Half-Life 3

[cp2009]

Honestly, I didn't really reflect all that much - if at all really - on that aspect until this thead cropped up. I just felt the HL universe took a gigantic left turn somewhere inbetween the first and the second games, and it felt like the two installments were totally disconnected. Other than the crowbar and HUD graphics, what really says Half-Life about Half-Life 2? Almost nothing.

It doesn't exactly help either that you as a player basically get no information whatsoever of what happened during the intervening twenty or so years that passed between the first two half-lives. That's the bit that really bugs me. Gordon isn't allowed to talk, so he can't simply ASK what the EFF happened to the world, because that's the (stupid) design decision made long ago, and nobody in the gameworld sees that as strange. The NPCs even joke about it, which rather breaks the suspension of disbelief IMO. We also get no real explanation of how exactly the director of Black Mesa ends up as supreme (and rather deranged) leader of all of mankind. Or rather the small splinter of it that seems to remain... As amusing as the rants of Dr. Breen was, he's as retconned into the story as Magnusson was in Ep. 2. And to top off the cake, add the lack of geographical connection with any real-world locations. City 17 (which is a terrible name by the way) is supposedly set in Russia, but it has plenty of english signs everywhere. Also, nobody actually speaks any russian, or even english with a russian accent... Meh!

It's not the same game anymore; the style of gameplay, the atmosphere, everything... It's all changed. The original HL wasn't perfect, god knows it wasn't. For starters, Black Mesa was just way, WAY too big to be realistic, and not to mention too random and computer-level:y. There isn't even any bathrooms in the entire game that I can recall other than the locker room right at the start... Then add all the environmental hazards the player has to negotiate. Bizarre trips on conveyor belts, random crushers that exist for no reason (other than act as a lethal obstacle for the player of course), vast pools of toxic waste, gigantic pits that serve no apparent function and so on.

Even with all that in mind, it's still on the whole a better game in my opinion, because it had a particular mood.

I agree with what you said.

But I will defend HL. The level design was perfect for its time. Before Gordon gets the suit, he's already in the bathroom. I don't think it would have added MORE by having bathrooms. It would just be redundant. For a game of that time, it was HIGHLY interactive. Some parts required more than just a) shoot enemy b) get key to open door. It was interesting, fresh.

The story of HL2 bothered me as well. In HL1, we are led to be believe that Black Mesa is a real underground lab in the the real world, which to me, seems more believable than Valve's futile attempt at bringing the ENTIRE WORLD into the Black Mesa incident. They haven't told the entire story of how the world came to be in HL2, not because for a more revealing story telling, but rather the scope is set too LARGE to be explainable. How can the entire planet revolve around Gordon Freeman and the few side characters? I too have a hard time connecting the two games together.

Lastly the NPCs of the first game fitted the rising situation where destruction and chaos lurked every corner. In HL2, as great as the NPCs may look, they are just dull to listen to. It doesn't fit when everyone on the entire planet loves Gordon Freeman, such a person would not exist if they were trying to properly blend realism with fantasy. It just doesn't work.

HL2 left too many questions, it could not be properly answered on its own. It feels more like a setup for a trilogy (which of course it is) than a solid story of its own. HL1 on the other hand, could have been easily left at where it concluded and it still would satisfy the requirement of a perfect sci-fi story.

 

[Sxotty]

I know, from an economic point of view, it is less costly to have most of the baddies look pretty much the same.

But at the very least provide me with the ILLUSION of variations. There's been quite a few games that did this very well, namely Call of Juarez 1 and 2, in which both games I do not recall seeing the same faces over and over again. I'm sure they only had 7 or 8 faces but they managed to vary them enough so it's not noticeable.

AS graphics get better though it will be more and more noticeable. They will end up using a shader probably to make slight variations or something.

Anyway HL1 was fun, but IMO it was not all that some crack it up to be. There were weird parts that made no real sense. It felt like a bunch of quake mods stuck together to me. "Lets make a cool helicopter you have to kill. Lets put a monster in a pit and make the player wander aimlessly until they find the can magically float all the sudden to hack through some wood and hit a button." The whole something different than a keycard/button was really just a different texture on a keycard or button (i.e. make the button a wheel) and give the user feedback beyond simply opening the door.

 

[cp2009]

AS graphics get better though it will be more and more noticeable. They will end up using a shader probably to make slight variations or something.

Anyway HL1 was fun, but IMO it was not all that some crack it up to be. There were weird parts that made no real sense. It felt like a bunch of quake mods stuck together to me. "Lets make a cool helicopter you have to kill. Lets put a monster in a pit and make the player wander aimlessly until they find the can magically float all the sudden to hack through some wood and hit a button." The whole something different than a keycard/button was really just a different texture on a keycard or button (i.e. make the button a wheel) and give the user feedback beyond simply opening the door.

Are you joking? Do you not remember WHEN HL1 was released? During that time, all FPS games were extremely simple and straight to the point. To have some form of interactive physics such as a wind tunnel was very refreshing. Yes, every key was nothing more than a trigger but the way they approached it was entirely different from every game before it. A monster in a pit was never done before, it fitted the story about xen creatures melding in with our world.

You may have not found HL1 impressive but it still has the right mixture of new technology, fresh gameplay, cool enemies and a solid story line.

 

[swaaye]

Are you joking? Do you not remember WHEN HL1 was released? During that time, all FPS games were extremely simple and straight to the point.

I think you're remembering a bit too selectively there. There were lots of awesome shooters back then, a wider range to choose from than we have today even. Games that come to mind are Jedi Knight, Unreal, Outlaws, Hexen II, Descent 2/3, Blood, Duke3D, Trespasser (physics sandbox if nothing else), and Shogo. I'd have to go to Mobygames to remember them all lol. Can I include Goldeneye? Everyone seems to remember the multiplayer but I absolutely loved the innovative single player.

Half Life was just another gem from those days. It wasn't even exceptional in all that many ways (certainly not technology), it just presented its story well and had a great setting.

 

[Sxotty]

Are you joking? Do you not remember WHEN HL1 was released? During that time, all FPS games were extremely simple and straight to the point. To have some form of interactive physics such as a wind tunnel was very refreshing. Yes, every key was nothing more than a trigger but the way they approached it was entirely different from every game before it. A monster in a pit was never done before, it fitted the story about xen creatures melding in with our world.

You may have not found HL1 impressive but it still has the right mixture of new technology, fresh gameplay, cool enemies and a solid story line.

Did you ever play Quake1? There was a monster in a pit. Duke Nukem had already done the whole "lets make the buttons not look like buttons thing." HL1 had a good solid story that is what set it apart. The wind tunnel physics were crap compared to trespaser. There were quake 1 mods with most everything HL1 had before it came out. It really was the story/consistency until the XEN levels that set it apart. It was a cohesive whole. The only reason HL was so well loved was counter strike IMO. That is what made valve the juggernaut they are and it wasn't even valve that did it.

Remember these are opinions

 

[obonicus]

HL got far better reviews than any of the other games listed. Some of those (like Trespasser) were downright terrible. The way it did storytelling was pretty new and the AI was phenomenal for the time (something pretty much all of the games listed were bad at). And just about every game after Half-Life started borrowing storytelling from it.

 

[Richard]

Half Life was just another gem from those days. It wasn't even exceptional in all that many ways (certainly not technology), it just presented its story well and had a great setting.

Technology-wise HL1 was quite exceptional. Apart from filtering you had exactly the same features in both software and hardware like coloured lighting whereas contemporary games such as Quake 2 didn't. You also had the first stab at streaming where today you can play HL1 and enjoy nearly loading-free gameplay.

The A.I. was incredible for the time and the amount of scripting even overrun some point & click adventure games. Yes, Unreal had a better renderer but HL1's wasn't that far behind and it ran faster.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Does hl1 really stream that much? As far as I can tell it still loads in exactly the same places as when I first played it. The biggest difference is that ofcourse with the modern hardware loading isnt much more than showing the loading text for a split second.

 

[swaaye]

HL1 loads a lot but it loads very quickly. It's almost instantaneous today.

 

[swaaye]

Technology-wise HL1 was quite exceptional. Apart from filtering you had exactly the same features in both software and hardware like coloured lighting whereas contemporary games such as Quake 2 didn't. You also had the first stab at streaming where today you can play HL1 and enjoy nearly loading-free gameplay.

The A.I. was incredible for the time and the amount of scripting even overrun some point & click adventure games. Yes, Unreal had a better renderer but HL1's wasn't that far behind and it ran faster.

The best software renderer from those days is inarguably Unreal's though. It does everything, even texture filtering! I see Half Life as in between Jedi Knight and Unreal with respect to graphics. Mysteries of the Sith even has colored lighting. Unreal took texturing quality to much higher heights though, and brought the first multi-layer texturing I remember (detail textures).

I remember being blown away by the range of graphics the Voodoo ended up rendering. It started with crappy 3D ports of DOS games and ended up running breath taking Unreal engine games and Quake 3.

Unreal also has some exceptional AI. Epic hired Steve Polge, who authored the Quake reaper bot mod that was super popular for awhile. He definitely did a great job! The Unreal AI isn't as much designed for squad behavior though. But I know that the AI does retreat and I think it will go find help. It's hard to remember the details... The Half Life squad AI is pretty cool though.

Remember how delayed HL was? It didn't come out until late '98 and was months after Unreal. I was playing the first Unreal licensee game (Klingon Honor Guard) at the same time as HL. Now that game was a bit of a letdown. I also accidentally got Shogo around then too as the place I ordered KHG from sent me Shogo by mistake. A rather strange and unique game there.

 

[Sxotty]

Why are you impressed with software based colored lighting? I mean I started playing Q2 and it had colored lighting. When I played HL1 it had colored lighting as well, but I did not go "wow this software colored lighting is spiffy" rather the opposite. The first time I shot the blaster down the hallway in Q2 that seemed spiffy to me. "Ohh look the colored light from the blaster is going down the hall", and gl_shadows made it more interesting yet.

I guess it just depends on what you are discussing, the streaming thing is nifty, but I was not aware of it at the time. I did like the AI of the human squads for the time anyway, thought pentagon shell casings were fairly bad A sprite would have been better.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I can't believe everyone rates the AI of the soldiers in HL1. They just ran about shouting "Hut!" while you shot them in the face. They certainly didn't group, dodge, take cover or pin you down in any meaningful way.

 

[Richard]

The best software renderer from those days is inarguably Unreal's though. It does everything, even texture filtering! I see Half Life as in between Jedi Knight and Unreal with respect to graphics. Mysteries of the Sith even has colored lighting. Unreal took texturing quality to much higher heights though, and brought the first multi-layer texturing I remember (detail textures).

The skies were also out of this world and the environment-mapped blood decals were excellent.

I also accidentally got Shogo around then too as the place I ordered KHG from sent me Shogo by mistake. A rather strange and unique game there.

SHOGO is excellent. I must replay it some time. I'm not a particular fan of mechs and japanese anime but SHOGO had some clever level design for the time.

Why are you impressed with software based colored lighting? I mean I started playing Q2 and it had colored lighting. When I played HL1 it had colored lighting as well, but I did not go "wow this software colored lighting is spiffy" rather the opposite.

Quake 2 only had coloured lighting if you used 3D acceleration.

I can't believe everyone rates the AI of the soldiers in HL1. They just ran about shouting "Hut!" while you shot them in the face. They certainly didn't group, dodge, take cover or pin you down in any meaningful way.

They did take cover and they threw grenades to flush you out. Having said that, however, they're not state of the art now but at the time very few games had enemies that did something else other than run towards whilst occasionally shooting their (only) weapon.

 

[Davros]

Why are you impressed with software based colored lighting? I mean I started playing Q2 and it had colored lighting.

No you didnt, only the hardware renderer had colored lighting

 

[swaaye]

Yup no colored lighting in Quake 2 unless you are running a 3D card. (the game may look better without it!!)


(more of this retro article)
http://www.imagebam.com/gallery/5b575ecd065c44f0097d2c304cc8a3e3/

Does Half Life really "stream" data in? It seems more like it just has many small segments of the levels and thus they load very fast.

 

[cp2009]

I just thought that overall, HL really did the best of everything. Sure Unreal had better 3D look to it, better colors and demanded more out of your hardware but story wise it was not as engaging as HL1. Plus, if i remember right, there was zero voice acting in Unreal. Sure you could point out that this wasn't a technical limitation but in terms of how games were back then, how they came off the shelf was how they were played (high speed internet, or even the concept of "updating" your game was foreign to most people other than the experienced PC user). Unreal may win at the end with its graphics capabilities but HL1 still managed to blend the right mix of colors and contrast along with good audio to complete the package.

Out of all the games, HL managed to merge everything together. The sound was good, the story was good, the AI was great, nothing was really poor and at worst any one single aspect was just mediocre.

 

[cp2009]

And I enjoyed Goldeneye, I enjoyed Jedi Knight, but OVERALL HL1 did everything so perfectly, that today, even without ANY mods the game still stands up perfectly. I'm not knocking other games but I really thought Valve changed the scene completely. They also pushed the mod community to a further extend than any other games previous. I remember when TFC came out, that was very popular, then someone in Vancouver started to do a mod called Counter-Strike, which unified competitive gaming towards the next level. Would all of this have happened if HL wasn't good enough to be popular? Not even Q3 outside of being a common licensed engine had the amount of impact of HL, on a grand scale, had.

There was nothing crazier than finding out that the bad guys weren't really "evil" monsters, that the grunts were just as cunning as you, and there are scientists and security guards who were closer to humans (NPCs were a big part of HL1) than just strippers from Duke Nukem.

 

[cp2009]

I can't believe everyone rates the AI of the soldiers in HL1. They just ran about shouting "Hut!" while you shot them in the face. They certainly didn't group, dodge, take cover or pin you down in any meaningful way.

No, they did take cover and they would try to flank you. Sure it wasn't FEAR level of flanking or teamwork but it was there. For a game of that time, its AI was really good. COD1 that came out around 4 to 4.5 years after it didn't even manage to have decent AI. At least in HL your enemies did not constantly respawn to make up for the lack of difficulty.

Overall HL1 for an average gamer would have been harder than how things were for the same person in HL2. HL2 really toned down the difficulty, not only because of the reaction time and accuracy of the combines, but Freeman himself was MUCH too strong in HL2. Between not even needing bullets by using the physics gun, having running speed beyond the greatest Olympian, an indestructible vehicle, the support of mobile sentries and rebels, there were rarely any time when your life was in great danger. Compared that to the challenges that you had to face in HL1, while accounting for the skill of your "average" gamer, HL1 was definitely much more difficult.

And considering that while HL's setting was "sci-fi" yet close enough to reality, this is what probably drew in a lot of players. It is very easy to make a somewhat appealing game when it can be set on planet "X" with the laws of nature totally thrown out of the window. Achieving the same result conveyed through the means of something much closer to OUR reality is a lot more challenging. Yes, it did not make total sense that Black Mesa would be so littered with industrial areas but at the very least it wasn't a setting of an alien world or the ship of a space marine. I still remember early on in the game you had to jump from a higher plane, onto a set of hanging green boxes, until you reached a platform. Or that level where you were in a meat freezer that is now ironically occupied by a hungry bullsquid. Now that is good story telling that is right in between our world and a sci-fi world. It's out there, but not SO totally out there that you'd start questioning it too much.

 

[Sxotty]

No you didnt, only the hardware renderer had colored lighting

Yes I did. See it is simple. I installed it. I had a graphics card and as such I had colored lighting. It isn't really that complicated and I didn't go, "Man this hardware acceleration is terrible I sure wish I had a software renderer." In fact I felt quite the opposite.

At least in HL your enemies did not constantly respawn to make up for the lack of difficulty.

You do realize that flying in waves on a helicopter is the same as respawning.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I can't believe everyone rates the AI of the soldiers in HL1. They just ran about shouting "Hut!" while you shot them in the face. They certainly didn't group, dodge, take cover or pin you down in any meaningful way.

Amazing how people miss so much. The AI in HL was amazing for the time, even surpassing the AI in unreal quite a bit. Unreal's AI was more dynamic due to the faster pace as well as the double-tap dodge mechanics.

HL1, the AI worked as a squad. Not only did they throw grenades to force you to leave cover, but the squad would have 1 or 2 members pin you down while the rest actively went around and tried to flank you from different directions. The AI also took cover quite often and avoided running right at you for the most part. This was the soldiers you fought. The aliens had their own AI behavior. Some of the flocked, some of them were mindless (the virtual zombies taken over by headcrabs for instance).

Enemies running right at you was a trademark of almost ALL FPS games prior to this, except Unreal. And even Unreal they generally didn't bother with cover. Didn't try to flush you out. Didn't do much other than come straight for you, while double-tap dodging. In otherwords, they were coded as deathmatch AI, and not squad/team based AI as was the case in HL1.

Compared to anything the came out prior to it, Story, Level Design, AI, blew away everything that came before it. And blew away many games that came out years after it. It's most certainly a groundbreaking FPS that changed EVERYONE's expecations of what a story based FPS should be.

Regards,
SB