I’ve previously posted about the Half-Life fan culture. Those are the people that quietly lurk in normal life, but hold irrational dreams of stories that have yet to be written. I’m a closet-case, myself.
The barest amount of daydreaming about it happens these days, but my mind is still startlingly active in a dank gutter outside the City 17′s citadel.
Who knows what exactly it is about the world of Half-Life that seems to inspire time and time again. There are many game worlds that are deep and atmospheric, but Half-Life seems to have the perfect combination of a defined world, captivating aesthetic, and strong themes that make it ripe for expounding upon.
That bit of text is from Game Thing Daily (hat tip to Jonathan Downin). And they’re right. The frat-boys can keep Master Chef. I’m sorry, Chief.
The story works because it sits in plain site; it’s not vying for your attention. Valve games are like the hottest girl in the bar: they don’t want or need you, but if you do look, you’ll get an eyeful.
Few games – let alone first person shooters – have a fifth the charm that this game oozes at any random moment. It’s the root of my Valve-lust, and only solidified further by damn near everything those people publish.
The latest fan made video illustrates more of the love:
Rough around the edges? Yes. But, tonally, spot on and very well produced for a fan-film. I tip my hat to everyone involved.
Fact: Virtually every video game would make a horrible movie, and that’s omitting all of Uwe Boll’s abominations. Half Life could maybe pull it off. Though, truth be told, I think it’d work better as a serial because movies are for grand spectacles. The game may be that, but the stories surrounding Gordon Freeman and the world at large are more interesting than the cypher himself, and it’s no place for action movie clichés.
It’d be an intimate tale: a band of survivors, or perhaps the city after the fall, or perhaps a remote settlement a la Jericho. Whatever.
I’d be a happy man if the internet would stop LOLcat production for one day and focus on Half Life. Valve would maybe get the message. As they’ve been proving with the Team Fortress 2 shorts, they can do it right. They aren’t game makers, or publishers, though they do both.
They are expert story tellers, and that’s coming from someone who thinks video game stories are, in the most basic terms, non-biodegradable F-grade hamburger-meat.
