Not Enough Overwatch Killing In Ep 2.

LandStander

LandStander

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Anyone else a little disappointed that fights with the trans human arm of the combine overwatch are few and far in between? The first half of the game doesn't have a single "human" enemy all the way up until we get the vehicle. And even after we get the vehicle the skirmishes are short lived. If I had one complaint about Ep 2 that would be it.
 
I cant say I was disappointed, They stated early on in the game that the you were racing the combine to white forest. So naturally you wouldn't seen that many.
And besides, I always thought the combine were an easier adversary.

*Shotgun boom* ...SKWWAAAALLLLLCKKKK
*another shotgun boom* ....SCCCWWAAAALLLLKKKKK
 
True enough but you still had the coveted data so encountering strike teams (before they had been mauled by headcrabs) would have been nice.
 
Yeah I guess I wouldn't of minded that. But Honestly I don't think they would have had a place in the underworld anyway. Also I don't think that the combine have nearly the numbers that they once had! Apparently there stockpiles of explosive red barrels are dwindling as well!
 
No of course they wouldn't have been stationed in an ant lion den, but I just enjoy unloading the MP7 into 3 or 4 of those bastards so much. Maybe they found out where you were or maybe the time between the portal storm and Alex's injury could have been extended to add an early ambush.
 
Yeah, a group of three or four elites doing 'something', like setting up some sort of array that does something to the super portal, like receive units coming in or something.
 
Kinda agree, this game could have used more overwatch soldiers... I guess...
 
I actually disagree. Yes, the post-human bad guys were few and far between, but it works well in both the context of the story and the gameplay. In Half-life 2, a lot of the time you're going up against Soldiers and pretty much gunning them down at every turn; whilst I think the game does a lot to break from the shooting-gallery mode of gameplay, it's still there in some sense because of the amount of soldiers you come up against. I think this was also a factor in what made the combat stale at times.

Episode 2 felt so much more refined for me; soldiers had a role in specific, very carefully planned set pieces. In playing through Ep2 after already beating it, I found all of the battles so much more replayable and entertaining. Had there been more Soldiers, I think it might have diluted the quality of these encounters.
 
I agree.

Overall I think it fits plot wise.

Losing the citadel has to have been a fairly heavy dent.

The antlion and zombie infestations of the city, the losses against Freeman, against rebels in the street fighting, and then in the rush to escape the citadel and city before it blew up all makes for some note worthy losses.

In episode 2 the Combine overwatch forces are in dis-array, they have to try and re-form up into cohesive units, re-establish lines of communication, find and secure the scattered advisors, and still deal with the headcrab zombies, antlions and rebels in the countryside. If episode 3 is the last for HL2 then it will be fitting, since when you engage them in that episode, you will probably be engaging the last real concentrations of combine that threaten humanity, at least in the general area's you and the known resistance have been operating.


On a gameplay note the few encounters with overwatch seemed fine. While yes, it is rather fun to mow through a large force of soldiers, the few encounters you do have seem more noteworthy.

I don't think the ambush at the inn would have been as noteworthy as it was if I had been fighting combine up to that point and beyond.

The ambush was all the more special and enjoyable a fight because the combine had been strangely missing up until that point. All things considered it was a smart move for the combine to try and make one overwhelming ambush on "anticitizen one" and "Vance subprime" rather then space them out in small isolated fairly dumb outposts along your path of travel.
 
I didn't mind the lack of them too much, but I think they should have been included in the last battle. They say in the commentary that people found it too tough, but they could have programmed it so they only show up on hard or something.
 
And have other players miss out on the experience? Hard is supposed to be fun too - not frustrating.
 
riomhaire said:
I didn't mind the lack of them too much, but I think they should have been included in the last battle. They say in the commentary that people found it too tough, but they could have programmed it so they only show up on hard or something.
Click to expand...

Don't get me started on the playtesters. They sound like ****ing retards.
 
We only got to fight two elites in ep2 :(

And valve strangely replaced their ar2orbs with batteries, when they die.
 
I think the absence of combine elites has gone on too long since we even played Episode 1.
Otherwise I didn't mind anything, other than the freaky new red-eyed shotgunners and the unexplained flashlight battery.
 
Your flashlight battery got damaged during the crash and Gordon rewired it into the suit's main power supply, which actually proved to work better.
 
I think that for the changes in EP2 (new vort, new flashlight, new shotgunners, new HUD) should just pretend they were always like that. They were, afterall, retrofitted into the console versions of HL2 and EP1.
 
The loads of antlions didint bother as much as the loads of worker ant lions pissed me off beyong beleif

and like somone said the things ive heard from the commentary just piss me off all this talk of the playtesters didint find it fun and such, sounds to me like the playtesters are a bunch of ****ing snobs

i remember them saying in episode 1 or 2 i cant remember they wanted you to go a while without a gun (like a fifth of the episode) but playtesters got annoyed at not having a gun for so long, that really irked me, i mean the game can be fun without a weapon it brings an entirely new type of playstyle to the table i just feel like, the developers wanted to do so much more with the game and these playtesters ruined some things for them
 
I entirely agree with Samon. The few times i did see combine soldiers, i was really quite pleased to see them again, because i really enjoy killing them. If there were more, not only would it not really have made sense, but i think the whole experience at the inn and in the barn with the advisor would have been made much less enjoyable.
 
It would have been nice to see more overwatch soldiers indeed. I am starting to get sick of fighting antlions after EP1 and EP2. I have a feeling we will get our wish in EP3.
 
We saw just about the right ammount in Ep2. Wouldn't have hurt variety a little to have some occasionally show up in the Final battle. No need to go mad with them, just a first attack wave to soften up the rebels before the Tri-pod division arrives.

I hope we see more Overwatch in Episode Three, but from different regiments and hopefully a new kind of humanoid soldier, something beyond an elite.
 
i think that the breach in the silo was extremely fun playing, while it lasted i think that section should have been a little bit longer especially the part with the hunters because they put a lot of objects and explosives in that room where the hunters (when u fight about 4 hunters one after another in the moderate sized room) there could be more of them.
 
kupoartist said:
We saw just about the right ammount in Ep2. Wouldn't have hurt variety a little to have some occasionally show up in the Final battle. No need to go mad with them, just a first attack wave to soften up the rebels before the Tri-pod division arrives.

I hope we see more Overwatch in Episode Three, but from different regiments and hopefully a new kind of humanoid soldier, something beyond an elite.
Click to expand...

Invisible Elites ftw.
 
I agree, but only in comparison to the other games, which had too many overwatch. Seemed like they were trying to balance it too far in the other direction.

I didn't mind the antlions too much. But when are we gonna see another bugbait section?
 
Bad^Hat said:
I didn't mind the antlions too much. But when are we gonna see another bugbait section?
Click to expand...

Bugbait definitely had a real chance in ep2...

I dont think we'll get to use pheropods again.
 
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