Most of my posts on this blog are about how to get more from your game without using words. This is because in video games, blocks of text or long periods of exposition are an ineffective method of world building: we have better tools at hand. An superlative example of this is found in the first two minutes of Half-Life 2. You can see it on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_3vMUOayyc.
The first image we see after the game loads is a strange looking old man. His speech is not accented as much as it is subtly wrong: the cadence and speech patterns suggest something vaguely inhuman. Emphasizing his otherworldliness, he teleports the ironically named Gordon Freeman into a train which again presents a wealth of clues about our new world. There are only two other occupants in the train, both dressed in the same jumpsuit and both clutching brief cases. Their attitudes aren’t fearful as much as they are downtrodden and hopeless. The briefcases suggest they’re heading to jobs (a supposition reinforced by the fact that the first game started with the playable character going to work). But the apparent normalcy of the act is belied by every detail of the environment.
Not many commuter trains have bullet holes in them. Nor do they usually have piles of trash and graffiti covered windows. The man at the far end also clarifies his scenario by noting “No matter how many times I’ve been relocated I never get used to it”. He’s not going to work, he’s being moved. Together, these images paint a bleak picture of “normal” in this new world. As we arrive at the train station, the scene becomes more oppressive. A robot flies down to take a picture of our face, and we get our first look at Dr Breen’s automated greeting. The screen is massive and entirely filled with his head, not unlike cults of personality. As he reads his speech, Dr. Breen himself seems more scripted and forced than convinced of his own message. (I always interpreted him as someone trying to make the best of a bad situation.) Some details of his speech are also telling – you have just arrived at “City 17”. Much like the people on the train, this city’s identity has been stripped from it, reduced to a number. Breen also refers to “Our Benefactors” in his speech. The reference is immediately juxtaposed with a member of the Civil Protection roughing up another jump-suited passenger, as Dr Breen bids us “…welcome to City 17. It’s safer here”. Pressed against a high chain-link fence, a woman in an identical jumpsuit is searching for a friend or loved one. The fence is topped with barbed wire, pointing inwards; it’s meant to keep people from leaving the loading area. The turnstile is also one-way as well. This isn’t a place where you can move freely. Our destination seems to have more in common with a concentration camp than a city center.
This two minutes of video has given us setting, mood, background, conflict, and probably goal – all with almost no spoken words.