Portal 2’s intro chapters are also basically amazing invisible tutorials for new players as well being great fanservice for fans of the first game. heck basically all the puzzles are designed to tech new mechanics or how existing ones interact no wonder Valve’s games take so long because their quality is top notch
It's why I don't begrudge them for being so quiet. Better to focus on the task at hand when you're aiming for such a high standard, than to deal with people that are often very toxic and unhelpful. Valve aren't perfect, but they are damn good at what they do.
Honestly, if a modern streamer plays Half-life 2 then they'd ignore all the tutorial hints and advice and then complain they have no idea what they're doing and the game is trash
Unfortunately that's the case more often than not. People today don't want to think when they play video games, they only want a gun to go shoot the other guy, they don't care about physics or puzzles or tutorials. All it is, is " give me the gun so I can go pew pew the enemy"
@@timebomb42 Ultrakill is technically that but at least its skilled-based so its not all pew pew kill the baddies and you instead need to actually git gud and learn basic thinking
@@Goldendeed yup, btw have you ever played Half Life Alyx? I think Valve just made the biggest immersive AAA VR Game besides the likes of Skyrim, Fallout and RE
Even though HL2 is over 15 years old, the way physics is used in the game remains impressive and in some ways even "cutting edge" to this day. Modern games have plenty of physics but they mostly use it for cosmetic things like objects breaking apart. Very few games give you a truly interactive environment like Half Life 2. Things like picking up a thrown grenade and tossing it back to the attacker, that's still as cool today as it was back then.
What's funny is that I went throught the can tutorial and just put the can in the trash so I didn't learn to throw objects I was holding and thus could never do anything when I grabbed nades
About the Dead Space thing about having to constantly remind you about limbs, it's probably because the play testers might've missed the first one or two prompts that visceral needed to put 5 within just 5 minutes. Then again, the message could have been communicated better if instead of constantly yelling at us in our ear to "CUT OFF THEIR LIMBS" you'd have an Ishimura survivor in the room trying to write the message on the wall with his blood, notices Isaac and gives a bit of dialogue, telling him to cut off the limbs, then a necromorph bursts into the room, guy manages to shoot both it's legs off "disabling" it, then returns to Isaac for more dialogue, then the presumed necromorph comes back to life as a crawler and kills the guy, which leads to the player the only one left to fight the necromorph. Could be a really cool way to implement the mechanic without punishing the player too hard on the first try. Another thing to educate the player is to have the Isaac be told to do space engineer shit on the entrance to the Ishimura, by having him use the plasma cutter in non combat, say cutting the power lines to make a door open or something (Dead Space: Extraction did this concept, and it's pretty cool), y'know considering a plasma cutter is a tool used to cut stuff.
The half life games never take you out of first person, never Break the immersion, valve had to innovate to find ways to implement things like a tutorial subtly.
@@horizon1g It's separated from the main story (though still canon in a way) so it adds up to the story but doesn't break the immersion or flow of the gameplay/plot, in a way, it's really well done too
You didn't mention this but it works as a fantastic story moment as well. The metrocops are designed very well as the classic dystopian faceless goon meant to represent the oppressive powers over you, loyal pawns to be used as the combine see fit. At first glance it seems like they fit this description to a T, and in truth they mostly do. However this moment undercuts that assumption somewhat and displays a bit of nuance to how they're portrayed by giving the can cop a moment of relative revelry. The can cop instructs you to do some menial task, and if you follow his instructions he lets you go with a chuckle. Meanwhile If you throw it at him instead he gets pissed and beats you for it. Both of these scenarios wonderfully display the casual oppression of the people done by the metrocops, who are of course extensions of the combine. This fits in perfectly with tone of the setting, and injects a surprising ammount of humanity to the metrocops without sacrificing the oppressive atmosphere. This contrasts wonderfully with the combine soldiers you see later in the game, who function as the step up in enemy class as well as the next "tier" of combine assimilation of humanity where they are surgically and socially modified to become what are essentially loyal, unthinking soldiers, further demonstrating the combines oppression and subjigation.
if Half-Life 2 was made today: Metrocop walks to trash bin: "Pick up that can." *entire game freezes* _Hint - Press E to pick up the can_ *picks it up* *game freezes again* _Hint - Throw it at the enemy_ *throws it at the enemy* *game freezes again* _Hint - You can pick up more objects throughout the game. Want to try a tutorial? Yes or No?_
I mean, no, this is more of a if half life 2 was way more on the nose or just made by a developer known for doing this. Half life alyx proves this as it also has similar stuff. Like when you get the gravity gloves you're put into a playground of sorts to test them out.
you forgot W to walk forwards. now walk to that area, now walk to that area, now use mouse to turn etc, and unless tutorial says you can pick it up, you cant actually pick it up.
Even if you don't love half life 2, you have to admit that it is a timeless classic. Go through and play that..... Then go through and play the newest FPS shooter game. You will find that there is so much more to do in Half-Life 2 then just" pew pew" until the enemy drops. We don't get games like this these days, and it's a damn shame. Everything's about dances, microtransactions, weapon skins, it's not about actually having fun in game anymore.
Check out ADACA if you want more recent games like half-life 2. It may have a much simpler art style, but it plays a lot like it and it's pretty cheap on steam.
Undertale is a really interesting case of this. Toriel acts as a mentor of sorts and is similar to the text box like tutorials, but after that everything else is diegetic.
i also like the detail that the puzzles she helps you solve or just solves for you would be entirely possible to figure out on your own. a sign says in the first puzzle room something about not following the middle road, and if you watch toriel, she steps on the buttons on the side but not the middle. one puzzles says very blatantly "the left room is the right room's blueprints" and the darker path in the left is the path she follows over the spikes on the right, and the path you have to follow if you go back.
I love on halflife 2 that it has 0 cutscenes, 0 tutorials bars and other shits. Its just gameplay. It doesnt even switch to levels like other games do. It just tells you "loading" for 5 seconds and you are back in the gameplay.
Modern games treat people like they're idiots. Valve over its existence has had its foibles, but of its flaws, treating their customers like morons has never been one of them.
The fact that the Source Engine is STILL used today for things as recent as Titianfall 2 is a testament to how much of an amazing engine it is, even if it is buggy and filled with spaghetti code when it works it works WELL
Not sure if you can call if spaghetti code though. It only becomes a spaghetti if you let it become one like with TF2. CSGO and Dota for example don't have spaghetti code issues.
Valve's dev commentaries are a goldmine for this sort of stuff. Lost Coast, the Episodes, the L4Ds, the Portals, TF2, Alyx. These are people who know and care about what they're doing. It was always fun revisiting a setpiece with the commentary on and having a lightbulb moment when they explained how they're teaching the player something there.
While I'm really glad you covered the game design aspect, I think at some point you should've at least mentioned the worldbuilding. The Combine know they're the authority, and they will force you to remember that through even the smallest things, just to stamp out any thoughts of revolt, no matter how small.
Yes he mentions that in the video. Barney teaches you how to pick up and stack physics objects while the Metrocop teaches you that you can throw physics objects
Even back in 2014 I remember watching my brother play the game and thinking the game looked amazing and the fact that I have re played the game multiple times now and can still review it as a game that came out recently shows how amazing the game really is.
HL2's physics system was originally going to be more innovative. If you watch the video IGN posted of the devs reacting to a speedrun, you can hear them talking about experimenting with making the player controller physics driven. They talk about moving the player using physics. This was scrapped because of how Havok calculates physics. Any movement involving the player would instantly gib them. This is due to the same basic reason why walking too fast in System Shock 2 damages the player character at seemingly random times. In SS2, fall damage is calculated when the player collides with a brush. HL2 however, calculates the physics on every tic.
There is another thing I was impressed about. Each and every object has its own physics as you said but there are so many places with hundreds of different objects that you can interact with and I think it's very impressive that the game was able to run that on 2004 hardware that stable.
Played the game a few months ago, The way the game’s physics catches your attention is far beyond anything I’ve ever played. Another reason why I believe valve is the best game company.
As a person who aspires to one day make games i say i agree with this. Why i liked Valves games so much is because they dont hold your hand throughout the entire game. The game Subtlety teaches you what to do and is like. 'Good luck'
The first time this I was playing I couldn’t even tell what he said so I just hit him and he chased me with his electric baton for like a solid minute until he caught me
Good luck mastering the algorithm, I've had this video on watch later for a while and I've seen your struggle trying to find the perfect title, hahaah!
Played Half Life 2 maybe a week or two ago, played for 7 hours straight. Went to sleep, came back the next day and finished it. 10/10, still holds up to this day.
it was my first experience with physics from what I can remember...actual physics, not just "press E and the object is held infront of you in a very specific way"
Doom Eternals tutorials work because it’s a fast paced game which has tutorials that don’t waste your time Edit: I'm not saying HL2s tutorials waste your time I'm saying Eternals tutorials send the message and jump you straight into Demon slaying
honestly i really wish more games had intuitive/subtle tutorials like this, actually Doing something to make sure you really remember it is so much better than a wall of text thats just exhausting to read and really messes up immersion
In addition to Halo 2, there were other games with pretty impressive physics released before HL2, such as Doom 3 earlier in 2004, Max Payne 2 a year before in late 2003 and Unreal 2 in early 2003 with some simple ragdoll physics. But as you stated in your video, in these earlier games, the physics stuff was pretty much just for the show, having very limited impact to gameplay. Max Payne 2 actually used the same Havok physics engine as HL2, btw.
The Tomb Kings, known as the Priest Kings in their former lives, are the undying rulers of Nehekhara, an ancient Human civilisation that formed a great and powerful empire some two thousand five hundred years before the birth of Sigmar Heldenhammer and the founding of the Empire. Out of all the unliving creatures that would claim dominion and royalty over the dead, only the Tomb Kings could truly claim such masterful and undisputed sovereignty. For they had once ruled a mighty and far-flung empire during a time when the rest of Mankind were little more than savage barbarians. Long ago, during an ancient and forgotten age, Nehekhara stood as a shining beacon of civilisation and Human achievement; a golden age when its cities shone with a majestic splendour, its buildings crafted from magnificent marble and limestone, its armies capable of conquering entire kingdoms. In this long-lost age, Nehekhara's mighty rulers reigned as living gods amongst men. But this great realm was destroyed millennia ago through acts of great treachery and powerful sorcery. The living of Nehekhara perished long ago in a single, mournful night, and in their absence, the dead stirred from their graves and claimed the land anew. Even as their ancient civilisation now lies buried beneath the sand, its once verdant plains turned to searing desert and their mighty and glorious empire fractured and in ruin, the Tomb Kings have once more awoken from their deep sleep. Rising from their decrepit sarcophagi, the mummified rulers of Nehekhara awoke with eyes of burning balefire, their thirst for power, conquest and vengeance just as strong in death as in life. They have returned to reclaim that which is rightfully theirs, their legions innumerable, rising up from the scorching sand brandishing weapons of polished bronze and priceless gold. Ancient, emotionless and spiteful to all those that have slighted them, woe betide those foolish enough to stand before their silent onslaught.
This is all absolutely true. Gotta say they dropped the ball a bit in Episode 1, which I’m playing for the first time in VR. Got stuck at the point where Alyx is a sniper, then we’re fighting endless waves of bugs. Spent 10 minutes searching every inch of the map looking for a way to progress, trying to climb over the Combine barricade by piling up cars, which worked before, but apparently there’s an invisible wall this time. Eventually gave up and googled it… I have to block the bug holes with cars apparent. I’m wtf are you kidding me? Unless I missed it, there never was a hint that that was something I could even do, and even if I knew it could, why should I expect that to be the key to progressing? I’ll give a try and find out…honestly I can’t even guess what is going to happen as a consequence of that that will allow me to move on to the next part. First time in HL2 where I got stuck and had to resort to Google. Sorry, just had to rant. No one is perfect all the time I guess.
I feel Half Life 2 does this well with the story as well. I remember someone on the steam forum when I checked it out for once asked "what is the story, the lore" of Half Life 2. There's no cutscene, barely anyone stops the action to tell you anything, and it's never a loredump, it's mostly always dialogue pushing you forward. The game is basically just a journey to the first thing you see stepping out of the train station, the Citadel. Instead, there's bits and pieces all over the place. Breens speeches especially but there's also stuff like the drink you can get from the vending machine in the train station(for free) followed by the guy you can interact with telling you not to drink it because they put something in it to make you 'forget', the "beaches" in the part where you drive the car is actually the seas receding several meters because of the Combine somehow, even just the fact that the game takes place in Europe is probably meant to tell you that America is basically uninhabitable. The game might not tell you any of it, but if you look it's there.
You just made me realize how simple and invisible introductions can be, and you still understand what it means, without even knowing about it, Valve knew that, so they used that so well, that we didn't even realized.
I mean not to even mention the fact of how it's woven into the story of half life 2 showing the player how the combine view humans as lesser than them and enjoy demonstrating their power
Like we were supposed to know that E was supposed to be the key that interacts with objects you're facing with your crosshair? In 2004? Holy shit, you're one of those Gen Z sperm cells, you probs play Genshin all day and tilt when you don't get an PS5 on your birthday
i'm playing through half life 1 and there's a quiet tutorial in the beginning like that. when you first get the HEV suit the automatic voice goes over a list of things it can do, which tells you the player what it can do and what YOU can do with IT. like using a medkit station while there just so happens to be nearby that shows you you can use these to heal.
Sometimes you do have to baby your audience and treat them like idiots, though. Look at the marauder situation in Doom Eternal. People (including myself) did not understand, _even with_ the visual guide.
In my experience with level design, you generally have to treat your players like they’re idiots without making them feel like they’re idiots. Essentially try making every basic mechanic as intuitive as possible so it quickly becomes second nature to even the most oblivious of players. For example, when you use light to guide the player into the right direction, you’re basically putting up a bright neon sign saying “this is the way you blind bat”, but because it’s not in-your-face the player doesn’t feel like they’re being babysit.
Except that back in the day, through the computer speakers of 2004, all I ever heard from that applied weird vocal effect was "iiiichhh uuuuut aaahhh aaahhh", and I didn't even know it was supposed to be speech until over a decade later seeing another RUclips video covering this same topic. The can in my game lies there still.
This is both a great tutorial for the kind of physics puzzle game Half Life 2 is, and a great introduction to how you can do whatever the hell you want with it, whether it is to obey the combine soldier and put it in the trash can, or rebel (as you most likely will)
I played Half-Life 2 recently after a long break and not knowing what to do and damn, this game is awesome! The graphics are so good, and the game came out 15 years ago. The game is a masterpiece, and you can't change that.
It's so silent I almost didn't hear it. But just as it was ending and the video was about to begin the next segment, I said to myself "Hang on I know this beat", pressing the left arrow key repeatedly
I thought you were going to talk about how not only did it make the guard look like an a hole in a story telling perspective but also make it a seem less tutorial and also a choice between playing nice or being a jerk to the dummy who forced you to pick up the can
When I play this I like to throw that can back at that guard and then he tries to chase me, sometimes I run back downstairs and trap him in the basement and sometimes I spawn in a 357 magnum and blow his head off. Sometimes I kill all the guards except the one that comes out of the door at the end otherwise it breaks the game.
While I generally agree pop up tutorials are obnoxious in a lot of circumstances, I'd argue that your first play of Doom Eternal, especially if you hadn't played Doom 2016 before hand, you're gonna need those things. There's so much shit happening in Doom Eternal that its nice that they give you a quick blurb about everything, and leave the more detailed gameplay explanations for the codex. Plus, if you really dislike pop up tutorials that much in that game, all one has to do is go into the settings and turn them off, which most other games with pop-up slates like that don't do.
I can't believe HL2 only came out a month after San Andreas did. When I think of GTA SA, it feels like a really old game, granted it's still a great game but it was very technically limited. I was late to the Half Life party when I played it in 2010, and I still remember thinking that it was new at the time.
you know, this is funny, because during my first playthrough i didn't put the can in the trashbin, nor didn't i throw it at him, i just made him chase me and ran away lol
It's more about creating friction between you and the combine than a "FYI you can pick up objects"... The motivation of why you're there and what you're doing is fighting the combine.
You jest but Harry Potter Prisoner of Azkaban slapped ok, one of my favourite childhood games on the xbox
Nostalgia is an insidious killer, my friend 💀
BEAN BONUS ROOM
🤓
@@htwo1 exactly, maybe you played It as a kid didn't understand It and now holds a grudge against It.
@@htwo1 nostalgia experts = "i don't wanna live"
ok
Valve introduces game mechanics like a really polite hypnotist would
Its purplecolonel real
half life pre release moment
Would you kindly pick up that can?
"pick up that can"
gamers at the time : "yeah, sure but... oh..wait a minute"
*mind proceeds to be blown*
The first time I played the part I thought to myself "wait a minute? If I can throw it why can't I throw it at you??
A beating later I realized why 😂😂
@@timebomb42 yep thats a beating
**neoron activation**
the profecy is true
Who else tried to attack them instead of picking up the can?
Portal 2’s intro chapters are also basically amazing invisible tutorials for new players as well being great fanservice for fans of the first game. heck basically all the puzzles are designed to tech new mechanics or how existing ones interact
no wonder Valve’s games take so long because their quality is top notch
@@alamba1165 it keeps introducing new mechanics throughout
It's why I don't begrudge them for being so quiet. Better to focus on the task at hand when you're aiming for such a high standard, than to deal with people that are often very toxic and unhelpful. Valve aren't perfect, but they are damn good at what they do.
we don't talk about Artifact
@@benjaminthejump5484 even Valve doesn’t want to acknowledge it
@@benjaminthejump5484what’s artifact
the first time I played half life 2 was early on this year, I have no nostalgia for the game and I still loved it, it’s timeless
It ages surprisingly well, really. There are games from 2012 that feel older
fargd is the best gun in pf
Same. Played it for the first time this May and i will never forget how fun and good it was especially the Shotgun
Same, played both hl1 and hl2 this year and they were both incredible and refreshing
@@marlibeshaj1069 what?
Honestly, if a modern streamer plays Half-life 2 then they'd ignore all the tutorial hints and advice and then complain they have no idea what they're doing and the game is trash
Unfortunately that's the case more often than not.
People today don't want to think when they play video games, they only want a gun to go shoot the other guy, they don't care about physics or puzzles or tutorials.
All it is, is " give me the gun so I can go pew pew the enemy"
@@timebomb42 Ultrakill is technically that but at least its skilled-based so its not all pew pew kill the baddies and you instead need to actually git gud and learn basic thinking
@@donutlovingwerewolf8837 Praise be to Ultrakill
They also ignore lore and story
I run into the issue of not being observant or thinking and getting stuck
I blame other games thay don't try to make you think
Half Life 2 was basically just a big flex of Source engine's physics.
"I payed for the whole engine, so im gonna use the whole engine"
@@applehazeva2739 hahaha that's great. They definitely pushed it and used a shit ton of optimization techniques
@@Goldendeed yup, btw have you ever played Half Life Alyx? I think Valve just made the biggest immersive AAA VR Game besides the likes of Skyrim, Fallout and RE
Even though HL2 is over 15 years old, the way physics is used in the game remains impressive and in some ways even "cutting edge" to this day. Modern games have plenty of physics but they mostly use it for cosmetic things like objects breaking apart. Very few games give you a truly interactive environment like Half Life 2. Things like picking up a thrown grenade and tossing it back to the attacker, that's still as cool today as it was back then.
fallout 4 has physics, but nothing breaks outside of corpses
What's funny is that I went throught the can tutorial and just put the can in the trash so I didn't learn to throw objects I was holding and thus could never do anything when I grabbed nades
@@ralexcraft990 every 3D fallout had that
@@alt1763 I haven’t played the other 3D fallouts, 4 is the one I am most familiar with
About the Dead Space thing about having to constantly remind you about limbs, it's probably because the play testers might've missed the first one or two prompts that visceral needed to put 5 within just 5 minutes.
Then again, the message could have been communicated better if instead of constantly yelling at us in our ear to "CUT OFF THEIR LIMBS" you'd have an Ishimura survivor in the room trying to write the message on the wall with his blood, notices Isaac and gives a bit of dialogue, telling him to cut off the limbs, then a necromorph bursts into the room, guy manages to shoot both it's legs off "disabling" it, then returns to Isaac for more dialogue, then the presumed necromorph comes back to life as a crawler and kills the guy, which leads to the player the only one left to fight the necromorph. Could be a really cool way to implement the mechanic without punishing the player too hard on the first try.
Another thing to educate the player is to have the Isaac be told to do space engineer shit on the entrance to the Ishimura, by having him use the plasma cutter in non combat, say cutting the power lines to make a door open or something (Dead Space: Extraction did this concept, and it's pretty cool), y'know considering a plasma cutter is a tool used to cut stuff.
they also definitely just wanted to show off the cool dismemberment mechanics lol
I know people who didn't cut a single limb their entire playthroughs. It happens.
The half life games never take you out of first person, never Break the immersion, valve had to innovate to find ways to implement things like a tutorial subtly.
well isnt there an actual tutorial in hl1 games
@@horizon1g It's separated from the main story (though still canon in a way) so it adds up to the story but doesn't break the immersion or flow of the gameplay/plot, in a way, it's really well done too
You didn't mention this but it works as a fantastic story moment as well. The metrocops are designed very well as the classic dystopian faceless goon meant to represent the oppressive powers over you, loyal pawns to be used as the combine see fit. At first glance it seems like they fit this description to a T, and in truth they mostly do. However this moment undercuts that assumption somewhat and displays a bit of nuance to how they're portrayed by giving the can cop a moment of relative revelry. The can cop instructs you to do some menial task, and if you follow his instructions he lets you go with a chuckle. Meanwhile If you throw it at him instead he gets pissed and beats you for it. Both of these scenarios wonderfully display the casual oppression of the people done by the metrocops, who are of course extensions of the combine. This fits in perfectly with tone of the setting, and injects a surprising ammount of humanity to the metrocops without sacrificing the oppressive atmosphere.
This contrasts wonderfully with the combine soldiers you see later in the game, who function as the step up in enemy class as well as the next "tier" of combine assimilation of humanity where they are surgically and socially modified to become what are essentially loyal, unthinking soldiers, further demonstrating the combines oppression and subjigation.
if Half-Life 2 was made today:
Metrocop walks to trash bin: "Pick up that can."
*entire game freezes* _Hint - Press E to pick up the can_
*picks it up*
*game freezes again* _Hint - Throw it at the enemy_
*throws it at the enemy*
*game freezes again* _Hint - You can pick up more objects throughout the game. Want to try a tutorial? Yes or No?_
lmao
literally the last of us
I mean, no, this is more of a if half life 2 was way more on the nose or just made by a developer known for doing this. Half life alyx proves this as it also has similar stuff. Like when you get the gravity gloves you're put into a playground of sorts to test them out.
Yeah this is false.
If it were made today they wpuldnt ask for a tutorial it wouod just put you in it without question
you forgot W to walk forwards. now walk to that area, now walk to that area, now use mouse to turn etc, and unless tutorial says you can pick it up, you cant actually pick it up.
Even if you don't love half life 2, you have to admit that it is a timeless classic.
Go through and play that..... Then go through and play the newest FPS shooter game.
You will find that there is so much more to do in Half-Life 2 then just" pew pew" until the enemy drops.
We don't get games like this these days, and it's a damn shame.
Everything's about dances, microtransactions, weapon skins, it's not about actually having fun in game anymore.
We do, they're just mostly indies now.
Check out ADACA if you want more recent games like half-life 2. It may have a much simpler art style, but it plays a lot like it and it's pretty cheap on steam.
Your ignoring indie fps games when you say we don't get games like these anymore: ultrakill, dusk, postal brain damaged, and so so so so many more.
I find half life a true classic. Half life 2 was just made for a quick buck and its so damn boring
@@matejtrupina1244 This bait is so low effort I'm surprised you found strength to type on the keyboard. =D
Undertale is a really interesting case of this. Toriel acts as a mentor of sorts and is similar to the text box like tutorials, but after that everything else is diegetic.
i also like the detail that the puzzles she helps you solve or just solves for you would be entirely possible to figure out on your own. a sign says in the first puzzle room something about not following the middle road, and if you watch toriel, she steps on the buttons on the side but not the middle. one puzzles says very blatantly "the left room is the right room's blueprints" and the darker path in the left is the path she follows over the spikes on the right, and the path you have to follow if you go back.
Props for using Rain World OST, that game needs more love. Thanks for the video
+Risk of Rain 1+2
@@toaster_rtx1829 absolutely
And also persons 5 ost!
@@LaVitr_e Can't go without
fr fr
I love on halflife 2 that it has 0 cutscenes, 0 tutorials bars and other shits. Its just gameplay. It doesnt even switch to levels like other games do. It just tells you "loading" for 5 seconds and you are back in the gameplay.
Modern games treat people like they're idiots. Valve over its existence has had its foibles, but of its flaws, treating their customers like morons has never been one of them.
Unfortunately newer games are made for people who don't understand games to reach a wider audience.
The fact that the Source Engine is STILL used today for things as recent as Titianfall 2 is a testament to how much of an amazing engine it is, even if it is buggy and filled with spaghetti code when it works it works WELL
Not sure if you can call if spaghetti code though. It only becomes a spaghetti if you let it become one like with TF2. CSGO and Dota for example don't have spaghetti code issues.
Valve's dev commentaries are a goldmine for this sort of stuff. Lost Coast, the Episodes, the L4Ds, the Portals, TF2, Alyx. These are people who know and care about what they're doing. It was always fun revisiting a setpiece with the commentary on and having a lightbulb moment when they explained how they're teaching the player something there.
It also tells part of the story. The combine are in control and don't have a sense of humour to say the least.
While I'm really glad you covered the game design aspect, I think at some point you should've at least mentioned the worldbuilding. The Combine know they're the authority, and they will force you to remember that through even the smallest things, just to stamp out any thoughts of revolt, no matter how small.
Wasn't the task of picking up props already taught to the player when Barney let Gordon escape?
Yes he mentions that in the video. Barney teaches you how to pick up and stack physics objects while the Metrocop teaches you that you can throw physics objects
Even back in 2014 I remember watching my brother play the game and thinking the game looked amazing and the fact that I have re played the game multiple times now and can still review it as a game that came out recently shows how amazing the game really is.
Exactly, its a timeless immortal masterpiece
HL2's physics system was originally going to be more innovative. If you watch the video IGN posted of the devs reacting to a speedrun, you can hear them talking about experimenting with making the player controller physics driven. They talk about moving the player using physics. This was scrapped because of how Havok calculates physics. Any movement involving the player would instantly gib them. This is due to the same basic reason why walking too fast in System Shock 2 damages the player character at seemingly random times. In SS2, fall damage is calculated when the player collides with a brush. HL2 however, calculates the physics on every tic.
I've gotten so used to the Source that it's nice to remember how innovative it actually was
There is another thing I was impressed about. Each and every object has its own physics as you said but there are so many places with hundreds of different objects that you can interact with and I think it's very impressive that the game was able to run that on 2004 hardware that stable.
Played the game a few months ago, The way the game’s physics catches your attention is far beyond anything I’ve ever played. Another reason why I believe valve is the best game company.
As a person who aspires to one day make games i say i agree with this. Why i liked Valves games so much is because they dont hold your hand throughout the entire game. The game Subtlety teaches you what to do and is like. 'Good luck'
The first time this I was playing I couldn’t even tell what he said so I just hit him and he chased me with his electric baton for like a solid minute until he caught me
Good luck mastering the algorithm, I've had this video on watch later for a while and I've seen your struggle trying to find the perfect title, hahaah!
Throwing the saw blade at the zombie is just pure neuron activation
Played Half Life 2 maybe a week or two ago, played for 7 hours straight. Went to sleep, came back the next day and finished it. 10/10, still holds up to this day.
I just imagine this entire time freeman is explaing to the civil protection unit all of this before chucking the can at him and running past
Great video, but could you stop using the red outline on the thumbnail? It makes it impossible to see what videos have have watched.
this!
to quote The Chalkeaters' 'Count to Three': "So hold on to all your hats, let's Show 'em a triple-A done right!"
it was my first experience with physics from what I can remember...actual physics, not just "press E and the object is held infront of you in a very specific way"
Ok, now whats the point of your comment?
@@cumcer6140 thanks for the motivation, this was the last thing I needed to end it all 🖖🏻
@@BalgaBear the hell you talking about?
@@cumcer6140 k boomer
@@BalgaBeardamn save bro
and thats how a metro cop helped gordon take on the combine
I remember playing that Harry Potter game, all I remember from it is after a little while Harry get knocked out so you drag him as Ron.
I replay HL2 every now and then, and everytime I do so, I get reminded of how ahead of time valve was back back then
2:59 YOU CANT SNEAK THAT RAIN WORLD MUSIC PAST ME!! good shit dude, glad to see you like rain world
“No, fuck off.”
*Vaporises metro cop*
Doom Eternals tutorials work because it’s a fast paced game which has tutorials that don’t waste your time
Edit: I'm not saying HL2s tutorials waste your time I'm saying Eternals tutorials send the message and jump you straight into Demon slaying
Nah they kinda do
@@sebaprime6411 do what, im saying it’s tutorials work bud
@@coltforceplayer Waste your time. They do work but still
I agree (totally not because i am biased because I love half life 2)
Omg the real nvc dmn ch
@@genericdevtexture3661 where 👀
Same
@@NoVIcE_Source 21st century humor who?
@@callmekitty6742 kitty
Also, because of this moment I learned that combine actually speaked english
honestly i really wish more games had intuitive/subtle tutorials like this, actually Doing something to make sure you really remember it is so much better than a wall of text thats just exhausting to read and really messes up immersion
In addition to Halo 2, there were other games with pretty impressive physics released before HL2, such as Doom 3 earlier in 2004, Max Payne 2 a year before in late 2003 and Unreal 2 in early 2003 with some simple ragdoll physics. But as you stated in your video, in these earlier games, the physics stuff was pretty much just for the show, having very limited impact to gameplay.
Max Payne 2 actually used the same Havok physics engine as HL2, btw.
The Tomb Kings, known as the Priest Kings in their former lives, are the undying rulers of Nehekhara, an ancient Human civilisation that formed a great and powerful empire some two thousand five hundred years before the birth of Sigmar Heldenhammer and the founding of the Empire. Out of all the unliving creatures that would claim dominion and royalty over the dead, only the Tomb Kings could truly claim such masterful and undisputed sovereignty. For they had once ruled a mighty and far-flung empire during a time when the rest of Mankind were little more than savage barbarians.
Long ago, during an ancient and forgotten age, Nehekhara stood as a shining beacon of civilisation and Human achievement; a golden age when its cities shone with a majestic splendour, its buildings crafted from magnificent marble and limestone, its armies capable of conquering entire kingdoms. In this long-lost age, Nehekhara's mighty rulers reigned as living gods amongst men. But this great realm was destroyed millennia ago through acts of great treachery and powerful sorcery. The living of Nehekhara perished long ago in a single, mournful night, and in their absence, the dead stirred from their graves and claimed the land anew.
Even as their ancient civilisation now lies buried beneath the sand, its once verdant plains turned to searing desert and their mighty and glorious empire fractured and in ruin, the Tomb Kings have once more awoken from their deep sleep. Rising from their decrepit sarcophagi, the mummified rulers of Nehekhara awoke with eyes of burning balefire, their thirst for power, conquest and vengeance just as strong in death as in life.
They have returned to reclaim that which is rightfully theirs, their legions innumerable, rising up from the scorching sand brandishing weapons of polished bronze and priceless gold. Ancient, emotionless and spiteful to all those that have slighted them, woe betide those foolish enough to stand before their silent onslaught.
This is all absolutely true. Gotta say they dropped the ball a bit in Episode 1, which I’m playing for the first time in VR. Got stuck at the point where Alyx is a sniper, then we’re fighting endless waves of bugs. Spent 10 minutes searching every inch of the map looking for a way to progress, trying to climb over the Combine barricade by piling up cars, which worked before, but apparently there’s an invisible wall this time. Eventually gave up and googled it… I have to block the bug holes with cars apparent. I’m wtf are you kidding me? Unless I missed it, there never was a hint that that was something I could even do, and even if I knew it could, why should I expect that to be the key to progressing? I’ll give a try and find out…honestly I can’t even guess what is going to happen as a consequence of that that will allow me to move on to the next part. First time in HL2 where I got stuck and had to resort to Google. Sorry, just had to rant. No one is perfect all the time I guess.
thank you for using the risk of rain 1 ost as background music
I'd say the best moment in all video game history is when you collect all the jelly beans in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
I feel Half Life 2 does this well with the story as well. I remember someone on the steam forum when I checked it out for once asked "what is the story, the lore" of Half Life 2. There's no cutscene, barely anyone stops the action to tell you anything, and it's never a loredump, it's mostly always dialogue pushing you forward. The game is basically just a journey to the first thing you see stepping out of the train station, the Citadel.
Instead, there's bits and pieces all over the place. Breens speeches especially but there's also stuff like the drink you can get from the vending machine in the train station(for free) followed by the guy you can interact with telling you not to drink it because they put something in it to make you 'forget', the "beaches" in the part where you drive the car is actually the seas receding several meters because of the Combine somehow, even just the fact that the game takes place in Europe is probably meant to tell you that America is basically uninhabitable. The game might not tell you any of it, but if you look it's there.
You just made me realize how simple and invisible introductions can be, and you still understand what it means, without even knowing about it, Valve knew that, so they used that so well, that we didn't even realized.
I love how you take a 3 second moment and make a bloody 8 minute video about it.
Love the background Music from so many different games
I mean not to even mention the fact of how it's woven into the story of half life 2 showing the player how the combine view humans as lesser than them and enjoy demonstrating their power
Valve knows what the player needs because it knows what the player doesn’t need.
the moment i got the gravity gun i never let go of it, playing with the physics was super fun in that game
"Invisible" literally a text box on the screen
Like we were supposed to know that E was supposed to be the key that interacts with objects you're facing with your crosshair? In 2004? Holy shit, you're one of those Gen Z sperm cells, you probs play Genshin all day and tilt when you don't get an PS5 on your birthday
@@sparrowanon my dude, I'm 29. Sorry you have trouble paying attention.
It's so oddly simple yet ingenious! Valve really does a good job showing us instead of telling us!
If you don't pick up the can the cop eventually gets fed up and hits you.
i'm playing through half life 1 and there's a quiet tutorial in the beginning like that. when you first get the HEV suit the automatic voice goes over a list of things it can do, which tells you the player what it can do and what YOU can do with IT. like using a medkit station while there just so happens to be nearby that shows you you can use these to heal.
Sometimes you do have to baby your audience and treat them like idiots, though.
Look at the marauder situation in Doom Eternal. People (including myself) did not understand, _even with_ the visual guide.
In my experience with level design, you generally have to treat your players like they’re idiots without making them feel like they’re idiots. Essentially try making every basic mechanic as intuitive as possible so it quickly becomes second nature to even the most oblivious of players.
For example, when you use light to guide the player into the right direction, you’re basically putting up a bright neon sign saying “this is the way you blind bat”, but because it’s not in-your-face the player doesn’t feel like they’re being babysit.
This has pretty heavy inspiration from Game Maker's Toolkit
The Half Life 1 Barnacle introduction is more mean: You have to cross a moat, and see some "ropes" hanging down. What would you try ....
Except that back in the day, through the computer speakers of 2004, all I ever heard from that applied weird vocal effect was "iiiichhh uuuuut aaahhh aaahhh", and I didn't even know it was supposed to be speech until over a decade later seeing another RUclips video covering this same topic. The can in my game lies there still.
This is both a great tutorial for the kind of physics puzzle game Half Life 2 is, and a great introduction to how you can do whatever the hell you want with it, whether it is to obey the combine soldier and put it in the trash can, or rebel (as you most likely will)
ah, so that's why there's not a third game in any series they've made.
i actually got kinda mad when i got the achievment, so i searched through the trash, and threw the can back at that guy.
One of the biggest bragging rights HAS to be, "Yes I was a developer for the Half Life games"
I played Half-Life 2 recently after a long break and not knowing what to do and damn, this game is awesome! The graphics are so good, and the game came out 15 years ago. The game is a masterpiece, and you can't change that.
I carried that sawblade for as long as I could first time I played HL2.
"Pick up that can."
Incorrect answer: "Yes, sir."
Correct answer: "No, fuck off"
Just wanted to say that I appreciate the use of Floes from the Rainworld OST as background music. It's my favorite track in the game.
It's so silent I almost didn't hear it. But just as it was ending and the video was about to begin the next segment, I said to myself "Hang on I know this beat", pressing the left arrow key repeatedly
The rainworld sound track goes hard at the back ground
I thought you were going to talk about how not only did it make the guard look like an a hole in a story telling perspective but also make it a seem less tutorial and also a choice between playing nice or being a jerk to the dummy who forced you to pick up the can
i remember not hearing what the metro cop said and ended up juking him after aggro'ing him and rushing outside lol
6:18 i just jump3d over the saw blades without relizing
When I play this I like to throw that can back at that guard and then he tries to chase me, sometimes I run back downstairs and trap him in the basement and sometimes I spawn in a 357 magnum and blow his head off. Sometimes I kill all the guards except the one that comes out of the door at the end otherwise it breaks the game.
While I generally agree pop up tutorials are obnoxious in a lot of circumstances, I'd argue that your first play of Doom Eternal, especially if you hadn't played Doom 2016 before hand, you're gonna need those things. There's so much shit happening in Doom Eternal that its nice that they give you a quick blurb about everything, and leave the more detailed gameplay explanations for the codex. Plus, if you really dislike pop up tutorials that much in that game, all one has to do is go into the settings and turn them off, which most other games with pop-up slates like that don't do.
To be honest on how much I played on Source games that has physics, I actually feel alienated when I cant pick up random objects.
I think in dead space (I have never played it) you need to cut off their limbs to kill them
I THINK thats what you do.
5:00 Fun fact! You don't need to pile up two boxes, just one and a crouch jump is enough
Show don’t tell doesnt just apply to video games but anywhere in life
Dead Space Trilogy let you move around so many misc items.
nothing like watching a person over analyzing an npc say "pick up that can"
I can't believe HL2 only came out a month after San Andreas did. When I think of GTA SA, it feels like a really old game, granted it's still a great game but it was very technically limited. I was late to the Half Life party when I played it in 2010, and I still remember thinking that it was new at the time.
I never thought about ror2 music going so well with Half Life 2
I wouldn't be too harsh on dead space because some players still don't pick up on cutting off the limbs.
5:40 I think it's well accepted by now that the QA is to blamed for that one..
You know I think Gamemaker’s Toolkit made this video better
The only reason why gordon freeman kills thousands of combine because of that one ass hole who makes yo pick up a can
Nice video! Thank god I found this channel and this video in my home feed!
"the best moment in gaming history"
did you fall into concrete dust when you were a child ?
Go back to Nintendo trash
you know, this is funny, because during my first playthrough i didn't put the can in the trashbin, nor didn't i throw it at him, i just made him chase me and ran away lol
*pick up that can*
Hitwo: WRITE THAT DOWN! WRITE THAT DOWN!
This game still holds up today.
120 hours on ror2,
999 hours on ror2 musics. Thanks htwo
i thought doom eternals mini tutorials were rather sexy personally
It's more about creating friction between you and the combine than a "FYI you can pick up objects"... The motivation of why you're there and what you're doing is fighting the combine.
It's all about subtlety.