Why Was Half-Life 2 A BIG DEAL?

00:00:01.210half life 2 can't really be considered a

00:00:04.310stepping stone more so a big boulder

00:00:07.430that cannot be missed in terms of the

00:00:10.219history of gaming it's both evolutionary

00:00:12.919and revolutionary is a gamers game and

00:00:16.369it's hard to overstate the impact it had

00:00:19.189on video games as a whole what do I mean

00:00:22.369when I say that well let's explore it hi

00:00:24.890folks its Falcon and today on game ranks

00:00:26.660we asked the question what made

00:00:28.339half-life 2 a big deal back at e3 2003

00:00:32.210valve was showing off animations of the

00:00:35.300g-man as he appeared in half-life 2 he

00:00:38.510was contrasted with his character model

00:00:40.340from half-life 1 and it's not even

00:00:43.520vaguely comparable in fact the pseudo

00:00:46.730human being that is the g-man demo from

00:00:49.2502003 and indeed the facial animation

00:00:51.829from half-life 2 honestly kind of holds

00:00:55.489up now I have certainly seen games with

00:00:58.280less good facial animation in the last

00:01:01.010couple years but it kind of wowed

00:01:03.530everyone considering yeah there was

00:01:06.470decent facial animation there was decent

00:01:09.439looking characters but this was like

00:01:11.689seeing just something completely

00:01:13.880different this was next-generation

00:01:16.250gaming and in truth really nobody else

00:01:18.860caught up for a while there was stuff

00:01:21.259that looked stylish and interesting but

00:01:23.540just that on its own merit

00:01:25.790stands out massively well we all saw

00:01:28.400this we knew we were in for something

00:01:30.530big I think most people saw half-life 2

00:01:33.710and thought well this is gonna be

00:01:35.960something and it was honestly a lot of

00:01:38.810people probably will disagree but I

00:01:40.610think this game pretty much holds up now

00:01:43.369if you chalk up these simplistic stuff

00:01:45.979that probably wouldn't be done today as

00:01:48.619stylistic choices which might I add

00:01:51.380there are more than a few games nowadays

00:01:53.119that actually do chart that same

00:01:55.490territory looking very similar to what

00:01:57.920half-life 2 look like on purpose for

00:02:00.799stylistic reasons it's a game that I

00:02:03.439think looks fine I can play it and go

00:02:06.860wow this is nice looking and it's old as

00:02:09.890hell at this point the trees the bits of

00:02:12.890nature juxtapose

00:02:14.510with the ruin of man after a disastrous

00:02:17.269alien invasion that was very clearly

00:02:20.450lost you know by us just gives us such a

00:02:23.840clear view of exactly the stakes and how

00:02:27.260we fit in with this world it was also

00:02:29.569because of graphical advancements we had

00:02:32.090various interesting gameplay

00:02:33.909advancements such as the various physics

00:02:36.829based gameplay aspects of half-life 2

00:02:39.680between the gravity gun being able to

00:02:42.650pick up saw blades and chop apart

00:02:45.409humans that have been commandeered by

00:02:47.480facehuggers to the various puzzles that

00:02:50.180were asked to complete as we attempt to

00:02:52.549make it further in to this oppressive

00:02:54.790Eastern European City rendered lovingly

00:02:57.980with gameplay considerations baked

00:03:00.379directly into the environment we'll talk

00:03:02.870more about that in a few minutes it's a

00:03:05.060game that doesn't have to do a lot of

00:03:06.950storytelling to give you a story I think

00:03:09.889a lot of us walked away from it with a

00:03:12.049lot of thoughts I certainly did and they

00:03:14.659didn't Jam so much dialogue into my face

00:03:17.269although the dialogue that was given to

00:03:19.849me through different characters talking

00:03:21.949to me while I walk around or in some

00:03:24.290cases in kind of quote unquote cutscene

00:03:26.870light situations Diet cutscenes so to

00:03:29.930speak what's interesting is you can talk

00:03:31.819to somebody who has played half-life and

00:03:34.250have them say there wasn't a story I've

00:03:37.069had more than a couple of conversations

00:03:38.720with people who just feel like the

00:03:41.389environmental storytelling was so subtle

00:03:43.940that it wasn't really storytelling but

00:03:46.220I'd say that that is if anything proof

00:03:49.250that this is such a good environmental

00:03:51.829storytelling case that it doesn't feel

00:03:54.199like you're being told a story it feels

00:03:56.599like you're in a place living and I know

00:03:59.690that some people are going to dispute

00:04:01.400that I'm not claiming that I have the

00:04:03.500definitive opinion on this game

00:04:05.150whatsoever but to me the lore in this

00:04:08.060game is done so well that it's both a

00:04:11.180blessing in that it's such an amazing

00:04:13.159experience and a curse in that everyone

00:04:16.099thought that just leaving sparse clues

00:04:18.380was the key there's good sparse

00:04:21.470storytelling and there's also bad sparse

00:04:24.050story

00:04:24.889telling and I think half-life does it

00:04:26.960better it doesn't try to make it

00:04:29.090completely clear exactly what happens in

00:04:31.909every second of every inch of the entire

00:04:34.969history of the games world

00:04:37.279that's what sparse storytelling is it's

00:04:39.740sparse and I'm not gonna tell you that

00:04:42.379there's one correct way to do that but I

00:04:45.259am going to tell you that half-life 2 is

00:04:47.960one of the correct ways to do it because

00:04:50.689it just feels so lived in and real or at

00:04:53.870least as lived in and real as a

00:04:56.090post-apocalyptic scenario in which

00:04:58.219aliens have taken over the earth and

00:05:00.710you've been asleep for a long time

00:05:02.990cryogenically speaking can feel and part

00:05:06.169of the reason all of this was possible

00:05:08.120was because of a very non-standard

00:05:09.849development process valve in developed

00:05:12.379called the Cabal process where a lot of

00:05:15.020video games are made by breaking all of

00:05:17.330the employees off into large sound teams

00:05:21.319design teams level design teams art

00:05:24.499teams etc the Cabal process breaks the

00:05:27.469full team down into smaller cabal's that

00:05:29.960fulfill multiple purposes there's

00:05:32.150several programmers several artists

00:05:34.279several designers etc it's actually a

00:05:36.949fairly genius way of creating a much

00:05:39.979more cooperative environment in that

00:05:42.219designers don't make things that are

00:05:44.659impossible to build artists are talking

00:05:47.479to the people who actually have to make

00:05:49.610the things they come up with into real

00:05:51.740objects and everyone shares a sense of

00:05:54.830camaraderie that really isn't possible

00:05:56.839when you view artists as a different

00:06:00.050class of people or level designers as a

00:06:02.539different class of people people you

00:06:04.729don't talk to people you don't see

00:06:06.289during the day instead members of every

00:06:09.169aspect of the production work together

00:06:11.229merging experience and taking full

00:06:14.149responsibility for the aspects of the

00:06:16.729game that they are working on a

00:06:19.120playtesting cabal helps settle arguments

00:06:21.710with the various other cabal's who may

00:06:24.080have conflicting visions ultimately

00:06:26.180finding ways for people to talk to each

00:06:29.360other and work through the issues of a

00:06:31.370creative production process there's

00:06:33.589aspects of the cabal process that keep

00:06:36.169the various creative workers

00:06:38.200from becoming alienated with each other

00:06:40.240as well as giving them more power over

00:06:42.310the final product all of these little

00:06:45.130teams have the same amount of power and

00:06:48.010responsibility and their influence is

00:06:50.980not more or less than anyone elses now

00:06:54.610I'm sure it was imperfect in application

00:06:57.100but it's a process that yielded agam

00:06:59.620that did so much when I said earlier the

00:07:02.890gameplay considerations were baked into

00:07:05.020the environment what I meant was

00:07:07.000something you really just can't do

00:07:09.640without good communication between your

00:07:11.920design and development aspects of your

00:07:14.200team or teams when you play a level in

00:07:16.930half-life 2 you are playing a

00:07:18.760masterfully designed well paced not only

00:07:22.210work of art but a master class in the

00:07:25.060environment speaking to the player and

00:07:27.970while that's certainly important from a

00:07:29.740narrative perspective and I am saying

00:07:31.990that that is part of it think about the

00:07:34.030Cabal system and what happens when a

00:07:36.310level designer speaks with all of the

00:07:38.770other types of workers on the project

00:07:41.770they consider the perspectives of say

00:07:44.200how we get players to go in this

00:07:47.020direction if these members of teams were

00:07:49.450communicating and responsible in the way

00:07:51.550they were if it wasn't up to them the

00:07:54.100decisions made that direct the game

00:07:56.440maybe there would just be arrows

00:07:58.540pointing at everything saying go here

00:08:01.180maybe that's what the programmer thinks

00:08:03.250would be good and ultimately maybe

00:08:05.110that's their prerogative to include it

00:08:07.780but what if the art director thinks

00:08:09.610maybe we can tell people to move in this

00:08:11.830direction with lighting now I'm not

00:08:14.080saying a more traditional environment

00:08:15.850doesn't allow people to talk to each

00:08:17.950other and people aren't going to design

00:08:20.710levels that way in a more traditional

00:08:22.300environment but the Cabal system

00:08:24.400specifically encourages these people to

00:08:27.340communicate with each other and these

00:08:29.230sort of cross category musings like

00:08:32.170where an artist might be thinking about

00:08:34.030how art can affect the design these

00:08:36.640thoughts and conversations tend to

00:08:37.960happen more often and have a more

00:08:39.760tangible effect on the game itself a

00:08:41.770good example of how this distributed

00:08:43.540power within the structure is a benefit

00:08:46.390as members of the half-life 2

00:08:48.310development team got playtesting

00:08:50.280playtesters would

00:08:51.760and say why not give the crowbar in the

00:08:54.550laboratory so you can break a bunch of

00:08:56.710stuff but they thought having the moment

00:08:58.450where Barney drops the crowbar to you

00:09:01.090was the appropriate time and if any one

00:09:04.240person was able to make that call

00:09:06.760there's a good chance that would have

00:09:08.440gone the other way but they kept it the

00:09:10.810way it is in the game because there is a

00:09:12.940build up and a payoff for the crowbar

00:09:15.580and enough people felt strongly about

00:09:17.500that that even though playtesters had

00:09:20.020input ultimately even though they said

00:09:22.540I'd love to beat up the lab the way they

00:09:25.150felt was it's so awesome when you get

00:09:27.490the crowbar play testers are very

00:09:29.350valuable but if everyone's opinion is as

00:09:32.110valuable creative decisions can be made

00:09:34.930that affect the game in positive ways

00:09:37.300that maybe aren't totally explicitly

00:09:40.270weighted exactly on super open-ended

00:09:43.510gameplay which is pretty much what

00:09:45.400anybody is going to ask for an example

00:09:48.160of the kind of decision the kind of

00:09:50.170detail the kind of attention that is

00:09:52.300just much more encouraged in this way

00:09:54.010and I'm not saying it can't happen in

00:09:55.930the more traditional game play

00:09:57.520production process but it's encouraged

00:09:59.770in this one is something like you know

00:10:01.750the hunter it's got two blue glowing

00:10:04.120eyes if you shine a flashlight at it

00:10:06.430the pupils contract and expand based on

00:10:09.550the light these types of little

00:10:11.110decisions are the product of more people

00:10:14.170having more input who knows whose idea

00:10:16.750that was

00:10:17.320but somebody thought of it and felt like

00:10:19.930it was a thing they could express and

00:10:21.850everyone felt like it was a cool thing

00:10:23.500to include and nobody was there to say

00:10:26.020no don't take the time on that that's

00:10:28.300what the sort of distributed

00:10:30.300responsibility model allowed and it gave

00:10:33.160us a hell of a game half-life 2

00:10:35.170continues to be a great game to this day

00:10:37.360one that I still go back to every once

00:10:39.340in a while you know when you just get

00:10:41.470that hankering for some physics-based

00:10:43.480rich environmental storytelling in a

00:10:47.530single-player game from valve truly a

00:10:50.830product of a different era one that I

00:10:53.020think that not only have we learned a

00:10:54.940lot from as a culture of consumers and

00:10:57.940artists but there's still more to learn

00:11:00.040from it all so it'd be nice if there was

00:11:01.900a third one valve in the

00:11:03.860comments let's talk about the best level

00:11:06.050/ area in half-life 2 let's talk about

00:11:09.470the best characters the best enemies the

00:11:11.990best devices and weapons and if you

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00:11:25.880bell as always we thank you very much

00:11:27.410for watching this video I'm Falcon you

00:11:29.300can follow me on twitter at falcon the

00:11:30.680hero and we'll see you next time right

00:11:32.149here on game ranks