Half-Life In-Game Length?

Half-Life Series
#1

So, I was playing through the original Half Life over the weekend and, when I came to the point with the Ichtyosaur, the scientist there tells me, “I’m sure that beast never swam in terrestrial waters until a week ago!”

So, now my question is:
Just how long was it from the point you push the crystal into the beam to that point? If it’s longer than a week, then were you in the transport flux/on Xen for that long? It appears that you get back soon after the RC (due to the scientist giving that guard CPR and Eli and Isaac still at the computer).

So, did it really take over a week game time to get to the Icthyosaur? If so, just how long was it, game time, from the point you start the RC to the point where you have to “choose”? Any theories? Any guesses?

#2

I always took that has some sort of pre-emptive thing like the experiments had already started teleporting creatures in before the resonance cascade

#3

It’s pretty obvious that they’ve already been to Xen and that they’ve been teleporting creatures long before the RC.

#4

^pretty much of it

#5

What they said.
HL1 happens over 2 days. HL2 happens over 3 days.

#6

I’ve always taken the phrase “terrestrial waters” as meaning “outside the facility”…as in the general public.

I guess it could simply mean any body of water, even manmade, on Earth… I hadn’t thought about that until now. I’ve always assumed that it meant that these aliens had gotten out of the facility before you killed Nihilanth. I could be wrong.

If I am, please consider this thread ended. :slight_smile:

#7

Three days not counting the slow teleport.

#8

I’m pretty sure it just mean terrestial waters as in the lab pool (as opposed to the water on Xen).

#9

Terrestrial meaning on Earth

#10

Yep. Remember that the scientist said (directly before that bit) how the other people claimed it was hauled from the Challenger Deep.

#11

That’s where I got confused. I remember thinking, “Isn’t the Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean”? Somehow, I missed the reference, on every play through, that it was simply what he was told.

#12

Edit: Nvm.
Thought you meant Half-Life 1. Which I refuse to believe takes place over several days as some other members have suggested.

#13

Think about when you go to launch a missile. Then it’s night. And you might have been passed out for some time during the game.

#14

Gimme an official source, bitch!

#15

I work at VALVe :retard:

#16

At least 2 days for HL1, it’s daylight until on a rail (potentially as early on as blast pit), its daylight again in residue processing, we can’t be certain of how long lambada core and xen are supposed to take but that’s the only time it can extend to more than 2 days. It’s defenitely 3 for HL2 because the “d” (as in d1, d2, d3) in the map names apparently stands for day.

#17

Here’s my opinion on the timeline.

It’s 8:47 AM when you are riding on the tram. Let’s say for shits and giggles that it’s 10AM when you shlump the carrier into the analysis port bringing forth the green apocalypse. You’re teleported to Xen, then back to the test chamber, then to a space with vorts. Then you black out. Time passes while you doze in the crumbling test chamber.

You awaken to begin “Unforeseen Consequences”…in the late afternoon to early evening. By the time you launch the rocket, it’s nighttime. Then, while going through, you’re knocked out and thrown in the garbage compactor (“What body?”). This isn’t a good place for Gordon to be sleeping, but there you go.

You awaken in the morning and get to the surface where there’s tension. :wink: Finally, you get to the Lambda Complex by mid-afternoon and you’ve defeated Nihilanth and home in time for supper on the second day.

Well, no, not supper, but you get my point. Does this timeline seem accurate?

#18

An awful lot happens between late afternoon and launching the rocket…

#19

Yes. It could be early morning by the time you launch, though.

#20

That’s true, I guess.

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