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:The truth of the Slashdot effect.

[simoniker]

In this case, if the site went down, it was probably a combined Penny Arcade (who featured the project this morning) and Slashdot Games effect, since this isn't actually a mainpage post. From my very un-scientific pokings, I've noticed that a Slashdot Games-only post can generate enough traffic to kill some smaller sites, but on its own, relatively rarely smashes better-hosted webpages.

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

[Henry V .009]

All modern first person shooters are 3D, and more than that, it's the fps viewpoint from that 2D Doom that is the basis for how most 3D games are organized today.

I had the opposite feeling about Mario 64 that you did. I thought the extra dimensions took quite a bit away from the game. I bought it right when it came out, and I recall that a lot of people at the time agreed with me.

Your last argument is a straw man. All I said was that the 2D game style has a lot more room for innovation than the 3D. Adding that extra dimension means a lot of design compromises because of the extra freedom that you are allowing the gamer. The only game that I can think of which has overcome it well and created a feeling that harkens back to the old button smashers is Serious Sam. There are others, surely, but not too many.

I guess a lot of it boils down to 'aim and click' style versus 'manuver' style. There are certainly games that can overcome this, but it's hard.

Nice, but I was hoping for an actual Half-Life mod

[grahamwest]

Not to take anything at all away from the people working on this, because it certainly looks pretty cool, but when I read the headline I was thinking someone had made a side-scroller using Half-Life itself (like Pandemonium, for example). A modern 3D game provides a lot of stuff that is useful for making 2D games too. Maybe when Half-Life 2 comes out someone will make a killer side-scroller using all the animation and lighting and physics systems of the core game?