Yeah to clarify I can just open up the original HL or Opposing Force and have fun with the game. For some reason HL2 felt like a chore the second time through, like it was almost a sort of bittersweet gift to have that several minutes of storytelling in a safe haven before having to go off and do it all again. Now see if HL2 was made of the win that was the final moments of Episode Two that would've been a different story altogether.
I thought Dead Space was decent up until the point where all you're doing is killing the guy with a few more shots than usual. I know tactical shooters have emphasized more on location damage, and I think SWAT 4 did it too, where you had to incapacitate rather than eliminate. But I'd love a FPS that thought a little more out of the ordinary, and location damage was just one of them. What if you could totally change the behaviour of an A.I or others around him by shooting him in the leg instead of the face? Being a sadistic torturer by shooting their limbs and making the others watch/listen which could potentially make them panic? Or if you were doing headshots all the way through, how about them donning better head gear simply because you've been headshotting throughout the entire game? Then there are the usual things like if you shot them in the arm they couldn't use their weapons or if you shot them in the leg they couldn't run, or run as fast.
That, or just make a game inspired by the underground mines bit in Episode One. I love the whole buddy thing. Maybe they should make a game where you're Stephen Hawking and you hire a hitman to help you terrorize the world after watching those episodes of Family Guy. And you have to tell him who to shoot and how to shoot and how to push you around because you can't do it yourself.
FrozenLiquid
Honestly I still find Half Life 2 plays very well to this day, to the degree where the Episodes seem rather poor and uninspiring in comaprison. Really lack the scope, variety and creativity behind them, though Ep2 does have sharp storytelling.I do agree with you that something like the ending in Episode 2 injected into the game would have been great. While Half Life 2 really is built up of gameplay shifting setpieces to add variety, a combat scenario that gives you such freedom would have been fantastic.
Which is the big problem I have with the Episodes, so much of it is baby steps, the ending of episode 2 is well, the biggest design change (aside from Alyx's improved companion a.i.).
Yeah I concur, a shooter that did something like that would be something interesting to see.
I think the first of the failed Sin Episode series did something kind of similar in tracking your skill - head shots etc. and balanced the game accordingly...
I agree I would like to take it one step further, and have the a.i. react accordingly. You shoot a guys legs - will his comrades try and help him - me a brutal barstard, will they fall back? I really think there needs to be more human reactions to a.i. than just combat patterns. Really is why I liked SWAT4 so much - the a.i. behaved in a very real way - they pretended to drop their weapons, ran away in panic, and pulled guns on you when you thought you had disarmed them.
People are unpredictable, give an A.i. enough variables and I guess they can be too, problem is making it convincing.
Otherwise a game based around buddy a.i. would be intruiging - especially not having the direct ability to do so, but being able to issue commands.
Personally i'd just like to see games, specifically shooters deal with failure differently. I'm a bit tired of the usual linear progression of level and game structure - you fail X objective, game ends. Failure can be interesting, especially looking at games like Mount & Blade, the game just keeps going.
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