Customer Reviews

Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This coffeetable-type art book details the **artistic** creative process that brought Half-Life 2 to fruition. However, if you are expecting a behind-the-scenes expose about creation of the Source engine or the reasons why Half-Life 2 was delayed by nearly a year and a half, you will be sorely disappointed.

This book collects sketches, drawings, screenshots, script pages and personal statements about each by the artists behind this game. It talks about some of Valve's earlier visions before work on Half-Life consumed their offices. You'll get creative renderings of the evolution of most every adversary, friend, monster and location you'll come across in Half-Life 1 and 2, including bits and pieces that were removed from the games.

But be warned - there are spoilers in this book. If you haven't finished Half Life 2 yet, put this one aside until you do. Otherwise you might spoil the story for yourself.

If "four stars" seems too low, well....I was hoping to see more about the creation of Half Life 2's engine - "Source". Barely mentioned within these pages.

If you are as much of a fan of Half-Life 1 and 2 as I am, its a worthwhile purchase.

I bought this book hours after I finished Half-Life 2, still excited about the world I'd just played through. It didn't disapoint. Not only does it have an ample amount of sketches (from Half-life 1 AND Half-life 2) and earlier/scrapped monster and level designs, it has commentary on nearly all of them from various staff-members. The book has information on the voice actors, level construction, some story samples passed around Valve as an example of the atmosphere they were trying to achieve, real-life architectual influences on the game and a few interesting tidbits on the world itself we never find out in the game. (For example, want to know a bit more about the mysterious Combine? Want to know what a fully-evolved headcrab looks like? Things like these are scattered around the book)

If you're one of those people who wants to know "What changed from Valve's original vision for Half-life 2?" (and some of those changes are surprising and quite substantial) or "How did the artists and designers and coders work together?" or if you just enjoy seeing sketches and concept designs (which are always interesting to look at and in some cases, even beautiful) this is the perfect book for you.

As the review below states this book isn't a behind-the-scenes book or a chronicle of the development of the game nor is it a book discussing the technological merits of Half Life 2 or the Source Engine. Although, it does contain elements of all of the afformentioned parts, it is in the end an art book, but a great one at that with great color, a sturdy build, and a clean uncluttered design.

As a fan of the game myself, I enjoyed seeing all the places and ideas that never made it into the game and the evolution and design of those that did. One area, I feel the book ought to and should have delved into more, was the development and evolution of the plot itself which except in reference to other points was never brought up significantly.

Fans of the Half Life franchise and people interested in the creative development of games will find this book of interest. Others may want to pass on it.

This book doesn't really talk much about anything on Source or the people creating the game. It focuses mainly on the process of how different elements in the game came out. With lots of concept and rendered art, it's good to have it around for inspiration or just plain viewing. The book also gives some information on Half-Life 1 and Mods, though these sections still give lots of cool pictures and very little text in comparison.

I'm really a fan of concept art and i loved this book. It has a bunch of really high quality concept art. Most of the art is from half-life 2 but the book does contain some from the original half-life and counter-strike. The book has explanitions about most of the drawings and also includes some high-res scans of the new game. I would recommend this to anyone who likes concept art as well as all of the half-life fans out there.

I purchased both this book and the The Making Of Doom 3 together for a discounted price. Both are exceptional and both I HIGHLY recommend owning.

The Doom 3 book is far heavier on word count and focuses on the entire production of Doom 3 as opposed to the sporadic comments and captions grouped with pictures in 'Raising The Bar'. Having said that both are different and will appeal to everyone interested regardless.

Both are printed on very high quality paper, 'Raising The Bar' even having a hard cover, a sore omission from The Making Doom 3. The content is brilliant with hundreds of images gracing throughout and insights into the making of these games. I particularly liked reading about the ideas, monsters and objects that were cut from the final games. Seriously, every gamer or visual artist/designer should own these, awesome and inspirational 'picture' books to have laying around.

SO! If you are a fan-boy or girl of either game, get both, they are EXCEPTIONAL READING and I cannot recommend them highly enough.

My son loves this book and wishes some of the pictures were available as prints..Very nice well done book. Worth the money spent.

This book tracks the creation of the Half Life II world from concept art to final product. It is, simply, amazing. Not since a book of concept art for Star Wars (the original 3) have I encountered concept art so clearly building a complete world(s) with as much detail, passion, and creativity. It's been a few years since HL2 hit the market, and we've since seen the introduction of HL Lost Coast, Episode I and Episode II, each of which build and add to the HL2 world in a organized and entertaining way.

I have to believe the continuity throughout each installment of the HL world comes in large part because they laid such a solid foundation in their creation of so much beautiful, detailed concept art. Some of the materials displayed in the book missing from HL2 have shown up in later installments. It seems even years ago they knew where they were headed.

What you will not find in this book are details on the source engine, details on the writing process behind the storyline, or any mention of the delay in production of HL2. This is a book almost exlusively about the visual art present in the game.

No matter where the storyline for HL2 ends, this book will show where it began, and how concepts led to one of the greatest games, and franchises, in PC gaming history. If you're a fan of Half Life 2, buy this book. You will not be disappointed.

-awesome for Half-Life and Half-Life 2 Fans!
-nothing for the rest
-detailed concept arts
-parts of the HL1 and HL2 story that are new to everybody
-foreword by Gabe Newell (the founder of VALVE)
-comments of all important people by VALVE
-Outtakes
-the beginning of Half-Life and the idea
-also Mods like Counter-Strike, Team-Fortness Classic and Day of Defeat
-Counter-Strike: Source
-hardcover!
-limited edition!
-making of -> the characters, the people who were acting for
-detailed photos of western europe which made it to the game
-example how modeling worked (on the antlions, bumpmapping etc.)
-outtaken parts of the storyline for example a different beginning...

All in one this is the ultimate book for Half-Life and Half-Life 2 fans! If you are not one don't buy this book!!!

I picked this book up a couple years ago at Best Buy and it was the last one they had.
This is an excellent book with lots of artwork and details on concepts that didn't make the cut such as Kingpin or the Mr. Friendly character.
This book doesn't contain much technical details in regard to the Source engine but I still enjoyed this book from the standpoint of an artist that happens to love video games.
If you appreciate architecture like I do there is also some great stuff about the environments and lighting decisions Valve made.