The bleakness of both Half Life 2 and Dishonored's really resonated with me. I can't overstate how much I appreciated both of these games, and in no small part thanks to the art direction.
This is really sad news, but it's amazing how much of a profound impact he left on so many players, and without a doubt on so many past, current, and future artists.
Not long ago I had to visit this town in Slovakia, and immediately upon arrival I thought “damn this is City 17”. Fun place though. No striders or anything.
Or almost all of the former USSR up to this day, excluding a few cities here and there. The place I'm living in basically hasn't changed in the last 30-40 years.
With Half-Life and Dishonored, the bleakness always felt somewhat self-contained. Which those games can't really do anything about because they have levels and they're linear. Metro gets to escape that because the entire game is bleak.
I don't think any game has made me feel more like "this really is a forsaken desolate place" like Velen in The Witcher 3.
Well it seems I played almost all of his games recently. I have an Half Life 2 game in progress and finished Dishonored for the 4th time last december.
Half-life 2 is imo still the most important and impactful game of our generation — from gameplay to art-style to game mechanics and so on, it’s still exceptional and I struggle to come up with another single player game that blew me away like HL2 - Dead Space comes close but it was less revolutionary imo
I sadly was too young to truly appreciate hl1 (or maybe was forbidden to pay it not sure) - for me the first game that blew me away was Dungeon Keeper and HoMM3 - I still play them from time to time…
Agree. I recently played HL2 again with the new commentary (added because of the 20th anniversary) and it really shows why the level design is so good: a lot of play testing and iterative design. They really did the work.
Now I'm playing the Halo franchise and the difference in how boring and uninspired the levels are is really striking.
Mm. Halo 3 felt really open and expansive the first time I played it. Second time, I tried to explore outside the normal path and rapidly discovered that it was a very well disguised rails shooter.
But I've also gone back further than that in Bungie's back catalogue, having recently been playing Marathon 2 and Marathon ∞ (winner of the MacFormat(?) magazine award for "largest version number increase between successive releases") on Steam, and… well, 2 has still-interesting levels, but Infinity's levels are a spatially confusing mess.
when i played HL2 in 2006 or whatever, i had no idea that there would never be anything like that again. we all thought that HL2 was just the beginning... but it was the opposite. i think that we all assumed that the game was made great by its technology. but the more i think about it, the more i realize that it was the people, the sensibilities of those people and that time, and the character of valve at that time, everything besides the technology, that made HL2 so good. and that also explains why it has never been reproduced. if i were going to be sent to another planet in another galaxy to seed another colony of humanity... and i could only bring 2 video games for that entire branch of humanity to know and appreciate... it would be HL2 and MGS2.
I loved HL2 so much. Not at the 1st place in my list because, well, the Mass Effect story line brings that one to another level, but HL2 for the time was unbeatable. I wonder why they didn't continue the franchise with a proper HL3; the entire world of gamers was (and probably still is) begging for it.
HL2 is one of the top 5 most influential games. I think Duke Nukem 3D was one (first good multiplayer), Witcher 3 is another (one of the most immersive, story driven), the Elder Scrolls series and I am finding it very difficult to name the 5th, but HL series was great for its time.
Absolutely agree. I just replayed all the Half Life series with my kids and they love it. It's a game that's just so well done and I think it held well after all these years.
Level design is something that is often there as a way to simply service the gameplay. You make sections that enable to game loop. Half Life 1 is designed this way: set pieces for aliens and marines to have interesting encounters.
Viktor designed levels that felt part of worlds that are lived in. City 17, where Half Life 2 takes place, feels like a believable dystopia. With evil guards and propaganda and a looming techno tower of Sauron.
Dishonored pushed this even further, with levels that not only are equally well presented, but can be traversed in so many creative ways. It’s a sandbox for the mind.
I remember listening to HL2 in-game commentary from the game devs. One that stuck to me was something along the lines "It really pains me that we put so much effort in all these connecting hallways and the players just run past them at mach 3 speeds, but you got to do it anyway otherwise the hallway looks out of place" (paraphrasing, not direct quote)
It’s the tension between narrative storytelling and content creation. Also why so many indie developers end up making games that are a couple rooms with changing details (12 minutes, etc)!
I didn't know the same person was involved in shaping both projects, but as soon as I read that, the personality that connected both those beautiful games was immediately clear. What an amazing legacy to leave despite a sadly shortened life.
I loved the first one and its dlcs and had the second on my steam queue for 8 years while life got in the way. This year I've 100% completed the game (3 playthroughs) and I'm currently thoroughly enjoying Death of the Outsider.
These games are the amazing product of talented people who love their crafts and Viktor was one of them.
Do yourself a favor and play Thief if you haven't!
Dishonored is kind of a spiritual successor to the Thief series, several team members from Looking Glass went on to work at Arkane. It's one of those rare times I've felt like I was playing a video game, yet still fully immersed. Every feature surprised or delighted me, nothing felt out of place. It felt very polished and ahead of its time despite its raw nature. The gameplay of the first two titles holds up very well. Make sure to consult PCGamingWiki for critical compatibility patches
RIP. For those who haven't seen it yet, he was interviewed in the HL2 20th Anniversary Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCjNT9qGjh4 (intro and chapter 1 at 13:40)
Wait, he is the art lead of both Half Life 2 and Dishonored series? No wonder why Dishonored and Dishonored 2 looks so much like Half Life 2 with its dark and "wet" environment, especially when I was looking at the underground and underwater segments, and how it looks to incorporate a lot like European cyberpunk elements in Half Life 2 (it was set in East Europe tho), and then some steampunk elements with Dishonored
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This is really sad news, but it's amazing how much of a profound impact he left on so many players, and without a doubt on so many past, current, and future artists.
Its just Eastern Europe in the 80s and 90s.
You'll really resonate with Remedy's Control and the Metro series if you haven't already played them.
I don't think any game has made me feel more like "this really is a forsaken desolate place" like Velen in The Witcher 3.
The metro games are amazing though. Especially awakening in VR.
Thanks for making all the difference, Viktor.
The original? I thought the first person story telling mode of HL1 was really mind blowing.
HL2 was more refined, and the art style did help elevate the story telling.
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But I've also gone back further than that in Bungie's back catalogue, having recently been playing Marathon 2 and Marathon ∞ (winner of the MacFormat(?) magazine award for "largest version number increase between successive releases") on Steam, and… well, 2 has still-interesting levels, but Infinity's levels are a spatially confusing mess.
Relevant PA: https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2001/11/28/the-rest-of-th...
I feel the same, but incidentally one of the ones that blew my away like HL2 was Dishonored.
Level design is something that is often there as a way to simply service the gameplay. You make sections that enable to game loop. Half Life 1 is designed this way: set pieces for aliens and marines to have interesting encounters.
Viktor designed levels that felt part of worlds that are lived in. City 17, where Half Life 2 takes place, feels like a believable dystopia. With evil guards and propaganda and a looming techno tower of Sauron.
Dishonored pushed this even further, with levels that not only are equally well presented, but can be traversed in so many creative ways. It’s a sandbox for the mind.
Rip, your work was brilliant and inspiring.
Dishonored is kind of a spiritual successor to the Thief series, several team members from Looking Glass went on to work at Arkane. It's one of those rare times I've felt like I was playing a video game, yet still fully immersed. Every feature surprised or delighted me, nothing felt out of place. It felt very polished and ahead of its time despite its raw nature. The gameplay of the first two titles holds up very well. Make sure to consult PCGamingWiki for critical compatibility patches
Let's gather for whiskey and cigars tonight, in honor of Viktor.
Only game I ever did that with in my life.