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max power on 15 October 2009
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Mazty said:

The game doesn't allow you to fill in the blanks....
For example, if I wanted to help the Combine, could I? No. Can you reflect your personality in the game in anyway? No, you can't as the game has been designed to be completely linear. Not that that is bad, but it begs the question what is the point in a mute protaginst? As I have said before, the illusion of being someone is completly broken when you have to approach the game from the same angle every single time. KotOR's dialogue system allows you to fill in the blanks as your personality has consequences in that virtual world.

If I wanted to use my imagine to fill in the blanks, I would read a book etc. In a medium such as gaming, where you are meant to be part of a truly virtual world, to then say "Oh yeah, fill in the protaginist with your imagination" seems absurd and completely withdraws the person from the expereince, as they are having to literally make up parts of it.

What I simply dislike about HL2 is that it feels schizophrenic. It wants you to be part of a different world, and then slaps you back into the real world if you try to treat the game as such. Thing with the CoD series, yes you never see your character(s), but that's because you are part of a bigger picture e.g. the world wars, whilst hopping all over the world. In a game where you are the classic cliche Rambo, I don't understand why they decided not to give the main character any identiy, and then were so highly praised for it.

I'm playing through HL2 again to see if I missed something out last run through, but so far, no such luck.

All games have restrictions on what you're allowed to do.  Even games that have decisions will only allow you to follow a handful of pre-set paths (i.e. Bioshock will let you save or harvest little sisters... it won't let you swim to England and avoid the game altogether). 

 

Your complaint is absurd.  Gordon can't join the combine any more than Link can work for Ganon, Mario can join Bowser, or Ryu and M Bison can decide to just be friends.