C
Crash Halmit
Guest
A lot of the disappointments have already been out there but there are a few cons that are not discussed yet.
There are no interesting choices to make in this game.
The pace of the game.
Feel for the characters.
Let's start with that I loved HL1 but that FPS pur sang (like Doom3) are not my thing. I like to use my strategic and tactical mind.
So I spend a lot of time playing Hidden and Dangerous and Operation Flashpoint (beautiful AI by the way) and love it when a game gives me choices like Deus Ex 1.
I think it was Peter Molineux who said that a good game should give you interesting choices. Its in making these choices that a game becomes part of your self, because these are YOUR choices.
A choice in a game is a difficult thing. Almost always the game designer must anticipate the choice because the game should react to the choice. But this can't be done to obvious. The example for instance of 3 combines on a bridge: you can kill them one by one or you can blow up the bridge. Some choice.
This kind of choice WILL NOT suck you in the game.
But when you run past a sentry gun into a hall full of headcrabs you can either shoot them or lure them after you back past the sentry gun. I liked that choice even though Valve gave it to me.
There was time in HL1 to set up traps and you had the right ammunition to do it with (claymore's). The mines in HL2 are a joke, not very interesting.
So you could choose how to play, be a marine or be a sneaky bastard. A game like Deus Ex 1 was really centered about these decisions, had a nice pace and a interesting story en really sucked you in.
The pace:
Now to set up traps and to think you need time. HL1 gave me this time, and I loved it for that. But HL2 is just pushing me forward in a frantic way. So no interesting choices, no self involvement, just quick reaction time and an endless flow of enemies. (I really hate spawning, makes a game that much sooner repetitive).
The feel for the NPC’s:
I started replaying HL1 immediately after I finished HL2 to see if it would still grab me. And it did!!
The first time I saw a scientist fighting of a headcrab I wanted to rush in his office and save him. I couldn't get there and he was lost. When a scientist was lifted by a Barnacle I was there in time. Now the polygon count in those scenes were very low compared to all the beautiful rendered models in HL2 but that didn't matter to me, my imagination made up the details. Strangely there was no one to rescue in HL2.
So it isn’t the polygons for me that create involvement, I can make those up in my mind. I need good story elements, interesting choices and time to set up a situation which is of my doing.
And with good story elements I don't mean newspaper clippings, but things which evoke motivation in the player to go to the next part, so you are pulled to a desirable goal in stead of pushed from behind by a bunch of crazy scientist and moaning resistant fighters. Go Freeman, go, you must hurry. Ja ja.
Now, the single most important reason why I bought this game was that Valve promised that the enemies had superior AI. I was envisioning all kinds of interesting choices in battle. And the superior models should have given me more feel for them, al least that was the reason to put them in the game in the first place.
Now the AI is presumably “removed”, just like al the interesting locations and weapons, or it was scripted from the first. The models are there but without interesting choices there just eye candy and the pace is so frigging fast there’s no time to get a feel for anything!!
So in my opinion (not a fact ;-), as a game, it failed miserably
On a side note
According to me Steam is a commercial thing and has really not much to do with piracy (hackers won’t be stopped, I know this and Valve knows this). What is does, it binds you to Valve. You can’t easily share or sell the game. Steam could even monitor your gaming habits, at what level you stopped playing, how long you played etc. Who knows?
I don’t particularly like it when a game start’s patching itself. I’ve got no stutters now and don’t see the benefit of patching right now. Also a choice I like to have in my own hands.
So I always play Off Line.
There are no interesting choices to make in this game.
The pace of the game.
Feel for the characters.
Let's start with that I loved HL1 but that FPS pur sang (like Doom3) are not my thing. I like to use my strategic and tactical mind.
So I spend a lot of time playing Hidden and Dangerous and Operation Flashpoint (beautiful AI by the way) and love it when a game gives me choices like Deus Ex 1.
I think it was Peter Molineux who said that a good game should give you interesting choices. Its in making these choices that a game becomes part of your self, because these are YOUR choices.
A choice in a game is a difficult thing. Almost always the game designer must anticipate the choice because the game should react to the choice. But this can't be done to obvious. The example for instance of 3 combines on a bridge: you can kill them one by one or you can blow up the bridge. Some choice.
This kind of choice WILL NOT suck you in the game.
But when you run past a sentry gun into a hall full of headcrabs you can either shoot them or lure them after you back past the sentry gun. I liked that choice even though Valve gave it to me.
There was time in HL1 to set up traps and you had the right ammunition to do it with (claymore's). The mines in HL2 are a joke, not very interesting.
So you could choose how to play, be a marine or be a sneaky bastard. A game like Deus Ex 1 was really centered about these decisions, had a nice pace and a interesting story en really sucked you in.
The pace:
Now to set up traps and to think you need time. HL1 gave me this time, and I loved it for that. But HL2 is just pushing me forward in a frantic way. So no interesting choices, no self involvement, just quick reaction time and an endless flow of enemies. (I really hate spawning, makes a game that much sooner repetitive).
The feel for the NPC’s:
I started replaying HL1 immediately after I finished HL2 to see if it would still grab me. And it did!!
The first time I saw a scientist fighting of a headcrab I wanted to rush in his office and save him. I couldn't get there and he was lost. When a scientist was lifted by a Barnacle I was there in time. Now the polygon count in those scenes were very low compared to all the beautiful rendered models in HL2 but that didn't matter to me, my imagination made up the details. Strangely there was no one to rescue in HL2.
So it isn’t the polygons for me that create involvement, I can make those up in my mind. I need good story elements, interesting choices and time to set up a situation which is of my doing.
And with good story elements I don't mean newspaper clippings, but things which evoke motivation in the player to go to the next part, so you are pulled to a desirable goal in stead of pushed from behind by a bunch of crazy scientist and moaning resistant fighters. Go Freeman, go, you must hurry. Ja ja.
Now, the single most important reason why I bought this game was that Valve promised that the enemies had superior AI. I was envisioning all kinds of interesting choices in battle. And the superior models should have given me more feel for them, al least that was the reason to put them in the game in the first place.
Now the AI is presumably “removed”, just like al the interesting locations and weapons, or it was scripted from the first. The models are there but without interesting choices there just eye candy and the pace is so frigging fast there’s no time to get a feel for anything!!
So in my opinion (not a fact ;-), as a game, it failed miserably
On a side note
According to me Steam is a commercial thing and has really not much to do with piracy (hackers won’t be stopped, I know this and Valve knows this). What is does, it binds you to Valve. You can’t easily share or sell the game. Steam could even monitor your gaming habits, at what level you stopped playing, how long you played etc. Who knows?
I don’t particularly like it when a game start’s patching itself. I’ve got no stutters now and don’t see the benefit of patching right now. Also a choice I like to have in my own hands.
So I always play Off Line.
