When I first faced nihilanth on my first play through I had no idea what was going on, I thought it was annoying and tedious. But then I got curious so I started looking more into the story and going down all the rabbit holes to figure out what was going on. It's always been so exciting to me and this video got me that itch to crawl down that home again. Very nice job
I've been a Half-Life fan for years and never knew of this. It's really cool in how it cleans ups Half-Life 1's story. The dead survey team members found in Xen I always assumed were just other scientists in H.E.V. suits on the same mission as Gordon. They had all died on their journeys to defeat the Nihilanth and they had a lot of the same equipment on them as Gordon, implying that the player could easily fail in the same ways each survey team member did. In this story however they had all been left for dead by Black Mesa as a consequence of refusing to keep the teleporter open in the Lambda Complex. It also provides a reason why the resonance cascade happened to begin with. The G-Man rigged the test sample used so that the Nihilanth could invade earth with army of grunts and enslaved vortigaunts. Perhaps that's the reason why at the end of Half-Life 1 during the boss fight, the Nihilanth telepathically tells Gordon- "Deceive you, will deceive you." "They're slaves, we are their slaves." "You are man, he's not man." Going off of this, I'm guessing the G-Man's plans is to have factions fight against each other as a means of darwinism. The absolute best race will beat all the others, so that the G-Man can then keep the winning race for himself.
@@od4361 He reminds me of Q from Star Trek: he’s miles ahead of everybody, but in a way that favors humanity. He lured the Combine here so humanity would annihilate them.
Not only for himself, but for his "employers" or entire race as well. When Alyx wishes for the Combine off Earth in HL: Alyx, the Gman responds that that is too large a nudge given the interest of his employers. Its because after humanity beat the Xen race in HL1, the "Gmen" possibly implicitly orchestrated the Combine invasion of Earth to have a "round 2". The "Gmen" orchestrated everything to get rid off their potential rivals through cunning "politics" and having them eradicate each other. That is why the Gman is helping Gordon and Alyx. Its because he knows that the Combine will eventually win the fight with humanity, but he also wants as much damage done to the Combine as possible, annihilating one of their potential rivals and weakening the other. I always knew the dude was evil, this makes the most sense to me after reading this vignette.
Something that makes me think a lot is the end of HL2 when breen says "my body wouldn't resist tha enviroment" or something that implied the combines had planned breen to change his physical body, but gordon and Adrian already were in Xen without any injuries on their time, This means the combine aren't from xen but other dimension and the resonance cascade not only was a temporary escape for the Xen race but also a sign for the combines to come and conquer a dimension they didn't know that existed.
I feel if Valve had more time and less reworks, they could have made something really good that would have blown open not only the gaming world but writing as a whole.
Agreed, writing in games at least. I'd highly recommend reading the other vignette released with this one, called "Finale", it plays out more like a script for the fight and it sounds really cool. I'll put the link in the description.
@@peppermillers8361 I’m pretty sure only *one* of the writers for HL:A worked on any previous HL games. The games he wrote for were Episodes 1 and 2, so he didn’t even work on HL2.
what I find so lovecraftian and oddly satisfying of this HL story bit is that it ties fiction with real life conspiracies (I.e. government has contact to aliens), which at first sounds like your standard sci fi actioner a la independence day, but the fact we took a foray into the unknown, as we are know (spacex, deep space probes, etc. pp, colonisation plans, etc.), suceeded (the scientists finding, studying and exploiting the resources of Xen, also some sort of colonialism), then came upon other sentient life, fearing what we had discovered (shutting down the portal), bur the "genie" was out of the bottle. Nihilanth took notice, opened (with a little help from Gman) the portal back to us as a means of escape, as we just later find out, and the marvel and fear in the last chapters comes from the fear of the unknown. you defeated the nihilanth, but he was no invader but a refugee, so what could be as scary that even such a powerful and scary creature as this one is dreading it? that then is the lovecraftian vibe, that harkens back to reality: If we are to find something, are we ready for it? Is it even good to have possibly vastly superior and more intelligent life take notice of us? we could end up the same as we did to other alien species: getting discovered, abducted, studied, getting exploited. What is exactly what happens in HL-2.
I feel like this does a great job at summing up and clearing up the loose ends in half lifes story. I'm still surprised they managed to tell most of this through mostly visuals and short conversations, especially in the 90's.
I freaking love this. All of the details of this vignette aren't necessarily canon, but they fit in so perfectly with the text of the story of Half-Life that I personally consider it to be.
Very nice. Although some of this got retconned, it furthers the idea that the Gman is responsible for both invasions of Earth. The question remains whether the Gman was actually working for the Combine, or whether he orchestrated the events of HL1 to draw their attention to Earth the same way he pointed Black Mesa to Xen.
i just thought the nihilanth was horribly bad explained. i didnt even know it was the boss at the end of halflife since its name wasnt mentioned anywhere. i assumed it could be some other thing we never saw.
This.. this is why the future of the Half-Life series makes me afraid. This is all so masterfully built, a story about the human race achieving teleportation and so being dragged to events much greater, and the struggle of humanity to fight against a force that is beyond their comprehension, Epistle 3 built on that, showing how even Earth's greatest weapon, the Borealis, was of no help against the Combine, and G-Man took Alyx as his new tool, Gordon only survived because of the Vortigaunts. But HLA seemed to deviate too far from that. Shifting all the focus to G-Man and his convoluted time travel plan to make a deal with Alyx to trap her. It doesn't feel like the natural progression of the story.
personally I think hla does keep that vibe but its more subtle. You find the gman imprisoned in the vault and free him, now you might say he just let them capture him for a convoluted plan or something but the fact that they are able to contain an entity like that at all speaks to their power. the other scene aswell is when you hear the woman talking with an advisor to get the administrator to talk to her (or that might be the advisor) and these guys weren't alarmed at all and they know whos inside the vault, they are so powerful that they don't give enough of a shit to keep a godlike being contained. epistle 3 also hints at that, after gordon goes through an existential crisis after seeing the dyson sphere, and comes back to the shores of earth, he remarks that the rebellion would have either succeeded or failed, and from that we can deduce that the combine can fuck over earth any moment but its just a matter of if they could be bothered or not.
@@youngkappakhanSure, it isn't as overt as Lovecraft's work, but there are still some obvious under and overtones of cosmic horror. Humanity messing with forces they don't understand, unknowable beings with unspeakable power, etc, it's just that they aren't as blatant or horrifying. The Nihilanth, Combine, and G-Man all borrow from cosmic horror without being entrenched in it.
Oh, so before the Nihilanth was fleeing the Combine, Valve intended for the G-Man to be some sort of Proto-Combine agent. Then, when it came time to make HL2, they decided to make the G-Man & Combine separate things.
I've said it before and I'll say it again; If Valve let Marc cook, they would have had an IP as detailed and deep as Star Wars with a terrifying cosmic horror twist.
damn i love how half life at first seems like this meh game like its not terrible but not especially interesting than you get into the lore of it and it becomes much more intriguing.
i love how spend 3 year developing a game, then before releasing it they scrap everything, go back to the drawing board and within less than 1 year they release a masterpiece, pretty much making them so overpowered compare to any other gaming company
When I first faced nihilanth on my first play through I had no idea what was going on, I thought it was annoying and tedious. But then I got curious so I started looking more into the story and going down all the rabbit holes to figure out what was going on. It's always been so exciting to me and this video got me that itch to crawl down that home again. Very nice job
Thank you! There's so much lore and information out there for all of these games.
thats what im doing rn
I've been a Half-Life fan for years and never knew of this. It's really cool in how it cleans ups Half-Life 1's story. The dead survey team members found in Xen I always assumed were just other scientists in H.E.V. suits on the same mission as Gordon. They had all died on their journeys to defeat the Nihilanth and they had a lot of the same equipment on them as Gordon, implying that the player could easily fail in the same ways each survey team member did. In this story however they had all been left for dead by Black Mesa as a consequence of refusing to keep the teleporter open in the Lambda Complex.
It also provides a reason why the resonance cascade happened to begin with. The G-Man rigged the test sample used so that the Nihilanth could invade earth with army of grunts and enslaved vortigaunts. Perhaps that's the reason why at the end of Half-Life 1 during the boss fight, the Nihilanth telepathically tells Gordon- "Deceive you, will deceive you." "They're slaves, we are their slaves." "You are man, he's not man." Going off of this, I'm guessing the G-Man's plans is to have factions fight against each other as a means of darwinism. The absolute best race will beat all the others, so that the G-Man can then keep the winning race for himself.
hey, new and young half life fan here. all i got from this is that gman is a smelly old guy who benefits off of others
@@NeedyBoBeedy Also true
@@od4361 He reminds me of Q from Star Trek: he’s miles ahead of everybody, but in a way that favors humanity. He lured the Combine here so humanity would annihilate them.
yeah but this isn't canon, in the desc it says marc said it was just a sketch
Not only for himself, but for his "employers" or entire race as well. When Alyx wishes for the Combine off Earth in HL: Alyx, the Gman responds that that is too large a nudge given the interest of his employers. Its because after humanity beat the Xen race in HL1, the "Gmen" possibly implicitly orchestrated the Combine invasion of Earth to have a "round 2". The "Gmen" orchestrated everything to get rid off their potential rivals through cunning "politics" and having them eradicate each other. That is why the Gman is helping Gordon and Alyx. Its because he knows that the Combine will eventually win the fight with humanity, but he also wants as much damage done to the Combine as possible, annihilating one of their potential rivals and weakening the other. I always knew the dude was evil, this makes the most sense to me after reading this vignette.
Incredible editing. I fell in love with it with the shrill cry of the Citadel about 20 seconds in.
Thank you very much!
More about 40 seconds
That moment when you realize the aliens from Xen aren’t invaders, but refugees escaping from a far greater threat than them.
Something that makes me think a lot is the end of HL2 when breen says "my body wouldn't resist tha enviroment" or something that implied the combines had planned breen to change his physical body, but gordon and Adrian already were in Xen without any injuries on their time, This means the combine aren't from xen but other dimension and the resonance cascade not only was a temporary escape for the Xen race but also a sign for the combines to come and conquer a dimension they didn't know that existed.
Yes but Vortigaunt on Earth were controlled by Nihilanth in HL1, so they attacked humans.
@@GattiJuanIgnacio nothin is actually *from* Xen, it's a borderworld - the Nihilanth and the other Xen flora/fauna are from all over the place
@@GattiJuanIgnacio yeah but I mean who thought the Combine came from Xen in the first place.
@@itsgeegra i think the other enemies such as houndeye and bullsquid and headcrabs are xen natives
I feel if Valve had more time and less reworks, they could have made something really good that would have blown open not only the gaming world but writing as a whole.
Agreed, writing in games at least. I'd highly recommend reading the other vignette released with this one, called "Finale", it plays out more like a script for the fight and it sounds really cool. I'll put the link in the description.
It amazes me how Valve told everyone what our reality was and we memed it.
too bad Laidlaw isn't working for them anymore. i just don't have the confidence in the people who wrote HL:A and anything else going forward
@@512TheWolf512 the people that wrote Alyx also wrote HL2 and its episodes. Laidlaw isn't the only writer at VALVE, and he's still was a consultant.
@@peppermillers8361 I’m pretty sure only *one* of the writers for HL:A worked on any previous HL games. The games he wrote for were Episodes 1 and 2, so he didn’t even work on HL2.
I like that first image of it, it looks so creepy and enslaved in its own way.
what I find so lovecraftian and oddly satisfying of this HL story bit is that it ties fiction with real life conspiracies (I.e. government has contact to aliens), which at first sounds like your standard sci fi actioner a la independence day, but the fact we took a foray into the unknown, as we are know (spacex, deep space probes, etc. pp, colonisation plans, etc.), suceeded (the scientists finding, studying and exploiting the resources of Xen, also some sort of colonialism), then came upon other sentient life, fearing what we had discovered (shutting down the portal), bur the "genie" was out of the bottle. Nihilanth took notice, opened (with a little help from Gman) the portal back to us as a means of escape, as we just later find out, and the marvel and fear in the last chapters comes from the fear of the unknown. you defeated the nihilanth, but he was no invader but a refugee, so what could be as scary that even such a powerful and scary creature as this one is dreading it? that then is the lovecraftian vibe, that harkens back to reality: If we are to find something, are we ready for it? Is it even good to have possibly vastly superior and more intelligent life take notice of us? we could end up the same as we did to other alien species: getting discovered, abducted, studied, getting exploited. What is exactly what happens in HL-2.
This video is criminally underviewed
damn, Marc Laidlaw really was the Kirkbride of valve
minus the LSD trips
Why does this only have 2.4K views? Great stuff
What the fuck go to the Arctic what are you doing here.
@@giornogiovanna5600 Nigga why you crossed many countries to be in Russia,City 17
I feel like this does a great job at summing up and clearing up the loose ends in half lifes story. I'm still surprised they managed to tell most of this through mostly visuals and short conversations, especially in the 90's.
This is the kind of videos that are so good I have to make sure I brought something to eat before watching them...
That's the most meaningful sign of quality!
I was actually terrified of the nihilanth the first time I fought it
? It's just a hydrocephalus baby
This vid will boom up soon, i can feel it
Hopefully...
Sadly hasn’t happened.
I freaking love this. All of the details of this vignette aren't necessarily canon, but they fit in so perfectly with the text of the story of Half-Life that I personally consider it to be.
Lore of "NIHILANTH" by Marc Laidlaw momentum 100
Very nice. Although some of this got retconned, it furthers the idea that the Gman is responsible for both invasions of Earth. The question remains whether the Gman was actually working for the Combine, or whether he orchestrated the events of HL1 to draw their attention to Earth the same way he pointed Black Mesa to Xen.
i just thought the nihilanth was horribly bad explained. i didnt even know it was the boss at the end of halflife since its name wasnt mentioned anywhere. i assumed it could be some other thing we never saw.
The chapters name is Ninilanth bro
@@ThatKidBobo ok but that word is not selfexplanatory at all when you see it for the first time
@@S1nwar i guess
I don't think they ever mention the name "GLaDOS" or "Chell" either in the Portal games.
Even Wheatley, but I might be wrong on that last one.
Did seeing it's giant face in your face with the word "Nihilanth" plastered on your screen not clue you in?
This.. this is why the future of the Half-Life series makes me afraid. This is all so masterfully built, a story about the human race achieving teleportation and so being dragged to events much greater, and the struggle of humanity to fight against a force that is beyond their comprehension, Epistle 3 built on that, showing how even Earth's greatest weapon, the Borealis, was of no help against the Combine, and G-Man took Alyx as his new tool, Gordon only survived because of the Vortigaunts. But HLA seemed to deviate too far from that. Shifting all the focus to G-Man and his convoluted time travel plan to make a deal with Alyx to trap her. It doesn't feel like the natural progression of the story.
personally I think hla does keep that vibe but its more subtle. You find the gman imprisoned in the vault and free him, now you might say he just let them capture him for a convoluted plan or something but the fact that they are able to contain an entity like that at all speaks to their power. the other scene aswell is when you hear the woman talking with an advisor to get the administrator to talk to her (or that might be the advisor) and these guys weren't alarmed at all and they know whos inside the vault, they are so powerful that they don't give enough of a shit to keep a godlike being contained.
epistle 3 also hints at that, after gordon goes through an existential crisis after seeing the dyson sphere, and comes back to the shores of earth, he remarks that the rebellion would have either succeeded or failed, and from that we can deduce that the combine can fuck over earth any moment but its just a matter of if they could be bothered or not.
@@b.c.s.o4169more subtle? It literally retcons the crap out of the ending of the episode 2
I'm just going to assume this is canon from now on, alongside Opposing Force and Blue Shift.
Great work! Just stumbled upon this and love every small piece of Half-Life Lore I can find.
'for that which is ever alien an inexplicable' i fucking love that quote..
Half-Life is, and always has been... a Lovecraftian Horror.
dork on the internet using reddit words they dont know the actual meaning of
@@youngkappakhanSure, it isn't as overt as Lovecraft's work, but there are still some obvious under and overtones of cosmic horror. Humanity messing with forces they don't understand, unknowable beings with unspeakable power, etc, it's just that they aren't as blatant or horrifying. The Nihilanth, Combine, and G-Man all borrow from cosmic horror without being entrenched in it.
@@skin_lizardbig facts. Dude calling you a dork needs therapy. Let's wish dude the best n hope things get better for em.
The true horror of this franchise is the fact that it's really happening.
me when i lie
Oh, so before the Nihilanth was fleeing the Combine, Valve intended for the G-Man to be some sort of Proto-Combine agent. Then, when it came time to make HL2, they decided to make the G-Man & Combine separate things.
Love it my dude keep it up
GOD DAMN IT G MAN!
Amazing...
Incredible video, Stupendous job
Yoooo this was so beautiful.
4:24
A few [INAUDIBLE] of motivated people can accomplish almost anything. [Reversed]
Amazing.
I liek my G-Man as a government spook and planting 'Murrican flag on Xen.
Freeman's mind reference?
Excellent read
Brilliant video!
I've said it before and I'll say it again; If Valve let Marc cook, they would have had an IP as detailed and deep as Star Wars with a terrifying cosmic horror twist.
Well, this feels in a morbid sense kinda hopeful when keeping the whole Dyson sphere thing I mind.
This is beyond awesome!!!
Very great stuff!
Half-life can make a great book!
Yes
What a damn mood
the bad thing is, i kinda interperated hl's story kinda like this
It's the only one creature in game, that has beta blood particle.
Horrible as the Nihilanth may have seemed there was something more awful that tormented it:
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Gabe Newell Delaying Half-Life 3
as someone who just got into the half life games, its amazing that the first game can hold such lore
HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK HOLY SHIT WHAT THE HELL IS THAT HOLY SHI
Great video but it could use some subtitles
Good shit.
Dude i can't understand anything it says, this really needs subtitles
man it's hard to hear what the nihilanth is saying
00:19, sorry, i don't speak spanish
damn i love how half life at first seems like this meh game like its not terrible but not especially interesting than you get into the lore of it and it becomes much more intriguing.
i love how spend 3 year developing a game, then before releasing it they scrap everything, go back to the drawing board and within less than 1 year they release a masterpiece, pretty much making them so overpowered compare to any other gaming company