I've been thinking about HL2 maps and mods. Yes the game is rather old now but people continue to make maps and mods for HL2 and the audience for them never seems to diminish. Many other FPS shooters have come and gone since 2004 so what makes HL2 so special?
Why is it considered to be the best PC game of all time?
As a mod maker I've been trying to nail down the essence of great HL2 gameplay for a while now and I think I've finally cracked it.
The official HL2 games survive because the gameplay continually changes throughout the game. Each room you enter you are faced with a different type of challenge and a different form of gameplay.
As I played through the official game I realised that every small area could be described as a single game unto itself with simple statements of gameplay each time:
- Set the zombies on fire with this trap
- Don't set off the trip mines
- Don't touch the toxic sludge on the floor
- Move forward and kill the combine
- Stay were you are and kill any combine that attack
- Kill all the striders before they reach White Forest
- Move the panels so Alyx can shoot the zombies
- Shine the flash light so Alyx can shoot the zombies
The game constantly re-invents itself. The npc's and other interactive objects are a pallette from which to build new combinatinos. Most items from that pallette have a unique form of interaction:
- Hopper mines explode when eaten by a Barnicle
- Combine Soldiers flail about on fire when hit with gas cannister
- Combine fight with Antlions and Zombies
- Zombies fight with Antlions
- Hopper mines can set off gas cannisters
The list goes on and on. By finding new and interesting combinations of these elements, mappers and modders can pretty much create an infinite amount of new gameplay options.
I've tried mapping for other games but no game out there offers this range of elements that can be combined in this way.
Now if you take all the above, and then look at the official HL2 maps there's one other thing that make HL2 special. You never have nothing to do.
No matter where you are or what you're doing in the game, the player's experience is never ever passive. There is always something to play with or interact with in every area.
As you move forward the way is never simple, there are always breakable boards across doors or boxes in the way or some form or a bonus to find, or a bad guy to take care of.
That's the true essence of a good HL2 map. No areas should ever be without something fun to play with...
...and that is why it's still loved because every single area, of every single map has fun built in.
It's not a word I see much here on Mod DB. FUN! That's why people play games right? For FUN! Not to see a nice model of a Lugar pistol but to have FUN!
