You are Gordon Freeman, formerly a scientist at Black Mesa Research Establishment, now reluctantly employed by a mysterious organisation as a troubleshooter. (They send you out looking for trouble, and when you find it, you shoot it.) You are contacted by the Man in Blue. He seems strangely worried; something has ruffled his normally impenetrable character. "Mr Freeman, we need your help urgently. It seems that somebody at Black Mesa has been experimenting with ... unconventional applications of the dimensional gateway technology. They have developed what appears to be a working time machine. "Unfortunately, the scientists who were working on it disappeared before we could ... persuade them to turn it over to us. It appears that we were not the only ones following their work from behind the scenes. A renegade organisation within the US Marine Corps got to them before we did, and used their technology to travel into the past.. Gordon Freeman against Naziz. Author: Ross Smith
This series simply got better and better with every installment.
While it's unfortunate that not nearly enough games tackle the idea of time-travel as much as alternate history scenarios, it does make Timeline a lot more memorable for being so.
While the first installment was engaging and ambitious, it was rather clunky around the edges, this con was stamped out with the next couple of speedy released that grew longer and contained plenty of new ideas and locations with some nice inspiration and nods to great songs.
The gameplay is basic for a hL mod, but there is no need to fix something that isn't broken, and many fights can become quite frantic yet still fair.
My only complaint about the entire series is the large number of backtracking sequences, and there are times where fast-paced players will simply get lost.
For me, this is a small blemish on an otherwise great series with plenty of memorable sequences that are still fresh in my mind all these years.
No true HL fan should miss this timeless series :)