really just is my favorite aspect of the game.

[@cakeylies]

Yes, so much flavor in the game! Which for me is crazy as I look at any other game from that year and see how much work Valve put into making this game last.

[@TazG2000]

The fact that Gordon was suspended out of time before arriving means that he didn't exist while the Combine came to power and he was never "in the system". I think this does directly cause the crackdown, because the overwatch voice announces to the apartment residents "miscount detected in your block". This is a world where every individual is accounted for, until suddenly Gordon exists in the world. He's literally, mathematically "the difference in the world" which breaks the system.

[@termitetoxin7983]

@@TazG2000 Right, I suppose that makes sense. If that is the case, would there have been a reason that the combine had not acted against the sections of the resistance railroad we see get cracked down on during route kanal before the miscount? Was it leniency/complacency (did they not think it was a serious enough threat), or did they perhaps just not know or think to look in those areas? I mean I’m sure they were aware of the resistance to some degree especially after the events of alyx, so did they just not think to survey the area for resistance hideouts before the miscount? I suppose both options aren’t actually mutually exclusive and one could be facilitating the other.

[@gvidobarscausks9272]

Half Life 2 Enviroment is such a beauty to look at, its so beautiful and the ambient sounds makes it even better.

[@cakeylies]

I love just taking a moment after the fighting to just look around. So much to see and due in a game that is mostly focused on killing bad guys!

[@gvidobarscausks9272]

You also never leave City 17 you are always in the area of it and even see it in backdrop in EP2

[@charlielatham3139]

Production is insane. Really well written. Subscribed and hope to see more.

[@cakeylies]

Thanks! I will try and keep up the momentum!

[@JHawke1]

Huh, YT recommended me a video from a small channel that wasn't just "random let's play #69". Very thoughtful piece about HL2 and Valve's environmental storytelling. It's clear after the success they had with HL1's storytelling, Valve really wanted to turn it all up to 11. NPC interactions had more character which in turn sold the bleakness of the setting (especially the NPCs you meet after stepping off the train), the old soviet era buildings juxtaposed against the combine structures to give the player a sense of unease as they see something they're familiar with being slowly consumed by the alien threat and so on. There's a lot to dig into here. Arguably Alyx took this even further by making environmental interactivity an even deeper aspect of the core gameplay. Being able to physically pick up objects and manipulate them freely as you would in the real world as opposed to pressing the "E" key and seeing it levitate before you is incredibly immersive. Sounds obvious, but until you experience it, you'll never fully understand just how immersive it is.

[@cakeylies]

Yes, I after the runaway success of Half Life and the success of some many other games taking reference from it, they absolute put there whole creative spirit into developing and maturing the Half Life experience. I think it's why they still haven't touched on making Episode 3 or even the 3rd game. They just don't feel they can one up on what they did with 2. Which might be the case no matter what they do, not because they can't or won't improve on the game but because of what a culture staple that Half Life 2 has become! Sorry for rambling, thank you for watching and enjoying! Definitely not done with Half Life on this channel or in my life for sure.

[@JHawke1]

@@cakeylies I consider Alyx as Episode 3 (as far as its narrative goes at any rate) and given the rumours that have been compounding recently surrounding Steam OS, Steam Machines, a new Index and Half Life 3, I think this is going to be the year we all need to watch out for "unforeseen consequences". If Valve is indeed attempting to dip its toe back into the home console market after all, what better killer app could there be than Half Life 3?

[@El_Lulaa]

Great Video Man

[@cakeylies]

Thanks glad you enjoyed!

[@randomjonas-f8w]

Vavle has created art with Half Life 2. Awsome Video, keep it going.

[@cakeylies]

I hope Valve keeps up the Streak of great games. I still have not played a VR Game as good as Half Life: Alyx and Portal 2 is and will always be my top game of all time!

[@denifnaf5874]

Maybe the true silent protagonist was László, the finest mind of his generation.

[@cakeylies]

May he rest in the sand!

[@jadegecko]

Came here thinking I'd bring up Freeman's Mind Now I'm just thinking about Session 9

[@cakeylies]

I don't know anything about session 9. What is it about?

[@jadegecko]

@@cakeylies It's a horror movie. It's about some asbestos workers hired to clean out an abandoned insane asylum - and the building it's set in legitimately *was* an abandoned insane asylum IRL. The building is terrifying, and it makes the movie.

[@cakeylies]

I will add that to my watch list! Always done to watch a horror movie.

[@jadegecko]

@@cakeylies lmk what you think of it!

[@TheColaber]

Fire video!

[@cakeylies]

Glad you enjoyed the video!!

[@erikpng]

Honestly, same thing with Black Mesa. The locations are great.

[@cakeylies]

Yes, crazy that with a modified quake engine, they were able to convey such a mass scientific complex.

[@bladie123]

"The Silent Protagonist You Never Noticed" Proceeds to talk about how silent the maps are, meanwhile, you should be talking about the protagonist.

[@cakeylies]

Sorry you feel I didn't take enough about the protagonist. I will look into being more specific in future scripts!

[@alexgagulax2866]

Bro really needed the 8 minutes lol

[@cakeylies]

Not sure what you mean by this comment, do you mean I talked too fast? Too many transitions or something else? Either way I hope you liked the video and if not I would love some feedback on what didn't work for you!

[@alexgagulax2866]

@@cakeylies You talked kinda slow and repeated yourself, and you need 8 minutes on a video to get ads in it.

[@cakeylies]

Sorry felt like I was repeating myself, was certainly not my intention but I can take a look at future scripts and make sure it doesn't feel as redundant! I'm fairly small and can't have ads on videos yet so any repeats were unintentional or in the case of the conclusion to recap and wrap the video.

[@alexgagulax2866]

@@cakeylies Okay, good luck in the future.

[@Chrome_zzz]

you need a minimum of 1000 subscribers to get ad revenue and they have 206 what are you talking about lol

[@stormthesource]

I think City 17 is a great setting for HL2, but you spend too little time in it, and the Follow Freeman maps look a bit low quality. Most of the time is spent in the outskirts, and imo the Highway 17 landscapes or the Sandtraps one are not as interesting as City 17. Which is a bit of a bummer

[@cakeylies]

@stormthesource for sure, I think it's why Half-life: Alyx captures the attention a lot more. Too bad it's stuck in the PCVR audience hinders its audience.

[@stormthesource]

@cakeylies yea man, I wish I could play Alyx too, looks super interesting

[@MajorCzaja]

Good video! but I think you should spend more time on video and I mean stuff like recording your dialogue more professionally 6:13 is good example, you should cut that out and record again. and 3 last minutes feel worse than rest of video in general. but you have potential for sure

[@cakeylies]

Thanks for the feedback! I definitely rush certain parts, voice over especially, I will take a look at the last 3 minutes and see what I did that made it feel worse than the rest! Maybe editing? Thanks for watching I hope to keep getting better with time!