Half-Life 2
Yes, I have been playing Half-Life 2 this week. It's been tough, though, for the following reasons:
- my computer at home isn't good enough to play HL2 on, so I have to sneak in the time at work
- I'm in the process of moving, which is extremely tiring and time consuming
- aside from Half-Life 2, I also have Metal Gear Solid 3, Highway to the Reich, and a variety of other recently acquired games demanding my attention
Complaints about how much my personal life is interfering with my gaming time aside, I have been enjoying Half-Life 2 immensely. The early levels of the game strike me as being somewhat like a cross between The Matrix and 1984 in terms of story and atmosphere. My favourite level so far (I'm not done the game just yet) has been Highway 17 just because the whole "cruising through the post-apocalyptic wasteland" theme was executed so well, and I really felt pulled into the game. My least favourite level was easily Ravenholm, which seemed pretty cheesy and uninspired. Overall, I even feel that Ravenholm detracted from the game's powerful mood.
Of course, these are mostly early impressions. I'm going to be playing Half-Life 2 for a long time, and my opinions will mature as I play through multiple times on different difficulties. One thing is for sure already: Half-Life 2 is simply amazing.
7 Comments:
What's the pace of the game like?
The levels are pretty action-packed; you know--a group of badies around every corner, that sort of thing. There are some stretches where everything is quiet and you just have to figure out some puzzle-ish sort of "jump on this pipe and blow up that barrel to get past the fence" kind of problems, but nothing overly challenging or frustrating there that I've found (Jedi Knight II was much, much worse for that.) Between levels and often within levels there are story bits. These story bits are generally semi-interactive (you can talk to people, push stuff around--nothing too exciting, typically) and last anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes.
If you've ever played the original Half-Life, expect HL2 to be a lot like that. If you haven't played the original Half-Life, you definitely should.
Sounds pretty sweet. Yeah, I have played the first Half-Life, but on PS2. I did, however, use a USB mouse and keyboard to play, which worked surprisingly well and I'm dismayed that developers haven't implemented this into more console FPS games. Is HL2 going to have a stripped-down xbox version at some point? The movies I've seen of the game in action look astounding, I'd find it hard to picture an xbox variant that isn't seriously compromised in the visual department. Not that I really care either way; I don't have an xbox or a PC, and I'm not going to get either any time soon.
More about the pacing, someone on the forum (you know the one) made a good comment: for some of the levels, especially near the start where you are mostly unarmed and being chased, the pace feels a bit out of control. This is in contrast to the original Half-Life, where the player had a lot of control over pacing--there was no hurry to rush through levels, yet nothing to keep you from rushing through levels if you wanted.
As for the PS2 version of Half-Life, I haven't seen it, but I'm very skeptical. Even if one had a keyboard and mouse setup for it, the developers would have had to compromise the game in some ways for the sake of the poor gaming saps who play FPSes using game controllers. (shudder)
Fritzkrieg, I'm going to try harder in the future to expose you to PC games. I hope that one of these days you'll get fixed up with a PC, even, but I accept that it might not happen for a long time. (shrug)
In regards to the PS2 version of Half-Life, I'm curious as to how you would suggest that the controls are compromised. You can fully customize your keys, just like in a PC-based FPS, so I fail to see how this would be an issue. For console-based versions of games like Rainbow Six, I can definitely see how the game controls would be dumbed-down since there's a lot of features to map out, and there isn't any kind of keyboard/mouse support. But for a relatively straightforward game like HL, I'm not sure there's anything there to compromise (unless you're wielding the PS2 controller).
As for me getting a PC, it will probably be a cold day in hell (unless it's an older system just to play my old PC games, like TIE Fighter). I want to buy a new Mac someday (which is like buying a new car), so I can't afford a PC. I already have enough problems managing to afford all the console games I want; like buying an Xbox, it's not worth it for the 4 or 5 exclusive games I actually feel I need to play. I'm a much bigger fan of console games these days.
FPS controls on a console game are always compromised with a gamepad since there is a speed/accuracy trade-off in terms of turning. With a mouse for "looking," it's possible both to snap about (180 degrees or more) instantly as well as zero in on a target with fine precision. Even when you watch video capture footage of a player playing an FPS, you can tell whether that use is playing with a control pad or a mouse/keyboard just by watching. The player with the control pad will more often make slow, smooth turns and takes longer to make corrections along the Y-axis. The player with the mouse will be able to orient himself to a particular point almost as fast as he can think it. There is simply no contest whatsoever.
Now supposing you do have a mouse/keyboard setup for your PS2 to play FPSes on. The FPS games are still balanced difficulty-wise for players playing with control pads. That is to say that enemies must be slower to respond and shoot with far less accuracy in order for the game to be fair for console players. In short, you will never get the full PC experience, no matter what kind of setup you have.
Well, the difference between control setups (mouse/keyboard vs. gamepad) is obvious, and the primary reason why I generally don't even bother playing FPSs on the PS2 (unless I'm seriously craving the experience for some reason). I hate soupy controls, and that's generally what you get with console FPS games.
But yeah, I hadn't even considered the AI differences - good call.
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