Suggestions for improvements

[Hunchback]

Ok, while i think most are in aggreement that HL2 is one of the best games ever produced, a number of people - myself included - can't shake off a slight sense of dissapointment, that while Valve reinvented the race, they didn't reinvent the wheel. This is partly due to the 6 years of fevered imagination and raised expectations of this community.That and the truism that you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time.

Valve are also accountable however, but instead of turning this thread into a valve-bashing competition, i'd like to hear their critisisms of the game alongside their suggestions on how valve could make a great game even better.

Here are mine, and apologies for the length :

The Storyline and the 'Horror'

I've heard all the criticisms about the game's 'thinness' and all its praises of 'innovative subtlely'. I think the former is evident most clearly becuase of the greatness of what storyline is there. Not only is the game's background and environment both strong and compelling, but as has been said in other reviews, its characters have been imbued with life. On the other hand, i have to say that those who unreservedly praise the 'easter egg storyline' are groping somewhat for something that feels at least, unfulfilled. For me, the two are not mutually exclusive - you can have an evident storyline and a subtle backdrop. This I think is what Valve tried to do, not perfect by any means, but i think its the way they tried to go.

The main problem is that we don't get to see or hear about the horror of the changed world we wake up in, at least not in its fullest extent. In Nova Prospekt for example, we could have been presented with an abandoned equivelent of Auswitz, or in Ravenholm we could have seen Zombie's of women and children as well as 'generic male type 2'. Don't get me wrong, i wouldnt want this done gratiously - and i think the horror is at its essence unrepresentable - but not to show us more of the sacrifices made of humanity under an opressive regime is i feel an oversight. There was one bit near the end of the buggy sequence where a side house had a small mass grave but, as i've said, i never felt the horror of the worldwide tragedy. (Also the death Alyx's mother was never really explored, or the relationship btw Eli and Mossman - saved for an add-on perhaps?)

I think the game needed one mission where you were directed by all the main players (barney,eli, mossman e.t.c.) working as a unit. Perhaps a light 'stealth' mission where you had to take down a generator or steal supplies. Not only would you feel more securely grounded in the resistance (rather than running from point A to point B) but its break-up and eventual betrayal would bear greater impact. (As it stands i felt unmoved by the 'reveal') Yes, we pick up titbits of information about the first few weeks of the invasion, but what we want is the character's opinion of that event, not some dislocated headline...By focusing on the paticular, we would have a glimpse at the general...


Striders and City 17 battles

For me easily the most dissapointing aspect of the game. I can remember playing the Russian levels in Call of Duty and imagining how even more overwhelming they'd be in Valve's Orwellian dystopia. This they singulalry failed to do. The streets were far too small, both in width and length, and forcing you to take a team of four into the only 'indoor corridor' section of the entire game was simply a mistake. (Also, i felt you needed a 'stay' command for the team commands - which all seemed redundant anyhow) And while i know there was only a week of the uprising before you rejoined the fray, to see the city in a greater amount of decline would have had significant emotional impact. (The pulling down of the tv screen was great though wasn't it?)

And so the striders. Superb enemy in theory but in practice - because of the relativly compact nature of the levels - fighting them was nowhere near as good as i had imagined. Partly this was because in using the rocket launcher, I felt as if i hadn't 'earned' their defeat, as well as it being too similar to the destruction of the gunships. My suggestion would be to perhaps lessen their strength to make it a slightly more 'equal' battle, allow weaker guns to have an effect, and thus be able to spend more time engaging with them rather than hiding only to pop out when their back is turned....Perhaps an 'Empire Strikes Back' method of attacking them, only by making them fall can you finally kill them?

Finally, i felt that in design, the enemies didn't match the engagement of the first game. There, the monster's not only game from all angles, but used different senses, forcing you to adapt your gaming methods....not really so in HL2...though i've yet to play the game on 'hard' so i'll see how that pans out...

Alright, ive written enough now - i'd be interested to hear other peoples suggestions of improving the game....

Thx,

dylan

 

[commando]

1) i want it so u can kill the civilians! then they will shoot you back!
2) if you kill the main characters then the screen will go black and say subject: derminated or something.

3) i want them to add to the options menu a box where u can tick or cross if you want ragdoll_collide on or off. instead of doing it by console.

4) completely fix the sound stutters.

5) hl2 mp (dm/tdm) *COOP hehehe naaaaa*

6) sdk with a tutorial map *ie a test map with some phsics/characters talking/ a start and end/ a door which opens and closes/ a 3D skybox and some friendlies and enermies (this will get people making maps alot quicker)

well i dont know anything else!

i love hl2!!!!!!!

would of been better if you could kill civilians i mean realism goes a long way.

Also if when the AI follow you...if they were like CALL OF DUTY AI where they will run to a wall and crouch/look around the corner/pin against the wall *it is called friendly_chain*

This would of made the over all game score higher because the AI wouldn't be in you way.

 

[f|uke]

The main problem is that we don't get to see or hear about the horror of the changed world we wake up in, at least not in its fullest extent.

I agree with this completely. I was fully expecting to see something terrible in the Citadel, in order to deepen my hatred for the Combine. Clearly some sick stuff goes on there but all they showed were living Stalkers. This definitly took some of the punch out of the emotional impact.

1) i want it so u can kill the civilians! then they will shoot you back!
2) if you kill the main characters then the screen will go black and say subject: derminated or something.

I agree with this too.

 

[Milkman]

COOP Campaign over LAN/Internet, and an actual model for Mr. Freeman

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

6) sdk with a tutorial map *ie a test map with some phsics/characters talking/ a start and end/ a door which opens and closes/ a 3D skybox and some friendlies and enermies (this will get people making maps alot quicker)

There will be.

 

[PvtRyan]

Finally some criticism with some thought in it.

But why do people want to be able to kill friendly npc's? Maybe as a console command, it would be nice once in a while, but it would get frustrating if you throw a grenade and suddenly you have 4 more enemies because you attacked them. Even in HL, I wounded Barney multiple times by accident, imagine the same thing with 4 other people who constantly get in your way?!

Not to mention Valve's goal is to make you attached to your characters, why would they wanna give you the option to kill them?

 

[Mr.Wotsit]

Couldn't agree more with your point about them showing us the horrors a little more. Perhaps they were working to achieve a certain rating in international markets?

 

[commando]

well the original HL you could kill the police and scientist. then the police who saw u do it would shoot you! i loved it because it was so realistic for an AI to do that at the time!

also if hl was to add the Call Of Duty AI friendly chain would be sweet!

this is basically when the ai follow you they will run to a wall/wall corner and bind to look around the corner. also they do this with doors and windows. Also to hide behind crates/cars/small walls. made the ai not get in your way and also made them more realistic.

 

[SFLUFAN]

There's a certain limit to the amount of horror you can show before you become gratuitious - and the line of separation isn't all that wide. We already know the attention video games are getting for violent content and I guess Valve (rightly) wanted to be sure they didn't cross that line.

I think the scene where we saw Combine shooting innocent, unarmed civilians (beginning of Route Kanal I think) did a good job of conveying that horror without being gratuitous.

 

[f|uke]

But why do people want to be able to kill friendly npc's?

Freedom of choice. I dont really want to kill friendlys,. I just dont want the game making my moral decisions for me. Citizens are expendable anyways.

 

[SFLUFAN]

Killing the NPCs though would detract from the people's impression of Gordon as their "messiah". It just wouldn't work within the context of the story that Valve is attempting to tell. The citizens are not expendable - you are their hero, their savior, their liberator.

 

[commando]

killing npc's makes the game alot realistic because it is freedom of choice.

it happened in hl. so why not hl2

 

[SFLUFAN]

Because it's not part of the context that Valve wants you to play HL2 in - it runs contrary to your role in the game. In any event, it's a fairly minor point of contention

 

[KagePrototype]

re: horror;

I do remember the odd moment where this sort of thing worked really well, especially at the beginning. For example, a man waiting in the station before the security checkpoint tells you he's "picking up the nerve to go on", before glancing at the checkpoint. Also, the playground, when you could hear children laughing, I thought was a nice touch. There was a point along the coast as well, after you shoot down a gunship, that the rebels lean against walls and stuff completely exhausted, telling you to go on before another dropship appeared. You could really tell they've been out there for ages. Also, tearing down that Breen monitor was a cool moment as well, though I think it would have worked further along in the streetwars, as a sort of climax, just after the final battle against the Striders.

I thought Ravenholm would be a great place to show al of this, what the combine are doing to humanity, and what lengths humanity are willing to go in order to retaliate i.e. Father Grigory, who seemingly refuses to leave Ravenholm until it's "purged", even to the point of madness. when you last see him was quite a touching moment, but it was only sympathy for someone who's seemingly gone mad. He just seemed like a really underused and under-developed character, who's only trait is insanity. I would have loved to see that translated into something against the combine, to keep the player on track of what's happening.

But just like parts of the coast drive, Ravenholm just seemed to be a distraction, albeit a very, very fun distraction. You lost sight of what you were trying to do during the middle parts of the game, but instead you were only trying to get out alive. A lot of bits almost seemed like filler, though they were so finely constructed that it never seemed like it. Some of the chapters were really focused, like the canals and airboat levels; you knew what you were doing the whole time, and where you were going. But once it reached the coast, you lose track of it. to think that it takes you two whole chapters to just get to Nova Prospekt, and nothing more; it's as if Valve were just trying to make the game seem longer. I think, during the middle of the game, you seem to lose sight of what the combine are actually doing to humanity. It isn't until Entanglement you get another glimpse of this, and the closing chapters.

 

[ShadowFox]

I like this thread.. constructive criticism is good.

I was disappointed in the Strider combat as well. I felt like I was fighting set pieces instead of enemies. You had to kill the Striders so fast you didn't really have a chance to be impressed by them like they demonstrated in the binks.

I was also disappointed Gordon's fighting sequences with Dog and Barney were very short.

 

[bam23]

Speaking of Ravenholm and Father Gregory, doesn't that sound like an excellent expansion to the game?

 

[commando]

i wish it showed barney doing more and the dog alot more. but still the dogs animation must of took ages!

 

[Hunchback]

Actually, i didn't think Father Gregory worked very well - he seemed too similarly modeled on the sterotypical 'mad russian' that overpopulates the gaming world....though it would have been interesting to learn more about the reasons behind his insanity, perhaps going into his house and finding out that he's kept all his family alive - even though they've been turned....

kageprototype....yeah the pacing of the game is abit off...i think its partly a result of the cinematic stronghold over the imagination of both the developers and the gaming community....HL2's structure was very formualic (exposition - set piece - action - lull - repeat) and action-oreintated. Some might say it should be - HL is an fps after all - but as the game itself shows, the boundaries between gaming genre's are dissappearing...

I think i said in my first post that valve reinvent the race but not the wheel - but do any of you think that could happen? In a recent interview Carmack said that the essential game dynamic of an FPS has remained the same for the last 10 years, and soon - when technological improvements level off - were're going to be forced to deal with this 'problem'...I think HL2's intergation of physic's is a great step, i just have problems imagining a way to escape the 'new engine same gameplay' line of thought....

dylan

 

[BigGoose2006]

I loved almost every aspect of HL2, I just wish the game was a little bit more difficult. I had no trouble beating the game on Hard. A good improvement VALVe could do would be a higher level difficulty that was unlocked when the game was beat on Hard.

I just think that with such open-ended gameplay (as far as physics and such, not level design; level design was quite linear) that if the player were challenged more, he would be forced to be a little more creative. I was able to rush through the game on hard, using my standard run-in-guns-a-blazing method and never had much difficulty whatsoever. IF I was constantly low on health, nearly out of ammunition, and surronded by enemies, I would have been forced to use the physics creativly to get through the game.

 

[Hunchback]

Freeman and Dr Breen

I'd have like to have seen more ambiguity in the presentation of both these characters...While i thought the 'Free man' messianc aspect of him was fine - although a little sketchy - i would have like to have seen different reactions from some of the rebels. After all, his name is synomnous with the Black Mesa incidient, and to have a sense of blame (mis)directed to him would have made the game more engaging and realistic.

Coverserly, while Dr Breen's character was very well drawn - more i think could be garned from the (initial) necessity of soliciting with the invaders, perhaps justly believing in a 'greater good'. Again, i'd have like to have seen more moral ambiguity concerning your actions (paticulary in light of your somewhat mercenary status declared by the g-man at the end)

dylan

 

[redrain85]

I remember Doug Lombardi saying in interviews that the three-way power sturggle going on in HL2 between all the races wouldn't be clear-cut, and you would have difficulty in deciding who was morally right or wrong.

Well, the Vortigaunts - to me - seemed like non-entities. They were just supporting players, and didn't really do much of anything.

The Combine were clearly wrong. They exploited the people and resources of Earth for their own gain. They had no intention of helping the human race to truly evolve or become something better. This wasn't a partnership, it was a dictatorship.

The Resistance were clearly right. They knew or at least suspected what the Combine were doing, and sought to stop them from annihiliating Earth and the human race.

If I ever had to choose a side or question my view of morality in HL2, I didn't notice it.

Yes, there were Dr. Breen's little speeches at the end about how Gordon was destroying something great . . . but you knew Dr. Breen was full of it. He'd sold his soul long ago to the Combine.

 

[Chiefi]

-The handling of the buggy was pretty hard and sometimes even frustrating.

-There wasn't enough puzzles for my taste. The puzzles were too easy.

 

[SFLUFAN]

I don't think they let Doug Lombardi into any of the planning meetings personally. I think they just tell him things to make him go away and stop pestering the rest of the Valve team!