Outline · [ Standard ] · Linear+ Half Life 2: Aftermath

[The Ghost of Inept Pig]

Eurogamer have an article about the first expansion pack for Half Life 2.

The focus for Aftermath appears to break with the Half-Life tradition of presenting the storyline from the viewpoint of other key characters in the game, with the mooted Alyx-based episode apparently not happening as many of us imagined it might. Instead, it would appear that as a compromise, Alyx figures as a much more active partner of Gordon Freeman's adventures.

As Harper asserts, the rationale is for the player to get a much greater sense of attachment to Alyx, after doing so much to introduce her in Half-Life 2: "It's kind of ironic that despite so much of the theme of Half Life 2 being about other characters and other people, you spent most of the game alone....."

As for where Aftermath is set, and the timeline, it's very much a logical continuation from where Half-Life 2 left off, as Laidlaw explains: "[Aftermath] deals with the events and issues set in motion during Half-Life 2. You've done critical damage to the Citadel. The whole place is going to go up, taking out City 17 and what's in its immediate radius. You and Alyx are leading the flight from the city getting up close and personal with some of the creatures and sights from the end of the game." Interestingly, the assumption that you continue to play as Gordon isn't justified anywhere in the text; it's possible - and perhaps more likely given the game's ending - that you play as someone else instead.

And unlike in the original, creatures that were barred from the confines of City 17 have now found a new home unfettered by the barriers that kept them at bay previously. "We have a philosophy that we try to re-use and provide interesting twists to our core concepts," says Harper. Like the Antlions started the game as your enemy, and then became your friends later on. In Aftermath, City 17 was 'one thing' and now it's this 'other thing'," he says, refusing doggedly to elaborate to the hapless PC Gamer hack.

Hopefully they'll have listened to the complaints about loading times/linear gameplay, and made amends in the expansion - one can only hope.

[The Ghost of Inept Pig]

Oooh - scans