Monday, November 22, 2004 9:56 PM
szurgot
Half-Life 2 - Comment on a great interface...
Great game, great engine, engagine, engrossing, yada, yada, yada....
One of the things that really impressed me (so much so that I didn't even notice it until I was almost 2/3 way through) was that the mouse/keyboard layout was setup so that you could actually play without taking your hand off the left hand off the left side of the keyboard. (Except to quicksave/quickload <grin>) All of the weapon selection keys were overloaded so they were on keys 1-5, instead of spread all the way out to keys 9, 0, and above like in some games (Doom 3, cough)And instead of the scroll wheel automatically choosing a weapon, it cycled through shadows of available, and you hit fire to choose. The whole process is so intuitive that it's a seamless part of the gameplay/interface.
I mention this as significant because unlike other games, the interface didn't detract from the gameplay by requiring you to take your hand off the left side and reach to the right, and go through all the animations. More developers should try to take into consideration the fastest way to change things in a program. <grin> I know I've been trying to be more aware of it, which is probably why it dawned on me that this was the best method I've ever seen in a FPS.