Ruthless12 said:Well, I agree with those who said Ravenholm was scary. (Note: This doesn't mean I feared for my life or actually thought a video game would hurt me; this means that adrenaline was pumping and felt similar emotions to what someone in Gordon's position would feel. Of course, I might not be as cynical as gen-y-ers)
I also agree with whoever said the game felt "oppressive". I think that's the right word for it, and the developers should be commended for conveying that feeling. The creepiness (IMO) starts off when you stop at the fork in the canal on your airboat and you can see that there was clearly a small settlement for someone near the runoff drain. There's a very eery feeling of loneliness to the place, with the wind blowing and the wind chimes. It's obvious the place has been deserted and you get the feeling like you shouldn't be there. Then, a zombie stumbles out of the tunnel. Excellently creepy and it hints at things to come.
Then you get to BME and Alyx tells you about Ravenholm. Nothing too bad about that, but it is obvious at that point that you don't want to go in there and equally obvious that you are going to HAVE to go in there...games can be a bit predictable sometimes...anyhow, in this case I think it worked (for me) because you knew ahead of time that you were going to have to go in some "awful place", so you had some time to let that sink in subconsciously and build up some dread about the next scene. While at the same time you are just having some "safe time" with Alyx and dog. Good pacing by the developers here to manipulate your emotions.
Then dog lets you in Ravenholm entrance and it begins. I felt pretty nervous when dog left and I was alone. Then you go past all the signs of abandonment and all the barricades; the locked barrier on the ladder was especially nice touch. All these little touches really make you feel like you shouldn't be going where you're going and the tension mounts. Then you get to the courtyard and you see how abandoned and eerily silent the place is and I definitely felt like I didn't want to be there and I wanted to leave as soon as possible.
Throughout Ravenholm, the developers did a great job with the sounds; the unearthly rattling of something in a nearby building, strange moans and howls coming out of the night...other nice subtle touches were the way the level was laid out: All the traps, the barricades, fences, and scaffolding really clued you in on how it would be like to spend a lot of time in that place and survive. The shells gave good indications of what happened in the town, and there are lots of signs of the horror it caused (dead bodies hidden away in various hidden spots gives the impression that people tried to survive by hiding, but were eventually found and killed; the infirmary shows that the townspeople tried to treat the infected, but were obviously unsuccessful) The animations of the zombies was good, too. The way they pick themselves up off the ground and stagger towards you is pretty realistic-looking; same with the way the poison zombie staggers around, weighed down with crabs.
The developers also did a good job of making you feel like you were never safe. I was constantly looking around to see if anything was sneaking up on me. Also, by having lots of dead zombies around (another subconscious clue as to what transpired in the town before you showed up) and have some of them actually be alive makes you have a difficult choice: Blast every body you see and waste ammo, or else prepare to have one of these things get up when you aren't watching and get you.
The part where you are chased by the fast zombies and you run into the room and shut the door, then they crash in through the skylight was absolutely brilliant.
Anyhow, I thought the level was brilliant in bringing out feelings of: Dread, desperation, mortality. It definitely makes one uneasy. It took me several nights to finish and I usually had a night or so off in between nights playing so I could work up my nerve to go back in.
(I just played through that level for the third time last night; this time I gave myself a bunch of vortigaunts and citizens as backup, plus made myself invincible and gave myself all the weapons. It was still creepy, but not scary. The vortigaunts absolutely slay everything. They are excellent body guards, but unfortunately they won't follow you like the citizens will. At one point I spawned "dog" to help me, but he ran away from the zombies and hid in an alley!)
Someone above mentioned the term "ambience" and I think that's a good word to use, too, for HL2. Ravenholm was especially good, but the game in general presented a really impressive "atmosphere". Part of that is the graphics, but I think the subtle clues (like I mentioned above) were very important, and I think most notable was the use of sound in the game. The use of sound was, IMO, genius and was the key to the atmosphere in the game.
Some commented that some of the outpost houses along the road were creepy and I agree. The game did a great job of making sure you never felt safe, even during the daytime. There was something very eery about the houses; they showed signs that they were abandoned, but something bad happened there. And it was very quiet (which is unusal because most of the game is fairly noisy.) Then you hear "something" (bad) inside. Someone mentioned the poison zombie in Nova Prospekt being creepy (and it was); there was also one in one of the houses along the coast road. Later on, in the tunnel, when the zombies come at you: That was brilliantly scary as well...
Great Grizzly said:
and it prolly doesnt help that im entomophobic. i remember there was one house on highway 17 where you go in and see a few supply boxes there and rush to see whats inside only to find that theres a zombie with 4 black headcrabs on it in the next room, i was scared out of my mind i ran outside to the buggy and floored it, also there was another house where the roller mines came thru the roof, those made me jump :bounce: also the tunnel where you had to use the grav gun to move the cars was freaky, those fast zombies kept running at you while you try to move the cars and on top of that there were more zombies on the other side of the cars. another one was the part where you couldnt touch the sand or be torn apart by those antlions, everytime you miss and touch the ground then the ground starts shaking and then those antlions come after you was really scary. nevertheless it was fun all the way, with exceptions in some parts of ravenholm Bronzer said:
agentD said:
I've completed it two times in the demo, before I got Half Life 2 for christmas So it was boring... Kinda reminds me of resident evil or Dawn of the Dead
