What things would you have back from HL1?

[IronicBob]

If Gabe Newell came to you in a dream/hallucinogenic coma/breakdown (well, it's happened to all of us) and offered you the chance to bring back certain aspects from HL1, what would you say, and what would you not say?

I'd bring back swimming headcrabs and the satchel bomb for the satisfying kills and Gravity Gun opportunities, and I wouldn't bring back that b****y leviathan.

 

[Acepilotf14]

I would want a full remake of HL1 that will actually come out in a reasonable timeframe.

 

[Barnz]

I would want a full remake of HL1 that will actually come out in a reasonable timeframe.

it's not really necessary

I'd bring back swimming headcrabs

what

 

[tschumann]

The guass gun.

 

[Sparta]

the black ops, particularly the assassins. They were/are the best firefights in FPS gaming. Fast bastards who dealt only small damage but their pace made it so you had to keep up with them in order to kill them. It would be a complete change from everything else in current FPS gaming.

Crouch, peak, shoot. Crouch peak shoot, etc, etc, etc, that's all FPS/3rd Person shooter games these days are. Having to dart and bolt and quickly flank an enemy that's doing the same thing and constantly on the move was/is exhilarating and tremendously satisfying.

 

[Wanted Bob]

I agree, the black ops assassins were perhaps the best enemies in the game. They were fun to face, but also quite challenging to track down and kill.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

The assassins definitely. I also want another tripmine maze challenge, as silly and unrealistic as it was. Also, ichthyosaur. Things that made swimming a hazardous endeavor.

Buttons you can push and things that you can otherwise interact with that make scientists all snivelly.

More challenging AI battles in general. Metrocops and combine soldiers were all such dumb shooting posts.

 

[Wanted Bob]

Also, I found that the set pieces in Half Life were far more diverse. One part would have you fighting a blind tentacle that you would have to distract or otherwise sneak around, and the next moment you would be perched at the top of a tower calling in ordinance on a Garg.

Perhaps this suited the original game more than it does the new games, but its one thing that made the original so good in my opinion.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

^ YES. VARIETY. I definitely should have included that in my previous post.

 

[aqil02]

i would have liked for maybe the camera laser thingy!
oh wait that thing is already in the game just that its in the hl2 beta

 

[Ennui]

no game will ever give me the feeling I had playing through HL at age 10 in 1999 ever again... claustrophobia and more pertinently that incredible novel (at the time) feeling of immersion and believeability - prior to that I had never come close to being that involved in an FPS, it was always just key, door, shoot, shoot, key, shoot, shoot, door, shoot, boss, shoot, shoot, key. The cinematic aspects of it - primitive as they are now - blew my mind for the first time in such a novel and impressive way that I'll never forget it. It was the beginning of a new tier of first-person virtual experience that I will never feel the magnitude of again without some new paradigm shift in immersive gaming. Scientists falling in elevators, the entire intro sequence on the tram and wandering around a functional Black Mesa, etc. Best FPS ever made, forever and ever and ever.

So I guess it's obvious why my lazy ass has been lounging around here for over half a decade.

 

[Eejit]

Snarks man, we need some gorram snarks.

 

[chimpmunk]

Being able to kill your allies.

 

[Darkside55]

If Gabe Newell came to you in a dream...what would you say?

HOW CAN YOU FIT INSIDE MY DREAM?

Also, rewrite Combine AI to behave more like marine AI. Bring back more Xen fauna; hell just bring back the boids, they don't even have to do anything, just have them circling around sometime. Hive hand.

 

[Noodle]

Better AI please!

And I want to go back to Xen in full Source glory!

 

[Sparta]

I don't care about Xen.

 

[ríomhaire]

Snark nests, but more of a puzzle. Snark nests attached to walls that release snarks at you if you get too close. Can be shot to be killed but shooting also sets off other nearby ones, making it risky.

Also the tau cannon.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

I agree, the black ops assassins were perhaps the best enemies in the game. They were fun to face, but also quite challenging to track down and kill.

I either revolver-headshot them or used the grenade launcher

For me basically everything

Enemies:
Tentacles
Houndeyes
Bullsquid
Snark
Gargantua
Alien Grunt
and lets not forget the Icthyosaur

Weapons:
Gauss Gun
Gluon Gun

The laser guided RPG with the toggleable laser (Dumb Fired Rockets)

 

[Polaris]

Not sure, really. Things from Half-Life 1 were more suited to it's environments - Black Mesa, deserts and Xen. I would love to see Xen again (with new engine capabilities it must be something awesome) but not as level full of jumping puzzles, a brief visit (like with Black Mesa in G-Man's "projections") would be enough to satisfy me...

I want more new stuff or some unused concepts like The Stampeder and some Synths.

 

[bryanf445]

Icthyosaur! jesus were those things scary. To this day I hate jumping into the water with them. Absolutely terrifying.

 

[kupocake]

I'm up for difficulty settings that aren't different shades of pointlessly easy. That said, Half-Life 1's 'Difficulty = HIGHER AI HP' philosophy isn't that great, so I'm saying this more in principle, though making the chargers and health-kits dispense less health seems fair enough.

 

[Darkside55]

Enemies:
Alien Grunt

They're all dead, bro. Them and the controllers died.

 

[kupocake]

They're all dead, bro. Them and the controllers died.

Since when? I don't exactly want them back, but unless Freeman wiped them all out personally, there's nothing in the story to say they aren't still kicking around.

edit: Actually, the game completely contradicts that if you stay on the train. Whatcha talkin' bout Darkseid?

 

[Polaris]

This?

the xen controllers were part of the nihilanth's support network, and
they relied on the nihilanth to throw them around where it wanted them
to go, so if there are any left, they are probably stranded in what
would not have been their natural native environment (nothing's native
to xen). However, without access to a steady food supply (whatever it
is they eat), they may well have simply died out.

Still nothing about Alien Grunts...

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

Those grunts were bastards.

 

[Darkside55]

Actually, the game completely contradicts that if you stay on the train.

Still nothing about Alien Grunts...

Remember that the G-man says that there were only a few survivors of Freeman's "personal holocaust" and that Freeman "totally annihilated" their race. On top of that, what Laidlaw said about the controllers dying out because the Nihilanth was no longer there to support them, and cut off from their food supply, they died. Who do you think was supporting the grunts? You think the grunts could get on without the controllers? The mindless grunts who were bred for nothing but battle, whose sustenance was likely monitored by the controllers; who, without the controllers, probably couldn't have formed a cohesive plan of survival for weeks, much less the twenty years between HL1 and HL2?

They're dead, guys.

 

[kupocake]

Remember that the G-man says that there were only a few survivors of Freeman's "personal holocaust" and that Freeman "totally annihilated" their race.

Haven't chosen the alternate ending in a while I assume? Get your nose out of the gcf file : the refusal message is 'Well it looks like we won't be working together. No regrets Mr Freeman?' The "personal holocaust" bit was cut (and cutting recorded dialogue seems to me a particularly striking invalidation of its content).

On top of that, what Laidlaw said about the controllers dying out because the Nihilanth was no longer there to support them, and cut off from their food supply, they died. Who do you think was supporting the grunts? You think the grunts could get on without the controllers? The mindless grunts who were bred for nothing but battle, whose sustenance was likely monitored by the controllers; who, without the controllers, probably couldn't have formed a cohesive plan of survival for weeks, much less the twenty years between HL1 and HL2?

Speculation, Speculation, Speculation.

I mean, you haven't even pointed out the obvious: The grunts were clearly Manufactured on Xen, and it's pretty unlikely that this is still the case. But we know next to nothing about how the Grunts survived, what they ate etc. Xen is a big enough place to hold any number of these things. Nothing to categorically say they're dead. We've seen them alive post-nihlianth. yes, there's nothing compelling either way, but there's no need for absolutes here.

 

[Xevrex]

I'd like to see more Xen fauna and have marine AI. Those guys gave me quite a problem, moving around and using cover like that. US Marines > Civil Protection + Overwatch

 

[FISHY CRACKERS]

The first pistol. That thing kicked ass.

 

[Darkside55]

Get your nose out of the gcf file : the refusal message is 'Well it looks like we won't be working together. No regrets Mr Freeman?' The "personal holocaust" bit was cut (and cutting recorded dialogue seems to me a particularly striking invalidation of its content).

You fool! The gcf (and oldschool pak) files are where the truth lies! What's in those files are the most important things in any Valve game.

The grunts were clearly Manufactured on Xen

Or just packaged.

In any event, I'm still going to adamantly state that they are dead. If you want to believe that a few of them somehow survived after all this time, you're welcome to--however, you must certainly agree that the likelihood of us ever seeing an alien grunt again is almost nil, and just like the old showbiz adage, if you aren't being seen, you're dead.

It sucks for me too because I want the hive hand back more than anything. And there was only one way to be getting that.

 

[Ennui]

Oh you goofy HL fanboys, look atcha go.

 

[kupocake]

Oh you goofy HL fanboys, look atcha go.

Members fighting in the forums
Oh man! Look at those fanboys go!
It's the freakiest show!

It may be a god-awful small affair to you, but some of us have mouths to feed.

 

[Ennui]

That was affectionate not derisive you touchy son of a bitch. I crave this sort of thing but I'm too outclassed to really butt in without anything but the odd comment. When people quote cut vox files and remnants of old cut parts of the original Half-Life from the map files, I get all hot and bothered.

 

[Barnz]

But we know next to nothing about how the Grunts survived, what they ate etc.

Actually we do. This is from a really old preview (probably written by Laidlaw, or someone at Valve):

"...It is speculated that [Alien Grunts] is bred for rapid maturity and a proportionately short lifespan. However, every known moribund specimen was killed in violent battle, and it is unlikely that any alien soldier is ever afforded the luxury of dying of old age, no matter how quickly that might arrive.

[Grunt's] favored ration comes in the mobile form of chub-toads. Battle areas are seeded with this highly prolific toadspawn to provide nutrition on-the-go for the campaigning army. With extremely high metabolic requirements, they will begin to consume enemies and allies alike when their preferred food is unavailable..."

Same article also says "grunts does not share any similar genetics with masters they serve" - which supports Darkside's theory.

 

[Polaris]

Members fighting in the forums
Oh man! Look at those fanboys go!
It's the freakiest show!

It may be a god-awful small affair to you, but some of us have mouths to feed.

Is there life on Xen?

 

[SpotEnemyBoats]

The original feeling in the original game, like the narrow corridors - it's more open in HL2, I desire it narrow! The off-Earth feeling on Xen, oh how I remember looking at the sky's of Xen... it was beautiful!

Oh and the arsenal.

 

[Mong0!]

The original feeling in the original game, like the narrow corridors - it's more open in HL2, I desire it narrow!

I must say that I disagree more to that than I have desagreed to anything for a very, very long time... I HATE being inside in games, especcially when it's dark, I prefer big landscapes and sun (snow is fine too^^) like in ep:2.

but yeah, being away from earth would be nice. And I have a pretty strong feeling that we will visit other planets in ep:3 since we're dealing with Aperture who came pretty far when it comes to portals

 

[MFL]

Needs an expansion with the last surviving grunt.
Half Life ...Two? Two and a half? One and three quarters: Gruntable Phlegm.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

Reminds me: we need Shephard.

 

[Story]

Definetely Adrian Shephard.