« The PBR Guide to Starting a Band, or at Least Being Youthfull + Punk-Esque | Main | ATI to Power Xbox Xenon »
Review : Half-Life for PS2
Review : Half-Life for PS2
Tip of the hat to Marcus for reminding me to review this game.
I have a little task for all you PS2 owners. Walk over to it and take a look at the ports in the little box next to the memory card slots and controller ports. Do you see those two USB ports on the front of the PS2? Do you know what those are for? Those are so you can play Half-Life for PS2 with a mouse and keyboard the way that GOD intended it to be played.
Half-Life by Valve is hands down the most important PC game of the late 90s. It is a game that was so popular and well regarded that it actually created a mild recession in PC games because no one bought new games when they were still obsessed with Half-Life. I would have to say that there are three essential influential first person shooters. Doom, Quake and Half-life.
Half-Life started out being based on the Quake 1 engine but was almost completely overhauled to include features that were not possible before. Half-Life featured a real time skeletal deformation animation system. This was used to create very dynamic animations that reacted to their environment. It featured a loading system where you could journey through the complex as one complete experience rather than pre-defined levels. Finally Valve created a Half-Life Mod Software Development Kit or SDK. They throughly documented all the nuances of how to develop content for the game and the scripting engine. Mods for Half-Life continue to be a massive cultural and technological obsession.
The Story of Half-Life is that of Gorden Freeman a scientist who works in a top secret government Black Mesa research facility. Things go horribly wrong and the complex is taken over by creatures from another dimension. Gordon must work with the surviving scientists and security guards to escape Black Mesa and stop the spread of the creatures. It is full of engulfing level and object design, thousands of line of dialog, great puzzles and kick ass action packed fire power. Gorden is one bad ass with a crowbar if you know what I mean. It is not just a brainless action game but it is really well written and designed.
Oh yeah and it is the most popular online multi-player game ever.
There were a number of official expansion packs and thousands of un-official mods. Half-Life was not just a game it was a platform and a culture.
In fact Valve Software is hard at work finishing Half-Life 2 for PC and Xbox. Now I don't have a Xbox anymore and there is no way the underpowered 3d chip in my $1000 laptop can handle the beefy graphics of Half-Life 2 so I will wait until the day that I get a new notebook PC. Half-Life 2 will be the first piece of software that I will install on it after Windows.
There have been ports of Half-Life made for Mac and Dreamcast but both were canceled before release. It is a crying shame.
But have no fear because Gearbox Studios has ported Half-Life to the PS2. A lot of the models and textures were improved for the PS2 version and it looks more like a console game than an aging PC game. You can still tell it is a port but it is was a really good job and it is not painful or look at or play.
As a rule I generally do not like first person shooters on console game systems but Half-Life for PS2 is the first FPS game in my library that got it right. Gearbox was able to recreate the save game system using the memory card so you can save your game from any location and at any time just like the PC game. They also created an optional auto targeting system that helps you aim using the PS2 controllers. If you get your gun close to a target but are 10% off due to the difficulty of playing using a controller the targeting system will help out and aid you in making the shot. It is like using an aim-bot but it is not really cheating.
Now that brings me to a major point. Gearbox included a control scheme for USB mice and Keyboards. So if you can plug in a USB keyboard and/or mouse you can play the game the way that GOD intended. Remember that playing first person shooter games using a control pad makes baby Jesus cry.
There is a 2 player split screen deathmatch game that works but it is not as cool as the PC multi-player game.
Made just for the PS2 version is a new Half-Life episode called Decay that must be played with another player using a split screen co-op mode. This is a major selling point to the PC Half-Life addicts out there.
This game was made well before the PS2 came online with the network adapter. I think it would be spiffy if they reissued this game but with Internet and network play with a handful of custom mods. Oh Yeah.
I recommend all you Mac owners and poor souls who have never experienced Half-Life to pick this up, plug in a USB mouse and try to save Gordon Freeman's goatee & thick glasses wearing ass.
To those of you who are nursing PC Half-Life addictions there is not that much new for you in this version. You can find it new for $20 and while it may not be as cutting edge as Halo I would rather hang out with Gordon Freeman over the Halo Master Chief any day.
It would be a good idea to play the game again before Half-Life 2 takes over.
Jake at August 14, 2003 
Reviews
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.8bitjoystick.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/330
Comments
sounds more than interesting...i still haven't seen Halo and i don't want to...i've heard horror stories about Halo addictions ;)
Posted by: lilly at August 14, 2003 06:54 AM
I wholeheartedly support two positions in this entry, and add an aside of my own:
Support #1: Half-Life is one of the most important FPS games ever. If you* haven't played it, you must have been living under a rock.
Support #2: FPS games with a control pad suck. Mouse and keyboard rule.
Aside: If you* were to play Half-Life with a control pad against me with a mouse and keyboard, I would kick your ass.
* denotes a general "you", not anyone in particular.
Posted by: Jeff at August 14, 2003 06:59 AM
This is still my favorite PC game, hands down. I'm playing through the PC version again in anticipation of Half Life 2. I hope that I am floored as much as I was by the first game.
a little off topic, but speaking of games that floored me, is anyone here a System Shock 2 fan? I still love that game, although I have yet to finish it (every time i reload my computer, that is one game that i forget to backup the savegames). It by far has the creepiest ambient sounds I have ever heard in a game and really seems to draw you in.
Posted by: pellinore at August 14, 2003 07:35 AM
That's a fantastic game, Pellinore. I never finished it either, but I started over several times. Warren Spector is my hero. Did you play Deux Ex? I actually beat that game (and I rarely beat games). I can't wait for the sequel.
Posted by: Jeff at August 14, 2003 11:41 AM
Let us not forget the memory of the Dreamcast version that was canned a week before release.
Posted by: Matt at August 14, 2003 12:03 PM
Hey both the Macintosh and Dreamcast versions were canned AFTER they were finished.
Posted by: Jake at August 14, 2003 12:05 PM
Jeff, I actually have Deus Ex (it came with one of my video or soundcard purchase), but I have yet to play it. I actually need to play that one, but i'll be damned if i don't mean to do something and right when I'm about to get to it, something else cool comes along and distracts me (I'm going to be checking out the Star Wars conversion for Battlefield 1942 tonite if i can squeeze in some video gaming time). I just need to get a job that centers around playing video games (not testing - yuck) so that I can get my daily dosage of gaming time fit into my schedule. Oh well, wishful thinking never hutrs, but then again never really gets me anywhere either :(
Posted by: pellinore at August 14, 2003 01:42 PM
Deus Ex actually came to mind repeatedly as I played Half-Life recently -- probably because it's one of the only other single player FPSes worth playing. Each have great level design and a compelling story.
Thanks for the tip of the hat, Jake. After reading your review, I feel that I didn't give Gearbox enough credit for their graphic improvments on the game -- clearly some effort was made, but I may just be spoiled by Metroid Prime.
Posted by: Trapp at August 15, 2003 10:01 AM
In fact the new high rez models that they made for the PS2 game were added to the Blue Shift expansion pack for the PC.
Posted by: Jake at August 15, 2003 10:11 AM
Deus Ex is definitely one of the best FPS I have ever played. The fact that there is an actual story line and a little bit of RPG element in it makes it worth it. If you have a copy and have not played it, do so...now! If for no other reason than to prepare for Deus Ex 2.
Posted by: Mici at August 15, 2003 12:53 PM
So does Deus Ex on PS2 support a USB Keyboard and Mouse
Posted by: Jake at August 15, 2003 12:58 PM