How do portal and half life connect

Most of them are minor and were made by the team to accommodate the subsequent games' storylines. They do not affect gameplay and the main plot. The Half-Life series has core titles which carry the storyline.

The games made in chronological order, portray either the events of one game or a perspective of a different character. As of July , the main series consists of the original video game and its sequel, as well as three expansion packs and two episodic games.

A third episodic game remains in development. In addition, several spin-off titles have been released. Half-Life is the first title for the series and was the debut title of the Valve Corporation. First released on November 19, , Half-Life follows Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist, after the Black Mesa Research Facility accidentally causes a dimensional rift which allows the facility to be invaded by aliens. Freeman attempts to survive the slaughter and resolve the situation.

The game was originally published by Sierra Studios and released for Microsoft Windows, although Gearbox Software would later port the game to PlayStation 2 in Valve themselves later converted the game to utilize their Source engine. Half-Life received critical acclaim upon release, critics hailing its overall presentation and numerous scripted sequences. The game won over 50 Game of the Year awards and its gameplay has influenced first-person shooters for years to come.

Half-Life has since been regarded as one of the greatest games of all time. Opposing Force was first announced as a mission pack for Half-Life in April and was released for the Windows version of the game.

The player no longer assumes the role of Gordon Freeman , but rather sees the later events of the first game from the perspective of a US Marine corporal, Adrian Shephard.

Shephard is initially assigned to cover up the events at Black Mesa , but is soon left isolated and has to fight to survive against a new group of alien invaders and Black Operations units. Opposing Force was received favorably by critics, many citing the game as being as influential on setting expansion pack standards as the original game had been in influencing the overall genre.

Announced in , the game was initially developed as an add-on for a Sega Dreamcast port of Half-Life ; however, the port was canceled and Blue Shift was instead released for Windows on June 1, Blue Shift puts the player in the position of Barney Calhoun , a security guard working at Black Mesa. The game takes place during the early parts of Half-Life , with Calhoun attempting to escape the facility with a small group of scientists.

Blue Shift also includes a High Definition Pack , which upgrades the quality of the models and textures in both Blue Shift and the preceding games in the series.

Critics gave Blue Shift a mixed but favorable reception, praising the game's atmosphere and the inclusion of the High Definition Pack , but criticizing the otherwise lack of new content and short length of the story. The game was again developed by Gearbox and published by Sierra. However, unlike previous titles, Decay is only available with the PlayStation 2 version of Half-Life.

Decay is unique within the Half-Life series as the only cooperative game. Decay focuses on two of Freeman's colleagues, Gina Cross and Colette Green , as the two work with other scientists to counter the effects of the dimensional rift and ultimately attempt to close it. Released on November 14, , Decay received a weak but overall positive reception from critics, many reviewers stating that it was fun to play through with a friend, but that the game's more puzzle-oriented gameplay detracted from the overall experience.

An unofficial Windows port of the game was released in September On November 16, , Valve released Half-Life 2 , the sequel to the original game. The game had a six-year development cycle, which saw several delays and the leak of the game's source code. Set twenty years after the original game, Earth has been occupied by the Combine , an alien race that exploited the events of the first game to invade.

Half-Life 2 acquired near-unanimous positive reviews and received critical acclaim, winning over 35 Game of the Year awards for The game has been critically praised for its advances in computer animation, sound, narration, computer graphics, artificial intelligence, and physics.

Half-Life 2 was the first title to use Valve's Steam content delivery system, a system that eventually led to Valve falling out with publisher Sierra Entertainment. Following Half-Life 2 , the series was continued using a trilogy of episodic games. Half-Life 2: Episode One was the first of these, set around City 17 after the events of the original game, in which Freeman and Alyx Vance must attempt to escape the city after a dark energy reactor core they damaged at the end of Half-Life 2 threatens to destroy the city.

Developed by Valve, the game was distributed online via Steam and through retail by Electronic Arts. It was released on June 1, , and introduced several new graphical effects including new lighting features and facial animation. Episode One received a generally positive critical reaction, although the game's short length was a point of common criticism.

The game was again developed by Valve, and distributed using both Steam and Electronic Arts. Continuing with Valve's policy of orienting each episode around a particular theme or set of technologies, Episode Two focuses on expansive environments, travel, and less linear play. Episode Two' s new technologies and gameplay features were praised by reviewers; however, the short length of the game was again a point of criticism. Half-Life 2: Episode Three is the third and final installment of the episodic expansions developed by Valve Corporation.

Doug Lombardi said that the game would be revealed prior to the end of , but nothing came of it. The success of the Half-Life series has spurred the creation of several spin-off games based on the games' plot. Codename: Gordon is a two-dimensional Flash sidescroller shooter produced by Nuclearvision Entertainment, and was released via Valve's Steam online delivery system on May 17, , as a promotional game for the, at that time, upcoming Half-Life 2.

Presently, the game is unavailable on Steam due to its developer's bankruptcy, causing their official site to go offline. Codename: Gordon was well received by reviewers and the public, and attracted over , players in the first three weeks after its release. Reviewers praised the game for its gameplay and unique dialog style, but also criticized it for its improper optimization, and lack of opponent variety. Half-Life 2: Lost Coast is a technology demonstration, developed by Valve to display new high dynamic range rendering and a variety of other features.

The level was designed with a variety of appropriate environments to emphasize these effects. Consisting of a single map, Lost Coast was originally meant to be part of Half-Life 2 but was dropped during development. The game follows Gordon Freeman as he travels up a coastal cliff to destroy a Combine artillery launcher in a monastery, which is firing on a nearby town.

Released on Steam on October 27, , the level received a generally positive reception, and there was a consensus among reviewers that the new features should be implemented into future games released by Valve.

Portal is a puzzle game set in the Half-Life universe, developed by Valve Corporation. The player controls a female test subject named Chell as she moves through the laboratories of Black Mesa's primary rival, Aperture Science , completing various tests with a device that allows her to create linked portals in physical space. In the later stages of the game, the player battles GLaDOS , a corrupt artificial intelligence computer that monitors her every move.

The game is the spiritual successor to Narbacular Drop , with many of the same team members working on the game. Portal has been acclaimed as one of the most original games in despite being comparatively short in length, receiving praise for its unique gameplay and darkly humorous story. An Xbox Live Arcade expansion was released on October 22, Portal 2 is the sequel to Portal developed by Valve Corporation. It was released on April 19, The storyline continues from the end of Portal.

The player again controls Chell in the single-player campaign. It only takes a minute to sign up. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. I already know they shared the same universe through some mention of the Black Mesa organization - namely in the first Portal's Still Alive end song and the second game's Cave Johnson comment that Black Mesa was stealing their ideas. I was surprised to notice the most complete Portal wikia is half-life.

If you wander around the correct locations in Portal one you see there various slides from presentations that hint at a rivalry between the two companies, both of which were working on similar projects. As well as this, the dry dock for the Borealis is seen in Portal 2. Teleportation was a major field of study at Black Mesa, and their portals were used primarily in the procurement of Xen crystals, as they were used to transport scientists to and from the Borderworld for research and analysis.

Single dimensional teleportation is seen in the second chapter of Half-Life 2, Red Letter Day when the resistance tried to teleport Gordon Freeman to a separate base, and achieved by factoring in 'Dark Energy equations'. In effect the teleportation swings by Xen, and arrives elsewhere on earth.

Conversely the teleportation technology developed by Aperture Science is based on portal technology and is in essence instantaneous. The supposed delay in the teleportation of Gordon is due to interference from the combine teleporter being destroyed, otherwise teleportation as developed by Black Mesa is also instantaneous.

According to Isaac Kleiner, Aperture was working on a promising project, but in their rush to beat Black Mesa for funding , they neglected ordinary safety rules and the ship simply disappeared with parts of its drydock, which earned it an almost legendary stature.

Years later, Judith Mossman, Resistance operative, finds the Borealis and sends a message to that effect to the resistance in White Forest. I'm fairly sure I've pinned down the location of the Project.

It's hard to say how much of it might have survived intact, or whether there's anything remaining that could compromise our work We'll need to take a close look at it, of course, but I should be able to give a better opinion within a few hours.

If the site is where we think it is, then it should be no more than I'm going to cut this short. We may have been spotted. The resistance decide from this and now decrypted photos and blue prints that whatever Aperture science developed and is now on the Borealis is either going to be a powerful weapon against the Combine, or too dangerous to be left in the hands of the combine.

Either way it signals how the two companies and more importantly stories are intimately linked. I wouldn't say they happen at the same time. The events of HL1 and HL2 are 20 years apart. At the beginning of P2 you're in a bed and wake up periodically, but something happens and you're stuck for more time than the clock can track hence in not rolling over. It can be assumed that you've slept for way over 20 years.

Subtract sixty from one-hundred and you get forty. In the original game you were thirty. Ten year difference. Since you can basically live forever in stasis, the longest amount of time from Portal to Portal 2 is roughly years- enough time for natural life to take over.

I can also say that the Borealis is still out there and that it stayed on Earth, because the operative found it and in the art for possibly HLe3 the combine had found it. The Aperture Sciene tech on that ship does not transport through time and space- it goes against context for one thing.

The Aperture Science hand-held portal device gives a clue- you don't just call something hand-held. Take a cup for example- you don't call it a handheld cup- there's nothing bigger than it. Looking at the blueprints for the Borealis on the Half-Life wiki it would be most probable that there is just a more advanced version of the portal gun. If it made bigger portals, then that would make sense for the Combine to want it.

They could transport their people much more quickly for a full-scale invasion. Sorry to ramble, but yes, the two games are connected. It's supposed to be the same universe, but there is no real direct crossover.

Just a lot of subtle nods to the other franchise. In particular, make sure you acquire the "Ship Overboard" achievement in Portal 2. If you still need some help understanding the prime connections, you can always read up on the Borealis outside of the game.

In Portal 1 Black Mesa is mentioned but is this before or after 7 hour war when the Combine take over? The ties to Half-Life are really tenuous and exist only to support the Half-Life universe especially the Borealis stuff.

Portal and Half-Life really feel like different universes, at least to me. Portal is more crazy and over the top. Half Life 2 takes place 20 years after Half Life, which takes place around Portal takes place around also. Mastersparx said:. Where does it say that? As far as I know, no one can tell how much time has passed between the ending of Portal and beginning of Portal 2.

It never explicitly states the amount of time in-game. It is implied that a long period of time has passed. It was probably done to avoid crossover with the Half Life universe.