The TRUE End of Half-Life
Author
No, I really don''t think Half-Life had the *BEST* story ever, i don''t think it qualifies as Runner-Up.*Waits for the Flaming*
Yes, I followed through the whole start, though the military involvement,but when you go to another fragging planet? My God, come on now.
There were two very wrong things about the end of Half-Life(by ''the end'' i mean the last segment of the game).
1.)There was almost no more plot or driving force, hell, I didn''t exactly understand WHY I was there.
2.)Half-Life was a story, and since I read alot, I expect the end of a good story have that kick at the end. 1984 for example,"He loved Big Brother". After the entire novel, these four words end the story SO COMPLETELY that it just shocks you.
Instead of having a great ending like this, HL had you mysteriously transported to an alien planet*cough* for no real reason other than to fight a facecrab-spouting nutsack*cough* and a large space-baby*cough*. WHY!? Yes, I understand that by killing the final boss you end the threat to earth and save the world. But how did you learn this?! Where is the rest of the planet?!*notes the first couple of Xen maps* How can you just go to another planet, and with almost no confrontation, lay the smackdown on their leader?!
And the very end....my god, Valve left a gaping hole in the story so you knew that a sequel would be in the works.
I just want to hear what all you gamedev peeps out there think of my thoughts on this. Whether flaming me about slandering ''the great game'' or agreeing with me. In the meantime I''ll be putting my copy of HL to use...playing CS or TFC
-Run_The_Shadows
-Run_The_Shadows@excite.com
In response to 1):
Didn''t the scientist guys say something about that before you left Earth?
to 2):
"How did you learn that killing them would end the threat to Earth?"
Well, I didn''t think you''d need to know that killing them would end the threat to Earth, I would be more concerned about my own ass at the time.
"Where is the rest of the planet?!"
Are you asking an FPS to be non-linear in this sense?
Did it bother you that throughout the previous parts of the game you couldn''t get to the rest of the Black Mesa Complex?
If it did, why not mention it?
Let it be known that I don''t play Half-Life anymore, and havent for over a year, but I did play it all the way through and was quite happy with the game, it was one of the best FPS''s for some time.
It did lose it''s way toward the end though.
-Mezz
Didn''t the scientist guys say something about that before you left Earth?
to 2):
"How did you learn that killing them would end the threat to Earth?"
Well, I didn''t think you''d need to know that killing them would end the threat to Earth, I would be more concerned about my own ass at the time.
"Where is the rest of the planet?!"
Are you asking an FPS to be non-linear in this sense?
Did it bother you that throughout the previous parts of the game you couldn''t get to the rest of the Black Mesa Complex?
If it did, why not mention it?
Let it be known that I don''t play Half-Life anymore, and havent for over a year, but I did play it all the way through and was quite happy with the game, it was one of the best FPS''s for some time.
It did lose it''s way toward the end though.
-Mezz
R_T_S, put spoiler warnings in your post, for both HL and 1984!
Anyway, This kind of thing is what we''re here to fix. I think HL definitely deserves credit for what it was: a game considerably more rich in story than anything else of it''s type. But keep in mind that the people who produced it still saw the story as less then secondary to the rest of the game including the number of levels and the changing scenery.
Don''t forget that game-writing as a whole pretty much sucks, so anything even mundane is to be celebrated. So how would you have gone about making it better?
======
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
-Socrates
"Question everything. Especially Landfish."
-Matt
Anyway, This kind of thing is what we''re here to fix. I think HL definitely deserves credit for what it was: a game considerably more rich in story than anything else of it''s type. But keep in mind that the people who produced it still saw the story as less then secondary to the rest of the game including the number of levels and the changing scenery.
Don''t forget that game-writing as a whole pretty much sucks, so anything even mundane is to be celebrated. So how would you have gone about making it better?
======
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
-Socrates
"Question everything. Especially Landfish."
-Matt
I never thought anyone who played first-person shooters would complain about the game having a lame story. When was the last time you saw a shooter with any kind of story at all, R_T_S?
I never really considered the story for Half-life. I''ve used the word "story" in conjunction with Half-life, not realizing until now that what I really meant to say was atmosphere. And that''s what I saw in the game: truly outstanding atmosphere.
I think atmosphere is often enough to make a great game, particularly when it comes to shooters. God knows I didn''t play Quake for two years because it had an awesome story. Role-players will expect a little more than good atmosphere, but in this case, how could you ask for more?
Personally, I loved the alien world. It was a wonderful detachment from the mundance realism that the rest of the game presented. Sure, it was fun seeing aliens in a real-world environment---for a while. But once the plausibility sets in, the novelty wears off.
So, the end fulfilled my expectations nicely. The graphics and shear creativity blew me away. At the start of this year, after buying a new computer, I played through the entire game again just to see what it looks like in the hands of a RivaTNT2 Ultra.
Yep. Still blew me away. I won''t even get started on Opposing Force, except to say this: if you haven''t played it, you need to crawl out from under your rock and do so. You probably won''t complain so much about Half-life''s lack of story once you see what Gearbox did with it.
I never really considered the story for Half-life. I''ve used the word "story" in conjunction with Half-life, not realizing until now that what I really meant to say was atmosphere. And that''s what I saw in the game: truly outstanding atmosphere.
I think atmosphere is often enough to make a great game, particularly when it comes to shooters. God knows I didn''t play Quake for two years because it had an awesome story. Role-players will expect a little more than good atmosphere, but in this case, how could you ask for more?
Personally, I loved the alien world. It was a wonderful detachment from the mundance realism that the rest of the game presented. Sure, it was fun seeing aliens in a real-world environment---for a while. But once the plausibility sets in, the novelty wears off.
So, the end fulfilled my expectations nicely. The graphics and shear creativity blew me away. At the start of this year, after buying a new computer, I played through the entire game again just to see what it looks like in the hands of a RivaTNT2 Ultra.
Yep. Still blew me away. I won''t even get started on Opposing Force, except to say this: if you haven''t played it, you need to crawl out from under your rock and do so. You probably won''t complain so much about Half-life''s lack of story once you see what Gearbox did with it.
quote:Original post by Run_The_Shadows
There were two very wrong things about the end of Half-Life(by ''the end'' i mean the last segment of the game).
1.)There was almost no more plot or driving force, hell, I didn''t exactly understand WHY I was there.
2.)Half-Life was a story, and since I read alot, I expect the end of a good story have that kick at the end. 1984 for example,"He loved Big Brother". After the entire novel, these four words end the story SO COMPLETELY that it just shocks you.
[...]
And the very end....my god, Valve left a gaping hole in the story so you knew that a sequel would be in the works.
I just want to hear what all you gamedev peeps out there think of my thoughts on this.
heh. what can I say? oh, yeah; "Don''t ever try Soulreaver: Legacy of Kain".
quote:Original post by Tom
I never really considered the story for Half-life. I''ve used the word "story" in conjunction with Half-life, not realizing until now that what I really meant to say was atmosphere. And that''s what I saw in the game: truly outstanding atmosphere.
Excellent point, Tom. I don''t see HL, even with it''s scripted events, so much as story as I do *environment* (or as you say, atmosphere). For instance, HL leaves waaaaay too much unresolved to even be a comic book serial story. I mean, what, you have: scientists and guards you don''t even know; hordes of faceless enemies; a skeleton of a plot (this happened, now go do this); and an awesome environment.
So aside from setting, I don''t really see character (aside from you, Gordon) or plot (beyond the series of tasks set before you, and minor changes to the world state). Wouldn''t you expect something on par with a first person story, at least?
--------------------
Just waiting for the mothership...
Let us embrace Half-life as the first step toward a new breed of gaming. Perhaps someone will eventually realize that a first-person engine has more uses than deathmatch. We've already established that you can create some gripping atmosphere with one. Why not take it a step farther and use it to relate a gripping story, too?
I think it's because most people still buy shooters because they are expecting a shooter. They don't call it "first-person shooter " because you race cars in it.
If you did make such a game, you'd have to post a big sticker on the box that says "THIS IS NOT ANOTHER QUAKE" so all those sloping-brow retards don't buy it expecting another Quake. I suppose tradition is the greatest obstacle in this industry.
Of course, I've been pretty sick of tradition since I first started playing video games about 15 years ago. But that's just me.
Edited by - Tom on October 20, 2000 4:35:11 PM
I think it's because most people still buy shooters because they are expecting a shooter. They don't call it "first-person shooter " because you race cars in it.
If you did make such a game, you'd have to post a big sticker on the box that says "THIS IS NOT ANOTHER QUAKE" so all those sloping-brow retards don't buy it expecting another Quake. I suppose tradition is the greatest obstacle in this industry.
Of course, I've been pretty sick of tradition since I first started playing video games about 15 years ago. But that's just me.
Edited by - Tom on October 20, 2000 4:35:11 PM
I think system shock 2 was the best fps/rpg ever created. Deus Ex was kinda cool, but it didn''t come close to it. I never really liked half-life, a little because it was made using the quake engine and me being a unreal fan, decided to ignore it, but later played anyway, and a little because it ran really slow in mp and they never made bots for team fortress.
I definatly agree that the whole story thing in HL is really more about atmosphere. But the story is definatly there, I played it through twice, and the first time I couldn''t understand what was actually going on story-wise, but after playing though a second time I realised this was only because I had missed several of the scripted sequences (or just wasn''t listening). I think that was some thing it was quite easy to do with Half-Life, which I supose valve could have done a bit better with. Overall not the kind of story you''d put in a book, but pretty good for a game (better than a few so called RPGs Icould mention)
I''m playing through Half-Life for the first time right now (Yeah... I know... I''m behind the loop... but when HL came out I was deep into finishing up my CS degree... I *really* couldn''t have taken the extra distrction... 
) and I really noticed too that it seems like the story was kinda thrown together at the end of the game... All the really great detailed environments before... then I teleport to an exotic alien world that consists of... platforms of rock floating in some kind of astral cloud? And also, the only objects around are big green, scaly spires, those bulbus things on legs, a couple of rocks, bubbling pools, webbing grates, and those pointy tree things.... plus... the enemies are pretty sparse too... And it was way too open and empty looking... The "environment" HL was working so well with previously was just gone...
I agree with the opinion posted earlier on this board... HL definately was a step in the right direction... I am really looking foreward to seeing more detailed plots / environments / whatever in FPSs.
) and I really noticed too that it seems like the story was kinda thrown together at the end of the game... All the really great detailed environments before... then I teleport to an exotic alien world that consists of... platforms of rock floating in some kind of astral cloud? And also, the only objects around are big green, scaly spires, those bulbus things on legs, a couple of rocks, bubbling pools, webbing grates, and those pointy tree things.... plus... the enemies are pretty sparse too... And it was way too open and empty looking... The "environment" HL was working so well with previously was just gone... I agree with the opinion posted earlier on this board... HL definately was a step in the right direction... I am really looking foreward to seeing more detailed plots / environments / whatever in FPSs.
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