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Game Journal 04/08/2020: Half Life 2 Episode 2 Deserves To Be Remembered For More Than Being An Unresolved Ending.

Much of the conversation (at least the ones I see) around Half Life 2 Episode two tends to fall into the same category: “Yeah it’s good, but it’s a bummer that the ending was such an unresolved cliffhanger”. Episode 2, however, is an excellent game! I think it’s unfair that it’s place in the world is so dominated by it’s unfortunate lack of a future. Most notably, I think, for it’s unique setting and levels, something Episode One tended to lack. Starting directly from the end of Episode One, Episode 2 see’s the story pick up after the getaway train is delayed somewhere in the woods outside of City 17. City 17 itself is now little more than a smoldering wreck and it’s up to you to make it to the rebel base deeper into the woods. Where Episode One tended to echo the final sections of Half Life 2 proper, Episode 2 brings it’s own flavor to the table. Instead or urban warfare, try skulking through an Antlion hive. Cold steel of the citadel getting you down? Even though a lot of the environments are underground, you’ll barely see any Combine Architecture this time.

Thought you got away from this weirdo after the last game? Think again. Early on, in my favorite part, you even go on a quest for Antlion essence with a friendly Vortigaunt. I still have little idea who or what Vortigaunts are, but they’re sure a lot of fun to hang out with! A personal highlight of this section of the game is an intense gunfight where you, two turrets held together with duct tape, and a couple of dingus resistance fighters need to watch five different tunnels full of Antlions that’ll swarm you in a second if you aren’t careful. It’s hectic, dangerous, and a whole lot fun. This is barely the start of the game either! There’s a lot more to come as I replay this classic. I went in apprehensive, knowing the ending that was coming, but I guess it really is the journey huh?

Random Screenshot Of The Day:

It is astounding how poorly some of the things in GUN have aged. 2005 was a long time ago man.

Stray Game Notes:

- I wanted to play more Call of Duty after that Modern Warfare 2 remake, so I just moved right into my old copy of Modern Warfare 3. You know, weirdly, this is probably the second least replayed main entry of the series for me, only followed by the total garbage that was Ghosts. As far as Xbox 360 games go, it’s aged crazy well!

- I feel like I have to be nearly done with Resident Evil 3, I’ll do a big....review? I guess? When I’m all wrapped up, but needless to say I am having a great time with it.

- You want a pro-tip for staying sane during all this Coronavirus craziness? Roller Coaster Tycoon. A game about managing theme parks (i.e, building some rides and watching numbers go up) is an incredibly chill way to de-stress from all this nightmare.

Neversoft Was Onto Something Great In The Small Town “Tony Hawk’s Project 8″

Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland made a lot of noise about being the first “Open World” Tony Hawk game when it was being advertised and shown off, but if you’re an avid fan of the series you know as well as I do that claim was mostly buzzwords. The game was full of obvious level boundaries, long bland tunnels meant to hide load times and, despite it’s grand ideas of an open world, always felt restrictive and linear when it came to where you could actually go. Project 8 only briefly got spoken about in these terms, due to them having already been used so heavily, which I find incredibly unfair as it actually fulfilled the American Wasteland’s promise and will never get the credit it deserved for it. Instead of shooting for the stars and recreating a major urban metropolis like L.A, Project 8 scaled everything back and created a small town almost supernaturally built for skating, without fear of looking real enough or enough like a well known place. In doing so Neversoft successfully created an actual open world with no obvious boundaries or loading zones like the ones that plagued American Wasteland, and revitalized an aging series, if just for a short time. To say that the town in Tony Hawk’s Project 8 felt like a “real place” would sound absurd in the same way saying any Tony Hawk level felt like a “real place”, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t use its small town setting to expert effect. It more comes off as some kind of elaborate skate park of a town that’s mimicking things you may find in small town America, twisting and changing anything it needs to in order to make for the best possible skate lines and the maximum amount of fun. The rooftops of downtown are dominated by empty pools and ramps positioned just right to launch you up to the power lines. The school down the road is set up in a way that facilitates skating 1000% more than it does learning. Even the city hall, as ridiculously grand and statuesque as it is, is little more than a facade featuring a large empty pool for with which to bust combos to your hearts content.

In a way the town in Project 8 was like something of an amalgamation of every kind of level that worked well in Tony Hawk prior to this game in the series. Imagine then, if all those classic levels flowed into each other in a way that allowed you start a combo in the iconic School II and end it in the traditional skate-park of Burnside. While those names and layouts aren’t actually there, the locations in Project 8 evoke them wonderfully, and the possibility of carrying your combo between them is a reality, with far more than one way to carry your combo between them, not just via the rigid tunnels in American Wasteland. It creates a sense of cohesion the game that marketed itself as “open world” crucially lacked, and in doing so becomes what is very likely the most charming location in the series.

It’s a huge shame Tony Hawk as a franchise had to die the way it did, even the very next game in the series, Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground, fell back into the trap of trying to go too big with it’s recreations of large East Coast cities linked together by narrow bridges. I feel had Neversoft stuck to the idea of small, detailed areas as they’d shown they could do so well in Project 8, we could still see Tony Hawk games today. Alas, the Birdman’s wings have been clipped, and we’re all just going to have to make do with Skate 4.....eventually....probably....maybe.