https://www.marclaidlaw.com/epistle-3/
https://www.reddit.com/r/HalfLife/comments/6vwelo/i_edited_m...
So it's surprising to see more half life being worked on!
It seems like the previous games were all ground-breaking narratives, but with most of the storytellers having left in the last few years, I'd be curious to see what makes this different than your standard VR games
HL1: sure. Environment storytelling and exposition delivered by fully voiced NPCs? Back in 1998 that was legitimately amazing.
HL2: the same only better! That's not a dis on it, it's just the story/storytelling wasn't particularly groundbreaking at that point. It was just done well.
With HL2 it was the added physics engine trough the change to Source, back then that used to be a big deal and whole gameplay mechanics revolve around that (gravity gun).
In that context, I do not really consider it that surprising for the next HL project to focus on VR because even early demos of that combination looked already very promising 5 years ago [0].
HL2 has dynamic gameplay and HDR and really just made the game play really immersive. From the agents that try to break down the door and all of the chains and razors shake as the walls rattle.. the deep black of the dark nights contrasted with the next morning when you’re on a boat getting attacked by a flying death drone. Or the massive walking robots that you fight along side Npc teammates that you legit feel bad for when they die. It was beyond well done, it set a standard for how cinematic gameplay should be done.
People will look back at Newell in 40 years like he’s Scorsese.