"Something something something but Doom Eternal." Yes, I agree that DE has too many intrusive tutorial popups and could have done a better job at introducing mechanics and enemy features through smart level design. I believe it is the way it is because the gameplay was figured out fairly late into development. And I expect the next game will be much better at guiding players in a natural way. DE is also a very different game that is about mastering what you're supposed to do, not figuring out what you're supposed to do. Thank you and goodnight. - Your father
As I was watching this video, the points made about how HL2 introduces game mechanics unobtrusively did make me think about how Doom Eternal introduced its own mechanics. In addition to what you've said here, I reckon that the more obvious tutorialism is largely forgivable in DE due to its more "gamified" presentation as compared to HL2. Of course there are people who weren't too happy with that style in DE, but then we've already had "Doom but like Half-Life", it's called Doom 3.
I don't think you could introduce complex gameplay elements like the ones in Doom Eternal or Devil May Cry just with level design, it would take too long to get through it. Doom Eternal, DMC5 and Half Life 2 are masterpieces in their own ways.
I think it's more based on game complexity and pacing that dictates how these types of tutorials are done. In HL2, you don't even get a weapon for the first 15 minutes as the game just slowly eases you into the setting, movement, and physics. DE on the get-go gives you a weapon, a weapon mod, a chainsaw with ammo mechanics, and an execution ability that refills health less than 5 minutes. How tutorials are done in the end is dictated by genre, complexity, and pacing. A complex game with many tools and a fast tone is going to have to speed up the learning process. An RTS or fighting game, for example, is going to have to teach you with overally gamey tutorials with the number of tools you have in your disposal from the get-go.
I got an Xbox and orange box in 2010. I played each half life 2 campaign at least 12 times. It was the first fps I ever played and I simply couldn’t stop.
HL2 still, to this day, feels like one of the most intuitive games to play for me. It's as smooth and natural as drinking water. Listening to the developer commentary really makes you appreciate just how much they gave a damn about what they were making. Also, Kelly Bailey is a god. He did the music, sounds and even some level design for both HL1 and HL2.
Half life 2 makes me feel like I'm living in that world and I can learn things by myself especially with this first person perspective and no cutscenes.. characters talking to me directly feels like I'm talking to people in close and personal
Every tutorial is teaching through gameplay. The difference is that good teachers do it through showing, and lazy teacher do it by telling. What kind of game can't be taught through gameplay?
Half-Life 2 is a brilliant example of “Show don’t tell” the game could have had Gman or some citizen saying “This is what’s left of the world it’s been taken by the Combine many years ago” But no, instead it wants you to figure it out on your own and piece everything together using the environment and the npcs small pieces of dialogue until you finally understand what happened to your world.
It's cool how they added a Developer Commentary mode to this game, which Valve has in many of their other games. And you hear these exact same design explanations from the devs, that want to steer the player into doing this in a natural way. A good example being the first ladder in the game, that's hidden in the alleyway, with a light catching your attention, and a box put next to the ladder to also help catch the player's attention, because they needed to interact with boxes only a few moments ago, so putting a familiar object there can help steer the player to that location. For many years, Half-Life 1 and 2 have been some of my favorite games of all time. But when I was younger, I wasn't aware why I really loved these games. I just kept wanting to get back to them and play them over and over. Only when I got older and started understanding game design philosophy, I realized why I really loved these games so much. That, and of course the atmosphere. These devs have their priorities right. Always thinking about the player, how to constantly teach the player something new, and how to constantly make sure they're having fun. If this kind of stuff interests you, I really recommend playing through (or watching) the Developer Commentary mode. You get to learn so many intricate details like many of the ones mentioned in this video. It makes you realize how creative and talented these people are, how new things came to be in interesting ways, and how much effort they put into this stuff.
amazingly showed and explained the masterclass of a 2004 videogame tutorial mechanics, conveyed by the story and its gameplay, treating to all of their players as curious intelligent human beings
17:01 The lambda spray paints indicate nearby supply caches as well, another hint to look out for them in the world. Valve used two for the first one there as well.
Half-Life 1 is just as brilliant. I was surprised that even after Black Mesa came out, the original still holds up incredibly well outside of the visuals.
@@icebough4191And it will always be buggy af, because the version of Source they made is a horrible mesh of code from different brachs of the engine put on top of each other during more than a decade. No to mention they ported the whole game from one SDK to the newest like 4 times, broken the hell out of the code.
Half-Life 2 still feels exceptionally modern even to this day. I replayed it maybe 4 or 5 years ago when I binged classics from the mid-2000:s and this game puts almost every modern FPS to shame. It makes sense that Valve have been putting off a Half-Life 3 for this long; the leap this game took was so monumental that ways to top it fall way outside what I'm able to imagine.
20:30 Theres also another fun thing about Barnacles; anyone who played the first game will be aware (if they experimented enough) that the Barnacles are very vulnerable to the crowbar that can kill them in one swing. Remembering this experience from the previous game helps in dealing with Barnacles more efficiently in this game, and you will NEED that in some areas as Barnacles can sometimes appear in very inconvenient locations with other enemies.
This also shows the classic wisdom of how youre introduced to gadgets, weapons and game mechanics by facilitating the need first instead of frontloading stuff you end up not using regularly or forget to use in a guided campaign.
God i wish i was still passionate about games like this... i remember beating this gem in 1 day on my crappy old laptop because it was the only game it can run and i couldn't stop playing
The thing with yellow paint or "highlights" on objects is not so much of a new thing but the way they are implemented has been intrusive over time. Gone are the days where you rely on subtle cues and curiosity as a player as every devs just blatantly tell you what to do or where to go. Old sequences like this from Valve and Monolith Studios (they've been doing this since Blood) also uses cinematography to get you invested and is certainly more cinematic and immersive. Here's the thing about Half-Life, Gordon doesn't need to talk for you to get invested in the story, you are Gordon. Not a lot of games do that these days, if at all.
@@StickNikThere's a big difference between a natural environmental design and a blatant highlight. It's not just "yellow paint", Valve doesn't use yellow all the time to convey highlights on areas or objects, case in point explosive barrels. Here's two of their games that also don't use much yellow if at all, Portal and Portal 2. Granted it does use vibrant colors, but it's not so much as to say, "yellow paint here, go here". Unlike other games nowadays where it's probably more strange how they got the paint up there without any context on environmental storytelling whatsoever thus looking more obvious that it is an interaction highlight.
the fact that in our modern super power gaming landscape of SSD and supposed faster loading times, its insane we dont have more games like halflife that are ACTUALLY a seamless 1 shot no breaks no cuts game. halflife games now pause for a nanoseccond to load the next level, imagine if they didnt have to pause at all? just load the levels in the same spots as before only now the gake doesn't have to pause to load. why is there no other game that does this?
Sony exclusives after gow 2017 do that. No man sky, outer wild, cyberpunk and the recent stalker also do that. There is still load screen when you launch the game as well as loading screen disguised as wait time (on a train, bus. elevator...) Evidently, ssd are still not that popular yet to design your whole game architecture around. There's also performance concern since streaming level in the middle of the playthrough can tank performance hard. AAA game where they have to stream 4k grafix suffer from this the most. Stalker 2 can halve your frame when you go far enough that the game need to load new thing in for example.
One actual example that’s not just open world is Dead Space, especially the remake as it removes loading even from the main menu. Of course, Visceral took direct inspiration from hl2 and recognized Valve’s design philosophy for the player to be *playing* the game at all times. That’s another thing that seemingly went by tragically unlearned by most major devs in the past 20 years.
It's not just modern games, many older games don't even teach you things as naturally as HL2 does. I do appreciate how little they tell you things but at other times, that kind of design can annoy me leading to, "how was I supposed to know that" moments.
That's what happens when everything is well thought-out from a player's perspective in order to deliver the perfect experience to players. And some people have the utter stupidity and arrogance to belittle this game in the hope/desperation of trying to portray how cool they are for being different. P.S.: I favorited this video. Well done.
There are actually people who belittle Half-Life 2? Sounds like the sort of thing done by idiot kids too young to know better, or professional contrarians who've made it their job to give out garbage takes that are objectively incorrect.
@@NoXion100odd, right. But weirdly enough, it's was an old guy. That happened when HL2 went free and the update was announced on its 20th anniversary. It was the first time ever that I've seen someone bad mouth HL2. That dude was desperate and saying that people defending the game weren't even alive back then. Nonsense.
@@CeceliPS3 Sounds like that guy would fall into the "edgy contrarian" category. If anything I have more of an appreciation for HL2 as a masterwork than I did when I was younger.
I played Half-Life 2 for the first time last year. I knew i was missing a great one. But i didn't know how great it was. Half-Life 2 is the game. It is that game. It defines almost every game mechanics at the highest quality. I played a lot of new gen mediocre games just because they were new. Half-Life 2 was the one game that taught me ''Good games are forever'' lesson. I learned that Valve actually became special when they've made Half-Life 2. Not when they created the greatest PC gaming hub. Thank you Uncle Gabe.
half-life 1 was no less special. you should play that then play the fan remake: black mesa. Despite made 20 years later, hl1 was still better designed and paced than the new parts of black mesa
I appreciate that you can put into words what makes a game or section effective. For me, I know when I like a game but can't for the life of me explain why
As much as I love Valve's methods of invisible and seamless tutorialisation, I've always felt it was okay for some games to have text or popups for learning how to do certain actions ( i.e maybe more complex or extremely contextual actions ) In half life, portal and left 4 dead, you're always playing as a normal human. So all of your actions are stuff a normal human could probably do ( i.e breaking something with a crowbar, shooting something with a gun, plugging a switch into it's socket etc. ) and the level design is built around it Whereas no one is Dante or doomguy irl, so they wouldn't know how to glory kill or do an air launcher irl. Hence a quick text popup ( and maybe an image or video as well ) to get the idea across quickly. You could definitely wordlessly teach some of this to a player, but then you'd probably have to really bottleneck them to do it, and even then it may not work ( which is something you can't have especially if it's an action that a player genuinely needs to be able to play the game ). That said, if there are games that do this, then that's amazing lol
I feel like this is a problem with the long-jump module in HL1, you know, something a normal human character isn't able to do. It was in the tutorial BEFORE the game even properly starts and iirc the controls only get mentioned when you receive it (not when you have to actually use it) and they don't show up ever again. If people are asking how to use the long-jump module for a whole 25 years, you know that's bad game design.
I mean, Doom in its early years actually does employ similar techniques. See how you find out how monsters in-fight in Doom 2. It's very much a no prompt tutorial.
No tutorial in Half-Life 2 works simply because it was design with that in mind. It is linier game, with interesting level design and easy to understand. So the games like this doesn't need a lot of tutorial. But imagine a game with huge world, so complex level design that it can make you struggle, without mission markers or special menu with mission description. A game when they drop you in to it's world and you have no clue, what to do. You just wander around and try to figure out, how to progress. Would you be able to beat the game like that? I doubt it. Sure, you may say that you can progress but let's be honest here, you would probably drop it after 5 - 15 minutes. That is why games like I described need a tutorial to tell you what you need to do. Otherwise, you would quit the game. But like I said, it works with Half-Life 2 because it was made with no tutorial game design in mind. But if it would not be made with that in mind, then it would be a hard game to grab and play.
Everytime i sigh at how much modern game design has fallen. I ALWAYS look back at HL2. Valve truly made something special here, its so ahead of its time. But i never expected it to hold up even 20 years later. this game is a form of art that needs to be preserved forever
20:56 Also want to add, the placement of those boxes also potentially helps to pull you in towards the tunnel, it's the most immediate cover, so naturally a lot of players will go towards it and notice the tunnel as well
Wow! Never I'd ever imagined that this game has reached 20 years. Half-Life 2 is indeed a treasured FPS game for me, when I played it back then it came out. This game introduced the iconic Gravity Gun, and lets not forget the infamous town known as Ravenholm, where it's infested with zombies and Father Grigori accompanied us all the way to the end. His insane laugh is the last time you hear when you escaped from Ravenholm.
I never really perceived the moment, when the guard tells you to pick up the can as a tutorial. But of course it is. Just not on the nose. Way more organic. I really love how they continued that philosophy with HL: Alyx.
1 more thing that i would like to add- In the metal shipping crate section u also see the half life lamda sign and it appears again behind the supply crate so it also tells u hey that sign is good go there and u might get something
Great video, I never realized how fluid and well designed this game is. I just knew it was good playing it. I also want to mention the Vortigaunt with the refugee in the train car. If you played the first game you might recognize them as a threat. The way they introduce them too you in this game helps you to identify that they are also the good guys.
I found out there's whole H-L2 and Episodes made for VR... To say I saw this game in a whole new light that day is to say air is there somewhere, on Earth.
Good stuff. I listened to the developer commentaries and watched the documentary, and I was shocked to find out how cleverly they planted the seeds in my head on what to do without any traditionally gamey tutorials. Many of the set pieces and scripted moments in the train station are meant to introduce you to the games physics system you'll be helping with. I never realized the "pick up that can" moment is a physics tutorial, I always thought it was just a funny world building moment. Just shows how well the story and gameplay meshed together in Half Life 2. I'd like to see you talk about Half Life 1.
Half-Life 2, Doom 3 and F.E.A.R. The Holy Trinity. "Ah, but I don't like Doom3 because mimimi". Nobody is born with a good taste in FPSs, take easy on yourself.
Very nice video. Brings back memories of playing the game for the first time. I also really like how well game looks on modern computers with this type of dry realistic artstyle, sure its very low on details but it just sets a particular serious mood that fits the game world really well. Many of today's game look shiny/blurry or pixelated due to upscaling or bad anti aliasing. Anyway , I highly recommend trying Black Mesa if you haven't.
Yes exactly that. I started playing it again after the anniversary documentary and I said the same thing, this game does a great job showing you the way giving you hints of what is happening especially at the start, subtly but surely
Valve in 2004: Meticulous design of every game element to increase immersion and fun gameplay. AAAAA-Companies in 2024: Facial animations? Player expectations are so unreasonable.
Braid and The Witness are games that also put an absurd amount of thought into how to teach the player without bashing them over the head with tutorials.
I suggest that when you finaly make the Prey review you should talk about it's amazing tutorializing too. There's so many secret tutorials that you usualy don't even notice because they're so well done.
Half Life's opening levels ARE the tutorials. And that's what many games don't get right. Many games now start with boot camp, or special tutorial missions, or a story that happens in parallel to the actual story, just to introduce the game's mechanics. Few games now throw you into the fray without breaking narrative, because to satisfy game journalists and braindead kids, two groups for whom video games shouldn't even be meant, the games have been dumbed down.
Damn Mayo! You have really outdone yourself here. Great analysis, and i really love how you integrate more music analysis and theory in your videos lately. Great stuff!
Thanks! I've become really analytical thinking about WHY games make you feel a certain way. Why they make you do certain things. I dropped down into the train yard and instantly felt paranoid and pressured, and I identified it was the music.
I'm so hyped for Half Life 2 RTX honestly. I've found my passion for half life again recently. it was one of the first games I ever played and I've been obsessive about it for a long time. My high school assignments were littered with Lambda icons. If I still turned in paper stuff at my university I'm sure they would also be covered in them... Half life is special. Half Life 2 RTX will be stunning, I just hope my poor RTX 3060 Laptop can run it. Portal RTX is a little rough... 30fps with DLSS performance at 1080p, which means an internal res of 960 x 540, and my desktop (Rx 6800) will definitely not run it, AMD cards are broken on RTX remix games
It just occured to me, there is zero notes in Half-Life 1 and 2. No notes needed to tell the player everything they need to know. I'm not opposed to just stop my game and read text, but it should be used sparingly, in a smart way. Recently I tried to revisit Amnesia the Dark descend, and I hated that it infodumps player with huge notes every 5 minutes, breaking the immersion completely
Amnesia's storytelling not flawless, but it is also light years ahead of anything that they did in HL1 and 2. As much as I love these games, they have almost nothing going on in terms of narrative, and the few pieces of storytelling they do deliver, are largely done through locking you in a room with NPCs until they finish dumping info on you. Alyx is probably the most fleshed out character in the entire franchise, and all her story and personality comes down to being nice, caring, and capable.
HL game is what make me love videogame so much, It was the game i feel like i could keep playing forever. HL HL Blueshift HL Opposite force HL2 HL2 EP1 HL2 EP2 HL ALYX Black Mesa Now all i wish is to play HL3 before my time comes.
I'm convinced somebody could write a thesis paper on only the "pick up that can" interaction. It's subtle genius should not be overlooked. That 10 second interaction informs so much about the game.
dude i really love every videos that explains VALVE'S level design and tutorial which one of the infamous tutorials was the RAVENHOLM tutorial which i learned from game makers tool kit of how that the game teaches of cutting zombies in half with the saw. VALVE games are always mind blowing and btw if your making videos on valve games then can you make it on PORTAL i would really love to see it.
I don't remember any of this, I do remember that there was a moment where a voice was spoiling a puzzle with a grenade and that made me quit. Did I play an early version?
Been years since I replayed HL2, but it is still a great game 20 years later! Just one quick comment. This game doesn't hold your hand, and that is true, but it does guide you a bit. A player will see those Valve symbols on the walls here and there, and that is what I would call "soft" guidance. Many games today just OVER explain what they are trying to do, but using your brain is a better guide to any game.
I will say, the escape sequence is made up of brilliant conveyance, but unfortunately, this doesn't entirely carry through to the rest of the game. Even as early as Water Hazard, the player guidance starts suffering and its very easy to not realize how to proceed. I would honestly say most major setpiece chapters have at least one or two parts that will trip people up from poor signposting. But still, the actual tutorialization is stellar.
Exactly this is my problem with HL2 in later parts, it just expects you to figure out very specific solutions to problems or find the way to progress in a wide-open level. Sure, this might just be my autism kicking it at times, but having to use trial and error to progress just feels more tedious than satisfying. I had this happen to me a few days ago in the Nova Prospekt chapters. You're supposed to throw a grenade into a room in order to detach the plug for the gate that is blocking your way, but it feels more random than actually logical. It feels like something you'd do to cheese a puzzle without having to actually find the solution.
2:01 - ...orange? 16:15 - This is why I'll never understand people's complaint about yellow paint (or whatever other color it is in games). Games have always made things obvious like explosive barrels or the ammo boxes here. Making interactable stuff a certain color is no different in my eyes, it's helpful in games like RE4R where not every crate if breakable or ladder climable.
Because yellow paint is something that makes no sense in the world. It's barely any different than using a flashing arrow. It's much different than using lighting or other aspects of smart visual design to draw a players attention in an artistic.
Half Life puts more than just colors to identify something. Supplies not only have that subtle coloring they also put in something more like "Supply" written front and center. Explosive barrels have logos on them to identify them so on and so forth. Meanwhile new RE puts yellow everywhere. Why would there be a yellow paint in the side of a fucking cliff? Are you really gonna tell me that the villagers purposefully put it there because the las plagas make them so dumb they need to have markers?
Now i want you to make a video about ravenholm and discuss the horror aspect of it Theres plenty of videos discussing it already but idk, maybe it could ve fun for you I'd understand if this is your only video about half life just to celebrate the anniversary
The one level that made action-horror better. So well designed that it's been replicated by Bioshock and also made Dead Space 2 the definitive game as it was and also what made Dead Space Remake combat so refined.
HL3 will happen because AAA games today are crap. They don't have to worry about being extremely innovative anymore, because the competition sucks. Just make HL3 a continuation of HL2 and you will have a "revolutionary" game.
superb analysis for one of the greatest games. unlike modern level type of games, ugh T_T where did it go wrong with gaming .. if Ubisoft made AAAA what makes HL2 ?
Big time HL2 hater here. I appreciate all the little things about it (pretty much everything Mayo talked about) and there are some cool environmental puzzles/obstacles here and there but once you actually start playing it, it is easily one of the most mediocre, overhyped, mind numbing, uninteresting games I think I've ever played. Ravenholm was the only level I genuinely enjoyed. The driving sections are horrendous and go on for far too long but for almost the entire second half of the game, friendly AI constantly follow you around and swarm you, making what is already unengaging gunplay even worse. Don't get me started on the lighthouse level with the dropships. Holy shit that section is so bad! All the interesting alien enemies from the first game were retconned out because of HL2's incoherent story so it's just boring human, zombie and headcrab variants that don't require more than two braincells to deal with. I can't even begin to comprehend how this sequel was revered as "One of the best games ever made!" It's a subpar game with a fancy physics engine. There were much, MUCH better games in the early 2000's. Metroid Prime, Silent Hill 2 & 3, Halo, Resident Evil, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Max Payne 1 & 2, Manhunt to name just a few and they all came out between 2001 and 2003. HL1 was special because of the set pieces and scripted events in 1998 but by 2004 these things were a set standard in games. HL2 wasn't special for these things, everyone was doing it. I think maybe people were more infatuated with the Source engine than the game itself? But even then it isn't like HL2 was the only game at the time with a physics engine. I know I'm in the minority but people calling this turd one of the best games ever because of a few cool ideas will never cease to irk me. A hot take maybe but I genuinely think it's an awful game.
@@danielgeronimo5538 Yeah sure a lot of die hard fans of HL2 will tell me the same thing. "Oh it's just not for you" because they don't have any way to counter it's faults because it's such a "perfect" game. Stay in that bubble if you want. I'm still gonna be the rock in their shoe and say "ackshually this game sucks 🤓" because it does. It's gameplay and variety is objectively worse and a huge step down from HL1. This kind of interactivity was in the first game too. There is nothing special about HL2.
@@wolfwood1993Just because I say "it isn't for you" doesn't mean I consider it a perfect game. The semi-open world is done better in other games that came after or even before it. I enjoyed spectacles in Halo more than I did in Half-Life because simply the Halo ring isn't as empty. And yes, there are good games that came out in early 2000 but guess what? Your criticisms against Half-Life 2 can also be applied to those. That's why it's a personal thing. Hate on Half-Life 2 if you want, ain't gonna change the world's perception about it, you're still gonna be the one sour grapes dude nobody cares about what his opinion is. But don't present something that is subjective as the objective truth. You don't have to agree with the world. Guess what, it doesn't have to agree with you either.
@@danielgeronimo5538 I'm allowed to hate on things lmao. I don't care if you or the world disagrees with me. Oppressed gamer moment. I express my opinion to find likeminded people who feel the same way. People still dick ride The Last Of Us to this day as being one of the best and it's one of the most mediocre games ever. Same can be said about most PS exclusives. The popular opinion of something doesn't make it the right opinion. HL2 is objectively worse than HL1 for reasons I've already given. It offers much less than what came before it. This is a fact whether you want to accept it or not. It's just an easier game for the masses to pick up and play. Hate to break it to ya but the mainstream generally lean towards what is the most accessible. The easiest things will take the spotlight. Just like every triple A game today that holds the player's hand. People just want it easy and that's ok. HL2 still sucks though. You know what else is ok? Liking a bad game. The ability to acknowledge flaws in a game is something most people are incapable of doing. So I'm perfectly happy about being the sour grapes dude, it means I appreciate more aspects to a game than what is on the surface, so thanks!
In my opinion, Half Life 2 has aged well except in 2 departments. The gunplay is mediocre and the cutscenes are annoying. Locking you in rooms while people talk with nowhere to go and nothing to do. The guns are just not fun or satisfying to use except maybe the rocket launcher and combine pulse rifle at the end of the game.
This is really excellent lesson design commentary on a granular level. I’d love to see this as a series if you could as I think people intuitively appreciate the game design but cannot articulate it. These steps can then be replicated in their own way by future game designers. Great work!
The handholding is just a part of why I can't stand to replay Half-Life 2 but love HL1. The original game still has some of the same subtle ques to teach you how to play and guide you where to go, but Half-Life 2 is more like a dry and clinical product that takes it even further. Designed with thousands upon thousands of playtests, until every single piece of friction is removed, until everything is absolutely certain and clear, until they ensure that absolutely everyone can smoothly finish this experience. It's not a bad thing, but it's why I think it's important to not look at design in a vacuum. HL2's, or any other game's design, is brilliant only in the context of what it was trying to do. In this case, it's creating a massively successful commercial title that has the widest possible audience. Some of these things are more universal, like the general visual art principle of viewer's attention being guided towards bright or contrasting colors, but other than that, trying to do Half-Life 2 when you're not making Half-Life 2 can easily harm your game. Even in the context of the game, it resulted in a very shallow FPS that was too scared to offer any depth and explore its gameplay systems because it would require ramping up difficulty, and offering challenges that might stop someone from playing the game. Instead, the player is bombarded with little puzzlets, set pieces, novelty sections, and "choreo-scenes." Portal is a game that suffered from the same issue. It still has an incredible concept for a puzzle game, but it never does anything interesting with it, because by the time you're finished with the tutorial, the credits start rolling. Also, in many ways you could likely attribute the modern trends to Half-Life 2 helping to popularize this really strict style of railroading you towards the end of the game. You could say that they did it better than newer games, but the driving force behind their decisions was much the same, "we need people to know what to do at all times." The audience this is made for will not tell the difference between yellow paint and a light above the ladder to highlight it, or having a character say "I'd like to see them try eating one of these explosive barrels" instead of allowing it to occur more organically.
@@underthemayo You do, but that doesn't nearly do the topic justice or add much nuance. Any design solution is born from challenges that come up when trying to reach a certain goal. You can't really make a compelling point/criticism against yellow paint, notes, prompts, or other things, while not touching upon what goals those games have and what challenges they face. Focusing on the minutia without taking in the big picture is what creates the vacuum. While also giving off an impression that this naturalistic and minimal style of railroading is just some sort of inherently good design. We don't learn why this design is brilliant, you learn that arranging things in a certain order will compel the player to do things that they want you to do. It's entirely possible to make a terrible game while utilizing all of these organic hints. Even when you do say that "games aren't automatically bad if they don't have this" it's done with the implication that having this is a good thing. Is it ridiculous to say that we don't need door prompts? No, not at all. But those prompts also likely exist for the same exact reason why Valve shoves a big, bright light over any important object.
"Something something something but Doom Eternal."
Yes, I agree that DE has too many intrusive tutorial popups and could have done a better job at introducing mechanics and enemy features through smart level design. I believe it is the way it is because the gameplay was figured out fairly late into development. And I expect the next game will be much better at guiding players in a natural way. DE is also a very different game that is about mastering what you're supposed to do, not figuring out what you're supposed to do. Thank you and goodnight.
- Your father
Daddy Mayo arc confirmed
As I was watching this video, the points made about how HL2 introduces game mechanics unobtrusively did make me think about how Doom Eternal introduced its own mechanics. In addition to what you've said here, I reckon that the more obvious tutorialism is largely forgivable in DE due to its more "gamified" presentation as compared to HL2. Of course there are people who weren't too happy with that style in DE, but then we've already had "Doom but like Half-Life", it's called Doom 3.
Oh well. They did make some effort such as how the sticky bomb was introduced
I don't think you could introduce complex gameplay elements like the ones in Doom Eternal or Devil May Cry just with level design, it would take too long to get through it. Doom Eternal, DMC5 and Half Life 2 are masterpieces in their own ways.
I think it's more based on game complexity and pacing that dictates how these types of tutorials are done. In HL2, you don't even get a weapon for the first 15 minutes as the game just slowly eases you into the setting, movement, and physics.
DE on the get-go gives you a weapon, a weapon mod, a chainsaw with ammo mechanics, and an execution ability that refills health less than 5 minutes.
How tutorials are done in the end is dictated by genre, complexity, and pacing. A complex game with many tools and a fast tone is going to have to speed up the learning process. An RTS or fighting game, for example, is going to have to teach you with overally gamey tutorials with the number of tools you have in your disposal from the get-go.
"I only replayed half of it"
So you experienced... Quarter Life
are you scared?
I got an Xbox and orange box in 2010. I played each half life 2 campaign at least 12 times. It was the first fps I ever played and I simply couldn’t stop.
HL2 still, to this day, feels like one of the most intuitive games to play for me. It's as smooth and natural as drinking water. Listening to the developer commentary really makes you appreciate just how much they gave a damn about what they were making.
Also, Kelly Bailey is a god. He did the music, sounds and even some level design for both HL1 and HL2.
the whole "avoid tutorials and only teach through gameplay" thing doesn't work with every kinda game but it is nice when it does happen.
Agreed. Tutorials, guided narratives, and prompts are helpful for a lot of people with accessibility needs.
It works only on games designed to make it work. Valve is known to have a very intensive playtesting focused development cycle.
Half life 2 makes me feel like I'm living in that world and I can learn things by myself especially with this first person perspective and no cutscenes.. characters talking to me directly feels like I'm talking to people in close and personal
Every tutorial is teaching through gameplay. The difference is that good teachers do it through showing, and lazy teacher do it by telling.
What kind of game can't be taught through gameplay?
@@JayMaverickThe very first Legend of Zelda.
Half-Life 2 is a brilliant example of “Show don’t tell” the game could have had Gman or some citizen saying “This is what’s left of the world it’s been taken by the Combine many years ago” But no, instead it wants you to figure it out on your own and piece everything together using the environment and the npcs small pieces of dialogue until you finally understand what happened to your world.
It's cool how they added a Developer Commentary mode to this game, which Valve has in many of their other games. And you hear these exact same design explanations from the devs, that want to steer the player into doing this in a natural way. A good example being the first ladder in the game, that's hidden in the alleyway, with a light catching your attention, and a box put next to the ladder to also help catch the player's attention, because they needed to interact with boxes only a few moments ago, so putting a familiar object there can help steer the player to that location.
For many years, Half-Life 1 and 2 have been some of my favorite games of all time. But when I was younger, I wasn't aware why I really loved these games. I just kept wanting to get back to them and play them over and over. Only when I got older and started understanding game design philosophy, I realized why I really loved these games so much. That, and of course the atmosphere.
These devs have their priorities right. Always thinking about the player, how to constantly teach the player something new, and how to constantly make sure they're having fun.
If this kind of stuff interests you, I really recommend playing through (or watching) the Developer Commentary mode. You get to learn so many intricate details like many of the ones mentioned in this video. It makes you realize how creative and talented these people are, how new things came to be in interesting ways, and how much effort they put into this stuff.
they also did that in left 4 dead, using the headlights of a car to guide the player where they want them to go for instance.
amazingly showed and explained the masterclass of a 2004 videogame tutorial mechanics, conveyed by the story and its gameplay, treating to all of their players as curious intelligent human beings
Voice blasts over the radio. "Remember Gordon your crowbar can be used to smash boxes and clear obstacles, give it a try"!
Objective: Smash 3 boxes ✅.
17:01 The lambda spray paints indicate nearby supply caches as well, another hint to look out for them in the world. Valve used two for the first one there as well.
Surprised he didn't mention this. Maybe on his replay for the video he only played the first couple areas and forgot that was a thing. lol.
That makes me realize I really want a parody of the entire intruduction with yellow paint and tutorial prompts every 5 seconds lol.
Hey, the workshop is on now
Half-Life 1 is just as brilliant. I was surprised that even after Black Mesa came out, the original still holds up incredibly well outside of the visuals.
Black mesa is so horrifically bugged out
Still to this day
@@icebough4191And it will always be buggy af, because the version of Source they made is a horrible mesh of code from different brachs of the engine put on top of each other during more than a decade.
No to mention they ported the whole game from one SDK to the newest like 4 times, broken the hell out of the code.
Half-Life 2 still feels exceptionally modern even to this day. I replayed it maybe 4 or 5 years ago when I binged classics from the mid-2000:s and this game puts almost every modern FPS to shame. It makes sense that Valve have been putting off a Half-Life 3 for this long; the leap this game took was so monumental that ways to top it fall way outside what I'm able to imagine.
20:30 Theres also another fun thing about Barnacles; anyone who played the first game will be aware (if they experimented enough) that the Barnacles are very vulnerable to the crowbar that can kill them in one swing. Remembering this experience from the previous game helps in dealing with Barnacles more efficiently in this game, and you will NEED that in some areas as Barnacles can sometimes appear in very inconvenient locations with other enemies.
That's cool!
This also shows the classic wisdom of how youre introduced to gadgets, weapons and game mechanics by facilitating the need first
instead of frontloading stuff you end up not using regularly or forget to use in a guided campaign.
19:29 If your health is low the Vortigaunt will offer to help by charging your suit indicate that this Alien looking thing is your allies
My boy Mayo knows music theory? Awesome!
How do you think he solved the RE Village piano puzzle so fast?
He used to make beats in Fl studio back in the day
God i wish i was still passionate about games like this... i remember beating this gem in 1 day on my crappy old laptop because it was the only game it can run and i couldn't stop playing
The thing with yellow paint or "highlights" on objects is not so much of a new thing but the way they are implemented has been intrusive over time. Gone are the days where you rely on subtle cues and curiosity as a player as every devs just blatantly tell you what to do or where to go.
Old sequences like this from Valve and Monolith Studios (they've been doing this since Blood) also uses cinematography to get you invested and is certainly more cinematic and immersive. Here's the thing about Half-Life, Gordon doesn't need to talk for you to get invested in the story, you are Gordon.
Not a lot of games do that these days, if at all.
I mean the big supply labels on the boxes are yellow, but nobody complains because it's complimentary to the art direction, not an eye sore.
@@StickNikThere's a big difference between a natural environmental design and a blatant highlight. It's not just "yellow paint", Valve doesn't use yellow all the time to convey highlights on areas or objects, case in point explosive barrels.
Here's two of their games that also don't use much yellow if at all, Portal and Portal 2. Granted it does use vibrant colors, but it's not so much as to say, "yellow paint here, go here". Unlike other games nowadays where it's probably more strange how they got the paint up there without any context on environmental storytelling whatsoever thus looking more obvious that it is an interaction highlight.
The yellow paint in The last of us is hilarious
All green all full of plants
Perfect yellow paint in a ladder
@@danielgeronimo5538 Yeah I agree with you, just a funny detail I was pointing out to make direct parallels to modern stuff.
the fact that in our modern super power gaming landscape of SSD and supposed faster loading times, its insane we dont have more games like halflife that are ACTUALLY a seamless 1 shot no breaks no cuts game. halflife games now pause for a nanoseccond to load the next level, imagine if they didnt have to pause at all?
just load the levels in the same spots as before only now the gake doesn't have to pause to load. why is there no other game that does this?
Sony exclusives after gow 2017 do that. No man sky, outer wild, cyberpunk and the recent stalker also do that. There is still load screen when you launch the game as well as loading screen disguised as wait time (on a train, bus. elevator...)
Evidently, ssd are still not that popular yet to design your whole game architecture around. There's also performance concern since streaming level in the middle of the playthrough can tank performance hard. AAA game where they have to stream 4k grafix suffer from this the most. Stalker 2 can halve your frame when you go far enough that the game need to load new thing in for example.
Red Faction did this.
One actual example that’s not just open world is Dead Space, especially the remake as it removes loading even from the main menu. Of course, Visceral took direct inspiration from hl2 and recognized Valve’s design philosophy for the player to be *playing* the game at all times. That’s another thing that seemingly went by tragically unlearned by most major devs in the past 20 years.
Lets go, waiting on the UnderTheMayo Half-Life 1, Black Mesa, and Half-Life: Alyx videos now
Also Portal 1, Portal 2 and with some magical possiblity Team Fortress 2 💀💀💀
It's not just modern games, many older games don't even teach you things as naturally as HL2 does. I do appreciate how little they tell you things but at other times, that kind of design can annoy me leading to, "how was I supposed to know that" moments.
That's what happens when everything is well thought-out from a player's perspective in order to deliver the perfect experience to players. And some people have the utter stupidity and arrogance to belittle this game in the hope/desperation of trying to portray how cool they are for being different.
P.S.: I favorited this video. Well done.
There are actually people who belittle Half-Life 2? Sounds like the sort of thing done by idiot kids too young to know better, or professional contrarians who've made it their job to give out garbage takes that are objectively incorrect.
@@NoXion100odd, right. But weirdly enough, it's was an old guy. That happened when HL2 went free and the update was announced on its 20th anniversary. It was the first time ever that I've seen someone bad mouth HL2. That dude was desperate and saying that people defending the game weren't even alive back then. Nonsense.
@@CeceliPS3 Sounds like that guy would fall into the "edgy contrarian" category. If anything I have more of an appreciation for HL2 as a masterwork than I did when I was younger.
@@NoXion100 very true.
@@NoXion100HL2 will always and forever be a landmark masterpiece in gaming.
I played Half-Life 2 for the first time last year. I knew i was missing a great one. But i didn't know how great it was. Half-Life 2 is the game. It is that game. It defines almost every game mechanics at the highest quality. I played a lot of new gen mediocre games just because they were new. Half-Life 2 was the one game that taught me ''Good games are forever'' lesson. I learned that Valve actually became special when they've made Half-Life 2. Not when they created the greatest PC gaming hub. Thank you Uncle Gabe.
half-life 1 was no less special. you should play that then play the fan remake: black mesa. Despite made 20 years later, hl1 was still better designed and paced than the new parts of black mesa
@@mdd4296 Xen was really bad and the Nihilanth fight is just boring and tedious. Everything before that is amazing though.
I appreciate that you can put into words what makes a game or section effective. For me, I know when I like a game but can't for the life of me explain why
That's one of the main things I sent out to do.
As much as I love Valve's methods of invisible and seamless tutorialisation, I've always felt it was okay for some games to have text or popups for learning how to do certain actions
( i.e maybe more complex or extremely contextual actions )
In half life, portal and left 4 dead, you're always playing as a normal human. So all of your actions are stuff a normal human could probably do ( i.e breaking something with a crowbar, shooting something with a gun, plugging a switch into it's socket etc. ) and the level design is built around it
Whereas no one is Dante or doomguy irl, so they wouldn't know how to glory kill or do an air launcher irl. Hence a quick text popup ( and maybe an image or video as well ) to get the idea across quickly.
You could definitely wordlessly teach some of this to a player, but then you'd probably have to really bottleneck them to do it, and even then it may not work ( which is something you can't have especially if it's an action that a player genuinely needs to be able to play the game ).
That said, if there are games that do this, then that's amazing lol
I feel like this is a problem with the long-jump module in HL1, you know, something a normal human character isn't able to do. It was in the tutorial BEFORE the game even properly starts and iirc the controls only get mentioned when you receive it (not when you have to actually use it) and they don't show up ever again. If people are asking how to use the long-jump module for a whole 25 years, you know that's bad game design.
I mean, Doom in its early years actually does employ similar techniques. See how you find out how monsters in-fight in Doom 2. It's very much a no prompt tutorial.
No tutorial in Half-Life 2 works simply because it was design with that in mind. It is linier game, with interesting level design and easy to understand. So the games like this doesn't need a lot of tutorial. But imagine a game with huge world, so complex level design that it can make you struggle, without mission markers or special menu with mission description. A game when they drop you in to it's world and you have no clue, what to do. You just wander around and try to figure out, how to progress. Would you be able to beat the game like that? I doubt it. Sure, you may say that you can progress but let's be honest here, you would probably drop it after 5 - 15 minutes. That is why games like I described need a tutorial to tell you what you need to do. Otherwise, you would quit the game. But like I said, it works with Half-Life 2 because it was made with no tutorial game design in mind. But if it would not be made with that in mind, then it would be a hard game to grab and play.
Everytime i sigh at how much modern game design has fallen. I ALWAYS look back at HL2. Valve truly made something special here, its so ahead of its time. But i never expected it to hold up even 20 years later. this game is a form of art that needs to be preserved forever
20:56 Also want to add, the placement of those boxes also potentially helps to pull you in towards the tunnel, it's the most immediate cover, so naturally a lot of players will go towards it and notice the tunnel as well
Video at 40/50 sec - Russel in Half Life Alice: im with you every step of the way
Wow! Never I'd ever imagined that this game has reached 20 years. Half-Life 2 is indeed a treasured FPS game for me, when I played it back then it came out. This game introduced the iconic Gravity Gun, and lets not forget the infamous town known as Ravenholm, where it's infested with zombies and Father Grigori accompanied us all the way to the end. His insane laugh is the last time you hear when you escaped from Ravenholm.
I never really perceived the moment, when the guard tells you to pick up the can as a tutorial. But of course it is. Just not on the nose. Way more organic. I really love how they continued that philosophy with HL: Alyx.
1 more thing that i would like to add- In the metal shipping crate section u also see the half life lamda sign and it appears again behind the supply crate so it also tells u hey that sign is good go there and u might get something
This is a certified looking forward to watching this after work moment
Great video, I never realized how fluid and well designed this game is. I just knew it was good playing it. I also want to mention the Vortigaunt with the refugee in the train car. If you played the first game you might recognize them as a threat. The way they introduce them too you in this game helps you to identify that they are also the good guys.
Why Half-Life 2 is better than God of War 2018
I found out there's whole H-L2 and Episodes made for VR...
To say I saw this game in a whole new light that day is to say air is there somewhere, on Earth.
14:02 Never change, Mayo.
Good stuff. I listened to the developer commentaries and watched the documentary, and I was shocked to find out how cleverly they planted the seeds in my head on what to do without any traditionally gamey tutorials. Many of the set pieces and scripted moments in the train station are meant to introduce you to the games physics system you'll be helping with. I never realized the "pick up that can" moment is a physics tutorial, I always thought it was just a funny world building moment. Just shows how well the story and gameplay meshed together in Half Life 2. I'd like to see you talk about Half Life 1.
Half-Life 2, Doom 3 and F.E.A.R.
The Holy Trinity.
"Ah, but I don't like Doom3 because mimimi".
Nobody is born with a good taste in FPSs, take easy on yourself.
Doom 3 is cool.
I'm so excited to replay this game again once the RTX version is released.
The "not really a music guy" Mayo discussing music once again haha
Whenever I see the Source engine now I just think of Cry of Fear.
CoF is goldsrc though
"But mayo you can't praise this game, it is not doom eternal"
Anyway nice video, i do hope Dark Ages have some of these aspects.
So, the Mega Man X of FPS opening levels.
@@TheLockon00 I thought a lot about that video while editing this.
@@underthemayo Now, hearing such high praise of Half Life 2 after all the slander you've thrown at Halo did wound me a bit. Not gonna lie.
Very nice video. Brings back memories of playing the game for the first time. I also really like how well game looks on modern computers with this type of dry realistic artstyle, sure its very low on details but it just sets a particular serious mood that fits the game world really well. Many of today's game look shiny/blurry or pixelated due to upscaling or bad anti aliasing.
Anyway , I highly recommend trying Black Mesa if you haven't.
Yes exactly that. I started playing it again after the anniversary documentary and I said the same thing, this game does a great job showing you the way giving you hints of what is happening especially at the start, subtly but surely
Never really gave the locks on the doors much thought but its a nice attention to detail
Many conveniences are never noticed!
Damn Half-Life's architecture evokes my post-soviet childhood memories.
Valve in 2004: Meticulous design of every game element to increase immersion and fun gameplay.
AAAAA-Companies in 2024: Facial animations? Player expectations are so unreasonable.
Braid and The Witness are games that also put an absurd amount of thought into how to teach the player without bashing them over the head with tutorials.
Mayo talking about half life
My life is complete
Mr. Mayonnaise has blessed us with this one
I suggest that when you finaly make the Prey review you should talk about it's amazing tutorializing too. There's so many secret tutorials that you usualy don't even notice because they're so well done.
Half Life's opening levels ARE the tutorials. And that's what many games don't get right. Many games now start with boot camp, or special tutorial missions, or a story that happens in parallel to the actual story, just to introduce the game's mechanics. Few games now throw you into the fray without breaking narrative, because to satisfy game journalists and braindead kids, two groups for whom video games shouldn't even be meant, the games have been dumbed down.
Damn Mayo! You have really outdone yourself here. Great analysis, and i really love how you integrate more music analysis and theory in your videos lately. Great stuff!
Thanks!
I've become really analytical thinking about WHY games make you feel a certain way. Why they make you do certain things. I dropped down into the train yard and instantly felt paranoid and pressured, and I identified it was the music.
love the surprise bawkbasoup GDQ clip
It starts with one thing.
I don't know why.
The tiny tease at the end of the 20th anniversary video has my hopes up. Half Life is such a great player's game.
I'm so hyped for Half Life 2 RTX honestly. I've found my passion for half life again recently. it was one of the first games I ever played and I've been obsessive about it for a long time. My high school assignments were littered with Lambda icons. If I still turned in paper stuff at my university I'm sure they would also be covered in them... Half life is special.
Half Life 2 RTX will be stunning, I just hope my poor RTX 3060 Laptop can run it. Portal RTX is a little rough... 30fps with DLSS performance at 1080p, which means an internal res of 960 x 540, and my desktop (Rx 6800) will definitely not run it, AMD cards are broken on RTX remix games
22:26 I don’t think most people needed to to shown that lmao
thanks man I truly love when I get a notification from the channel! happy thanksgiving my brother!
You too!
It just occured to me, there is zero notes in Half-Life 1 and 2. No notes needed to tell the player everything they need to know.
I'm not opposed to just stop my game and read text, but it should be used sparingly, in a smart way. Recently I tried to revisit Amnesia the Dark descend, and I hated that it infodumps player with huge notes every 5 minutes, breaking the immersion completely
Just wanted to vent my frustration with this game a little, no disrespect to Amnesia fans
Amnesia's storytelling not flawless, but it is also light years ahead of anything that they did in HL1 and 2. As much as I love these games, they have almost nothing going on in terms of narrative, and the few pieces of storytelling they do deliver, are largely done through locking you in a room with NPCs until they finish dumping info on you. Alyx is probably the most fleshed out character in the entire franchise, and all her story and personality comes down to being nice, caring, and capable.
HL game is what make me love videogame so much, It was the game i feel like i could keep playing forever.
HL
HL Blueshift
HL Opposite force
HL2
HL2 EP1
HL2 EP2
HL ALYX
Black Mesa
Now all i wish is to play HL3 before my time comes.
I'm convinced somebody could write a thesis paper on only the "pick up that can" interaction. It's subtle genius should not be overlooked. That 10 second interaction informs so much about the game.
Here's a good research material.
How Ravenholm level changed action horror and first person shooters forever
My god, with 1 video valve just reminded the obvious that HL2 was above many things and now every essyist under the sun makes HL2 vids.
dude i really love every videos that explains VALVE'S level design and tutorial which one of the infamous tutorials was the RAVENHOLM tutorial which i learned from game makers tool kit of how that the game teaches of cutting zombies in half with the saw. VALVE games are always mind blowing and btw if your making videos on valve games then can you make it on PORTAL i would really love to see it.
9:00 It took a 15 years old didn't know english me a lot of time.
I wish modern game designers would play some great games from the past and learn how it's done properly.
Great video, Ketchup.
I don't remember any of this, I do remember that there was a moment where a voice was spoiling a puzzle with a grenade and that made me quit. Did I play an early version?
Mayo talking about Half Life, love it
HL2 ... aaaah the good times of PC gaming
I've been waiting for a HL2 video. Love your channel🎉
I'm just a happy subscriber😂
wait a minute...that's not Doom Eternal!!
Will delete video soon, sorry.
Half-Life 2’s opening levels were a tutorial - you just didn’t notice.
Been years since I replayed HL2, but it is still a great game 20 years later! Just one quick comment. This game doesn't hold your hand, and that is true, but it does guide you a bit. A player will see those Valve symbols on the walls here and there, and that is what I would call "soft" guidance. Many games today just OVER explain what they are trying to do, but using your brain is a better guide to any game.
GOAT Game, only one that comes close is Jumpseller.
I will say, the escape sequence is made up of brilliant conveyance, but unfortunately, this doesn't entirely carry through to the rest of the game. Even as early as Water Hazard, the player guidance starts suffering and its very easy to not realize how to proceed. I would honestly say most major setpiece chapters have at least one or two parts that will trip people up from poor signposting.
But still, the actual tutorialization is stellar.
Exactly this is my problem with HL2 in later parts, it just expects you to figure out very specific solutions to problems or find the way to progress in a wide-open level. Sure, this might just be my autism kicking it at times, but having to use trial and error to progress just feels more tedious than satisfying.
I had this happen to me a few days ago in the Nova Prospekt chapters. You're supposed to throw a grenade into a room in order to detach the plug for the gate that is blocking your way, but it feels more random than actually logical. It feels like something you'd do to cheese a puzzle without having to actually find the solution.
2:01 - ...orange?
16:15 - This is why I'll never understand people's complaint about yellow paint (or whatever other color it is in games). Games have always made things obvious like explosive barrels or the ammo boxes here. Making interactable stuff a certain color is no different in my eyes, it's helpful in games like RE4R where not every crate if breakable or ladder climable.
Because yellow paint is something that makes no sense in the world. It's barely any different than using a flashing arrow. It's much different than using lighting or other aspects of smart visual design to draw a players attention in an artistic.
Half Life puts more than just colors to identify something. Supplies not only have that subtle coloring they also put in something more like "Supply" written front and center. Explosive barrels have logos on them to identify them so on and so forth.
Meanwhile new RE puts yellow everywhere. Why would there be a yellow paint in the side of a fucking cliff? Are you really gonna tell me that the villagers purposefully put it there because the las plagas make them so dumb they need to have markers?
what a game...
Now i want you to make a video about ravenholm and discuss the horror aspect of it
Theres plenty of videos discussing it already but idk, maybe it could ve fun for you
I'd understand if this is your only video about half life just to celebrate the anniversary
The one level that made action-horror better. So well designed that it's been replicated by Bioshock and also made Dead Space 2 the definitive game as it was and also what made Dead Space Remake combat so refined.
Fantastic upload. Agree wholeheartedly with this. How I hate all the modern handholding in so many games. God half life 2 is so good.
Now go watch Half Life 2 Survivors (Japanese arcade version of HL2) for the polar opposite.
I think kratos form gow ragnarok beats doomslayer low mid diff if not holding back
If you play legasy of kain soul reaver , it's same vibe
HL3 will happen because AAA games today are crap. They don't have to worry about being extremely innovative anymore, because the competition sucks. Just make HL3 a continuation of HL2 and you will have a "revolutionary" game.
superb analysis for one of the greatest games. unlike modern level type of games, ugh T_T where did it go wrong with gaming .. if Ubisoft made AAAA what makes HL2 ?
would you give a try to zero protocol?
how many people claimed it FREE on steam which i am one of them and i played it piratedly back in the day
mayo half life wooo
Try half life alyx or black mesa remake, it also teaches u thru gameplay and no tutorials.
Big time HL2 hater here. I appreciate all the little things about it (pretty much everything Mayo talked about) and there are some cool environmental puzzles/obstacles here and there but once you actually start playing it, it is easily one of the most mediocre, overhyped, mind numbing, uninteresting games I think I've ever played. Ravenholm was the only level I genuinely enjoyed. The driving sections are horrendous and go on for far too long but for almost the entire second half of the game, friendly AI constantly follow you around and swarm you, making what is already unengaging gunplay even worse. Don't get me started on the lighthouse level with the dropships. Holy shit that section is so bad! All the interesting alien enemies from the first game were retconned out because of HL2's incoherent story so it's just boring human, zombie and headcrab variants that don't require more than two braincells to deal with. I can't even begin to comprehend how this sequel was revered as "One of the best games ever made!" It's a subpar game with a fancy physics engine. There were much, MUCH better games in the early 2000's. Metroid Prime, Silent Hill 2 & 3, Halo, Resident Evil, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Max Payne 1 & 2, Manhunt to name just a few and they all came out between 2001 and 2003. HL1 was special because of the set pieces and scripted events in 1998 but by 2004 these things were a set standard in games. HL2 wasn't special for these things, everyone was doing it. I think maybe people were more infatuated with the Source engine than the game itself? But even then it isn't like HL2 was the only game at the time with a physics engine. I know I'm in the minority but people calling this turd one of the best games ever because of a few cool ideas will never cease to irk me. A hot take maybe but I genuinely think it's an awful game.
There's a difference between a hot take and a personal preference.
This whole paragraph can be summarized with "it's not for me".
@@danielgeronimo5538 Yeah sure a lot of die hard fans of HL2 will tell me the same thing. "Oh it's just not for you" because they don't have any way to counter it's faults because it's such a "perfect" game. Stay in that bubble if you want. I'm still gonna be the rock in their shoe and say "ackshually this game sucks 🤓" because it does. It's gameplay and variety is objectively worse and a huge step down from HL1. This kind of interactivity was in the first game too. There is nothing special about HL2.
@@wolfwood1993Just because I say "it isn't for you" doesn't mean I consider it a perfect game. The semi-open world is done better in other games that came after or even before it. I enjoyed spectacles in Halo more than I did in Half-Life because simply the Halo ring isn't as empty. And yes, there are good games that came out in early 2000 but guess what? Your criticisms against Half-Life 2 can also be applied to those. That's why it's a personal thing.
Hate on Half-Life 2 if you want, ain't gonna change the world's perception about it, you're still gonna be the one sour grapes dude nobody cares about what his opinion is. But don't present something that is subjective as the objective truth.
You don't have to agree with the world. Guess what, it doesn't have to agree with you either.
@@danielgeronimo5538 I'm allowed to hate on things lmao. I don't care if you or the world disagrees with me. Oppressed gamer moment. I express my opinion to find likeminded people who feel the same way. People still dick ride The Last Of Us to this day as being one of the best and it's one of the most mediocre games ever. Same can be said about most PS exclusives. The popular opinion of something doesn't make it the right opinion. HL2 is objectively worse than HL1 for reasons I've already given. It offers much less than what came before it. This is a fact whether you want to accept it or not. It's just an easier game for the masses to pick up and play. Hate to break it to ya but the mainstream generally lean towards what is the most accessible. The easiest things will take the spotlight. Just like every triple A game today that holds the player's hand. People just want it easy and that's ok. HL2 still sucks though. You know what else is ok? Liking a bad game. The ability to acknowledge flaws in a game is something most people are incapable of doing. So I'm perfectly happy about being the sour grapes dude, it means I appreciate more aspects to a game than what is on the surface, so thanks!
Doom dark ages will be way better than this. I promise. Mayo you must cover that shit deep and thorough please
Is half life 3 ever coming out??
In my opinion, Half Life 2 has aged well except in 2 departments. The gunplay is mediocre and the cutscenes are annoying. Locking you in rooms while people talk with nowhere to go and nothing to do. The guns are just not fun or satisfying to use except maybe the rocket launcher and combine pulse rifle at the end of the game.
This is really excellent lesson design commentary on a granular level. I’d love to see this as a series if you could as I think people intuitively appreciate the game design but cannot articulate it. These steps can then be replicated in their own way by future game designers. Great work!
The handholding is just a part of why I can't stand to replay Half-Life 2 but love HL1. The original game still has some of the same subtle ques to teach you how to play and guide you where to go, but Half-Life 2 is more like a dry and clinical product that takes it even further. Designed with thousands upon thousands of playtests, until every single piece of friction is removed, until everything is absolutely certain and clear, until they ensure that absolutely everyone can smoothly finish this experience.
It's not a bad thing, but it's why I think it's important to not look at design in a vacuum. HL2's, or any other game's design, is brilliant only in the context of what it was trying to do. In this case, it's creating a massively successful commercial title that has the widest possible audience. Some of these things are more universal, like the general visual art principle of viewer's attention being guided towards bright or contrasting colors, but other than that, trying to do Half-Life 2 when you're not making Half-Life 2 can easily harm your game.
Even in the context of the game, it resulted in a very shallow FPS that was too scared to offer any depth and explore its gameplay systems because it would require ramping up difficulty, and offering challenges that might stop someone from playing the game. Instead, the player is bombarded with little puzzlets, set pieces, novelty sections, and "choreo-scenes." Portal is a game that suffered from the same issue. It still has an incredible concept for a puzzle game, but it never does anything interesting with it, because by the time you're finished with the tutorial, the credits start rolling.
Also, in many ways you could likely attribute the modern trends to Half-Life 2 helping to popularize this really strict style of railroading you towards the end of the game. You could say that they did it better than newer games, but the driving force behind their decisions was much the same, "we need people to know what to do at all times." The audience this is made for will not tell the difference between yellow paint and a light above the ladder to highlight it, or having a character say "I'd like to see them try eating one of these explosive barrels" instead of allowing it to occur more organically.
I don't think anyone is looking at HL2's design in a vacuum. I said not every game has to be like this.
@@underthemayo You do, but that doesn't nearly do the topic justice or add much nuance. Any design solution is born from challenges that come up when trying to reach a certain goal. You can't really make a compelling point/criticism against yellow paint, notes, prompts, or other things, while not touching upon what goals those games have and what challenges they face.
Focusing on the minutia without taking in the big picture is what creates the vacuum. While also giving off an impression that this naturalistic and minimal style of railroading is just some sort of inherently good design. We don't learn why this design is brilliant, you learn that arranging things in a certain order will compel the player to do things that they want you to do. It's entirely possible to make a terrible game while utilizing all of these organic hints.
Even when you do say that "games aren't automatically bad if they don't have this" it's done with the implication that having this is a good thing. Is it ridiculous to say that we don't need door prompts? No, not at all. But those prompts also likely exist for the same exact reason why Valve shoves a big, bright light over any important object.
Can't wait to see how people manage to cuss you out for being "objectively wrong" after this one
Probably someone who takes this video as me saying every game has to be exactly like this.
@underthemayo yeah, probably
@@underthemayoTo be fair, we do need more games that are like this.
Hey