Half-Life As A 2D Side-Scroller?

Allen Varney writes "Why wait for Half-Life 2 when you can wait instead for Half-Life 2D? 'Codename: Gordon' is a free, fan-produced jump'n'run side-scroller adapted from the original Half-Life. It'll be done in a month, but for now there's screenshots and a two-minute gameplay video."

Comments

Re:Zero comments

[DeDmeTe]

3D doesn't make a "good" game. I'd still much rather play Super Mario World and Zelda on my old SNES than the 3-D crap they put out for the N64. It's a matter of gameplay, and I think that with a gamepad(vs mouse/kbd)... it's still easier to play 2D games. It's also a lot less confusing. Ever played Brave Fencer Musashi for PS???? IMHO, it would have played A LOT better in a 2D environment. I hate games with camera/view problems... ugh!

2D games

[Henry V .009]

Anybody else sorry that 2D games died the death when the consoles all got 3D engines? I like first person shooters, don't get me wrong, but it seems like they have far less possible variety than the old 2D games. 2D seems far better suited to our screens. Games have gotten better as systems have progressed, certainly, but I don't know that they have lived up to their potential. Compare the new 3D versions of Metroid and Zelda to their 2D forbearers. Does the 3D add that much to the game? If the makers had continued on the 2D track with those games would we be better off? Just look at all of the effort that went into Warcraft 3 to make it 3D -- in my mind that effort could have surely been spent better elsewhere.

Re:2D games

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

First of all, 2D games are not dead. There are still 2D games released for all the major consoles each year. And why do you think that a 2D game can have more variety than a 3D game? I mean, anything that can be visualized on screen in 2D can be visualized on screen in 3D. Perhaps the first person shooter market has been flooded with a glut of dark-hallway games but that's not a limitation of the dimensions offered in the game; it's just a lack of creativity from the people who greenlight games and a lack of clamoring for anything but dark hallways by gamers. You may also want to note that a first person shooter is not the same as a 3D game. For instance, Doom is a first person shooter but is only 2D. So in your comparison, you're mixing things up a bit.

And I think that if you look at a game like Mario 64 and compare it to Super Mario Bros., you can see that the extra dimension adds quite a bit to the game. If you disagree, I'd be really surprised. Now, you may say that the majority of 3D games released today aren't as good as the original Super Mario Bros. but that has more to do with the fact that SMB is an all-time classic game. The NES market was flooded with tons of uninspired side-scrollers that were not innovative in any way - sad copies of SMB. The same is true today except that we've got uninspired fighting games with movie licenses.

So, in short, yes - an added dimension can add to the gameplay experience but it does not guarantee it. But just because a game only has 2 dimensions does not mean that will be a good game. So the next time you want to harken back, go get on your horse and buggy and think about those great days of the Atari.