Could Op4 be retconned to fit cannon?

LimitBreak · August 11, 2020, 2:21am

Grey Acumen:

Okay, I know there are people working on making Opposing force using the source engine. There are also various fans who clamor for Adrian Shephard to make a return. The major point that constantly is contested is that Valve hasn’t accepted Race X as cannon and if they brought Adrian Shephard back, they’d be forced to accept Race X as cannon by association.

However I was wondering if this really needed to be the case. What if Opposing Force was retconned when it was redone? COULD it be retconned? As a little thought experiment, I thought about what the different Race X creatures really accomplished and what they could be replaced by that IS part of Half Life cannon.

Pit Drone - These were essentially the Vortigons of Race X

Shock Trooper - essentially the Alien Grunts of Race X

Shock Roach - These have no counterpart, but might be substituted in certain situations by having a few more snark traps scattered around.

Voltigore - these have no counterpart in HL1 that I can think of, but HL2 provides an excellent substitution with the Ant Lion Guardians. Obviously they would lack the long range attacks of the Voltigore, but would make up for it by being much harder to kill. Obviously having every Voltigore replaced with an Ant Lion Guardian would be a bit much, but the Acid Ant Lions bring in the long range attack that the Guardian lacks while still being easier to kill. The baby voltigores could be replaced with regular Ant Lions.
Even if Valve felt that this SHOULDN’T be how Ant Lions got into earth’s ecosystem, that gets wrapped up neatly by the Nuke at the end of the game, which can be said to have wiped out that crop of ant lions, but then another group of antlions entered earth’s ecosystem at some other time period.

Pit Worm - This was essentially the Tentacles of Race X. Lets face it, the entire scenario was practically a carbon copy of the part in HL1 where you roast the Tentacles with the Jet thruster testing area. Obviously the section would need to be drastically reworked in order to make it still play properly, but having two sets of tentacles that come out of pipes that stick out above the toxic waste could then be flooded and killed by the toxic waste level raising the same way.

Gonom - Again HL1 offers no real substitution, but Episode 1 shows that regular headcrab can use grenades when they take over combine, so if headcrabs take over military in Op4, you could claim that they can use grenades too while also having the body armor protection. It wouldn’t directly replace the gonoms, but it might help balance areas towards that.

Gene Worm(final boss) - this is the only one I don’t have a clear idea for replacing. Theoretically, you might be able to throw in an advisor or something and claim that it was a frontal scout for the combine. At that point Adrian Shephard may have played an unknown part in keeping the combine forces at bay, but also being responsible for how well prepared the combine forces were to deal with Earth’s military force when they attacked during the 7 hour war.

Male Assassins/Black Ops - I don’t think this would NEED to be changed, but if Valve was feeling particularly anal retentive, the assassins/black ops could just be made so that they were all female. At that point the female assassins/black ops would need to be allowed to use other weapons, since the combat did change drastically. (grenades, smg, and sniper rifles)

Spore Launcher - There’s no clear indication that this is connected to Race X, or for that matter even connected to Xen. I don’t think leaving this in would break cannon.

So do people think these substitutions would allow Opposing Force to be treated as cannon? Is there anything else that would need to be revamped for cannon purposes? Would it still be fun to play even without the “new” enemies to fight? Could all the various levels be balanced properly? Would it make the game better or worse? I’m curious what other’s think, or if people have given any thought to this at all.

You spelled canon wrong.

Dust · November 24, 2018, 7:11pm

And you needed to quote the whole post…why?

Scorpion42 · November 24, 2018, 7:11pm

I can’t really grasp the meaning of the OP, but let me just say this: Opposing Force might as well be canon because nothing in Portal, Half-Life 1, 2 and the episodes really breaks the Opposing Force storyline. Most people just share an, in my opinion, over-the-top hatred to Gearbox and therefore do not consider Opposing Force, Blue Shift and Decay canon.

Spockjedi · August 11, 2020, 2:21am

I’m sure Opposing Force is canon, since it’s an official game. If Gearbox’s works were non-canon, Barney never would appear in HL2. The new aliens of Opposing Force are not from Xen, they are just another faction that used the dimension rift to invade Earth, just like the Combine.
And yes, the Sporelauncher is a baby ShockTrooper.
https://www.halflife2.net/forums/showpost.php?p=3059184&postcount=171

Thatnewguy · November 24, 2018, 7:11pm

Zombie barneys and soldiers has never been seen since too.

There is no contradictions in opfor (except Freeman’s appearance, btw)

Also, the combine guard from early versions of HL2 looks similar to the shocktrooper.

awsgames · November 24, 2018, 7:11pm

Since when was Freeman going to Xen not canon?

Brother_Shrike · November 24, 2018, 7:11pm

I think he means Freeman appearing right in front of shephard.

baconeggs · November 24, 2018, 7:11pm

He doesn’t appear there, Shephard just opens a door that was locked from the other side.

nietzschesaurus · November 24, 2018, 7:11pm

what is it about headcrabs that you do not understand? they jump on your head, you turn into a zombie. they obviously don’t only attack scientists.

Gearbox made up Race X because they didn’t want to interfere with HL1’s storyline. They made their own little thing. Is the extended universe for Star Wars generally considered canon? No. Same goes for OP4 and Blue Shift.

JohnWorfin · November 24, 2018, 7:11pm

marc laidlaw said the whole canon thing is an invention of fans. Until valve contradicts what happened in op4 blueshift and decay, they stand. If you don’t like them, don’t play them. on the same token, all the gearbox only stuff like race-x, shepard, the geneworm ect. are not valve creations and thus will never be used by valve.

Grey_Acumen · November 24, 2018, 7:11pm

Do you have a source for that? I believe you, I’m just curious where he actually said that. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve seen people interpret specific meaning from an otherwise indefinite comment and take it as gospel. It’d be nice to see how ambiguous or not he actually is in this particular case.

awsgames · August 11, 2020, 2:21am

I’m sure it’s in here somewhere, but I can’t be assed to find the exact quote. If someone else wants to fish through there and find it, I’d be happy about it.

EDIT: I think this quote could suffice.

Marc Laidlaw:

I didn’t write anything? I didn’t know who the G-Man was? Where is this guy getting his information, exactly? Last time I checked I’m pretty sure I was lead writer. Whenever Doug says for me to shut my mouth about the Gearbox expansions it’s because he – and I include myself – does not wish to throw away possible opportunities in the future we may like to exploit where we might like to revisit those old concepts. I try to steer clear of this whole continuity debate – it’s needlessly complicated and, judging from the comment you sent me, quite derogatory as well. Gearbox took liberties with their games. We were new to the whole concept at the time, and things were taken out of our control and handed back to us with a few unexpected kinks in them. We were not in control. We did not develop those games. No matter how much the announcer wants to think we did. That’s a universal thought, here at Valve. Those concerns are not just emulated from myself. There are a few things I can conclusively clarify as being ‘canon’: the nuke explosion from Opposing Force, and much of the background regarding the Xen-relay technology from Blue-Shift. Other things, not quite so much. Try to take only the games developed solely by Valve into consideration when you’re discussing them. I know that might not sit well with a large number of our fans. We’re not particularly happy about such contradictions and omissions either. But that is the way it is, and I sincerely hope our fans can accept that.

Having said that, any notion of me not writing anything, or not doing my job correctly is abhorred. I would have liked to have thought that after spending so much time investing my abilities into the games in correlation with the rest of my outstanding colleagues I would have earned at least some sort of trust in that department.

Ibanez · November 24, 2018, 7:11pm

Hey guys, look what I found in that thread:

Bahahaha. Go nuts, trolls

Eric_Fong · November 24, 2018, 7:11pm

Because i want to believe.

Scorpion42 · November 24, 2018, 7:12pm

He meant that just because you don’t SEE the gonome in HL2 doesn’t mean that it isn’t canon. Same goes for grunt and barney zombies.

mattemuse · November 24, 2018, 7:12pm

I can’t believe “retcon” is actually a word. I feel nerdy now, I need to take a shower.

Dias · November 24, 2018, 7:12pm

That’s not really a reason.

Grey_Acumen · August 11, 2020, 2:22am

thanks, that actually does clarify things a huge deal. Basically I had been misinterpreting very slightly, but also very significantly. It’s not that they won’t EVER include Adrian Shephard or Race X as part of canon, but that until they specifically contradict or support it, it’s essentially a Schrodinger’s cat situation.

Either way, the point of the thread still stands. If Valve is uncomfortable with the concept of Race X, then retconning would be an option that would allow them to deny just race X while still incorporating whatever the want from Opposing Force.

Dias · November 24, 2018, 7:12pm

I’m surprised that no one has mentioned the most obvious explanation for the Gonomes.

Brother_Shrike · November 24, 2018, 7:12pm

Which is…?