作者：Kyle Johnson

与Valve的大多数游戏一样，《半条命》系列在许多设计领域也备受瞩目。除了跨维度的外星人，疯狂的边缘科学以及沉默的主角Gordon Freeman如蓝博一般的全新再生能力外，这系列游戏还尽量想表现得更接地气。其物理机制以及整体的世界“感”都是受到Source引擎的支持。最初为《半条命2》而创造的这一引擎的一大设计目标便是去创造游戏世界中准确的物理性质并围绕着它们去创造各种核心游戏玩法。即使在今天Source仍具有很强大的作用，并且其物理引擎也很少被超越。

我发现《半条命》系列在音乐设计方面采取了较为特别的方法，因为它们相对都较为简单。这些音乐会贯穿出现在整款游戏中，这不仅能够不断提醒玩家该系列所强调的现实主义理念，同时也让鲜少出现的音乐能够在某些特殊时刻调动玩家的情绪。许多编曲都能够有效地与故事主题相契合；即表现出玩家想要阻挡外星人入侵地球的决心。同时游戏中反乌托邦的背景也拥有自己的音乐，这些音乐便是由一些阴暗且极具哥特式的电子元素所构成，并且也毫不逊色于那些强调希望与胜利感的音乐。这些音乐都能够在游戏世界中一些关键时刻强化玩家的情感共鸣并在每个时刻过度中有效地改变游戏玩法的节奏与风格。

half life(from sina)

让我们以《半条命2》第一章节的配乐为例。在一个开放的空间对抗武装直升机后，关卡设计会变得更有限；因为廊道的一些小迷宫以及各种小房间将会限制玩家移动的空间，从而导致他们无处躲藏。这里将会出现一大批敌人，玩家如果想要继续生存下去就必须经历一场恶战。而游戏则通过提高音乐的声音让玩家能够了解即将发生的事态的节奏；充满力量的敲击乐能够提高玩家的警觉性并暗示他们要想活下去就需要快速做出移动。这不仅是一个能够提供适当的游戏玩法反馈的游戏机制，同时还拥有各种娱乐价值且让玩家在当下觉得自己很厉害。通过使用这种技巧，游戏音乐能够为作为主角的玩家营造出一种简单但却让人兴奋且紧张的行动场景。

在完成必要的奔跑与射击后，音乐将慢慢回到“现实感”中。游戏世界也将再次安静下来；这时候，那种需要快速做出思考的超现实且快节奏的时刻已经完全消失了，你将重新回去探索游戏关卡。而除了音乐效果的减弱外，游戏世界并未发生任何改变。在整个《半条命》系列游戏中会多次出现这种由音乐触发的选择，并且这也能够用于传达战斗之外的各种理念与有趣时刻。有时候音乐还能够呈现出一个全新领域的新基调，这通常都伴随着一些全新的视觉效果。有时候与遥远的目的地或角色的外观等能够吸引注意的视觉效果相结合是非常重要的。

这一高效的设计技巧扮演着各种各样的角色，其在游戏中的科学价值也是不容小觑的。即使没有传统的音乐去传达现实感，种种的音乐暗示也能够做到这些。甚至在一些未突出任何分数奖励的漫长关卡之后，音乐的出现也会让人觉得很自然，就好像下意识会出现的旋律一样。并且这些音乐不会破坏玩家的沉浸感或转移他们的注意力。它们的设置一点都不唐突，反而能够推动玩家进一步去“感受”游戏世界。

我们需要考虑在真正游戏开始前的音频设计以及它的重要性。主菜单通常都未包含音乐，相反地它只是依赖于一些声音设计去传达屏幕上会出现的各种关卡。不管是环境效果，舒服的天气，怪异的音乐，火堆的爆裂声，还是遥远的外星科技所传来的嗡嗡声。在主菜单中，这些元素都会开始创造一些帮助玩家感知他们即将进入的世界的声波感；即这是一个充满弱势但却嚣张跋扈的外星人的安静且濒临死亡的星球。所以未在这里添加音乐能够更有效地传达其它编曲传达不出的氛围。

显然Valve清楚巧妙的音频设计的威力。我们可以从该公司的每一款游戏的音乐元素中辨认出他们。就像好几十年来，曾经参与过最初《半条命》的声音设计一直是这些开发者所拥有的特点。即这些来自他们第一款游戏的元素也成为了我们在之后他们的每一款游戏中识别出他们的线索。也许一些视觉效果发生了改变，但是音乐本身却从未改变。我也从未厌倦这些音乐。

我想以我最喜欢的《半条命》系列中最喜欢的音乐《Triage at Dawn》作为总结。这首音乐是出现在《半条命2》中一个特别恐怖的场景后；即玩家独自待在Ravenholm的一座废弃矿山一个晚上。不久之后就日出了，玩家将能够在一个相对安全的地方见到那些熟悉的面孔，并暂时得到放松。这时候便响起了相对平缓且温和的音乐，并让玩家能够静静回想刚刚经历的可怕场景。这同时也让玩家能够了解现在的角色是以怎样的状态站在自己面前。他们可能从未想过会遇见你，特别是在你所选择的走向他们的那条路上。然而结果却是，你成功地做到了其他人所做不到的事。

我发现这种音乐设计和执行方法非常吸引人。这是只有游戏互动性能够提供的内容。这让游戏世界更有现实感，即使音乐会时不时出现而让人觉得“不现实”的时刻。Gordon Freeman并未戴着耳机。他并不会在战斗中控制声音的大小。他也不会匆忙从MP3中选择适合当下的音乐。《半条命》中的音乐是唯一不属于游戏世界实体部分的内容，但是它却能够有效强化世界的现实感并突显任何危险时刻。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The Half-Life Approach (to Music Design)

by Kyle Johnson

The Half-Life series, like most Valve titles, is remarkable in many areas of design. Besides the inter-dimensional aliens, crazy fringe-science, and newly acquired regenerative Rambo-like abilities of its mute protagonist, Gordon Freeman, the games have all strived to be as grounded as possible. Chiefly the physical mechanics and general ‘feel’ of the world, powered by the Source engine. When the engine was built, initially for Half-Life 2, one of its primary design goals was to recreate accurate physical properties in the world and subsequently build a lot of the the core-gameplay around them. Truly innovative at the time, Source still feels great to play today and its physics engine has seldom been bettered.

The games in the Half-Life series have a particular approach to music design I’ve always found interesting due to its relative simplicity. Musical playback is intentionally infrequent throughout the games, not only to help assert the idea of realism that the series strives for, but to allow the rare appearance of music to enhance mood by ‘speaking’ to the player dynamically at specific moments. Many of the compositions are moody ambience tracks that are dark in tone in line with the theme of the story; a struggling resistance’s fight to reclaim the earth from an oppressive alien race. The dystopian setting has a soundtrack that is filled with gloomy dread and eerie gothic electronic compositions that rarely deviates to allow for music that briefly conveys hopes and victories to shine through. It enhances intended emotional resonance during key moments in the journey and is deftly capable of entirely changing the pace and style of gameplay from one moment to another.

Take the above track from Half-Life 2: Episode One for example. After a confrontation with a gunship in an open space the level design becomes confined; a mini-labyrinth of corridors and small rooms that constrict player movement leaving nowhere to hide. Once here it’s clear a very large wave of enemies is imminent and some serious ass-kicking will have to be dealt out in order to survive. The game lets the player know the pace of the imminent scenario by simply fading up the track; an energetic percussive-led composition, that aims to increases player-alertness and strongly suggests an increase in pace and movement is required in order to survive. Not only is this a cool gameplay mechanic that provides the appropriate feedback for gameplay, it also has a of great deal of entertainment value and can make you feel like a complete bad-ass in the moment. Via this technique the music has created a brief but exciting and intense action scene out of nowhere and you have the starring role.

After the necessary running and gunning has finished, the music fades away returning the ‘reality’ of the space. The world is silent again; the hyper-real, upbeat moment of quick-thinking has now vanished completely and you’re back to exploring your way through the level. Nothing about the game world has actually changed during the last few moments besides the fading in and out of music (and the piles of dead alien soldiers). This kind of choice musical-triggering happens a lot throughout the series and it’s extremely effective at assisting all kinds of ideas and interesting moments outside of combat too. Sometimes it merely works to establish the tone of a new location, usually accompanied by an area that introduces a new visual aesthetic to the player. Sometimes it’s triggered in collaboration with an attention-grabbing visual of something important like a distant destination or the appearance of a character.

As efficient as this design technique is at playing the various roles, the value of silence is also never under appreciated in the games. The lack of a conventional soundtrack works just as well to serve the reality and sense of place as the musical cues do in aiming to enhance it. Even after prolonged sections of level that feature no score, the appearance of music feels really natural, as if designed to be experienced subliminally. It never breaks immersion or pulls player focus directly on to it. It is wholly unobtrusive and only ever acts an audible extension to the ‘feeling’ of the world.

‘Half-Life 2′ Main Menu (cycle)

The consideration of audio design and how significant it is begins before the actual game even starts. The main menu contains no music and instead relies solely on pieces of sound design to populate whatever instance of level is shown on screen. From environmental effects, gentle weather, and eerie soundscapes, to a small fire crackling, the hum of alien technology in the distance, or the lone squarks of bird (curiously the only animals ever seen in the games). During the main menu these components begin to create an indirect sonic sensibility that carefully codes player perception of the world they are about to enter; a quiet, dying planet, infused with a faint but domineering alien presence. The lack of music here helps sell the atmosphere in a way that any kind of composition never could, it speaks volumes about the world and begins the process of grounding the player within it instantly.

Valve Ident (2004)

It’s clear that Valve understand the power of smart audio design. The company ident at the start of every game is almost entirely recognisable by the music cue that accompanies it. Comprised of a small slice of one of the original Half-Life’s soundtrack, for almost two decades it has been the developers calling card. After all the years they have existed, this simple cue from their first game remains the way in which they choose to identify themselves at the start of every new game. Though the visual aspects of the ident have been slightly updated, the music itself has never changed. It clearly stands for something, and I for one never tire of hearing it. It’s just plain cool.

‘Triage at Dawn’ (Half-Life 2)

I’ll wrap up this entry with one of my favourite pieces of music in the series, ‘Triage at Dawn’. It comes after a particularly distressing horror section of Half-Life 2; surviving a night alone in the abandoned mining town of Ravenholm (we don’t go there). Shortly after emerging into the morning light and meeting with friendly faces in a relatively safe place, a brief chance to relax is granted to the player. During this moment a contemplative and gentle composition begins to play and for the first time allows you to reflect on the hellish ordeal you’ve just been through. It also suggests to you how the characters now standing in front of you perhaps feel about you. They probably never expected to ever see you, especially given the route you’ve taken to reach them. Yet here you are. Alive. Triumphant in having done what no one else can do. A triage at dawn.

I find this sort of approach to music design and implementation fascinating. It’s something that only the interactivity of games can offer. It allows the world to feel realistic even when moments of ‘unreality’ via music punctuate it from time to time. Gordon Freeman isn’t wearing headphones. He isn’t hastily fading the volume in and out during a firefight. He’s not hastily shuffling through MP3s to find appropriate music to accommodate how he’s feeling about things in the moment. The music in Half-Life is the only thing in the game that isn’t physically part of the world yet it manages to enhance the reality of it and give weight to the things that are at stake within it.(source:gamasutra)