It's been 10 years since HL2;ep3 was announced

[Lord Tony®]

Do I really have to go record my playthrough of ravenholm to show you the massive chain reaction of barrels? I will literally play the game again just to count every single barrel that's out of place.

There is even explosive barrels in that loving prison level. That is the least place you'd expect to see explosive barrels casually sitting around.

[Ad Bot]

[Ipquarx]

Do I really have to go record my playthrough of ravenholm to show you the massive chain reaction of barrels?

Oh you mean that one part of a massive chapter where you get to do a single chain reaction and then half the zombies respawn after less than a few minutes? Yeah. I know that part. Stop acting as if that's the entire game.

[McJob]

Tony, if you're going to make crap resolutions about game design (of which you are not a professional), please don't use my old avatar to do it.

Half-Life isn't about realism. It's about making interesting set-pieces for the player to travel through. Each presents a question which may have one or multiple answers. Each is designed to either teach new concepts or reinforce concepts previously learned. Listening to any Valve developer commentary will tell you this.

Barrels are designed to be a recognisable element of interaction. Players learn and understand the benefits of the barrels, and hence they feel good when they make use of them after they learn the best strategy of waiting for enemies to be close to the barrels. Part of the game's questions revolve around a simple gameplay element, the barrels, and how to make best use of them.

Please never become a professional game designer. I'm sorry you have some kind of fear of barrels. There's also hundreds of enemies in Half-Life, are you going to cry about that too?

[Maxwell.]

The hardest thing in Half Life 2, IMO, was the Strider battle at the end of Episode Two, and that's because you have to multi-task between Hunters, Striders, bases, refuel on Magnusson Devices, rockets, AR2 alt fires, etc

I did that part with my friend on synergy, and I'm quite glad cause otherwise I would've gave up

[Lord Tony®]

The entire game is literally filled with gimmicky explosive barrels.


They are placed casually around old bridges.

Combine use explosive barrels for cover.

They are casually placed near enemy machine gun turrets.

They are casually placed near enemy vehicles.

You'll see them near fragile wooden structures.

Often enough you'll see 3-5 grouped together for chain reactions.


Just admit it. I don't want to have to record my entire playthrough just to show how gimmicky this game is.

[freshmin]

tony how come explosive barrel placement pisses you off, but not the fact that there are explosive barrels in the first place?

[McJob]

A "gimmick" is a feature of a game that doesn't actually benefit or hinder the player in any way, shape or form.

Stop throwing around words that you don't know the meaning for.

[Lord Tony®]

Please never become a professional game designer. I'm sorry you have some kind of fear of barrels.

I don't believe explosive barrels coincidentally sitting beside vehicles, enemies, machinegun turrets and bridges call for good level design.

Maybe it's good for a game like Call of Duty but not a game that requires critical thinking.

[Lord Tony®]

tony how come explosive barrel placement pisses you off, but not the fact that there are explosive barrels in the first place?

I'm all for explosive barrels. I've seen games pull it off well.

But if you have enemies start hiding behind barrels and you're placing barrels at ridiculous spots like bridge support collums then at some point you have to realize how ridiculous this sounds.

[McJob]

I don't believe explosive barrels coincidentally sitting beside vehicles, enemies, machinegun turrets and bridges call for good level design.

Maybe it's good for a game like Call of Duty but not a game that requires critical thinking.

"Good Level Design" is rarely about the aesthetic placement of objects. Good Level Design is about making sure there's interesting elements of challenge which are countered by things the player can take advantage of, and ensuring that the design of the map speaks to the player natively without requiring a stuff-load of tutorials so the player doesn't get lost.

The player story > the narrative story. The Valve designers wanted to give players options, and the explosive barrels were one such option they used. I'm sorry that you can't seem to fathom that games are supposed to be about the entertainment/learning experience.

[IkeTheGeneric]

seinfeld is unfunny;half life is gimmicky

It's easy to say that physics-based puzzle games are overdone, but half life 2 was pretty much one of the first to really break ground on that subgenre. I'm not trying to defend the usage of explosive barrels, but there was more of a thought process behind level design besides "lol barels explode"

[gr8dayseth]

why don't you tell the explosive barrels that they're just chemical reactions waiting to happen

[freshmin]

at some point you have to realize how ridiculous this sounds.

this game is full of alien invasions and portal technology from the future, for all you know the explosive barrels are an alien species that only wish to die violently in the best places, it isn't that far off from some of the creatures in-game

[Lord Tony®]

The Valve designers wanted to give players options, and the explosive barrels were one such option they used. I'm sorry that you can't seem to fathom that games are supposed to be about the entertainment/learning experience.

Let's be real here. If an enemy is hiding behind an explosive barrel what would be the average player's instinctive option to take? Try to shoot the enemy while avoiding the barrel or shoot the barrel exploding the enemy?

What kind of option is that?


If barrels were out of the way and you had to pick them up and strategically place them around the level for the next encounter (bioshock for example) then that is considered good level design and a great option/learning-experience for players.


Barrels sitting around in ridiculous unrealistic spots like bridges or enemy turrets just makes the game feel cheap. There is nothing to learn from it. You're just shooting it because it's there, not because you put it there.

[Lord Tony®]

This is what good level design with barrels looks like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOPTYSipmiY

Running around picking up whatever you could find to lay traps is good level design. Yields more options for the player and they can learn from it better.