Tired of city 17 and citadel location...

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B.Calhoun

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I want Black Mesa ;(

ANyone else miss the white floored hallways and the whole office feel?

HL2 was a nice change of pace.. but im not sure this storyline with aftermath and everything is going to be so great. Seeing the Aftermath video where those freak people in the metal cases are buggin out doesnt seem so half-lifeish, more like a Doom type of thing.

I wanna run into more dying scientists and lonely security guards...

sigh.. i guess we will have to wait and see.
 
Yeh, i liked the feeling of a giant facility, unbeknown to the public, with the feeling that you could go anywhere (even though it was incredibly linear, HL never felt that way).
And then when you got to the surface, oh my, what a feeling, then you had to go straight back under again. It made you REALLY want to get to the surface, and when you did, it was everything it should have been, and more.
 
ROFL ahah ya i loved the lonely guards.... sigh. well i think the exp will be great. loved the story line from hl2. I heard this game is shorter but the story is REALLY amazing :D
 
Black Mesa is gone, you'll have to live with it.

I personally prefer City 17 to the confines of Black Mesa, but thats just me. Aftermath is just an episode and will see the end of City 17 with the destruction of the Citadel and really, you haven't spent that much time there. Don't see how the Stalkers are a doom thing either...

You're not going back to Black Mesa, its just a crater now.
 
I wanna see a D-Day in Aftermath... Combine guarding the coast while the rebels attack from the beach...
 
i think the city setting is far better than just some facility
 
Well i just liked the idea of having to escape to the surface against all odds. Now it kinda seems like you have to battle wave after wave of combine to help the resistance.. ahs its own cool factor though.

Dont get me wrong, i really enjoyed HL2, and will definatly buy aftermath.. but maybe there will be another portal mishap or something where a "White Mesa" or another facility is part of the story.
 
B.Calhoun said:
I want Black Mesa ;(

ANyone else miss the white floored hallways and the whole office feel?

HL2 was a nice change of pace.. but im not sure this storyline with aftermath and everything is going to be so great. Seeing the Aftermath video where those freak people in the metal cases are buggin out doesnt seem so half-lifeish, more like a Doom type of thing.

I wanna run into more dying scientists and lonely security guards...

sigh.. i guess we will have to wait and see.
Click to expand...
I agree. I love Half-Life 2, but I'm currently replaying Half-Life and I like the ambience, immersion, atmosphere, and environment a lot more.
 
J_Tweedy said:
Yeh, i liked the feeling of a giant facility, unbeknown to the public, with the feeling that you could go anywhere (even though it was incredibly linear, HL never felt that way).
And then when you got to the surface, oh my, what a feeling, then you had to go straight back under again. It made you REALLY want to get to the surface, and when you did, it was everything it should have been, and more.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I miss that feeling too in Half-life 2.
I've come to the conclusion that HL2 just isn't as good as half-life 1... it misses something..don't know how to put it.

In some area's it looks very good, in other area's it's almost ugly..

I want black mesa back as well.. running into dying scientists and lonely security guards like the other poster said ;]

I just finished playing blue shift(again).. and damn it was that good old feeling again ;) .. the teleporting stuff.. those secret-to-public things should be in hl2 alot more.
 
B.Calhoun said:
HL2 was a nice change of pace.. but im not sure this storyline with aftermath and everything is going to be so great. Seeing the Aftermath video where those freak people in the metal cases are buggin out doesnt seem so half-lifeish, more like a Doom type of thing.
Click to expand...
Reminds me more of Far Cry's baddies to be honest. It's too early to pass judgement on Aftermath. All we have is a very short teaser and a handful of screenshots.

B.Calhoun said:
I want Black Mesa

ANyone else miss the white floored hallways and the whole office feel?

I wanna run into more dying scientists and lonely security guards...
Click to expand...
Why go back to Black Mesa? Didn't we pretty much already see the entire facility? If we were to somehow go back, where exactly would we go that offers new locations or fresh gameply? Black Mesa had blast pits, reactors, office complexes, sewer systems, rocket test centers, dams, test chambers, chasms/cliffs, etc. So I ask what more is there to see in the facility?
 
Hell NO! No BM! BM was so dull and claustrophobic! It's crap
In 1998, we would have loved it, but nowadays we're tired of corridors. We want to see what our PCs can render as an outside world.
BTW
If you play just one level of HL1 right now, you'll see how dull the complex is.
We have new PC so that we can see an outside world that's beautiful. I want more open spaces
 
Black Mesa was a city, or at least a city sized complex.

To me, one difference in the feel of the game was that in HL1 you were trapped, and the reward of playing was those brief moments of freedom outside that you gained.
It also had an underlying urgency to the chapters, that you had to accomplish certain things NOW, before it is too late.

HL2 was the opposite in many ways, you were already free to walk out, but the
outside world was as big a trap as some parts of BM, and the only way to make
it thru was to deliberately walk into even bigger traps. There was still a sense of
urgency, but the game also rewarded you for looking around and taking a little
time to plan your actions. Plus a few spots where it was just cool to stop and
look at the scenery.

If anything, Aftermath should be closer to the feel of HL1, since the underlying
scenario is similar to the original game.


"Why go back to Black Mesa? Didn't we pretty much already see the entire facility?"

Well, I'm new to Opposing Force and Blue Shift, and I see a lot more of the complex
with them included.

I think it would make an interesting Mod to have to go back to some post-apocalyptic ruin of the BM facility where you have to accomplish some obscure
but meaningful task to save... the cooler of beer that Barney promised you
way back then.

You see, the real reason the Combine is evil is because they took all the beer away.
 
bat_lyubo said:
If you play just one level of HL1 right now, you'll see how dull the complex is.
Click to expand...
Dull and old it may be, but I don't play games for the graphics. Seeing HL in HL2's graphics would be incredible (though I don't think Black Mesa: Source will ever finish and if they do it'll be nothing like what the hype will have built up to, but by all means they're welcome to prove me wrong) but I like it for the game.
 
Half-life 1 was amazing, and so was walking around Black Mesa but there is simply no need to visit another enviroment thats smiliar, we'd be back in square one. You have to accept change, and if you like Black Mesa, well, go back and play hl1 :p
 
Samon said:
Black Mesa is gone, you'll have to live with it.

You're not going back to Black Mesa, its just a crater now.
Click to expand...

mwahahaha oh the harshness...

sure mesa is now an icon, but all icons fade over time...i mean, look at Lara Croft. she's not so much a gaming icon now as she was back in the day.

if hl2 was set in mesa, why would it be a new game? same place, just a different story, engine and weapons? i can hear a fog horn... *boooorrrriiiiinnnnggg*
 
Samon said:
Half-life 1 was amazing, and so was walking around Black Mesa but there is simply no need to visit another enviroment thats smiliar, we'd be back in square one. You have to accept change, and if you like Black Mesa, well, go back and play hl1 :p
Click to expand...

Agreed. I'd like the HL series to expand in its direction. IMO, HL2 benefited because it made a conscious decision not to retread the old claustrophobic feeling of Black Mesa. I like that it was more than a mere carbon copy of HL in a different environment. The change of pace was exactly what was needed and I can't wait to see what HL3 will have in store.

I would like a brief trip to Black Mesa, if only for closure. A quick teleportation and maybe a short walk around the ruins of what Black Mesa used to be. But that's it.
 
Frank said:
I wanna see a D-Day in Aftermath... Combine guarding the coast while the rebels attack from the beach...
Click to expand...

The Antlion raid on Nova Porspekt was close, but yeah I know what you mean. Just imagine being on one of those Combine Synth Dropships now with the Rebels, seeing the sight under you then having the carrier shot down and crashing on the beach. The doors open and you see pods littered across the beach you command your squad of the rebels to scramble for cover under a decaying piece of driftwood. There is totla mayhem, everyone starts dropping like flies hit with a mosquito trap and the only thing you can hear is the distintive blast from the mounted pulse machine guns.
 
Samon said:
Half-life 1 was amazing, and so was walking around Black Mesa but there is simply no need to visit another enviroment thats smiliar, we'd be back in square one. You have to accept change, and if you like Black Mesa, well, go back and play hl1 :p
Click to expand...


absolutely, Amen.
 
maybe there could be a flashback..dream sequence like in Max Payne :eek:
or a prequel to HL1..or or...naah, not gonna happen:(
 
There was a flashback to the black mesa incidient in the very beginning of HL2 when G-Man was talking.
 
Ennui said:
Dull and old it may be, but I don't play games for the graphics. Seeing HL in HL2's graphics would be incredible (though I don't think Black Mesa: Source will ever finish and if they do it'll be nothing like what the hype will have built up to, but by all means they're welcome to prove me wrong) but I like it for the game.
Click to expand...

We intend to ;)
 
Some kind of return to black mesa would be awesome for one of the upcoming half-life 2 episodes imo.
 
B.Calhoun said:
I want Black Mesa ;(

ANyone else miss the white floored hallways and the whole office feel?

HL2 was a nice change of pace.. but im not sure this storyline with aftermath and everything is going to be so great. Seeing the Aftermath video where those freak people in the metal cases are buggin out doesnt seem so half-lifeish, more like a Doom type of thing.

I wanna run into more dying scientists and lonely security guards...

sigh.. i guess we will have to wait and see.
Click to expand...


Yup, I know exactly where you're coming from. I've been anticipating Hl2 for so long and hoped that it implemented the same kind of technoid, claustrophobic, secret faculties HL1 had and more. But the more vids got out the more depressed I got. There was one moment after the dam where you meet up with the black scientist (can't remember his name) and Alyx etc. which had a tiny little bit of that HL1 experience, but after 10 minutes in there you were just thrown into Ravenholm... ;(

Of course it would've been a very bad move to just bring Black Mesa back again, but HL2's story is so badly written I can't really say I'm impressed with it (sure, the levels look fine, there's some suspense and there are nice twists, but overall it's not really what I hoped it would be). They took some obscure BM administrator which didn't even show up in HL1 and made them the Big Brother. But instead of doing it S.T.A.L.K.E.R. style with some mystery and secrets, they quite broadly just revealed pretty much everything in the first few levels. There was no depth in the story, no real surprises. Everywhere you went, you just knew where to go next and you didn't have the feeling that you could do anything else. I didn't even feel that the things which were in the maps had a real purpose! It's just a boring shooter (better than all of the other boring shooters out there, but nothing more). HL2 had so much more the feeling of linearity than HL1. Cruising down a canal may be a leap forward from HL1 because at least you were driving in something, but never had I really the impression of being in a canal SYSTEM. It just seemed like there was only this canal and nothing else.

The same with the whole city. Sure, it was a nice atmosphere and all, but it just didn't quite catch on. I sensed some kind of sowjet feeling in it, but the whole props in the game don't really say much. There weren't any advertisments on the walls or an old vehicle you could drive around town and shops you could go in (all these things wouldn't have been too difficult to do). You just really were on a premade path right where the mapper wanted you to go. I mean, come on! The doors which couldn't be opened were only textures! So blatant.

The textures in the alien structures with this washed out blue-black-greyish marble texture is just so... boring. They tried to build up this huge tech complex but they haven't shown much creativity with it. I mean you could've thought that at least SOME rebels could've reached the citadel and made little camp or that there are rests of camps around it and they were trying to get in there for ages... but no, nothing like that. It's like everything ever existed was you, the paying customer who just wants to shoot hundreds of combine soldiers (yawn) and still thinks this game was worth anything.

The craving for the real HL1 feeling didn't go away. I'd choose HL1 over HL2 anyday, just because they did more with what they had. HL2 had so much different things which weren't totally thought-through, it was very depressing.

[/rant]
 
Ennui said:
Dull and old it may be, but I don't play games for the graphics. Seeing HL in HL2's graphics would be incredible (though I don't think Black Mesa: Source will ever finish and if they do it'll be nothing like what the hype will have built up to, but by all means they're welcome to prove me wrong) but I like it for the game.
Click to expand...

I don't think that BM:Source will ever be released. And we already know the main story of HL1, so it wouldn't be that big a thing.

Just imagine the landing of the combines on earth. The game starts with you having to flee to the underground and fighting the Combines from beneath. You would need to crawl through vents and have to sabotage machines and repair machines which help you getting to the main head quarters etc. All from down below. Man THAT would be an awesome sp campaign.
 
bassport said:
Yup, I know exactly where you're coming from. I've been anticipating Hl2 for so long and hoped that it implemented the same kind of technoid, claustrophobic, secret faculties HL1 had and more. But the more vids got out the more depressed I got. There was one moment after the dam where you meet up with the black scientist (can't remember his name) and Alyx etc. which had a tiny little bit of that HL1 experience, but after 10 minutes in there you were just thrown into Ravenholm... ;(

Of course it would've been a very bad move to just bring Black Mesa back again, but HL2's story is so badly written I can't really say I'm impressed with it (sure, the levels look fine, there's some suspense and there are nice twists, but overall it's not really what I hoped it would be). They took some obscure BM administrator which didn't even show up in HL1 and made them the Big Brother. But instead of doing it S.T.A.L.K.E.R. style with some mystery and secrets, they quite broadly just revealed pretty much everything in the first few levels. There was no depth in the story, no real surprises. Everywhere you went, you just knew where to go next and you didn't have the feeling that you could do anything else. I didn't even feel that the things which were in the maps had a real purpose! It's just a boring shooter (better than all of the other boring shooters out there, but nothing more). HL2 had so much more the feeling of linearity than HL1. Cruising down a canal may be a leap forward from HL1 because at least you were driving in something, but never had I really the impression of being in a canal SYSTEM. It just seemed like there was only this canal and nothing else.

The same with the whole city. Sure, it was a nice atmosphere and all, but it just didn't quite catch on. I sensed some kind of sowjet feeling in it, but the whole props in the game don't really say much. There weren't any advertisments on the walls or an old vehicle you could drive around town and shops you could go in (all these things wouldn't have been too difficult to do). You just really were on a premade path right where the mapper wanted you to go. I mean, come on! The doors which couldn't be opened were only textures! So blatant.

The textures in the alien structures with this washed out blue-black-greyish marble texture is just so... boring. They tried to build up this huge tech complex but they haven't shown much creativity with it. I mean you could've thought that at least SOME rebels could've reached the citadel and made little camp or that there are rests of camps around it and they were trying to get in there for ages... but no, nothing like that. It's like everything ever existed was you, the paying customer who just wants to shoot hundreds of combine soldiers (yawn) and still thinks this game was worth anything.

The craving for the real HL1 feeling didn't go away. I'd choose HL1 over HL2 anyday, just because they did more with what they had. HL2 had so much different things which weren't totally thought-through, it was very depressing.

[/rant]
Click to expand...


I so wholeheartedly disagree with everthing you have said here, that I suspect you may be my biological polar-inverse twin.
 
NO!

I love c17 about ten million times more than black mesa, there is so much more potential for expansion, and industrial bowles of c17 are probably similar to what you would like to see in a black mesa like situation...
 
B.Calhoun said:
I want Black Mesa ;(

ANyone else miss the white floored hallways and the whole office feel?

HL2 was a nice change of pace.. but im not sure this storyline with aftermath and everything is going to be so great. Seeing the Aftermath video where those freak people in the metal cases are buggin out doesnt seem so half-lifeish, more like a Doom type of thing.

I wanna run into more dying scientists and lonely security guards...

sigh.. i guess we will have to wait and see.
Click to expand...


Personaly I like a mix, I like being in in an area for a long time, then leaving and getting a wierd feeling when you come out. Like maybe starting in a office of some type, then after a while exiting and going in a city or something. Just a good mix of everything is good to me.
 
bassport said:
The textures in the alien structures with this washed out blue-black-greyish marble texture is just so... boring. They tried to build up this huge tech complex but they haven't shown much creativity with it. I mean you could've thought that at least SOME rebels could've reached the citadel and made little camp or that there are rests of camps around it and they were trying to get in there for ages... but no, nothing like that. It's like everything ever existed was you, the paying customer who just wants to shoot hundreds of combine soldiers (yawn) and still thinks this game was worth anything..
[/rant]
Click to expand...
Shooting Combine Soldiers... hmm.... seems like a shooter game.

Well, with atleast over 1000 Combine Super Soldiers guarding the Citadel, along with a few striders that have godly technology compared to humans using SMGs, yeah, makes sense they didn't reach the Citadel.
 
bassport said:
Yup, I know exactly where you're coming from. I've been anticipating Hl2 for so long and hoped that it implemented the same kind of technoid, claustrophobic, secret faculties HL1 had and more. But the more vids got out the more depressed I got. There was one moment after the dam where you meet up with the black scientist (can't remember his name) and Alyx etc. which had a tiny little bit of that HL1 experience, but after 10 minutes in there you were just thrown into Ravenholm... ;(

Of course it would've been a very bad move to just bring Black Mesa back again, but HL2's story is so badly written I can't really say I'm impressed with it (sure, the levels look fine, there's some suspense and there are nice twists, but overall it's not really what I hoped it would be). They took some obscure BM administrator which didn't even show up in HL1 and made them the Big Brother. But instead of doing it S.T.A.L.K.E.R. style with some mystery and secrets, they quite broadly just revealed pretty much everything in the first few levels. There was no depth in the story, no real surprises. Everywhere you went, you just knew where to go next and you didn't have the feeling that you could do anything else. I didn't even feel that the things which were in the maps had a real purpose! It's just a boring shooter (better than all of the other boring shooters out there, but nothing more). HL2 had so much more the feeling of linearity than HL1. Cruising down a canal may be a leap forward from HL1 because at least you were driving in something, but never had I really the impression of being in a canal SYSTEM. It just seemed like there was only this canal and nothing else.

The same with the whole city. Sure, it was a nice atmosphere and all, but it just didn't quite catch on. I sensed some kind of sowjet feeling in it, but the whole props in the game don't really say much. There weren't any advertisments on the walls or an old vehicle you could drive around town and shops you could go in (all these things wouldn't have been too difficult to do). You just really were on a premade path right where the mapper wanted you to go. I mean, come on! The doors which couldn't be opened were only textures! So blatant.

The textures in the alien structures with this washed out blue-black-greyish marble texture is just so... boring. They tried to build up this huge tech complex but they haven't shown much creativity with it. I mean you could've thought that at least SOME rebels could've reached the citadel and made little camp or that there are rests of camps around it and they were trying to get in there for ages... but no, nothing like that. It's like everything ever existed was you, the paying customer who just wants to shoot hundreds of combine soldiers (yawn) and still thinks this game was worth anything.

The craving for the real HL1 feeling didn't go away. I'd choose HL1 over HL2 anyday, just because they did more with what they had. HL2 had so much different things which weren't totally thought-through, it was very depressing.

[/rant]
Click to expand...

The only thing storywise that HL1 had over HL2 was its continual mystery, but mysteries have to be cleared up sometime, don't they?. The only thing you could possibly fault the HL2 storyline was that there wasn't enough of it. The Breen speeches are perhaps the best literary work in any game ever.

In storytelling, there is a transition from HL1 and HL2, from mystery to revelation. But, quite a number of things need to be cleared up. The G-man's purpose, does Breen live?, and what will be his purpose? What has the world outside C17 turned into?, and insights into Gordon's past/future. In truth, HL2's story lacked a little depth, but it is also the second in the series. The Gamespy review even accepted that. HL2 will be a platform for a great story. If you haven't noticed, I will defend HL2's story to my grave, because it is so above any other game I've played. If you failed to pick up on the subtleties of the story, like the Breen speeches, and the Vortigaut speak, you're missing out. You're not fed the story in fifteen minute cutscenes, but Valve is still trying to meet a happy medium where the narrative is concerned, it seems.

Hmm, Jade Empire narrative(minus cutscenes)+HL2 storytelling=aweshemness??
 
Fliko said:
Well, with atleast over 1000 Combine Super Soldiers guarding the Citadel, along with a few striders that have godly technology compared to humans using SMGs, yeah, makes sense they didn't reach the Citadel.
Click to expand...

I wanted to point that out, but then I'd feel the obligation to address everything else he said.
 
After reading Parrabellum on Planet Half-life2, i want the open... Be out there with the people who fought long before Gordon came. Go see the world!

I'd like to see the scale of the invasion, all the ill done. Being in City 17 was fun, but it's a global matter, the city is just one of the Citadels... If the fight has REALLY begun, then there's hell coming.

I hope i'll finish the game with a bad taste in my mouth, feeling angry at thoose horrors - should keep me waiting even more for Half-life 3. I know i shouldn't mension it, but im glad it's coming... I don't want the evil to end, because when it's over, then what's Gordon? He's was only meant for one thing. Happiness and all the fairy tale endings won't suit him, he's a killing machine.
Also it'd make me feel like seeing the end of The Lord of the Rings... Endings sucks :\
 
ALL of the things that could have made the game great were cut out.

The Wastelands.The original aliens that inhabit them.

The Air Exchange or whatever.

Captain Vance.

Alyx's pet alien Skitch.

The original Street Wars complete with the exploding vehicles.

The fact that there were more interesting traps like the one with Gordon shooting the supports on a crane slamming some Zombies into a wall and seeing blood splattering on the wall.

The Borealis and Weather Station plus enemies and the sheer fact that the original E3 videos, especially the Strider breaking into Kleinner's Lab and it chasing you down the streets of City 17 while driving....are gone without a trace.

VALVe you BASTARDS!!
 
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