CS-Nation

Covering the future of Counter-Strike
hl2: episode 2 preview
Gameplay (cont.)
There will be a total of seven chapters for Episode 2. These will be spread out over a variety of different areas and with a number of different gameplay elements. You have already seen the wheeled land transportation you'll cruise around in, so vehicular transportation should come as no surprise. You will be helped along the way by a few various friends who act as your battle buddies. Yes, both Alyx and a Vortigaunt will tackle foes by your side. Really, this should come as no surprise if you've seen the trailers for Episode 2.

For those worried about the linearity of the previous Half-Life titles, you may be able to slightly relax those fears of yours. The outdoor environments do still have a bit of a linear nature to them, but are far more open and lending themselves to exploration, more so than environments in Half-Life 2 and Episode 1 ever did.

Graphics
The new features of the Source engine are immediately noticed and appreciated the moment you get into the thick of the game. The forests in Episode 2 are lush and gorgeous if you get a moment to just stand and admire your surroundings. They really did an amazing job creating an environment full of plant life that includes trees, shrubs of various sizes and shapes, flowers, tall grass, and the like. Huge rock formations and boulders will also dot the landscape.

The Antlion tunnels are another location that I don't have a problem mentioning. The entire area has a very organic look and feel to it. The colors are shades of blues and greens and are all combined nicely to create an environment immediately distinguishable from the others. Little touches like webbing that needs to be removed through the use of your trusty crowbar or the soft, yellow glow from an Antlion grub really add a ton of atmosphere to the location.


Enough about the things you can clearly see, let's talk about the new technologies added to the title! Source's new particle system is in use in a big way. The sprite based blood effects of yesteryear are gone, replaced by a more robust particle system of blood that both looks more visually pleasing, but it also lets the player know without a doubt when they've landed a hit. Not to mention, it just looks like your shots are inflicting some real damage now!

Characters do have self-shadowing now. The effect is often very subtle, but again, a wealth of immersion is generated by the inclusion of this new technology. Also on the topic of shadows, you will notice how your flashlight casts dynamic shadows from both world geometry and characters. The effect is pulled off quite nicely with just one minor exception. Textures that have transparent effects, such as a chain-linked fence, do not cast shadows, at least not that I had noticed. These dynamic shadows are combined with the existing shadows, and they complement each other quite nicely.

The biggest addition to Episode 2, comes from the new technology entitled “cinematic physics." Yes, you've seen the trailers where a bridge is broken and deformed right before your eyes. You have probably also seen a house crumble to a pile of splinters from a singular blast from a Strider. I'll tell you right now, until you're running the game on your own system and you witness these events from a few different angles, you have not truly seen nor experienced anything. The situations do not always play out the same from play through to play through.


That is the beauty of the cinematic physics. It's physics simulation on a grand scale. The new tech allows for physical models to become deformed right before your eyes and pieces of geometry to break seemingly into a number of random pieces before your eyes. The moments in the game where the cinematic physics kick in, will be the moments where you will find that your jaw has hit the floor.

High-dynamic range rendering is once again implemented in Episode 2, and as I mentioned in the Valve Bits, there will be an extra HDR option found in Episode 2. This is the very same floating-point 32 HDR that is also in use in Team Fortress 2 at present.