Game Image Diary: Half-Life 2 Commentary.
You'd think after all these years the G-Man would get himself a self-adjusting tie.
With Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary, they added a commentary mode. As I wanted to listen to it, I have played through the game once more. Here are some screenshots from that.
As usual I had a blast playing through Half-Life 2. It holds up. It’s always provided a different take than other games in terms of no-inventory, or some of the choices that make it easier to prevail. Every instance of any kind of art is a philosophical commentary on what that medium should or could be (by its choices, lack thereof, its skill of presentation, lack thereof, etc.), and Valve definitely had something to say.
Compare that with the LucasArts adventure games that decided “don’t let the player be killed” was a hard rule for that type of game, and it’s heavily influenced that genre. In the documentary that came out alongside the 20th anniversary update, Gabe Newell said part of the reason they didn’t make a third episode for Half-Life 2 was he couldn’t figure out what the big innovation was. He reasons that games should push the art form forward.
But one of the underrepresented types of innovation in games, and an area of game innovation that Valve has excelled at, isn’t in technical prowess or story (though they have done great in those areas), but in saying what boundaries of interaction can be. There are all sorts of statements out there in the form of games that have crafting, have iron sights, have non-linear gameplay, whatever. That sort of innovation, both in maximizing and in minimizing, in figuring out new types of behavior to let the player exhibit, are far more important than realistic skin pores.