[HN Gopher] Half-Life 2 and Dishonored art lead Viktor Antonov h...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Half-Life 2 and Dishonored art lead Viktor Antonov has died
        
       Author : Trasmatta
       Score  : 561 points
       Date   : 2025-02-16 17:01 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.eurogamer.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.eurogamer.net)
        
       | Trasmatta wrote:
       | Really sad to hear about this. He was only 52. It's a safe bet
       | that his brilliant art direction was deeply impactful to a lot of
       | HN readers.
        
       | txdv wrote:
       | O wow, the architecture in Dishonored gave me always combine
       | vibes, now I do understand why
        
       | asdf6969 wrote:
       | RIP. Dishonored was a beautiful game with a surprisingly deep
       | world. Sad to read this. I was hoping to see more
        
       | karaterobot wrote:
       | 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.
        
         | automatic6131 wrote:
         | The man loves spikey metal walls in European cities, especially
         | with an overhang. He couldn't help himself!
        
       | nice_byte wrote:
       | HL2 stuck with me for years and years exactly because of his art
       | direction. It was the first time I ever saw a video game world
       | that somewhat resembled my actual real-world surroundings.
       | Incredibly sad he passed away at only 52...
        
       | the__alchemist wrote:
       | Dishonored and its sequel were two of the most memorable games
       | I've played.
        
         | Trasmatta wrote:
         | Agreed. Two of the best games ever created, and I'm not sure
         | we'll ever see anything like them ever again. The art design
         | played a huge role in that.
         | 
         | Let's gather for whiskey and cigars tonight, in honor of
         | Viktor.
        
           | alserio wrote:
           | Indeed. I believe so.
        
             | feznyng wrote:
             | Chances are very good.
        
         | alserio wrote:
         | 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.
        
           | soulofmischief wrote:
           | 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
        
             | Dracophoenix wrote:
             | Does your recommendation also include the 2014 reboot?
        
               | wildjuri wrote:
               | The 2014 reboot is a pretty big letdown because it
               | largely avoids all the strong aspects of the original
               | game in favor ip recognition.
               | 
               | The original Thief would largely be considered an
               | immersive sim whereas Dishonored is a very well fleshed
               | out stealth game with masterful vertical level design.
               | Prey (2017) feels like a great mash-up of both games. I'd
               | put the original Deus Ex and Human Revolution in there as
               | well, though they also include rpg elements.
        
               | the__alchemist wrote:
               | Prey was so good too!
        
               | alabastervlog wrote:
               | Prey's closest ancestor, by a mile, is System Shock, I'd
               | say.
        
               | boppo1 wrote:
               | Hell no, that's not a Thief game.
        
             | alserio wrote:
             | I'll look into it, thank you for the recommendation!
        
               | boppo1 wrote:
               | Fellow taffer here. Some things to consider for a thief
               | first-timer:
               | 
               | If you have experience with games, play on expert,
               | seriously. Thief makes the game harder _by adding
               | objectives and constraints_ , not just stat scaling.
               | There's a couple levels that have bullshit secrets to
               | find or loot requirements, but overall it encourages
               | exploration. I played expert my first time based on a
               | post like this one and I was so so glad I did.
               | 
               | The controls and mechanics feel cumbersome at first
               | because it's such a different game than the usual
               | halo/cod/unreal-influenced FPS. Until you get used to
               | them and the mechanics don't feel bad about save
               | scumming.
               | 
               | Play with original graphics, don't use texture mods (at
               | least for a first playthrough). Once you get used to the
               | old graphics, the art direction really comes together,
               | and IMO it's right up there with Dishonored.
               | 
               | The gameplay pitch is thus: LG wanted to make a
               | mechanics-based DnD-like class based RPG videogame.
               | Elder-scrolls is stat-based RPG: your character levels up
               | in-game and their stats go up. If you go to your friend's
               | place, you don't take any of that with you, it's tied to
               | the digital save file/avatar/character. Contrast this
               | with fighting games, which are mechanics based: the
               | characters are consistent and do not change. _You_ get
               | better at the game and accomplish more by learning the
               | mechanics.
               | 
               | So as you get good at thief, _you_ are leveling up. You
               | can go to your friend's house, take over playing and say
               | "watch this shit" and pull some crazy stunt.
               | 
               | LG started building the mechanics for a thief class and
               | realized they had nowhere near enough capital to make all
               | the other classes. But they already had a pretty fun
               | game. This is why Thief 1 has tons of different
               | environments and locales and thief 2 is more focused on
               | places a thief would be likely to go.
        
               | teroshan wrote:
               | > If you have experience with games, play on expert,
               | seriously. Thief makes the game harder by adding
               | objectives and constraints, not just stat scaling.
               | 
               | Thanks for that tip, will definitely remember it when I
               | get around to playing it
        
               | alserio wrote:
               | thanks!
        
             | 5- wrote:
             | gloomwood, while not released yet, looks like a potentially
             | worthy successor.
        
             | ashoeafoot wrote:
             | Pagans amirite?
        
         | amyames wrote:
         | I loved dishonored so much I played it for several months.
         | 
         | Only game I ever did that with in my life.
        
       | scrlk wrote:
       | 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)
        
       | heraldgeezer wrote:
       | HL2 is a masterpiece. RIP.
        
       | maartenscholl wrote:
       | This is sad news, I was aware of his work on Half Life 2 through
       | art books, and I bought the first Dishonored game because of it
        
       | portaouflop wrote:
       | 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
        
         | Trasmatta wrote:
         | > I struggle to come up with another single player game that
         | blew me away like HL2
         | 
         | I feel the same, but incidentally one of the ones that blew my
         | away like HL2 was Dishonored.
        
           | Aeolun wrote:
           | Prey was really good too, if not quite up to the level of HL
           | and Dishonored.
        
             | Trasmatta wrote:
             | Dishonored, Prey, Deus Ex. Relics of a lost era: I don't
             | know if we'll ever see big budget "immersive sims" like
             | them again.
        
               | Schiendelman wrote:
               | I'd recommend Death Stranding and Control.
        
           | portaouflop wrote:
           | I never played it, gotta try it out soon!
        
         | rightbyte wrote:
         | >I struggle to come up with another single player game that
         | blew me away like HL2
         | 
         | The original? I thought the first person story telling mode of
         | HL1 was really mind blowing.
        
           | strangescript wrote:
           | Exactly, so many first of its kind moments in HL1. The first
           | time you saw a scripted sequence, like wtf am I playing, this
           | is amazing.
           | 
           | HL2 was more refined, and the art style did help elevate the
           | story telling.
        
             | shawabawa3 wrote:
             | The gravity gun in hl2 was absolutely mind-blowing
             | 
             | Every game up until then had been full of 100% static
             | assets and suddenly you could just pick up and throw
             | anything with realistic physics
        
               | rightbyte wrote:
               | The mix of good open landscape and good indoor maps were
               | also quite impressive for the time if I remember
               | correctly.
        
               | brap wrote:
               | There was also that crossbow that shoots red hot rebar,
               | let's you pin things (and enemies) to walls. I had so
               | much fun with that
        
               | swinglock wrote:
               | Not quite static. Hitman and Red Faction comes to mind,
               | years before Half-Life 2. Still, it was groundbreaking.
        
               | crest wrote:
               | Red Faction's destructible maps lend themselves to a lot
               | of creative gameplay, but the (late) game was far to
               | linear. The engine made a lot possible, but to explore
               | using explosives you had to exploit item duplication
               | glitches or cheats. In the end it felt like an engine
               | demo posing as a complete game.
        
               | 0x457 wrote:
               | I remember throwing toilets at each other in HL2 at LAN
               | parties. Such a magical experience.
        
               | beAbU wrote:
               | HL2 on Steam had an achievement called "flushed" if you
               | killed a combine with a gravity gun toilet.
               | 
               | I was about 15, HL2 was my first "real" video game that I
               | bought with money, the xbox did not exist in my country
               | and I've never heard of game achievements before. In the
               | second last act of the game, in the push towards the
               | citadel through waves and waves of combine, I was low on
               | ammo, and stresses out. I picked up my gravity gun and
               | started lobbing junk to the enemies to get away from
               | them. I picked up a toilet and chucked it into a whole
               | pile of combine. As I paused to have a brief chuckle
               | about the absurdity, Steam chimed with that achievement.
               | 
               | It was as if GabeN Himself looked over my shoulder and
               | went "heh, nice" when I did it. Truly magical and a
               | gaming highlight for me.
        
               | lupusreal wrote:
               | For me it was the trash blowing around on the ground when
               | you step off of the train. I immediately picked up the
               | trash and started throwing it around myself. My mind was
               | blown.
               | 
               | That said I still prefer HL1 overall. Its more high
               | impact and brutal. There's nothing in HL2 that's quite
               | like accidentally blowing away a black mesa scientist and
               | having gore spray everywhere. HL1 is just viscerally more
               | violent, and also I dislike how NPCs in HL2 have
               | basically deified Gordon and constantly suck him off. In
               | HL1 the security guards are bros but the scientists treat
               | you with annoyance. I get the whole subplot of freed
               | vortegants turning you into a heroic figure, but I think
               | that's just a thin plot excuse for Valve's decision to
               | make the player feel like a special person. Also all of
               | the "girlfriend simulator" stuff is cringe that aged
               | poorly.
        
               | Trasmatta wrote:
               | > I get the whole subplot of freed vortegants turning you
               | into a heroic figure
               | 
               | That's not really it at all, it's the G-man's
               | machinations that turn him into a "heroic figure". If
               | anything he's more comparable to Paul Atreides. The
               | Vorteguants just temporarily release him from the G-man's
               | grasp in HL2:E1, but that barely lasts to the next
               | episode.
               | 
               | He's a pawn of whatever game the G-Man is playing, and
               | was unleashed as sort of an unwitying agent of chaos on
               | Breen and the Combine ("the right man in the wrong place
               | can make all the difference in the world").
               | 
               | > Also all of the "girlfriend simulator" stuff is cringe
               | that aged poorly
               | 
               | Huh?
        
               | lupusreal wrote:
               | I'm talking about HL2, not the episodes. I don't judge
               | HL1 by what was written into HL2 years later, nor do I
               | judge HL2 by what was written into the episodes or Alyx
               | years later. Not least because it's common knowledge that
               | the writers have been following the "Lost" philosophy of
               | writing, making up shit as they go, creating mysteries
               | they themselves don't know the answer to, punting that
               | down the road to their future selves.
               | 
               | In Half Life 1 you start with a dogshit reputation and
               | insofar as you gain any reputation with the NPCs its
               | because you've progressed through the game to earn it.
               | The scientists treat you like base labor in the
               | beginning, then come to see you as useful, as a fighter,
               | after you prove it. The soldiers start without knowing
               | who you are, but after you tear your way through their
               | ranks they start hating you by name.
               | 
               | In Half Life 2, all the NPCs you meet act like you're
               | already a famous hero and there's really no indication in
               | the game that this comes from g-man propaganda rather the
               | vortegants and/or the black mesa scientists. In HL2 both
               | the vorts and the scientists make a point of saying they
               | owe Gordon a lot. The natural read on this, given the
               | context of the first two games and not any later retcons,
               | is that the scientists or vorts have basically deified
               | you. Mossman talks about how she wishes she could have
               | worked with you at Black Mesa as though you were not just
               | a war hero but also a legendary scientist. What
               | scientific achievements did Gordon have at Black Mesa? He
               | pushed samples around and showed up late for work. What
               | kind of stories were the other scientists telling her
               | about you? Also Alyx starts hitting on you right away.
               | 
               | Whatever the plot justifications for it, clearly there
               | was a commercial motivation of pandering to the player.
               | It aged poorly.
        
               | talideon wrote:
               | I don't think I ever felt as if Alyx was hitting on
               | Gordon when I played the game. Fangirling, sure, but
               | that's it. I can fully imagine Gordon's legend building
               | up over time, however justified it might be. It didn't
               | feel like pandering, just that you're amongst a bunch of
               | very desperate people who've built up a myth around what
               | happened in Black Mesa to help them keep going.
        
               | jitl wrote:
               | Gordon's actions in HL1 is why there's even a resistance,
               | I think Gordon's legendary status isn't from Gman
               | propaganda but more from the resistance itself
               | needing/wanting an icon/martyr/founder. It's an
               | interesting contrast from the first game where you're a
               | nobody and expectations are at rock bottom for you,
               | versus in HL2+ everyone expects you to be a messiah, but
               | the odds are so stacked against you it's hard to see how
               | you can live up to the expectation.
               | 
               | I always felt embarrassed by the attention in HL2, more
               | than ego-stroked. It's awkward in-game but intentionally
               | so, in my mind. Like with that Mossman line, Gordon is a
               | nobody scientifically and famous for other reasons so
               | that line says more about Mossman's vanity and ego than
               | anything about Gordon.
        
             | rightbyte wrote:
             | >The first time you saw a scripted sequence, like wtf am I
             | playing, this is amazing.
             | 
             | Ye. It is hard to remember how stale games used to be with
             | "story parts" and "game play parts".
             | 
             | Small things like "two scientist runs towards you. One is
             | eaten by head crab zombie unless you save him really fast"
             | -- all these kind of small scripted events added so much.
             | And fluently playing the whole mess up experiment and then
             | try to escape overarching story.
        
             | neuroelectron wrote:
             | HL1 was huge too. I was disappointed with how short HL2 is
             | in comparison.
        
               | Cthulhu_ wrote:
               | I think everyone was, and they never did deliver on their
               | episodic content promise. Valve pivoted from a game
               | developer to a publisher / self-publishing platform at
               | that time which made it and its owner a multi-billion
               | company and over time revived the PC gaming market.
        
             | simonw wrote:
             | The first time you see the tentacle in Half Life 1 has
             | stuck with me for decades.
        
           | poglet wrote:
           | Black Mesa is a great way to re-experience HL1 too.
        
             | Cthulhu_ wrote:
             | I picked it up the other day and honestly I'm disappointed,
             | I was expecting modern-day graphics but it's barely on par
             | with HL2.
        
               | rightbyte wrote:
               | I think that is harsch on a fan mod?
        
               | ahartmetz wrote:
               | It's easily "higher resolution" than HL2, but some things
               | just aren't very well done. Some of the sound effects are
               | weak and enemy behavior is less fun to play against
               | across the board.
        
           | portaouflop wrote:
           | 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...
        
         | jakubmazanec wrote:
         | 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.
        
           | ben_w wrote:
           | 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.
        
           | Lammy wrote:
           | > Now I'm playing the Halo franchise and the difference in
           | how boring and uninspired the levels are is really striking.
           | 
           | Relevant PA: https://www.penny-
           | arcade.com/comic/2001/11/28/the-rest-of-th...
        
           | kawsper wrote:
           | Halo: ODST is the one for me with the best storytelling and
           | ambiance.
        
         | rdtsc wrote:
         | 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.
        
         | AdrianB1 wrote:
         | 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.
        
         | squarefoot wrote:
         | 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.
        
         | AI_beffr wrote:
         | 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.
        
         | dvngnt_ wrote:
         | half life alyx with the Jeff level
        
       | moralestapia wrote:
       | RIP, truly a legend, very creative guy, thanks for all the good
       | times!
        
       | accrual wrote:
       | Rest in peace, Viktor. Your influence and design greatly affected
       | the way I viewed and experienced video games.
        
       | whywhywhywhy wrote:
       | Art direction is the part of HL2 that has aged the least imho.
       | Still would be a surprising setting and tone if done today.
        
         | escapecharacter wrote:
         | I still yearn for a riff on Ravenholm
        
           | Tsiklon wrote:
           | Arkane (Dishonoured) were making a Ravenholm based game, it
           | was canned towards the end of development.
        
         | Cthulhu_ wrote:
         | The latest game in the franchise is Alyx, which is the same
         | setting and tone and done today~ish (...2020)
        
       | remoquete wrote:
       | No matter how brilliant the game mechanics of those games were,
       | they wouldn't have hooked me as they did without Antonov's
       | exceptional vision. City 17 and Dunwall Will forever live in our
       | memory.
        
       | teroshan wrote:
       | 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.
        
         | nixass wrote:
         | Somewhat related: That Creepy Feeling - What is it with Source
         | games? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=03yL_JCeQBI
        
         | duxup wrote:
         | I remember quitting HL2 at times because "man this is
         | depressing".
        
           | ant6n wrote:
           | A lot of it is quite beautiful.
        
             | stephen_g wrote:
             | Yeah I especially liked the section along the coast.
             | Beautiful, but hauntingly beautiful for a lot of it.
        
               | Clamchop wrote:
               | I never noticed on my own that the sea level at the
               | coasts is visibly much lower than it should be, because
               | the Combine have been stealing the water.
               | 
               | Such an interesting detail and I totally missed it!
        
             | mepian wrote:
             | My favorite spot is the final area of Water Hazard:
             | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJpGHDZSSt4
        
               | LeoPanthera wrote:
               | I love how each area has the color of the sky change to
               | simulate the passage of time getting closer to sunset as
               | you progress.
        
         | ReptileMan wrote:
         | >The bleakness of both Half Life 2
         | 
         | Its just Eastern Europe in the 80s and 90s.
        
           | brap wrote:
           | 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.
        
             | omnimus wrote:
             | Which town?
        
               | watt wrote:
               | Watch Viktor talk about Austerlitz station he used as
               | inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCjNT9qGjh4
        
             | ashoeafoot wrote:
             | Imagine a hl2 theme park
        
           | wave-function wrote:
           | 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.
        
             | mistrial9 wrote:
             | might be preferable to modern Los Angeles ?
        
               | ReptileMan wrote:
               | Different beasts. Eastern Europe was impoverished, the
               | malaise that is hurting the US cities is disorder.
        
             | xvilka wrote:
             | For this setting, there is even more depressive game -
             | Belong Nowhere[1]
             | 
             | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P4-4nK4RR0
        
           | Philpax wrote:
           | The Half-Life Wiki has a list of candidate cities that more
           | or less capture this: https://breezewiki.com/half-
           | life/wiki/City_17#Background_and...
        
           | techwiz137 wrote:
           | And in the 2020s too.
        
         | JeanMarcS wrote:
         | 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.
        
         | Dracophoenix wrote:
         | > The bleakness of both Half Life 2 and Dishonored's really
         | resonated with me.
         | 
         | You'll really resonate with Remedy's Control and the Metro
         | series if you haven't already played them.
        
           | jorvi wrote:
           | 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.
        
         | Mistletoe wrote:
         | "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference
         | in the world." -G-man
         | 
         | Thanks for making all the difference, Viktor.
        
           | boppo1 wrote:
           | Aww man I wasn't gonna cry but you got me tearin up now.
        
       | caseyy wrote:
       | One of the most prominent artists in games - unfortunate to hear
       | this news. I hope the conditions of the stressful and demanding
       | video game industry didn't contribute to this.
        
       | PicassoCTs wrote:
       | RIP: He left a trail of things to behold- and you knew he was
       | involved, long before the credits rolled.
        
       | movedx wrote:
       | His work and impact on both games is still fresh in my mind.
       | You'll be missed, Viktor. RIP.
        
       | eBombzor wrote:
       | That's sad. Dishonored 2 is one of the greatest games of all time
       | and there's truly nothing like that on the market anymore.
        
         | crest wrote:
         | It was a worthy successor building upon a great first game. The
         | map and world design is top notch. Especially the switching
         | between to interleaved time lines in the now abandoned manor
         | and moving walls in the crazy inventors mansion.
         | 
         | The chaos/karma system also functions as a good counterweight
         | to the "stealth archer" game design problem so player aren't
         | heavily incentivised toward clearing levels by separating
         | enemies and killing them one by one thereby removing all
         | obstacles until the emptied out game is nothing but a boring
         | walking simulator.
        
       | code-faster wrote:
       | He was great, he deserves, in death, no dishonor
        
       | ionwake wrote:
       | Good man thank you for your work
        
       | nntwozz wrote:
       | He's on the Borealis now, farewell o/
        
       | stevefan1999 wrote:
       | 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
        
       | boppo1 wrote:
       | Did he work on D2 or DOTO? Regardless, too soon. I feel this one.
        
       | phendrenad2 wrote:
       | Dishonored had such a unique style and setting. Head and
       | shoulders above the usual AAA slop set in generic sci-fi or
       | fantasy (or occasionally western) worlds.
        
       | SpaceManNabs wrote:
       | I was going through a rough time in my life when i got the orange
       | box as a freshman in high school.
       | 
       | half life 2 and team fortress 2 and the subsequent intro into the
       | source engine... i really needed them at that time.
       | 
       | Viktor dying makes me sad
        
       | LarsDu88 wrote:
       | I remember opening a copy of PC Gamer in the early 2000s. I was
       | totally taken aback that they had moved Half-Life from a sci fi
       | New Mexico base, to some sort of weird Eastern European dystopia.
       | 
       | It was all thanks to Antonov. And Half-Life 2 was (aesthetically)
       | so much more memorable than the first game thanks to that
       | influence.
        
       | leshokunin wrote:
       | Rest in peace. His work was monumental.
       | 
       | 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.
        
         | DanielHB wrote:
         | 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)
        
       | ipnon wrote:
       | He made true art! He made games for the ages. His work will be
       | enjoyed for hundreds of years.
        
       | IYasha wrote:
       | :_( What key should I press to pay respect? I think it might get
       | jammed though...
        
       | foxandmouse wrote:
       | I can't believe I didn't make the connection--both of those games
       | are in my top 10. A big part of why I love them is how deeply
       | immersive their worlds are. Dunwall and City 17 don't just look
       | great; they feel alive, with atmosphere, detail, and storytelling
       | woven into every corner. No other game has quite captured that
       | same level of immersion.
        
       | klik99 wrote:
       | Not only a great artist with a fantastic ability at creating a
       | unified feeling unique for each project, but also designing for
       | the constraints - so much of the combine look was around being
       | low poly and striking.
        
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       (page generated 2025-02-17 23:02 UTC)