Half-Life, Halo, and the Art of the Side Story
I recently beat the original Half-Life and it's expansions after years of putting it off; fairly fun game though anytime you have to go to Xen it sucks my soul out. But that's not really what i want to talk about, if I straight up reviewed Half-Life I wouldn't have much to say that others haven't; basically, "Great but aged, stop at Xen." What interested me however was how Half-Life and it's expansions nail the art of the side story in a way that I've only really seen once; with the original Halo on Xbox and it's book adaptation. Both Half-Life and Halo have fascinating tales in their own way but both also leave room to see various sides of the same conflict. Its an odd similarity, but I think it's worth exploring the kinds of stories they tell. Who knows, maybe it might inspire others to try something similar. Half-Life follows Gordon Freeman, an MIT graduate working in the massive underground Black Mesa Research Complex. When a teleporter ex...