Halo Life 2: Shocked
By Steve
I never update my blog because I’m lazy.
I have, however, been playing some games in the last few weeks. After Bioshock, I mucked around with Medal of Honor: Airborne, but put it aside after an hour or so. I find it exhausting to play for some reason.
In the last couple of weeks (or days), I blasted through the single-player Halo 3 and both solo parts of The Orange Box on the PC. (I also joined GameFly so I can play more 360 games without actually buying them. And I’ll be getting a PlayStation 3 in a few weeks… a free one, in fact. Yay for “buyer rewards” on the credit card I used to use for all of my work expenses.)
If only judged as a single-player game, Halo 3 is the most overrated game of the year. The plot is nonsensical, the gameplay structure is old-fashioned, the cutscenes are eternal, the dialogue yammers on about things that may require a degree in Halo-dom to connect with… it just feels like the best game of 2004. We’ve moved on; Bungie hasn’t.
(That Hollywood is interested in this mishmash of sci-fi, melodrama, forced comedy, and pretentious posturing says a lot about how creatively bankrupt the movie biz is. Or how desperate it is to reach 18-24 boys.)
While the storyline can be ignored, the combat cannot. And that’s a good thing, because it’s fantastic. It’s easy to forget the first Halo’s (awful) tagline, “Combat Evolved,” and Bungie still does some amazing combat in Halo 3. It’s at its best when it’s out in the open, when amazing/funny things happen, when the physics produce the unpredictable results you don’t get with nearly as much frequency in narrow corridors and small-ish rooms.
If Halo 3 had more outdoor combat scenes, its single-player would be way more bearable. But it’s boring environment after boring environment, with some horrible Flood levels to boot. I sucked it up and made it through to the end more out of a sense of duty than a desire to see where the story went. (And I was ecstatic to find that I got no achievements for finishing on wussy mode; hey, thanks for that, Bungie. I get giving someone else more, but sheesh… that’s just rude.)
Now as a multiplayer game, holy crap… this is where Halo 3 deserves all of its kudos. PC gamers who’ve played anything from Red Baron to Quake to the Battlefield series are probably laughing at some of its innovations—screen shots! movies! oh my!—but give them some credit for how approachable they’ve made everything. I’ll probably never play it online as I suck at console FPS games (and the Halo online crowd is kinda scary), but still… it sets a new standard for multiplayer experiences.
As for Orange Box, I haven’t messed around that much with Team Fortress 2 because of my aversion to random online play. I probably need some friends or something.
As for Episode Two, it’s good. Not great, not spectacular, but good. Granite-like. Perfect, even. Maybe too perfect.
It’s also very contrived. You start with no weapons, again. Good thing Alyx is around to find your gravity fun for the “Physics Combat” showcase; it’s an equally good thing that the people around City 17 were stockpiling explosive tanks and barrels. Then you get guns, get you some rambling discourse that tells you what happened in the previous episode and what’s expected in this one, you get the car level, the “woman in peril” level, the showcases of new Source Engine technology, blah blah blah.
I’ve always enjoyed the narrative in Half-Life as it was vague, it left many questions unanswered, it didn’t interrupt the game’s flow to tell you what’s going on, but most importantly it didn’t operate in the foreground. But it’s getting more forced and traditional. There are multiple cutscenes in Episode Two, ones that take control away from the player. While the lip synching is terrific, Valve is over-animating its little actors. Everyone looks like they’re in a 1940s movie, with their constant broad gestures. And Alyx Vance is given some terrible dialogue that makes her sound less like the cool, though sidekick you thought she was and more like a teenager experiences her first bit of puppy love…for both DOG and Gordon.
When I reviewed Episode One, I called it “predictably unpredictable,” and the same thing can be said about Episode Two. Because Valve thinks out every piece of its games to the nth degree—listen to the commentary—you can actually predict everything that’ll happen once you know how they approach every scenario, and read player feedback.
“We’ll introduce monsters at location A and B, so you’re familiar with those areas. Next, we’ll destroy A, which forces you to use location C. At the end, you’ll need to deal with all locations simultaneously, because that’s how we roll.”
If you listen to the commentary, Valve looks at every bit of player feedback and remove everything that causes confusion and/or give so many hints and visual/audio queues that their games have almost no surprises. Which ultimately may be why they’re not floating my boat as much as some of the random chaos I get from more open-world type games like STALKER. That game is rough and clunky, but feels so much more like a dynamic combat game than the sterile, perfect Episode Two. Its flaws give it some life.
(And for some reason, it seems like every single setpiece in a Valve game goes on one beat too long. They rarely leave me wanting more; they leave me relieved they’re over.)
It’s like nothing happens organically in a Valve game, and I wonder if it’s because they spend so much time on iterating the damn things. Compared to music or movies, games are unique in that the more time you have to work on something, the better it turns out. In movies and music, excessive fiddling and refinement can eliminate all of the spontaneity and excitement, leading to sterile, overproduced drek. I saw one comment to a review of Orange Box that, “Everyone should make games like Valve.” Well, yeah. We should all have (virtually) unlimited time and budgets. But maybe Valve spends a little bit too much time on their games, and they playtest and overdesign all of the spontaneity and unpredictability out of them.
Which brings us to Portal, which is as wonderful as everyone says it is. It also manages to feel tossed off, despite being fussed over for something like three years, feeling like something that could be done by handful of people in six months, though this is the hallmark of all casual and puzzle games. They look like they require little effort to make, but that’s only true of their resource requirements (i.e. the time to make models, levels, etc.). But they take just as long or longer to playtest, because they’re all gameplay.
I have no idea how many iterations of Portal exist, but I doubt the final version looks at all like the original. Or it could be one of those situations where you end up pursuing a dozen or hundred different paths and end up exactly where you started. (And if you believe Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink,” this would be the expected result.)
Some people are going nuts, calling Portal “Game of the Year,” but I wouldn’t go that far. It feels too much like a preview of a much more elaborate game, which you get a nice demo of on its final level. I might dig it more if I hadn’t been immersed yourself in the world of experimental gameplay and in the student projects that Portal itself emerged from, where the results are rarely games, but rather showcases of one core mechanic that you can see being turned into a bigger game.
It’s obvious Valve is merging its fiction into Half-Life, but a Portal gun in a traditional game would be impossible to manage. Or would it? If anyone can spend enough time figuring out every possible way a Portal gun would fuck up a level and solve each of those problems, it’s Valve.
October 15th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Whoah… Steve is alive. Good to see you back.
Bravo on the straight forward, objective view of Half-Life 2 Ep. 2. I actually went straight to Portal for something fresh, and still have yet to get to Ep. 2 (for some of the reasons you mentioned, i.e., being overproduced).
Somewhere about halfway through Portal, the difficulty level (as far as using the portal gun) ramps up a little too quickly. And then, somewhere around level 15 or so, the puzzle gamespace multiplies exponentially. It’s no longer “put this box on the button and reach the door”, but “put this box on the button and reach the door, then go through the door to a new room and do it all again three more times - now with turret guns!”. They’re more like the initial mini-challenges strung together. Yet it’s all still considered the same “level”.
I really enjoyed Portal, and it’s a good attempt at bridging the “Aperture Testing Facility” to the overall Half-Life world. The test facility narrator is strangely enjoyable to hear (the post-processed pitch-bends on the voice are similar to how G-man speaks), yet not all of the stabs at humor are successful.
I like Steve’s challenge about figuring out how to incorportate a portal gun into a gamespace without breaking it.
October 15th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
PS: Steve, you briefly mentioned STALKER.
Did you ever share your complete thoughts on this game with the community?
October 16th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
If you listen to the commentary, Valve looks at every bit of player feedback and remove everything that causes confusion and/or give so many hints and visual/audio queues that their games have almost no surprises. Which ultimately may be why they’re not floating my boat as much as some of the random chaos I get from more open-world type games like STALKER. That game is rough and clunky, but feels so much more like a dynamic combat game than the sterile, perfect Episode Two. Its flaws give it some life.
I haven’t gotten around to Episode Two yet (I’m still baffling myself) but I would agree with this. When the first expansion figured out that puzzles could truly be perfected by making them all easy enough to solve but then keeping your brain too occupied with action to think about it, I was hailing the completely perfect level of production quality that goes into these games. But without a lot of inspiration behind it, they could easily approach stagnation. Still, it’s nice to see at least one game developer taking this so seriously that they’ve started an “editor” function much like films have, even if we all know how infrequently films are successful. I guess I’ll have to play it to find out.
But Portal I have played, and I love it. The most interesting thing to me is that it’s basically telling a small story without any characters. I suppose the automated voice system counts at the end of the day, but the effect wasn’t quite as human-like as Metroid Fusion was, so I can’t bring myself to qualify it as a character.
October 16th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
I’ve only gotten about halfway through STALKER, so I haven’t really shared any thoughts on it. It’s a bit of a mess, but I love what they’re trying to do.
A part of me wishes it was less RPG-y and more of a straight-up action game, because we’ve already had RPGs with its open structure. Ditch the complex inventory and some of the extra systems and let me explore a giant map and take on missions like an FPS game.
I suppose that’s a bit like Just Cause, or Mercenaries on the console. Hmmm.
What I dig about those kinds of games is that we all end up having different experiences, with some shared context. Er, that sounded fruity.
I just dig open world games. It gives me some of the kick I get from something like Civilization (random maps! different approaches! different approaches depending on landscapes), but in an FPS.
I’d REALLY love to see an FPS that could randomize its levels. Maybe not interiors, but perhaps entire islands or something. That would be cool.
I’m thinking FarCry 2 may end up being my “perfect” game. If you’ve seen it in action, it looks like they’re just dumping you on an island and saying, “Go shoot a bunch of shit!” Maybe Crysis will be like that too; I’ve only played its multiplayer demo (and yikes, it’s good looking). The original FarCry was a fabulous game… at least until the mutant things showed up. I once avoided an entire village full of soldiers just by creeping around them on my stomach.
That’s the kind of options I want to see explored in shooters. Fewer corridors, more open environments with tons of interesting gameplay choices.
October 18th, 2007 at 1:33 am
I’ve only gotten about halfway through STALKER, so I haven’t really shared any thoughts on it. It’s a bit of a mess, but I love what they’re trying to do.
Keep plugging away at it, as the end is very much worth experiencing. The game seemingly gets more unbalanced towards the end (particularly the high-radiation areas once you enter the NPP) to the point of being insanely hard. Want to roam around and explore? Nearly impossible… and a shame since there are all sorts of nooks and crannies to entice you.
But in a way, this adds to the mystique of Stalker. Near the end, there are times that as you progress further into the level, a sepia-tone lens filter grows in strength. Couple this with the unpredictable firefights, growing radiation, and the strange appearance of spectres that attack you in slow motion, the game assumes an almost hallucinogenic quality; you scratch and crawl your way to the level’s end and don’t want to suffer through it again. But it lives on in your memory like a bad dream. Charming, eh?
After beating the game, I hacked into the game files to check out each of the 6 (or was it 7?) “Wish Granter” endings… the consequence of the wish “I want the Zone to disappear” was particularly haunting to me. And one of the “true” endings (non-wish granter) was eerily similar to Morpheus in Deus Ex. (Don’t worry, these aren’t spoilers.)
There’s quite a bit more conversation I’d like to engage about STALKER, should this discussion get any deeper. For now, I’ve said enough.
I’d REALLY love to see an FPS that could randomize its levels. Maybe not interiors, but perhaps entire islands or something. That would be cool.
I recall “Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix” having this feature for its multiplayer. You would pick from a series of prerequisites, then it would generate an outdoor map sprinkled with some buildings here and there. What I remember was that it was actually pretty random. But it was painfully slow on the loading. And not exactly what you’re describing. But the attempt at random level creation was commendable.
Speaking of soldier of fortune, I’m anxious to see how the upcoming “Payback” (not being developed by Raven, mind you) is received. I personally don’t have high hopes. I’m just anxious- there’s enough of a gap since the last iteration that a new generation of gamers will be exposed to it, while having never played the original. Of course, if “Payback” is shite, then the original may forever be smeared.
Oh well. Here’s to hoping my italics formatting works on this blog.
October 28th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
I never found that gigantic lawn gnome thing when I played. Did you photoshop it in?
I loved the final battle of Episode Two. It’s the largest sense of urgency I’ve ever had in something that was actually easy enough that I never died attempting.
October 29th, 2007 at 12:29 am
The gnome is in the shed you enter in the first level. (You can find it when Alyx is fiddling with the screen.)
There’s even an achievement for “launching the gnome into space.” It requires that you carry it with you for a really long time to get it in the rocket.
The final battle in Episode Two was pretty cool, but I had it figured out. It goes back to what I was talking about; they made sure to put you at each of the weapon depots by bringing in striders from multiple locations, with the final “all striders, all the time.”
But yeah, it was pretty easy… or at least it is if you’re a good aim. I was mostly able to toss the bombs on the striders with one try, which made killing ‘em off much simpler.
October 29th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
I’m quite sure I’ll find it a little too game-y the second time around, but I liked it the first time. I just found out on a forum that you’re supposed to take out the hunters with the Gravity Gun & large objects…?_?… Apparently it gets even easier that way.
I can’t login to the achievement section for some reason. I can in Portal, but I can’t in Episode Two. Maybe that’s why the gnome doesn’t exist for me. I reloaded the beginning & went back just to look. I saw nothing.