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Luni's Thoughts: Other M finale, Half-Life & expansions
13 years ago
So, it's been a few days since I last wrote about Other M.
Ultimately, the game never improved. You never actually get to see Sector Zero because that's where Adam intervenes, separating it from the rest of the ship and blowing it up. This was still as stupid as you were lead to believe, but after learning that Adam has made difficult choices that cost one person their life compared to hundreds, I at least understood WHAT they were going for.
The thing is, Adam was destroying these Metroids that no longer had their weakness to cold. Which is fine, but the game later goes on to have you fight against a Queen Metroid, cloned from the metroid bits from Samus' spacesuit after Super Metroid.
This would all make sense, except in the fact that any time Samus is knocked unconscious or hurt, the suit evaporates...so how did that scientist get the metroid DNA off her? Or the Ridley DNA, for that matter?
Whatever...oh, and the boss Nightmare makes an appearance! This is particularly strange, as the creature doesn't exist until Metroid Fusion, due to an infection of the X parasite in some kind of bio-mass in this ventilation shaft. So...why is Nightmare in this game? It doesn't make any sense, he's just there to be there.
In that same vein, Phantoon appears in the game as well. Mind you, he is just an extra boss you can fight after the main story; but again, there's absolutely NO explanation for him here. He SHOULD be dead after Super Metroid. At least with Ridley there was the 'cloning' explanation even though it doesn't make a great deal of sense. Phantoon is incredibly cheap as well...he just throws so much shit at you constantly, that it's impossible to avoid being hit. Using your stronger weapons are pointless, as they only do a minimal amount of extra damage.
Speaking of the bosses, the Queen Metroid starts as one of the most annoying bosses because up to six Metroids spawn out of her, and if you don't kill them in the waves (first 1, then 2, then 3), you have a serious problem. You gotta freeze 'em then rocket 'em.
Freezing them is a real pain, as they can avoid your shots easily. But even when you do hit, they don't stay frozen long, and the Queen is constantly stomping around, breaking them out even faster. Plus, it takes either 2 or 3 regular missiles, or 1 super missile...and both tactics take time, which the game refuses to ever afford you.
Oh, btw, Anthony survived! That was a nice little thing, 'cause he was about the only thing I really liked here. So huzzah for Anthony!
...and just to wrap it up, the self destruction sequence. I went item hunting, which altogether added maybe another 2 hours to the overall experience (bringing my in-game time to around 12 hours), and then went and fought Phantoon and picked up Adam's helmet. Frankly, I think Samus is kind of creepy here, the way she hugs and such...I think she seriously wanted to bone him. that's the feeling *I* got from it, anyway.
But oh no, the ship is gonna blow up! Time to run back to her ship...while not bothering to re-activate her power suit. I knew this was coming because Daigo had warned me...but what I didn't expect was for the game to throw a new mechanic at me during the countdown!
See, these gates drop down, and to get them to rise back up you gotta shot 'em with her stun gun....but at first I didn't know that, and wasted time trying to backtrack, to find a gate had dropped behind me! So I was confused, jumping around...and accidentally shot the one gate, and it rose up a bit...so that's how I figured it out. I didn't appreciate this at all, as it wasted time...
...and that's pretty much it I unlocked all the gallery pictures, Hard mode (as if there's any reason to play this...there's nothing to unlock), and all cinematics. woo-hoo.
*****
So, recently I sat down and, for the first time ever, played through Half-Life, and 2 of its' 3 expansions (one was exclusive to the PS2 port) on Steam.
Considering that Half-Life came out in 1997, it's graphics are extremely rough by today's standards. That said, the game has held up pretty well. the puzzles are still somewhat challenging, and the AI is for the most part pretty intelligent and rather aggressive. The game really likes to throw curveballs at you, always keeping you on your toes and trying to struggle to survive. Plus, there's just some genuinely creepy moments, such as when a deep, booming voice screams at you 'you've done...what the HEEELLL haaave yooouuu'vvveee dooone?', and it's quite challenging. Well worth playing even in this day and age.
Opposing Force was the first expansion to Half-Life, and I absolutely love it. Instead of having to use a flashlight in dark places, you get a useful night vision filter, and while you get some of the same weapons as in HL, you get a wide variety of new and fun weapons, such as the grappling hook made from an alien barnacle in the game. The game suffers from some bizarre glitch that will on occasion make it so you're unable to move, and will have to die or reload the last save to fix it. Plus, while you can command soldiers to follow you into battle, they are INSANELY idiotic, and will shoot you to kill a headcrab that's right in front of you, so standing in between them and bad guys is a big no-no...and often times hard to do. Don't shoot them, either...they will turn on you for it.
but aside from that, Opposing Force adds another 10 or so hours of gameplay, and helps expand upon the story from the first game, taking place during the latter half of the first game.
Blue-Shift, on the other hand, follows security guard Barry Calhoun during the first few hours of the main game, where the experiment goes awry. Barry, being a regular guy, can only rely on body armor and helmets for armor and is unable to use the HEV refill stations (unlike Gordon and Shepard from Opposing Force), and he gets the same basic weapons that Gordon gets in Half-Life. Blue-Shift is also a great deal shorter than even Opposing Force, taking less than 5 hours to run through, and it lacks any new creatures like Opposing Force. Overall, it's a worthwhile trip to see the references to HL, Opposing Force, and even a quick reference to the final expansion, Decay( Decay was PS2 only, and was a co-op campaign. It followed two women scientists who, to my knowledge, do not re-appear). I would tell folks to play this one before moving to Opposing Force, due to the shortness of the campaign and the lack of original equipment. It doesn't suffer from that same horrible glitch that would plague Opposing Force from time to time, so that was good.
Overall, however, I consider this Half-Life trilogy to be a satisfying and fun trio of games. If you haven't played them, I'd recommend checking them out, especially during one of Steam's many game sales.
Ultimately, the game never improved. You never actually get to see Sector Zero because that's where Adam intervenes, separating it from the rest of the ship and blowing it up. This was still as stupid as you were lead to believe, but after learning that Adam has made difficult choices that cost one person their life compared to hundreds, I at least understood WHAT they were going for.
The thing is, Adam was destroying these Metroids that no longer had their weakness to cold. Which is fine, but the game later goes on to have you fight against a Queen Metroid, cloned from the metroid bits from Samus' spacesuit after Super Metroid.
This would all make sense, except in the fact that any time Samus is knocked unconscious or hurt, the suit evaporates...so how did that scientist get the metroid DNA off her? Or the Ridley DNA, for that matter?
Whatever...oh, and the boss Nightmare makes an appearance! This is particularly strange, as the creature doesn't exist until Metroid Fusion, due to an infection of the X parasite in some kind of bio-mass in this ventilation shaft. So...why is Nightmare in this game? It doesn't make any sense, he's just there to be there.
In that same vein, Phantoon appears in the game as well. Mind you, he is just an extra boss you can fight after the main story; but again, there's absolutely NO explanation for him here. He SHOULD be dead after Super Metroid. At least with Ridley there was the 'cloning' explanation even though it doesn't make a great deal of sense. Phantoon is incredibly cheap as well...he just throws so much shit at you constantly, that it's impossible to avoid being hit. Using your stronger weapons are pointless, as they only do a minimal amount of extra damage.
Speaking of the bosses, the Queen Metroid starts as one of the most annoying bosses because up to six Metroids spawn out of her, and if you don't kill them in the waves (first 1, then 2, then 3), you have a serious problem. You gotta freeze 'em then rocket 'em.
Freezing them is a real pain, as they can avoid your shots easily. But even when you do hit, they don't stay frozen long, and the Queen is constantly stomping around, breaking them out even faster. Plus, it takes either 2 or 3 regular missiles, or 1 super missile...and both tactics take time, which the game refuses to ever afford you.
Oh, btw, Anthony survived! That was a nice little thing, 'cause he was about the only thing I really liked here. So huzzah for Anthony!
...and just to wrap it up, the self destruction sequence. I went item hunting, which altogether added maybe another 2 hours to the overall experience (bringing my in-game time to around 12 hours), and then went and fought Phantoon and picked up Adam's helmet. Frankly, I think Samus is kind of creepy here, the way she hugs and such...I think she seriously wanted to bone him. that's the feeling *I* got from it, anyway.
But oh no, the ship is gonna blow up! Time to run back to her ship...while not bothering to re-activate her power suit. I knew this was coming because Daigo had warned me...but what I didn't expect was for the game to throw a new mechanic at me during the countdown!
See, these gates drop down, and to get them to rise back up you gotta shot 'em with her stun gun....but at first I didn't know that, and wasted time trying to backtrack, to find a gate had dropped behind me! So I was confused, jumping around...and accidentally shot the one gate, and it rose up a bit...so that's how I figured it out. I didn't appreciate this at all, as it wasted time...
...and that's pretty much it I unlocked all the gallery pictures, Hard mode (as if there's any reason to play this...there's nothing to unlock), and all cinematics. woo-hoo.
*****
So, recently I sat down and, for the first time ever, played through Half-Life, and 2 of its' 3 expansions (one was exclusive to the PS2 port) on Steam.
Considering that Half-Life came out in 1997, it's graphics are extremely rough by today's standards. That said, the game has held up pretty well. the puzzles are still somewhat challenging, and the AI is for the most part pretty intelligent and rather aggressive. The game really likes to throw curveballs at you, always keeping you on your toes and trying to struggle to survive. Plus, there's just some genuinely creepy moments, such as when a deep, booming voice screams at you 'you've done...what the HEEELLL haaave yooouuu'vvveee dooone?', and it's quite challenging. Well worth playing even in this day and age.
Opposing Force was the first expansion to Half-Life, and I absolutely love it. Instead of having to use a flashlight in dark places, you get a useful night vision filter, and while you get some of the same weapons as in HL, you get a wide variety of new and fun weapons, such as the grappling hook made from an alien barnacle in the game. The game suffers from some bizarre glitch that will on occasion make it so you're unable to move, and will have to die or reload the last save to fix it. Plus, while you can command soldiers to follow you into battle, they are INSANELY idiotic, and will shoot you to kill a headcrab that's right in front of you, so standing in between them and bad guys is a big no-no...and often times hard to do. Don't shoot them, either...they will turn on you for it.
but aside from that, Opposing Force adds another 10 or so hours of gameplay, and helps expand upon the story from the first game, taking place during the latter half of the first game.
Blue-Shift, on the other hand, follows security guard Barry Calhoun during the first few hours of the main game, where the experiment goes awry. Barry, being a regular guy, can only rely on body armor and helmets for armor and is unable to use the HEV refill stations (unlike Gordon and Shepard from Opposing Force), and he gets the same basic weapons that Gordon gets in Half-Life. Blue-Shift is also a great deal shorter than even Opposing Force, taking less than 5 hours to run through, and it lacks any new creatures like Opposing Force. Overall, it's a worthwhile trip to see the references to HL, Opposing Force, and even a quick reference to the final expansion, Decay( Decay was PS2 only, and was a co-op campaign. It followed two women scientists who, to my knowledge, do not re-appear). I would tell folks to play this one before moving to Opposing Force, due to the shortness of the campaign and the lack of original equipment. It doesn't suffer from that same horrible glitch that would plague Opposing Force from time to time, so that was good.
Overall, however, I consider this Half-Life trilogy to be a satisfying and fun trio of games. If you haven't played them, I'd recommend checking them out, especially during one of Steam's many game sales.
So, I finally said fuck it, let's grab the source version on Steam...and while the graphics weren't as high as the PS2 version, it played a lot better...then I lost track of it.
So yeah, I can play HL2. X3
There's just a lot of moments where the story is broken apart by physics puzzle gameplay and chase scenes that only serve to make the game and world feel empty. The first game did a great job of feeling like there was a vast world while keeping your experience claustrophobic. When you finally get to Xen, everything is so open and you just feel exposed and vulnerable. I don't want to give the sequels away, but at some point you end up in a huge facility of horrors,and instead of feeling claustrophobic, you get a game on rails and HO HUM, MORE CORRIDORS. HO HUM CONTRIVED STAND YOUR GROUND BATTLE. I could LITERALLY see that from a mile away.
It's still fun as hell.
Also: The Bottle Ship is destroyed along with all the creatures aboard.
Plus, even in context to other games, it doesn't make much sense. XD Samus wouldn't probably stick around with the Galactic Feds if they were gonna backstab her like that...