Half-Life & Portal - The Complete Story (What You Need to Know!)

Please *avoid posting* Half-Life: Alyx spoilers. I know it's exciting having new information on the story, but most folks watching this video are doing so _BEFORE_ playing the new game. Have some respect for their playthroughs and let them enjoy something they've probably waited over a decade for.

Have we talked about Chell’s AMAZING aim? She hipfires the moon shot, and it lands within 10 meters of the Apollo 11 Lander and buggy.

Fun trivia: Wheatley is so incredibly dense, when he and the Space Cube are sucked into the vacuum of space, Space Cube immediately begins orbiting Wheatley.

But like can we talk about the genius of Portal 2s ending, like the song that the turrets sing literally being just Glados saying how much she loves Chell, proving she didn’t actually delete Caroline but made it Italian because she’s too petty to say it in a language Chell actually understands

I like how portal 2 confirms that the combine were kicked off the planet with the simple sight of a field, something that disappeared under combine rule due to them sucking the life out of the planet

“I want me some Portals!”, both companies said at once. But neither were prepared for unforeseen consequences...

Man, it feels like there's so much lore left unexplored in portal. I know it's the longest of long shots but deep down inside I still have to retain some hope that valve will eventually revisit it.

I love the fact that Valve made Half Life and Portal take place in the same universe, leaving room for some kind of crossover, only to make sure that never happened

“I’ll just sleep in an extra five minutes, what could go wrong?” ~Gordon, shortly before everything went wrong

“So how many times do you want people to get concussions in these games??” Valve: *y e s . . .*

32:00 Portal 2 takes place long long after hl2, and the ocean being present on earth most likely means the resistance won the war, because the combine had a plan to dry up all the oceans

after all these years, we will finally get what we wanted. PORTAL HALF-LIFE Chell and Gordon meet and talk by jumping and crouching repeatedly as a sign of peace. and then they eat cake that was not a lie

As sadistic and dangerous glados is, it wouldn’t surprise me if the combine just gave up and never tried breaking in since most of her defense systems were so terrifying

When I first played Half Life, it never occurred to me that Black Mesa had access to Xen before the events of the game. I just saw all the creatures in cages and stuff for experimentation and thought "wow, science is fast"

Thank you for making this video it really helped me understand the story

Imagine be Chell who escape finally Aperture Science after tons of years and see those Half life's monsters.

This is hands down, one of the best videos i've ever watched on youtube

I was there for the original Half Life game when it first came out. And at the time it was the coolest game I had ever seen, even though the computers back then were really primitive compared with today’s systems. Being a total gamer over the years I have played all of the Half Life games and of course Portal. I am now playing Half Life: Alyx in VR on my completely wireless Oculus Quest 2. (I actually got into VR gaming with the HTC Vive when it first came out back in 2017) I can only imagine what advances will occur in the world of computers?? Quantum computing, Full Haptics suits, The Oasis like in Ready Player One?? who knows...

Fun Fact: Originally, G-man was supposed to meet Chell before Wheatley comes in.

27:09 Can we take a moment to recognize how amazing Portal 2 graphics are still?

My theory is that Chell woke up 9 years later because of the cabinet at the end of the game,if hundreds or thousands of years passed,the cabinet would be even worse,or not even be there

It’s crazy how people in 2004 thought that half life being set in 2020 was the future, and we are already in 2020.

Take a shot every time a character loses consciousness. Then you can level transition half life style.

I always thought that Chell would have a peaceful life after going through the events of the portal games. But now that I know she was just being released into a world taken over by the Combine, that is a lot more bleak.

Has anyone ever realized that Eli’s replacement leg is the back of a long fall boot?

I like how the Combine only took 7 hours to defeat all of Earth, and then in the game, 1 person mows through all of them like they're nothing.

I didn't realize Half-Life used so many different character perspectives.

Constantly thanking my brother for showing me these games. I miss him so much, these games make me think about him.

You missed the most important part. The microwave casserole incident

I love they so casually say how they found hundreds of test subjects that she later killed in the time space of a week

It's such a shame this story wasn't continued. It's so damn good and well thought. I really hope they continue it at some point

Honestly, though half life has a more established story line, I'm more interested in the portal arc, since it's more mysterious

We could certainly theorize that based off of Chell’s ending in Portal 2, the Combine are no longer on Earth and it somehow managed to regenerate its resources. This most likely means that the Combine got defeated or at least left Earth at some point.

Chell: "After 50,000 years of sleep, it's time to go home"

wait wait, so if Portal 2 takes place 50,000 years in the future, then that means Chell is just stuck alone in the cornfield with no other humans on the surface

Fun fact: Kleiner’s pet head crab is named “Hedy Lamarr” after the early 20th venture actress of the same name. Lamarr (the actress, not the head crab) is also credited for a patent that led to frequency hopping technology, which is used today in modern smartphones and cell phones to connect to towers for network communication.

Fun fact: it is stated in the credits song of Portal 2 called “Want you gone” that Glados was unsuccessful at deleting Caroline and resorted to suppressing her emotions, which partially works

Half-Life is just a revolving story around people losing consciousness.

Who else just keeps coming back to this video to enjoy. Becuase this is truly one of *THE BEST* videos explaining the timelines of Portal and Half Life.

18:29 I always thought Alyx’s capture was so forced. Like you can see the tunnel that you end up taking from where you are on ground level.

Shepherd’s fate is unknown still, which meant that, he might be coming back in the next half-life sequel after alyx.

HL was the first game to bring the depth of serious story telling skill to the table at least for me. It is a genuinely haunting tale.

Great summary of the Half Life and Portal timeline - details and Easter eggs scattered throughout the games are often hard to piece together like this.

If Cave Johnson were alive during the Half-Life alien invasion: “Cave Johnson here. Well, it’s finally happened! Black Mesa has screwed up majorly. Their stupid experiments have blown up in their face and released aliens into the world. We ARE all under attack, and probably screwed, but it’s still satisfying to see them fail for once. Anyway, keep testing.”

As someone who has never played these games, Half Life seems to be summed up by: "The good guys that are scientists or related to scientists are knocked unconscious by aliens.

If Portal 3 is ever made, it needs to have Ratman escaping and meeting up with Chell as well as the events of Blue Sky happening

Thanks so much for making this video as it gave clear answers to a lot of questions that I had. And there is no doubt we need a well written Episode 3 to bring closure to Gordon and Alyx's story.

Wow, this game looks pretty fun, hope they make a sequel to it

“How are you holding up? Because I’m a POTATO” -Glotato or potados.

Glados: *kills everyone* Glados: “now I’m lonely”

That crowbar really is the key of the story

Just finished Alyx (Great experience and I recommend it) and am a huge Portal fan. I was not aware of how interwoven it was with half-life... I never played it. but will have to now and will replay the portals.... a great story. Good job with the summary!

I didn’t live in English speaking country so when I was 10 and I played Half life 2 for the first time I used to think that dr. Breen was leader of the Earth and by killing him the game just happily ended.

I want more of chell’s story! And maybe more GLADOS, what type of shenanigans is up to now that she’s out of test subjects?

I'm going to use the fan remake, Black Mesa Me: For a more visually coherent video? Him: Because I'm selfish Fair enough

It'd be incredibly satisfying to see the conclusion of these two stories to involve one another. Like Gordon re-routing the combine forces into Aperture labs for Glados to have an infinite supply of test subjects to kill. Food for thought!

I hope the Half-Life story never ends, its too good

After all these years still one of the best story in video game history even with the cliffhanger.

I remember the ghost town in half life 2 It was damn scary I played it at night

I've always assumed the reason glados was always able to be beaten because her core programming is testing so it overrides certain parts of her defense so when she is set as the challenge "test" its has to be set up so the other person has the ability to won.

This is the most comprehensive and still pleasant portal/half life video ive found on the matter. Thank you very much!! Thoroughly enjoyed it and it helped connect dots i hadnt known about before

Aperture Science: Create portals and got all killed Black Mesa: Create portals and got all killed Doom: Create portals and got all killed *I'm beginning to see a pattern here that I'm not so sure I like*

Clever to put these two franchises together instead of separating them for easy revenue. Nice job :3

As someone who only thought it was Half Life 1 and 2, and Portal 1 and 2, and then found there was another chapter of Half Life 2, and then found there were a bunch of expansions of Half Life 1- You get the point. This video was very useful for helping me understand all this!

I only played both Portals, but thanks to this video my perspective on the story changed completly

Gordon Freeman, in the flesh - or, rather, in the hazard suit. I took the liberty of relieving you of your weapons. Most of them were government property. As for the suit... I think you've earned it. The borderworld, Xen, is in our control, for the time being... thanks to you. Quite a nasty piece of work you managed over there - I am impressed. That's why I'm here, Mr. Freeman. I have recommended your services to my... employers, and they have authorized me to offer you a job. They agree with me that you have 'limitless potential. You've proved yourself a decisive man so I don't expect you'll have any trouble deciding what to do. If you're interested, just step into the portal and I will take that as a yes. Otherwise, well... I can offer you a battle you have no chance of winning. Rather an anticlimax after what you've just survived. Time to choose

If only Gordon had brought his passport that morning, they could have avoided all this

My only gripe with this is that you didn't mention the fact that GLaDOS began to malfunction due to the crow pecking at an old Aperture control panel, and soon finds herself taking care of the crow's babies once Atlas and P-Body scare the crow away.

The fact that I played the first part of both of these games at different times in my life and just now I realized that they are connected.

I played portal 2 when I was younger, and that's the only game in this "franchise" that I've actually played, so this answers a few questions 😁.

The Half Life/Portal Universe is my favorite by far, and while I'm so excited to find out more about Gordon Freeman's arc, Chell's interests me the most. I mean, she did just wake up 50,000 years in the future, so who knows what earth is like.

I love this franchise so much

Dang I didn’t realize Portal was only like one sixteenth of the story

I forgot about the scene of Wheatley in space regretting his decision and then I realized he's gonna be conscious for eternity doing nothing but floating through space alone. It's really sad honestly

Succinct and well paced throughout! Been awhile since I played the 2004 Half Life so this recap was awesome! Thank you.

thanks for explaining the atmostphere of the games of valve and what type of concepts they had, I have been playing valve games for many years but my main question was how is the story and how it goes in other perspectives, it made me sad that Adrian Shepherd could not continue his journey and had to stay in the void forever, I hope valve makes Half life 2 Opposing force

I have a potential theory about what happened between the end of half-life 2 episode 2 and portal 2 You can see near the ending of portal 2 when they're being sucked out into space that earth looks exactly like it would otherwise normally look, implying that the Combine are no longer present as the ocean levels appear to be practically normal (in the 20 year span between half-life and half-life 2, the oceans were lowered quite substantially as seen on the shore levels of half-life 2, making canals empty. This means that the oceans could've well been gone in 50,000 years, maybe even sooner). Another hint is that Chell steps out into a cornfield, which appears to be well maintained, hinting at a human presence maintaining the cornfield (this also debunks the theory of the normal earth being an accident by the devs, yes it probably was but in relation to the story we'll say it was one of those happy accidents). She exits a shack which honestly should've been a lot more dilapidated than how it looked due to oxidization and well, 50,000 years of existing. Sure, an AI of some type from the facility could've maintained the shed for whatever reason, but then why would there also be parts that Aperture wouldn't have made or used (a counter-argument could be as to why a person would fix it)? There are pieces of what appear to be primitive (in comparison to Aperture's tech) technology that Aperture would otherwise not have a use for, implying that this was used by humans not related to Aperture (and by the state of the materials, they seem to be fairly recent). You also never see parts of this type ever in Aperture and due to the fact that one of them is a part of a windmill basically clarifies that it isn't Apertures at all. With the combination of the normal looking earth, maintained cornfield, and presence of tech foreign to Aperture, I conclude that the Combine were eliminated in such a way (in a small enough timeframe) that they were basically eliminated from the image and allowed Earth and society to heal (society most likely had trouble though). I can think of 3 variations that I like the most (note that this is purely speculation beyond this point): A. The Restart The Combine are defeated shortly after the ending of HL:2 E2, probably consisting of a massive battle, having millions upon millions of casualties (they're an interdimensional empire after all) and what little that remains of the Human Population are scattered about the earth, probably in tribe-like groups. This essentially rewinds the clock on history and puts humans back in the stone age as newer generations forget what existed before them. After a considerable amount of time, basically being 50,000 years, humanity has once again ended up at the same point it was 50,000 years ago. Technology previously lost was eventually found and reused or otherwise reinvented. The impact of the Combine still resonates on earth as humans are still low in population numbers, consisting of possibly around 1 billion (after all, a large amount of water and other resources were removed and cannot be retrieved) and settlements tend to look more rural than before. B. "Time Travel" Similar to the previous scenario except a little altered. After the war with the Combine, mankind wins although more damaged than scenario A. A group of around possibly 1,000 occupants are put on a ship that will accelerate nearly to the speed of light (utilizing what was left of Combine tech) to essentially "fast forward" nearly 50,000 years to allow Earth to heal to a point where the Ecosystem has fully healed and human presence can be reintroduced. This would explain why technology 50,000 years ago is indistinguishable from the tech seen by the shed. The knowledge of the past still exists on the ship and in the minds of the people that were on it. It would also explain why there isn't too much infrastructure nearby Aperture. C. Rebuilt From the Ashes Same premise as A and B except no ship was sent and humanity eventually died out over those 50,000 years. Due to the massive size of Aperture laboratories, there's almost a guarantee that more than 2 power grids exist, the main ones being the power grid for GLaDOS (also being used for high priority things) and the reserve grid, possibly a multiuse grid if other power grids got shut down. Thus, theres a possibility that an area too far from GLaDOS had a seperate power grid (after all, Aperture looks like it utilizes almost the entire 4km area of the saltmine and with that much power drawing tech, its very likely, to me at least, that there would be more grids present). This location probably consisted of another "vault" of humans that happened to get damaged enough to allow nature to tap into it. Something happens roughly 50,000 years later that makes the vault wake up the people inside (maybe Wheatley accidentally woke them up or something while exploring the place) and allows them to escape into the world. They would still have the knowledge of basic tech and could potentially grow into a new civilization. Don't treat these as pure fact or all that serious, It's just speculation and honestly its just fun!

Never played any of those games, but thank you for the recap. That's one crazy storyline!

They should make 4 or 5 movies of this entire story! I beg this! It would be SO COOL!!!!!!!!

Im glad portal is getting more attention again, maybe we might see portal VR One can only dream...

Adrian Shepard after over 50,000 years finally gets a new friend

i see that the half life and the portal story is a truly a legendary story

these games are my favorite of all time and i still wasn't aware of some of the timeline specifics. thanks for such a thorough, interesting summary.

It's nice of you to do all this timeline stuff so we don't have to thank you 😃

I like how if Chell had escaped in Portal 1 she would have probably been re-captured by the Combine.

Can we just appreciate that, the Black Mesa incident happened in the 2000's, and the sequel happens 20 years later? 2020 be like: o shit

What a great summary of a complex story within 30 minutes.. I grew up with these games and loved every minute and phrase of each character.. such a fantastic series. No VR set, so unfortunately haven’t played Alyx.. I’ll have to spoil it and watch a video on its story.. I wonder if it elaborates further on G man and his involvement with the two companies feuding portal manufacturing, not sure if he did but I would imagine so.

Incredible video my friend. Thank you for this!! Getting to learn the details and relive the story was nostalgic. Need to replay all of these games now lol

One if the best games I've ever played in my life.ahh...them orange box memories 😭

Dude, this was excellent! Didn’t haven’t played HL:Decay and was unaware of a Vortigaunt based game. Also, didn’t realise they’d finally added the Xen section to Black Mesa - will have to go back and finally finish it.

I swear we need a portal and half life crossover

Crazy how one scientist being late for work leads to the entire world being destroyed by a multiuniversal government

This was really excellent, well done.

Brilliant summary. Really, well done. Bet you had A+ in summary writing.

Wish they made a movie about this story / universe.

He forgot to add Gmod, bruh that is the most canon game in the series...

Can we just appreciate how valve managed to have the ridiculous story of portal happen alongside half-life and make it work perfectly regardless?

Come on, we all know the REAL reason Black Mesa blew up..... Gordon forgot his passport.

I never played Half Life but the stories of the 2 are so fucking amazing, I love them ahaha.

Last week I installed Half Life 2 & Episodes out of nostalgia. But then i stayed because of one of the best games ever made and STILL so much fun!