Sweaty geeks the world over are strapping on a plastic gasket and diving into the nooks and crannies of City 17 in Half-Life: Alyx, the long-awaited prequel-sequel to Half-Life 2, the ground-breaking shooter with the crabby things.
As is customary for the crew at Valve, the game is suffering from the form of particulars you could possibly solely discover should you gave Gabe Newell a wedgie. I’ve performed the game twice by means of now so I really feel like I’ve pinned down many of the tidbits and secrets and techniques hiding within the game, together with references to Valve’s different games and nods to the destiny of unseen characters.
PSA: Secrets and easter eggs needs to be thought-about spoilers, so if that’s not your factor, please come again as soon as curiosity will get the higher of you.
Baby Dog’s blueprints
After you’ve completed drawing dicks on the home windows in Alyx’s greenhouse, should you head downstairs and seize a Polaroid from the shelf you’ll discover some essential eye bleach – a candid pic of Dog, Alyx’s robotic sidekick from Half-Life 2 as a wee child. You can even discover scribbled blueprints for his eventual upgrades on the desk close by.
Feeding the Snark
Also within the room with Dog’s blueprints, it is best to see a creature in a jar. You can feed it with the close by chow shaker for an achievement. This is a Snark, which was beforehand used as a grenade within the authentic Half-Life. Alyx seems to have captured one and is conserving it as a pet. Cute!
The Resonance Cascade
Left from the Snark cage, you’ll see a globe the place Alyx has circled a obscure space in Eastern Europe as City 17’s location. Spin it and also you’ll see a huge black mark throughout all of North America. This is because of that nasty alien enterprise at Black Mesa that Gordon unintentionally kicked off at the beginning of the unique Half-Life. Black Mesa was nuked into oblivion, leaving America’s destiny unknown. Ooer.
Gnome Chompski Returns
You’ll quickly undergo a playground very similar to the one from Half-Life 2 after which arrive in Russel’s Lab. This place is suffering from secrets and techniques, however essentially the most fascinating one needs to be his Gnome Chompski bottle opener. Gnome Chompski first appeared in Half-Life 2: Episode 2 as a part of an achievement the place the participant should transport him by means of the entire game and ship him off in a rocket. In Alyx, the scenario is not any totally different – there’s an achievement for carrying him to The Vault on the finish of the game. Good luck!
Team Fortress 2 Scout Bobblehead
Elsewhere within the workplace is a bobblehead depicting the Scout class from Team Fortress 2. You can use this asset on the desk when Russell asks you to “find something that represents us” for an achievement. There’s a blue counterpart to this purple bobblehead on a shelf within the late game, referencing the RED and BLU groups from Team Fortress.
Lazlo Lives!
There’s a sticky observe on the wall subsequent to the Grabbity Gloves with ‘pw: lazl0’ written on it. In the game information, a few of Russell’s property are tagged with Lazlo suggesting that this was a earlier title for his character, however it may also be a reference to Laszlo, a personality in Half-Life 2 known as “the finest mind of his generation” who’s murdered by Antlions.
Dr Kleiner’s e book
‘From here to there in under a second’ by Dr Isaac Kleiner may be discovered on the balcony the place you begin Half-Life: Alyx and later in Russel’s Lab. The backbone of this e book is seen in Half-Life 2, and it clearly refers to Kleiner, the baldy scientist who experiments with teleportation in earlier games.
Wallace Breen graces the quilt of WIRED
Also in Russel’s Lab (I promise we’ll get out of right here ultimately) is {a magazine} cowl that depicts Wallace Breen trying all Elon Musk. The magazine is clearly a homage to Wired journal with its panelled neon trim. The article subhead reads “how the right man in the right place could save us all,” alluding to Breen’s negotiation of Earth’s give up after the Seven-Hour War in opposition to The Combine. It’s additionally a cheeky nod to the G-Man’s everlasting quote lobbied at Gordon Freeman throughout the Half-Life 2 introduction – “The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.”
Wallace Breen’s newspaper appearances
Elsewhere on the earth, you’ll have the ability to discover newspapers in English and Russian in regards to the Black Mesa catastrophe, with Wallace Breen showing on the pages right here too. This delves deeper into Breen’s “rank opportunism” in negotiating humanity’s give up, given his shift from being a Black Mesa scientist to a scheming politician. The papers additionally point out the portal storms ravaging Earth which ushered within the Xen and Combine invasion.
The Vortigaunt timeline
No image for this one because it’s an incredible a part of the story however you’ll realize it once you see it! The Vortessence timeline is filled with fascinating little symbols and drawings associated to Half-Life lore. Keep in thoughts that the Vortigaunts share a hive thoughts and see time in a distinct method to people, which means they know of the long run and the previous.
Portal turret graffiti
Later on, once you head exterior to struggle your first set of Combine, you’ll see this cute graffiti of a portal turret and its emotions of affection. Haven’t discovered the Rattman den simply but, however right here’s hoping!
Half-Life: Lost Coast journey posters
In the subway tunnels, should you discover across the nook earlier than a set of gates, you’ll see a mural with a coastal atmosphere with the tagline “Visit the coast.” I feel this can be a reference to Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, a know-how demo and lower degree that launched a 12 months after the discharge of Half-Life 2. Lost Coast noticed Gordon raid a beautiful monastery and was a testbed for HDR.
0451
An in-joke amongst game designers, this keycode is often the digits that you must clear up the primary puzzle in immersive sim games. It’s rife in Deus Ex, Dishonored, Bioshock and plenty of extra games of the kind. In Half-Life: Alyx it has no operate (a minimum of to my information) however you will discover it within the Northern Star lodge.
The Combine’s poisoned water provide
Throughout the game, there are tons of commercials aggressively pushing Mountain Peaks – a model of bottled water. This is more than likely a reference to the hearsay unfold in Half-Life 2 that the Combine have tampered with the water provide to regulate residents throughout the invasion. As one practice station-dwelling citizen explains, “Don’t drink the water…they put something in it, t-to make you forget. I don’t even remember how I got here.”
Gordon Freeman’s legacy (Spoilers?)
Later within the game, as the primary forged get nearer to The Vault they begin to talk about Gordon Freeman’s legacy. At one level when Alyx stumbles on a crowbar, Russell says that the legend has it that Freeman liberated Black Mesa with that lone trusty metallic software. When Alyx totally upgrades her pistol, there’s one other dialog about Gordon the place Alyx mentions she needs to provide him her upgraded gun. Russell cuts in, disgruntled at the truth that she has taken management of what was his gun and means that she provides Gordon the shotgun as a substitute. “Legend has it he’s absolutely mental with the shotgun,” he explains. Rightly so!
Need extra Half-Life: Alyx? Here’s the ending explained and what it means for the future of the Half-Life series.
