Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
I was talking about Pulp Fiction.
You have yet to show any good dissection as to the flaws that you see with HL's story, nor have you done anything but talk about generalities in regards to why you think your counter examples are good. If you are not capable of handling such discussion then just say so. I've given you multiple examples of how your examples all have very weak premises, and yet you are still using the premise as an example. Also- DeusEX came after Half-Life, so no matter that you are taken with the middle school conspiracy story line it can't possibly refute how much of an impact HL had.
*sigh*
There are no flaws with Half Life's story, it simply is not up to par with other examples of great story writing, either within its own field (PC Games) or in comparison to others (movies, novels). The basic setup is adequate for the purposes of the game and does it's job admirably - it simply isn't an example of great story construction. You mention pacing and revelation in your previous posts, but these have nothing to do with the quality of the story. No matter how well a story is presented, it can't escape it's subject matter. In Half-Life, the subject is obviously Gordon Freeman and the events that occur during his "escape" from Black Mesa. It is very repetitive - action, travel, action, travel, action, travel. Very little is expounded upon outside of Gordon's trials. There are a couple of "major events", for example, the military getting involved, and the "mystery" of the G-Man, but these add almost nothing to the story itself. The Military simply become more cannon fodder for Gordon, and G-Man does little besides make some cryptic statements at the end of the game which are supposed to impart mystery and curiosity. If Half Life's storyboard were composed into a novel or a movie, the book would be a low-grade vanilla thriller and the movie would be a summer released teeny-bopper targeting effects fest.
Deus Ex is a counter example, and a good one at that for many reasons. Since I've already demonstrated how subject matter is a core of a story's worth, let's look at the subject matter employed in Deus Ex. The subject matter in Deus Ex is of course JC Denton, and his involvement with Bob Page's attempt at world domination. Now, the gameplay in DX is not repetitive as it is with Half Life. If the player wants, it can be of the action, travel, etc. dynamic used in most first person shooters, or the player can instead elect to avoid conflict and choose stealth as his/her weapon instead. In this, two or more very different stories emerge. In one, JC Denton is a lethal killing machine with a sky high body count - the proverbial Arnold movie. In the other, he is master of the shadows and rarely deals a killing blow unless absolutely neccesary - in movie terms, there really isn't a recognizable stereotype I'm aware of. In a third, he is a she
Aside from the fact that the player's actions lead to two different stories, there is the additional subject matter. In Deus Ex, major events occur that alter the story completely. First, your defection from UNATCO to join the NSF - from there, your involvement with Tracer Tong, and then Morgan Everett and the Illuminati, and so on. Not only is the story more varied, it's subject matter is expounded upon - you learn of these various groups, events that occurred in the past between them, their relationships - the details are more fleshed out and the world rendered more complete in doing so. The story seems more real and plausible. Also, Deus Ex's story mechanics add tension. Whereas Half-Life counts on the "will he survive?" conundrum to foster tension, Deus Ex adds the "Am I doing the right thing?" question to the survival factor. Double and even triple crosses occur, and you, the player, are forced to make decisions on who to trust and what to do - and the outcomes of such decisions, again, result in a varied and different story lines. The twists that occur based on the player's decisions are sometimes predictable, sometimes unexpected, but on the whole keep the player guessing far more than Half-Life, which had no real twists to speak of. Deus Ex's "major events"
do impact the story - they change who you're opposition is, what missions you undertake, what decisions you make, and what information is revealed to you.
Revelation and pacing do help a story achieve success, but only if the subject matter is worthwhile. While both Half Life and Deus Ex manage to pace their stories well, Deus Ex's superior subject matter puts it in the lead in this race. No matter how well paced, Half-Life can't escape the fact that it is about two major things: alien invasion and survival. In contrast, Deus Ex is about conspiracy, betrayal, investigating, sneaking, survival, trusting, distrusting, and personal choice.
It is not my intent to refute any impact which Half-Life had - it was a great game and well deserving of its success. As a means of conveying a deep, thought provoking story however, it is not successful - but that's ok. It was never intended to be. Deus Ex's construction, subject matter, and gameplay method result in a story that is far more varied, surprising, and generally entertaining than the one served up by Half-Life. This isn't any knock against Half-Life, just a distinction between the two games, and a correction of this myth that Half-Life had some sort of "great story".
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