Post-Mortem of EP1 (and wishlist for HL3)

loved the visable body idea for HL3 and the way its described how u can interact with Alyx etc...

i hope this happens in HL3 it would be far better than Gordon being 'a floating set of eyeballs'
 
You know, they tried the visible voiced character thing in Unreal 2. I agree with the weapon carrying thing of Alyx, though.
 
it was a very good read... nicley done!

i do hope at one point like you stated maybe in HL3 that you do actually have a body and not just eyes.
 
Gordon should not have audible dialogue or be seen from without by the player (Unless maybe he has an out-of-body experience? Hell, he gets hit off the head enough.) He just wouldn't be Gordon anymore. The beauty of the current method of total immersion is that you are never compelled to wonder if you're playing him "right", because he is whatever you damn well think he is.

In that vein, I think the only thing that is really needed is more meaningful player choices. Not that it isn't going to remain a world of linear storylines, but Gordon needs to interact with the people around him more.



The one thing I will now complain about is the oft-repeated claim that Gordon ****ed up on his first day. Now, I've been known to run away from squads of grunts screaming "It's my first day!", but it was a joke. Much like many other things in HL1 that confuse continuity.

Now, the semi-official history is that Gordon was to report to work no later than May 15. Claims that the incident happened on May 16th are hard to justify. The calenders on the walls were all opened to December IIRC. It's not like you could easily tell what season it was in the middle of the Southwestern desert. And we don't even know that it's the same year thanks to the last digit always being omitted. Plus, a bunch of people all over the complex already know his name.


Oh, and most (intelligent) people don't assume that he is actually totally silent. In fact, in a few circumstances it is very obviously implied that he must have said something. How do you think he goes around directing people? Charades? In the middle of a firefight?

"Whatever you say, doc!"

</rant>
 
I almost stopped reading when you said Opposing Force went far beyond what Episode 1 did. Episode 1 did alot more than Opposing Force ever did. It didn't stoop to its knees and hand over more weapons and enemies in the traditional cliche that has become of 'expansion packs'. It does so much more than that.

Half-life offers an entirely non-linear method of storytelling. Things such as antlions do not need explanation, for they are not pivotal. Where they come from is answered within the game, however, not directly, it is up to you to make the connection. These things shouldn't be answered. These things are for the player to think on. As I said, true non-linearity.

I completely disagree with your HL3 musings too.
 
oh yea i forgot to mention. I hated the idea of Alyx having another love interest. If i couldn't kill that other guy straight away i would stop playing lol.
 
achilles_d said:
oh yea i forgot to mention. I hated the idea of Alyx having another love interest. If i couldn't kill that other guy straight away i would stop playing lol.
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id do what some guy did in the origional... spawn some of those SLAM's (the lazer tripmine things) after i watch where he walks in scripted parts... and place them where hes walking... and watch him go splat :D

he did it to dr kleiner i think
 
I must admitt hes entirely bang on about those NPCs in hl1, i remember always doing my best to save them even when i got shot to bits, the same goes for the NPCs in hl2, this makes the way Alyx doesn't 'need' you seem kinda sad... but if she was just another scientist/barney/resistance member i'd just get totally at her for getting stuck on corridor corners etc.

Not to mention it would completely flaw the gameplay.
 
Those ideas are rather uniformly terrible, except for the fairly obvious need for better rebel AI and/or squad commands.
 
I did like the emotional thing, but that probably wasn't the best way to address them. I do think, though, that at present Gordon is nothing more than a floating pair of eyeballs; but, at the same time, forcing a personality upon him... well, it just wouldn't be Half-Life.
 
The part with the mirror was wrong - it would be a lot cooler if Gordon didn't have a mirror image. :thumbs:
 
Well I completely agree with the Rebel AI, I thought they really were a waste of time and it was bigger waste of time to put the squad commands in because they couldn't follow your orders properly, I always groaned when some more rebels found me and starting following me, getting in my way. They definately need a major rework. Also agree with the idea of selective weaponry, but not with the idea of Alyx carrying your discarded weapons. I believe it makes it more belivable in the sense that Freeman couldn't possibly carry that many weapons, and forces the player to give more thought into what weapons to take.

The connections are there between HL and HL2, as Samon said, you must make the link yourself, that is the unique way it tells the story, not just handing everything to you on a plate. For instance, when I first playing through it, I knew about the Portal Storms, so when seeing these new creatures, Ant Lions, for the first time, I immediately made the assumption that they would have got here via the Portal Storms and breeded. Another example, I was wondering how the headcrabs were investing all these different areas and where they were coming from, until I started seeing the headcrab canisters.

Freeman DOES NOT need to talk at all, if he did that would just ruin it, however, I think the idea of more character interaction would be a good idea, like Alyx interacting with Freeman's physical presence more like you said, if you are standing in the way of a console she needs to use, instead of merely walking to it and moving you out of the way lol, she will jokingly push you out of the way. Or like at certain moments, Alyx can 'use' Alyx or choose to ignore her, like the moment after the Stalker Train in EP1, you can 'use' her and give her a hand up, or dont and she will get up herself.

No on your points for EP3
 
yea I reckon they should def use gordon's hands more to interact with characters.

this happens only once to my knowledge when u put the HEV suit on the first time in HL2. (he lifts his hands and clinches his fists)
 
Well, I agree with the guns. It is stupid how Gordon has something like 13 weapons at same time. Crowbar, Shotgun, SMG and Pistol are maybe what someone could keep in real life + maybe some grenades. And Gravity Gun is also really heavy if you look how Breen and Alyx hold it in sequences. So having those + somekind of AR2, ROCKET LAUNCHER WTF, revolver, unlimited bugbites etc, it is just really unrealistic.

But not so unrealistic as HL1 though, lol there was over 20 weapons, Gauss Guns, Egon Gun... :D
 
Stene said:
Well, I agree with the guns. It is stupid how Gordon has something like 13 weapons at same time. Crowbar, Shotgun, SMG and Pistol are maybe what someone could keep in real life + maybe some grenades. And Gravity Gun is also really heavy if you look how Breen and Alyx hold it in sequences. So having those + somekind of AR2, ROCKET LAUNCHER WTF, revolver, unlimited bugbites etc, it is just really unrealistic.
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Who cares, it's a game?
 
I agree with the part about Alyx's story on crawling through vents in Black Mesa, which seemed tacked on and meant little. I thought the same when told in HL2 about Breen being the Black Mesa administrator, as it seemed a little forced. 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.

Your screenshot of the trail of scientists reminded me of a Barney in Half-Life who stayed with me for ages, and when he eventually died a watching friend tried to make me feel guilty for not saving him. I had a rebel in HL2 who miraculously survived for about three street fights, but I didn't quite feel the same connection (my squads always end up dying, even when I send them to cover), and don't really feel anything for Alyx surviving along the way because she has to survive. It's the NPCs who beat the odds who I end up taking notice of.

As for Gordon being more of a presence, I definitely think the NPCs should have individual tales to tell when spoken to, instead of just looking away. Idle animations would be cool too (I've not actually checked for these in HL2) where Gordon rubs dirt off the weapon, or twangs the wire on the crossbow etc. I always thought he should have an idle animation where he takes off his glasses and rubs off the blood, guts and radioactive waste, during which time the screen blurs. He doesn't need a voice, reflection, shadow, feet etc however, as they wouldn't really add anything, except perhaps as the very last scene of the final HL game.
 
Including voice, reflection, shadow, feet or anything else that makes Gordon an 'individual character' at the very end of the HL series would be the single biggest mistake in the history of gaming.
 
Well, I agree but did mean it as a last resort, and I've just remembered the photograph in Kleiner's lab, so yes, that was one of my poorer ideas.
 
Samon said:
Who cares, it's a game?
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Half-Life 2 has some incredibly realistic (in their own sci-fi universe video game way) things, but then they go and trample all over it with the biggest cliche in video games ever: being able to hold over 10 weapons all at once. I mean, come on, why ruin the atmosphere with something so simpley avoided?

On a related note to the above, and more so in any video game; if you are going to be carrying round a rocket launcher, shotgun, Magnum, grenades, etc, then at LEAST make it so you can blow doors open so they can have a better benefit for the ridiculousness of carrying round 100pounds of equipment or whatever the weight will be.
 
Wtf? Let me quote something rq.

The dumbest thing I've ever heard. said:
(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?)
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Well wtf? Do you want to play as gordon from the time he was born? You're not going to see every little thing that happened in his life from start to finish. They're going to put the stuff in that matters to the main plot, that an alien race takes over the world. I honestly don't care to see that part of it, because it's all in the imagination. If you can't figure that out, you are either being facetious, or you're a retard. The gameplay where you are playing AS Gordon doesn't automatically mean that you are sopposed to BE Gordon, you're seeing the story through his eyes, not making it. If you honestly can't understand something as simple as that you don't deserve to have a blogg. End of story.
 
You've misunderstood him, he's under the mistaken (but common) impression that the day of the BM incident was Gordon's very first day there. Calm down.
 
TheAntipop said:
Half-Life 2 has some incredibly realistic (in their own sci-fi universe video game way) things, but then they go and trample all over it with the biggest cliche in video games ever: being able to hold over 10 weapons all at once. I mean, come on, why ruin the atmosphere with something so simpley avoided?
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'Simply be avoided'. Do you really think it is that simple? You'd need to revise alot of scenarios, and alot of thought and effort needs to go into revising weapon selection schemes. Either way, it doesn't ruin the atmosphere for me, considering it is something so trivial and boosts my enjoyment of the game because I can use whatever I please.

pomegranate said:
Yup, and it's clear what I'm referring to so I await your explanation...
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I was quoting everything he said, not intending it to be taken into context with what I meant. That said, the idea of adding 'feet' at this stage is useless and meaningless.
 
Agree, people usually refer to FEAR with the feet thing, but the feet are only present in FEAR because of the flying kick ability the character has, if that wasn't present then the feet wouldn't be there either IMO. Feet just simply are not needed, Freeman's current perspective and it would be crime to change in it in anyway.
 
Samon said:
'Simply be avoided'. Do you really think it is that simple? You'd need to revise alot of scenarios, and alot of thought and effort needs to go into revising weapon selection schemes. Either way, it doesn't ruin the atmosphere for me, considering it is something so trivial and boosts my enjoyment of the game because I can use whatever I please.
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I'm no game designer or anything, but from games I've played that let me carry the right amount of weapons to the laws of... well, weight and being downright ridiculous, it works pretty well when you're killing people right a wide range of weapons. SMG's, shotguns and plasma rifles are always cluttered around, more so the latter two the middle/end sections of the game, same for pistols (save the Magnum, THAT would need carefull thought) and the RPG... well, I never used that on anything other than gunships, but that's just me.

Revising alot of scenarios, yeah, but that's the idea of making a game, right? They have (or in this case, had) the time to make this stuff happen as games do take a long time. Hell, HL2 had ALOT of time. To me, it's not something they should of suddenly remembered ''Oh, shit! We forgot to make the guns realistic to fit with everything else we've spent months on'', it's something they already should of known what to do after seeing so many games about to today, and even 10 years ago, that fit the generic super-soldier person as being able to carry a silly amount of weapons.

I agree, it's enjoyable to do silly things with so many weapons, but having to use tactics to align with what weapons you are carrying, to think over the situation with what you aree equipped with and the atmosphere of being a normal human who can carry 2/3 weapons overpowers that anyday. Besides, I can do fun and silly things after with a simple cheat code or something.
 
pomegranate said:
You've misunderstood him, he's under the mistaken (but common) impression that the day of the BM incident was Gordon's very first day there. Calm down.
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It could not be. Why would you hire a random scientist to do such experiment, it isn't just possible. Just like I would take job at Nasa and next day I would fly to moon.
 
They already tried the approach you are talking about, and it obviously didn't work out. *shrugs* - I really don't mind the current all weapon selection. If they change it, and it works, fine, but I really don't think it does.
 
Stene said:
It could not be. Why would you hire a random scientist to do such experiment, it isn't just possible. Just like I would take job at Nasa and next day I would fly to moon.
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Yes yes I KNOW. I said he was mistaken and I think we've already covered this point in this thread but I was explaining it again for you. Edit: I mean, for Van Halen.
 
pomegranate said:
You've misunderstood him, he's under the mistaken (but common) impression that the day of the BM incident was Gordon's very first day there. Calm down.
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Well... If that was what he meant... then I was right... :D

I will go back into my hole... *Goes into dark corner*
 
The Prince's love interest, Farah, was very much like Alyx in her tone and temperament and is closer to the type of relationship you're aiming for with Alyx and Gordon. The main problem in creating this kind of relationship though is that Gordon isn't actually a character. He's a ghost without personality, or expression, or voice. Essentially, he is a gun with eyes, and because the gun element isn't valid when relating to Alyx we can simplify it even further: Gordon Freeman is merely a floating set of eyeballs. Period. To ask the player (Gordon) to have a relationship with Alyx is weakened by this degree of minimalism because all a floating set of eyeballs will do is look at what it likes and dislikes and approve or disapprove. And that's as far as the relationship can go. Fairly superficial, really. This may explain why a lot of players approved of Dr Breen's lab partner, Judith Mossman, over Alyx because of simple physical preferences. Eyeballs, it seems, are rather fickle.
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While I believe this is mostly rubbish, because he fails to mention the immersive aspects of playing somebody with no distinct, laid out personality. There is power in creating your own imagine for Gordon, in "becoming" Gordon. But to some extend I can relate to his argument that Alyx often sucks me out of this feeling of immersion, I can't exactly put my finger on why.
 
You needn't fall in love with alyx for the plot to work. In fact, you can totally snub her all the way through, if you wish, or maintain a nerdcrush on Mossman if you so desire.

The point of the game of that, despite being basically linear, you can act and respond to the events however you want.
If you want, you can just hide in Cubbage's basement instead of progressing with the game. People obviously don't, but the option is there.

The only thing you're not allowed to do is murder innocent people, so that means the only role you're forced to take is the role of "not murderer".


I'm not going all lovey-dovey over the Alyx character either, but blocking the antlion hole with a car and being complemented on it, or having her laugh as you light zombies on fire and things like that, really add to the game immersion. You get the sense that your actions have more of an impact in the game world if they are recognized by the other characters.

It also, by contrast, Alyx emphasizes the bulkiness of the HEV suit. She can climb and you can't, but you can walk through radiation and she can't.
She also notices the changes in your weapons, and what what you're doing with them.
It subtly reminds you that you're "wearing a suit", and "holding things".
 
Mechagodzilla said:
You needn't fall in love with alyx for the plot to work. In fact, you can totally snub her all the way through, if you wish, or maintain a nerdcrush on Mossman if you so desire.

The point of the game of that, despite being basically linear, you can act and respond to the events however you want.
If you want, you can just hide in Cubbage's basement instead of progressing with the game. People obviously don't, but the option is there.

The only thing you're not allowed to do is murder innocent people, so that means the only role you're forced to take is the role of "not murderer".


I'm not going all lovey-dovey over the Alyx character either, but blocking the antlion hole with a car and being complemented on it, or having her laugh as you light zombies on fire and things like that, really add to the game immersion. You get the sense that your actions have more of an impact in the game world if they are recognized by the other characters.

It also, by contrast, Alyx emphasizes the bulkiness of the HEV suit. She can climb and you can't, but you can walk through radiation and she can't.
She also notices the changes in your weapons, and what what you're doing with them.
It subtly reminds you that you're "wearing a suit", and "holding things".
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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?
 
I think i recall her saying that you had found a weapon in EP1, when you first find the pistle and shotgun
 
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