For the start of spooky season I have decided to cover one of my favorite shooters (which is of course ancient lol). Hope you guys enjoy! PayPal - streamlabs.com... Instagram - www.instagram....
Thank you for this, loved this video, I've played many well known top tier games up until now, but Half Life is still hands-down the best series for me, even after all these years the story, mystery and setting still sparks something inside me no other game has ever managed to do, it really is a masterpiece.
I play at least one Half-Life game once a year usually around the fall/winter in North America. The vibes are unmatched and I mostly play to experience the nostalgia of the series since I started playing these games when I was way too young. I never noticed that I played around the start of the school year until you mentioned it, and I think it's an interesting phenomenon Sorta personal but it may be sort of in an attempt to return somewhere that no longer exists? I dunno I'm going to have to chew on that for a while to get a better answer
Yearly Half-Life game replay is a hobby of mine. Just played Half-Life and Blue-Shift and I'm currently playing Opposing Force. Just waiting for HL2 RTX to release to replay it next.
Valve's obsession with perfection. They want it to be so perfect, they'll never make it, because they themselves know they won't be able to. Such a shame, would be interesting to see how all the games tie together.
Viktor Antonov was the art director and basically the one responsible for HL2 having this post soviet/brutalist style, City 17 in general is heavily inspired by his hometown Sofia during the soviet era You can also see the same sort of vibe in some other games he worked on, the first Dishonored being the best example. If you ever thought that Dunwall looked like a "City 17 with Victorian era aesthetics" then you were right. This guy's work is absolutely incredible
@@infinitesimotel Also worth mentioning they used the seaside town of Burgas as an additional source of inspiration. Sofia is rapidly changing, though. Many of these sights have disappeared in the 20 years since HF2’s release, especially in the last 10 years. Still, there is so much of Sofia in City 17. Even in HF:A there are monuments, facades, town squares that have been directly lifted from locations in Sofia.
@@notsoundgenoff Yea tell me about it. As Europe is "modernized" : another word for turned to shit, these classic places and features are fading away sadly.
@@infinitesimotel Not every change is for the worse. The disappearance of some of the things you can no longer see in Sofia are definitely a tragedy, but the fact that dilapidated Soviet Khrushchevka-style panel buildings are at the least being taken better care of is not something I'm particularly worried about.
One of my favorite things about Half Life 2 is that the menu background changes as you progress through the game. My absolute favorite one being the Route Canal menu where the camera is low in the grass, there are frogs croaking, and the helicopter flies over causing the grass and the water to stir. I sometimes just sit and stare at that menu. It's pretty and also melancholic as I feel like I could be sitting there in shorts with my feet in the water but the fact that Combine helicopter flies ever tells me that you can't sit and enjoy nature. It's like it's telling you what you're fighting for.
This is something that I think gamers don't appreciate enough. Menus nowadays are usually boring, to be fair, they are inherently dull, because they are a mean to access the non-game part of a game. However, there arr games that deal with this outstandingly well, and Half-Life 2's menus by chapter are one of them.
I'm also a big fan of The Lost Coast **, where you can find an unsettling contrast between beauty and horror. The whole cozy setting inspires a lot of positive emotions, but then there's that weapon up the cliffs shooting rockets at the coastal village in the distance. And it gets even darker when you get up there and see what the rockets actually are: they're vessels full of headcrabs. They're not destroying the buildings, they're infesting the village with headcrabs just like they did to Ravenholm. Ravenholm always brings The Lost Coast to my mind because of that. ** (if anyone doesn't know what it is, it's a small chapter that was removed from the game, that they released separately (for free iirc) as a playable short chapter.)
Especially that when the old guy lets you in at the beginning with the seagulls chirping you kinda have cozy vibes at the beginning. Also the 3d space with lots of verticality of the ledges around the cliffs is something that's a bit underutilizeds even in half life 2 I feel like lost coast is such an underrated gem. Very short but bro is it quality
They also used Lost coast for a graphical benchmark tool also. Which at the time was real-time HDR and something to do with light an colours bouncing off the sky box. I think depth of field an motion blur was also included which ended up becoming common for all hl2 games.
Kelly Bailey's sound design in HL1 and 2 is genius. Because you're a silent protagonist and his music is infrequent, the odd industrial soundscape is given unbelievable and unusually high room to breathe, making everything feel that much more alive and immersive. It's a great change of pace from games that never let up with the music or go for ultra faithful sounds that pretend to be reality.
Hit the nail on the head with ambiance of HL2. Still one of the most atmospheric games out there even all these years later. Thanks for the great video and solid breakdown of something that is often overlooked in video games.
During the uprising chapter of the game, right after you meet Kleiner and before D0g dips, if you look in the distance you can see the word "цимент" on one of the distant buildings. This is the Bulgarian spelling of the word "cement" and the implication is that City 17 is somewhere in Bulgaria.
Viktor Antonov's work is so good, you can see that post soviet/brutalist vibe in some other games he also worked on like Kingpin, the first Dishonored and Wolfenstein: The New Order
Watched a documentary a couple of days ago. The model of all the corpses you come across all throughout the game - its face was taken from an actual dead body.
It's not just HL2. Any game that's had realistic graphics and gore has used or referenced real material. It's not talked about much, but some artists end up on stress leave because their entire job, for months on end, is to make blood and gore effects for the game. They might want to do character design, but they're assigned to do gore. It's no different than the cops and technicians who have to go through each and every child abuse photo. The real tragedy is that many videogame production houses are extremely toxic and don't care about mental health, let alone their artists.
I wish that was where I am, it's cold and miserable where I am, then again most of our summer this year has been cold and terrible, off-character for summer.
Half Life 2 storyline is very dark. Aliens enslaved and mutiliated humans, they are an all-powerful enemy and there's little that can be done against them. The visual style of the game is very fitting, it conveys the sense that the world is full of evil and only traces remain of the better past. I appreciate the way it ties back to Half Life 1 - the failed experiment at Black Mesa facility caused all we see, there are so many stories that happen in between the 2 games.
That line, "We don't go there anymore." tells you so much without having to explain it. And the moment you first encounter one of the new headcrabs in that hallway. That sound it makes is seared into my nightmares.
Those "advanced" running zombies are probably the scariest videogame monsters known to mankind. Their skinless appearance, the strange wiggling motions they make in front of you when attacking, but most of all their deranged, blood curdling screams. I pretty much memorized all locations you encounter one in game because they keep scaring the bejeezus out of me, even after repeated playthroughs.
@@Hrodholf Same, I creep my way through even though I know all of it. That whole section is my favorite. With the exception being the upgraded gravity gun at the end, there's no other part that's as iconic as Ravenholme.
I always thought the art direction of HL2 was so perfect. They really made the most of the Source engine, and actually used the limitations of it being a linear FPS to good atmospheric effect. They also do a very clever job of hiding the level boundaries with something that looks convincing. One of the most effective things is when you go through the occupied apartments early in the game, then later in the game you go through a lot of apartments that are now empty, and see the blood smears and furniture piled up against doors like someone was trying to barricade themselves in. The odd corner where you find a body tells a story too. Never go to south Austin Texas, it's a tradition here to leave your Christmas lights up year round.
That one abandoned house on the coastal highway over a cliff with literally nothing in it and a couple burnt corpses. It’s all so eerie and mysterious.
I think Valve is one of the best when it comes to making things eerie in their games. Half-Life 1's soundtrack in many parts is very eerie, like Space Ocean or Alien Shock or Vague Voices or the Valve Theme/Hazardous Environments, which Kelly Bailey reuses in Half-Life 2 in addition to the new stuff. Portal, once you get past all the plain white rooms and into the weathered back portions of the facility, becomes very eerie. The Ratman scrawlings, the lack of any human or animal life, nothing but industrial stuff, that makes it more creepy than it initially seemed. Portal 2, with the bowels of the Aperture facility and leftover recordings hinting at Glados' past, that's creepy too. But I also like how Half-Life 2: Episode One also manages to become unnerving as you crawl through abandoned tunnels with no other light sources other than your own flashlight, dealing with all the various zombie types. And then Episode Two as a breath of fresh air, with mountains and lots of green, yet still having abandoned places and caves where bioluminescent critters live. HROT (a Czech retro FPS) also manages to nail down eeriness as well, along with Chasm: The Rift, the Stalker games, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, F.E.A.R., and DUSK. Zortch too, despite most of the art style geared towards cartoon-ish designs. Even games like Deus Ex and Unreal have a little bit of the vibe to them.
Never really noticed how the "feel" of Half-Life is Autumn, despite wanting to play it around that time (yearly delve, and all that). I did notice it with Halo, Lost Planet, and Dead Space, however, those are definitely winter-type games, at least to me. Just to note on ambience - there is a lot of background noise that helps to create the image of what the world is like within your mind's eye. Ravenholm isn't entirely quiet, and you can hear distant gunshots and a woman screaming in the far distance if you spend enough time there. It really helps sell that people used to live there, and mixed with the zombies, there's a reason they don't now. The rest of the game makes good use of the ambient noise that plays in the background - you'll hear more industrial "things" when in Combine areas and an eerie silence in the coastal areas with occasional waves. None of these sounds ever overpower what you should be focusing on though, which is really cool. If you're looking for a game that makes good use of silence, Dark Souls 1-3 do a very good job. Oolacile Township in DS1 especially makes good use of background noise to set-up a strong feeling.
I remember hating the ravenholm part and was secretly afraid of it even though I was 15 when the game came out. The whole game was unsettling to play but I still somehow enjoyed it. While playing I always thought about whats behind the dark corners you sometimes see but cannot reach. I also thought about people hiding in some of the appartments in the city
Seen the whole video now and now that you've said It I recognized that I probably played this game too early, too. My older brother showed me half-life 1 and counter-strike back when I was like 10 or 11 and I watched him play most of the times. Once HL2 came out I was already playing a lot of CS 1.5 and 1.6. I think my parents failed on checking what kind of games I played, hehe
When I was a child I skipped the raveholm part with a cheat I was so afraid. Also because I did not have much experience with stories, I really thought theyre gonna avoid going to ravenholm
I know you for your elder scrolls content but I love it when you do games outside of that. Your take describe how I feel about this game accurately: creepy, liminal, but in a weird way, cozy
Highway 13 always made me "feel" cold. The sound design in that particular point is slick and reminds me of the cold ass beaches ive visited in winter completely devoid of anyone.
*"Highway 13 always made me "feel" cold."* That is spot-on. Whenever I imagine myself there I can hear the wind whistling past. I'm not even sure if that's real or I just imagine it that way, lol.
You have impeccable taste. Half Life 2 is one of these stand-out games you'll never forget. It heavily influenced the whole gaming industry and forged a path for many games to come; like the Metro series, etc. Thanks for this video. Amazing. 👍
The problem with playing Half-Life 2, especially young, is that the bar is set so high. I feel that nothing will ever come close to it in terms of atmosphere, gameplay, worldbuilding, characters, and so on.
It's definitely a great feeling when you crawl your way out of the Ravenholm mines into the early morning sunlight. Granted you're then welcomed by a poison headcrab and a fast zombie, but still...
I've recently discovered your channel with the video about old games that was broadcasted by Asmongold. I instantly thought that I would like your content, and just a few days later... a video about one of my favourites games of all time ! Now I want to watch it all ! Your content is incredible, it feels very unique and genuine. I love your calm voice, the way you narrate through the stories that you enjoy with passion. Kudos for your work and keep up spreading the good taste with a good vibe !
For me, by far the level that represents everything you said in the video was the bridge level at the end of highway 17. The ambiance and aesthetic are just on point. I've never felt more alone than when crossing that bridge, away from life, the sound of the wind howling and the occasional metal creaking when you make a wrong step. The level just absorbs you with the perfect setting: high up and far away from anything that's alive. The perfect music, and the perfect sound effects. It makes you feel so lonely yet so calm. It also occurs not very long after ravenholm so it's the perfect pause from action and the noise of other people to reflect on what happened back there. The coastal levels in general were awesome. Great video btw.
Half Life 2 was a game i started earlier this year, and alongside the likes of FEAR 1 and Halo 1, has been one of my favorite experiences in a game. Even though i live in South Asia, Pakistan, that peeling decaying building feel is something i am completely familiar with, many buildings suffer it due to corruption from authorities and lack of maintenance of many building exteriors, and thats not counting all the trash everywhere. City 17 was both unfamiliar to me, and yet completely familiar to an extent that felt eerie to me yet so beautiful.
I love how much detail you went into with this game and yet you still just scratched the surface. Half Life 2 is such an amazing game because of how much environmental storytelling and implied horror there is. The game doesn't just come out and say it but if you pay attention you'll see just how bad things are. No children, the sea level is dramatically lower than before, Everyone is in a haze and the entire ecosystem is fundamentally destroyed by the new alien life forms/combine occupation. It's one of the best dystopian worlds ever created because of how subtle the horror is.
I'm really enjoying these last 2 videos you uploaded. I'm glad i just stumbled upon your channel thru recommended videos. This game & silent hill started my love for games that dive into a Liminal world. Eerieness, Real Fear is way more than a violent monsters or stupid jump scares. It exists In the in-between, in the gloom, the melancholy, the messy clutter. In the empty places filled with Anxious unknown, confusion, discomfort. Projects can use these things to create a purgatory type effect. A fate that you can get lost in. At least a monster quickly kills you, this is all coming from a creative standpoint. I love that this game was willing to invest as much as they did into these environments because it really immerses me into exploring, interacting. It really shows how amazing this games approach is. In real life the act of exploring places in the dark has such a deep appeal yet eerieness to it. The run down, abandoned mess still has this sort of appeal to it but it puts your mind and senses on full alert. Trying to sense or pick up on any little thing that you maybe should be aware of.. There's something so deeply VISCERAL about that. Half life and Silent Hill are some of the only games that succeeded at creating these things
I resound so much with your opening statement about playing games seasonally. A+. Playing Bioshock in January feels wrong, as does playing Bloodborne in July.
I love the combine, the way they reuse existing infrastructure/buildings shaping and modifying them like their some kind of parasite. Really wish valve could have included more "synth" types an the Combine Assassin. Yeah headcrabs are terrifying, after the crab latches onto your head and breaches your skull to turn into a zombie, the host seems to be still alive or at least somewhat aware.
@@Angelikatosh That's cool! Do you play the Russian dub of HL2 a lot? I've heard it's a good dub. Also, there seem to be a lot of Russian HL2 fans. I wonder if the Eastern European aesthetics vibe with Russian people, in particular.
@@E5raelhl2 was on my first pc parents buy me at 12. as an eastern european girl i had an instant crush and it lasts a lifetime. my interest to hl series grow year after year. i played localized version then and i playing original now. and as a very picky person i must say i cant decide which one are better😮 russian localisation for hl2 is really outstanding
That connection between the zombies calling for god, and Grigori fulfilling those calls was a nice catch. I like how you're also branching out from Elder Scrolls content a bit. I'll look forward to seeing you develop as an essayist.
Great choice for a video. I find myself returning to this game every few years and yet, somehow I never associated with autumn. But now that you mention it, you're right, it definitely brings back childhood memories of the start of school.
Never clicked on a video so fast Kelly Bailey def made one of my favorite soundtracks/soundscape for a game. His absence is clearly felt on Portal 2; much more light when you compare it to Portal 1.
7:44 "Ravenholm is its own terrifying plane of Oblivion" - perfect description! That's how it feels: like you step out of the "normal" world and into an alternative dimension of nightmares.
Great retrospective. What I love about pretty much all of the Half-Life games is how much thought is put into the presumption, realisation and execution of every sequence. The fact that almost every player has similar if not the same experience playing through these games speaks volumes of valves craft.
How after all these years of playing the game did I not know you could pick up that doll. 🤯 And I’ve been playing it on and off since release! I’ll add that my favorite scene in the game (and favorite of all games) that ties into the theme of your video is on the jet ski stage where you come across a random dead end alley in a canal wall where you find a spot someone has been eking out an existence. Just a couple of sheet metal floors, a bed, and some basic survival paraphernalia. It’s subtle, has no bearing on the game, can easily be missed, but illustrates what a person may need to do to live in this new world.
Half Life 2 is an incredibly lonely game, and there is also a good reason for that. Most of the time, Gordon is alone during his journey. The moments when you find other people (and even the ones that you as the Protagonist, knew beforehand) feel fleeting. A quick breath of fresh air but alas very short before going back to being isolated. Most if not all of the environments that Gordon explores feel or are forgotten, of no practical use by the Combine. I think Nova Prospekt is the perfect example of it, a massive prison with every cell being completely empty. The art direction of that game perfectly complements this, along with the Source engine itself. Even Garry's mod gives off the exact same feelings. Sometimes more sinister ones depending on the soundscape/map. Another game that gives me the same vibes as HL2 is Fallout 3, it just feels like time itself stopped. As if the world you're exploring is dead and forgotten, purposeless with no hope left. I love it. Also good video.
The lonely, atmospheric journey is why I love games like Unreal, Half-Life 2, F.E.A.R., Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Dead Space... maybe to an extent the BioShock games. In all of these games there is little or no music, or in the case of the BioShock series it is all diegetic. If one is inclined, he can completely immerse himself in these environments.
Setting the tone. Loved how this felt like you were telling us a ghost story around a campfire. Already excited for the next one, it's gonna be a good autumn :0
I just finished my yearly playthrough of HL2, funny seeing this pop up on my feed. You hit the nail on the head with this! I absolutely adore this game and world
I'm not surprised you've amassed so many subscribers. It's because you're interesting and tend towards speaking the truth. Plus the fact you have an air of realism about you I also really enjoy the older games. They exude a sense of magnetism and cosiness that really makes you want to play them! If that makes any sense.
that's so awesome that you have played this classic. for some reason most people i meet haven't even experienced this masterpiece of a game. this is my favorite game of all time. and that cliffhanger for episode two...
This is like having a friend and watch him play while talking about the game, i sure do have some fond memories thanks to these games, namely oblivion and morrowind, half life to some extent, my childhood friend died years ago so everytime i watch some of your videos i remember the good times we had, thank you😇
Lovely video! you deserve more subs I watch a lot of Half-life videos I know the main plot, I make art inspired by Half life and yet I neither ended up beating Half-Life 1 or 2 I just started playing Half-Life 2 a few days ago and I just made it to the coast area and I regret not playing this great game sooner. The world of half-life 2 is so lonely at times with empty rooms and I love how the environment can tell a story.
Great video! I replay half-life 2 about once a year. Surprisingly I never was that scared of Ravenholm episode, even as a child. I did notice sudden change of tone yes, but still. Now portal 1 truly had unsettling atmosphere with strong feeling of isolation.
I really like the liminal space ambience source engine games have, i also played those games too early in my life, so it feels very nostalgic at the same time. Love this type of content about games, hope to see more!
Glad you’re back to producing regular content again! Once again an awesome breakdown. I love that playground too and I had no idea the doll made a sound. I want to replay Half-life 2 now but I don’t have a gaming PC anymore. Not sure if the orange box is still available for my Xbox lmao.
1:07 And don't forget Angelika that we are talking about 2000-2005, the time when HL2 was released and at that time, we had games focused on a Yellow/Orange/Brown color. The best year for these yellow/orange/brown games is 2005, as we had Need for Speed Most Wanted, Sniper Elite, Day of Defeat Source and Resident Evil 4.
Ravenholm was absolutely brilliant to go through, that part of the game will always be my favorite. Aside from that, Nova Prospekt is a close second to that one considering how miserable that place really is.
Great video! This channel is going to grow huge. Feels like it's targeted directly at zillenials haha. Your videos on oblivion and morrowind are unique and fun too, exploring parts of the games that I haven't seen much else content on
Nice video, I especially agree with this 'liminal space simulator, which make you feel like you are not supposed to be here' line. Autumn is here, might as well give hl2 a refresh play.
Been watching since 3k, something about this channel's videos remind me a lot of Wendigoon or Savantics. It's refreshing especially since I unfortunately don't watch many female content creators. Not to mention the content is almost always up my alley. From backrooms to here, I'm very happy to see such success here. Best wishes from Chicago.
Half-Life is a fixation that is reignited only when presented to me and I just so happen to get a video recommended to me about one of my favorite aspects of the game.
