Alyx Vance is my future wife.
so I finally finished Half-life 2: Episode 2 and holy shit this game is amazing.
specifically the npc's and puzzles. just incredible.
the NPC's move around perfectly, they interact in such realistic nuanced ways, touching, hugging, pointing, showing, helping. they had subtle facial expressions, and the dialouge and development was just top notch. theyre more like digital actors than non player characters. to this end, one trick I've noticed valve using in its more recent games is to model their characters on specific 'normal' people, to the extent that if you check the credits, they say something like "and thanks to _______ for the use of their faces." you can even find turn around video of the human models for left4dead. I've always loved that half life and all valve games have no cut scenes, and that they all first person. this really sucks you into the narrative instead of popping you in and out of that involved state of flow like cutscenes do. I totally developed a little crush on alyx vance, and when Eli Vance said he thought of gordon as his son, I was genuinley touched. and at the end, I was simply dumbstruck. I could barley think. I kept wishing I could interact with the world in more ways than just shooting at it and moving things around. I WANTED TO GIVE HUGS AND HIGH FIVES!
(coincidentally, this is a direction I'd like to develop in first person games in my carrer, create games that mimic the world and how you can interact with it as a real person in the real world would. a game like this would teach skills real people could use, not just commando tactics and puzzle solving. as fun as those are, theyre a bit trite at this point. more on this at the bottom of the post.)
not only that but the puzzles were great, and sometimes feindishly difficult. I loved the Magnusson Device, It made killing striders fun instead of infuriating like in the plaza battle of HL2. the lambda radar caches were a fun addition too, cluing you into cool stuff on the road instead of making you stop every 20 feet to investigate that suspicious looking outhouse, like in the highway 14 level of HL2. I'm going to reccomend some see-saw type puzzles at work on monday, as well as one where you help people cross a gap.
right now there's a big push for first person games that arent really about killing, and a lot of that is comming from Valve, but some of it isnt. here's my list of games that are pushing the boundries of first person play beyond the traditional kill or be killed archetype.
specifically the npc's and puzzles. just incredible.
the NPC's move around perfectly, they interact in such realistic nuanced ways, touching, hugging, pointing, showing, helping. they had subtle facial expressions, and the dialouge and development was just top notch. theyre more like digital actors than non player characters. to this end, one trick I've noticed valve using in its more recent games is to model their characters on specific 'normal' people, to the extent that if you check the credits, they say something like "and thanks to _______ for the use of their faces." you can even find turn around video of the human models for left4dead. I've always loved that half life and all valve games have no cut scenes, and that they all first person. this really sucks you into the narrative instead of popping you in and out of that involved state of flow like cutscenes do. I totally developed a little crush on alyx vance, and when Eli Vance said he thought of gordon as his son, I was genuinley touched. and at the end, I was simply dumbstruck. I could barley think. I kept wishing I could interact with the world in more ways than just shooting at it and moving things around. I WANTED TO GIVE HUGS AND HIGH FIVES!
(coincidentally, this is a direction I'd like to develop in first person games in my carrer, create games that mimic the world and how you can interact with it as a real person in the real world would. a game like this would teach skills real people could use, not just commando tactics and puzzle solving. as fun as those are, theyre a bit trite at this point. more on this at the bottom of the post.)
not only that but the puzzles were great, and sometimes feindishly difficult. I loved the Magnusson Device, It made killing striders fun instead of infuriating like in the plaza battle of HL2. the lambda radar caches were a fun addition too, cluing you into cool stuff on the road instead of making you stop every 20 feet to investigate that suspicious looking outhouse, like in the highway 14 level of HL2. I'm going to reccomend some see-saw type puzzles at work on monday, as well as one where you help people cross a gap.
right now there's a big push for first person games that arent really about killing, and a lot of that is comming from Valve, but some of it isnt. here's my list of games that are pushing the boundries of first person play beyond the traditional kill or be killed archetype.
- Half-life 2 - introduced physics puzzle solving alongside battle
- Portal - in addition to having no weapon to speak of, it is a testament to valve's writing staff that they could turn a metal cube into a beloved character.
- Left4Dead - while ostensibly about killing zombies by the hundreds, this game's focus is teamwork. everything the developers did was directed at getting you to coordinate with your teammates. a vital life skill.
- Mirror's Edge - a game about free running, in which combat is actually a hindrance to the fun of navigating the play space.
- Facade - a first person game with no weapons at all. no combat at all. only narrative. you can manipulate drinks and other trinkets, but nothing dangerous. admittedly experimental, it shows that first person games can be about anything (relationships in this case).