The Past and Times of Yore: Half-Life 2, Episode 2, caves, bugs, slugs and the great outdoors

Release Date: October 10th 2007
Genre:First-person Shooter
Developer: Valve
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platform: Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Mac OS X, Linux, Shield Portable
Players: 1
Classification: M (Mature)

I hadn’t realised it had been so long since I reviewed Half-Life 2 Episode 1 as it’s been a whole year and a bit since (7 years since my Half-Life 2 review) so I guess it’s High time I get the series review finished though to be perfectly honest the way things are going with the mysterious third sequel I think I’ll have more than enough time before that comes along. As you can probably guess Episode 2 is a direct continuation of Episode 1 running with the same story (and game engine) of Half-Life 2, this was the last of the ‘Episodes’ of Half-Life 2 and the ending has sparked huge anticipation of a supposed Half-Life 3 as well as much quarrelling, complaining and speculating of when it will finally arrive. I’m not going to comment on much about the gameplay or graphics as we all know this is the same as Half-Life 2 so I will concentrate on the adventure inc the story, location and new friends and enemies.

A Hunter, one of the new enemies in Episode 2

So we when we left previously our two heroes Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance they were speeding away from City 17 on the caboose of a train watching the Citadel after the events of Episode One, the citadel then explodes and everything goes black, Gordon then wakes up to Alex freeing him with the Gravity Gun  out of the wreckage of the train, miraculously alive again. The storyline for the game as before is divided up into chapters of which once completed you can re-do at any time. The first chapter To the White Forest  has Gordon and Alyx setting off to the White Forest base to deliver a data packet to Dr Kleiner and Eli Vance who are there currently. I must admit it was good to get outside after being indoors for most of Episode 1 and also in the great outdoors too similar to the coastal run you did in Half-Life 2. 

The spectacular view of the Citidel from the train wreck

 Though this scenery was short lived as after battling through a Zombie infested mine Alyx is injured by a new Combine Hunter enemy which you don’t get to fight just yet and then you are saved by a Vortigaunt who takes you through the beautiful Antlion caves, these caves are quite a sight to behold as they are beautifully rendered and lit with the light shining off the rocks. It’s here that you first meet Antlion Grubs and Workers, the grubs being like fireflies as their glowing bodies serve as the primary source of light in the caves and they are pretty disgusting as you have to hit them with your crowbar or step on some to get past, the workers are new version of Antlion that hurls acid at you that was easy enough to dodge, I had great fun playing hunter with my shotgun and watching them explode when shot was very satisfying.


I go hunting through the Antlion Caves

The next chapter has one of my favourite moments in the Half-Life series, you are led to a resistance outpost in an abandoned mine where you and two other resistance fighters have to defend a group of Vortigaunts who are trying to heal Alyx who is lying on a table. The resistance fighters have a sort of Antlion Detector system going which uses red lights to tell how many Antlions are approaching, the more lights, the more antlions and there is four tunnels they can come from, why they chose this place to heal Alyx I would not know. You are given access to reprogrammed Hopper Mines and Sentry Guns though not quite enough to hold off the antlions by themselves though I was still pleased by this as I love Sentry guns with their auto-firey goodness and I had lots of fun repositioning them accordingly until they both exploded L. It looked bad but then a whole party of other Vortigaunts came and you kicked ass with them, truly a great moment.


Hold the Line! man watching this makes me want to do it again, need more sentry guns

You then follow your Vortigaunt companion deeper into the mines to find an Antlion Larvae to save Alyx and I saw quite a few sights along the way as well as doing a brilliant cat-and-mouse sequence with an Antlion Guardian, when you get back you get a brief visit from The G-Man just before Alex is revived as he says that the was waiting for a time when the Vortigaunts were otherwise occupied (as per their previous hinderance of him in Episode 1) and gives a cryptic warning to the sleeping Alex before she wakes up.

The Antlion Spawning Cave

The next chapters involve exiting the mine and another car driving and stopping sequence similar to the coastal “Highway 17” chapter in Half-Life 2 except this time you have Alyx with you. There was a sequence I liked in “Freeman Pontifex” where you searched through a mining town with Alex supporting you from above with a sniper rifle, really saved some ammo that time hah. The “muscle” car you eventually find has more bodywork this time and room for two people and boy was that thing fun to drive, jumping over bridges and hills though it was only in short bursts as it was always over so quick.

Shotgun!, oh wait I'm driving

 The “Riding shotgun” chapter was good as this was the first time you faced Hunters which are bloody fast and tough to kill though not when you run into them of course :D, you also have probably the closest encounter ever with an Advisor where you can see what they do to humans first hand. You fight more combine soldiers and Hunters and a Hunter-Chopper along the way. The next chapter has a scene where you duck-and-cover through a junkyard with an autogun firing over your head and then get in a massive fight with combine soldiers and Hunters in the White Forest Inn, you also meet Dog again who defeats a strider for you.

The Combine Advisor in the barn

Dog wrestles a Strider

Once you finally get to White Forest you are reunited with Dr. Kleiner and Eli Vance and also a new character Dr. Magnussen, another former Black Mesa Scientist who you saw previously through radio/visual contact, I almost liked him as much as Dr Breen with his grumpy and aloof demeanor. White forest is a large Resistance base where Dr. Kleiner and Magnussen are organising the launch of a special rocket which they plan to use, in conjunction with the satellite array launched during the events of Half-Life and Alyx's data packet, to close the Combine superportal. This part has a lot of speculation for the supposed sequel, Kleiner and Vance decode the message that Gordon and Alyx brought and it appears to be a message from Judith Mossman in an arctic location saying that she has found the Borealis, which is a ship that contained a secret project started by the Aperture Science company who we know from the Portal series. Kleiner and Vance are at odds for the first time, the former saying they should use the technology to fight the combine, the latter saying they should destroy it to avoid another Black Mesa Incident, I feel like this may be a choice in the future, woo that’d be a first for Half-Life. 

The crew discussing Dr. Mossman's discovery iof the Borealis

This is where Alyx speak the “unforeseen consequences” line to Eli without knowing it and then Eli privately tells Gordon that the G-Man spoke those same words to him just before the Black Mesa Incident.  You then have to defend the base from a huge combine attack of Hunter and Striders and combine troops in which I used the muscle car to run over the hunters and the special Magnusson Device which is a sort of sticky bomb that needs to be shot to blow up, in order to defeat the Striders which is difficult to do and had a bit of trouble this time with a Strider almost reaching the base but managed to finish it.


Defending the base from Striders using the Magnussen Device and running over Hunters.

The rocket is then launched and successfully destroys the combine portal effectively stopping the remaining combine from receiving any reinforces from other combine worlds. There is a brief celebration then comes the very climactic final scene where Gordon and Alex are about to embark on a journey to the Borealis in a helicopter and we all know what happens then, if you don’t then play the damn game, all of them if you haven’t, play the entire series do it now! I can’t stress this enough if you haven’t played any of the Half-Life series you should definitely play through the original Half-Life, then 2 then the episodes as it’s a brilliant experience.

The Portal is finally closed

Saying that I can’t remember whether that was the second or third time I’ve done that, possibly the third and although sometimes it can be a bit of a grind, I purposefully play it on easy to get through some of the repetitive shooting of mass amounts of combine soldiers quicker but it’s amazing each time as the graphics are great and the menu design is so click that I sometimes wanna play it just to use it again as there’s nothing like it in other games really.

That slick menu

 So that marks the end of the Half-Life 2 series of games with the exception of Lost Coast but that’s barely worth a mention, now we sit back and wait (patiently) for the next installment. Frankly I don’t know which I’d prefer, for it to be the last in the series and explain everything or fore there to be many, many more but I expect the latter.

JD

Hurry up Mr. Freeman

The Past and Times of Yore: LittleBigPlanet, multi-lane 2D platforming fun with friends

Release Date: November 3rd 2008
Genre: Action, Platformer
Developer: Media Molecule
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
Platform: Playstation 3
Players: 1-4
Classification: E (Everyone)

If I could think of a list of the most well-known Playstation 3 games or characters, Sackboy and the LittleBigPlanet (LBP) series immediately comes to mind. I was no latecomer to the series mind you, I did play the original LittleBigPlanet game over a long period of time at friends houses or anywhere else there was a Playstation3 as they seemingly all had it. But as you know I’m not much of a console gamer and only played the game rarely until I got my own PS3 and decided to play the damn thing by myself finish the Story mode once and for all. Of course I knew this was supposed to be a game you played with friends as throughout the game there was always these various challenges that you needed two or more players to do and I have had to get anyone around, housemate, friends etc to help with them. But I was determined to do it in any case as I had really wanted to see the whole game for a while and at least finish it myself and get some closure. I don’t have many games on PS3 as it will possibly be the last console I’ll ever own though I really need to spend more time off the computer whether it’s movies or console, my love of Emulators keeps me from going back to the Playstation and Super Nintendo, my dislike of the Nintendo 64 controller keeps me from playing that console, and of course you know from my last post I have tried twice to emulate the Playstation 2 to no avail. There’s also Skate 2 which I am trying to avoid playing again as it’s one of those games you have a love/hate relationship with and all of my other PS3 games I’ve now played many times through or had enough of so that just left LittleBigPlanet.

The "first Steps" level in the Gardens, unfortunately I am unable to get any screenshots or videos from the game so the majority of the media you'll see on the page is courtesy of Zebra Gamer's Youtube playthough which was incredibly helpful

Anyway so in case you haven’t heard LittleBigPlanet is an action platformer set in a 3D world where you move to the right in a 2D platformer fashion while avoiding obstacles including traps, pitfalls and other objects which can impede your progress. The difference between the traditional 2D platformers such as the Mario games is that LBP actually has 3 or 4 different “lanes” that you can run and jump in, for example on most long flat surfaces where you start a level you can jump to the background or foreground path which is necessary to pass many obstacles and complete many puzzles. Another difference is LBP introduces and makes heavy use of the characters ability to “grab” things like felt and sponge type objects and also other players using the R1 button. This allows you to pull objects and jump and swing from ones that are dangling from strings, they also provide a way of holding on while you are on a moving object. The story behind the game is that when people dream their dreams get stored in a world called LittleBigPlanet which is maintained by the Creator Curators, one of which The Collector has turned against the rest and is stealing the other curators creations and not sharing them with the world. Throughout the game you help the various curators across the world of LBP which is basically a miniature version of earth made out of felt. 

LittleBigPlanet, in all it's felt glory, this shot was taken from the intro so I'm not quite sure what the arrow is for.

Each of the Curators worlds is set in a particular region for example the first curator The King’s domain is the The Gardens and it is located in Europe, the second Curator Zola is a lion and his domain is The Savannah which is on the African continent, I was hoping there would be domain in Australia but I was unfortunately disappointed, I guess an ‘outback’ themed domain would be too much like the savannah. Each domain has three mains level and 2 or 3 mini-games which are unlocked by finding keys in the main levels, the mini games include endurance tests like skipping and see-saws, races where you have to get to the finish in the fastest time possible and obstacle course which you must complete before the time runs out. LittleBigPlanet has a big emphasis on playing and sharing with others and that is shown by the various puzzles throughout the game which require 2 or more players and the ability to create and share you own levels with others around the world.

Grandmaster Sensei, the Creator Curator of the Islands domain

The game starts in a very unique way, your Sackboy character pops out hole in the darkness onto a bench or something and you have full control over them right off the bat. You then are privileged to hear Stephen Fry’s voice as the narrator and he instructs you on the basic controls of your sack person and how you can change their facial expression and wave your arms around with the bumpers. You are soon on you way to one of the best intro’s I have ever seen in a game. You basically run along a linear path while the main credits for the game along with the faces of the developers appear above you while you run and jump and push obstacles around. I can’t explain the joy I had when doing this for the first time, it was sublime, one of those moments where you are like  “this is amazing, I just can’t describe it”. You also get introduced to your Popit which probably the most important tool in the game, this is where you can access and use stickers and decorations that you have found in order to attach them to certain places in the world to gain more Score Bubbles, Prize Bubbles and Keys, this is also where you can customise your character with the material and costume items you have found along the way. You also have the ability to chat with your online friends, ‘suicide’ in order to respawn at the previous save point and change your poppit colour which actually changes the colour of the Score bubbles you collect and changes your characters clothes colour slightly, I thought this was pretty damn cool when I discovered it.

The intro and first steps done by Zebra Gamer

This basically followed on into the main game but first you were dropped into your Pod, which is some sort of cardboard spaceship where you can see littlebigplanet from afar, this is where you and friends (or in my case just me :’( can run around in before you start a game or when going back to the menu. Apart from you there is basically only one thing inside the pod and that is your Pod Computer which is a replica of a PS3 controller and what’s even cooler is that when your click to use the pod computer your Sack person moves the joysticks and hits the buttons mimicking you which I thought was pretty damn cool. From your pod computer you can access the story mode which is LittleBigPlanet itself, the Info Moon where you can view your info and progress, see your friends list and news and where you can view and try other players level creations, and the “My Moon” where you can create and play your own levels.

The main screen with your Sackboy at the controls, you can see the Infomoon and My Moon in the picture too

 You start the story mode in the King’s Garden and it’s a good introduction to the basics as you would assume, running, jumping, grabbing and pulling and collecting Score Bubbles which are one of the three collectibles found throughout the game as well as Prize Bubbles and Keys. Score bubbles are simply that, a way of keeping score on the levels you complete and comparing to other players similar to the coins in the Mario series though from what I can remember you don’t get an extra life. Prize bubbles have stickers and character customization items in them and keys give access to the mini games. It was fun enough running and jumping over obstacles and enemies and I truly loved grabbing and pulling items and swinging and jumping was great, it was like the old Donkey Kong Country except everything was so much more detailed obviously with the realistic character animation and sewn felt and sponges and wood and pretty much everything. I loved your how your sack character jumped and flailed around realistically while they bounced off objects with blocks bouncing and falling around them with almost perfect physics, it’s all very beautiful to watch.

The Sensei's Lost castle level, damn those rollers haha

The Creator Curators and other characters help you throughout the game with hints and tips and sometimes come in the form of vehicles such as wheeled wooden horses, skateboards, toy cars or odd things such as Don Lu’s Dog from the The Wedding's level, The Darkness in South America. It seems that apart from your Sack person all the other characters are made from art and craft materials like cardboard, paper and wood and speak in a sort of gibberish voice similar to the original Banjo-Kazooie game. Controlling your Sack person is relatively easy, as I said before you can run, jump with the x button and grab with the R1 button, sometimes I found a slight delay on jumping but that may have been because my character was not full on the ground or the particular objects I was on. The base game revolves around making it through the level avoiding traps and obstacles and solving puzzles in order to continue and it’s masterfully done, Some bits I found I enjoyed in particular was flinging myself from object to object like hanging lanterns or spinning windmills, riding characters and vehicles such as the skateboard in the gardens and the car in The Metropolis and dressing up my character of course as I loved how you got a whole new (male and female) outfit for each new world you went to.

Don Lu's Faithful Dog!

I usually don’t have too much to say about the graphics and music but in this case they were both absolutely marvellous. I loved the way the worlds were made up of everyday art and craft materials like cardboard, paper, wood, felt, sponge, plastic etc and how they all looked so realistic, there was so much detail there in the foreground, the background, it’s funny that a game that mimics so many 2D platformers looks so good in 3D but it just does. The detail of all the levels is just amazing especially the European medieval themed The Gardens, the South American Day of the Dead themed The Wedding and the oriental themed The Islands and I remember seeing it for the first time on PS3 and just going “whoa” though funnily enough playing it again much later I can appreciate it more. The music is great as well one of the main ones that stood out was the music from the Wedding world’s “The Wedding Reception” level which introduced you to the day of the dead theme and sounded fantastic along with the beautiful visuals. The sound effects including all the bounces, pops and springs all sound great too, though I would have appreciated actual voices in the game but I guess it’s ok how it is also when you get new items the “You got new item!” popup can be annoying when you get a few at once as it can block your view.

The Subway level in Metropolis, note the found item popup, now imagine it with like 5 of them XD

I didn’t dabble too much into the multiplayer aspect of the game with this playthrough as it was the first few games I played with friends where the multiplayer really shined though I didn’t appreciate it as much then as I do now and getting people to play it now is kind of hard apart from the times I could do the 2 player ones when there was someone around but haven’t done more than two people for a while but I remember it being fun pushing and pulling your friends around. Doing the two player challenges was fun when I could get someone unfortunately I had to skip the 4 player ones and some two player ones as well though I admit the game would be more fun with friends. When playing through the story you actually had the option to “Play online” meaning someone could join you when playing though I found having another person from the internet just annoying as you couldn’t communicate and they just rushed ahead. I had a look at the level creator but didn’t fiddle around with it much, I had much more fun trying out other players levels via the info moon, they were pretty cool, one was even based on Minecraft! and another was a racer which was fun. I must remind myself to go back in and try more of them.

The very explosive Mexican-themed canyons world

In the end there’s not much more I can say about LittleBigPlanet just that it was a great modern platformer and reminded me that we can still have them in these days of Triple A, MMORPGS, RPG’s and FPS’s. LBP was a game that was done incredibly well and with such dedication and love put into it it’s hard not to appreciate it, everything from the gameplay to the visuals was spot on and with the right amount of challenge to not be frustrating. The only reason I could not give this game a 10/10 as it isn’t a game I can continue playing it was perfect enough as is unless of course I went crazy with the level creator but it just didn’t seem appealing enough and doing user made levels is fun but gets boring after a while. But as always I encourage anyone to give this a try, I have not actually played the sequels (of which there are two) but might try to in the future, and maybe even try the karting game if it gets cheap enough, I can never get enough of themed racers hah.

JD

9/10

Things I liked:

Immaculate presentation, great graphics.

Easy learning curve.

Terrific music and sound effects.

Lots of fun with friends

Just challenging enough to be fun.

Things I didn’t like:

Player controls can be a bit fiddly at times

No voice acting just gibberish speak and reading text.

Limited replayability

The LittleBigPlanet Official Trailer

p.s special thanks to Zebra Gamer for his excellent playthrough on Youtube

Might as well jump