Half-Life
Ahh...Half-Life...this baby's going to rock. Not having been at E3 last year, this was my
first up-close and in personal look at the game.
Let me put it this way: when I walked into E3, I thought
the AI in Unreal was some great stuff. Now, while I think the dodging skills of the
enemies is remarkable, I have to admit, it's pretty simplistic in comparison. Half-Life
will go down as the game that defined AI in an action game. These guys are seriously smart.
Let me describe what I saw...you decide for yourself.
Die military dude, die!
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I got to see those military dudes from the screenshots
we've all been seeing for so long in action...and hot damn do they kick some major ass.
They use teamwork to hunt your sorry ass down, so fighting them really becomes an
issue of strategy. They speak through walkie talkies (you can actually hear what
they're saying too, to plan your strategy) and therefore if one of them is missing,
they'll know about it fairly quickly. And making things worse...if they find out your
position, they'll spread the word to their teammates, and actually attempt to flank you.
The demo I saw showed the player running into one,
firing, and then ducking behind a corner. Now the military guy, seeing that the player was
an obvious badass, communicated his position, and ran away, but first he dropped a grenade
behind him (!) in case he was followed. This was a general strategy we saw repeated with
these guys...they will actually try and back themselves up if caught alone as they run
away for help. Now the player was stuck in a place with two entrances...and sure enough
the military guys came from both sides, flanking him.
All of this was really incredible to watch. I saw these
huge badass mutant-guys who shot alien wasps at you that really flew after you, leaving a
coolbeans transparent yellow trail behind them. I saw an NPC who walked around with you,
using his limited firepower (a measly pistol) to back you up whenever he could.
And lordy, did I ever see some of those scientists get
killed. We're talking maimed here. The scripted sequences totally rule...if you've seen
the ones in Unreal, imagine the same thing, only much more dramatic. As we walked into a
room, we saw a scientist being helped into an air-duct...once he was in, there was a
struggle, and woo...gibs came flying out. I saw a scientist get pulled up into the
ceiling...another one grabbed out from the hallway by a zombie-thingie.
The game is looking great, with bright colors, and
architecture that really seemed to comprise an actual building to me, instead of a
random series of rooms. The current release date is still just "Summer '98" so
we'll have to see how things develop.
Half-Life Multiplayer
Yup...this impressed me enough to get it's own section. I was one of the lucky few
able to actually see TeamFortress 2, and let me tell you this...it rocks.
In case you've never heard me rant on QuakeCast, I don't play mods. None.
Not even friggin' CTF. I can't say I've ever played TF for more than five minutes, and
during that time, I never saw anything that would make me want to play the thing (although
admittedly...that sniper is kick-butt).
TeamFortress 2 rocks.
I would play this. Hell, I will play
this when it comes out. TF2 isn't just another teamplay mod...it's a whole new game. In
TF2, you're given objectives by a team leader...who can give you a position to patrol. You
get a little compass on your screen that will always lead you back to your given position.
In TF2, the objective isn't just to snag the other team's
flag or anything...it's custom designed per level. So if you have to diffuse a bomb (note:
this is just an example) the level has been designed for this purpose.
We saw a demonstration of the "building"
capabilities in the game. If you've played the recent first-person strategy game
Battlezone you've got a good idea how this works. Specifically we saw the building of a
sentry gun...basically how it works is you select the gun from a build-menu, and then
you're given a wireframe "hologram" (it flickers...great touch there guys) of
the gun. Once in place, you hit build, and voila...sentry gun. This element adds a whole
new level to the strategy of the game...it'll be really cool to see how people adapt to
it.
The other multiplayer things we saw were the whole
"decal" ability, customization features, and the multiplayer interface. The
"decal" thing, means you can graffiti the walls, and it'll stay on the server.
Get those clan logos ready to slap up kids...no wall's going to stay clean for long. In
Half-Life, the HUD is all configured client-side...so you can basically modify it as you
like. Expect more than a few custom HUDs to be available after its release. Also, the game
allows for dynamic skins, to the extent where you can even stick your own face (!) on your
character and have it available for multiplayer action.
The multiplayer menu includes a really cool one click
thing, where it connects to a master server, and connects you to the server with the
lowest ping. It's no GameSpy
replacement...but it's simple to use, and great if you just want to hop into a quick
multiplayer game. All in all, Half-Life is looking to be the multiplayer
game...expect a major clan scene to form around this one.
Sin
In all honesty, I wasn't as floored by Sin as I was at last year's QuakeCon...perhaps it
had to do with the fact that I'd seen Half-Life immediately beforehand, and was expecting
to be blown away in the same manner. Don't get the wrong idea from me...I definitely am
looking forward to the game, but I did get the impression that Sin has gone a different
route than some of the other FPS games I saw: whereas Half-Life and Trespasser are much
more strategy focused, Sin struck me as being much more action oriented. Again, there's
nothing wrong with that, it just doesn't demo as well. :)
The third-person view will take on some form, but
that's unknown at this time.
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I was given a demonstration of Sin by Mark Dochtermann,
Ritual's programmer extraordinaire, so I got to see some of the cooler aspects of the
game. One such thing was the practice room (Blue
later informed me that Half-Life contains a similar, although differently implemented
feature). The practice room is a place you can go at any time (via the menus, which are
nicely stylized) to hone your skills, or just take a breather from the non-stop action.
You can enter a target-range thingie where people targets pop up at you (it reminded me of
the practice room at the beginning of "Men in Black" actually...I kept waiting
for a little girl to pop out). It keeps your score, so you can have lots of fun trying to
beat other people's records. Also in the practice room is a lounge, where other guys are
sitting around relaxing. It's a cool thing, if somewhat silly. :)
I got to see a really neat example of the scripted
sequences in Sin (similar to Half-Life's) in the lounge: a light blew out, and a little
robot guy came out and fixed it. A nice touch, and it definitely raised the immersion
level up a few notches. Another (hidden) one, was a button that when pushed brought out
the maintenance 'bot, who proceeded to start doing the macarena. Silly...but too cool. :)
One of the noticeable things in Sin, is that everything
is breakable. Crates, windows, you name it, they can all be trashed. Unlike Trespasser (or
even Hexen 2, actually) when things are broken, they don't turn into physical models, they
shatter into triangles and disappear into the abyss. I was a bit disappointed in this, as
it didn't strike me as being especially realistic. Again, the fact that I had recently
seen Trespasser may have been a factor, but that's just how I reacted.
Of the weapons I saw (admittedly only three or four) the
only one that stood out to me was the sniper rifle, a weapon that's kick-butt in any game.
In Sin, the animation when you pull out the weapon shows the sight being deployed...a very
cool touch. Zooming in looked great, and looked a bit more polished than some of
the other implementations I've seen lately of this sort of thing (the Jedi Knight add-on
pack comes to mind as a less...graceful example).
One thing I hadn't seen mentioned anywhere, was the fact
that the game may include a third-person perspective. Actually, it will be there in some
form, but at the time I spoke to Ritual about it, they weren't sure if it was going to be
mandatory in some areas, or simply a configurable option. What I thought was most cool
about this feature, was the fact that it had a 3D crosshair. Meaning that despite the
third person view, the crosshair could be seen on various objects. It would glide across
everything eliminating the need for the auto-aim feature of such games as Tomb Raider.
The level design was top notch as expected...the boys at
Ritual know their levels, and Sin showed off their talents well. Expect this one to be the
choice for gamers of the DOOM school when it's released, with its emphasis on action and
well-placed enemies over extreme strategy.
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