Valve update modifies Half-Life 2 Episode 1

[DigitalFirefly]

Valve has made changes to Half-Life 2: Epsiode 1, including lowering the difficulty on the elevator level. The decision was made based on data collected by Steam.

Link (http://steampowered.com/index.php?area=news&id=681)

[mpsmith]

This is a good thing, I think. If developers have access to this kind of data they can patch games accordingly. I'm surprised I actually agree with something Valve did.

[BlackPete]

Uh... this may be a knee-jerk reaction... but:

I bought episode 1 a while back but haven't really had a chance to play it yet (too many other games in the meantime). Due to the nature of Steam, I won't be able to play the game pre-update, so I don't know if I really like the idea of having them tone down difficulty of some parts without my having played through it first.

/shrugs, doesn't really matter in the end I suppose, but I guess I'd have liked the choice of updating or not...

[Moatman]

That's a very cool thing they can do, I agree that it's nice to see a company be able to look at facts and figures like that and adjust things a little bit.

I found that level to be a bit of a pain, though I did manage to get past it on my second try at normal difficulty, but just barely and with no ammo left... I also found the 3 or 4 antlion hole garage thing to be a bit tough unless you kept moving and let alyx take the brunt, but I guess more people got stuck at this part than the garage.

For those that haven't played, it's in pitch black and on a bit of a timer, with enemies coming randomly at you and it's a situation where you don't have a lot of ammo to start with, so these are very welcome changes to that part.

[Cool AN]

I thought that area was a little, at least now my first try.

[NinjaSverre]

Great, I found that part to be a bit tricky! Nice to see that devs can go and alter things like this.

[Kefkataran]

Very interesting move by Valve. I'll be curious to try out the changes when I do my second run-through with commentary.

[slink-jadranko]

It has to be said, if there was one bit that I wouldn't mind them toning down, it's exactly there. Nice one, again, Valve.

[Sazime]

Whaaaa??? I thought it was a great area the way it was. I felt it was harder, and I did barely make it, but I loved the tension that was there. I thought it was perfect.

[archon]

I don't know, I love Valve and Half-Life, but I like my games hard and I thought that scene was fine. I don't want my games tampered with because the majority don't play it the same way as me.

[serion]

I don't know, I love Valve and Half-Life, but I like my games hard and I thought that scene was fine. I don't want my games tampered with because the majority don't play it the same way as me.

Well, it would be sweet if there was some element of choice, but the majority of consumers are really not smart enough to figure it out, but smart enough to bitch online, give bad recommendations to friends, and refuse to buy future valve products.

And you gotta admit, when you're selling and volume is what makes you a profit, the majority is all that matters. :p

[fndarkone]

i beat it on normal difficulty the first time. i wasnt even really aware of what was going on with it...just killing stuff. and suddenly the elevator door opens up and i get on and its over. i played through it again just to mess round in that area. but whatever. if most people cant beat it, then tone it down.

[UnderHero5]

It's very cool that they are using the data in such a way... but I too agree that the part in question was fine the way it was. Sure it was more difficult than the rest of the game, but it wasn't THAT hard. I died once due to my own stupidity (trapping myself in a small side room)... loaded and finished it fine.

I hope they don't make the rest of the game a cake-walk because the majority suck at games. A choice would be nice.

Edit: Actually, now that I read that again I realise... the rest of the game already IS a cake-walk. A fun one, but still darn easy.

[bryan]

Had no problem the first time I played through that level. Just keep moving and use the gravity gun as much as possible to kill the enemies.

[MasterEvilAce]

I had no problem with the elevator. The thing is.. you don't HAVE to fight everyone. I just ran right into the elevator and hit the button and we were out of there.

In my opinion you should be able to fight everyone off if you want (and that's what they're giving people the option of doing), but it's more realistic to realize you're beat.. and just run away :)

I found the antlion guard a LOT harder. That thing would not die easily.

[Cubfan]

Guess they had to dumb it down for the wussy PC Gamers :D

[AbeLincoln]

While I was waiting I just ran around a lot throwing flares at zombies. I just tried to keep from getting backed into a corner. When the elevator showed up I left. Managed it first try on normal. I didn't think it was hard.

Honestly I thought this meant he citadel elevator with stuff falling on you. I knew exactly what I was supposed to do after the first time I died but I couldn't get it to work for some reason for like ten tries afterwards. Second playthrough was fine though.

I don't really mind them tweaking things. Whats the difference between tweaking something minor like this in pre-release playtests, and post release after everybody's had a go? The only danger I would see is if it started to get where in the first days after release the targeted test group doesn't like the way alex says or does something and so it's changed. Kind of like political language and messeage testing. Ick!

[Captain Awesome]

"The game is hard, please make it easier :("


This is why I also loved Ninja Gaiden, separated the babies from the thinkers.



;)

[Syl]

I picked "hard" for my first episode 1 playthough, simply due to it being the only way of getting any difficulty out of HL2 anyway.

The hardest parts of the game were probably...

1. The ant-lion boss. (on hard that fucker just didn't want to die!)
2. the multi-antlion whole garage thing (such a bitch).
3. The elevator part. (Still one of my *favorite* parts of the game though, just the right difficulty to be scary). It wasn't anywhere near as much of a pain as the first two, however.

[TrackZero]

I'd be fine with these "improvements" so long as they're optionally added. If I can disable them, then they're definitely cool and appreciated (hell, you can even make the changes the default, but just let me turn them off if I want).

[Zuit]

Maybe I'm reading too much into something like this, but this strikes me as the start of something more sinister then just updating content. If you think I'm being crazy let me know - it's been a long week.

I remember another game releasing a patch that made a specific segment easier (I think it was a hitman game, or maybe far cry, probably a lot of games do that), but they made the update without having to resort to “data collection.”

I personally find it disturbing that a developer has made changes to a game after collecting data from how the game is played (especially when it’s a single player game). It seems to justify the entire “collect which ads you are watching and for how long” behind the new in game advertising baddies.

I also agree w/ BlackPete and archon, since we are forced to patch I’ll never get to play episode 1 as it was originally designed – and I think that sucks too. :(

[Wasson_]

Whaaaa??? I thought it was a great area the way it was. I felt it was harder, and I did barely make it, but I loved the tension that was there. I thought it was perfect.


I am torn in my exact feelings between your responce and:

"GOOD CALL, Valve is usually good for a challange and entertainment...but that part was just retarded. Felt cheap, very unbalanced, and out of place."

[abso]

While that level was hard, it was sooooo rewarding once I acomplished it. The hardest part was keeping your flashlight charged so you could see things. It was frustrating a couple times when I was basically done, but some bastard blew himself up in front of the elevator...

[TheEpicOfTyler]

Every time I played that sequence, when the elevator arrived, I was low on health and ammo, and as I was running towards the elevator Alyx would stop in the doorway and yell for me to come to the elevator. You couldn't get past her, and I got slaughtered 2-3 times before I made sure to get to the elevator before she did.

Choice would be nice in this issue, maybe have hard mode have the original setup.

[Savok]

They'd do better to simply remove most of that section from the game, it just craps on and on and on and on and on.

If I wanted to play silly buggers in the dark I'd play Doom 3.

[mightbe]

Guess they had to dumb it down for the wussy PC Gamers :D
Heh, he made a funny!

[Dr Quincy]

I thought it was perfect.

Well you were wrong!

[hg321]

Heh, he made a funny!

He's a Cubs fan....It's a must that they have a good sense of humor

[laggerific]

I thought that scene was great too...what was the hard part?

[Sazime]

Well you were wrong!
Buh-but, it felt so right. All the running, the dark, zombies everywhere. Shouldn't that be difficult?

[Slack3r78]

They'd do better to simply remove most of that section from the game, it just craps on and on and on and on and on.

If I wanted to play silly buggers in the dark I'd play Doom 3.
QFT.

The whole 'it's scary because you can't see a bloody thing because it's absolutely pitch black' gameplay mechanism is one of my biggest pet peaves. It makes basic navigation near impossible, and I feel it adds far more to frustration than it does suspense.

System Shock 2 is still the scariest game I've ever played and it did it without resorting to blinding the player. Sure, there were dark parts, but there was still enough lighting to at least distinguish movement and walls, which, if anything, made those segments scarier than if it'd simply been the player bumbling around in the dark.

Hell, even the Ravenholm segment of HL2 managed to get atmosphere without blinding the player, so it's not like Valve doesn't know how to accomplish it. The wandering around in the dark segments of Ep 1 are without a doubt the parts that I had to force myself to finish to progress to the worthwhile segments of the game.

[bryan]

To me it fit into the story perfectly. You were underground and your light sources were limited, due in no small part to the dying of the city. No ambient light sources there.

[Savok]

Which went on forever, how many times are you restoring power by running through the dark and pulling the switch in exactly the same manner. Not to mention all the fucking explosives those zombies have, lets make something stupid even worse.

The only way you get through that area is with Alyx tanking as she's almost invincible, whatever immersion they'd built up at that point is quickly pissed away with you trying to exploit the AI.

[MasterEvilAce]

Imagine movies where when they have a "pitch black" scene, you really couldn't see anything. For instance.. silence of the lambs (i think it is).. where they're in the basement or something. Imagine if that entire scene was pitchblack (like in real life/what doom tried)..

that would piss you off would it not? That's why they make the scene darker -- but not entirely pitchblack. You can still perfectly see everything in the scene in a movie.

Which went on forever, how many times are you restoring power by running through the dark and pulling the switch in exactly the same manner. Not to mention all the fucking explosives those zombies have, lets make something stupid even worse.

The only way you get through that area is with Alyx tanking as she's almost invincible, whatever immersion they'd built up at that point is quickly pissed away with you trying to exploit the AI.

Oh yes.. damn yes. I made Alyx do everything during the antlion missions. Enemies should not be infinite. Period. It's a waste of ammo if you try to fight them. I know a few places in HL2 where enemies CONSTANTLY respawn -- certain areas where they're NEEDED to activate scripts. Such as a combine roadblock and the doors open and you have to rush in and kill all the enemies before it closes again. I hate that kind of crap. I actually almost stopped using guns because I thought certain areas had infinite enemies.. that's just retarded. That elevator area I thought they were actually infinite.. hence why I just ran into the elevator.

And Alyx takes an impossibly crazy amount of damage to die. Way too unrealistic. It shouldn't be easy to kill her however, because reloading because the AI is retarded isn't fun.

[Parsifal]

If you feel that that part of the game was good because it was a bit harder than the rest, shouldn't you be playing at a higher difficulty setting? My feeling is that Valve changed it so that the difficulty level through the whole episode was level.

[kickmybum]

Ah, I remember that scene. That was, in fact, the hardest part of the game and rediculously out of sync with the rest of the game. I had to do it around 6 times before I got it. The way I did it was to run around like crazy and just look for health... oh.. and shoot a zombie or two. Eventually the elevator will show up.