Of course it has been ages since I played either game - and I played Episode Two right after One. That’s probably the main reason as to why I remember so little about Episode One. It (Ep One) also did next-to-nothing for the ‘tale of Half Life’, the story advanced very little from start to finish, in spite of its quality NPC interactions.

Half Life 2: Episode Two is an amazing game. It combines the better focus and improved ‘relationship’ with Alyx of Episode One, with the superior gameplay elements of Half Life 2 (e.g.: non-linear segments, genuinely memorable moments, storyline advancement).

If only Episode Three were to be finished before the next century… ah well, plenty of other games to play.

Great post!

Half Life was heavily inspired from Quake II, but the developers did not want a testosterone focused shooter.I still feel the cognitive for Half Life as a game based on a model of exploration with action modules did recast a stereotypical adrenaline packed shooter.

The base mechanics for either title is vanilla and they can’t on their own instill a sense of atmosphere, so the genre doesn’t particularly matter.

The additional mechanics and environmental design (relative to the base too) do affect atmosphere. I covered the latter more than I did the former. I guess I could have talked about the individual gimmicks in Half-life 2 for example, but I don’t think that this is as significant to my arguement nor as interesting as the environment and sound.

I think that Half-life borrows more from Metroid than the other way around. Everything that the modern iterations do to create mood is adapted directly from the original games. Most if not all of what I said under the first heading is seen in the original games. Super Metroid and Metroid Prime were released before Half-life 2 and they exemplify this too.

I partly agree and partly disagree. While the movement patterns are constant, Geo Wars is much more dynamic than a regular bullet hell shooter in that it isn’t linear. In say Ikaruga the stages are preset obstacle courses, in Geo Wars the environment unfolds more dynamically - to the best of my interpretation. Therefore I see Geo Wars as more about skill than memorization, even though some memorization (such as your example) is required.

The nature of heroism is completely absent in the first game which makes the platforming elements so crucial as a result of which laying out a level design that suits a single player motif was necessary. The choice of platforming puzzles have more in common with childern’s games i.e. jumping across ledges, avoiding trip mines and takes cue from Mario more than any other game to incorporate a sense of familiarity to players.Some of the other gripes I believe are more related to the technology than anything else.

My concluding remark would lie in the modern iteration of the Metroid series which takes on a lot of inspiration from the original Half Life-Tight environments,scattered enemy encampments and a healthy dose of platforming for a heroine who is stranded in solitude…

I don’t really know if I’d say this game is any more of a “betrayor” or a shoddy test of skill. The entire genre is about memorization. In the case of Geo Wars, you have to memorize a pattern for each spawn noise. Each kind of spawn has its own little ping of sound, and there’s a flying pattern you need to enter to account for each. Not much different from a bullet hell game that has you memorize levels.

I can’t say i agree with your comment though, i think MGS4 was exactly the game it needed to be and there was no other way of finishing such a massive “larger-than-life” story without losing a bit of “sanity” in the process. It was an intensely affecting experience though and i’d be lying if i said in the end i wasn’t overwhelmed by it’s unrelenting scope and presentation, much like “Old” Snake. At the end of the day, with MGS games we are all actively part of a mind game in which we ‘think’ we are in control, and it’s nothing quite like it.

Thanks again for the effort Daniel,

cheers !