HL2 is probably the game I’ve replayed the most. It’s just as amazing every time.
When I played it for the first time almost 20 years ago (gosh!) I expected all games would have this level of immersion onward. It was such a leap forward. Things I normally could expect from the real world applied to HL2 as well.
Oh, there’s roller mines hurtling towards me? Obviously I’m supposed to throw them down the cliff using my gravity gun. No explanation from the game about this. It just felt like I would do the same in the real world.
Is this immersion the future of gaming? I can’t wait to see what the future will bring!
Turns out 20 years later that HL2 was a one of a kind game. Other games might have better graphics and physics, but no game is HL2.
The graphics still impress me. It’s like the effects in Jurassic Park in that, while the overall tech has improved by leaps and bounds, the execution is so good that it still dazzles.
The original graphics, physics, and performance were incredible for the time, but to be fair, that’s not what you’re running when you download HL2 on steam today. The textures have been silently updated many times over the years. Your mind’s eye says “yeah, this is how I remember it”, and I’ve seen multiple streamers playing it for the first time thinking they’re seeing the original textures from 2004.
It does everything through clever game design, nothing takes you out of the game. No cut scenes or text popping up or freezing everything while dialogue is going on. You’re just in that world.
I like the whole series. Others are talking about 1 and 2, so I’ll add Half-Life Alyx. It’s a VR game, and at the time the PC VR scene was almost all indie games. I remember working out that if I wanted to carry more stuff I didn’t need to worry about only being allowed to hold two grenades, I could just pick up a bucket, fill it with grenades, and carry that around.
I also remember being able to pick up pens and draw on a whiteboard.
I’m not sure how it holds up these days, but at the time it was quite the experience.
I can’t imagine it being worth it for one game. The occulus quest headsets are probably the cheapest entry point, especially second hand, but you also get Facebook lock in, and they sell them at a loss so they can better show you ads and make more money. So I’d only go for the quest if you are desperate 😆. Objectively the Quest 3 may be a better headset than the Valve Index, but that’s because the Index is like 4 years old at this point. Many people still think the Index is better, but it depends what your priorities are.
A new Index is still like $999 all these years later. You might be able to get a used one cheaper, but probably not super cheap if it still works well.
VR arcades exist, so it might make sense to find one and play the game there if they have it! However, part of the appeal of Alyx is the use of the Index controllers (Knuckles) that have finger tracking fancy stuff. Arcades might be using the Vive Pro, so you’d have to check if they have Alyx and if they have an Index you can play it on.
I guess this also applies to getting a Quest. It will be fun but not the full experience, Alyx was designed for the Index.
To provide a counterpoint, I think it can definitely be worth it to throw together a cheap VR setup for this game.
I personally went through Half-life Alyx on my original Oculus Rift CV1 and it was still an amazing experience. I don’t know where you live, but in my market a good condition CV1 is selling for about 10,000 yen (so that’s equivalent to 65 USD, but your market will probably vary).
This is PC VR though, so you’ll probably want a PC with at least a 1080-class GPU. Once you have the headset though there’s a few games from the same era which had simlarly incredible experiences like Lone Echo.
I’ve only played the first few minutes of the first Half Life (I know, it’s on my list™). I had to turn off texture filtering immediately; the game looks terrible otherwise. Question: Why did games of this era (Morrowind also comes to mind) look this way, i.e. blurry?
Blurry looks more realistic than blocky, especially on the low-resolution CRT monitors old games were designed for.
Now that we’ve got better screens and games with better graphics, we see early 3D as a stylized aesthetic and a lack of texture filtering fits that aesthetic better but these games’ actual goal they were made with was realism.
I remember my friend’s brother secretly installed a graphics card on the family PC and we first noticed because when we started playing Half-Life one day it looked all smooth and "milky.
I think they did it because they could? Like more pixels = more hi def. But of course the textures weren’t actually high res, so everything is interpolated
I adore this series. I especially have very fond memories of the original. I did not play it on release (I was still a toddler then), but I got it through the Valve Bundle on Steam and played it through at least 5 times. I’ve had multiple times in my life were I didn’t have access to a powerful computer, but similar to DOOM, Half-Life will run on about anything. I remember one of my playtroughs being on a horrible windows 8 tablet, and still it looked and played amazingly :).
Half-Life 2 then just perfected an already strong original. There is something just so satisfying about the environmental design and linearity of the levels. You just push through and know that you will find enough in your surroundings to make it. I find it strange that there haven’t been that many clones since (first person exploration action games). Most games either are to linear (COD) or completely open world or become a full-on immersive sim.
If you have any recommendations, please share them. Dishonored gave me similar vibes, but I miss the simplicity of Half-Life.
Black Mesa is an obvious recommendation, since it’s a modern take on the original Half-Life. Another game that I thought was similar to Half-Life in progression and physics emphasis was Prey (the 2007 Native American one)
I was a huge HL fan back in the day. I recently bought Black Mesa… and had it refunded pretty quickly. I played the demo… ten years ago? And enjoyed it then. But imo it just doesn’t hold up at all.
Too much new stuff. I think the fact that Xen existing was the difference between the free version and the paid version pushed them to pad Xen out way too far for fear that snappier pacing would feel like a ripoff.
Xen was really rushed and shorter than originally intended in HL1 though, and part of the idea with BM was to flesh it out properly. Might have gone a bit too far, but it was also one of the few places in the project where they could truly come up with something new and unique, and not just redo what Valve had made before them.
Coincidentally I just started playing Earthbound (Maternalbound Redux ROM hack) this month. I’m just past the monkey cave. It’s charming, simple, fun. It’s great for my dad brain as right now I’m doing a lot of parenting and my brain isn’t able to handle something more complex.
EarthBound was the first JRPG I ever completed and the first JRPG I ever enjoyed. Before it I'd never been able to get into JRPGs: there was just too much complexity while also having too little going on. Wandering an overworld only to be randomly pulled out of it for no apparent reason was maddening. As a kid, trying to piece together the backstory of some undefined thoroughly detailed fantasy world while also taking in the emerging plot in the opening sequence wasn't anywhere near as appealing as firing up Mario or Mega Man and getting straight to the action.
EarthBound neatly sidestepped all of the things that had stopped me from liking JRPGs. The equipment system was simple without being braindead. The setting was a pastiche of suburban life that I could easily understand. The stakes were high but the tone was still whimsical and amusing. And above all I knew why I was suddenly getting dragged into battle with a snake or a crow or a dog instead of just being clotheslined by combat.
EarthBound still is my go-to recommendation in the (increasingly unlikely) event that someone says "I've always wanted to get into JRPGs, what should I start with?" It is the perfect "intro to JRPG" game without feeling trivial or like it cannot stand on its own. It singlehandedly made me love the JRPG genre, and I probably would not have played literally every other JRPG I've ever played if it wasn't for EarthBound.
Earthbound and Super Mario RPG are the two best entry points to SNES-era JRPGs. I haven’t played many JRPGs since the OG PlayStation generation, though, so I’m out of the loop on newer games. But they’re both better entry points than any of the PS1 JRPGs that I know of/played.
I’m more partial to Super Mario RPG, personally. Timing attacks in battle made the grind more engaging, and the Mario world is well known by pretty much any gamer already, too.
I remember trying to play Earthbound when I was younger. The story is fascinating, I really want to love the game, but the actual gameplay didn’t really grab me. I remember getting to the first major town area and getting my ass beat by the gangsters or whoever that you need to fight there. Never made it past that point.
Any tips, if I wanted to pick it up again? Is this a game that expects you to grind? I found the early game to be really difficult, and I’m not usually one to be turned off by that but I really felt like I was hitting a brick wall and I think I must have missed something fundamental.
Yeah, you do have to grind a bit. Nowhere near as much as some games (looking at you, basically every Final Fantasy game) but the leveling is designed around you doing some extra fights for XP. Every new area generally has a "grind spot" that is moderately to incredibly obvious, typically some grouping of enemies that are enough to fight but not enough to overwhelm you, placed within reasonable walking distance of a bed, hotel, or other way to refill your HP/MP for cheap/free.
For the first town, before you take on the punks roaming the streets you should get some levels fighting crows, dogs, and snakes up near your house. Once you can kill them in two turns or less head into town and try taking on a single punk. If you survive that fight without being nearly dead, keep fighting punks. If you almost die, go heal up and farm a little more. And if you DO die... well you only lose half the money you have on you, so as long as you keep most of it in the ATM you haven't lost much of anything.
“Skip the grind” romhacks are the only way I play a lot of JRPGs. I don’t want to mindlessly battle to advance in the game. I have better things to do with my time, like playing a wider selection of games. I don’t need games’ length padded!
Not sure if it’s needed for Earthbound, but I’d probably just use it anyway. Most games set up a good leveling curve, so double XP shouldn’t break the game even if it’s unnecessary.
If you want to bypass grinding entirely then you'd need something like that, but it might trivialize certain parts of the game. Won't trivialize all of it though since several of the key fights rely on strategy.
I was curious, so I looked it up: Earthbound has a fairly gentle XP curve. Double XP takes you from level 33 to 40, assuming you play the same.
I haven’t played Earthbound enough to remember if there’s grinding, so idk if it’s necessary. In general, I tend to find the existence of double XP romhacks is usually enough to indicate that I’d rather use them, based on my playstyle preferences. Someone thought it was beneficial enough to put hours of work into!
Earthbound was probably the first game I was ever really enamored with. Even today, it’s definitely one of my favorite games ever. And it’s probably the first JRPG I ever played, and it’s what started me down a long path of JRPGs.
My parents got me a subscription to Nintendo Power magazine, and I remember reading about the game there and wanting to play it. They didn’t buy it for me when it came out, but I did rent it from Blockbluster a few times. And they did eventually buy it for me for Christmas. It even came with the strategy guide!
Everything about the game was great. I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but it was insanely accessible, even to a then 7-8yo kid like me. JRPGs tend to be darker and complex (though not always). But Earthbound still had complexity, but it wasn’t darker. Yes these kids were having to save the world from destruction, but the story was told in an upbeat, fun way. And it was just the right amount of complexity.
Earthbound is also probably the first game I ever beat. Certainly the first JRPG.
I did try the fan-translation of Mother 3. I didn’t end up finishing it. I got close, but it was far too depressing and different from EB. The game was beautifully done (as was the player-made strategy guide!), but I just couldn’t really get into the story and characters. Just wasn’t for me.
That was someone's insane interpretation of the ending of the first Mother game (a.k.a. Earthbound Beginnings). It's not as out there as the guy who filled the Silent Hill wiki with claims that it was all symbolism for circumcision trauma (yes, really), but it's still kinda nutters.
It’s certainly a fan theory, but that’s not a confirmed thing by any means. The location of the last battles does look the inside of a vagina, looking towards the cervix, but that’s supposedly only a coincidence.
Ah that’s a shame about Mother 3, I really loved it. Seeing the gradual decay of a town affected by tragedy after tragedy (& a heaping dose of capitalism) become a shadow of itself was so beautiful. The pacing of the game is a bit odd at times, but overall I was surprised how much it resonated with me.
Earthbound is eternally on my list of games i play through every couple of years. Its such a great game. Some aspects of it are a tad clunky by modern sensibilities (inventory management, going through the menus for a lot of things, etc.), but overall it holds up really well. Also if you liked earthbound, mother 3 is also 100% worth playing. Mother 1 (or beginnings, or whatever you wanna call it), is hard to recommend to anyone but the most diehard fans, though.
I like earthbound the most of all of em, but thats purely for nostalgia reasons. From a critical perspective, i think mother 3 is the superior game.
Earthbound and the whole mother series are some of my all time faves. Mother 3 in particular is so outstanding it is a crime it hasn’t been localized! I have the osts in my regular rotation. Earthbound is probably my favorite for nostalgia reasons since I played it well before the others, and I like its format a bit more than the chapter based format of 3. However 3 is probably the more polished and better game
I shouldn’t be commenting here, but I will. I haven’t played Earthbound yet, but it’s one of the retro games I’m most looking forward to (besides FF6).
The music is so charming and the aesthetic is legendary.
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