Half-Life 2 or Half "the" Life 2

[handsomeplzer]

Like most of you, I d/l those spiffy trailer showing you HL 2. The graphics are breath taking and the monsters are more realistic. The new weapons are cool (got to love that weapon that picks things up!). Even the atmosphere and mod are cool.

However, is this game more linear then the first release? I mean how was I suppose to know that when the bad guy is after me to run into the building on the left side, shut the door behind me, duck as I pass by the boarder up windows, use the frig to block the door, shoot the man as I run up the steps, use the grappling gun to hoist him up against the threshold of the hallway at the bottom of the steps, go to the roof, crash through the window throwing a hand grenade at a billboard that will fall on a crane, which will give way to a steel plank held suspended through high tensile wire which towards the baddies below decapitating them.. I take baddies guns, enter street where I notice a gizmo with propellers on it, turn it on as the baddies come after me, duck down and crawl as I assume the baddies are dumb enough to come towards propellers turning at 200mph.

I mean come on, where is the freedom of making up your own mind of what you want to do w/o making the game harder because I didn't follow a linear, very narrow script of game play. Sorry if I am no "Doctor Who" but everyone can't assest a new environment on the run and know what is the "best" course of action to make. Better yet, what the programmers installed as the best remedy to the next level.

Sure it is fun trying to find out what was the easiest way to get through a level but HL2 appears to be very difficult at any setting unless you play it the way the programmers want you to.

Thoughts, concerns, opinions, etc?

 

[kinggi]

"However, is this game more linear then the first release? I mean how was I suppose to know that when the bad guy is after me to run into the building on the left side, shut the door behind me, duck as I pass by the boarder up windows, use the frig to block the door, shoot the man as I run up the steps, use the grappling gun to hoist him up against the threshold of the hallway at the bottom of the steps, go to the roof, crash through the window throwing a hand grenade at a billboard that will fall on a crane, which will give way to a steel plank held suspended through high tensile wire which towards the baddies below decapitating them.. I take baddies guns, enter street where I notice a gizmo with propellers on it, turn it on as the baddies come after me, duck down and crawl as I assume the baddies are dumb enough to come towards propellers turning at 200mph. "

that makes for more non linear gameplay- also gamers are adapting to the difficulties in games and a more difficult game thats fair, will be the better game.

 

[nw909]

You don't have to do it like that, shoot the combine soldier before he chases you into the building and run down to where the combine came from.

 

[Deadline]

Originally posted by handsomeplzer
Like most of you, I d/l those spiffy trailer showing you HL 2. The graphics are breath taking and the monsters are more realistic. The new weapons are cool (got to love that weapon that picks things up!). Even the atmosphere and mod are cool.

However, is this game more linear then the first release? I mean how was I suppose to know that when the bad guy is after me to run into the building on the left side, shut the door behind me, duck as I pass by the boarder up windows, use the frig to block the door, shoot the man as I run up the steps, use the grappling gun to hoist him up against the threshold of the hallway at the bottom of the steps, go to the roof, crash through the window throwing a hand grenade at a billboard that will fall on a crane, which will give way to a steel plank held suspended through high tensile wire which towards the baddies below decapitating them.. I take baddies guns, enter street where I notice a gizmo with propellers on it, turn it on as the baddies come after me, duck down and crawl as I assume the baddies are dumb enough to come towards propellers turning at 200mph.

I mean come on, where is the freedom of making up your own mind of what you want to do w/o making the game harder because I didn't follow a linear, very narrow script of game play. Sorry if I am no "Doctor Who" but everyone can't assest a new environment on the run and know what is the "best" course of action to make. Better yet, what the programmers installed as the best remedy to the next level.

Sure it is fun trying to find out what was the easiest way to get through a level but HL2 appears to be very difficult at any setting unless you play it the way the programmers want you to.

Thoughts, concerns, opinions, etc?

It will be linear It will still kick ass thought. I hope there are alot of those parts that you go OMFG THAT WAS SO FREAKIN AWSOME!!!!!!!!
And some that you go OMFG AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!11!!!!111!!1!!111

 

[wormstrangler]

Wait till you actually play the game.

You don't have to play it like the E3 video. I'm sure if you wanted to, you could have walked down that length of catwalk next to the building instead of entering the building.

And you don't have to duck, or block the door or anything else. They were just showing off the AI.

 

[Quotidian---]

well.. first off i thought the first HL was pretty damn linear. second i think this game gives you more freedom.... as in.... you don't HAVE to take the stairs jump down the frig block teh door blah blah blah, you could just shoot the guy walk up the stairs, nade the guys down there, take a different route... blah blah balh... instead of hl1 where if you didn't go the one right way you were f'd.

for exp the damn 3 headed creature in hl1... took me forever to figure out i throw a nade run to the next ladder, throw a nade sprint to the next ladder, go turn on some thing, go back, retrace my steps go to the next ladder etc. etc. i just wanted to kill it and move on....

hl2 might be more of a ... i could have done all that, or i could have spent a TON of ammo on the thing and killed it out right... thr problem is i would be tight on ammo in teh future where the other way i'd be well stocked for the future......

see what i'm saying?

 

[nw909]

HL1 was definitally linear, every door locked except the one you have to follow.

 

[Quotidian---]

I"m pretty sure i remeber gabe saying things like in my example could happen, just one way might reward you more then another.......


Such as when gabe said how if your playing the game fast.. alyx would realize this and just give you the info you need and let you be on your way... but if your playing it slow she might chat it up with you a little longer.....

 

[wormstrangler]

Linear gameplay does not = bad.

Non-linear gameplay does not = bad.

It's all about how the developers implement it.

Dues-Ex is probably the best example of a game with non-linear gameplay and HL1 of linear gameplay.

 

[Mjolnir]

possibilities?

i don't think that the actual game will be as linear as you describe from the "Traptown" vid. Just one possible path..................

 

[Lupus]

I think you have kinda missed what it is about You don't HAVE to do that stuff. It wasn't scripted, you CAN do them, but there will be other ways. That 'traptown' area is filled with traps as the video says, you won't HAVE to use them, but if you find them you can, could make things easier for you (and more interesting hehe). I think (according to what I have read/heard/seen) the game will be LESS linear than the first one. It won't be a case of 'push this button, make lift move, get on, jump off to new area'. Also I'm sure the AI, layout of the map etc will help guide you into roughly what you should be doing. Say you are going along the street, a combine soldier appears infront of you, one across the street and one from a corner to your right a bit behind you, that kind of boxes you in and you won't want to sit in the crossfire. This basically guides you into the building on the left. You move past a window and bullets come through it, this encourages you to duck out of the way. Combine soldiers start coming through the door and you are outgunned, you retreat, which means going up the stairs. Another is there, you need to kill him, look, a handy object with which to brain him, pick up the radiator and introduce them to each other. Still moving away from the ones coming in the front door, you block the stairs to cut them off, then you move along the roof, and see guys down there. You could sit and try to shoot them. Hmm is that a big bunch of beams on some cables there? Looks odd, hmm, could be a trap. If I shoot the thing holding them in that position they should swing on the cables. K I'll try that...<bang>.....<screams and thudding sounds>.....hehehe. Hmm that guy down there keeps shooting at me, if only there was something to throw or push onto him. Hmm that is a big object, hmm sitting on some stilts. If I take out a couple of stilts it will tilt and slide. Guess I'll try that...<bang>...<screech>....<crunch>....heheh. I think you see where I am going from here Personally I say don't worry about it, even if parts of the game are fairly linear, there will be things like the AI that will make it different each time you try it.

 

[handsomeplzer]

ok I agree hl1 was pretty linear, and I simply got tired of playing it until I enabled the online gameplay, in that time it was sweet! Hours upon hours of fun until I nearly forgot there was a single player option LOL.

Funny thing was, the more I played online the more I hated the single player mode. You had so much freedom online to play as you want that you didn't want to go back. Heck I don't remember finishing the game LOL.

kinggi
You are right a certain kind of game will draw the attention of certain kind of gamer.

Quotidian---
yea I hear yea you makea good point

wormstrangler
I will wait until it comes out but I hope I will be able to finish it this time around.

Deadline
When you are a hardcore HL fan it really doesn't matter if it's linear or not.

 

[wormstrangler]

HL1 was linear but it was damn fun. I'm replaying it now on hard to pass the time. I never usually play a game on hard, simply because games usually aren't designed to be played on that setting. It's still proving to be fun and after I finish it, I shall be moving onto OP4. Again.

 

[Quotidian---]

well yeah i agree, when i think of hl2 i think of the single player experience........

i think thats becuase when i get hl2 and install it and sit down to play it on the new comp i bought for it.. (i needed to upgrade anyway) (see below) i will start up the single player, and for awhile like others i'm sure, i will be disconnected from the hl2 community cuase i'll be immersed in teh single player aspect, and for me when i completely finish hl2 is when i'll look into the multiplayer aspect... thats what i did for hl1 all single player first, then MP for the rest of my life

 

[handsomeplzer]

Hey,

I d/l new trailer for Halo 2, sweet, very sweet. Wish it was on the pc.

But to be honest with you I think I will get HL2 and Call of Duty. I have the demo now and I have played it at least 2 times a night. I really like this game.

 

[Quotidian---]

i think i will to....

hey! lets BOTH get HL2 !!!! omg lgjsad;klgsdj we are so l33t

 

[A2597]

the gameplay is non-linear....

the story however, to the best of our knowledge, is.

many MANY ways to beat a mission, but in the end, you'll have to finish it