This is a really unpopular opinion[1], so I hope I don't get a lot of flak here, but while Half-Life 1 had a lot of intrigue, Half-Life 2 felt plain awful and I'm not really sure how they could turn any of #2 into movie material unless they really de-emphasized Gordon to the point where he's a minor character.
You'll notice, after all, that most live-action stuff centered around the Half-Life universe doesn't really contain any Gordon (at least the ones I've seen)[2].
Half-Life 1 was the story of a scientist caught up in something much larger than himself. You played this hapless guy who escaped and explored worlds, with compelling confusion about who your enemies and friends were. It was dream-like and scary and mysterious and great.
Half-life 2 felt like you were being lead through a metaphorical tunnel the entire game. Literally some parts had NPCs reminding you to "go this way" for hour-long stretches. Most of the game wasn't escaping terrifying situations, instead it felt like you were merely "in transit". It's hard to have a thrilling feeling of excitement and horror as you're being nagged to get to the next plot device.
What's more, whereas in HL1 you were this scientist caught up in a mess, in HL2 you play essentially the role of a hired brute. You do zero Gordon-specific things. When you meet Barney at the start of the game, if you swapped bodies with Barney at that moment, nothing in the game would have changed at all. Congrats on that MIT degree the NPCs will remind you, now kindly plow through 6,000 bugs/zombies/cycloptic humans as we tell you what to do.
I have a inkling that the sour direction HL2 took is at least part of the reason they're having trouble with HL3 but who's to say. Most reviews say its one of the greatest games ever, so maybe I'm way off kilter.
Anyway, I think a Half-Life movie, if it covered any of the events in Half-Life 2 at all, would suffer severe problems if it tries to make a story of a mute scientist who kills his way to the 90th floor of Castle X to save the world. It's just not a very compelling story.
That makes it the #1 all-time highest scoring game on Metacritic (tied with HL1!), which seems insane to me, and several (in my opinion) better games within that genre come to mind.
I disagree. The game was absolutely fantastic. It was never about problem solving or challenging my brain etc. It was about creating an incredible experience through the atmosphere, music and graphics (along with the back-story and intrigue).
The moment I stepped off the train I got chills down my spine with the music and the deserted train station, with the voice of authority booming down. The super aggressive guards, the scared/confused people, the desolate streets, the whole thing was perfect to a point.
There were sections which were forced or not interesting (using the pheromones for example), but I can't remember other games where I had that "wow" moment so many times.
In fairness I haven't played many games for the last few years (including Portal), so maybe there are other games which have improved upon that. But at the time it was amazing.
Congrats on that MIT degree the NPCs will remind you, now kindly plow through 6,000 bugs/zombies/cycloptic humans as we tell you what to do.
That's a good point. I replayed it recently and it wasn't until close to the end (when you've had your weapons taken away in exchange fora souped-up gravity gun and you're basically dealing with puzzles and combat simultaneously) that the science-fiction feel was properly re-established. I was so sick of zombies by the time I got to the end.
I also agree about the glass-tunnel feel of the game, but that seems to be an almost unavoidable problem with FPS games.
Me too, I'm always surprised by the success around Half-Life 2. Let's be honest, it's a very good game. The gameplay is very well thought out, and the finish is impeccable. Maybe be a little bit too much so, If you remove the gravity gun, the game ends up as unimaginative as you can get.
And let's not talk about the story, which as you said, is pretty flat and uninteresting.
Recommendation time! If you want to play an underrated game (from circa the same period as Half-Life 2) that will rock your word, I recommend "Dark Messiah of Might and Magic" (by the creators of Dishonored). The melee combat mechanics are so good and intuitive they spoiled the combat parts of Skyrim and Chivalry: Medieval Warfare for me. The story is compelling, but linear except for two or three choice points.
I never thought half life 2 was supposed to be some amazing game. Rather it was made to show off the capabilities of the source engine. And, at the time, the source engine was pretty revolutionary. Hence the fanboyism.
I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in my opinion that HL2 seemed to drag on eternally. I loved HL1, but never even completed HL2 - all I really remember thinking back is
* drive boat, get out, shoot stuff, open gates. repeat. a lot.
* headcrabs
* Ravenwood is annoying and boring. more headcrabs.
* no ammo. lots of headcrabs.
I'm not joking, at some point I just stopped playing...
I suppose I should give it another chance, the story seems to be intriguing.
HL1 was definitely better than HL2 (which I still liked), which would make a terrible movie.
But HL1 as a movie? It's already been made. Half Life is Die Hard with aliens as a video game. "Fairly regular guy is put into an unpexpected situation where is is forced to kick ass and crawl through air-ducts in the ceiling." We don't need a Half Life movie.
You're not. I replayed HL2, and it was a dull experience. HL2 fellates the player way too much; part of what made HL1 intriguing was that Gordon was a nobody caught up in something bigger than himself.
In HL2 the "mysterious" aspect of the non-plot feels forced in comparison.
Well, Half-Life might work as a silent film. (Zing!)
Sorry, couldn't resist the obvious joke.
To me, a good story generally involves good characters. Are there actually any good characters in half-life? Gordon is literally a blank slate, and Alex is an extremely generic attractive side-kick. And uh, theres a scientist and barney. The only interesting character I can think of is the G-Man, but he's more interesting in terms of what he suggests about the structure of the world rather than as a character in his own right (at this point).
I just don't get where the story draws from. Half-Life was effective because it presented a great experience rather than a great narrative.
If the film began by appearing to be about Freeman and chums, but gradually was revealed to actually be about G-Man as a "chess Grandmaster" style behind-the-scenes puppet-master, they could get a lot out of that.
Love the games. But let's face it: Hollywood movies based on games are basically professionally done fanfic. They use the world to tell a story, which is really, really boring.
I mean, has there ever been a successful movie based on a game?
It would be far, far better if Abrams and Valve collaborated on a new game. Half-Life 3, perhaps? Or a massively multiplayer Portal? There's certainly no shame in doing games anymore for big names. The money is, if anything, better in games than in movies these days.
You could argue the Resident Evil movies are successful. They've made 5 of them, and most of them have made a ton of money worldwide...
Honestly though, I think video game movies right now are like Comic Book movies were 20 years ago. Back then, they all were terrible until someone came along and made one (with an appropriate budget) that took the material seriously, and now it's a massive profit engine.
I think there are many video game based stories worthy of movies, it just takes someone to do it right.
I thought silent hill was quite good, probably due to less rigid 'canon' allowing for flexibility in characters and story. Admittedly, this would make it the exception and not the rule. I also think this means that Half Life/Portal would not translate well into a movie.
When you're sitting in a theater watching the Portal movie, will you be able to see through the portals on the screen to see movies in the other theaters in the multiplex?
I will never forgive Abrams for the eternal clusterfuck of plot betrayal that was Lost, and intend to express this by boycotting anything he has a hand in forever.
After the first episode (and definitely after the first seasom) JJ Abrams had no involvement in Lost. You can blame Lindelof and Cuse if you hated Lost.
I've never personally watched Lost, but I've been told that in the first episode they explain the concept of a plane crash several times. "We were up there...and then the engine failed...and now, we're down here!"
If this is an accurate characterization, it says a lot of things -- none of them favorable -- about the show, the director, and the audience.
I can save them a few hundred million bucks, mix in McGuffins every few paragraphs, wrap things up with a shaggy dog ending. Include gratuitous explosions, car/plane/train crashes, and rescue the chick,puppy,small children between McGuffins.
Valve could make a PG-13 rated Team Fortress 2 game, and people would love it. Make a "Magnificent 7" rip-off, or an "Oceans 11" rip-off. The thing is tailor-made for any caper/heist/action flick.
[+] [-] simonsarris|13 years ago|reply
You'll notice, after all, that most live-action stuff centered around the Half-Life universe doesn't really contain any Gordon (at least the ones I've seen)[2].
Half-Life 1 was the story of a scientist caught up in something much larger than himself. You played this hapless guy who escaped and explored worlds, with compelling confusion about who your enemies and friends were. It was dream-like and scary and mysterious and great.
Half-life 2 felt like you were being lead through a metaphorical tunnel the entire game. Literally some parts had NPCs reminding you to "go this way" for hour-long stretches. Most of the game wasn't escaping terrifying situations, instead it felt like you were merely "in transit". It's hard to have a thrilling feeling of excitement and horror as you're being nagged to get to the next plot device.
What's more, whereas in HL1 you were this scientist caught up in a mess, in HL2 you play essentially the role of a hired brute. You do zero Gordon-specific things. When you meet Barney at the start of the game, if you swapped bodies with Barney at that moment, nothing in the game would have changed at all. Congrats on that MIT degree the NPCs will remind you, now kindly plow through 6,000 bugs/zombies/cycloptic humans as we tell you what to do.
I have a inkling that the sour direction HL2 took is at least part of the reason they're having trouble with HL3 but who's to say. Most reviews say its one of the greatest games ever, so maybe I'm way off kilter.
Anyway, I think a Half-Life movie, if it covered any of the events in Half-Life 2 at all, would suffer severe problems if it tries to make a story of a mute scientist who kills his way to the 90th floor of Castle X to save the world. It's just not a very compelling story.
[1] I was lambasted for offering this opinion on Reddit. The game also has a 96 on Metacritic, with zero negative reviews: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/half-life-2
That makes it the #1 all-time highest scoring game on Metacritic (tied with HL1!), which seems insane to me, and several (in my opinion) better games within that genre come to mind.
[2] What I was thinking of specifically was "Escape from City 17": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1UPMEmCqZo
[+] [-] sheri|13 years ago|reply
In fairness I haven't played many games for the last few years (including Portal), so maybe there are other games which have improved upon that. But at the time it was amazing.
[+] [-] anigbrowl|13 years ago|reply
That's a good point. I replayed it recently and it wasn't until close to the end (when you've had your weapons taken away in exchange fora souped-up gravity gun and you're basically dealing with puzzles and combat simultaneously) that the science-fiction feel was properly re-established. I was so sick of zombies by the time I got to the end.
I also agree about the glass-tunnel feel of the game, but that seems to be an almost unavoidable problem with FPS games.
[+] [-] DeepDuh|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] norswap|13 years ago|reply
And let's not talk about the story, which as you said, is pretty flat and uninteresting.
Recommendation time! If you want to play an underrated game (from circa the same period as Half-Life 2) that will rock your word, I recommend "Dark Messiah of Might and Magic" (by the creators of Dishonored). The melee combat mechanics are so good and intuitive they spoiled the combat parts of Skyrim and Chivalry: Medieval Warfare for me. The story is compelling, but linear except for two or three choice points.
[+] [-] thefreeman|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] galaktor|13 years ago|reply
I'm not joking, at some point I just stopped playing... I suppose I should give it another chance, the story seems to be intriguing.
[+] [-] jlgreco|13 years ago|reply
HL1 was definitely better than HL2 (which I still liked), which would make a terrible movie.
But HL1 as a movie? It's already been made. Half Life is Die Hard with aliens as a video game. "Fairly regular guy is put into an unpexpected situation where is is forced to kick ass and crawl through air-ducts in the ceiling." We don't need a Half Life movie.
[+] [-] rangibaby|13 years ago|reply
You're not. I replayed HL2, and it was a dull experience. HL2 fellates the player way too much; part of what made HL1 intriguing was that Gordon was a nobody caught up in something bigger than himself.
In HL2 the "mysterious" aspect of the non-plot feels forced in comparison.
[+] [-] MartinCron|13 years ago|reply
You are not alone in this opinion.
[+] [-] kemiller|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zanny|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ck2|13 years ago|reply
Why the heck is JJ Abrams the only person Hollywood can go to though? That's crazy and I am kinda exhausted from his style.
Now if they can make a mystery movie based on portal, I'd watch that.
[+] [-] Benferhat|13 years ago|reply
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4drucg1A6Xk
[+] [-] error54|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] overgard|13 years ago|reply
Sorry, couldn't resist the obvious joke.
To me, a good story generally involves good characters. Are there actually any good characters in half-life? Gordon is literally a blank slate, and Alex is an extremely generic attractive side-kick. And uh, theres a scientist and barney. The only interesting character I can think of is the G-Man, but he's more interesting in terms of what he suggests about the structure of the world rather than as a character in his own right (at this point).
I just don't get where the story draws from. Half-Life was effective because it presented a great experience rather than a great narrative.
[+] [-] dspeyer|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] EliRivers|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] javajosh|13 years ago|reply
I mean, has there ever been a successful movie based on a game?
It would be far, far better if Abrams and Valve collaborated on a new game. Half-Life 3, perhaps? Or a massively multiplayer Portal? There's certainly no shame in doing games anymore for big names. The money is, if anything, better in games than in movies these days.
[+] [-] FreeKill|13 years ago|reply
Honestly though, I think video game movies right now are like Comic Book movies were 20 years ago. Back then, they all were terrible until someone came along and made one (with an appropriate budget) that took the material seriously, and now it's a massive profit engine.
I think there are many video game based stories worthy of movies, it just takes someone to do it right.
[+] [-] meaty|13 years ago|reply
Flawless victory!
[+] [-] harshpotatoes|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] InclinedPlane|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nonamegiven|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gruseom|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] untog|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MartinCron|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eertami|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] csense|13 years ago|reply
If this is an accurate characterization, it says a lot of things -- none of them favorable -- about the show, the director, and the audience.
[+] [-] maked00|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] officemonkey|13 years ago|reply
Valve could make a PG-13 rated Team Fortress 2 game, and people would love it. Make a "Magnificent 7" rip-off, or an "Oceans 11" rip-off. The thing is tailor-made for any caper/heist/action flick.
[+] [-] cheeseprocedure|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MartinCron|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] B-Con|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DiabloD3|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Bud|13 years ago|reply
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118065765/
[+] [-] knodi|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] matmann2001|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jnycs|13 years ago|reply
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