I've recently bought the Orange Box after quite a bit of procrastination, and immediately upon planting my nether regions firmly into my couch and my disc in the disc bay of my Xbox 360, I began to play. Then I finished Half Life 2, as well as episode one and two, and was about to start on Portal when I looked up and realized it was the next day, that I was extremely hungry, and gave off an odor one could only describe as "intense". I ate, showered...then did it again. Now, having spent roughly 48 straight hours on this series, not including the many hours I spent playing and replaying and replaying the first installment of the series about eight years ago, I've come to you, Escapist magazine Forum section, to deliver my findings, and they are thus: fuck antlions, fuck striders, and sideways-fuck hunters.
I ask you to fuck these particular specimens, not because they were incredibly annoying or merciless- oh no I've punished them enough for that -but because they kept me awake all day, when I should have been resting after my double marathon with minimum bathroom and internet breaks but instead was spent reflecting upon the true nature of this game. At first glance, the answer should be fairly obvious, it's an action fps based in science fiction elements, but after several brutal encounters with striders I'm left wondering if it is in fact a survival-horror genre beast as well (admittedly, a member from the genre that graduated from the RE:4 school of survival horror, where things blow up and you're often the cause). Because while there are undoubtably more thrills than chills, true fear actually stuck me one many occasions.
While some instances of this feeling are fairly obvious, such as in Ravenhome (holme? holm? eh.) or the underground, both of which can be pitch black at times and are ALWAYS swarming with loose-skinned zombies, these games also made me feel great fear in their artificial daylight. In Half Life 2, for instance, there was a giant battle pitting you against around 5 striders, and while nothing made me cheer as loudly as finally hitting one of the beasts enough times to see it crash and burn, a fear greater than any I felt in the tunnels filled my heart as another's lumbering footsteps could be heard taking it's place. Episode one didn't really give me the same fear, but episode two was full of it, some examples being: moving through the antlion nest trying to out run a guardian, hiding in a shed from a pair of hunters, and being told via loudspeaker that five striders were rambling their way towards me. In fact, I believe it was in the first example I had my epiphany. You see, you're pitted against a monster (the antlion guardian) you simply cannot kill, under any circumstances. That seems like classic survival horror to me, where for all of your brawn and bluster, you're totally unable to fight back against this thing that really, really dislikes you.
Come to think of it, this isn't really a review or a reflection, probably just a waste of space, but if you want to tell me you don't care or anything along those lines, feel free to do so. I'm going to take a week-long nap.
I ask you to fuck these particular specimens, not because they were incredibly annoying or merciless- oh no I've punished them enough for that -but because they kept me awake all day, when I should have been resting after my double marathon with minimum bathroom and internet breaks but instead was spent reflecting upon the true nature of this game. At first glance, the answer should be fairly obvious, it's an action fps based in science fiction elements, but after several brutal encounters with striders I'm left wondering if it is in fact a survival-horror genre beast as well (admittedly, a member from the genre that graduated from the RE:4 school of survival horror, where things blow up and you're often the cause). Because while there are undoubtably more thrills than chills, true fear actually stuck me one many occasions.
While some instances of this feeling are fairly obvious, such as in Ravenhome (holme? holm? eh.) or the underground, both of which can be pitch black at times and are ALWAYS swarming with loose-skinned zombies, these games also made me feel great fear in their artificial daylight. In Half Life 2, for instance, there was a giant battle pitting you against around 5 striders, and while nothing made me cheer as loudly as finally hitting one of the beasts enough times to see it crash and burn, a fear greater than any I felt in the tunnels filled my heart as another's lumbering footsteps could be heard taking it's place. Episode one didn't really give me the same fear, but episode two was full of it, some examples being: moving through the antlion nest trying to out run a guardian, hiding in a shed from a pair of hunters, and being told via loudspeaker that five striders were rambling their way towards me. In fact, I believe it was in the first example I had my epiphany. You see, you're pitted against a monster (the antlion guardian) you simply cannot kill, under any circumstances. That seems like classic survival horror to me, where for all of your brawn and bluster, you're totally unable to fight back against this thing that really, really dislikes you.
Come to think of it, this isn't really a review or a reflection, probably just a waste of space, but if you want to tell me you don't care or anything along those lines, feel free to do so. I'm going to take a week-long nap.