Half-Life² Questions

The tarot cards become much more valuable at higher difficulty levels.

I just recently played Undying for the first time, and second it's awesomeness.

 

the art design in painkiller was great and there is no denying it. Still, I have problems with the level design and the aforementioned "box filled with thosuands of weak, charging monsters". I wish a true spiritual successor to doom and quake was released... Painkiller had potential but to me it wasn't fully realised.

 

I have to disagree with the love Quake 4 is getting. I really, really disliked that game. It's not that it was a bad game but that it was so completely and thoroughly average. There really is no other game that better fits the rating of 5/10. Never have I played a game that was more formulaic, tired, or devoid of inspiration. Again, it's not that there was anything particularly bad about it, aside from the utterly insipid and cringe-worthy writing, but that there was not one moment in the entire game that made me say, "Now, THAT was cool!". I suppose the stroggification sequence had potential had it come as a surprise, but they had spoiled that with the first gameplay video; they even announced that you'd be stoggified on the box! At any rate, I really did not like Quake 4, and in my opinion is the worst first person shooter I've ever played.

 

One question, have you played Unreal II? Because if you say "yes" there must be much suckage to Q4.

 

Quake 4 was a fun, solid shooter. The only parts I disliked were the tank driving which was awful (the mech sequence was a bit better IMHO) and the fucking "ending". I mean I went through all that shit and nothing is really accomplished? I really thought there would be some kind of ending like e.g. you saved earth and everything but due to your stroggification you are cast out of humanity or something along those lines.
But lo! it´s some kind of bullshit
"oh yeah great work nigga"
"hell yeah we gave the slobes a beatin' sir"
"oh shit, cap´s on the horn, we need you for moar action!!!"

I mean I get it, they´re freaking marines and the war´s not over yet, but it could have been a little bit more dramatic. Or exciting. Or not lovelessly-tacked-on.

 

TF2 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Fortress Forever < TFC

 

edit: there, I fixed teh layouts.

 

Yep, good ol Quake IV.

Not for bimbos.

 

Yes I played Unreal II, and I would say that Quake 4 is a very similar experience: uninspired and completely mediocre. Again, both games arn't especially bad, they just have absolutely nothing that makes them worth playing. FEAR came out at the same time as Quake 4, and ,although it definitely had some major flaws, it had some great AI and some outstanding firefights in it, such that even though the game had weaknesses, it was still completely worth playing through. Quake 4 and Unreal 2, on the other hand, while having less obvious weaknesses, were simply boring, and there is no reason to play a boring game.

 

Quake 4 was completely uninspired. Doom 3 with Strogg.

I'd argue further, but after the last 2 pages pockmarked with "Generic Internet Forum Occupied by the 12 to 19 age group and their FPS recommendations posts", it'd be a waste.

 

The only good things I could find in UII were design of some levels and some weapons, namely rocket launcher (I mean the targeting system ripped straight from Panzer Dragoon) and grenade launcher (versatile). Everything else just sucked, it was single most uninspired FPS I have played.

 

The main problem in unreal 2 is that the main character is too much slow. Sidestep and running takes so long.

This makes the game more difficult, but the levels were so big that to reach the objectives you'd have to walk a long path, a sitting duck for snipers.

It had cool weapons though.

Some other good FPS that came in that period is star wars: republic commando, which was presented in a nice way, with only 3 missions, some good and funny squad mates, and fast paced. Cool effects also, like alien blood obscuring your viewer, then cleaned like a car windshield.

there were two other I never really played beyond the first level, which was SWAT 4 and project snowblind, but I might start them when I have time.

 

The point of endless spawns seems to be to make player run, rather than fight.

 

A character never sits down to explain to you what happened to the world during Freeman's stasis, so if you're continuing on only for such a moment you might as well stop. There is an explanation in game however, but it is very subtle and easily missed. In Vance's lab there is a bulletin board with a collection of newspaper clippings, the headlines of which give you an overview of the events that lead to Combine domination of the world.

Basically, the dimensional portals that opened at Black Mesa after the resonance cascade continued opening and no one could stop them. Eventually, a Combine invasion occurred through these portals, conquering the world in 7 hours. Dr. Breen, the administrator of Black Mesa, organized Earth's surrender and was accordingly rewarded with his present position by the Combine.

Other elements of the story are just picked up in bits and pieces, mostly just derived from the nature of the environment itself. Notice how outside of City 17 there are hostile aliens everywhere and that buildings and such are completely abandoned. From this we can gather that the countryside across Earth is completely unsafe for humans, and that the only protected places are the cities to which the Combine has herded the remaining population. Furthermore in Episode 1, after realizing that antlions are swarming into City 17, Alyx makes a brief comment that the Combine inhibitor fields which scare away the antlions must be down. People live in the cities not just because the Combine has relocated them there, but because the cities are the only safe places left, being protected by Combine technology.

At any rate, Half-Life 2 does a remarkable job of story telling in that it never has a character just spit out plot for five minutes. Instead you get little bits and pieces of information, an old newpaper here, a bit of graphitti there, that when taken as whole tell the story of what the world has become.

 

Yes you missed. Those newspapers are at Black Mesa East, when you first meet with Eli, just before you grab the gravity gun.

 

Also, Eli notices what you're looking at and comments.

Those Valve guys do excel at storytelling.

 

best thing about the game really.

I really enjoyed it.

It was also upgraded form what was apparent in HL1.
You might have thought you nare dealing with the aliens but really its several different kinds of infestations of different life forms from multiple universes.
Combine itself is a big alliance of large number of universes possibly the largest organized at the moment.

the whole intro was one of the better ones ever.

 

The long hovercraft segment was strange. It made me naseous.

 

That's a bit too strong. I liked that they let me experience most of the story with my own eyes, like you can see the water level has been going down, but it is still lacking. Realistically anyone would have asked for explainations about the current situation, that no one cares to fill Freeman in and instead acts as if he does not need to know anything feels a bit contrived. Same with the vortigaunts worshipping Freeman as the One Free Man, it became irritating very fast. I like the idea of picking pieces of the puzzle here and there but the newspaper clips for exemple could be easily missed. One of the biggest problem though is that no character is really interesting, maybe because you do not interact with them enough to find out who they are, you just stand there and they talk then tell you where to go and what to do without any exchange taking place. Alyx is plain annoying as it's clear Valve pushed her constantly in your face hoping you'll develop feelings for her, the most pathetic part must be when she confess her feelings for Gordon at the end of HL2.

It's more accurate to say that Valve excel at creating a setting and an atmosphere, the introduction to City 17 and all the oppressive feelings that go with it is memorable for exemple, but the story and the way it's told isn't.

 

Unfortunately that is where the story ends. After that the game is all about Freeman killing more combine, killing more combine again, killing yet more combine and so on without any progression in the story telling. Even episodes are basically have you running around with Alyx and killing even more combine. In fact HL2 episodes feel like a cheap sitcom that has the very same events each new episode.

 

Well, they spawn only if you step on sand. if you walk on asphalt, concrete, hard surfaces, or even some scrap metal over the sands, the ants won't appear.

And there are those big pistons, which when turned on, drives them away.

I never felt like they're "respawning". I aways imagined that area is swarming with antlions under the sand.

And they're not that difficult or dangerous enough. More like an annoyance.

About the story, the fact no one tells gordon what's going on is peheaps because people might think he already knows. And since gordon is.... errr... mute... he couldn't ask about what is going on.

anyway, there's this website that compiles all info from the games and tries to build a timeline. It has spoilers though, but it may clear up some things:

http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/