Episode 2 Preview From the Shack

[CSN NewsBot]

Rounding out their tour de force of Source game previews, Shacknews brings the world their impressions of Episode 2.

[T]he preview ended, having demonstrated a Half-Life that is, if not necessarily a radical departure from prior games, a significantly expanded and evolved one. Team members noted that, while the emphasis on greater player choice and more open situations has led to numerous design challenges, it has also opened up many gameplay and narrative possibilities. "More choice equals more potential for bad situations," said Speyrer simply--and, of course, the Half-Life games are as much as anything else about a string of bad situations.

Well, the two page preview basically details, in depth, a number of pieces found throughout the game. If you like your previews with little to no spoilers, you may want to look elsewhere. It's getting harder and harder to find quotes that aren't complete and blatant spoilers.



The preview did mention an improved autosave feature that will prevent the game from saving if in the middle of combat. The commentary mode found in Episode 1 and the Lost Coast will also make a return, and there will be a lot more free roaming and open areas in Episode 2, marking a drastic change from the quite linear nature of Half-Life 2.

[HACKER HELL STORM]

load times sucked for me in HL2 and EP1, 1.5 gigs and it was still too long imo.. maybe my rig just sucks.

[Thortok2000]

Edited by [user="152360"] @ [time="1179207221"]

I like the linear nature of the halflife series, though. -.- My favorite feature of it was the linear path through a seemingly vast and non-linear world.



I liked that 'this is the way to go', and that there was a set path, and you experienced the same events. Made it a lot more movie-like, and increased the strength of the story.



After reading the review, I'm not as worried. Basically, there'll still be a path to follow, but it'll be a 'wider' path, so you can go down that path in very different ways.



A truly non-linear game in my mind would be experiencing different elements of the story in a different order than someone else did, which I don't think is the case here, so good. What I think will happen with this game is that people will experience the same storyline in the same order, but just in different ways. "Oh, you fought those guys on the roof? Well, I fought them in the basement from behind the overturned fridge." "I fought them outside, behind the garage." "Sweet."

[DevgruSeal H.E]

Yeah, I always liked having a set path. I always felt like if I "go down this corridor, I'll miss out on what's in that corridor," or I have taken the wrong path, and will shortly return to an area I had just previously fought at, having to wait for a load screen twice.



Oh how I did that several times on STALKER.

[Zips]

Yeah, but multiple paths tend to lead to multiple play throughs. For something like an Episode, that's not a bad thing as you can double, triple, etc your time spent on the game. More replay value for your buck.