10.05.05
Another boring game entry with HL2 spoilers
Sorry, but I like to talk about computer games. I’m training myself to get an analytical approach to computer games, and naturally the byproduct is a lot of random thoughts; this is an excellent place to vent them to nobody in particular.
I finished Half-Life 2. I must admit I liked it a lot more than I’d expected when I bought it; if I’d known it would be this enjoyable, I would’ve probably paid full price for it when it was released. But instead I got it very very cheap later without knowing what I was missing in the mean time, so that works for me. I will list three major reasons why Half-Life 2 surpassed my rather low expectations by far:
1) The illusion. Yes, it is linear, but it doesn’t FEEL linear. There is only one path to go with the exception of a few occasional deroutes that are ultimately cosmetic, but the path is logical and generally makes you feel that it’s the path you would’ve chosen anyway if given the choice. And the strong variation in the nature of the path prevents it from feeling like you’re just being led on even if you are. The puzzles also serve to break up the linear path.
2) The puzzles. Half-Life 2 is about 90% running around and fighting. But then at regular intervals, you’ll be forced to just stop for a moment to figure out how to bypass an obstacle. The puzzles are mostly very very well designed, the solutions are logical and almost entirely depend on your use of your surroundings and the excellent (if not perfect) physics system, and they don’t FEEL like puzzles, but rather… well, like natural obstacles. Most importantly, the puzzles provide nice little thinking-breaks in the constant hectic action. Not that it takes a rocket scientist to figure any of them out, but it’s something else than running and shooting.
3) The variation. This is the major one. The puzzles is one way Valve has chosen to vary the gameplay a little by inserting something other than action, but this is far from the main source of variation. Every time you’re about to get tired of the game, the gameplay changes. At the beginning of the game, you’re running through the city without weapons, trying to escape the police. Then you find your friends and get a suit and some weapons, and now you’re off through the city with weapons, fighting police and later zombies and other nasty critters. When you’re getting a little fed up with that, you get an airboat in which to sail around and run people over. Then you find more friends and you get the all-powerful Gravity Gun (it lives up to its reputation, it really does). Then the game turns into outright zombie horror as you fight your way through the creepy near-abandoned city part of Ravenholm, at the end of which you get to fight alongside a crazy priest. Then you run a little again before you get a buggy car with which to drive through cliff landscapes until you have to get out and jump around in a rocky area, avoiding to step on the ground lest nasty bugs appear to tear you apart. Then you get something to tame the bugs with and you lead them in battle as your own little army of pests. And it continues like that, constantly changing its nature just when you’re starting to get enough of it. It keeps you interested like that, and it works great.
The moment I’d really been waiting for was getting to fight alongside my buddies of the resistance. It was excellent to send them off into a room before me to scout the area for zombies or soldiers and then jumping in to support them if they found something hostile. Although I must say the final part where you make your way through the enemy stronghold armed only with a super-charged gravity gun was simply inspired as well. Nothing quite beats the feeling of killing an enemy by hurling his friend into him.
I’ve been playing a bit of Half-Life 2 Deathmatch with Phasmatis. The first time he owned the match right from the start and I didn’t kill him once. The second time I’d learned that sneaking could be quite useful, and I managed to kill him 4 times. The best moment was when I was creeping around on a roof and saw him walking carefully across the ground below me. I took out the pulse rifle and hurled myself off the roof, spraying bullets at him as I went, it was a horrifying surprise attack which caused him to completely panic and empty his own pulse rifle into thin air and subsequently flee down another side of the map. The shock effect was entirely worth the fall damage. I decided that if I went after him, he’d get the drop on me and finish what the fall had started, so I chose to run down through some tunnels, picking up a bit of healing as I went, and I came out right behind him as he was sneaking back towards the location of my previous ambush. I happened to have an RPG on me, and Phas went flying half-way across the map as my rocket hit him square in the back. To be fair though, he did get me 4 times as well, I had to leave for dinner after my rocket-frag and we called it a draw. His best kill by far was when he sent me the simple message “One death by tyre coming up” and surprised me from behind, killing me by launching a car tyre at me with the gravity gun. That kill had style, I must admit.
It’s not exactly an intellectual game, but I will still buy the expansion.
