Quote: "Experiment goes wrong, alien things attack you... then the military attacks you and the aliens... You go to another dimension kill a giant floating baby head... G-Man comes and says some stuff... the end... If there is any more to the story than that I missed it, in numerous play throughs..."
If you want to, you can sum up
any story like that and make it sound stupid. By doing so you completely ignore the atmosphere and more subtle things.
For example:
- The presence of the G-man at multiple locations throughout the game (so he's not just a tagged on character at the end, it is implied throughout he is more important)
- The military attacks you and the aliens: and all other scientists. There's two things to mention with this:
1) This is actually pretty atypical, especially for a game made in 1998. You'd expect just the calvary to be sent in and the game would conclude with just you and the military 'kicking alien butt'. It may not seem special now, but for the time (amongst a sea of Quake clones) it's pretty clever
2) Yeah, it's not a major plot/story facet, but the way in which it is done is pretty cool - the fact they show you a scientist rejoicing at the military presence and then being shot in front of you. That's a clever way to tell a story. Not just some exposition of "Oh the military is here to kill us" (although some scientists do quip this as well later on) but an actual DISPLAY of what is going on
- The surroundings when the G-Man starts his spiel at the end, is once again, showing and not telling. You see the remains and debris of a failed military presence on Xen. It's kind of showing you one thing and telling you another. It also creates part of the set up for HL2. And again, I'd say that this is subtle. It's not in your face "THIS IS HAPPENING OH MY GOD THIS IS THE STORYLINE". It creates a sinister character in the G-man and a feeling of unease without really doing anything.
There are a few more things, but I'd say in all that the reason the story seems so uninteresting or lacklustre
now is not only because it is dated, but because it is done well. As in, it's done well to the point that it's subtle, not in-your-face and has more detail if you're observant. I agree that the boss was lacklustre in terms of story and gameplay (as I presume you were getting at that) but even there, there are some subtle story connections - for example the crystals you're destroying are the sample you pushed into the test chamber at the beginning. Not exactly 'story' but decent connections at least
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