All That Is Missing In Half-Life 2

[Shorewalker]

Well, it seems I didnt properly word my first post correctly.

From PvtRyan:

"Most of the binks were in the game, both Coastline binks were in there (the 2003 one just didn't have a gunship and the 2004 coastline was in there identically to the bink) and traptown was in the game, but Ravenholm just wasn't inhabited by combine"

Yea, I stated in my first post that: "Just random spliced parts were put here and there." And also, the coastline was not identical. The bink was shown with the player driving the buggy on to a ramp under fire by a gunship, and proceeding to the part where they drove through the glass. This same part is directly after the area with the crane in the finished version.

Again from PvtRyan:

"What really boggles my mind is how you can argue that the game felt rushed when you discuss stuff that was done, how can a game be rushed when stuff that's already done is taken out? That only takes more time. They probably had good reasons for it, and tell me, if you didn't know that there was supposed to be a hydra, bullsquid or ichtyosaur, would you have missed them?"

Well, I admit there is a slight oxymoron in my statement. But I did say that I was falling asleep, and I was. But considering that wasnt a good excuse, my two points were directly at totally seperate entities of the game. The game felt slightly rushed in terms of repatitious enemies. Or moreover the small amount present in the game. And even though it may be a stretch, I could say that they couldent properly allocate the Binks to scenes in the game, thus cutting them. But that is a little bogus.

And, in response to your last statement, yes I would have missed them. The first monster that seemed missing that came to my mind was the hound eye, actually. I missed them all dearly, but accept it equally. I would have missed them because this is the second installment to the game I played 5 or 6 times through that had Bullsquids, itchyosaurs, and hound eyes. And really, it was kind of a let-down after they show the itchyosaur at the start...

From Bam23:

"Traptown has become a part of Ravenholme if you haven't noticed.."

Yea, I did actually. And I thought that maybe my statement would cover all of these issues. I did, in fact, see every instace of all the binks in the game. I watched the bonks maybe 30 times each, so I would like to think I know. But what I meant was that parts were taken and put here and there.

But really, I think a lot of people here seemed to misguide my post. I sat for 30 minutes after I had beaten the game, almost drooling, trying to capture the feeling I had for the incredibleness of it in shallow breaths. I absolutely loved it, and I went about knowing it was the best game ever before it even came out. So dont get me wrong, that was just what I sarted to think. Its still just brilliant.

 

[FangsFirst]

They probably had good reasons for it, and tell me, if you didn't know that there was supposed to be a hydra, bullsquid or ichtyosaur, would you have missed them?

Just one question---if we played HL, as I assume most/all of us did, how could we not expect any of those?

 

[Inertiadriftsc]

Im going to address the AI, first of all im not dissappointed at all, the AI is the greatest in any game yet. Doom 3's was dissappointing because there was so much scripted, in Half life 2 with practically no scripted AI, it is an IMPRESSIVE feat of programming, AI is hands down the hardest thing to do in programming turning even simple programs into more complex ones. Ii games today there is always something to gripe about with AI because its not perfect like many other aspects of games have become.

 

[ExiT]

I agree with a lot of things said so far. All of the reasons suggested are probably true to some extent. The OICW-MP7 connection is definetly redundant with the given set of weapons (maybe wouldn't be in CS:S).
And lot of things were probably combined, toned down, or cut entirely just for design and flow reasons. I can see why tracktown and ravenholm were combined: the developers obviously thought "ok, we don't need two levels that primarily focus on using physics alone to kill zombies."

I also missed some of the scenes that we saw in the binks. Note that the cool street battle scene actually was in the game, just very toned down - no Barney or Dr. Kleiner and just a few guys behind the wall. There was probably some game design reasoning behind this (less NPC 'hand-holding') But also think about system usage. Someone brought up the how the differences in weapon balance and enemy strength. I really enjoyed the 'follow freeman' sequence with all of the city fighting but by the end of it, there were loads of enemies and a lot going on and my system took a noticeable performance hit. As my system is kind of lower-middle of the line (ti4400, 2.4ghz, 1g ram), this probably hit the people using older cards pretty hard, and if the performance was like that throughout the game, I can see how it would definetly detract from the gameplay experience.

But I think the more important reason that valve did not include everything is that they don't want to make a game so complete there is no room for improvement. If everything that we have seen in previews and the actual game along with fully developed multiplayer modes really made it into the final game, it would be hard to make a true Half Life 3 without developing a whole new generation of physics and AI technology to bring us better interactivity. We'd probably see something more like the transition from Unreal Tournament 2003 to 2004 - with a lot of things added, while still the same core game. Valve has a lot invested in the source engine and they probably want to get at least two complete games out of it.

Although I agree that the game does feel a bit empty in a few places, I am really happy with it overall. I think valve has made a game with a very constructive and immersive story. I am also really glad that the Source engine is its backbone: a brand new high-end proprietary engine that can grow with user-end technology and is wide open for easy user modification.

 

[NiteX]

Im going to address the AI, first of all im not dissappointed at all, the AI is the greatest in any game yet. Doom 3's was dissappointing because there was so much scripted, in Half life 2 with practically no scripted AI, it is an IMPRESSIVE feat of programming, AI is hands down the hardest thing to do in programming turning even simple programs into more complex ones. Ii games today there is always something to gripe about with AI because its not perfect like many other aspects of games have become.

The thing about the AI is it seemed dumbed down a lot from what we saw in E3. What happen to the enemies finding away around objects or knocking them down? I put some barrels in front of a door and the combine wouldnt even try to go through. They just stood there.

i liked the game alot, but i personally would have wanted a little more enemy diversity

gonarchs, assassins, the hydra, actually fight the apcs rather than shoot down their rockets, those stalker guys, more synth creatures maybe.

i was hoping that by the time i reached the end there'd be more than just lots of soldiers to fight.

I agree did you also see the pics of enemies in the little prima hint book? They took out so many it upset me not to see them. The new female assassin looked really neat and I was hoping to fight them. A lot of alien enemies were also cut, you only saw that one swiming alien in the very begining when you were being wildly teleported. It would have been really cool if most of the creatures that are in the hint book were in the game. And to those of you who think HL2 is the best game ever your wrong HL1 is.

 

[NB.]

It was in gamespot's article. You should read it. All 25 pages.

The part that mentions the 'proof-of-concept' is here.
Later on, they talk about how they trimmed those proof-of-concept demos for E3 2003 here.

Yeah i already read that, but they dont say anything about most of the binks, they are talking about the kleiners lab scene for e3 and very early proof of concept films that we never saw anyway. The fact is that it was never mentioned by valve that almost none of the content in the binks would be seen in the game.

If the binks had always just been 'test videos' like you say, dont you think that valve should have said so? cause as it is i think valve were being very misleading, especially as some of the most spectacular looking scenes were in the binks that were not made from in game footage.

 

[Apos]

I agree: absolutely great, groundbreaking game, but they obviously cut out a lot of content that would have made it even better. There are too many long streches in the game where you're fighting the same fights (or slowly progressing through similar areas), where they could have changed things up a little.

What I'm sad we didn't get:

1) no real block the door moments. The combine don't seem to be able to kick open doors, and in fact neither can you. For some reason, the doors operate just like in HL1 rather than acting physical correct
2) the bink with the strider was better scripted (especially seeing the combine wall crash down out in the open like that, which was better than the few times it did this in more enclosed areas where it wasn't as apparent that it was "eating" the city. and had the fun "pull the letters off the marquee" thing.
3) No combine mech thing that sticks an eye stalk in through the mail slot. That sounded like an awesome moment
4) Scripted sequences were VERY scripted and the characters were all very one note: they'd litterally walk right through you if you got in the way instead of moving around or asking you to move, etc. Many wouldn't even respond to being hit with objects. Not being able to kill resistance members was also just irritating: it woudln't be too hard to program them to turn on you if you murder
5) much control over the resistance fighters. They SCREAM out for a "stay here" command in addition to the "go here" command.
6) variety of enemies was too low. You felt like you'd seen pretty much everything by the time you saw the antlions, and you pretty much had. The striders were not a surprise to fans. Packs of houndeyes with HL2's sound and phsyics would have been awesome. I also felt that barnacles should have been more problematic to defeat: acid blood or something would have been cool, so that killing them would be a problem require more creative solutions and/or avoidance
7) no final boss or new monsters in the citadel: wth? Even one more alien creature to defend the citadel and fight you with your new powers (perhaps a creature that throws objects at you?) would have been awesome, or at least a final boss that shows off whatever devastating powers the benefactors have in store for humanity. Just more gunships? What?
8) creatively mixing enemies and their strategies got weaker towards the end, where it felt more like they were just throwing the same enemies at us more randomly. Strider + gunship for air cover on the strider was an obvious combination, but didn't happen that I recall. Some variety in the tactics of the combine troops or additional enemies would have been nice too: the aforementioned mechs and so on.
9) no icythsaur in the ocean, just the deadly maggots. This was pointless: would have been such a cool thing, the model and some of the animations are already in the game, and gabe said it would be in!

As I said, the game blows away the comptetion. But there were also some pretty obvious things lacking, without good replacements.

 

[Space Farm]

Wasn't Half-Life 2 meant to have face-morphing technology used on the scientists' faces, where every scientist looked slightly different from the other one? Anyone know anything about this?