|
Tuesday 15 January, 2008
ENTRY #2
GAMEPLAY
As the game progressed I got to know more about the first half-life through cut scenes, and dealt with my first “portal malfunction”. I was submerged even more into the plotline through these cut scenes, and got to know a little bit about the characters and my mission, which made this game even more fun. I still felt the pressure of getting used to controlling the character in this game, and it gets even more difficult as the game adds more obstacles for you to overcome, so I was definitely hindered by being a newbie. Up until now there had not been any real fighting or interaction, because while you can throw stuff at the guards, you can’t throw punches.
As I continued further into this game, I got addition weapons, in addition to the crates and bottles I had been throwing (without much success) at the guards. You start off with a crow bar thanks to one of your friends, as it seems you often do in these types of games, and then after using this crow bar on a guard or two I was able to pick up a gun, and bullets, and thus the game starts you off on your health meter. From then on it really gets into the shooter mode. All around there are things to blow up and make your job easier to get away from the mobs and to your next, safe destination.
DESIGN
Again, I mentioned in my first entry that I really feel like this game is innovative because of how interactive it is, you can move and react to everything, and this design element was particularly fun for someone who isn’t that used to playing video games. Even the way your weapons react with the environment are neat, you have to work to use your crowbar, for instance, things don’t just break away easily. This game doesn’t have very concrete levels, it continues in parts, I was playing the first part, and there is also a part 2, I think the idea of smaller games that you can buy separately is pretty cool, especially because it allows more work to be put into each part.
Since I am such a new player, I didn’t get very far playing for 2 hours, but the addition of weapons makes the game more difficult, but also more fun, I mean who doesn’t like blowing up stuff? The narratve explains that you are on the run, so that keeps the conflict strong, and urges you to do whatever you can to get away from people. I was also particularly happy that they allow you to choose between easy medium and hard in order to kill people. I was on easy because I am lame. As I mentioned, I am much more about the visual though, and there’s just so much in this visual world that it’s hard to get bored. The space in this game does seem very large, I felt like I was in a real world, it really is an amazingly rich environment. I would say the only thing frustrating for me is that I am really not a very good gamer, so I am still really struggling with shooting stuff and not falling off of buildings, however it was nice that when I did die, they brought me back in a very close proximity to where the fatal event occurred.
As for ideas for my own game project, it kind of tells me to try something simple because I feel like a game like Half-life 2 is so completely time consuming to make, however amazing it is. I felt like I didn’t get many rewards yet from this game, but I guess that being able to kill the guards with the help of my new guns is a reward… it also was another challenge to keep from wasting my ammo by shooting at everything to see what would happen. The cut scenes were great for art sake, but I do feel like the dialogue would have been more successful to me if I had played the first game. The loading time was also very short, so that was awesome.
|
