Gordon freeman's visit to City 17 has taken six years and a full soap-opera's worth of drama to materialize, so join us as we investigate the Chronicles of Freeman. A journey following the MIT graduate's decision to visit City 17 and the twists and turns which plagued and ultimately delayed his journey.
When Valve unleashed the original Half-Life on an unsuspecting public in 1998, the magnitude of the response and the mesmerizing appeal of the game left everyone with little doubt that a sequel was planned. In what was soon to become typical Valve fashion, the developer refused to release any information on the Half-Life 2 project and on its progress. While details were not available Valve had already been working hard on getting the H-L sequel project off its feet and had already made a few vital decisions including the need for an in-house engine rather than a licensed one such as iD's Quake III engine which would have been a logical step since H-L had used iD's original Quake technology.
The point to stress is that Gordon Freeman was already packing for City 17 in 1999, even though his final destination or details of his trip were not yet known even to himself.
An ominous shadow begun to cast itself over the Half-Life 2 development cycle by as early as 2000 when Valve co-founder and major contributor to the original game, Mike Harrington decided that one Half-Life was enough and quit Valve. The future of the game hang in the balance as Gabe Newell had to decide how to deal with his partner's decision and choose Mr. Freeman's next port of call.
