| famousringo said: Ha! Assumptions. I was raised on Wolfenstein, Duke Nukem and Marathon. The puzzles of HL2 consist of moving floating containers around, manuevering a magnetic crane, and platforming around sand. Not really deep stuff, though you certainly could argue it's deeper than the "Am I running forward or backward now?" puzzles of Halo. Most of the puzzles are just the game designers showing off their physics engine. Story? Not really. There's one-sided dialogue that doesn't lead anywhere, but serves to describe the situation and objectives to the player. Not much more than an informal briefing delivered with a cutscene that keeps the first-person perspective. Interaction? When was interaction an option? I don't remember any dialogue options or branching pathways. I guess they let you prod some equipment now and then just to remind you that your avatar is a 'physicist.' The gravity gun was cool though, and the only real innovation of the title. It was a good game. It just doesn't belong in the top 10 of all time. |
It's not so much that the story is especially awesome, as much as the way it's integrated into the game to make the environment believable. The relocation at the beginning with Dr. Breen's talking head in the background, trying to escape the lockdown, breaking Eli out of Nova Prospekt and starting (and eventually leading) the revolution, it's really good stuff, and a big extension of what the original HL did for story integration.
As far as interaction, you're interacting with your environment all the time. Setting off traps to decapitate and roast zombies. Placing heavy weights on boards to use it as a ramp, or buckets filled with air underwater to make a jump for your hovercraft. Using the magnetic crane you mentioned, and of course, everything with the gravity gun. That stuff is all over the game.
