Post-Mortem of EP1 (and wishlist for HL3)

[Stene]

Interesting that they enforced the "Not Murderer" position for HL2 but not HL1.

Alyx notices what you're carrying? When? I don't remember that... comments on the Gravity Gun? Stuff like that?

Well, in HL1 you get Game Over usually, and sometimes you just kill someone as mistake, and it was so stupid when scientists never hid from soldiers, like the level before Surface Tension when the asshole scientists need to open the door that has the Eyescanner. Of course they just run in there and group of soldiers come from nowhere and shoot them.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

The main factor is that the scripted sequences here are much more elaborate. In HL1, it was usually just a scientist running into a room and getting killed, or talking to you with plot info. The actions are so simple that interrupting them doesn't make much difference.
Also, if you kill them, it doesn't matter, because only a handful of them are critical to reaching later parts of the game.

I personally never killed them anyways. It was way more fun to rescue the scientists from certain death.

 

[Flynn(Snarkpit)]

That was a scripted sequence. It was meant to be brutal.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

The main factor is that the scripted sequences here are much more elaborate. In HL1, it was usually just a scientist running into a room and getting killed, or talking to you with plot info. The actions are so simple that interrupting them doesn't make much difference.
Also, if you kill them, it doesn't matter, because only a handful of them are critical to reaching later parts of the game.

I personally never killed them anyways. It was way more fun to rescue the scientists from certain death.

Yeha, I always saved them. Never could bring myself to kill them (doubt Freeman would).

 

[achilles_d]

at the end of HL2 i can remember Alyx pointing out that breen had left the Grav gun.

 

[Flyingdebris]

the author of the article had some good ideas but a lot of crappy ones too. I definitely am of the sentiment that gordon shouldn't speak. However some level of chracter interaction more than just "go there or follow me" is in order.

Perhaps if you could respond to characters with a list of emotes like in codename freeman? Or if nodding or shaking your view in game actually counted for a positive and negative response, respectively.

I do believe that gordon's body should be visible. It adds a nice level of immersion as well as feeling like you occupy a space rather than inhabit a floating guncam. Several games have pulled this off well so far.

I disagree with the second screen thing, that would be kinda dumb i think. As it would take you out of the feeling that you were looking through someone's eyes and more like you were playing an mmo account, and mmos are t3h suk.

He's spot on about character relationships though. I was also one of those people who'd try and collect an entourage of survivors and try to keep them alive. I think what would have made the npc relationships better would have been to give more actions available to the AI. Anywhere you can go, the npcs should be able to go as well. I want to see npcs follow me up stairs, through vents, swim after me, jump up, jump down, and go where i go. Also make them more like individual personalities than expendable cannonfodder. That means no infinitely respawning rebels.

That way if you can keep them alive you can concievably take them all the way to the end of the game.

Also he's right about the combine. The AI was smart in as far as moving to and from cover, using grenades, as well as flanking was concered. But they felt too one dimensional, even for disposable henchmen. Everything i said about friendly AI should apply to the combine. In additon to using med stations, extracting their wounded, retreating, setting traps, and having more animations than just running, shooting, grenading, reload, and melee. The soldiers in FEAR weren't all that much smarter than hl2's, however they did have more options available to them. They would use stairs, jump over obstacles, go prone or crouch to get under trailers, would flinch and loose aim when shot, and when in a paniced retreat would fire wildly over their shoulder. As such they were much more fun to fight.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

If I was Gordon, I'd have recognised Breen instantly in the train station and not needed Alyx to directly tell me later. I might have realised who he was (as a player) from his Breencast when he condemns Freeman as the "messiah" and later from the clippings in Eli's lab.

Even though it was almost 20 years later?
This had some good and bad ideas, though it was well written.

"(Judging by one of Alyx's anecdotes, the world of HL2 could very well be an alternate reality: Just as I was about to crawl into an air vent, Alyx spoke about how "some days" Dr Kleiner, Barney and I (Gordon) used to race each other into an empty office room via air vents and other means. This never happened. I didn't spend a single day at work with either Barney or Dr Kleiner for this to be possible. The Black Mesa incident happened on my first day on the job. What exactly was she talking about?) " - From the post-mortum.

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=114535

In this thread it is revealed that that wasn't Gordon's first day at work.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

Yeah, gordon worked there for at least a week or two, and theorhetically as long as a year.

 

[Jambi]

Yes very well written i agree with everything but the part where he wants Gordon to speak, as soon as he speaks it gives him personality, thus making the player feel like he is controlling someone rather then its HIM in that Hazard suit.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Yes very well written i agree with everything but the part where he wants Gordon to speak, as soon as he speaks it gives him personality, thus making the player feel like he is controlling someone rather then its HIM in that Hazard suit.

Which is also why a film with Gordon in should not be made.:afro:

 

[Shift]

Which is why a film shouldn't be made at all

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Which is why a film shouldn't be made at all

QFT.

 

[357]

Yes very well written i agree with everything but the part where he wants Gordon to speak, as soon as he speaks it gives him personality, thus making the player feel like he is controlling someone rather then its HIM in that Hazard suit.

Hell... but it pisses me off that you can't say anything you would like to... I'd love if there was some kind of dialogue system

 

[Stene]

Hell... but it pisses me off that you can't say anything you would like to... I'd love if there was some kind of dialogue system

IMO it sounds stupid in Crysis gameplay videos when you hear how your character talks to people, like in that video when player helps that guy out of that pipe that crushed him, and player says something like "Don't worry I will help you".

 

[zenstorm]

I'm the writer of the original "article".

It was actually a letter to Gabe Newell, which was later converted into a blog. (Gabe never wrote back, understandably).

I've been away for a while and was delighted to find when I came back... four massive pages of responses! Wow!! I'm astounded. Most of them were refreshingly intelligent replies as well- even the ones who disagreed with me. I loved reading each one of them. Thank you!

I'm not going to individually defend my ideas, as that would get tiresome, but I would like to address a few. In general though I still stand by my ideas and think they will work*, however I can also agree with people who didn't like them in the sense that "idea X, Y and Z" doesn't fit within the HL universe. Having Gordon speak was definitely a taboo subject and it seems like, for a lot of people, that would have simply crossed the line with them. Fair enough.

Character speech

In the HL universe (albeit in the original HL game, sans Source), Gordon did actually speak? if you count grunting (or screaming in a fall) as a vocal expression, that is. It's basic, but these sounds from the character itself help the player's immersion, and even the gameplay (as an audible recognition of your character's wellbeing- ie. I'm taking damage). They've since removed these minor sounds out of the game, however I will maintain that characters can speak without breaking the illusion for the player- it just has to be done minimally and cleverly. The main crux to the speech argument is less about immersion, but more about total control of your character. If you have total control of all actions Gordon has at his disposal, then you should have total immersion as a follow on from that. A character speaking his own words threatens this.

The two schools of thought to either side of this argument:

1. No speech at all, which goes for 'complete immersion', but also comes with gameplay and game narrative limits (which ironically disrupts the complete immersion)
?? as soon as [Gordon] speaks it gives him personality, thus making the player feel like he is controlling someone rather than its HIM in that Hazard suit.? -Jambi

Or

2. Providing a voice, and therefore also providing a personality to "guide" the player?s immersion, at the same time sacrificing the feeling that you have possessed the body of the character completely.
?Hell... but it pisses me off that you can't say anything you would like to... I'd love if there was some kind of dialogue system?- 357

I believe the trick here is for the character to remain silent unless it's otherwise impossible to do so. The guide to when is and isn't the right time is determined by whether it's the player time to think, or the character's time to think. (In my example I also change the mentality of player dialogue being relegated to the sin bin- ie only to bring out in case of a dire emergency- and adopt the mentality of using player dialogue as a reward):

Let's say Alyx is hanging on a ledge that you can't get to. She's hanging there by two hands- screaming- "Gordon, help!" This is the player's time to think now, and therefore off-limits for character dialogue. You pull down a car chassis from an overhang. It clangs down forming a bridge, and shudders the earth. Alyx loses grip and hangs by only one hand now. You cross the make-shift bridge, get to the ledge and crouch next to it. A world/context-sensitive avatar has you kneeling lower than normal and you see your hand extend out from the bottom of the screen to take hers- just out of reach. You hear your own voice (Gordon's) saying: "Take my hand!" She grunts with effort and grabs hold. You lift her up.

Now if the player needed to only crouch down to pick Alyx up, (for the game to keep Gordon silent) the drama and action of this scene would be lessened by this limitation. Using dialogue as a reward here for the completion of a task also lets the player know he's completed what he needs to do- so you feel good about him speaking. Alyx now says to you your next objective and it's the player's time to think again, therefore the character is once again rendered silent. All the dialogue needed for that scene to do what it needs to do is one line of dialogue, and a few grunts for flavour. I believe Gordon should never say anything that isn?t crucial to the story, but at least say something. Less is more, but nothing is actually nothing. For example: Turn a handle to open a door, the handle snaps off and you?re left holding a broken handle, the character mumbles, ?...sh!t??, and tosses the handle- clank! Simple and elegant saves the day. This ethos definitely favours the ?man of few words? stereo-typical hero, but I'll argue it also favours creativity and drama as well.

This brings me to character guided instructions. My pet peeve in all games. A game characer can grunt, yell, and hmph all they want, but the game should never assume the player needs the game character's advice: "Somewhere around here there's got to be a key that fits this keyhole. Hmm... what else had that shape? I'll just keep looking ..." That's so annoying, especially when they repeat themselves. The player would rather get their info from the internet than have the shame of being babied through a level by the game itself. But I digress...

Beyond that, I could be convinced to agree with 357 about a dialogue system, but it would have to be a darn good one- more than just a string of always available soundbites- like CounterStrike. Afterall, we have context sensitive actions nowadays, why not context sensitive words? Different commands and responses for whoever you're speaking to. (And no dialogue options for when no-one is around of course). I can't see why a system like this wouldn't work, but for Gordon Freeman and the HL rule book, I doubt we will ever hear him speak at all* especially as even the few grunts he did have are now taken away.


Gordon's body

I was surprised at the amount of negative responses I got from the idea of including Gordon's body. I thought this would have been an easy and unanimous "yes", but I was obviously wrong. This was one of the key reasons I was looking forward to playing Dark Messiah, since they included the character's body within their game. Unfortunately, it wasn't as I thought it would be. Dark Messiah's character body was really just an avatar going through simple animation cycles. Run. Walk. Creep. Kick. Etc. It had no direct relation with its world. The animations have only been synched up to the world to give you that impression. I would have preferred more directly calculated interatctions. Let's say Gordon is creeping along a thin outrcop of a ravine. You look down and see your feet perilously close to the edge, little pebbles coming away from you as you shimmy sideways. If you've ever done this yourself you know that you actually have to look down to see where your feet are going to go. That's one example of how a character's body could be used for gameplay.

Or the best example I can think of is: crawling through an airvent thin enough that you're flat on your belly using your elbows. You hear a noise behind you- a head crab. You turn around, having to lie on your back, then aim the pistol through your legs to kill it. ...stuff like that. This concept would actually need procedural animation (as opposed to triggered anim cycles) to determine the characters relationship to the environment/props that are around him. It may be a lot more work for what some might think of as not a lot of return, but I think the felling you get from realistically affecting the world around you would be incredible, and lots of fun.

I'd also like to thank Flyingdebris for extending one of my ideas with his suggestions about how "anywhere you can go, the npcs should be able to go as well. I want to see npcs follow me up stairs, through vents, swim after me, jump up, jump down, and go where i go." Nice ideas, and I agree. It would have brought out the NPCs' individual strengths and weaknesses, and make nice new problems to solve as well: for instance, a fat scientist might not be able to swim across the small, but deep canal that you and the others have just crossed. The others argue to leave him behind. They turn to you to make the final decision. As you try to work out how to get you fat scientist survivor friend across, the tensions in the group begin to rise. The longer they stay there the more likely they will come into danger. Take too long and you're in a fire fight with the people chasing you, and the fat guy dies. Etc). Fantastic stuff.


First Day on the job

And lastly, I'd like to clear this up once and for all, Black Mesa really was Gordon Freeman's first day on the job. It may not be stated anywhere implicitly, but it is so heavily implied through the story narrative that it's taken for granted. For instance: In the instruction book that came with the original game, it comes with an employment letter from Black Mesa welcoming you (Gordon) onboard the team. Then the train journey's voiceover welcomes you into the facility and outlines basic safety procedures, etc. You are given the impression that you are entering the facility for the first time. The stats that appear about you "Subject: Gordon Freeman. Male. Age 27. Assignment: Anomalous Materials Laboratory, etc" also reinforce the implication that you are being initiated into the Black Mesa facility. Regardless of whatever is said after that, by whomever, the insinuation, implication and lasting impression that it is Gordon's first day at Black Mesa is unavoidably obvious. Sorry, Mr Laidlaw.

(Incidentally, I remember the first time I saw this HL opening train sequence- I sat through the entire journey thinking it was a non-interactive cut scene. I faced forward, waiting for it to finish, until I could play. It wasn't until I moved the mouse near the end of the ride that I realised OMG! I could look around?!! ...Restart).

Thanks to everyone who read my post-mortem, and now this response. Neither wasn't exactly a short read, so I'm delighted that you sat through it all. Cheers!

M

*By the way, if anyone who read my original blog article is interested in making a mod incorporating some of these ideas (the one's possible to incorporate at least) I'd be more than happy to be part of it. I'm a competent concept artist and 3-d modeller. Keep it in mind anyway. My folio: http://matbrady1.googlepages.com/

 

[Rapstah]

It's implied that he's been working there for a while too.

"Gordon!"
- How did Gordon get to know a security guard close enough to use first names?


The beginning train message was probably changed on a weekly basis;
"We are currently accepting..."

And if you're going to bring up the letter, it states that he got accepted in May, while i probably won't have to mention that the game takes place in December.

Gordon Freeman has a room in Black Mesa. He has filled his locked with Marc Laidlaw books. He has a HEV suit assigned to him.

It's as clear as it gets.

 

[Jintor]

It's not his first day. No way it was his first day. "Implies it so heavily" is not proof enough, and in any case it really doesn't do that - if every scientist you met was like 'Oh, the new guy, right?' then maybe I might've accepted it, but they're mostly like 'where the hell were you? You know Work starts at 9!"

 

[ShadowJustice]

I do not agree with everything he wrote, but I like the idea of more fleshed-out npcs, who may or may not survive through the game.

Half-life episode one already introduced the concept of "cooperative single player", I hope Valve is going to expand on that. There should be more characters who are not disposable cannon fodder, but also not walking tanks like Alyx. Something in between.


Also, I like the idea of Combine Soldiers limping to the nearest medical station. From the episode 2 trailers we can see that Valve has enhanched the soldiers with some new tricks, like using the rpg or tossing back grenades. I think little details like this make games a whole lot more interesting.

EDIT: I'm sure it wasn't the first day in black mesa for Gordon. After all, everyone in the facility recognized him, and he had to pass the various training and security procedures required for his job. I'd say he worked there for at least 15 days\1 month.

 

[Rapstah]

I'd say he worked there for at least 15 days\1 month.

May -> December = Seven months.

 

[McGooTheWise]

May -> December = Seven months.

As a wise man once said...

"Owned."

 

[zenstorm]

Let me retract my last point, and skulk slowly into the corner.

 

[Jintor]

Gg, objection withdrawn.

 

[CyberPitz]

I must admit, I keep accidentally reading the article again and again because I forget I've already read it.....\=

It's good at least, haha.

 

[pomegranate]

You're a moron.
Locking time, I reckon.

edit - I forget who but someone posted three nonsensical posts in a row, which must've been deleted now...

 

[hunter95]

Alyx Says: Careful More In Half-Life 2 Episode One

 

[pomegranate]

^ that guy.

 

[McGooTheWise]

No worries, the dipshit was banned.

BACK ON TEH TOPICZ!

 

[Hullu]

I agree with him on Alyx. The problem is that you can just let her do all the fighting in ep1, knowing it'll take a LOT till she starts complaining. And at the same time, she makes it too easy for you in some of the fights. It was more fun with the citizens who died so easily, to try and keep them safe, and that's how real people are, they can't take a ton of bullets or dozens of antlions clawing at them.

I wish someone developing the new episode would take this guy's advice.

 

[achilles_d]

i definitely think Valve should take up more character interaction especially when they are developing more advanced AI (thanks to Multi core)

i hate it when a character just walks into u knocking you to the side, they should interact more e.g. Freindly pushing u out the way or even asking you to move.

 

[Operational]

*I was more emotionally connected with the NPC's in HL - it always annoyed me when I was forced to leave them behind. Although having a lot of unarmed and mostly useless people in HL2 wouldn't make much sense.

*It always annoys me that I can't save this guy. You can see the medkit I always try to give him poking out of his stomach. He is alone and vulnerable and you are forced to leave him behind.


*I felt my strongest connection with the citizens in HL2 was during my first play of Exit 17, where it was my job to protect them and I knew they would die if I didn't (even though they weren't completely hopeless).

*Alyx is too powerful, I don't feel the teamwork aspect Valve was hoping for because I know I can pretty much ignore her. I'm hoping when Episode Two is released and we get the 'super-hard' mode (which will be added to Episode One and Half-Life 2 at the same time) that Alyx will be more vulnerable.

I do not agree with everything he wrote, but I like the idea of more fleshed-out npcs, who may or may not survive through the game.

Half-life episode one already introduced the concept of "cooperative single player", I hope Valve is going to expand on that. There should be more characters who are not disposable cannon fodder, but also not walking tanks like Alyx. Something in between.


Also, I like the idea of Combine Soldiers limping to the nearest medical station. From the episode 2 trailers we can see that Valve has enhanched the soldiers with some new tricks, like using the rpg or tossing back grenades. I think little details like this make games a whole lot more interesting.

EDIT: I'm sure it wasn't the first day in black mesa for Gordon. After all, everyone in the facility recognized him, and he had to pass the various training and security procedures required for his job. I'd say he worked there for at least 15 days\1 month.