Wrong genre, me thinks!

W

wackjob

Guest
Thanks to all so far for helping me while I play HL2 (Griever, Joule to mention just a few) but my last post (here) illustrates to me a problem with this game. HL1 was my 1st FPS & I loved it. I've had many since, the latest being Doom3, MOHPA & Chronicles of Riddick-Butcher Bay. As I find I have to come here so often I'm beginning to wonder what's going on, and no, I haven't come down with a case of the stupids. I think the developers got a bit side-tracked on HL2, regarding its genre, FPS (unless it wasn't intended to be one!) I feel playing HL2 is more like MYST w/ an Uzi slung over your shoulder! After all I went thru to get out of "The Flooding Room" I'm now confronted with more puzzles. This is where I'm at now:

p1128483782712.jpg


Something may come at me but looking at that scene, & getting this far in I'm gonna assume it's another puzzle, maybe with a couple of bullets fired but not many. Not really a true FPS. I'm sure I'm steppin' on toes but I'm a bit of a purist and I like my Martini's "Shaken, not Stirred" and HL2 is stirred a bit too much for me (so far-we'll see!). :p
 
Just keep running through the tunnel with the toxic ooze.
The game is a FPS combined with puzzles to make it interesting.
 
In this case, the only problem lies between the keyboard and the chair. That's my diagnosis.
 
I think Valve wanted to lead away from the Doom thinking of shoot em ups and set a prescedant for FPS gaming. The thinking, problem solving aspect of gaming is just as fun as shooting up Imps and Pinky Demons (ok, maybe not as fun, but hell, it's different).
 
Most of the stupid puzzles are in the Route Kanal and Water Hazard chapters... the rest of the game doesn't have much, thankfully.
 
wackjob said:
Something may come at me but looking at that scene, & getting this far in I'm gonna assume it's another puzzle, maybe with a couple of bullets fired but not many. Not really a true FPS. I'm sure I'm steppin' on toes but I'm a bit of a purist and I like my Martini's "Shaken, not Stirred" and HL2 is stirred a bit too much for me (so far-we'll see!). :p
Click to expand...

Honestly, I don't think Valve have done anything different in terms of level design with Half-Life 2 that they didn't do in the original. Yes, there are larger levels, with physics and vehicles, but for the most part the path that you are to take is pretty layed out for you. The design is very linear, just like the first game. Even if there is a fork in the road you'll either meet up with the path you didn't take or you'll come to a dead end and return to the fork again. :cheese:

You mentioned some difficulty in terms of the mechanics in the gameplay (i.e. the physics). Your previous post eluded to a tunnel that could be reached only by flooding the sewer system. This was done by turning a valve and raising the water level. In a way this isn't at all different from the first game. In the Lambda Core you needed to flood the coolant chamber in order to continue on (a process that is even more involving than the one in Half-Life 2). Not only did you have to restore power to the seperate pumps, but you needed to turn not one, but two valves afterwards to flood the reactor the whole way. :rolling:

Right now you are at the heavily radioactive area of Route Canal. Considering where we just came from, I doubt that backtracking is the right course of action to take. In fact there's only one correct route to take here, and that's due to the linear level design. You mentioned the pipes in your screenshot and how it appears to be another puzzle. This isn't nearly a puzzle as it is a simple method of getting some hidden supplies. Traversing these pipes is no different to wandering around the ventalation system in Black Mesa, a few of them optional. In Half-Life 1, the Office Complex level, there was a hidden ventalation duct that had you wandering through the ceiling to eventually drop in a room locked from the inside, containing an assortment of grenades. :thumbs:

These alternate routes which lead to goodies are, in my opinion, a good thing. It rewards the adventurous explorers and adds to the replay value of the game. These "puzzles" (if you want to call them that) breathe life into the experience and provide you with more than just run and gun gameplay. Valve have created a very detailed world in Half-Life 2 and exploring it is highly satisfying because of it. :E

Of the games you mentioned earlier, Doom3 and Chronicles of Riddick contained new gameplay elements apart from shooting (I haven't played MOHPA). Doom3 had you reading PDA entries and looking for keycards. Riddick had you switching to third-person to climb and navigate through the compound that the game was set in. Both Doom 3 and Riddick even had less to shoot at than Half-Life 2! :O

So I fail to see what the difference in game design is. Are you upset that Valve made the levels too pretty and detailed? Are you just frustrated at the "puzzles" -even though they aren't all that different in style from the first game? Or are you just making conversation? :p
 
"So I fail to see what the difference in game design is. Are you upset that Valve made the levels too pretty and detailed? Are you just frustrated at the "puzzles" -even though they aren't all that different in style from the first game? Or are you just making conversation?"
Click to expand...

Yes, frustrated I would be, & maybe just a bit disappointed. In this particular thread, I am making conversation; I asked a question as to this forums member's interest rational in playing the game. Were you all looking for a shootem-up MYST type, because that's how it has seemed to me to date.

I'm not knocking the game or looking for my money back. Your answers have given me hope to move (perhaps "plod" would be the better word) on. Hopefully the next levels will have more action.

The game has excellant graphics & A.I., the soundtrack superb and as expected. It's the whole "let's kill something" part that I miss, the taking my frustrations out on life with a mouse click. I needed to raise the options on A.I. to the highest level; the default was a joke & medium still too easy. I like a more than fair fight, to me that's a challenge also!

As far as showing that screenshot, that was just a "for instance", i.e. betcha this'll happen next. The pipes shown hadn't puzzled me; yet! :p
 
No. Half-life 2 is a pure-bred FPS from start to finish. The puzzles (though you seem to be overanalyzing, the part where you showed that screenshot doesn't deserve to be called a puzzle), is more of a standard today.
 
AJ Rimmer said:
No. Half-life 2 is a pure-bred FPS from start to finish. The puzzles (though you seem to be overanalyzing, the part where you showed that screenshot doesn't deserve to be called a puzzle), is more of a standard today.
Click to expand...

Aye.

sixchar
 
Ah, the ol toxic lake puzzle. It's a pickle, no doubt about that. Here's some advice.

Step 1: Press W to move forward
 
I hate the term "FPS" - First Person Shooter. It a good name for games like Serious Sam or Painkiller. It doesn't sound right for games like Half-Life and even Doom3.
As far as I can recall, such games were called "FPP" since Doom.
FPP = First Person Perspective.
"FPS" seems to be something new and sounds stupid :p
 
I'm sure you just jump down then walk along there.
 
*laughing hystericaly*

Yeah that puzzle is a doozy! Took me all of .05 seconds to figure it out!
 
Go ahead, laugh. On my earlier PC, with a GeForce 2, the toxic waste and the ground looked alike, and I was wondering why I died several times.
 
I can't beleive how many of you missed the point & focused instead on the screenshot. It was meant in the sense of "I dont know what will happen next, but probably.........." and then I explained how too much of the game is wasted on "puzzling encounters". Why don't some of you READ the entire thread, not just post ridiculous comments like "the ole' toxic stream puzzle". C'mon all ready!!
 
Przemek said:
I hate the term "FPS" - First Person Shooter. It a good name for games like Serious Sam or Painkiller. It doesn't sound right for games like Half-Life and even Doom3.
As far as I can recall, such games were called "FPP" since Doom.
FPP = First Person Perspective.
"FPS" seems to be something new and sounds stupid :p
Click to expand...

No, it's not something new it's something 10/05/05. Think about it (if you can); you're in the first person(FP) & you're shooting(S), GET IT? :p
 
Well yeah, but FPS sound pretty lame and someone may think such games are focused entirely on shooting as many foes as possible.
 
but your still at the beginning of the game. it gets much better.


on the related topic of the flooding room, i never noticed the valve and went down the hole with the ladder and spent half an hour stacking barrels under water to get in the pipe. now...that was a challenge

of course then realised i had to go back once i got through the pipe:x
 
wackjob said:
I can't beleive how many of you missed the point & focused instead on the screenshot. It was meant in the sense of "I dont know what will happen next, but probably.........." and then I explained how too much of the game is wasted on "puzzling encounters". Why don't some of you READ the entire thread, not just post ridiculous comments like "the ole' toxic stream puzzle". C'mon all ready!!
Click to expand...
But whether or not you find them challenging, or boring whichever it is, you spend the majority of the time shooting people. I haven't actually timed it but I'm pretty sure. And later in the game, the puzzle locations are well guarded, so you get to combine the two.

Hehe, "combine" the two, get it?

Like I said, puzzles are a standard, and HL2 may have a slight more number of them than usual, but definately not more or even harder ones than in HL. So your argument kinda fails.
 
carrera said:
but your still at the beginning of the game. it gets much better.


on the related topic of the flooding room, i never noticed the valve and went down the hole with the ladder and spent half an hour stacking barrels under water to get in the pipe. now...that was a challenge

of course then realised i had to go back once i got through the pipe:x
Click to expand...
That's exactly what I did...
 
carrera said:
fark off Stalin
Click to expand...

Yeah, so best thing to do is add this :dork: to your ignore list.
He is obviously a bit slow, with a site like that, what utter trash.
 
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