hoo hoo hoo. it's rewritin time babey
Something important you need to know about Half-Life VR but the AI is Self Aware is that it was not meant to get as popular as it did. I mean, look at that unwieldy title, lordy. But, by some freak miracle, it did get really popular, and its consequences are many: countless fanworks, Radio TV Solutions becoming more widely known, my purchase of Half-Life and Garry's Mod, and all the further consequences of those things.
I've enjoyed HLVRAI and the strange effect it's had for the better part of four years now, and I feel its earned a spot in my little corner of the web. I have a lot of thoughts and theories and praises to sing, and there's no better spot to toss 'em all than here.
I think part of what got everyone hooked on the series is the sheer, unapologetic absurdity of it. The concept of five people trying to survive the end of the world and one of them betraying the rest by the end could be made into a lot of things, and so could the concept of a video game character realizing the nature of their world and falling into despair. But when both of those things are happening at once alongside a bunch of other plot beats, and all of those are held together with improv and chewing gum, you get a truly special piece of media.
There's also something to say about how personal a project it is. Maybe I'm just a very sentimental person, but the key factor of HLVRAI is that it was made by a group of friends, all having fun together. For as difficult and stressful to make as it must have been, and for all its consequences, a project like HLVRAI can only exist with that all-important core of long-standing friendship and passion for what you do. It makes a lonely critter like me a bit teary-eyed just thinking about it.
A stone-serious production would never give us Gordon Freeman arguing with the G-Man (whose surname is actually Coolatta, as in the Dunkin' Donuts drink) about whether or not Chuck E. Cheese's is a restaurant, and it certainly wouldn't be the last scene before the credits. It just isn't done. Are you out of your mind? Well, maybe!
In a strange, strange way, that penultimate scene really speaks to me. During the cast commentary, the crew specifically mention that they knew lollygagging for so long talking about Chuck E. Cheese would piss off a lot of people, but they kept it in anyway. In my own humble opinion, that was the only way to do it. HLVRAI is not a story that plays it safe and sands off its edges for the sake of the viewers. It is a lively, volatile beast that will do as it pleases, and it's not afraid to be found unpalatable.
I've known stories that stay true to themselves no matter what, and I adore them. But it's not everyday where you see a piece of media purposefully do something so egregiously true to itself, uncaring of how it might upset its audience. As someone so afraid of an audience, especially an upset one, it's impossible for me not to admire it.