New difficulty level possibly in ep2

[Ooog]

First post, long time lurker. Frustrated with the not-so-very-hard hard difficulty in half life 2 and episode 1, I sent an email to gabe. It read:

I have completed 40-45 playthroughs of Half Life 2 (I lost count recently). Now anything associated with that game, whether it be mod or episode, is simply too easy. Because of this, the reduction of difficulty on the Episode 1 elevator battle made me quite disgruntled. In a last effort to make the game harder, I did a playthrough without losing a point of health (using lots of quicksaves). But even that was surprisingly easy. Is there a chance of ever getting a difficulty higher than hard, or will I have to rely on mods?


Robin Walker responded with this:

Actually, we're pretty unhappy with our Hard setting. On Ep1 we started working on a harder-than-hard difficulty setting, but ran out of time to get it finished. I'm hoping the Ep2 folks can finish it up. Once it goes in, it'll be backwards compatible, so you'll be able to go back and play HL2 / Ep1 with it as well. Hopefully that'll provide you with more of a challenge.

Robin.

So it looks like theres a good chance of getting a harder than hard difficulty in ep2. Didn't think this was really known, did a search and i apologize if I missed it. Just thought it'd be a nice thing to know if you are bored with the hard difficulty.

[tehsolace]

Very cool. Be sure and post this in the from-Valve-only thread: http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1298

[Ooog]

Oops totally forgot about the info from valve only thread. I'll go post this in there. Hope it was ok putting this in this forum.

[$kelet0r]

I personally don't think that a harder than hard level is the way to go
If the hostile AI was beefed up significantly and weapons made more lethal across the baord I'd be delighted

[function9]

I second the beefed up AI. If they only changed one thing to make it harder I hope it would be that.

[riomhaire]

The AI in HL2 is some of the best around, asking for an upgrade is pushing it :P
That said, more accurate enemies that do more damage would be welcome.

[Costin]

Just put yourself behind a Combine soldier,Metrocop and he does...nothing..or block his view with a box and he will stop shooting...i miss the grunts who can actualy kill you...the Combine soldiers on easy...i played on easy and i was surprised how stupid they're are.

[Asuka]

Very nice.

[function9]

I don't know, overall I wasn't impressed with the AI. 90% of the time, if you even knew what a strafe button was, you could outsmart most of the enemies.

-Give me a squad of combines that will blast cover fire my way so they can setup positions around me. Or use some kind of tactics, as it is now they will shoot and take cover. But if you move out and flank them they just stand there in their hiding spot (the fight with Alyx in City 17 destroying the generator?). Or they charge you from the other side of the map.
-Give me a combine that if you sneak halfway around a corner or doorway will react instead of standing there waiting for you to reach point "X" inside the doorway (most noticeable in Nova Prospekt/Entanglement).
-Give me characters that will react more logical or spontaneous. eg. I know it's cheating but if say you do "impulse 101" before or in Kleiner's lab, you cannot get past it through the regular storyline. Impluse 101 gives you the suit as well, but the characters can't detect that you already have the suit, thus they wait eternally for you to get the suit (which you can't).

While the HL series has been my favorite for a while, I was personally a little disappointed with the AI in HL2. Like in D3, the enemy/zombie marines you encountered moved and fired intelligently. They used their surroundings surprisingly pretty well to evade and attack. But these are just my opinions. :)

[bigburpco]

Just put yourself behind a Combine soldier,Metrocop and he does...nothing..or block his view with a box and he will stop shooting...i miss the grunts who can actualy kill you...the Combine soldiers on easy...i played on easy and i was surprised how stupid they're are.

YOU FIGHT THE GRUNTS IN CONSTRICTED SPACES, YOU FIGHT THE COMBINE IN LARGE OPEN SPACES. THE COMBINE HAVE BETTER AI; I MEAN HOW MANY TIMES DID THE GRUNTS BLOW THEMSELVES UP? MORE THAN (AT LEAST) FIVE EACH PLAYTHROUGH. JEEZ.

[bbson john]

The greatest problem is, combine's weapon is not strong enough.


-Give me characters that will react more logical or spontaneous. eg. I know it's cheating but if say you do "impulse 101" before or in Kleiner's lab, you cannot get past it through the regular storyline. Impluse 101 gives you the suit as well, but the characters can't detect that you already have the suit, thus they wait eternally for you to get the suit (which you can't).


That out of the game construction. Do you expect if you enable noclip, Alyx will scream "Gordon, you can move into a wall!"?

[Inflame007]

my Idea is they should do something similar to what the FEAR guys di regardin weapons: The FEAR team coded the WEAPONS in a way that enemies had the same amount of ammo as the player, and reloading took them roughtly the same amount of time.

[Costin]

YOU FIGHT THE GRUNTS IN CONSTRICTED SPACES, YOU FIGHT THE COMBINE IN LARGE OPEN SPACES. THE COMBINE HAVE BETTER AI; I MEAN HOW MANY TIMES DID THE GRUNTS BLOW THEMSELVES UP? MORE THAN (AT LEAST) FIVE EACH PLAYTHROUGH. JEEZ.

Fighting in large or constricted are doesn't make any diferrence when it comes about AI, is about how can adapt in various situation...And grunts blowing themself up never witnessed.

[Atomic_Piggy]

I don't know why people complain. I play on hard, and frankly the AI is amazing. The soldiers do flank me, they take cover when they reload, they flush me out with grenades, they hide behind stuff and ambush me. For heavens sake, what difficulty are you guys playing on?

[okidoki]

I think there should be more than three difficulty levels. Leave "hard" and make a "very hard" or something.

[bbson john]

I think there should be more than three difficulty levels. Leave "hard" and make a "very hard" or something.

And "Easy" should be named as " super-stupid-beginners'-hyper-easy".

[Costin]

And "Easy" should be named as " super-stupid-beginners'-hyper-easy".

No i have a better name:"Hyper-Mega-Kilo-Giga-easy" (stupid beginners)-don't work since is hyper-mega-kilo-giga easy...

[Shift]

Well i did play on hard mode and the AI was rather good i must say. Their use of grenades was very impressive, when behind cover they'd run to both sides of the cover and start peppering me. They always move about making it harder to hit them, the shotgunners always get in close to deal more damage while the machine gunners stay back to take use of thier accuracy. I think the AI is everything i could of hoped for, although i only died a few times on hard, i think thats just from my experiance =D

[bigburpco]

Fighting in large or constricted are doesn't make any diferrence when it comes about AI, is about how can adapt in various situation...And grunts blowing themself up never witnessed.

YOU PUT THE GRUNTS IN A LARGER AREA, THEY'LL GET OWNED LIKE NUTS. IT'S THEIR HEALTH AND DAMAGE THAT'S GOOD, NOT THE DAMN AI.

[Costin]

YOU PUT THE GRUNTS IN A LARGER AREA, THEY'LL GET OWNED LIKE NUTS. IT'S THEIR HEALTH AND DAMAGE THAT'S GOOD, NOT THE DAMN AI.
I have to play again Half-Life to analyze they're AI.But if you play HL2 just block the vision of a soldier with a box and he will stop shooting...and play it one time on "Easy" and you'll laugh at they pathetic atempts to kill you.

[bbson john]

I have to play again Half-Life to analyze they're AI.But if you play HL2 just block the vision of a soldier with a box and he will stop shooting...and play it one time on "Easy" and you'll laugh at they pathetic atempts to kill you.
Basically, soldiers can't see your leg.

[A True Canadian]

I'm playing through Half-Life 2 again on the Hard difficulty. Things were going quite well (challenging without being overly frustrating). Here's what I've noticed:

- Manhacks are very, very tricky to kill in Route Canal. The fact that they're in numbers of about 3 or more in tight spaces makes using the crowbar rather pointless. It takes nearly a full clip of pistol ammo to take one down, and the fact that they're flying around in circles most of the time means you need to be a great shot. Using the machine gun is your best option, but the fact that the gun sprays ammo instead firing right down the middle means that great care must be taken when firing. I must have used about 400 bullets to take down the Manhacks in that level alone. When I can run from them, I do. I've never realised how tough a swarm of Manhacks was until I played against them on hard. I've died many times against them (mainly in the section just before you flood the area with water).

- Another section that took me a while was the building on Water Hazard that you must go through to open the dam doors. The building/warehouse with two large crates you can walk in and out of underneath a catwalk gave me problems. Once again, the Manhacks were giving me hell as the 8 Combine I had to face in that section were quick in mowing me down. That took me 12+ tries before I came up with a strategy. I used on of my grenades to blow up the Manhack swarm and then hid in the crates picking off Combine soldiers one by one. A few grenades came my way as they tried to flush me out into the open, but I was in such a tight spot, they had trouble getting me.

- The toughest sections so far were in Ravenholm. The first occurs when Gregori gives you the shotgun. I jumped into the well, climbed to the catwalk and by the time I made it to the door (to the little room with the elevator) one Fast Zombie had already jumped down behind me. I dashed into the room as two more climbed up the pipes (a 4th one was going after Gregori). After closing the door and activating the switch for the incredibly slow elevator, no more than 5 seconds later a Fast Zombie broke through the skylight and attacked me. By the time I dealt with him a second Fast Zombie jumped down, and as I was dealing with him, two more came down and the three of them killed me quickly. I tried keeping the door open and shooting them in the doorway, but their leap means that I won't be able to kill them in time. Using grenades, explosives from the machine gun, the magnum, the shotgun, I tried everything but they were too tough and too fast. Eventually I just decided to ignore the elevator and jump off the building. I ran like hell, the coward's answer, but it worked. :p

- The second Ravenholm section was with the second lift that Gregori sends to you. I had darted to the roof, and when I looked over the side for the first time, I literally saw 10-12 Fast Zombies running through the streets of Ravenholm to my direction. Holy ****! I don't remember there being so many when I played on the easy and medium settings. It's like Valve took the Zombies that you would have killed at the elevator (always an elevator involved at the tough sections) in Episode 1, and threw them into Ravenholm. It took many tries to get past that section because there's so many of them. You could kill one as he climbs up the pipe, but another is right on his tail and gets just a little further than the last guy. Eventually one would make it up, and then another, and another, and another, before a swarm was what you were dealing with and you were killed. On my 6th try I lucked out. The the 12 of them were all fighting each other at the bottom of the building trying to be first to get up the pipe. A few grenades their way and most of them were taken care of. I made it to the lift before another swarm of reinforcements arrived. :O

Right now I'm on Highway 17, coming close to death but never having any real difficulty. But based on how tricky some of the sections were, I'm so not looking forward to the Nova Prospekt infiltration or the Entanglement onslaught. I can't really imagine what it will be like when Valve implements an even harder difficulty. I still support adding a harder difficulty, and when it eventually comes out I'll probably play it, but I'm just surprised at how hard the hard difficulty really is. You guys must be amazing players if you can get through Half-Life 2 on hard without breaking a sweat.

I'm also not sure where this notion of Half-Life 2 having poor AI comes from. Civil Protection fights in numbers and use grenades and Manhacks aplenty. Fast Zombies will literally run around a building to the back entrance and sneak up behind you if you're not careful. Combine Soldiers take cover and reorganize at a safe place (in a building, behind some rocks) before they then come charging out as a group. Half-Life 2 AI is just as good, if not better, than Half-Life's AI.

[Shift]

lol yeah i did half life 2 on hard a week ago

The manhacks are an absulute pain in the arse but i found the crowbar worked wonders if you time your swings properly. I usually backed into the corner of the room so i couldn't get a slash up the arse, and hit them as they dived into me.

Ravenholm has soo many more elements to it, whereas other times i had more time to look at the scenery, on hard i was tense all the way through, the fast zombie that breaks through the skylight? Never happened to me before, scared the hell out of me. Other than that i loved the fire fights with the zombies, and i actually found the second lift part really easy for some reason, just used the magnum and blasted the fast zombies in the head as they srrambled up the pipe.

Ill let you experiance the rest, you find the game gets even better on hard mode for some reason, just more of the challenge and more satisfying, oh and nova prospect's firefights on hard are great, but hard so watch yourself. Oh, DO NOT, go in the sand during sandtraps!

[$kelet0r]

as someone who only played HL2 on hard I found it very lacking as a challenge in so many areas
- the accuracy of enemy soldiers is horrific
- their AI is very limited and relies very heavily on clever placement of infonodes and not situational awareness
- the game as a whole is not very tough, dying only really occured when I let it happen (used up too much ammo on a hostile or let my health go to low)

Beefing up the frankly lacklustre AI would go a long way to improving the game - lest anyone forget the AI in Fear was something people raved about for months and is to date unmatched

[Shift]

Stop talking about FEAR people!

Yes the AI was good, but this is Half-Life 2, not sodding FEAR. Besides I would down FEARs rating generally because it has little or no reply value. It was a great experiance first time, but when i tried to go though it again, you already know when something is going to happen to make you jump or whatever, so i just think without that it just lost its effect because to me now a game needs something more than just the action, FEAR did first time with its spookiness, after that it was pretty shallow i must say. Thats just my opinion.

Anyway, sorry for the moan, just hate seeing the FEAR AI coming up all of the time, ok its better, end of, Half-Life 2 still completely outmatches it in almost every other aspect anyway.

[XIII]

i wonder wut itll be like if combine uses flashbang on u

[function9]

That out of the game construction. Do you expect if you enable noclip, Alyx will scream "Gordon, you can move into a wall!"?Well actually I don't see why they wouldn't have her react, if you fly around above an enemy it will acknowledge you and try to get at you. The vortigaunt in the kitchen at BME can be interacted with in noclip.

Like I said I know it's cheating, but I was pointing out that the game/characters cannot improvise/adjust even in a limited capacity, that was a bad example I guess. I think a better example of this would be after taking out the gunship at the lighthouse. The NPC that comes to get you. I don't know but everytime I've played I've run right down to the "secret passage" on my own. But the NPC still has to go up to the top, say his lines and start back down. I would've hoped characters would be able to detect where you/Gordon are and be able to cut to a different spot on their timeline.

I guess what I'm saying is even when you're not cheating, but deviate from the game at all (like the lighthouse, but there are many other instances like that) the game can't adjust. I don't know about you but I think it being able to adjust would go a long way to making the characters and story a bit more realistic. Especially when it seems thats where Valve wants to go with it (extended character developement of Alyx for example).

I'm by no means a "hardcore" gamer, but I can't say I had a problem with most things in HL2/ep1 on the hard level. The only part I've had a problem with is the 2nd time Alyx leaves you in Entanglement and you have to use torrents.

But I will say Valve does seem to update the game very often, I don't know if this would be considered AI or... When if you first get into Nova Prospekt in the sewer, you used to be able to take out the combine in the towers through the sewer grates in the ground. And they would just stand there and not know where you were. The last few times I played though, they could detect you and would fire back, made that section a bit more challenging and enjoyable too. So hopefully between the episodes and steam, we will see different components of the game evolve.

[Cole]

I would've hoped characters would be able to detect where you/Gordon are and be able to cut to a different spot on their timeline.
When your being teleported in the start of the game they do this. For example play a game where you put the cord back in right away and one where you don't.

[Shift]

The entanglement bit is do'able without having to reload even on hard. If you jut position yourself and the turrets properly, plus ALWAYS bring another turret with you from a previous fight, so you have 4 instead of three, if you positioned the turrets correctly you can get through it sometimes without having to re load the game at all. I did, but i end the fight with 7 health lmao! That was because i grenade landed right next me hehe

[Atomic_Piggy]

FEAR sucked.

[Para]

The should call the four hardness levels what they really are:

Easy -> Wimpy
Normal -> Very easy
Hard -> Getting there...
Very Hard -> Normal

But nooo, the whiney minority who apparently haven't grasped the idea of actually thinking about stuff wants to have so easy games that in the end they won't remember them at all because those games were too easy to play and if they didn't succeed at first try, the game obviously sucked and was quickly forgotten because of that.

I have spoken. Ugh.

[Costin]

FEAR sucked.
Hahahahahahahaha this is teh man :thumbs:

[Adrik_Senturu]

I don't want more damaging enemies, I want better AI. I mean if Im in a room, and the combine are not in said room but in another room, than I better see grenades flying through the window or atleast them waiting to ambush me, not them just standing there waiting for me to come through the door shooting a storm up. The only enemies that have an excuse for having Poor AI are zombies, And Hell they have better AI than the combine do. Throwing stuff at you and coming from different sides D:

[Flyingdebris]

As is my answer to almost any issues regarding difficulty and half life 2.

Play the Smod Remastered Redux mod

If you run te hard exec file, random combine will recieve shields or extra hp, sometimes both, their accuracy and reaction time will improve, and some other tweaks.

There's even a cvar that you can set from 0 to 1, that replaces enemy grenades with incendary ones. The incendary ones don't have a beep noise, nor do they have a red light. It makes things rather hectic because you really have to pay attention for incoming nades.

Also there are text files you can tweak to increase the number of randomly spawned enemies in a level. I get a kick out of adding 40 something extra combine to the first canal level with the hard exec running and all weapons personally tweaked for increased lethality.. Just getting across one side of the train, to the other requires lots of luck and finesse

[Shift]

Bloody hell, why dont we ask Valve to make an ultra-hard mode then, so its takes you 1 hour to progress through one section. I think you will find it becomes pointless, and then you get complaints about it being too hard.

Ok the AI can be lacking, but big sodding deal, the action is still awsome and the game itself is genius, everything else just makes me forget about all of the cons completely.

[riomhaire]

I have to play again Half-Life to analyze they're AI.But if you play HL2 just block the vision of a soldier with a box and he will stop shooting...and play it one time on "Easy" and you'll laugh at they pathetic atempts to kill you.
I heard somewhere that the AI won't shoot anything it sees as cover. But when I hid behind a box they just flank me :P

[A True Canadian]

I heard somewhere that the AI won't shoot anything it sees as cover. But when I hid behind a box they just flank me :P

That makes sense. If the Combine just stood there shooting at you behind cover, you could just pop out and kill them when they've stopped to reload.

[Adrik_Senturu]

Ok the AI can be lacking, but big sodding deal.

Good AI can make battles 10 times better so they are a big deal :| I mean I know everyones tired of hearing it but just look at FEAR. Im not a big fan of the story, but the AI is what makes that entire game (And the ending sequence...best. explosion. ever.)

[Shift]

The F.E.A.R AI was good, but its not what made the game, its was the games attempt at creating a spooky and scary atmosphere to increase the tension even when not fighting battles to make a mentally draining experiance.

F.E.A.R is a modern game that was successful because it had something else to offer other than its AI and its combat, if its AI that drove the game then it would not have been as successful as it had been. But quite frankly, Half-Life 2 makes F.E.A.R look like a dead shit if im comparing it. Sorry for the comment but i am just ****ing sick to death of people complaining about Half-Life's AI and then bringing up F.E.A.R, drop it already!

Oh and also, the Citadel explosion at the end of Ep1 was 100x better than the explosion at the end of F.E.A.R

[Adrik_Senturu]

The F.E.A.R AI was good, but its not what made the game, its was the games attempt at creating a spooky and scary atmosphere to increase the tension even when not fighting battles to make a mentally draining experiance.

F.E.A.R is a modern game that was successful because it had something else to offer other than its AI and its combat, if its AI that drove the game then it would not have been as successful as it had been. But quite frankly, Half-Life 2 makes F.E.A.R look like a dead shit if im comparing it. Sorry for the comment but i am just ****ing sick to death of people complaining about Half-Life's AI and then bringing up F.E.A.R, drop it already!

Oh and also, the Citadel explosion at the end of Ep1 was 100x better than the explosion at the end of F.E.A.R

I forgot the citadel explosion. That one was really good too. Im tied between the two :x.

Well for me the AI drove the game . Except for a few momemnts where something popped out, I was more focused on what the enemy was going to do rather than some spooky ghost girl. I think the AI had a bigger impact on the game than you think :| If it didnt have the AI it did it would've been rather dull just having the scares there.

But what im trying to say is that AI can make a battle with just 1 enemy ten times better . I don't want combine that are just going to sit there when I throw a grenade at them. I mean sure they make an attempt to get away but by the time they react its usually too late.

[Cpl_Facehugger]

The F.E.A.R AI was good, but its not what made the game, its was the games attempt at creating a spooky and scary atmosphere to increase the tension even when not fighting battles to make a mentally draining experiance.

I disagree. In FEAR, the spooky bits were 'meh' for me. What really endeared me to FEAR was the combat, pure and simple. It was just so... visceral and cinematic. In FEAR, when you fire upon, say, a stone pillar, persistant dust is generated (just like one would expect.) This dust adds immensely to the feel of the game, especially when you see it in slow motion. Add in the fact that the levels were designed in such a way as to allow the Replicas to use tactics more advanced then 'rush' against you (usually,) and that the Replicas were very smart, and you have a recipie for fun.

I still feel that the Combine AI would perform better if you gave it a wide open field to play in. Combine after all tend to operate in squads (on Hard, at least,) and while the SMG troops keep me pinned, Mr. Shotgunner will try to flank me (and fail because of the level design and the fact that I'm a paranoid bastard,) and when that fails, charge me. Give the Combine a wide open area to play in, such that they can flank from anywhere, and I predict a lot more obvious 'intelligence' making itself known in the Combine AI.

[Atomic_Piggy]

F.E.A.R is a modern game that was successful


I stopped reading here.

[Sparta]

I remember reading on this forum that apparently there are notes in some of the codes for Half-Life 2's A.I that encourages the A.I to stand still, so its easier for you to use the gravity gun on them.

[Llama]

I have to play again Half-Life to analyze they're AI.But if you play HL2 just block the vision of a soldier with a box and he will stop shooting...and play it one time on "Easy" and you'll laugh at they pathetic atempts to kill you.

he only reason the grunts seem tougher is a smaller firing cone and higher health. If you gave the Combine Soldiers the same stats, you'd get thouroughly owned

[kupocake]

New difficulty level?

Hallelujah

[Shift]

I stopped reading here.

I think you will find it was successful if you read EVERY review for the game lik I did before buying. I wanted to make sure it wasn't just some other action game.

[Adrik_Senturu]

Well hopefully we'll see improved AI with the hunters. With wide open spaces seems likes theres alot you can do with them :x

[Costin]

he only reason the grunts seem tougher is a smaller firing cone and higher health. If you gave the Combine Soldiers the same stats, you'd get thouroughly owned
That makes sense that the Combine Soldiers's AI is made for large spaces...But you saw the grunts in large areas like "Surface Tension" they were pretty good...flanks and covers....me I was impressed about there AI in that time (2000) and when i've seen the AI of the Combine Soldiers I was somehow dissapointed...and let's hope that Hunters AI is going to be more advanced.

[Para]

Combine AI has several dumbifications which make them perform worse, one being the already mentioned stand still so I can blast you with this heater/thing. Imo those should be toned down or removed in normal and hard hardness levels.

[bigburpco]

If that's so, Valve also needs to add the holy hand grenade.

[JoeCLawrence]

I played through hard mode, and I was a little dissappointed. AI-wise they remain basically the same, and I think they all show up in the same numbers too. So basically they just do more damage and have more health. It works in an area like Ravenholm, but against soldiers it didn't really work so much. They were only really dangerous in numbers because I didn't have time to mow them down before they could close in on me. They still have very little accuracy and insist on firing on 3-4 round bursts that just really aren't effective. Striders and gunships work pretty well as is though, because their AI is generally really solid. I would welcome an increased difficulty hard mode, because the current hard mode just doesn't add enough.

[okidoki]

Sorry for bumping, but I just thought of something. Does anyone think friendly fire should be enabled in the "very hard" mode? I think this would add an interesting challenge.

[UseAbuse]

I got email from Valve about the AI. :cheers:

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showpost.php?p=2047440&postcount=852

[function9]

That email sounds pretty good, least they're still trying to improve things. No matter how good they think they have it.

My problem with games in general (as this isn't just a HL2 thing) is difficulty settings only effect how many bullets you have to put into an enemy. Having to shoot an enemy a few more times to kill him doesn't do it for me.

[Warbie]

Now we just need them to add a few more difficulty settings above extra hard and we might get one challenge that approaches 'normal' ;)

Good job, though. Ooog. This setting being backwards compatible with HL2 and ep.1 makes it all the better.

[ShadowJustice]

I was playing "follow freeman" chapter yesterday and I noticed that the combine soldiers ai is actually very good when you fight them at long range, but when you got close they just stand there shooting you with three rounds smg bursts (which equals something like 0 hp damage). I imagine they tweaked the ai so the player could easily defeat it- but that doesn't justifiy the low level of challenge the game provides at hard. So I'm quite interested in this new "super hard" difficulty level. I only hope they don't change things like npc health points or the smg and pulse rifle cone of fire, wich is pretty wide even now. They should only tweak the ai, or maybe give the soldiers extra speed or more powerful weapons. They shouldn't give the soldiers more accuracy- it's simply not fun dealing with hitscan snipers at long range.

:sniper:

[dæmon]

I came to the forums to suggest something like this, so I'm glad I'm not the only one who is hoping for an extremely difficult setting. I'd like to see more enemies with more health, more armour, more grenades and weapons which do a lot of damage. I'd have less ammo, take more damage and get even less health from sparse health packs or armour from the HEV batteries.

Some of my favourite Half-Life memories are from when I first played through it and found myself facing those assassins in Opposing Force, having hardly any health or ammo left, and only just making it because my machine gunner got killed and I grabbed his gun.

I breezed through most of HL2 because I've played FPS games so often, so in Episode 2 I'd like to go back to the drawing board and wonder how the hell I'm going to be making it through the next section, even if it means going hand to hand with my trusty crowbar.

I've enjoyed both HL2 games so far; one of their few letdowns for me has been that I can complete them so easily.

[madog]

Dude in half life 2 there is this one part i couldnot and still cant get past. Its this one where you got to set up turrets and an insane amount of guys come in. I was able to fend off the first few waves no problem but then they knock them over and as I'm resetting them they are shooting at me and I am losing tons of health. I tried backing into a corner and positioning all the turrets around a cell and backing into it but they just naded me. Maybe I would have passed after a few more times but I was pretty pissed because it was pretty smooth sailing through the game until Nova Prospekt.

[Steel.Inferno]

I prefer the most "realistic" difficulty, to the hardest. I refuse to play when the computer "cheats" such as in many RTSes when they get resource gaining bonuses on top of near-infinite multi-tasking.

I would love a drastically harder difficulty level for Half Life 2, where you actually have to think a bit to clear rooms. Having less ammo, especially on the better guns, would be a good step to improving tactical play.

Another reason which I think contributes to the easiness level is the fast player movement speed. Enemies taking cover, using nades, etc doesn't mean a thing when you can sprint to flank them or avoid fire.

Like others above, I prefer actually handicapping the player in some way, beyond enemy health and your health.
Oh well, we'll see what they pull off, if anything.

[function9]

Dude in half life 2 there is this one part i couldnot and still cant get past. Its this one where you got to set up turrets and an insane amount of guys come in. I was able to fend off the first few waves no problem but then they knock them over and as I'm resetting them they are shooting at me and I am losing tons of health. I tried backing into a corner and positioning all the turrets around a cell and backing into it but they just naded me. Maybe I would have passed after a few more times but I was pretty pissed because it was pretty smooth sailing through the game until Nova Prospekt.Are you talking about the second time Alyx leaves you? If so setup the torrents around the walkway where you get them from. Don't leave that area.

There is another way I found out about. Collect all the crates around there and stack them up on the far side. There's a little upper level area there and you can just sit there a peg Combine as they come in.

[Jintor]

Actually if you sit there long enough Alyx will say she's coming down, but Combine reinforcments don't pile up, so you just take out the first batch and wait by the fence for Alyx to drop by.

[function9]

True, if you hang back from the balconey. But it's still nothing compared to the numbers that come when you're down on the floor.

I think Valve changed something with that too. I remember the first time I went up there, Combine were launching manhacks and nades trying to get at me. But the last few times I played that never happened.

[Sam-2k]

I prefer the most "realistic" difficulty, to the hardest. I refuse to play when the computer "cheats" such as in many RTSes when they get resource gaining bonuses on top of near-infinite multi-tasking.

I would love a drastically harder difficulty level for Half Life 2, where you actually have to think a bit to clear rooms. Having less ammo, especially on the better guns, would be a good step to improving tactical play.

Another reason which I think contributes to the easiness level is the fast player movement speed. Enemies taking cover, using nades, etc doesn't mean a thing when you can sprint to flank them or avoid fire.

Like others above, I prefer actually handicapping the player in some way, beyond enemy health and your health.
Oh well, we'll see what they pull off, if anything.


I actually found there was quite a big limit on ammo on the good guns, pretty much forcing you to use the same gun as the combine you were facing so you wouldn't burn up all of your ammo.

I'd like to see things more physics-related, along the lines of grenading a supporting beam of a balcony the combine soldiers are on to bring them down.

[$kelet0r]

that was an excellent example of poor level and gameplay design
rather than have waves and waves of soldiers come at you, that section would have worked much much better had you faced far fewer soldiers but a more realistic challenge
As it was when I played it, it was just a one way slaughter of combine soldiers with their AI practically non-existant

[Samon]

that was an excellent example of poor level and gameplay design
rather than have waves and waves of soldiers come at you, that section would have worked much much better had you faced far fewer soldiers but a more realistic challenge
As it was when I played it, it was just a one way slaughter of combine soldiers with their AI practically non-existant

That isn't an example of poor level and gameplay design. The section could be pretty tough depending on how well you placed the turrets, but there really isn't much manouvrability in the area, and instead the Combine soldiers work to grenade and knock over the turrets, many a times simply hanging back. The scene played out exactly as it was intended - for you to hold off against a ton of soldiers for a certain amount of time. Success depended on how well you set up the turrets. There's a TON of ways to play that scene, and it all boils down to the turrets, because that is what the scene is focused on.

Your opinion on how the scene should have played out does not make it poor gameplay or level design, you are simply missing the point of the entire scene. The Combine AI is alot smarter than people actually give it credit for.

[xirow]

That scene was great.

[Samon]

It’s all about perfectly tuned gameplay, and that scene in particular was utilizing the turrets. Your given the training beforehand in the pretty easy control room defence, and then you arrive at the point where you put your training to use. It’s intentionally a slaughter fest. Therefore, it’s far, far from poor gameplay or level design.

[$kelet0r]

a slaughterfest is a great example of poor design - waves upon waves of enemies is not progress by any means
like I said far fewer, smarter NPC hostiles would have made that section more interesting and more progressive
the coastline segment of Nova Prospekt was an example of superior level design, facing waves of unadaptive NPCs in a box is not and never will be

[Samon]

It's a design decision. It's all about how well you set up the turrets, that is the focus of the scene. You have to defend. When defending, it is only logical you come across waves of enemies. As I said, they work to knock down the turrets.

[Shift]

I had a pretty solid strategy for setting up the turrets on hard mode, but I still left the battle with 7 health remaining.

[kacation_man]

I dont know if this has already been said...im just tuning in with my 2cents, i dont have time to read the first 5 pages... but when it comes to a hard difficulty, I would like the enemies to be smarter... not more resistant to being shot in the face... unlike halos legendary mode where you can unload 5 mags into some ones head and still have 3 to go... I personally dont think that a harder setting should change how susceptible a character is to damage, i think they should be smarter, and fewer health, shield, and ammo pick ups would make it a more "realistically" harder game. Also much like Ritual did with the progressive difficulty gain in Sin: Emergence ( even though i dont think anyone noticed it ) They learn your strong points, and your weaknesses, example: you dont have a great aim from a distance but you can own with a full frontal assault on the enemy head on... they learn by your strategies and keep their distance from you. Thats the kind of AI and difficulty setting I want to see in a good game...

[kupocake]

Your opinion on how the scene should have played out does not make it poor gameplay or level design, you are simply missing the point of the entire scene. The Combine AI is alot smarter than people actually give it credit for.
I happen to think it's poor design because it's insanely easy to break when you bring all the desks and filing cabinets with you, block up the doorways, set up the turrets and run around maintaining it a bit. The cabinets don't shift, and the soldiers don't have the ability to climb over a 50cm tall obstruction.

What Valve intended to do when they designed it was good enough for me though. Just wish they didn't make it so easy to nerf :P

[Samon]

Well if you want to play it proper, don't bring all the tables and such. Nerf. :P

[Solver]

Yeah, some of you people really get some stuff about game design wrong :).

The HL2 turrets were a perfect example of a classic smart design trick. First, you get introduced to a new thing (turrets) in an easy fight. If you set up the turrets wrong there, it's a medium-difficulty encounter at worst, if you set the turrets up well, it's very easy. After you've seen how it works once, you're presented with a much harder situation, which can still be somewhat easy if you use your experience and learn from the first time.

By the way, you don't have to bring anything, using some barrels near that second turret room in a smart way can also be of help ;).

As for making the AI smarter... well, that's everyone's dream. But hey, there's a limit to how smart it can be. And past a certain point, it takes a LOT of development resources to make the AI just a bit smarter. That's how AIs work, unfortunately. The Combine AI in HL2 was good, but to bring it up another notch would probably require a significant delay in shipping the game. And there you can get caught in a perpetual improvement cycle, never shipping.

Also, in FPS games such as this, even a smart AI will always seem weaker than it is. Why? Health, baby! The AI plays at a disadvantage, it can take a lot less damage than you can. So it seems weaker. You shoot a Combine with a shotgun in the face = dead Combine. You get shot with a shotgun = you lose some health. If the enemies had as much health as you do, then they would suddenly seem smarter. Because they would actually live long enough to show their smarts. When they're disposed of relatively easy, they just don't live long enough.

Of course, such powerful enemies would be unfun to 98% of the players. Imagine Combine soldiers that can take and deal as much damage as you. It can then get frustrating if you have to unload a whole pulse rifle clip to kill one soldier. Or, if you were brought down to their strength, instead of them being upgraded to yours (and this would be a more realistic scenario), you'd get frustrated from dying if a soldier hits you with 2 SMG bursts. In either of these situations, you would also have to sacrifice big battles - you would instead have to face one or two soldiers at a time. Three for a major, uber-hard battle. And that's just not as fun as facing 5-6 soldiers.

So, there you go ;).

[delusional]

a good challenge is beating the game with a crowbar.

[madog]

its when the combine start nading and when the guys with shotguns come in they just devestate me. I cant fend off the attack from 4 areas and try to keep the turrets up at the same time. The first turret battle was no problem, an easy win but the one with guys that came from above as well as 4 places on the ground was ridiculously hard in my opinion. I have no clue how you guys deem that as easy. I was owning up every other part of the game too.

[Solver]

The first time I played HL2, I set the turrets up stupidly, and didn't realise I could pick them back up. The first soldier wave took down all three turrets, I ended up killing the other waves with my weapons. Now that was hard!

On the other hand, it's quite enough to just set the turrets up so that they are in front of a wall, that is, not knocked over backwards easily, and that's it. Then you can just stand back (in one of the cubicles where the turrets were) and shoot your shotgun at soldiers. In between the waves, set the turrets back up.

[Jintor]

I'd swear once they're deactivated, they're deactivated. You can't set them up again - you have to grab 'em while they're spazzing.

No, that section is a pretty big difficulty spike, especially considering what you've been used to so far. I only got through it after 6 deaths. And I holed myself up in a cell - with an EXTRA turret - picking up nades and chucking them back out again. Still got hit on the second last wave and fought them off with 37 health though. -_-

[Solver]

Nope, you can set them up okay after they've turned off, too. Only I've found that it's very hard to do with the gravity gun - it's much easier to use the 'e' button.

[kupocake]

Alyx even tells you in the later scene to "keep those turrets set up Gordon"

[Solver]

Yeah, and I was wondering how to do that... if you grab them with the grav gun, they don't always snap into position, which confused me the first time around, but if you grab with 'e', they snap into position at once.

[Jintor]

Really? AWESOME.

REPLAYABILITY HERE I COME.

[delusional]

i just barricaded myself in the room with the smg ammo crate and put barrels in front of the turrets and just put the turrets up when they fall. i got through it all without shooting a single combine and just killing the manhacks

[d00d]

a good challenge is beating the game with a crowbar.

very fun to use in Ravenholm. In Ep.1 it's fun to use the grav gun + brick :p.
And the first time to beat that turret part was HARD, damn nades was the worst of it.

[Krehlmar]

First post, long time lurker. Frustrated with the not-so-very-hard hard difficulty in half life 2 and episode 1, I sent an email to gabe. It read:

I have completed 40-45 playthroughs of Half Life 2 (I lost count recently). Now anything associated with that game, whether it be mod or episode, is simply too easy. Because of this, the reduction of difficulty on the Episode 1 elevator battle made me quite disgruntled. In a last effort to make the game harder, I did a playthrough without losing a point of health (using lots of quicksaves). But even that was surprisingly easy. Is there a chance of ever getting a difficulty higher than hard, or will I have to rely on mods?


Robin Walker responded with this:

Actually, we're pretty unhappy with our Hard setting. On Ep1 we started working on a harder-than-hard difficulty setting, but ran out of time to get it finished. I'm hoping the Ep2 folks can finish it up. Once it goes in, it'll be backwards compatible, so you'll be able to go back and play HL2 / Ep1 with it as well. Hopefully that'll provide you with more of a challenge.

Robin.

So it looks like theres a good chance of getting a harder than hard difficulty in ep2. Didn't think this was really known, did a search and i apologize if I missed it. Just thought it'd be a nice thing to know if you are bored with the hard difficulty.

No offense, but 45+ times playtrough isnt asmuch "fan mania" as it is sad... so sad...

[Flyingdebris]

i was inside all day ony my comp doing work, but i have a good reason. I'd rather be outside doing something else.

Wha are you doing playing hl2 45 times!? get some excersise, ride a bike, do something else.

[Ooog]

Although I realize going from start-finish so many times (now up to 56) is a bit odd, I am not some lifeless fat nerd. I simply have no other highly entertaining games. I am outside constantly and exercise alot. I can get through the game in about 5 hours going casually now so it doesn't take a whole lot of time out of the day. What's scary is when I complete it 3 times in a day... but that is extremely rare.

[Samon]

...56 times?

I've only gone through fully 3 times. That said, when I'm bored I'll just load up a chapter.

[586FAC75]

Outside? Doing stuff? That's what work is for! Cup of tea and telly/book/comp is for time off :)

I've finished it 3 times. Yay me!

[AJ Rimmer]

...56 times?

I've only gone through fully 3 times. That said, when I'm bored I'll just load up a chapter.

Wow. 56 times that's... you deserve a cookie!

[Cuthbert]

I did it 3 times and 56 seems..boring.

[bigburpco]

I've done it four or five times.

How do you endure playing the same thing over and over? I mean, I complete a playthrough of HL2, gets satisfied, and then runs off to occupy myself with another game of mine.

Games bore me after I play too long, which is sad. >:3

[Ooog]

Well part of my obsession was my quest to become the most experienced HL2 player at singleplayer. I was bored one day and thought of setting what could possibly be an unofficial world record for playing HL2. That, and for some reason, it simply fails to bore me. It is pretty scary that I can now play the entire game in my head and know where every enemy and powerup is. I am greatly hoping for improved AI in episode 2 since it isn't how many bullets I must put into a combine that makes it so easy for me now, but the tactics I know work against certain enemies.

[dogboy73]

Actually, we're pretty unhappy with our Hard setting. On Ep1 we started working on a harder-than-hard difficulty setting, but ran out of time to get it finished. I'm hoping the Ep2 folks can finish it up. Once it goes in, it'll be backwards compatible, so you'll be able to go back and play HL2 / Ep1 with it as well. Hopefully that'll provide you with more of a challenge.

Robin

Excellent news. HL2 has always been far to easy even on HARD. Episode 1 was more difficult which was very welcome. But I'm still looking for moew of a challenge. Episode 2 looks liek it will offer this as is but even so a harder setting will give the whole series some reply value for those looking for a challenge.

Saying that it has to be well balanced. If harder just means everything takes longer to kill ..... That's bad! What I'd really like to see is a weapon that does more damage but with a slower rate of fire, A new rifle maybe, making enemies easier to kill but crucially you can be killed much quicker also. Something somewhere between HL2 & Counter Strike is what I'm thinking. I think that will promote more realistic combat because you will need to be more accurate to take down enemies quicker. You will also have to make better use of cover so that your not gunned down equally as quick!

[0mar]

I've played HL2 9 or 10 times so far. But yea, I'd have to agree, Hard is pitifully easy.

[eber]

oh yes, just beat hl2 on hard again.. pretty easy... was like my 6th or 7th gothrough...

i read somewhere that someone had problems with the scene in nova prospect where u have to set up those 3 turrets and soldiers coming from those 4 gates..
you can make it trough that on hard without even loosing 1 healthpoint and without even reloading 1 clip :) :
just put obstacles before the gates so that the soldiers cannot enter, positrion the turrets at diffrent places so that they cannot be blown off by 1 grenade... then just wait until alyx comes!

[Wanted Bob]

I dunno about Half Life 2, but I have played through Episode 1 about 15 times on different difficulties. It's one of the few games I have trouble losing interest in, just cause quite a few different things happen every time I play through it.