In the second chapter of Half Life 2, Gordon navigates through the labyrinth of City 17 and comes into Kleiner’s hidden laboratory, finding the teleportation experiment underway. The game goes through a contained recreation of the first, creatures once lethal now neutered as previously vital mechanics, notably on Xen, are reduced to scripted sequences, literally contained and bound within a laboratory environment. In doing so, the central conceit of the game is shown. As Half Life innovated mechanically, taking the first person shooter into new dimensions of spatial design, Half Life 2 innovates the spatial and temporal depth into a new layer of interactivity with its increased focus on physics engines. Such is symbolized here, where the old is fully contained within the new, the new powers have “meta” domination.
Of the environments traversed, the same administrator holds much the same sway. The player moves through determined corridors (literally boxed off, due to the way Source Engine handles skyboxes). Breen sits over it, limp ownership over the whole world beneath him as its penetrated by an outside force. The true war between humanity and the Combine in Half Life 2, the invasion by the military and aliens in Half Life. Gordon’s competition with these enemies is always a competition among equals in this way, with both Gordon and the enemies being introduced as not only alien, but textually-other, situated outside the contained discourse of that under Breen.
Gordon’s way of being of an other-text comes via what was introduced in Breen’s laboratory, that which Half Life 2 has which is other-outside to Half Life - physics. Gordon is given a weapon for this specifically, a gun that manipulates physics objects directly. In doing so, Gordon mimics his closest companion in the series, Gman. Gman’s entry into the text of the events of the games is that of an outside, noclipping in through the side of the map, as Gordon enters from the non-diegetic game-entries, loading zones and previously inaccessible paths. As Gman disrupts the natural functioning to allow for Gordon’s movement, Gordon disrupts the natural events playing out, inserted into the proper place at the proper time to change the natural outcome of things.
While Gordon manipulates the text he’s inserted into as an outside-other, he has his own outside-other which manipulate him, symbolized by the Gman obviously and by his own powers subtly. As the opening sections of A Strategy for the Evaluation of Paranormal Phenomena states, the human condition is in many ways, the manipulation and studying of powers scarcely understood. It’s this which Gordon goes through in the games, for reasons of the Half Life series as technical benchmarks in both its iterations. Gordon goes through spatial and temporal designs in the first game, only to be manipulating those same dimensions on a much higher level in the second, stepping outside and finally understanding what he was inside previously, like the scientist finally cracking the code of what fire actually constitutes. Gordon ascends to higher and higher levels, understanding and thusly unlocking the secrets of what previously he was within, gaining effective noclip powers, ascending through various tiers of the laws of metaphysics binding him.
Symbolizing this literally, Gordon’s true power isn’t unlocked until he comes face to face with the game itself in the Citadel. There, the Gravity Gun is upgraded to its fullest potential, creating the Super Gravity Gun. This weapon is carried over into Half Life 2’s metaphysical sequel, Garry’s Mod. In Garry’s Mod, the player steps outside the engine itself, to manipulate the physical world they were thrust into on a meta level. The player steps back in Garry’s Mod, with full control via full viewing, full understanding of the scenario which they were thrust into. The physical world is revealed in all its meaning as manipulable once it's been fully comprehended, via physics continually attempting to seek beyond, into pataphysical explorations to find the outside of the current discourse of physicality.
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