O
osbick bird
Guest
The narrative needs some real scheming. Start with Kleiner, probably the least intriguing person and comic relief alone is a cul de sac of character development. He initiated of the first teleportation accident, which fails to get Freeman to safety, but also alerts Breen to the return of the hero. He also presided over the second accident delaying Freeman and Alex until the revolution was underway. If you can?t put teleportation aside as a plot device, at least use it for more than happenstance and make Kleiner the evil scientist. He?s not crazy, he doesn?t want the end of mankind, but he does appreciate the advancement in technology and unique biological samples contact with the Combine produces. So he plays a dangerous game of judging equilibrium. The first transporter accident forced the Combine from complacency. Then, a second transporter malfunction gave back to the resistance a commander who could unite their forces after the Combine makes significant gains. Perhaps Kleiner attempted the role of leader for himself, but failed without the necessary charisma to rally more than Barney. Realizing he needed the folkloric power of Alex, Freeman, and the orange suit, he releases them from the transporter. Further devious behavior could be the manipulation of Mossman (who wanted the position of Freeman at Black Mesa) into the role of a double agent. She would only be interacting with the Combine for the respect she?s deliberately denied by her seniors and can only reveal as much as she?s been told. This balances the gains the rebels made under Klein?s scientific tutelage. It?s not just the twist I?m going for here. I?m also looking for a more significant antagonist than Breen.
Breen needs a hidden motive, a good one, or he?s just another stock calibrator without his own personality. I?d be willing to just step over than bother going thru him. Even in the Citadel he addresses Freeman as the same ideologue manner he was broadcasting over TVs and screens throughout the game. He?s an administrator, he?s known that the majority of the population are tools of progress, but with Gordon, and for the player?s sake, there shouldn?t be harping on as he would for the plebs. He knows now fates worse than death, so tell us why he must rationalize in the Combine?s work for the only premium humanity would recognize, and one of humanity?s salient desires, ?immortality? as he says again and again, in servitude.
I?m not expecting much from that figurehead anymore, but someone should herald the strange beliefs of the misanthropic, yet invasive Combine. Initially I was expecting answers to these bigger-picture questions to come from the G-man, but ubiquitous as he is in the game, so far he?s only functioning as the bookends. I was also hoping for some more participation, dropping hints as to his origin, allegiance, or species. Even if you don?t want to bring his story into play (or if its not developed yet), why not involve the errant agent everyone wants to see a bit more of? Use it to make him even more enigmatic. Design a stage where he has to fight with Gordon. He starts with an old service model .45 standing sideways with his arm fully extended, refusing to keep up with the player?s natural, quick pace, and perhaps bossing you around as you work thru some zombies; however, as the level becomes more dangerous with Combine forces attacking, he reaches into his briefcase (without letting us peek) and pulls out some alien wetware. A new bio-weapon that reminds us of the hornet-gun, but this fires a small urchin that steadily deploys its needles internally so before soldiers grab their heads you hear the crack of goggles loosing their vacuum seal, or their limbs spasm from their torso as they fall to the floor, thrashing slower and slower as a puddle of red forms under them and maybe you hear from their body a faint chewing noise. That?s if you want a throwback. If you wanted to bring the portal gun into play, the G-man could open holes in the ceiling and walls for a short time the discarded Hydra tentacles could lunge from. Offhandedly saying, ?don?t look so disgusted. You can?t remember it, but you used to love feeding Hydra. Oh, now you look worse. It must be because of me,? before walking off. You?ve got a varied cast, but they don?t show off their scope, or they don?t seem whole.
Father Grigory was great change of pace from the other scientists and soldiers, and he wasn?t a part of the bigger story. But personally, 3 linear cuts on the side of his head and a piece of a saw blade with three teeth hanging from a leather strap down his back mimicking his cross would elucidate his warped mentality and his saboteur nature.
Dr. Vance is really asymmetrical, loving a daughter who hates the traitor he believes in, but replacing his leg with a carbon fiber prosthesis in the game with the most advanced physics to date and we don?t see him running? Half the time his feet weren?t touching the ground, determined to be treated as a marionette.
I should probably learn to let the little things go and just talk about the big puppet, Gordon. In the first game he was surrounded by just as many sundry characters, but they were his enemies: Houndeyes, Bullsquids, and "Alien Grunts", Gargs, Sand Tentacles (I like to think these are the Strider's legs in mechanical bondage), and the Gonarch. Even with the same goal to kill or be killed, each encounter was different, as were each of the creatures. Lion ants are a far more interesting replacement of Snarks, but different Headcrabs, different zombies, different floating drones: this is variation, but not really variety. If you?re going to use characters to supplant the variety of xenomorphs, great, but you?re going to have to address Gordon?s ability to interact with them.
In the first Half-Life he was a mute, but that was ok for the time and he was mostly bossed around anyway, but now you?ve surrounded him with actors. One of the best forum ideas is ?Filling in the Blanks? and while I can respect the gamer being voice of Gordon, the only other mute, Dog, shows more personality. My opinion is it?s a mistake to not voice the protagonist; you?re dangerously close to Master Chief, who I?m certain is less of a character and more an icon. As the other NPCs become more and more involved Gordon and his player will only be more isolated. So at least script him some evocative, physical reactions, if not some non-play actions. How does he tell his squad where to go if he doesn?t at least point? Couldn?t he help another character stand up? Isn?t he ever going to put his hand on Alyx?s shoulder? There?s an increasingly big world made more pliable, but for someone in HEV suit that?s just not getting any less rigid. If there had been more for Gordon to do during scripts, the end where he was brought to Breen in the Casket-rail would have actually felt restraining, not another expository skit where we are always a bystander, maybe not even that, maybe just an audience. Gordon?s always so damn impassive around others, or at the most acquiescent. This enables a progression in which you participate, but it?s not really a satisfying payoff in the greater, interactive world. Barney?s had his ?flip a switch? joke, now it?s time for Gordon to have that beer, dark ale. The production has gone thru a lot of trouble to not break character for the gamer, but no one wants to be the character who?s a wallflower amongst the NPCs.
Valve has made a tremendous game I enjoyed playing, but the development is sided more on the technological achievement. The Combine is evil, I know evil when I see it, and it?s shooting at me right now, but they lack nuance from any other object in the crosshair of a shoot ?em up. I like to know what my comrades are up too, but so much is exposition after the fact, I find my reveries between load times don?t bother to conjure any expectations, I just wait until latter to hear about their predicaments. If there had been an ominous, aerial gunship-cade preceding the news of Vance?s capture, I may have been a little apprehensive about my next rendezvous, especially so if I were to have invested some personal time with them as individuals.
Breen needs a hidden motive, a good one, or he?s just another stock calibrator without his own personality. I?d be willing to just step over than bother going thru him. Even in the Citadel he addresses Freeman as the same ideologue manner he was broadcasting over TVs and screens throughout the game. He?s an administrator, he?s known that the majority of the population are tools of progress, but with Gordon, and for the player?s sake, there shouldn?t be harping on as he would for the plebs. He knows now fates worse than death, so tell us why he must rationalize in the Combine?s work for the only premium humanity would recognize, and one of humanity?s salient desires, ?immortality? as he says again and again, in servitude.
I?m not expecting much from that figurehead anymore, but someone should herald the strange beliefs of the misanthropic, yet invasive Combine. Initially I was expecting answers to these bigger-picture questions to come from the G-man, but ubiquitous as he is in the game, so far he?s only functioning as the bookends. I was also hoping for some more participation, dropping hints as to his origin, allegiance, or species. Even if you don?t want to bring his story into play (or if its not developed yet), why not involve the errant agent everyone wants to see a bit more of? Use it to make him even more enigmatic. Design a stage where he has to fight with Gordon. He starts with an old service model .45 standing sideways with his arm fully extended, refusing to keep up with the player?s natural, quick pace, and perhaps bossing you around as you work thru some zombies; however, as the level becomes more dangerous with Combine forces attacking, he reaches into his briefcase (without letting us peek) and pulls out some alien wetware. A new bio-weapon that reminds us of the hornet-gun, but this fires a small urchin that steadily deploys its needles internally so before soldiers grab their heads you hear the crack of goggles loosing their vacuum seal, or their limbs spasm from their torso as they fall to the floor, thrashing slower and slower as a puddle of red forms under them and maybe you hear from their body a faint chewing noise. That?s if you want a throwback. If you wanted to bring the portal gun into play, the G-man could open holes in the ceiling and walls for a short time the discarded Hydra tentacles could lunge from. Offhandedly saying, ?don?t look so disgusted. You can?t remember it, but you used to love feeding Hydra. Oh, now you look worse. It must be because of me,? before walking off. You?ve got a varied cast, but they don?t show off their scope, or they don?t seem whole.
Father Grigory was great change of pace from the other scientists and soldiers, and he wasn?t a part of the bigger story. But personally, 3 linear cuts on the side of his head and a piece of a saw blade with three teeth hanging from a leather strap down his back mimicking his cross would elucidate his warped mentality and his saboteur nature.
Dr. Vance is really asymmetrical, loving a daughter who hates the traitor he believes in, but replacing his leg with a carbon fiber prosthesis in the game with the most advanced physics to date and we don?t see him running? Half the time his feet weren?t touching the ground, determined to be treated as a marionette.
I should probably learn to let the little things go and just talk about the big puppet, Gordon. In the first game he was surrounded by just as many sundry characters, but they were his enemies: Houndeyes, Bullsquids, and "Alien Grunts", Gargs, Sand Tentacles (I like to think these are the Strider's legs in mechanical bondage), and the Gonarch. Even with the same goal to kill or be killed, each encounter was different, as were each of the creatures. Lion ants are a far more interesting replacement of Snarks, but different Headcrabs, different zombies, different floating drones: this is variation, but not really variety. If you?re going to use characters to supplant the variety of xenomorphs, great, but you?re going to have to address Gordon?s ability to interact with them.
In the first Half-Life he was a mute, but that was ok for the time and he was mostly bossed around anyway, but now you?ve surrounded him with actors. One of the best forum ideas is ?Filling in the Blanks? and while I can respect the gamer being voice of Gordon, the only other mute, Dog, shows more personality. My opinion is it?s a mistake to not voice the protagonist; you?re dangerously close to Master Chief, who I?m certain is less of a character and more an icon. As the other NPCs become more and more involved Gordon and his player will only be more isolated. So at least script him some evocative, physical reactions, if not some non-play actions. How does he tell his squad where to go if he doesn?t at least point? Couldn?t he help another character stand up? Isn?t he ever going to put his hand on Alyx?s shoulder? There?s an increasingly big world made more pliable, but for someone in HEV suit that?s just not getting any less rigid. If there had been more for Gordon to do during scripts, the end where he was brought to Breen in the Casket-rail would have actually felt restraining, not another expository skit where we are always a bystander, maybe not even that, maybe just an audience. Gordon?s always so damn impassive around others, or at the most acquiescent. This enables a progression in which you participate, but it?s not really a satisfying payoff in the greater, interactive world. Barney?s had his ?flip a switch? joke, now it?s time for Gordon to have that beer, dark ale. The production has gone thru a lot of trouble to not break character for the gamer, but no one wants to be the character who?s a wallflower amongst the NPCs.
Valve has made a tremendous game I enjoyed playing, but the development is sided more on the technological achievement. The Combine is evil, I know evil when I see it, and it?s shooting at me right now, but they lack nuance from any other object in the crosshair of a shoot ?em up. I like to know what my comrades are up too, but so much is exposition after the fact, I find my reveries between load times don?t bother to conjure any expectations, I just wait until latter to hear about their predicaments. If there had been an ominous, aerial gunship-cade preceding the news of Vance?s capture, I may have been a little apprehensive about my next rendezvous, especially so if I were to have invested some personal time with them as individuals.
