Comments on: Half-life – Foreplay, First Person Platforming, Implicit Direction and Whitewash Vanilla

By: Neelesh

Neelesh — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:29:22 +0000

I relate gameplay design to the nature of gameplay. The original Metroid’s with it side scrolling mechanics keeps the user engaged through a vertical platform where a significant portion of your environment is present on-screen, once this shifts towards a horizontal 3d platform, gameplay design uses the narrative to push forward an environment that is not available to the user at his point. The linearity in a three dimensional a game is requires a different field of operations, if I am not wrong this module is based on George H Mead notion of the everyday, where the “present” is carried forward with an affirmation in the “future.”

Half Life was heavily inspired from Quake II, but the developers did not want a testosterone focused shooter.I still feel the cognitive for Half Life as a game based on a model of exploration with action modules did recast a stereotypical adrenaline packed shooter.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:50:01 +0000

Thanks Neelesh, you relate the mechanics of the game to the narrative brilliantly, but I think this is seperate from the atmosphere and Metroid. I think that we’re just on different wave lengths here. I’m not sure what exactly you mean by gameplay design, can you be more specific?

The base mechanics for either title is vanilla and they can’t on their own instill a sense of atmosphere, so the genre doesn’t particularly matter.

The additional mechanics and environmental design (relative to the base too) do affect atmosphere. I covered the latter more than I did the former. I guess I could have talked about the individual gimmicks in Half-life 2 for example, but I don’t think that this is as significant to my arguement nor as interesting as the environment and sound.

I think that Half-life borrows more from Metroid than the other way around. Everything that the modern iterations do to create mood is adapted directly from the original games. Most if not all of what I said under the first heading is seen in the original games. Super Metroid and Metroid Prime were released before Half-life 2 and they exemplify this too.

By: Neelesh

Neelesh — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:00:57 +0000

I somehow do understand your apathy towards Half Life, but to construe it with regard to the classic Metroid(s) which is by nature a side scroller is appalling. In my counter view I would point out the nature of the narrative has a lot to do with the encryption of gameplay design. The structure of the narrative of the initial game is in tandem with the action that players get to witness on screen,it is a lone man’s perspective of a full blown alien invasion. Whereas HL2 there is no lone mission as such, it is a conflict of interests where Gordon Freeman plays the role of tipping the balance in the fate of the resistance.

The nature of heroism is completely absent in the first game which makes the platforming elements so crucial as a result of which laying out a level design that suits a single player motif was necessary. The choice of platforming puzzles have more in common with childern’s games i.e. jumping across ledges, avoiding trip mines and takes cue from Mario more than any other game to incorporate a sense of familiarity to players.Some of the other gripes I believe are more related to the technology than anything else.

My concluding remark would lie in the modern iteration of the Metroid series which takes on a lot of inspiration from the original Half Life-Tight environments,scattered enemy encampments and a healthy dose of platforming for a heroine who is stranded in solitude…