Elzair
Cipher
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2009
- Messages
- 2,254
I recently checked the list of best-selling PC games, and I was shocked that 9.3 million copies of Half-Life have been sold. It beats Doom by 4.3 million!
Now, I can understand the popularity of Doom. It was one of the first FPS's. It has a very gradual learning curve. It starts the player right in the middle of the action (usually arcade-like games sell better). The initial levels are quite short, so the level cleared screen provides frequent rewards for the player. Basically, most players should be kicking demon ass very quickly. Plus the music rocks!
Now, I have not played the original, but when I broke down and bought Risen on Steam, I also bought Half-Life: Source, which is supposed to be the original game moved onto the Source engine to provide a few enhancements like improved physics. I have not played much, but the beginning does not encourage me. The game begins with a tram-ride that appears to go on forever. I still wonder what the hell they were thinking by doing that. When the tram ride ends, I get out and schmooze with the fellow researchers for a while. I get that they are trying to upset the player by showing him part of the facility before the disaster, but I think this has been done much better in other games. Furthermore, the layout of this first area can be a little confusing as well as some of the instructions; they are not complex . . . they are just weird. When ITZ happened, the game becomes much more standard, but I still found some problems. The first few enemies are quite hard even on easy. It seems the zombies and the pulse demon take a major beating unless I hit them in a particular area. Since ammunition is scarce at first, I use the crowbar for most of them. After 2-3 encounters, I get the hang of it, but I still find it odd that they would have made the first encounters so tough. The first levels (well chapters in the games terminology) seem quite long. Since there are only 17 chapters in the game, it seems like they could have further subdivided it.
Now, I do not understand how this tedious game outsold the simple and fun Doom. I would like to blame Counterstrike for this sorry state of affairs, but I am not sure if this is the case. I decided to try Half-Life out after reading this glowing review. He praises Half-Life's "sophistication" relative to the other games of the time, but there were earlier games that seem to be at least as sophisticated as Half-Life: namely Strife and Marathon. Furthermore, "sophistication" usually does not go over well with the masses, and you need the masses to generate massive sales. I am at a loss.
So, do any Codexers have some good answers? Also, for those of you who have played the sequel, is it just more of the same with better graphics (and maybe vehicles)?
Now, I can understand the popularity of Doom. It was one of the first FPS's. It has a very gradual learning curve. It starts the player right in the middle of the action (usually arcade-like games sell better). The initial levels are quite short, so the level cleared screen provides frequent rewards for the player. Basically, most players should be kicking demon ass very quickly. Plus the music rocks!
Now, I have not played the original, but when I broke down and bought Risen on Steam, I also bought Half-Life: Source, which is supposed to be the original game moved onto the Source engine to provide a few enhancements like improved physics. I have not played much, but the beginning does not encourage me. The game begins with a tram-ride that appears to go on forever. I still wonder what the hell they were thinking by doing that. When the tram ride ends, I get out and schmooze with the fellow researchers for a while. I get that they are trying to upset the player by showing him part of the facility before the disaster, but I think this has been done much better in other games. Furthermore, the layout of this first area can be a little confusing as well as some of the instructions; they are not complex . . . they are just weird. When ITZ happened, the game becomes much more standard, but I still found some problems. The first few enemies are quite hard even on easy. It seems the zombies and the pulse demon take a major beating unless I hit them in a particular area. Since ammunition is scarce at first, I use the crowbar for most of them. After 2-3 encounters, I get the hang of it, but I still find it odd that they would have made the first encounters so tough. The first levels (well chapters in the games terminology) seem quite long. Since there are only 17 chapters in the game, it seems like they could have further subdivided it.
Now, I do not understand how this tedious game outsold the simple and fun Doom. I would like to blame Counterstrike for this sorry state of affairs, but I am not sure if this is the case. I decided to try Half-Life out after reading this glowing review. He praises Half-Life's "sophistication" relative to the other games of the time, but there were earlier games that seem to be at least as sophisticated as Half-Life: namely Strife and Marathon. Furthermore, "sophistication" usually does not go over well with the masses, and you need the masses to generate massive sales. I am at a loss.
So, do any Codexers have some good answers? Also, for those of you who have played the sequel, is it just more of the same with better graphics (and maybe vehicles)?
