I've now finished playing both Half-Life and Half-Life 2. I played them both after I played the Portal games, so all of GLaDOS's cracks about Black Mesa are retroactively making me giggle as I remember them. And I still haven't played Episodes 1 & 2 of the second game, but I feel pretty confident in my final assessment of the pair.
Those games are beautifully done entertainment.
I don't like them more than Portal, but it's a darn close thing. And since Portal is kinda debatably not actually an FPS in the traditional sense, I suppose that the Half-Life series are my favorite traditional FPSs.
Now I use the word "tradition" in relation to the FPS genre, and I want to make something clear. I realize that, especially in the case of the first game, the Half-Life series were not traditional FPS experiences when they came out. They defined all of the great tropes that have become common in shooters over the past twenty years. Which is even more impressive when you consider the sheer number of shooters that entails.
This isn't to say that all shooters made since the original Half-Life came out have been soulless copies. I'm sure most of them introduced some minor addition or change to the combat style and feel or story delivery or character development or whatever. Halo, for example is widely credited with introducing vehicles in an entertaining way to FPSs. But the core games all feel like Half-Life. At least, all the games I've played do, though to be fair I'm not the most prolific player of first-person shooters. But the one thing I think I do have, if not a plethora of games under my belt, is a wiiiiide range of eras I can use to compare.
Let's start by talking about some games that defined the first-person shooter genre. And of course I mean let's start by talking about the game that really kicked it off; Wolfenstein 3D. That game introduced whole new dimensions (GET IT???) to the video-gaming masses, and placed you inside the head of the playable character. It was huge, and deservedly so. But the game was, by today's standards, really simple. The story was essentially a paragraph on the back of the game's packaging, and the real difficulty was introduced by throwing you into a maze and then populating it with folks trying to shoot you.
So let's look at something a little closer to what we have now. System Shock, released in 1994, built on the 3D FPS concept introduced by Wolfenstein 3D by adding confusion. Not simply getting lost in a level/maze, but a story and objectives that you had to discover as you played. There were multiple characters, and you had to look around in order to discover your next task on the road to victory. This "emergent" storytelling format is all but ubiquitous now for single-player FPS, but System Shock was released into wilds populated by DOOM and its many clones, so it was a pretty huge deal at the time.
So what did Half-Life (1998) give us that Wolfenstein and System Shock didn't? Interaction. While non-enemy characters weren't technically invented by Valve, Half-Life set a precedent of non-enemy characters and their involvement in the story alongside the playable character. They also took the story-driven gameplay of System Shock and heightened it, as well as streamlining the control scheme and making everything more intuitive. Was it perfect the first time? No. But compare Wolfenstein 3D (1992) to its sequel, Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001). Or compare 1994's System Shock to 1999's System Shock 2. The early 90's games only feel like Half-Life in that you sit behind the main character's eyes. The sequels feel very similar to Half-Life both in content and gameplay.
Would I say that Half-Life was the most influential FPS made to date? I would. And I wouldn't be alone. Do a search for a list of the most influential first-person shooters of all time and Half-Life will be on every one. From my perspective it's the daddy of genre-defining shooter gameplay. But it's on everyone else's shortlist, I'll tell you that much. It's amazing, and you should play it.
Of course, I think everyone should play at least a little of any great genre-defining game. The great thing about most of these is that age doesn't dim their glory nearly as much as you'd think. And I feel obligated to point out that while the Half-Life duology is my favorite traditional FPS series, there are some non-traditional shooters that I love, even more than Portal.
Though I seem to be alone in that.
Those games are beautifully done entertainment.
I don't like them more than Portal, but it's a darn close thing. And since Portal is kinda debatably not actually an FPS in the traditional sense, I suppose that the Half-Life series are my favorite traditional FPSs.
Now I use the word "tradition" in relation to the FPS genre, and I want to make something clear. I realize that, especially in the case of the first game, the Half-Life series were not traditional FPS experiences when they came out. They defined all of the great tropes that have become common in shooters over the past twenty years. Which is even more impressive when you consider the sheer number of shooters that entails.
This isn't to say that all shooters made since the original Half-Life came out have been soulless copies. I'm sure most of them introduced some minor addition or change to the combat style and feel or story delivery or character development or whatever. Halo, for example is widely credited with introducing vehicles in an entertaining way to FPSs. But the core games all feel like Half-Life. At least, all the games I've played do, though to be fair I'm not the most prolific player of first-person shooters. But the one thing I think I do have, if not a plethora of games under my belt, is a wiiiiide range of eras I can use to compare.
Let's start by talking about some games that defined the first-person shooter genre. And of course I mean let's start by talking about the game that really kicked it off; Wolfenstein 3D. That game introduced whole new dimensions (GET IT???) to the video-gaming masses, and placed you inside the head of the playable character. It was huge, and deservedly so. But the game was, by today's standards, really simple. The story was essentially a paragraph on the back of the game's packaging, and the real difficulty was introduced by throwing you into a maze and then populating it with folks trying to shoot you.
So let's look at something a little closer to what we have now. System Shock, released in 1994, built on the 3D FPS concept introduced by Wolfenstein 3D by adding confusion. Not simply getting lost in a level/maze, but a story and objectives that you had to discover as you played. There were multiple characters, and you had to look around in order to discover your next task on the road to victory. This "emergent" storytelling format is all but ubiquitous now for single-player FPS, but System Shock was released into wilds populated by DOOM and its many clones, so it was a pretty huge deal at the time.
So what did Half-Life (1998) give us that Wolfenstein and System Shock didn't? Interaction. While non-enemy characters weren't technically invented by Valve, Half-Life set a precedent of non-enemy characters and their involvement in the story alongside the playable character. They also took the story-driven gameplay of System Shock and heightened it, as well as streamlining the control scheme and making everything more intuitive. Was it perfect the first time? No. But compare Wolfenstein 3D (1992) to its sequel, Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001). Or compare 1994's System Shock to 1999's System Shock 2. The early 90's games only feel like Half-Life in that you sit behind the main character's eyes. The sequels feel very similar to Half-Life both in content and gameplay.
Would I say that Half-Life was the most influential FPS made to date? I would. And I wouldn't be alone. Do a search for a list of the most influential first-person shooters of all time and Half-Life will be on every one. From my perspective it's the daddy of genre-defining shooter gameplay. But it's on everyone else's shortlist, I'll tell you that much. It's amazing, and you should play it.
Of course, I think everyone should play at least a little of any great genre-defining game. The great thing about most of these is that age doesn't dim their glory nearly as much as you'd think. And I feel obligated to point out that while the Half-Life duology is my favorite traditional FPS series, there are some non-traditional shooters that I love, even more than Portal.
Though I seem to be alone in that.
Comments
Post a Comment