Haptic Half-Life: Novint Falcon
I've played Half-Life 2 before. Many times, in fact. But not like this.
No, never like this.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect with the Half-Life 2 mod for the Novint Falcon, cleverly renamed Haptics-Life 2. I had been playing around with the limited edition of the Falcon on a series of mildly entertaining but largely uninspiring "Feelin' It" mini-games that are packaged with the device's installation software. Games like Top Pin Bowling and Home Run Smashout offered a quick and easy demonstration of the Falcon's haptic controls, but they failed to captivate my imagination. Playing Feelin' It: Golf was fun for a while, but it ultimately felt like a poor match for the controller. Unlike the Wii Remote with Wii Golf, you couldn't swing the Falcon's sphere-like interface, which created a rather awkward experience.
The Novint Falcon, a haptic controller for PC games.
After experimenting with a number of these mini-games, I moved on to what likely represented a make-or-break point for the Falcon: Haptics-Life 2. The mod is easy enough to install; you can download the mod from Novint's Website, but you have to have a legit version of the original Half-Life 2 on the PC and must sign into Steam before launching the Falcon's software. Haptics-Life 2 will then show up in your Steam account, and once you launch the mod, the Falcon will come to life, illuminating its blue logo, and take over for the mouse.
Like any new control scheme, the Falcon requires a period of adjustment. For one thing, it takes more effort to grip the suspended interface, which is attached to the device's body via three jointed arms (ironically, the Falcon bears a slight resemblance to the Combine aerial probes from Half-Life 2). The Falcon, which connects to the PC through a USB cable and comes with its own power supply, works much like a mouse except that it responds to 3-D movements. You can move the grip up and down and left to right, as well as forward and backward.
A side view of the Falcon and its three arms.
When it comes to the Haptics-Life 2 mode, the Falcon replaces the mouse but the keyboard is still required to move forward and backward. Holding the spherical grip, which is about the size of a ping pong ball, and moving it like a mouse can be challenging. First, the four buttons on top of the grip can be hard to interact with when you're constantly pushing and pulling the grip. Second, the Falcon lacks the precision control of your basic mouse; oftentimes, I found the device hard to maneuver because certain types of angles and movements didn't feel as smooth as others.
But here's where the Falcon's magic was displayed: at the start of Half-Life 2, when the Combine soldier orders me to pick up a bottle and throw in the trash, I clicked the "E" key and suddenly the Falcon grip felt heavy. The device was distributing weight, pushing the controller down against my hand. When I walked into an NPC or even a wall, the Falcon sensed the object in the game and jerked slightly. In fact, the Falcon sensed virtually everything in the game and translated it into force feedback.
Now, I've never been one of those gamers that are obsessed with rumble packs and dual-shock controllers on the console. Perhaps it's because I'm more of PC gamer and I found the vibrations of the console controllers a tad annoying. But there was something about playing a game as naturally visceral and engaging as Half-Life 2 and getting an extra dimension of interactivity. After a few hours of playing Haptics-Life 2, I went back and played the beginning of Half-Life 2 with a mouse and keyboard to get a comparison. And while I could certainly aim more accurately with the mouse, the loss of the force feedback left me feeling naked.
Players use the Falcon's spherical grip as a substitute for a mouse.
It's not just that the Falcon is providing forced feedback for Half-Life 2, or a fancy three-dimensional control scheme. The key with the Haptics-Life 2 is that the Falcon gives these movements and sensations a rich diversity. When I shot the pistol, the interface gives a slight push back. When I fired a machine gun or shotgun, the kickback becomes even stronger. And when I grabbed a hold of the mounted Combine machine gun, the recoil force went through the roof and turned the Falcon into a mini-jackhammer. And the experience was positively thrilling. Similarly, getting shot by Combine soldiers or knocked across City 17 by massive explosions has never been so entertaining. With the Falcon grip in hand, you can feel every little detail of the action.
As for the Gravity Gun, let's just say that the Falcon takes the hallowed weapon to the next level. You can feel the weight of the item you've picked up, and also sense the vibrations when you latch on to an item and fire it.
But the best part may be how the Falcon puts these game objects into a realistic context. For example, when you pick up a small item, you simply click on the bottle or box and lift the Falcon's interface up as the device itself adds a bit of weight to it. When you use the Gravity Gun, however, to pick up larger objects, the Falcon controller actually gets heavier in your hand. It's a magical experience that makes a classic game even more entrancing.
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