The ending retcons that of Episode Two, in which Eli is killed and we end with Alyx weeping over her father's body. Eli vows to kill the G-Man - who can briefly be seen walking off in the distance - and throws Gordon's crowbar to him, telling him he has work to do. A confused Gordon sees a now-alive Eli in front of him, the Combine Advisor dead in the background, and Alyx nowhere to be seen as Eli rants about this being the "unforeseen consequences" they were warned about previously. There is then a flash of light and, post-credits sequence, the player resumes control of Gordon Freeman at the very end of Episode Two. The G-Man then cautions Alyx that she is now his new operative, to replace Gordon Freeman whose performance is becoming "unsatisfactory." Like Gordon and Adrian Shephard (from Half-Life: Opposing Force) before her, Alyx is recruited into the G-Man's private group of operatives and seemingly removed from space/time. She does so, killing the advisor before it can kill her father. He shows her the moment five years in the future that her father, Eli, is murdered by a Combine advisor in the closing seconds of Half-Life 2: Episode 2, and offers her a chance to intervene. Instead he offers to change the future for her.
She asks him to make it so the Combine never invaded Earth, but he refuses, saying that would be far more than a nudge. The G-Man tells Alyx that he is grateful for her intervention and offers her a reward, a "nudge" in time. Eli concludes that the prisoner is none other than Gordon Freeman (the playable character in Half-Life, Half-Life 2, and the latter's two expansions).Īfter numerous challenges, Alyx breaks into the prison and opens it, only to find it isn't Gordon at all but instead the mysterious G-Man, a familiar figure from previous games in the series.
Combine data files confirm that the individual escaped from the Black Mesa Research Facility and raised hell along the way. Early in the game it appears to be a weapon of mass destruction, but as the story progresses Alyx's supporting team, including her father Eli and "guy in the van" Russell, discover that it is in fact a prison constraining an individual in temporal stasis.
The game follows Alyx as she gets wind of an artifact that the Combine has hidden in City 17's Quarantine Zone, an area where the flora and fauna of the alien border world of Xen has manifested on Earth. However, the game's ending is a huge surprise and ties directly into the cliffhanger ending that we were left on thirteen years ago in Half-Life 2: Episode Two. An "interquel" set between Half-Life and Half-Life 2, the game was expected to be a VR showcase and a stand-alone story that would not impact on the future of the series. The news came in the closing moments of the latest game in the Half-Life series, Half-Life: Alyx. MAJOR, MAJOR SPOILERS FOR HALF-LIFE: ALYX FOLLOW