You could shoot at a fence, and at a certain point it would switch to its "fall apart" animation, with no bearing on where you were shooting it. Additionally, most "physics" was just pre-calculated physics made to "look" real, but was actually just triggered keyframe animation. Physics was around by then, but it wasn't heavily integrated into games. The first thing Half Life 2 introduced was physics. Half Life 2 was shown off to the world in a (now) famous E3 demo, and what we saw there blew minds. Half Life 2 arguably wasn't as foundational to the genre as Half Life 1, but still stands as an important game which redefined expectations (often heralded as the best game of all time, to this day), and with its release a fairly direct line can be drawn to monumental shifts in the entire gaming industry. Read them, they'll really help you appreciate what Value was bringing to the table. The bar for FPS games was not just raised by Half Life, it was catapulted.Įdit 2: To help you understand more about the impact it made, another Reddit user 2 years ago posted scans from the original PC gamer previous and reviews of the game. The importance of Half Life to the FPS genre cannot be understated. This game really respected the gamer and immersion. The game didn't load a completely new "level" to achieve this, it progressively loaded what it felt was necessary. The game would essentially "pause", overlay a "Loading." message, and 3 seconds later you're moving again. FPS games up until that point had a clearly defined "level" - you would enter from one side, work your way to the other, and be presented with a significant load screen as the next level was loaded. Valve also made the decision to reduce or eliminate in-game load times. Half Life kept you permanently planted as Gordon Freeman what he experienced, you experienced. At the time, if story was offered, it was usually tacked on with FMV (full motion video) as a special "cut scene", jarringly removing you from the world. One of the most notable changes was the refusal to remove the player from their first person experience. Other alien creatures may be frightened by your presence, then run to seek help and assistance from other aliens. Rather than just running straight at you, human enemies will take cover, shoot at you from safe positions, and draw you out of hiding spots using grenades. Half Life was one of the first FPS games which respected the concept of story and plot. The game is story driven, with a Shyamalanian-level twist in the middle. They direct you to additional points in the game, providing exposition and context. NPCs speak to you (by name, no less), and seemingly are aware of your presence. In fact, you don't even have a gun initially! The game begins not by having you appear in a room with a gun, but slowly reveals itself as you explore a facility and see the day to day actions of Black Mesa. Then, like something akin to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Half Life arrives on the scene and exemplifies what an FPS can be like. That was the state of the FPS genre at the time. You received a basic gun at the beginning of the game, and kept shooting everything that moved until the game was finished. There was no story, no dialog, no NPCs, and no real AI to speak of. And when I say entirely, I mean entirely. However, the game was entirely based on combat. A great game in its own right, and the engine was what Half Life 1 iterated upon ( GoldSrc). Understanding the success of HL1 and HL2 requires an understanding of what gaming was like when they arrived.Ĭonsider that, at the time HL1 was released, the pinnacle of the genre was Quake 2. The old /r/patientgamers Essential Games List Please use flair to display what games you’re currently playing, not a punch line, username, tag, URL, or signature. New, mobile-friendly spoilers can be posted using the following formatting: Want to play online in a dead gaming community? We expect you to know these rules before making a post. Please click here to see our current rules. We no longer maintain our posting rules in Old Reddit. Join our Discord Join our Steam Group Follow us on Twitter Posting Rules Whether it's price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don't meet the system requirements, or just haven't had the time to keep up with the latest releases. A gaming sub free from the hype and oversaturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |