The relationship between Myst fans and First Person Shooters is an interesting one, on one hand you have those who walk the line delving into each, then on the other hand you have those who are vehemently against the notion of FPS’s.
In the past I’ve never been one for FPS’s it was not my cup of tea, sure I could happily run around games like Grand Theft Auto sniping people and stuff, but I find that’s a far cry from a FPS.
Then Portal came along and the path of me becoming a traitor (as my wife called me when I started playing Half Life 2) was set before me. Portal allowed for me to test the waters with a FPS environment, whilst you’re not actively running around killing things, you do have a gun that shoots portals (not getting into the semantics of what makes a FPS a FPS). This was then combined with the quirky puzzles and storyline that appealed to the Myst fan in me.
I purchased the Orange Box for Portal mostly, but with the desire of perhaps modding Half Life 2 to use the Portal Gun as I had seen in several youtube videos.
I played Portal, I beat it, I enjoyed it thoroughly and the Orange Box was pretty much untouched for a long time.
Until late 2009.
I’m not sure what set me to trying the other games out, the guys in CyanChat had frequently talked about Team Fortress 2 and Half Life 2 (and its 2 episodes), and I thought to myself countless times ‘I really need to try that out’.
Eventually I took the plunge, Half Life 2 loaded up and I find myself sat on a train pulling into a station. Right away I was met with an overbearing environment of being monitored and bullied into subservience. I’m a big fan of books like 1984 and Brave New World, so the atmosphere of the game instantly hit with me, as I progressed through worried that any moment the Combine guards were going to pick a fight I end up walking through a block of flats, where a room is being raided, before the entire building it locked down due to my presence.
It’s been a while since a game elicited an emotional response from me, the last time I remember feeling anything from a game was a; when Uru Live was made known to us and the subsequent playing of it, and b; the playing of Myst 3 and constantly feeling like Saavedro was going to jump out of the bushes and bean me.
But I quickly found myself worried about Combine jumping out at me, or the frantic panic as I am being mobbed and am trying to get the hang of handling a FPS and shoot them in the head. Or the eerie wtfness of Ravenholm (and kind of being grossed out then highly entertained with the prospect of cutting zombies in half with a saw blade and gravity gun).
After quickly running through HL2 I loaded up Episode 1 and began working my way through that too and finally Episode 2, which I admit I have yet to finish, I’m wanting to draw it out a little so I’m not left waiting for Episode 3 which probably won’t be around before I’m 70 anyway.
So Half Life 2 introduced me properly to FPS’s, and I think as FPS’s go that was probably the best one to draw me in, the combination of nicely crafted environments, interesting storyline and atmosphere served up a great first impression.