Half Life 2: In Perspective

[RubyT]

If you don't like Alyx, that's your prerogative. As you've read, a lot of people liked her. So did I. She is the best sidekick I've ever encountered in any video game and part of the reason I think HL2 is indeed still the best FPS. Everytime I've played HL2 or one of the episodes I feel alone (not lonely though, I'm not that desperate) and non-immersed in other shooters.

Storywise HL2 doesn't short out on the original. Like most shooters, they both have non. The first one is: Ooh, your experiment failed, there are Aliens everywhere now, try to escape the facility and watch out for the Marines. That's it and that's not The Godfather.
HL2 is: Your back! There are Combine everywhere now, try to escape to the Rebel HQ and then take down that Citadel.
HL2 actually fills that out with much more plot in between. In the Original, there's really not much happening after the experient fails. After that everything is just "press button A to open door X and proceed".

If you want FPS with story, there really hasn't been one since Max Payne 2 that I'm aware of. Unless you count stuff like Mass Effect.

In fact, Valve did a total redesign of Alyx when it turned out they made her too sexually attractive the first time around.

Are you sure on that? As far as I know, this Alyx you linked was part of a bullsh*t (personal opinion) "Cinematic Mod" that f*cked up just about every major character.

she gets on my nuts when she insists on blabbering on about some random shit for 5 hours before opening a door while I stand there defending us from 200000000 billion trillion combines while she tells me about her father

When does that happen?

 

[Outright Villainy]

I liked Alyx myself. I thought she was a well written compliment to the game. She never got in my way, anyway.

Exactly. I loved Alyx to bits, thought she was a shining example of how do design a friendly AI.

And speaking of Half Life... I have a very special something I've been working on almost finished...!

How to do friendly A.I.: A guide
Have the follower be generally useful, not a burden, and help the player achieve their goals.
Don't nag the player when they don't hurry up or do well, but rather encourage them when they succeed.
Don't be a burden.
Fill in some story, keep the plot going forward.
Don't be a mother fucking burden.

I really wish more developers would take a leaf out of Valve's book.

 

[Tomo Stryker]

It is a sad day when I cannot defend myself facts. I concede, she is useful as a sidekick but ultimately for me I would have preferred a cannon Vortigaunt ally.

...when I rolled around to Half Life 2 I realized that after you are ambushed by multiple Combine Officers that Valve decided to cut short on real story and insert a bimbo that compliments the player ...Alyx does serve a purpose to open multiple doors, give certain insight, and (during Episode Two) compliment the playing, and on even more constant basis flirt with him/her.

If you play all the games and think about the things Valve has left ambiguous, everything becomes much more realistic and believable, especially in Alyx's case.

As the daughter of one of Freeman's colleagues at Black Mesa and friends with both Dr. Kleiner and Barney Calhoun, she grew up under a brutal alien regime. While an underground resistance did exist, Alyx was constantly exposed to the idealised image of hope that the people from Black Mesa had manifest in the elusive Gordon Freeman and consequently he became like a benign legend to her as she grew up.

When she finally meets him, she finds a situation in which the only hope for humanity is at the mercy of the enemy she has known her entire life. Her mind instantly forces her to act, on account of both her subconscious reverence for the idealised Dr. Freeman and her unadulterated hatred for the Combine.

As the story progresses, Alyx realises that Gordon could potentially be exactly what her father and everyone else prophesied he was, almost to a messianic degree. Out of her growing affection for this apparent saviour and out of what we assume is a determination to improve the future of humanity through him, she uses the knowledge she has gained during her life to assist Gordon. By the end of Half Life 2, having witnessed the countless endeavours he undertook to benefit mankind, Alyx obviously becomes extremely attached to Gordon.

As you can see, her flirtatious attitude toward him is not just inserted for some arbitrary reason, but because its probably how all this would play out if these events really did happen. Imagine how you would act if, after twenty years in a dystopian world, you meet the person who the people you love and respect have always told you would make things better.

I see were your coming from and you are right, but during this last couple years in gaming I have noticed companies put females into games for eye candy (Laura Croft) or just simply to appeal to the consumer.

 

[Dogstile]

I find it funny. "She never got in the way". Yeah, because she never actually DID anything. I could put up with Dom's stuff in gears because of two things.

One, he actually can and does save your ass /outside/ of a scripted cutscene

Two,

Spoiler

he shoots his wife in the face, which i LOLED at

But you know, playing through half life 2 and realising EVERYTHING outside of combat is just a disguised cutscene really annoyed me, i preferred the first one.

And the coincidental events that happen constantly really bothered me. Like the handy train you can use to get onto a platform that's placed too high to be of any use to anyone. Or the typical "big strong fence to high to climb, to strong to blow up... HEY! THERES A MYSTERIOUS HOLE.

But yeah, back on topic. Alyx never did anything, so that's why she's liked.

 

[astrav1]

I personally can't understand your view on Alyx, but I could believe that you don't like her. Don't worry about it.

 

[Explosm]

If Alyx was a guy everyone would think different

 

[RubyT]

It is taken from Cinematic Mod 10, but the Cinematic Mod 10 Alyx is actually the original, prototype Alyx, touched up a bit for HD.

Where did you hear that? I'm curious. I always thought that Alyx was based on Jamil Mullen. The Mod Alyx is frequently referred to as Adriana Lima Style and seems to be a horny nerds work and not a serious designer.

 

[Flamezdudes]

...And? So what's there to discuss? You don't like Alyx? Fine.

 

[Owlslayer]

I quite liked Alyx, she made the game a lot more interesting. Running trough a bunch of zombies with a shotgun alone would have been boring. However looking how she handled them was much more entertaining.
Also, besides helping out at combat, she made the game more interesting with all her emotions and her personality.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I liked Alyx myself. I thought she was a well written compliment to the game. She never got in my way, anyway.

Exactly. I loved Alyx to bits, thought she was a shining example of how do design a friendly AI.

And speaking of Half Life... I have a very special something I've been working on almost finished...!

How to do friendly A.I.: A guide
Have the follower be generally useful, not a burden, and help the player achieve their goals.
Don't nag the player when they don't hurry up or do well, but rather encourage them when they succeed.
Don't be a burden.
Fill in some story, keep the plot going forward.
Don't be a mother fucking burden.

I really wish more developers would take a leaf out of Valve's book.

My number 1 rule for them:

Be invincible. Dom on insane drove me mental.

Best example I can think of for having it done well was Barry in Alan Wake. he was always a help rather than a hindrance.

 

[Outright Villainy]

My number 1 rule for them:

Be invincible. Dom on insane drove me mental.

I think Alyx can tecnically die, but I've never seen it happen. I mean I could sit in a corner and hide, go make a cup of tea and come back and she'd be in good shape.

Competence!

At least most A.i. partners these days are better than natalya from goldeneye. I used blood her up with mines for fun. Very cathartic.

[small]Fuckin' Natalya...[/small]

 

[MiracleOfSound]

My number 1 rule for them:

Be invincible. Dom on insane drove me mental.

I think Alyx can tecnically die, but I've never seen it happen. I mean I could sit in a corner and hide, go make a cup of tea and come back and she'd be in good shape.

Competence!

At least most A.i. partners these days are better than natalya from goldeneye. I used blood her up with mines for fun. Very cathartic.

[small]Fuckin' Natalya...[/small]

Yep I've had Alyx die once alright, it was in the Combine base after meeting Eli in captivity. I don't know if she becomes temporarily vulnerable or if she's just generally killable but that's the only time I've seen it happen!

 

[A Pious Cultist]

I can think of when she displays a palpable interest in Gordon is where she says "Gordon....Take care of yourself", but other than that, I can't think of anything even flirtatious, let alone bimboish.

Bimboish? Not wai. Flirtacious? Ya rly.
Most of her encounters in the episode her nervously eyeing the floor and shuffling (and I while thinking about Gordon's crowbar). Gordon has no personality... so... she's basically flirting with the player... and that kind of makes it a little uncomfortable to me, I'll assume that's what the OP meant by "bimboish".

 

[Tomo Stryker]

I can think of when she displays a palpable interest in Gordon is where she says "Gordon....Take care of yourself", but other than that, I can't think of anything even flirtatious, let alone bimboish.

Bimboish? Not wai. Flirtacious? Ya rly.
Most of her encounters in the episode her nervously eyeing the floor and shuffling (and I while thinking about Gordon's crowbar). Gordon has no personality... so... she's basically flirting with the player... and that kind of makes it a little uncomfortable to me, I'll assume that's what the OP meant by "bimboish".

(Black Preacher Voice) Amen Brotha! And another playa sees tha light! (Normal Voice) Nah, I'm not sure what Valve was doing when they gave Alyx's voice actor that script "Gordon, is there room for two in that suit?" Episode One I believe.

 

[Vhite]

I dont like her but thats mainly Gordons Fault.

 

[ThisWasAWaste]

I've never thought of her as a "side-kick"... that term is usual a demeaning term that implies that they are inferior to the person they are with. She is a primary character in the story who just happens to stick with Gordon for certain parts of the game. She always handles her own and I've never once been forced to restart because she died or anything of that nature. I think a more adequate term would be companion.

IMHO all the characters in the game are very well developed, and the fact that you have time to "bond" with Alyx helps make the ending of EP2 resonate a bit more.