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Torgo
2[H]4U
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Part II: Point Insertion
Sorry for the delay in getting this next part out. I chose to spend the holidays completely with family instead of writing. I should be cranking these out every few days or so.
When designing a AAA game, right at the beginning of the game the developer wants to make an instant impression upon the gamer. There are various ways to do induce a jaw dropping effect. Some developers choose to produce eye-candy CG movies that introduce the game and get you hyped up for what is to come. This is mostly used in games such as RPGs and RTS games where the game engine can't properly generate the excitement needed. Excellent examples of this method include any Blizzard or Final Fantasy Title, System Shock, and yeah I'll include my very own Age of Empires II. My personal favorite was the Syndicate introductions. (Remind me to covert the intro from Blinker to Xvid and post it.)
The second way is what I call a storybook mode. This opening sequence is the giant book with text on it with turning pages, or some text on the screen stating that "Once upon a time, a long time ago in a kingdom far, far away". While it lacks the whiz bang visuals that full CG gives you, it's the cheapest intro to make and can give a more complete background than otherwise possible. The Myth series uses this, most early RPG titles and games that use mission introductions use this method.
The last category is using the game engine itself to produce a introduction to the game at hand. Not as cool as the CG route, it's the most direct route to immersing the player and can be as interactive as you need it. Most FPS games take this route and Half-Life 2 is no exception.
Timing is a big key to the introduction of a game. If it is too short, you can leave the player confused. Too long and you bore the player. My general rule is to limit the introduction to about 1:30 minutes or so, but take as long as you need to set up the game. This is about as long as most television shows use to catch you up on what happened last week or to explain the premise of the show. Over the holiday, I watched all three seasons of Alias. At the beginning of Seasons 1 and 2, they would have a blurb on the characters, the situation and what last happened. Any new watchers could start catching up right away. The same should apply to games. For a sequel, it should be at least somewhere in the documentation, the introduction or *somewhere* in the installation that informs the new player what the premise of the game is. Many games are great at doing this. I liked the opening of System Shock because in under a minute it explains who you are, what you did and how you got there.
For players of the previous Half-Life, HL2 starts off fantastically. Straightway the game starts off in a strange Willy Wonka boat-ride acid trip with the G-Man intoning Gordon to wake up and "smell the ashes". The close up of the G-Man with his features really shows off the engine and does get that silently intoned "Wow..." However, for the player that hasn't played the first game, you don't have a clue as to who this guy is, who this Gordon character is and what happened before. Now the counter-argument is that everyone has played the first game and therefore knows the story. That's just a generalization. Not *everyone* has played the first game. There are plenty of people that played it only for Counter-Strike. As I mentioned in Part I, there's a huge information gap for new players. There's no background, no context for the game's existence. A major, major mistake on the part of Valve. To be honest, it takes a minimum of effort to correct this and there really isn't an excuse.
Part of the standard for FPS games is the introduction level which Point Insertion does well. The purpose is to acclimate the player to the game engine, the controls and how the "laws of the universe" operate with little to no consequence. A good choice for informing the player of new options is the simple on screen text stating that to talk to people press the use key and what not. Unobtrusive and effective. It minimizes the "third wall" that games are not supposed to cross. Valve could have done this in different ways. Most mission based games have a training level where you have a trainer or a recording telling you to "Use the blaster by pressing the Triangle button and left-clicking the target". While this is the most informative method for learning a new game, it can be tedious and slow. It does give you good practice for tossing grenades at a target and adjusting to kickback to a rifle.
Valve chooses the right path and instead introduces elements one at a time throughout the game. This doesn't overwhelm the player and slowly ramps up the action. To start the player can talk to two people on the train and wander around the station. For this particular level, Valve's designers nail down the look and feel of a crumbling former Soviet city. It doesn't make a lick of sense, but damn it looks good. The train station does allow the player to interact with a few items and there are no consequences to bad behavior at this point. It's important to make sure the game doesn't discourage the player in the early stages. You need to get the player curious about their environment and the story.
You'll notice that the level is very linear until you get outside the station. It's done in a good way that doesn't force the player too fast and allows the game to progress at the player's pace. You can take time out and listen to Young Santa explain the virtues of the new society. One small issue with this foreshadowing is that it's fairly obvious that the last guy you're going to put a bullet in his brainpan is going to be Dr. Breen. This at least establishes who your target is eventually going to be. Otherwise, you pretty much get the picture that the Combine aren't friendly folk and are going to be your main opposition in the game.
Eventually you are led by the guards to an interrogation room where you encounter the first friendly face, Barney. The script here does a pretty good job of answering some questions the player has to date. With the knock at the door, you're finally given something to do with urgency. Once you're out of the window and out of the immediate danger you progress and have in my mind a strange encounter. A Combine guard will "request" that you pick up a can and throw it away. The entire purpose of this exercise is to practice picking up and manipulating objects. It does little to advance the story, although I find the placement of this element a bit out of place. Considering that you just escaped out of a interrogation room, this would have been better at the beginning of the level before you have to move the boxes around to escape. Again, no arms to hold objects and they tend to block the view as to where these items are being thrown. I guess if Homestarrunner can do it... The one thing I wish for (and I've mentioned this in Part I) is that the interface for holding and manipulating objects was given more thought and more user friendly.
Beyond the station is the beautiful outside world. There are certain elements that are placed here that are to give you hints of what is to come in later levels. The Strider, the tanks, and the blocked areas are all strategically placed. There are further smaller elements that enhance the bleakness of the situation such as the Combine abusing the remaining citizens, the continuing blaring propaganda in the square, and overall feel of the buildings; the rust and decay surrounding every building.
The one thing that I really like about this level is that it is designed very subtlety to guide the player in one direction. You can take small detours to gawk and gander, but it gently guides you to hop the fence to the next subsection. It took me a while to find it when I first played, but it was nice to take me time and experiment a little and move around as I wanted. Eventually, you'll make into a run-down building (have I mentioned I love the buildings and interiors?) and find yourself in a situation where the Combine are sweeping the building. Again, guiding the player to where he is supposed to go is used extremely well. The scripting is timed perfectly. It reminded me of Nazis swarming a building to look for fugitives. Right away the "fight or flight" instinct kicks in and the player can feel the growing tension.
All the while the player is given constant subtle cues from the non-player characters on where to go. "They're coming up the stairs!" "Go to the roof!" Yeah, some real action and you find yourself rushing to stay just one step ahead. Even when you find yourself on the roof, the route to take is fairly clear. The edges are clearly marked on where to walk and the first open window you climb into. Once you go down the steps, you'll notice that it breaks behind you. This is done on purpose to prevent the player from backtracking. It's an effective device to keep the game moving and preventing the player from just goofing around. Remember that pacing is important in a game and designers shouldn't be afraid of removing elements that slow things down. Remember that the next time you see a bridge/stair/building/house of cards collapse behind you. The level designer does that to keep you moving forward.
This next part is a pure plot point. From a design standpoint, it's a good position for a break in the action. The player has a taste of how the action moves and flows, but he needs some direction as what to do next. How this next scenario plays out brings up a few questions. The script calls for the Combine to flood the room and commence to pound you like a pinata. As the scene fades to white, you hear Alyx enter and kick some Combine butt. Fade to reality and you see the face of your savior and she leads you just a short way to the hidden lab. The design of the game, doesn't allow for any hand-to-hand combat at this point since you have no crowbar. When confronted with the forces of the Combine you have no way to fight back without the Deus ex Machina of Alyx appearing and saving the day.
The way the scene fades out reminded me of listening to a song on the radio where the band can't figure out how to end the song, so the producer in the sound studio just slowly fades out the volume. While seeing Alyx fight the bad guys would be neat to see in a Jennifer Garner way, there likely wan't time or the resources to animate that sequence. Given the time, I'm sure Valve would have liked to put this in the game. But considering that Alyx never really fights or shoots anything in the game and has the habit of staying behind to hack a computer terminal, rendering a fight scene wouldn't the best allocation of resources.
So why have the scene there at all? Why does Alyx need to save you? A few good reasons. First, it forces the player to give up control for a bit and stop the Rambo act. It also allows Alyx's character to develop as more than a pretty face and clever hacker. She is impulisve, couragous and can probably do a roundhouse kick to make you think twice before heading for second base on a date. It does present a few small problems. The first is that a whole horde of Combine fails to notice that a huge laboratory is in the basement of that building. Second, you can't take any of the Combine weapons or even a uniform from this encounter. Lastly, it's a bit curious that Alyx doesn't show this side of her personality in the rest of the game.
Overall, this first chapter of the game accomplishes several goals. Setting the mood and the scene for the story. It also introduces the beginning of the plotline and serves as an introduction to the game engine and movement. We're given glimpses of things to come, but at the same time there isn't any context as to what happened before and how we got here. It's one thing to have a story of mystery, but don't mistake that with annoying the player with confusing plot.
From here you follow Alyx into the next chapter of the game, "A Red Letter Day". I'll save that for my next installment along with "Route Kanal".
Sorry for the delay in getting this next part out. I chose to spend the holidays completely with family instead of writing. I should be cranking these out every few days or so.
When designing a AAA game, right at the beginning of the game the developer wants to make an instant impression upon the gamer. There are various ways to do induce a jaw dropping effect. Some developers choose to produce eye-candy CG movies that introduce the game and get you hyped up for what is to come. This is mostly used in games such as RPGs and RTS games where the game engine can't properly generate the excitement needed. Excellent examples of this method include any Blizzard or Final Fantasy Title, System Shock, and yeah I'll include my very own Age of Empires II. My personal favorite was the Syndicate introductions. (Remind me to covert the intro from Blinker to Xvid and post it.)
The second way is what I call a storybook mode. This opening sequence is the giant book with text on it with turning pages, or some text on the screen stating that "Once upon a time, a long time ago in a kingdom far, far away". While it lacks the whiz bang visuals that full CG gives you, it's the cheapest intro to make and can give a more complete background than otherwise possible. The Myth series uses this, most early RPG titles and games that use mission introductions use this method.
The last category is using the game engine itself to produce a introduction to the game at hand. Not as cool as the CG route, it's the most direct route to immersing the player and can be as interactive as you need it. Most FPS games take this route and Half-Life 2 is no exception.
Timing is a big key to the introduction of a game. If it is too short, you can leave the player confused. Too long and you bore the player. My general rule is to limit the introduction to about 1:30 minutes or so, but take as long as you need to set up the game. This is about as long as most television shows use to catch you up on what happened last week or to explain the premise of the show. Over the holiday, I watched all three seasons of Alias. At the beginning of Seasons 1 and 2, they would have a blurb on the characters, the situation and what last happened. Any new watchers could start catching up right away. The same should apply to games. For a sequel, it should be at least somewhere in the documentation, the introduction or *somewhere* in the installation that informs the new player what the premise of the game is. Many games are great at doing this. I liked the opening of System Shock because in under a minute it explains who you are, what you did and how you got there.
For players of the previous Half-Life, HL2 starts off fantastically. Straightway the game starts off in a strange Willy Wonka boat-ride acid trip with the G-Man intoning Gordon to wake up and "smell the ashes". The close up of the G-Man with his features really shows off the engine and does get that silently intoned "Wow..." However, for the player that hasn't played the first game, you don't have a clue as to who this guy is, who this Gordon character is and what happened before. Now the counter-argument is that everyone has played the first game and therefore knows the story. That's just a generalization. Not *everyone* has played the first game. There are plenty of people that played it only for Counter-Strike. As I mentioned in Part I, there's a huge information gap for new players. There's no background, no context for the game's existence. A major, major mistake on the part of Valve. To be honest, it takes a minimum of effort to correct this and there really isn't an excuse.
Part of the standard for FPS games is the introduction level which Point Insertion does well. The purpose is to acclimate the player to the game engine, the controls and how the "laws of the universe" operate with little to no consequence. A good choice for informing the player of new options is the simple on screen text stating that to talk to people press the use key and what not. Unobtrusive and effective. It minimizes the "third wall" that games are not supposed to cross. Valve could have done this in different ways. Most mission based games have a training level where you have a trainer or a recording telling you to "Use the blaster by pressing the Triangle button and left-clicking the target". While this is the most informative method for learning a new game, it can be tedious and slow. It does give you good practice for tossing grenades at a target and adjusting to kickback to a rifle.
Valve chooses the right path and instead introduces elements one at a time throughout the game. This doesn't overwhelm the player and slowly ramps up the action. To start the player can talk to two people on the train and wander around the station. For this particular level, Valve's designers nail down the look and feel of a crumbling former Soviet city. It doesn't make a lick of sense, but damn it looks good. The train station does allow the player to interact with a few items and there are no consequences to bad behavior at this point. It's important to make sure the game doesn't discourage the player in the early stages. You need to get the player curious about their environment and the story.
You'll notice that the level is very linear until you get outside the station. It's done in a good way that doesn't force the player too fast and allows the game to progress at the player's pace. You can take time out and listen to Young Santa explain the virtues of the new society. One small issue with this foreshadowing is that it's fairly obvious that the last guy you're going to put a bullet in his brainpan is going to be Dr. Breen. This at least establishes who your target is eventually going to be. Otherwise, you pretty much get the picture that the Combine aren't friendly folk and are going to be your main opposition in the game.
Eventually you are led by the guards to an interrogation room where you encounter the first friendly face, Barney. The script here does a pretty good job of answering some questions the player has to date. With the knock at the door, you're finally given something to do with urgency. Once you're out of the window and out of the immediate danger you progress and have in my mind a strange encounter. A Combine guard will "request" that you pick up a can and throw it away. The entire purpose of this exercise is to practice picking up and manipulating objects. It does little to advance the story, although I find the placement of this element a bit out of place. Considering that you just escaped out of a interrogation room, this would have been better at the beginning of the level before you have to move the boxes around to escape. Again, no arms to hold objects and they tend to block the view as to where these items are being thrown. I guess if Homestarrunner can do it... The one thing I wish for (and I've mentioned this in Part I) is that the interface for holding and manipulating objects was given more thought and more user friendly.
Beyond the station is the beautiful outside world. There are certain elements that are placed here that are to give you hints of what is to come in later levels. The Strider, the tanks, and the blocked areas are all strategically placed. There are further smaller elements that enhance the bleakness of the situation such as the Combine abusing the remaining citizens, the continuing blaring propaganda in the square, and overall feel of the buildings; the rust and decay surrounding every building.
The one thing that I really like about this level is that it is designed very subtlety to guide the player in one direction. You can take small detours to gawk and gander, but it gently guides you to hop the fence to the next subsection. It took me a while to find it when I first played, but it was nice to take me time and experiment a little and move around as I wanted. Eventually, you'll make into a run-down building (have I mentioned I love the buildings and interiors?) and find yourself in a situation where the Combine are sweeping the building. Again, guiding the player to where he is supposed to go is used extremely well. The scripting is timed perfectly. It reminded me of Nazis swarming a building to look for fugitives. Right away the "fight or flight" instinct kicks in and the player can feel the growing tension.
All the while the player is given constant subtle cues from the non-player characters on where to go. "They're coming up the stairs!" "Go to the roof!" Yeah, some real action and you find yourself rushing to stay just one step ahead. Even when you find yourself on the roof, the route to take is fairly clear. The edges are clearly marked on where to walk and the first open window you climb into. Once you go down the steps, you'll notice that it breaks behind you. This is done on purpose to prevent the player from backtracking. It's an effective device to keep the game moving and preventing the player from just goofing around. Remember that pacing is important in a game and designers shouldn't be afraid of removing elements that slow things down. Remember that the next time you see a bridge/stair/building/house of cards collapse behind you. The level designer does that to keep you moving forward.
This next part is a pure plot point. From a design standpoint, it's a good position for a break in the action. The player has a taste of how the action moves and flows, but he needs some direction as what to do next. How this next scenario plays out brings up a few questions. The script calls for the Combine to flood the room and commence to pound you like a pinata. As the scene fades to white, you hear Alyx enter and kick some Combine butt. Fade to reality and you see the face of your savior and she leads you just a short way to the hidden lab. The design of the game, doesn't allow for any hand-to-hand combat at this point since you have no crowbar. When confronted with the forces of the Combine you have no way to fight back without the Deus ex Machina of Alyx appearing and saving the day.
The way the scene fades out reminded me of listening to a song on the radio where the band can't figure out how to end the song, so the producer in the sound studio just slowly fades out the volume. While seeing Alyx fight the bad guys would be neat to see in a Jennifer Garner way, there likely wan't time or the resources to animate that sequence. Given the time, I'm sure Valve would have liked to put this in the game. But considering that Alyx never really fights or shoots anything in the game and has the habit of staying behind to hack a computer terminal, rendering a fight scene wouldn't the best allocation of resources.
So why have the scene there at all? Why does Alyx need to save you? A few good reasons. First, it forces the player to give up control for a bit and stop the Rambo act. It also allows Alyx's character to develop as more than a pretty face and clever hacker. She is impulisve, couragous and can probably do a roundhouse kick to make you think twice before heading for second base on a date. It does present a few small problems. The first is that a whole horde of Combine fails to notice that a huge laboratory is in the basement of that building. Second, you can't take any of the Combine weapons or even a uniform from this encounter. Lastly, it's a bit curious that Alyx doesn't show this side of her personality in the rest of the game.
Overall, this first chapter of the game accomplishes several goals. Setting the mood and the scene for the story. It also introduces the beginning of the plotline and serves as an introduction to the game engine and movement. We're given glimpses of things to come, but at the same time there isn't any context as to what happened before and how we got here. It's one thing to have a story of mystery, but don't mistake that with annoying the player with confusing plot.
From here you follow Alyx into the next chapter of the game, "A Red Letter Day". I'll save that for my next installment along with "Route Kanal".
