There was a topic the other day asking why the Combine didn't attack Aperture Sciences (answer: they did) , which was a segue into a large portion of the topic realizing they had missed like 99% of both Half Life 2 and Portal's stories because they are told entirely though background items in the environment. Like, one dude had never even heard of the 7-hours war.
I really love learning about (possible) Chell through the various exhibits strewn about Portal 2. When I finished the game I was certain she was Caroline's daughter but I haven't replayed it since launch and the exact reasons elude me now.
The world is already lush and green at the end of Portal 1.There is lots of evidence of that, yeah. I believe it as well.
Regarding the overall story, Portal 2 is probably the most subtle happy ending ever.
When Chell looks at the earth from the moon after creating the portal, the planet is green and the earth's oceans are restored, indicating that, at some point, for some unknown reason, Earth repels the Combine and undoes their teraforming.
You forgot Deus Ex HR and MD.
Huh, I don't remember anything about drained oceans. Fair enough. Can you actually drain individual oceans? I know we call them different names, but they're connected. You'd have to build dams the depth of an ocean to partition them.Portal 1 takes place roughly at the very start of the combine invasion. It SHOULD be green, because they haven't begun teraforming. In Half Life 2, which takes place about 10-20 years after Portal 1, they have already drained 2 of the earth's oceans. Portal 2 is thousands of years after Half Life 2. The earth's state at the end of Portal 2 is extremely telling.
Huh, I don't remember anything about drained oceans. Fair enough. Can you actually drain individual oceans? I know we call them different names, but they're connected. You'd have to build dams the depth of an ocean to partition them.
I do remember the fish thing actually. Is that in the building where you get the tracking RPG thing?You learn about them draining the oceans in the coastal section of half life 2 after highway 17. You also learn that fish in general have become extinct.
What are the best examples of environmental storytelling in games? Are there any which are especially subtle?
Bonus points if it's not a funnily posed skeleton or a message written on the wall in blood.
I do remember the fish thing actually. Is that in the building where you get the tracking RPG thing?
Not a whole ocean, at least not in the released game.Huh, I don't remember anything about drained oceans. Fair enough. Can you actually drain individual oceans? I know we call them different names, but they're connected. You'd have to build dams the depth of an ocean to partition them.
Came to say this. The HL2 timeline shit is nuts with how much they pulled from the environment.There was a topic the other day asking why the Combine didn't attack Aperture Sciences (answer: they did) , which was a segue into a large portion of the topic realizing they had missed like 99% of both Half Life 2 and Portal's stories because they are told entirely though background items in the environment. Like, one dude had never even heard of the 7-hours war.
Not a whole ocean, at least not in the released game.
There was an idea initially, to have some combine apparatus draining the oceans, and a desert-wasteland like level with more shipwrecks and such.
I remember before it came out people pinpointed it to taking place in post-apocalyptic Colorado based on the landmarks that were in the promotional screenshots.
Horizon excels in environmental storytelling/world-building (even if it's not part of the main story), as does the likes of The Witcher 3 and Bloodborne.
I remember before it came out people pinpointed it to taking place in post-apocalyptic Colorado based on the landmarks that were in the promotional screenshots.
Halo 3. Tsavo Highway.
So, the first act of Halo 2 is set in and around New Mombasa in Kenya, which has become a massive port city owing mostly to it being the first city to have a space elevator. The close of the act involves an in-atmosphere slipspace jump:
Cut to black, and that's the last part of Earth you see in Halo 2.
Halo 3 opens up on Earth, with the Master Chief crash-landing back near south Kenya. Tsavo Highway is the third mission in the game, and involves MC having to follow the road to the town of Voi.
N.B.:
Along the way there's also piles of various wreckage from the space elevator everywhere:
...including, in the skybox, a trail of this wreckage:
...which points back in the direction of New Mombasa. Between "here" and "there" is also where the Covenant are excavating a Forerunner Artifact, to open a portal to the Ark:
I absolutely adore that they built this level around a very distant aftermath of what is, in-universe, a really major event, and never call any particular attention to it. It's just there on its own.
Relatedly, you also get to see the space elevator itself collapse in Halo 3: ODST, which is set in New Mombasa shortly following the slipspace jump in H2: