Choppaduel said:
When I say its predictable, I mean I run forward, do a little platforming, fight the same enemies, uncover plot, and maybe engage in a physics puzzle. Lather, rinse and repeat every chapter and every episode. And let's not forget the elevator stuff. Think about Fallout 3. A huge open game, so many people to interact with, so many different ways to play the game.
The problem being that it's a single player campaign based game but the game never enforces variety in combat. The weapons are heavily situational. The revolver ammo was far to scarce to effectively use, the pistol was pathetically weak and you'd never use it because the SMG ammo was always a plenty. The crossbow with the crosshair was never a necessity at all. Throughout the whole game, I only ever needed my shotgun and the SMG/Assault Rifles for fighting. Yes, the gravity gun is glorious as a mechanic, but it was never used to its full potential. It was only ever used to push a cupboard away from a door or throw away the tracking balls. Let's look at Team Fortress 2. I mean we have nine very distinct classes purely based on three aspects. Speed, health and weapons. And yet they play and feel completely different. I guess you could apply the same complaint to a game like Left 4 Dead but that game is more of a mastery of these weapons. You can breeze through half-life 2 by just shooting at stuff as much as you can.
When I say bonuses, I mean the game was very simplistic in what you were able to do. Even if you found the mystic vortiguant, explore athe santraps, etc, you were never sufficiently awarded. Let's look back at Left 4 Dead. Taking a different route than usual or backtracking ever so slightly might reward you with a pipe bomb which could easily save a life later on. Exploring the world was extremely fulfilling. Highly immersive and it was melded into the main mechanics of the game. When I was looking for the caches, that felt totally unnatural and took me out of the game. I mean the small details are great. G-Man and small extra areas, but it doesn't hold up.
Driving sequences. This is pretty subjective. Some people like it, some people didn't. I just didn't, I suppose. I think it may be because you never really needed it. It was only ever required as to not have to tediously walk through long parts of empty space or rush by enemies. I did particularly like the water boat sections if only because it wasn't so restricting on where you could go. Although I can't really think of any game that's mixed vehicles fluidly into a non-racing game.
The game does not enforce a variety of strategy. Yes, you CAN decide to put on restrictions or combinations, but it's never the wisest choice. Putting this in contrast with something like Bulletstorm, which is totally centred around trying new things and making it fun. Using only a gravity gun is something that's only hinted at by the Ravenholm achievement and is about equivocally fun as using only a white mage in Final Fantasy and the likes.
It's a great game. It's a fun game. But because of so many modern titles taking what it had originally done, it won't feel as unique to anyone who first played it years later than its release. Like me, who only got the Orange Box last year.
