The Combined Timeline | COMPLETE Half-Life & Portal Story & Lore 

Who is your favourite Half-Life/ Portal character? Mine is easily Adrian.

Imagine being a former Black Mesa researcher and finding out that your rival company, Aperture Science, had not only beaten you to developing portal technology, teleportation, a gravity gun, and AI, but they also did so decades before you in secret 😂

I understand his grudge more and more each day: Imagine getting ready to eat a casserole you've brought to work only for someone to ruin it, and as you think to yourself "I'll just bring another tomorrow", cataclysmic event occurs in the place you work and not long after, a alien species arrives and takes over the Earth in 7 hours. THEN 20 years later, the same dude who ruined your very last casserole shows up finally.

I love how Cave Johnson is basically Willy Wonka if he decided to make military and scientific equipment instead of candy.

“Are you trying to escape? Things have changed since you last left the building. What’s going on out there will make you wish you were back in here. I have an infinite capacity for knowledge and even I’m not sure what’s going on outside, all I know is I’m the only thing standing between us, and *them.”* -GLaDOS

The combine: -Can control an entire planet in like 7 hours -Can harness dark energy (whatever that means) -I dunno, can geneticly moddify other creatures Aperture Science: -Put a black hole inside a gun then uses that to make teleportation tech with barely any setup -Made gels that can manipulate physics and is even a completly unknown element -Made almost human-like AI with thoughts, personalities, and free will -Discovered and harnessed the multiverse -Kinda managed to upload a human mind into a disk -One of the best turrets in the business -Does not tolerate witchcraft

I love how Black Mesa is portrayed as (at the very least) not as flagrantly disregardful of safety standards as Aperture, and yet they’re the ones who accidentally doom the world in the end.

I like the idea that GLaDOS sent up the Companion Cube specifically so that Chell wouldn't have anything to come back for.

as a fan of the Portal franchise, Half-Life story is so wild to me. like here I was thinking Chell and Doug were experiencing the craziest and most traumatizing shit a person could ever go through, and then it turns out humanity is being wiped out... Portal series sounds like such cozy and wholesome games in comparison 😅

“On the way to the test chamber, Gordon stopped in the kitchen and for some reason turned on the microwave which destroyed a casserole that did not belong to him. This moment began a grudge that would last for decades” This is the best line in a document I’ve ever heard

Aperture: -Develops a portal gun -Develops liquids with different effects -Develops super advanced AI Black Mesa: *Ayo let's put the weird crystal on the shiny thing, c'mon guys i wanna see what happens if we put the weird crystal on the shiny thing* 🗿

I love how portal is a very comedic game with some dark undertones and dark stuff and then halflife is dark story with a few pieces of comedy sprinkled it but they are both in the same universe

I have the head cannon that eventually the G Man recruits Chell as well, seeing as she basically survived every test Aperture threw at her and more.

It's just so nice of Gman to be giving out jobs like that. He seems like a really cool guy.

My personal head cannon with GladOS is that she has this resentmen against the facility because Caroline was forced to upload her consciousness into a machine and her personality was suppressed by this anger and hatred while the transfer is being done. Meaning, GladOS is just a very angry and resentful AI because of her "unconsenting transfer" decades ago.

I can't explain how many years i've waited for someone to explain the entire timeline in a quality video like this. Great content man, Subscribed.

This video immersed me in a universe I have been so desperately wanting to get myself into, however I had no idea (or the time) on how to start. I consider this $20 as the equivalent as the purchase of a half life game as it will allow me to better enjoy these games. Edit: If you had to recommend other lore videos that you think meet your more modern standard of story telling, I'd love a playlist or just a recommendation of what to watch next. I've got a summer of just relaxation ahead of me (after a long stressful year) and your videos have been just what I needed.

The only thing i have to add is In Portal Bridge Builder, it is mentioned that the "Rope" type bridge material is made of tightly twisted shower curtains. Because they had a lot of them laying around, and they were very strong with some elasticity. This implies that Aperture Fixtures (at least initially) Shower Curtains were extremely strong as a safety measure in the bathroom to prevent falling via grabbing onto the curtains. The military contracts (again, initially) were probably to use the same fabric/material of the shower curtains for military purposes.

It's so strange yet intriguing to see third-person Gordon Freeman during Half-Life's events, instead of in first-person.

I think the fact that plant life is alive and well, and reclaiming the areas in portal 2, it tells us that the combine have stopped as they are no longer draining all the life of the planet 50/100 years in the future

I can't sit and watch a 3 hour movie. But a half life lore timeline?! Hell yeah! This is so well made!

The thought that Caroline may regain her complete consciousness some day, feels great and equally terrifying, imagining her conscious self to be stuck in a machine for the rest of her potentially infinite life.

As a big fan of "Valve Universe" from a little kiddo to this day when I'm watching this as an adult in work I can say this video is a masterpiece. It didn't feel like 3 hours, more like 15 minutes, you are a hero to this fandom

You forgot the part where Glados became a poker dealer for an underground gaming club

Fun Fact: According to Aperture Desk Job, Cave Johnson actually *did* get to be turned into a machine, in which his intelligence was uploaded into a big head. Unfortunately, he scared all his scientists away. Oh, and at the end of the game, there's a small cutscene of him humming along with the newly-invented turrets, teaching him to sing, which makes me think he's the Turret King.

Being told the absolutely bonkers and batshit crazy story of Aperture Science in a completely serious and dark tone is peak comedy. But seriously, this is really impressive work. One of the most consistent timeline videos. Good job.

I thoroughly enjoyed the flagrant abuse of the word "Where" throughout this video. Great narration and a fantastic summary of one of gaming's most essential franchises.

Take a shot every time he says “Where,” or “So,”

The combine are truly horrifying. A fate worse than death, resist and you become a stalker or dont, and you die under subjugation.

One tiny tiny detail you forgot is that it was infact the g man who pushed doctor breen to use the specified crystal and that’s why he’s at the facility early on. They had a crystal they were planning to use and on that morning, doctor breen was approached by gman with the purer crystal and insisted this be used.

Im a huge portal fan and have watched many lore videos, but the inclusion of half life was new to me. Always had this video saved and never watched it, SO HAPPY I DID!!! I had no idea half lives timeline was competing w/ Aperture science, it adds so much more depth to both stories! Ty for this

Portal and Half Life are very special to me not only for being brilliant, but also for nostalgia because I've played them in very special moments in my life. Thank you so, so much for this video explaining the stuff I couldn't understand or connect, it's amazing!

Hoping to hear you mention about Gordon's descent into hyper violent madness in Black Mesa and becoming the very model of a Modern Major General expecting soldiers to sing along with him as he commits multiple acts of heavily armed self defense.

44:33 You can not underestimate the importance of this moment to the whole story, it's an integral part of the lore

Just wanted to say you did an absolutely phenomenal job on this. I last played half life two in maybe 2005. So this was great to catch up and relive the story.

Bro was really stretching to hit that 12 minute monetization mark

of note with the name "the Combine" - it's actually a bit of a double meaning. While they combine every species they come across into their forces, they also act almost like a combine harvester - traveling across the field of the multiverse, ripping out everything they find for the harvest.

Thank you Mr. Skyrionn, THIS IS the video I've always wanted, a complete overhaul of this mysterical universe with all the lore in it. Can't wait to get over it while doing my homework

after avoiding spoilers for alyx for 3 years im glad i finally can watch this video

I swear to god if this guy says "where" one more time

As a primary Portal fan, I have always wondered how these two games interact since they are in the same universe. A video like this that combines both stories into one is a nice surprise, and man is this going to take a while to watch. Full on movie uploaded to the channel huh?

can we just apprechiate how much of a mad lad doug is, not only did he survive the takeover of glados and the resonance cascade, but he also knew how to destroy glados (kinda succeeded) and literally sacrificed himself just to safe chell and possibly starting the era of a personality core ruled Aperture facility

21:32 anybody else notice that the molecule on the board when they’re talking about “increasing their understanding of how the universe functioned” is Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol also known as THC which is the main active component of cannabis. This indicates that marijuana does in fact have universal importance and that the question to life, the universe, and everything is just 420/10.

I really like the idea of the main characters being puppets in a behind-the-scenes conflict between interdimensional entities. I'm a sucker for that theme. I have fun imagining how the pieces fit together in terms of what might be happening behind the scenes. Essentially I think there is a timewar between the Combine and the faction Gman represents (other aliens or future humanity). Gman is like a Scout or representative from this rebel faction trying to keep the Combine from acquiring more technology from planets the Combine invades and to redirect the advantages for their own uses, in turn planting seeds like gordon and alyx which they can harvest as allied resources later (like gman's foresight in saving alyx because he would need a literal get-out-of-jail card). Between worlds there is a border dimension which can serve as a relay for teleportation (Xen) by bouncing you back to your dimension to a specific point. The combine do not have this technology yet and can only jump world-to-world. The Nihilanth race was once a powerful Empire of telepathic overlords the Combine warred with. I imagine the Gman faction manipulated events so the Combine would wipe out the Nihilanth race down to the last one (probably harvesting their organic time crystals), and gman's faction knew they needed to corner it just right, so they could grab power when it died. The last Nihilanth fled the Combine into Xen and found us close to the border, a burgeoning scientific power close to the discovery of point-to-point teleportation. I get the sense over and over Gman is trying to make small adjustments and give warnings to manipulate people like pawns into solving problems much much bigger than they could solve if they knew the truth, like a fulcrum in history, "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world..." So yeah, half life 3 for me would be about how there is the time war, and gman's faction can send back a few agents (like Terminator). Once Aperture Science opened the first multiverse telephone it put us on the radar because the gman's faction was watching Xen (or we were influenced to discover that so we would be useful when shit hit the fan). Gman scouted us out as a perfect battlegrounds for a critical moment in their timewar. By the end it would be implied this is a bit of a time loop gman's faction set up as a tool to help themselves once Earth showed up on the dark-energy-radar. Dark energy and the anti-mass crystals being all timey-wimey because of the idea of mass and time being related etc In fact now that I think about it I love the idea of gman's faction discovering us through Xen proximity, then manipulating events here. Aperture Science is a genuine effort on Cave Johnson's part, but what we weren't told yet, is that Cave Johnson is an unknowing puppet for gman's faction, who's been supplying Aperture with data for years and years and that's the reason it was really successful despite being run by an unhinged man. This was all to prepare Earth for combine invasion, like developing the gravity gun, refining teleportation, the borealis secrets, and developing defenses the combine couldn't get into with the facility.

You know, Chel really fits the bill for GMan's future subjects It wouldn't even matter how far into the future she was considering he can move through time...

Holy… I am speechless, you deserve the golden crown for effort, all this research plus editing, free cam scenes and so on for nearly 3 hour’s video in high quality. Endless respect from me, this video deserves many millions of views. Hope you get some money for it as a return, for me as a half life (valve) fan, this video is priceless and mindblowing.

This is now one of my favorite videos. It's so well produced, and the work that went into it is astounding. I've only played portal 2, but nonetheless this is so interesting. Seriously, I found myself completely focused on this video. Well done man, this is a masterpiece! Edit: forgot to add, I love the way you tell the story, you make a wonderful storyteller lol

I love how the gnome is included in this. I worked so hard to get that achievement

I love how you recreated scenes from the games and unseen parts. Really adds to the immersion and feels like a movie

Black mesa actually had a TON of issues with privacy, due to the 18 mercenaries fighting each other not super far away

that was amazing, almost a 3 hour video all fully (and very well) edited, had to watch this in 4 sittings due to having stuff to do but that was a GREAT video, loved it

Props for making this video dude; I searched for ages to find a video that completely covered all of this, and you delivered!

I like how certain player-choice events in the games are made canon here to make sense, plot-wise. For example, Gordon Freeman blowing up the casserole, or putting the can into the trashcan, while the players had the choice to either not do the first h thing or throw the can at the cop.

I thought this was just going to be a compilation (which would still have been an awesome and easy way to watch all your work). Once again you go above and beyond!

Wow! You did such a good job on this! It answered many questions I had and filled in many holes. This took alot of love and time to make and I really appreciate it! Keep up the great work! 👏

I first encountered this legendary game in 1999 and I did not regret a single moment of it. I've finished it dozens of times. Half-Life is undoubtedly the best game in gaming history. The game world is divided into two parts; Guys who have played Half-Life and guys who will play it.

This is easily going down as the best half life universe recap, great work and quality here Skyrionn, as always!!

41:17: A Gus Cameo! He's my favourite character. I remember his iconic line where he says to Gordon "It's over Gordon! I am now forklift certified!" You see, Gus made himself Gordon's Rival(without Gordon even knowing he exists at all.) And through his sheer spite, he managed to get into Black Mesa first before Gordon.

This was so well done. Its not often that i watch a 3 hour video and when it reaches the end, im sad its over.

I'm so incredibly grateful for this video, and for the immense amount of effort you put forth constantly analyzing the Half Life/Portal universe on this channel. Perhaps this is uncommon, but I've always found this universe incredibly beautiful in a way. Aperture, a massive, long forgotten underground facility, Black Mesa, a rival company, and how that all ties together in the events of Half Life 2 is, in my opinion, nothing short of beautiful. I'm thankful for your shining light on this incredible universe.

I love the idea that somehow aperture is unbreachable by the combine but they can build cages that can contain the g man

One of my earliest childhood memories was sitting on my father's lap as he played through the original Half-Life. Since then I have played all of the games but never truly had a full understanding of the lore and how it was all connected. The amount of work that had to have gone into this video is remarkable. I'm extremely grateful for you bringing so much more life to this series for me. Huge kudos to you Skyrionn, that's a sub from me.

ive probably seen this 6 or 7 times now a couple of weeks in between and honestly every time i come and revisit this video i fall in love more and more with it and the format of it

This reminds me that as much as people want a portal 3, its in a way impossible because of both the end to the normal story, but also the co-op sections in portal 2, since glados very quickly exhausted any sort of human life that had survived, as well as taking place so far into the future that all humans had died by then.

I absolutely love the little bit of humor Valve has placed into these serious themed games😂

i can already tell that i’m gonna watch this video multiple times. i love the Half Life and Portal games so much.

can't imagine how much work you've put into this. thank you for this masterpiece

HERE AND WHERE OR THEN SO WHILE

I know what I’m doing for the next 3 hours of my life, guess this is what we were waiting for, totally worth it

Surprisingly , this video gave me peace of mind and a bit of finality on the story of 5 nerve wrecking endless gameplay always leading to an anti climactic ending . This video is the perfect ending to wrap the series from my mind until they release another Half Life which they will but with this video i can find some peace of mind . Thank you for your sacrifice of making this video and it has been worth it

incredible, and i got a great nap out of it. thank you, skyrionn!

This is one of the most interesting videos ive watched. its so well put together and unlike other videos, it had me paying attention to what was going on. you did a great job and deserve so much. Thank You.

This is a true HL love letter. Thank you for the dedication and time you took to do this. Greetings from Brazil.

This video was fantastic! It must have taken hundreds of hours to research and produce! Thank you for your contribution to the half life franchise.

This is such an impressive piece of work you've put together here. Incredibly comprehensive, well written and extremely entertaining. Thank you so much for making this I have enjoyed it very much and learned a lot.

A token of appreciation for making such a fantastic video. Portal is my favorite game, and this could seriously be an audiobook!

Half Life is truly one of the greatest games of all time. One of the first games I ever played as well as a child during the new milllenium. The game is so great that its STILL being talked about, being made videos about with so much depth and research on them in current year and possibly beyond

Wheatley was a fantastic character, robotic yet quite human appearance made him a reason for me to return to Portal 2 from time to time.

Thank you. What you did here, this connection of multiple stories is something i cant begin to describe. Half-Life is one of, if not my most favorite usiverse and you gave me a 3 hour long video connecting all the dots of this universe. Honestly thank you, you gave me (and i want to believe many more) a lot of joy today and for many days to come.

Awesome video. Had to watch this in multiple sittings, but it made my days exciting in anticipation

Gonna watch it while I work for the rest of the day. Almost 3 hours of Half Life lore is a blessing!

I love this universe! „Prepare for unforeseen consequences“ is such a cool quote as well

It's wild to think that humans have developed several completely different local teleportation technologies in the span of like 50 years (Black Mesa using Xen as a relay and Aperture using singularity wormholes) while the Combine, a multidimensional giga-empire that for all we know could span millions of planets couldn't figure out either, and could only move between dimensions. It's surprising that Breen even had to convince them to spare humanity. They were salivating for local teleportation tech, you'd think they'd want to extract more innovation out of humans instead of turning them into yet more husks for their war machine

you are a legend man for connecting all of this together nostalgia hit me watching all of this

Cave Johnson reminds me of Liar Noland from One Piece. When the people got to the place of which Noland told everyone there would be an island, there was nothing. And this guys name is literally " *No Land* ". And now you're telling me that the founder of Aperture bought a freaking big salt mine... AND HIS NAME IS " *CAVE* "!!!

It's insane how high quality this is! Not only the writing and performance, but the machinima and free cam clips as well! This must have been so much work, and I think it's all amazing

This is my most favorite video on Half-Life/Portal lore I have ever seen. It's cleverly and concisely written, greatly addresses nuances and yet also important pieces of Half-Life/Portal lore, and makes sure that only what is canon is described. I thank you for this experience and for making this video in the way you did. Cheers!

Thanks for the extensive research! Your voice is so calming that I use this video as my bedtime story as I have really bad insomnia.

I really enjoyed the clips you’ve put together. I was captivated for almost the full 3 hours!

I just need to leave a comment saying how fucking phenomenal this video was from the way the story was told to the camera shots. This video obviously took a tremendous amount of effort and as a life long valve fan I really appreciate the work youve done. Keep up the great work brother

Took me 5 days worth of driving around town to finish watching this video. This has been my source of entertainment while stuck in traffic and i cannot imagine the amount of work you have done to make this video. Thank you and i look forward to more lore videos like this soon

Thank you for making this. It must have taken forever and a tremendous effort. but thank you so much for this masterpiece of a lore video.

The best I've seen!! Thank you Skyrionn. Loved every piece of it. Keep up the good work

This series is such a fascinating study of the dangers of science. How humanity is a technological giant yet a moral infant. This series is just fantastic storytelling with philosophical undertones.

A resonance cascade is like setting an old radio to scan for frequencies, except it just runs through them all one after the other. Xen was always a very open frequency, as you can see by all the things that fell in there over time. It's also like dominoes falling in a way. Such an evocative name for a degenerative process that unwinds the bindings of reality.

This is best Lore video ever, i have played portal,portal 2 and Half-life 2 and haven’t know much of the story. Now i got so much knowledge about whole story. Thanks for great video 🙌🏻

This is an amazing piece of analysis. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit. Thank you for creating this ❤️

This video has to he the peak of content creation on this and any other online platform's existence. You are certainly talented and devoted to this beautiful community, Mr. Skyrionn. What a wonderful job you did here!

Admiring your dedication, an almost three hour long video must be a monumental effort to make

Amazing work. Was captivated the whole video. I absolutely love the half life and portal world and lore.