| Scoobes said: When I said they suck, it's that they suck in the same way you think Half-Life 2's storyline sucks. I can take nearly any game with a half-decent story and using the same logic you use with Half-Life 2, find major fault (with possible exception of Deus Ex and Planescape Torment). The vast majority of storylines in video games follow the same basic structure, use the same tropes and plot points that are typical of the fantasy and sci-fi genres. I can reduce the plots to each of the 3 ME games, that have pages and pages of information, into some pretty basic and generic plot sturctures: ME1: The racist Saren goes rogue, Shephard wants revenge (he can save the galaxy as a bonus, yay!)... what's this alien entity that controls him? Kill Saren... Reapers are coming. ME2: Shepard dies, gets revived, teams up with his saviours to kill the collectors. Kills Collectors. Reapers are coming. ME3: Reapers come. Shepard gives brings everyone together (happy days!). Reapers lose (kinda) This is exactly what you've done with Half-Life 2. You took the bits of the story that were in front of you and came up with what you term is a thin and cliched story. Nevermind the extra layers of depth that others have noted, the intrigue and mystery that has large groups pining for Half-Life 3, the detailed dystopia that has its own history or the subtle nuances of the main characters that makes them stand out beyond their video game tropes. I'm just going to end up repeating myself on the silent protagonist thing; the only reason you seem to suggest that Alyx is a cliched and unrealistic character is because Gordon is silent, but having Gordon talk would ruin the game as he's simply an avatar of yourself. You don't like it, personally I think you're missing out on a layer of immersion that's just not possible with voice acted main characters in the FPS genre. And whilst it's implied she's falling for him, it doesn't really even go into the flirting stage. For the most part it feels like a friendship born of surviving crappy situations and her being told stories of Black Mesa by her father. And whilst it's not an RPG, considering the genre it does a pretty damn good job in terms of storytelling. The fact that I've managed to write posts and posts on Half-Life 2's story really does suggest it's not as thin as you make out (and I could do the same for Mass Effect btw, I've played each through at least 5 times). The main difference is the story in ME series is told directly. You ask people stuff, you have a codex/Journal and the story presented in a relatively traditional way. Half-Life 2's storyline/backstory are told indirectly through the world and in many ways are hidden in plain sight. @ Rainbow 6, whilst that's true, I'd still count it. The FPS genre has for the most part evolved from pure twitch shooters into realistic, semi-realistic and outright action games. There's a lot of crossover between the design philosphies. After Rainbow 6, Bungie probably saw that having two guns would work better on consoles. |
Your analysis though is too vague and misses a lot out. Why does Saren go rogue? Why does Shepard want revenge? What are the reapers?
Saying HL2 is just a rambo scientist who wakes up from some time-sleep to lead a revolution against the big-bad aliens isn't actually missing anything vital out. You meet a bunch of people on the way and then get put back into a time fridge after killing the bad guy by some dude in a suit. That's a good summary without missing anything vital out. Hearing about a random helicopter fight or using a gun that picks up things just isn't vital to the storyline. The fact that the reapers seem to be some sentient, dormant cleaning system for the universe who have control over the main travelling system around the galaxy is somewhat vital.
I'm not watering it down - there simply isn't a lot there whatsoever. Knowing that the earth fell in 7 hours is irrelevant. It could have been 5 minutes or 7 weeks, but either way the earth still fell. It's the equivalent of finding out Gordan won a ping-pong championship - it really doesn't matter as it doesn't alter the perception of the situation and therefore future actions are not altered in light of this new knowledge.
Having people talk at you isn't realistic, period, unless you are a soldier. I know preciesely why it was done, and it's retarded because of what I just said. Being immersive by being unrealistic is bull; at least have the people acknowledge your never-ending silence, or give a speech wheel or something. I felt much more myself as Shepard then as Gordon. Falling for someone who doesn't say a word is fucking rediculous. Not eye candy? Then why have that implied romance? Again, just nerd fantasy bull.
HL2 has very little story to tell. This is something you are just ignoring and saying I'm wrong without showing how. Please show me how "deep" the HL2 storyline is if it is so rich. You haven't written posts on it's story, just posts claiming it has a story and nothing more.
I think the 2 gun thing is more to do with game balance then anything else, as well as the limited ammo they introduced into the non-realistic FPS genre. Having unlimited guns but limited ammo would defeat the point as you could just swap gun everytime you run dry.
