how come there's no half life clones?
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There ARE plenty of Half Life clones. What are you talking about? Mods suddenly don't count? I would have thought that they were closer to clones than, well, anything else.
Even disregarding mods, there have been numerous FPS games that have taken on little gameplay elements in nods to the HL series. It's often called "influential" for a reason, you know.
You're right that none of them seem really similar, but I'd chalk that up to copyright problems more than lack of creative appeal.
Even disregarding mods, there have been numerous FPS games that have taken on little gameplay elements in nods to the HL series. It's often called "influential" for a reason, you know.
You're right that none of them seem really similar, but I'd chalk that up to copyright problems more than lack of creative appeal.
The Unreal games continue with the 9 (Well, 10 with the Sniper.) weapon scheme.
And Left 4 Dead (It came to me first because I've been playing it a lot recently.) does some form of level fabrication. (L4D2 especially. It gives you some idea that the last campaign directly relates to the current one.)
I miss games where you get more weapons than your IDENTICAL ARMOUR POWER SPACE MARINES (Hah) can carry. Realism is great and all, but why does every shooter have to have a similar weapon scheme.
Someone needs to make a shooter with brand new weapons. Brand new gaming company with a brand new title. It needs to have a good enough story to sell like crazy and good enough multiplayer to get by.
Game Developers need to start worrying about the Campaign more than "Right. Copy and paste a three paragraph war summary . And let's put some multiplayer . There we go, COD MW2. Now let's sit back and wait for money."
And Left 4 Dead (It came to me first because I've been playing it a lot recently.) does some form of level fabrication. (L4D2 especially. It gives you some idea that the last campaign directly relates to the current one.)
I miss games where you get more weapons than your IDENTICAL ARMOUR POWER SPACE MARINES (Hah) can carry. Realism is great and all, but why does every shooter have to have a similar weapon scheme.
Someone needs to make a shooter with brand new weapons. Brand new gaming company with a brand new title. It needs to have a good enough story to sell like crazy and good enough multiplayer to get by.
Game Developers need to start worrying about the Campaign more than "Right. Copy and paste a three paragraph war summary . And let's put some multiplayer . There we go, COD MW2. Now let's sit back and wait for money."
It would be hard to clone Half Life doesn't have much to distinguish it on a technical level its just a FPS not like how Dante inferno was a clone of God of War
you evidently haven't bought a "198 games in one"GBA pak abroad have you? i'll give you an explanation. there are approximatly 5 true games in there (such as in mine, i have FF4, Pokemon Sapphire,Ruby&Emerald and some other game i can't remember). the remaining 193 games are either original (but crappy) arcade style games named after popular titles (such as pokemon Yellow, a game where you are a yellow Jigglypuff fighting in a side-scrolling fighting game... quite funny in the sense of jiggly-puff beating up other creatures, but not really a game) or they are copy and pastes of old games, such as Super Mario bros. or Dig-dug or that one about the miner.P.Tsunami said:
These are what i would call true clones. sure, they have the decency to dress up, changing Mario into Sonic, or Dig-dug into Samus, but the levels are exactly the same with the same principles... sonic didn't run any faster than mario did, nor did he curl up in a ball when i jumped. these are what i would class as clones.
anyway, that was really offtopic, i agree with your points and you have phrased them the best of out the posts i've read so far. Many genres, such as FPS's, have to borrow and apply aspects from other known titles in order to get any body to play them. a popular (and stereotypical) example nowadays would be that nobody is willing to buy a nowaday FPS where you don't have regenerating health and you can carry more than 2 weapons at a time. very stereotypical, but sadly, the FPS producing companies seem to belive its true.
i haven't played much of half-life, but i can say that i saw quite a few similarities between half life and Bioshock. the most obvious one to me would be that the way the crow-bar and wrench are held/used in both games remind me of each other... but i wouldn't say Bioshock is a clone of Half-life (anymore than i would say Battlefield is a clone of Modern Warfare).
I think he means not only just enviroments, but just different gameplay mechanics as well. In Halo, outside of the enviroments, there are really four types of levels. Levels with the Vechiles, levels with the Covenant, levels with the Flood, and levels with good amount of both. In Half-Life, one has levels against the Combine, levels against Antlions, levels against zombies, levels where your running away, levels where your solving physics puzzles, levels all about story developement, and many, many others.Amnestic said:
Also, the story hasn't been ripped off because nobody else can figure out how to make a scientist look awesome.
Considering the crux of the Half-Life series is refined gameplay and fantastic level design there really isn't much to "clone" into other games.
However there are a few that I can think of...
Red Faction 1 and Breakdown both have some "half-lifey" elements to them.
However there are a few that I can think of...
Red Faction 1 and Breakdown both have some "half-lifey" elements to them.
Yeah seriously, Halflife is the reason Bungie didn't have to come up with any new ideas for Halo. Certain aspects have just been literally coppy/pasted.
Elites are just flashy Vorts without chest arms and more armour. They even talk the same.
If master chief was a silent Character, i guarantee you he would be Gordon Freeman.
Both games have both ethnic and 'Femme Fatale' sidekicks.
And a flawed genius with a british accent.
I could go on and mention similaritys in weapons, gameplay, story (though you can't pin the cloning argument on any game with the "Big aliens trying to take over the world" critique anymore since it's pretty much it's own genre by now...) and enemies, but i shant, simply because many games have taken similar lines, it's just the way progression works.
Elites are just flashy Vorts without chest arms and more armour. They even talk the same.
If master chief was a silent Character, i guarantee you he would be Gordon Freeman.
Both games have both ethnic and 'Femme Fatale' sidekicks.
And a flawed genius with a british accent.
I could go on and mention similaritys in weapons, gameplay, story (though you can't pin the cloning argument on any game with the "Big aliens trying to take over the world" critique anymore since it's pretty much it's own genre by now...) and enemies, but i shant, simply because many games have taken similar lines, it's just the way progression works.
99.99% of the FPs players wants to play a some super special awesome space-soldier-marine not a scientist solving puzzles
LOL This, seems true enough, although I happen to quite enjoy most of said games.Souplex said:
Also, Half life 2 did not seem that great to me. The story elements were excellent, but I just could not make myself enjoy the combat. I almost wish there was a way I could just remove all unnecessary enemies, and just walk leisurely to each plot advancement point.
Unlike the majority of FPS I have played Half Life's gameplay is fluid and non-sequential. As in, even with the game split into chapters it doesn't really detract the player with unnecessary transitions in-between since the story keeps moving. The games also tend to give the player a sense of danger and fear during play, particularly of note in quiet and secluded areas (I still dread Ravenholm) whereas the traditional FPS fluffs the player up so much the suspension of belief is broken.
Because half life two has only three aspects, these three aspects are the benchmark. If your game does not exceed or par, then your game sucks
Graphics - Source engine renders are easy on GPUs and processors, but nevertheless still comparable to current gen graphics
Physics - Source physics was the industry standard on good physics, especially during it's release. Now we see dynamic paper on Arkham Asylum or dynamic glass or wall busting or smokescreening in grayathon shooters.
Storytelling - Half Life narrates its story through the eyes of the main character. Now we see Heavy Rain giving you control of four people to unravel it's mystery
Half Life and Half Life two set the benchmark on technicalities of game making.
GTA set the benchmark on making sandboxes. So what im saying is, every game in the current gen just clones/innovates the 3 aspects that Half Life has set on. You can't rip off the original, but you can make prime alternatives. Halo was a prime alternative of an FPS, so was CoD, so was MoH
My two cents...
Graphics - Source engine renders are easy on GPUs and processors, but nevertheless still comparable to current gen graphics
Physics - Source physics was the industry standard on good physics, especially during it's release. Now we see dynamic paper on Arkham Asylum or dynamic glass or wall busting or smokescreening in grayathon shooters.
Storytelling - Half Life narrates its story through the eyes of the main character. Now we see Heavy Rain giving you control of four people to unravel it's mystery
Half Life and Half Life two set the benchmark on technicalities of game making.
GTA set the benchmark on making sandboxes. So what im saying is, every game in the current gen just clones/innovates the 3 aspects that Half Life has set on. You can't rip off the original, but you can make prime alternatives. Halo was a prime alternative of an FPS, so was CoD, so was MoH
My two cents...
Why is notbody talking about how Half Life 1 was the grandaddy of the modern story driven FPS?
As far as im aware, Half Life was the first FPS to:
Have you start with no guns.
Have an interactive intro sequence.
(PS im aware this happened in its nearest release rival Unreal, however it was of a very different tone and in no way cinematic like Half Life)
Have Friendly NPC characters who you could direct to follow you or wait, and performed individual actions as well as simply chatted with each other...
Cinematic set piece scripted events.
Have NPC enemies who were often more interested in killing each other than you.
Have weapons that require MANUAL RELOADING.
Seamless environment (kind of).
Environmental puzzles with moveable objects dragable in real time.
Weapons held realistically in the hand, which was animated.
I dont remember a FPS having blood decals splatter on the wall either....
I could go on, and im sure im wrong on a few FINE details, but back in the day - Half Life blew me and everyone else away.
Nothing else was even close.... It was like playing a movie. It was the future.
As far as im aware, Half Life was the first FPS to:
Have you start with no guns.
Have an interactive intro sequence.
(PS im aware this happened in its nearest release rival Unreal, however it was of a very different tone and in no way cinematic like Half Life)
Have Friendly NPC characters who you could direct to follow you or wait, and performed individual actions as well as simply chatted with each other...
Cinematic set piece scripted events.
Have NPC enemies who were often more interested in killing each other than you.
Have weapons that require MANUAL RELOADING.
Seamless environment (kind of).
Environmental puzzles with moveable objects dragable in real time.
Weapons held realistically in the hand, which was animated.
I dont remember a FPS having blood decals splatter on the wall either....
I could go on, and im sure im wrong on a few FINE details, but back in the day - Half Life blew me and everyone else away.
Nothing else was even close.... It was like playing a movie. It was the future.
No offense but Half-Life seems like it's simply another tweaked FPS game... albiet a good one that is very popular. Arguably like most FPS games it's already a clone of the central games that started it. Imitating Half-Life would basically be basically cloning a clone so to speak.
Simply put Half-Life has it's things that makes it unique, and so do most other FPS games.
What's more I do think ideas have been being taken from Half-Life, after all we've had "Physics Guns" (so to speak) show up in a number of games. Yahtzee was talking about this with "Dead Space" for example, by saying the feature felt kind of tacked on since most of what you wound up using the feature for was stuff that one would expect the character could have done with his hands normally.
That's simply my opinion/observations.
Basically while there aren't any real direct clones, don't worry: Half Life has been inspiring other FPS games.
Simply put Half-Life has it's things that makes it unique, and so do most other FPS games.
What's more I do think ideas have been being taken from Half-Life, after all we've had "Physics Guns" (so to speak) show up in a number of games. Yahtzee was talking about this with "Dead Space" for example, by saying the feature felt kind of tacked on since most of what you wound up using the feature for was stuff that one would expect the character could have done with his hands normally.
That's simply my opinion/observations.
Basically while there aren't any real direct clones, don't worry: Half Life has been inspiring other FPS games.
...But you've got the G-man in your avatar..legion431 said:
I don't know why there are no Half-Life clones, but I'm happy about it, because I will always love Half-Life. <3