Mass Effect 2: Disturbingly Frequent Demise

This just in: Mass Effect 2 is really hard!

I do not want to cast an accusing glance in Bioware’s direction if it is not justified, so I will try to reign in my nasty stares as much as possible whilst I attempt to figure out the true cause of the phenomenon, but let me just say that as a general rule I am decidedly not fond of sequels that decide they need to be more difficult just because there is a higher number in their title.

It is a remarkably common thing, and one that frustrates me to no end.

“Oh,” the developers seem to be saying, “clearly they beat the first game, so what they must want is more and harder, right? I mean, they can’t possibly just want more of what they already enjoyed but with new stuff added. Sureely they want to be incredibly frustrated along the way as well. We must assume their skills have become superhuman and throw all sorts of torturous walls of difficulty at them. That’s the ticket!”

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The 2009 List of Shame

The games below are not necessarily the outright worst games of the year. In fact, two of the three certainly are not. Frankly, I don't have the time, money, or incentive as a lone blogger to play what are actually the worst games put on shelves. Instead, these are the games that, for various reasons, made me very sad. And being a sad gamer isn't a fun thing to be.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned (DLC)

The Lost and Damned wasn’t a bad game. From all accounts it was a well-constructed addition to the GTA IV universe, with an interesting storyline, new gameplay, and all that other jazz.

None of that is why the add-on made the List of Shame.

It was through playing The Lost and Damned that I realized I don’t have any desire whatsoever to play GTA IV anymore, and this made me sad.

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Best of 2009 - Left 4 Dead 2

As one year transitions into the next, I find it a healthy and refreshing endeavor to look back upon the past year and reflect upon those experiences which touched me the most; to discover which games stood tall above the rest and, for one reason or another, made a lasting impression.

Over the next few days, I will be sharing my own personal list of the ten best games of 2009, followed by those that didn't quite make the top ten and even a few of my greatest disappointments of the year. These are in no particular order, but they are the games I found most worthy of praise. Reflecting upon them makes one thing clear: it was a great year for gaming.

Let’s ignore the controversy for a moment. Let’s ignore the fact that some think this game shouldn’t have been made. Let’s ignore the fact that it spawned countless heated debates and nearly soured the almost untouchable image of Valve as Gamer’s Best Friend. 

Let us instead try to focus on what was ultimately delivered: A full-featured, cohesive package that is truly better than the original in just about every way and makes it hard to go back to the original game - a reliable sign of a worthy sequel.

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Undead Animosity

I’m going to be honest. I don’t have clue why the fuss over Left 4 Dead 2 just simply refuses to go away.

“OMG! Valve is releasing a sequel in only a year! They’re the devil!!!”

People, you do realize this is Valve we’re talking about here, right? The company that has made some of the greatest gaming experiences of all time? The people who brought us the Half-Life series, Counter Strike, Team Fortress, the original Left 4 Dead, Portal, and more?

The company that can basically do no gaming wrong?

Well, aside from the Half-Life episodes, but that’s another argument....

It’s as if Valve has earned itself not a single ounce of trust. It’s as if years and years of delivering some of the best games on the market have earned it nothing but suspicion and hatred.

I don’t get it.

Sure it’s unorthodox for them, but shouldn’t that be why we should accept it? Or at least not revile it?

Valve is one of the only companies around that doesn’t do this on a regular basis; that doesn’t exploit its customers for all they’re worth just because they have a couple of new map ideas and want to squeeze a whole sequel out of them.

Left 4 Dead 2, from all reports I’ve heard, is going to be a solid, complete package far beyond anything we would have gotten through DLC chunks and most assuredly quicker than we would have gotten it through little DLC bits.

That’s perhaps the most baffling thing. The people complaining about this the loudest are obviously fans of Left 4 Dead. I just don’t see what the negative is here.

In just a year, for just the price of one measly new game, the same price these gamers are likely willing to pay many times throughout a single year for new experiences, they’re getting more content in a sequel than was present in the entirety of the original Left 4 Dead.

How is that bad?

Do you think we would have gotten that much content in just a year otherwise? Probably not. Do you think that it would have pulled together into such a nice whole otherwise? Probably not.

Do you have any idea how much Xbox 360 owners would have been gouged for that content? Probably a pretty good chunk of that $60 price for far less content is my guess.

But again, that’s a somewhat different argument....

I’m not saying I don’t understand at all where that animosity comes from. I was just as angry as anybody else when I first saw the Left 4 Dead 2 trailer. I understand it’s unusual for Valve, that it would be easy to interpret this as money grabbing, or even a stab in the back to fans if you want to get melodramatic about it. Valve is not playing by their usual rules and I guess that scares some people a great deal.

If there’s a Left 4 Dead 3 in November 2010, then I’ll most certainly be joining the boycott list just as quickly as anyone else.

In the meantime, I’m getting a whole lot of Left 4 Dead in a relatively short time frame in a more cohesive, satisfying package than random DLC chunks. Not to mention the fact that not only are they still supporting the first game, but they’re promising continued DLC for the second as well.

To me, that’s awesome.

I think we should give Valve a little credit here. I’ve had some of the most fun I’ve ever had while playing a video game while playing games with the Valve logo on them. I’m going to give them a little bit of slack before I start decrying them for being money-grubbing bureaucrats with dollar signs plastered onto their eyeballs. I think they’ve earned a little more of my trust than that.

I know some people are seeing this whole situation and screaming, “Worst case scenario! Best developer ever goes rogue! Begins craving lots of money really fast! Starts whoring out its precious franchises!” But Left 4 Dead 2 is pretty damn good as far as worst case scenarios go.

After only a year, you pay the price of one full game and you get more game than what you bought with your $60 a year ago.

Oh drat. I’m getting more content than the first time and I’m getting it quicker than I expected to.

How dare they.

Look, Left 4 Dead 2, from every interview I’ve read about it, is a project of love if I’ve ever heard of one. Just like all of Valve’s other projects, come to think of it. The only reason Valve is doing this, the only reason Valve is going against their norms, is because they loved the original so much that they wanted to make a lot more of it than they could through little DLC packs.

I respect that. They love what they’re doing and they want to do more. They wanted to explore more ideas and share them with their fans, gamers they thought would stand behind them and appreciate what they were being given.

I think that’s great. I wish more developers would do that. If you’re going to make a sequel, at least be passionate about it; at least be excited about it.

This is the kind of sequel I’m enthused about. This is the kind of sequel I can stand behind and firmly say I don’t mind paying for.

Ultimately, whether or not Left 4 Dead 2 is going to go over well with fans is something we’ll only be able to tell in November when the final game is released. Even I am holding back my final judgment until I actually have a chance to play the game.

I’m remaining hopeful, but despite my optimism, I still don’t know whether the full $60 package is going to feel like it deserves a full $60 package. I certainly hope so, the interviews lead me to believe so, but I’ll only be able to tell when I play for myself.

But it still saddens me that a company as passionate and talented and creative as Valve gained so much animosity from its supposed “fans” the very second it decided to do something slightly different. A move that, were it to come from any other company in the gaming industry, would be recognized not as a traitorous move, but as business as normal.

Where’s the love, people?

Half-Life: Episodic Screwup

Valve screwed up.

Valve screwed up in a major fashion.

There. That should have sufficiently gotten everyone’s attention.

No, I’m not talking about Left 4 Dead 2. I’m actually on their side with that one.

I’m talking about a different issue entirely. One which is admittedly less timely but still close to my heart. A recent interview with Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve, brought this issue back into my mind and I realized that I had never written down my thoughts on the subject before.

Quite simply, the decision to make Half-Life 3 into a series of episodic installments was a mistake.

Half-Life 2 remains one of my favorite shooters of all time. The combat, pacing, story, environments, and character development are all nearly unmatched.

Valve decided to follow up on this smashing success with three episodic installments with the idea being that they would take the place of what Half-Life 3 would have been.

We’re approaching five years since the release of the second Half-Life and I find myself decidedly unfulfilled.

Not only has Valve not yet even finished the three Half-Life “episodes” yet, but Episode 3 has some wickedly difficult work ahead of it if it hopes to finish off the episodes in a fashion even a fraction as satisfying as a full game would have been.

I had fun with the episodes, sure, but it felt like they were meeting me halfway. For every step forward they took, it felt like there was an accompanying step back.

The strong point of the Half-Life episodes was clearly story. That’s just about all Episdoe 1 had going for it. There were no new weapons, the campaign was very short, it reused many of the same obstacles and scenarios we had already seen in Half-Life 2, but Episode 1 was a short but significant little chunk of story.

But in exchange for that story, we got what felt like a rehash of Half-Life 2. It did not feel like the beginning of a proper new story arc or gameplay experience. It felt like a tacked-on extension of the previous story arc with recycled gameplay ideas.

Episode 2 was better. At least in the finale you got one new weapon to play with. It wasn’t enough to make up for the lack of new stuff in the episodes to that point, but it was something and it was coupled with a fairly spectacular finale that actually did manage to change up the gameplay a bit, however briefly. Episode 2 also nicely continued the tradition of great story in the episodes.

But again, problems struck.

The gameplay mechanic of stripping all the player’s weapons away and forcing the player to slowly find them over the course of the game works well over 10 to 20 hours. It does not work so well over the course of two five-hour episodes.

It got old. It just added to the feeling that Valve was just reusing tricks to make these episodes feel more substantial than they really were.

The only real innovation present in the episodes was the story. Everything else was like tiny chunks of Half-Life ripped out of a full game that did not feel as substantial without the context of the rest of the game around it.

I haven’t even mentioned the most significant thing that I feel is missing from the Half-Life episodes, and that is substance and pacing.

By far my favorite thing about the Half-Life series is that the full games feel meaty. They feel satisfying. From start to finish you get a compelling story arc, you get tons of places to go, you get a great story, lots of fantastic set pieces, terrific character development, a great variety of things to see and do, and places to explore. The games feel worth your time and keep you interested for the entire ride; a ride that is not only longer than most other shooters but far, far more interesting.

I think there is a reason that most shooters today only last six to eight hours and I don’t believe it is because the budget only allows them to be that long. I think the true reason is that they can’t be interesting for any longer.

But Half-Life games can.

They’re more than just the same old run and gun shooting mechanics. They give players a true adventure, not just a shooter. The Half-Life episodes remove this adventure aspect.

By repeating the same “lose your weapons and then find them all again” arc, by doling out the Half-Life experience in such small, disconnected chunks, you lose that grand feeling of adventure that I so loved in the Half-Life games, and that is the most egregious sin of all.

Stripping the Half-Life series of their adventure spirit is taking the Half-Life out of Half-Life.

It’s entirely possible that once Episode 3 is released some mystical day in the far off future, that it will, somehow, manage to connect all of these disparate elements, to pull all three episodes together, and to finally make all three episodes into the proper Half-Life 3 story arc that was supposed to have been.

But it’s got a hell of a lot of work cut out for it if it hopes to do that.

Long story short, Episode 3 needs to be Half-Life 3 for this to work in Valve’s favor.

Now don’t go misunderstanding me. The Half-Life episodes, despite all my gripes with them, despite my lamentations over what could have been, still remain some of the best shooting experiences out there.

Sure I vastly would have preferred a longer wait for a fuller, more satisfying installment. Sure I think that breaking the experience up into episodes was a mistake. Sure I think that Valve completely and totally missed the point of the whole “episodic” fad it was so desperately trying to latch onto (not to mention overestimated its capability to deliver an experience catering to that formula in a timely fashion). Sure I think that the Half-Life franchise just does not translate well to episodes.

But, they’re still better made than the vast majority of shooters on the market and they’re still more fun.

That’s the amazing thing about Valve’s creativity and talent. Despite the fact that I feel that the Half-Life episodes are too short, not as satisfying, and reusing many of the tricks of their bigger, fuller Half-Life 2 sibling, they’re still better than just about everything else out there.

That is why I want to see Valve finally put the full force of their talent into a full Half-Life 3.
It’s time.

It’s been close to five years since Half-Life 2 and we don’t even seem close to getting Episode 3, much less Half-Life 3 proper. If Episode 3 is just another short episode, I don’t even want to think about how long it’s going to take them to actually get us Half-Life 3 proper.

The bottom line is, the Half-Life series is one of my favorite of all time. It is for only that reason that I am being so hard on it. I feel like the episodes, while great for what they are, do not live up to the full potential of what a Half-Life experience could really be.

Hopefully Valve will find some way to make good on that potential sooner rather than later.