Half-Life (General Topic)

I recently tried playing through HL2 (not having touched HL1 before either), and honestly, I don't get why everyone is praising it so much.

There were three big issues that made me give up on the game after reaching Ravenholm:

• Throughout my playthrough, I kept CONSTANTLY getting lost. It literally felt like every other stretch of the game had some strange or really hidden manners of progressing further, which often resulted in me running around for minutes on end, trying to find out where I'm supposed to be going. It was so frequent that about 2/3 into my playthrough I started getting frustrated and just noclipping through such sections.

• Once you reach the Water Hazards section, the game has a major spike in difficulty. Towards the end, where both the helicopter and the Combine started becoming a real pain in the ass, I ended up just giving up and using Godmode, thinking that maybe I'll just steamroll through the game to at least see what the hell the story is.

• There's way too many stretches of time where there's absolutely no human interaction involved, just shooting down waves of enemies who at best sputter out some Pyro-like gibberish. This meant that when I wasn't feeling frustrated by the difficulty or the cryptic level design, I felt bored by how lifeless the game felt most of the time.

I tried to get past all of this, thinking that maybe the game gets better when you FINALLY get that mythical Gravity Gun, but then I got it, played with it for a bit, got bored of it already 15 minutes into Ravenholm, then I got myself into YET ANOTHER situation where I had no idea where to go, and I gave up altogether.

The reason I even tried playing HL2 at all is that I kept seeing everyone compare Hunt Down the Freeman to it (which I haven't played, but saw plenty of reviews and gameplays of it), and honestly, having played HL2 myself, I honestly don't get some of the criticisms. For instance, everyone keeps complaining that HDTF has really confusing level design where you have no idea where to go, when HL2 has the exact same problem (just maybe not as intense). The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, as far as I can tell.

edited 2nd Apr '18 6:52:11 AM by ZuTheSkunk

Well, first, Seinfeld Is Unfunny.

Second:

1) Yeah, believe me I get that. I didn't have so much trouble with it because I used to play HL 2 as a kid so I kind of knew where I was going. Once I got to the later levels I'd never finished things got hairier. That said, the level design is fairly linear. There are points that are frustrating and I got tempted to noclip through things.

I do think Valve's level design gets ridiculous at certain points - this one point in Ravenholm where Gordon has to get past an electric fence and you actually have to backtrack to a couple of tanks with valves just to get into a building that has an electrical source you need to deactivate to get past the fence. Like i knew the electrical source was sparking and had something to do with the fence but I had no idea how to access the building - the constant lack of NPC interaction really doesn't help. Another part in Route Kanal had me fill a room with water to reach the other side of it, and I had to break something underwater to create a walkway for myself. But the objects didn't float up correctly and I spent 5 minutes trying to get across - I ended up reloading just to make the walkway "correctly."

• Glass half full though, I think this emphasizes player attentiveness and problem-solving. Is it freaking annoying? Yes. But usually when I figure out how to get past it I'm like "sh't, that was really simple." If I might hazard a guess if your reason for playing Half-Life was due to a mod released for it then you probably weren't around when this game first came out. I'd wager that you're not used to games being this frustrating because, yeah, a lot of games these days have Anti-Frustration Features and are more player-friendly - Dark Souls and Cuphead potentially excluded. I cut it slack because it's a product of its time. There's really not much to explore or do in this world besides A) kill bad guys, and B) find supply caches, and C) be a dick to your alien overlords.
• Glass half empty, it feels like Valve designs levels these ways is solely to pad out the level rather than to create a logical obstacle for the player. A lot of these obstructions are literally the player being dealt the worst possible hand and having to fix or outmanuever things that no NPC in the game has to deal with. I don't like that feeling.

2) I get that too. But it was more of a nuisance for me. Having to stop at each gate, being isolated for lengthy periods of time, figuring out how to take out a helicopter that has a far greater range of movement and more powerful artillery. The Hype Backlash of this game kind of worked in reverse for me - you are the "Freeman," a One-Man Army who does things nobody else can. So in that regard when they ask this kind of sh't of me, when the game describes how the Combine are throwing everything they have at me, waves of soldiers, gunships and the like, I can't help but feel like a bit of a badass when that difficulty spikes.

3) And I get that too. That's actually one of my complaints.

4) The gravity gun is somewhat underwhelming in an era of games like Minecraft and Fortnite and Little Big Planet where you can also manipulate the environment in a variety of ways. It sees more use in Episode 1. I think others got more a thrill out of it because at the time you really didn't have games that let you physically manipulate the environment around you the way the Gravity Gun did. Though I admit my reaction in this playthrough was similar to yours.

All of that said, see Seinfeld Is Unfunny, Hype Backlash, and Late-Arrival Spoiler. I think one of, or some combination of those things might have hit you hard.

If you want an "answer" to why Half-Life is still cherished, one thing someone pointed out to me was that every level has you doing something markedly different. There's minimal overlap, new guns present new abilities, new levels have some new challenge. Every level, frustrating as it gets, asks the player to do something different or employ a new tactic. With the exception of Water Hazard I cannot say it felt like I was doing the same thing over and over again. One level I'm running from alien SWAT and dodging trains, the next I'm riding a hovercraft and running from a chopper, the next I'm fighting zombies and weirdly-placed sawblades, the next I'm in a buggy and using a crane, the next I'm herding antlions, etc.

And that's one point I'll give Valve. That's not something I see in a lot of games. Even games like Dark Souls fall into a pattern of "f'ck you, roll, roll, poise, stab it in the butt" after awhile, and games like Resident Evil push their biggest scares out in the first 3-5 levels before they start getting formulaic.

edited 2nd Apr '18 8:04:06 AM by Soble

It's impossible for me to look at the HL series from the perspective of a newcomer, given that I've played them each so many times. I will say that most of the levels are designed to look open-ended enough that the player experiences a sense of freedom to explore even as there's only one pathway towards progression. Sure, there's a lot of exploring to find puzzle solutions, but most of the time the clues are in the environment.

Take that electric fence puzzle in Ravenholm. The solution stares you right in the face: follow the wires. They go to the building immediately behind you, and there's only one way into that building. You might even have gone into the building already and switched off the fence first, but either way, it's really as simple as looking where the electricity is coming from.

The chopper section in Water Hazard seems pretty obvious to me: you just have to keep moving. There's enough health scattered around to keep you alive as long as you don't just sit there getting shot at. Sure, it may take a few tries, but there's a great payoff to that section once you get the mounted gun and start being able to return fire.

Exploration, trial and error are part of the formula. If you come in expecting little arrows to pop up on your HUD telling you which way to go, you're in the wrong game, baby.

edited 2nd Apr '18 10:45:40 AM by Fighteer

Hello, popping in this thread the first time

What does everyone think is the deal with the G-Man?

Valve very deliberately left him mysterious. I'm not aware of any Word of God on him that goes significantly beyond what we see in the games, but we can summarize what we know for certain:

• He has a significant "administrative" role in Black Mesa, such that he is able to give orders about what materials are to be experimented upon.
• He provides the sample that causes the resonance cascade.
• He can apparently teleport or travel between dimensions at a whim, manipulate time and space, and do similar "godlike" things.
• He appears human but speaks in an alien cadence, as if he's unfamiliar with English and is sounding it out by rote.
• He has a particular interest in Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance, as if they are assets or resources that he wishes to preserve and utilize in the most effective manner possible.
• He describes working for an employer or employers. Who these are is never stated.
• The Vortigaunts know of him and oppose him in some way, since they free Gordon from his control between HL2 Episode 1 and 2.
• Eli Vance knows of him to at least some extent, as Eli is familiar with his machinations and resents that Alyx is his tool.
• He seems omniscient from humanity's point of view, but is neither omniscient nor omnipotent, as he describes having to "abide by restrictions".
• He is capable of emotion: irritation at the very least.

Some guesses and interpretations:

• There is a line where the G-Man relates that "their first experience of humanity was a crowbar coming at them down a steel corridor". He could be referring to either the Vortigaunts or the headcrabs, and it's not clear whether he means to imply that they employ him or he is relating their thoughts second-hand. It's unlikely that the Vortigaunts employ him because they are shown as opposing him. He is not working for the Combine, or at least if he is, he's playing a double game. This leaves the possibility that he "works for" the headcrabs, who may be part of some greater intelligence that we can't relate to or understand.
• Valve may have had some intention to introduce us to a higher order of beings, glimpses of which we see through the Vortigaunts' visions. These beings seem to manipulate and maneuver humanity, the Combine, and possibly other species like chess pieces. However, the leaked HL3 script, if it is authentic, doesn't seem to develop this.

Edited by Fighteer on Oct 6th 2018 at 2:26:13 PM

A few things I think we can be reasonably certain about what his employers wanted:

• Wanted to create a portal between Earth and Xen, and used Black Mesa for that end
• Also wanted no witnesses to the specifics behind what went on at Black Mesa (something he explicitly tells Adrian Shepherd as for a reason he was put under status, and why Black Mesa ended up being nuked)
• Was fine with the Combine getting seated in Earth, but had an issue with Dr. Breen specifically (who even tried to bargain with the G-Man through Gordon), and upon elimination/[whatever happened to him], had planned to put Gordon under status again
• Wanted Eli Vance dead

Time travel was also supposed to play a bigger role in the later games - possibly even alternate timelines and dimensions. Some of the notes released on the supposed plot of what could've been HL: Episode 3 imply this in regards to how the Borealis seems to be stuck in a time loop and would involve a mix of portal and time travel gameplay mechanics. In fact, it's possible the interest in humanity's scientific developments might be due to the teleportation technology designed by Dr. Kleiner inadvertently doubling as a time travel device - though I don't think anyone in the resistance figured that part out yet.

Oh, and Alyx Vance was supposed to be some sort of "Chosen One". Something about Eli making a deal with the G-Man to save his daughter's life, in exchange for him using her as a vessel for an unknown scheme.

So given that resolution of plot points dropped years to decades ago seems quite fashionable these days (Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie, the last season of Samurai Jack, Twin Peaks the Return, the Writing Around Trademarks rock opera Galaktikon that concludes Metalocalypse, and so on and on)... think HL3 might have a chance after all?

Notice how none of that came from the creators deciding they just had too much money?

I mean that already happened didn't it?

Fighter: That line is about the vortigunts, is clear he is annoyed by them and kinda warn freeman to not trust it, it also mock they first experience with humanity were freman killing them.

> think HL 3 might have a chance after all?

Alas,I think Half life 3 will forever remain a what could have been.

They have zero inventive to finish the series. Hype was so high for so long, and now it's one of those sore points for a lot of people. It's a no-win situation. At this point they'd fear for their lives because a lot of fans would be crying for blood if it came out and wasn't what they wanted. Plus Valve has dialed back hard on releasing I Ps and are focusing more on just being a platform for other people, as well as continuing their core multiplayer scene.

I definitely think Half Life 3 is going to come out

The thing is, I absolutely wouldn't be able to say whether a trailer drops later today, or if it'll take another 10 years to ever hear about it again, or anything in between

Doesn’t look like anyone's brought it up, but Erik Wolpaw returned to Valve earlier this month.

For the uninitiated, Wolpaw was writer for Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Two, the Portal duology, and Left 4 Dead. He left in 2017 and became a writer for Psychonauts 2, but now he's back on Valve.

Think this will mean anything in the near future?

Assuming Valve's going back into game design on single player stuff, possibly more puzzle shooters? I honestly think HL 3 is a dead duck. I know people point to Duke Nukem 4Ever as an example of a game breaking out of development Hell, but let's be realistic. That game flopped hard because it was just so bad. That's going to sober anyone who thinks they can bring back a franchise that stopped a decade ago.

Valve has no incentive at this point to release new first-party IP. They are riding on Steam and multiplayer support. It would be nice if they did, but projects like that are vast time and money sinks as well as huge risks.

DN 4 E also failed because it had the maturity level of a 12 year old.

We who played those games when we were young had long since grown up, and the only thing keeping the games fresh in our minds were the nostalgia goggles. Now, the games back then are still alright, but still really low-brow.

Plus, we'd gotten used to more modern shooting mechanics and stuff since, and DN 4 E didn't quite live up to those.

What the hell is DN 4 E?

Duke Nukem Forever

It had the potential to be a good game (maturity aside), and even had a decent start, but the main problem seems to be that it was chasing a moving target in terms of gameplay and visuals: always playing catch-up with whatever was in at the time.

Edited by Fighteer on Jan 31st 2019 at 12:05:12 PM

I STILL believe they should've stopped at Unreal Engine 1 iteration of the game. I watch that 2001 trailer from time to time because I just don't ever want to forget what it could have been.

Hell I even read some articles that version of the game was supposedly 70-90% finished and it was supposed to be "darker" and "mature" and have horror elements too! Alongside some RPG elements as well. https://www.dsogaming.com/articles/the-2001-unreal-engine-version-of-duke-nukem-forever-was-90-complete-had-rpg-and-horror-elements/

This article discusses it. Holy shit do I want that build of the game so much...

Not to derail the thread but my hopes for Half-Life 3 are... near zero. Years ago they were high, I kept hoping and hoping. Now... eh. I do still hold onto my intepretation that Valve is biding its time, waiting for technology to progress further, become much more powerful, before they decide to make something revolutionary that current tech can't handle. Like something nobody did yet on the market or stuff.

Edited by Dhiruxide on Jan 31st 2019 at 10:29:46 AM

See, at this point I'm hoping to find out how they intend to finish the story. It doesn't have to be a revolutionary new FPS technology. Valve needs to remember that sometimes people want games, not tech demos, and they don't lose street cred if they aren't always pushing the edges.

DOTA 2 will always be a mistake.

Rumor: Nintendo approached Valve to make a Half-Life Tactics which was cancelled.

Summary:

• Stresses this is UNCORROBORATED
• Nintendo approached Valve for an exclusive Half-Life title of some kind
• Gabe likes the switch
• They don’t promise anything but start prototyping
• Cancelled in 2017-2018

Kingdom Hearts 3 came out (and I still haven't played it but) and all I've heard was that "some were disappointed."

As a fan of the Half-Life games not only am I burnt out, but I have zero incentive to feed Valve's pockets. Damn them for becoming such a huge platform that in order for me to enjoy most games on PC I have to use their system.

But I won't be buying Steam controllers, links, or any merchandise they can shell out either. I actively hope another platform comes out and buries them.

F-ck. I hope Disney buys them and rebrands everything they ever did. I hope they buy them out, shut down Steam, replace it with some cheap Disney-themed alternative, and shove out as much Avengers, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Star Wars-themed content as possible.

...

-deep breath-