Revisit - Half Life 2 (PC)
Yes, its back to that time of year where all the games taht are being released are either terrible generic shooters or Who Wants To Be A Millionaire XVIII. So, what better way to spend the time than to load up Steam once again and restart the good ol' single player game in Half Life 2?
Before I begin this revisit, may I make this point clear - Half Life 2 is brilliant. Fantastic. The best game of 2004, and some may believe the best game of all time (bar Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Mario 64 and perhaps Halo). However, be warned. If your visions of how wonderful this game is you wish to keep and contain, do not play this game the second time. The (extremely minor) flaws of this game become all the more apparent and thus, may ruin the feeling of the game. So, for this revisit, I'll open up Half Life 2 and demonstrate its flaws for all to see.
Number one. The storyline. The storyline itself is fine, a wonderful mix with twists and turns in every direction. What Valve could've done, however, is to make it less linear. Yes, this may destory some of the purity, yes, they may screw it up; but if executed perfectly, a branched storyline will have a much greater replay value than a linear one, i.e. Half Life 2. So, second time through, those twists and turns mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph is instantly dispelled and thus all you see is a straight road in front of you and how the game develops.
Number two. The controls. They manage well overall, strafing, twisting, turning, shooting. The control within the environment is managed extremely well (i.e, with the manipulator), and forms a deep association with the storyline. However, where the hell is the leaning function? Even during my first play-through, I kept on asking myself, why can't I lean here? What's happening beyond that wall? With the second play-through, all this became ever more evident. With Valve seeming happy to reinvent every other part of how a game is fundementally made, and improving it, surely they didn't need to stick to the pure WASD form of control? A Q and a E button would not be difficult to add and would surely been a boon for the game.
Number three. The more fundemental mechanics. No, not the game itself, but with the mechanics which run the game. If you don't own a fantastically fast PC (Processor 2000+, 512Mb+ RAM, 128Mb+ Graphics etc.), the loading times can be unnessecerily long, and yes, it's a new game, but surely they should give an option for poor to average PCs? A certain friend of mine complained especially about the long loading times of HL2. Another problem some people had was with the organising software - Steam. Especially people without internet connections! (i.e. many casual gamers)...
Still. A good game. Nuff said.
One out of one
Before I begin this revisit, may I make this point clear - Half Life 2 is brilliant. Fantastic. The best game of 2004, and some may believe the best game of all time (bar Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Mario 64 and perhaps Halo). However, be warned. If your visions of how wonderful this game is you wish to keep and contain, do not play this game the second time. The (extremely minor) flaws of this game become all the more apparent and thus, may ruin the feeling of the game. So, for this revisit, I'll open up Half Life 2 and demonstrate its flaws for all to see.
Number one. The storyline. The storyline itself is fine, a wonderful mix with twists and turns in every direction. What Valve could've done, however, is to make it less linear. Yes, this may destory some of the purity, yes, they may screw it up; but if executed perfectly, a branched storyline will have a much greater replay value than a linear one, i.e. Half Life 2. So, second time through, those twists and turns mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph is instantly dispelled and thus all you see is a straight road in front of you and how the game develops.
Number two. The controls. They manage well overall, strafing, twisting, turning, shooting. The control within the environment is managed extremely well (i.e, with the manipulator), and forms a deep association with the storyline. However, where the hell is the leaning function? Even during my first play-through, I kept on asking myself, why can't I lean here? What's happening beyond that wall? With the second play-through, all this became ever more evident. With Valve seeming happy to reinvent every other part of how a game is fundementally made, and improving it, surely they didn't need to stick to the pure WASD form of control? A Q and a E button would not be difficult to add and would surely been a boon for the game.
Number three. The more fundemental mechanics. No, not the game itself, but with the mechanics which run the game. If you don't own a fantastically fast PC (Processor 2000+, 512Mb+ RAM, 128Mb+ Graphics etc.), the loading times can be unnessecerily long, and yes, it's a new game, but surely they should give an option for poor to average PCs? A certain friend of mine complained especially about the long loading times of HL2. Another problem some people had was with the organising software - Steam. Especially people without internet connections! (i.e. many casual gamers)...
Still. A good game. Nuff said.
One out of one
posted by sideath at 6/27/2005 01:22:00 pm
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