Design Game Design Essay (Half-Life 2)

[nicktheslayer95]

I wrote an essay back in December about Half-Life 2, and how it uses it's interactivity to enhance it's story telling, rather than being a game with story dropped onto it. It's a bit spoilery for Half-Life 2, but if you like the game and are interested in reading it, here is a link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bM7FngJxTC6k1UDCJZECiS5EjE0Zvn_NvJVPprJEQEo/edit?usp=sharing

It's about 8 pages long, but if anyone reads and finishes this, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

 

[Ninety]

I maintain that Half-Life 2 is one of the best-designed games ever made. It's almost in a league of its own from a game design perspective.

Your essay raises some nice points. Structurally it could be better, but you've really engaged with some of the design decisions behind the game. You might be interested in this which goes into some more depth about the "teaching of the player" you mentioned.

 

[nicktheslayer95]

I maintain that Half-Life 2 is one of the best-designed games ever made. It's almost in a league of its own from a game design perspective.

Your essay raises some nice points. Structurally it could be better, but you've really engaged with some of the design decisions behind the game. You might be interested in this which goes into some more depth about the "teaching of the player" you mentioned.

I found that video actually a few mo ths ago, and have been following Mark Brown ever since! I thought I could revise and expand my essay using his video as a base, but I felt it would detract from my essay's focus on Half-Life's narrative.

What did you think of it, structurally speaking? I'm always looking to improve my writing.