What's my motivation?

[Soi]

I'm fully aware of all the nuances of the background story in the HL plot. It isn't the background that I have a problem with - it's the narrative in the second game that makes no sense. No-one behaves anything like they would - the characters are very believable in their expressions and facial animations, but their actual actions and decisions are completely absurd.

It was more absurd when I played it as I would always throw stuff at them while they were talking. Pelting a guy with a car tyre and he talks to you, and him not flinching, kills the drama. Does everyone do that, or is it just me?

I'd love to say that my desire to throw stuff at NPCs was a manifestation of the frustration the clearly mute Gordon had at not being able to talk -sort of like being trapped behind a mirror in an episode of The Twilight Zone - but it wasn't. It just passed the time as some character whom I had no apparent connection with talked at me for a few minutes.

The beginning of HL2 should be an amazing gaming moment, and I'm sure it is for some people. It was ruined for me by my decision to spend 15 minutes throwing paper cups at Combine guards. They follow you angrily for about 10 seconds and then leave you alone. It rather kills any fear you have of them as an enemy when you can throw cups at them with no consequence.

[Dazzyman]

Motivation? tell that to Hungry Horace

[rmoxon]

What's my motivation?

H-L2 is more about every other character than Gordon Freeman, Youre saving the world, isnt that good enough motivation for you?

Whats wrong with you, you a nazi or summat?

Jesus, I swear since GTA let you run old grannies down gaming has just become a one way street to hell and no one cares about the values of human life anymore.

[Stuart Smith]

I find that one of my biggest problems with motivation arising out of complex narrative plotlines is that, unlike movies and TV, I'm not likely to tear through the campaign in one sitting. It took me about a month of on and off of Bioshock to actually finish it, and inevitably some of the fine details of the setting that I learned at the beginning had totally left my mind by the end.

Now, the obvious comparison point here is books, and I'm not great with that either. I'm usually only finding time for one chapter a day, so I lose track of stuff. But with books, you can just flick back to the end of the last chapter, or something similar. This isn't an option in games, practically.

All of that said, I can't really see anyway around this. Perhaps some sort of ongoing story-so-far recording key plot points, or a constantly accessible `Previously on...` style sequence. But as it stands, I do think a big problem is that over time, I am just playing in a going through the motions way because I've long since lost track of how the overall story is progressing.

[Eight Rooks]

But then of course that's not the medium's problem - that's yours.

[Dogg Thang]

I know you're not digging the game Dogg but I think you really need to play it fully before you jump to any more conclusions.

According to gamefaqs, I'm on the second last level of HL2. I knew what my goal was with the Nova Prospekt place quite clearly. Aside from that, Gordon Freeman has been just doing his moving forward thing. Now even if in those last two levels, he does something spectacular to bring down the Combine, it still doesn't give meaning to what he's done up to that point.

And, if it turns out at the end that every thing he did up to that point did have meaning, then that only exposes the poor storytelling I'm talking about. Motivation comes first. Not last. You don't spend a day sanding a wall and then, at the end of the day, work out why you did it. You decide the wall needs a fresh coat of paint, will need sanding and then you sand it.

But this is a game and you're trying really hard to introduce reality terms to something which at it's very core suspends all reality. Besides if I wanted totally reality I'll step out my front door.

This 'get out' clause doesn't really work. Not even slightly. The 'reality' we're looking to introduce is simple basic motivation. That applies to the most fantastic of books, games or films. You could have a book about aliens that turn men into females with six breasts and put them to work in a larva feeding factory and it's fine but if you have a character come across a hole in the ground lined with spikes and they jump in, it's going to leave you asking why. Takes you out of the book while missing all drama potential.

[Brats]

But again, how would that even start to make a good game? Thawed out all of sudden in 10 years time to find the place is a stomping ground for fascist aliens I'd fill my pants. But this is a game and you're trying really hard to introduce reality terms to something which at it's very core suspends all reality. Besides if I wanted totally reality I'll step out my front door.

I think you're being very forgiving of the current game to assume that this aspect couldn't have been incorporated much better. The game frequently jumps about in time - they could have easily have let Gordon become accustomed to his predicament and given him some reason to exist off camera. When Neo comes out of the Matrix for the first time - he doesn't jump straight back in it throwing around Kung Fu moves - he clearly spends a good deal of time adjusting to the HUGE truth that he has just learnt but we don't witness him do this.

Your letting the game off basic narrative flaws because it is set in a world that isn't like our own. I'm not saying Half Life 2 should mirror reality at all - I'm just saying it should be believable. Christ if the Matrix can do it (hardly the bastion of reality) then why can't HL2?

You're totally forgetting the Vortigaunts who were there at the fall of the Nialinth and saw it all. They're more than just supporting characters and it's made quite clear if you listen to their bits of dialogue that they are the key link between it all.

Any Vortigaunt I encountered in HL got vapourised and at that point they were only creatures with animal like qualities. And it still doesn't explain why when Freeman turns up they are half expecting him. Regardless of what the Vortigaunts witnessed on Xen, if someone has disappeared for over ten years, I think most people would have given up on them.

I get that it isn't realistic but I refer you back to my first point of this post. Don't take offence at this Brats but I have to admit I find it hard that someone who's been playing games as long as you have is describing the actions of characters in video games as absurd. It's a fantasy medium - if things acted like they did in real life I guess we'd all be looking forward to "Shopping at Ikea Episode 540: Billy Book Case Sells Out" and "Jeffrey Archer's Get born, get job, die".

But your completely missing the point. It may be fantasy, but the narrative still needs to be believable. Lord of the Rings would be equally absurd if page one had Frodo waking up one day and just deciding to take the ring to Mount Doom on his own without any of the background of Bilbo's adventures, the background of his personality or his relationship with Gandalf. I'm not saying games need to replicate real life at all despite your amusing examples. I'm just saying they need to make sense within the world that they exist in.

We are constantly reminded in the HL games that Gordon is not a action hero - he is a scientist, an everyman. Fine, but then the game could easily be written much better to incorporate this into his actions without it being dull.

[eastyy]

of course if it turned out gordon actually had planned for everything to happen from before the first half life and he had actually done stuff behind the scenes to engineer everything to happen

and the stuff he was actually being asked to do was what he knew would happen all along then might make things a bit different

thing is i think we need branching plot lines really suprised we have not really got any

even a open game like oblivion its just one main plot which you cannot alter and loads of little seperate storys

knights of the republic you made lots of choices but it only really affected the ending the story up to that is pretty much the same

last game i remember which actually had a really good branching story and missions was colony wars for the psone