Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.
"This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.
I remember getting through the original HL without any need to look up walkthroughs back in '98 but when I tried Black Mesa I had to constantly jump online for hints - they seemed to manage a very good job at concealing the right way to progress forward with tiny little side exits and so on (or alternatively, my gaming brain has calcified somewhat). Interested to see if the new engine they're talking about is indeed Source 2, although frankly I'd rather see a new game released than a remake of HL.
WTF is all this fuss about HL. Seriously, it's just a painfully mediocre FPS. I got totally bored somewhere in the middle of HL2 and quit, never to return.
WTF is all this fuss about HL. Seriously, it's just a painfully mediocre FPS. I got totally bored somewhere in the middle of HL2 and quit, never to return.
Yes, I can see that. All of the games these days that include:
- Very fast movement speed.
- Over a dozen enemies which all act completely differently. Only one generic army enemy, the rest are all weird aliens with unique methods of movement and attack, and even the generic army enemy has good grenade AI and is quite deadly.
- Over a dozen different weapons, almost all of them vastly different in how you use them rather than being a dozen reskins of generic assault rifles with minor stat differences.
- Rocket jumping and other associated jumping techniques.
- Areas and enemies that emphasize mobility.
- Minimal plot interruption of gameplay outside of introduction to the game world, and virtually no cutscenes.
- Puzzles that make sense in the environment rather than being a random shoe-in that makes no contextual sense.
- A large spread of environments, including a low-grav world.
- A fairly challenging level of difficulty.
Someone else tell me if I've missed any of the horrible atrocities that HL1 has inflicted upon the FPS genre.
You could argue that Counterstrike was what screwed the FPS genre and HL1 was the origin of that. Dunno if that was your point
Yes, I can see that. All of the games these days that include:
- Very fast movement speed.
- Over a dozen enemies which all act completely differently. Only one generic army enemy, the rest are all weird aliens with unique methods of movement and attack, and even the generic army enemy has good grenade AI and is quite deadly.
- Over a dozen different weapons, almost all of them vastly different in how you use them rather than being a dozen reskins of generic assault rifles with minor stat differences.
- Rocket jumping and other associated jumping techniques.
- Areas and enemies that emphasize mobility.
- Minimal plot interruption of gameplay outside of introduction to the game world, and virtually no cutscenes.
- Puzzles that make sense in the environment rather than being a random shoe-in that makes no contextual sense.
- A large spread of environments, including a low-grav world.
- A fairly challenging level of difficulty.
Someone else tell me if I've missed any of the horrible atrocities that HL1 has inflicted upon the FPS genre.
You could argue that Counterstrike was what screwed the FPS genre and HL1 was the origin of that. Dunno if that was your point
Scripted events were already a thing in Unreal too, a game everyone seems to love. Half-Life used scripts in very sublime and creative ways, it didn't diminish the game itself in any way, unlike Medal of Honor and all that other big publisher dreck that wanted to jump on the Saving Private Ryan wagon.
A lot of that depends on the context of what a script actually does to a game. Doors in DOOM are scripted to open up when you walk past an invisible line on the floor.
Emphasis on story? wat? The story in HL1 boils down to Doom except we're underground on earth rather than on Mars and the enemies are Aliens rather than Demons. HL2 is what started the emphasis on story shit, with NPCs constantly wasting time and a villian who constantly melodramizes in front of you.
Generic weapons? It's one of the least generic equipment loadouts you can find in a game that isn't going full-silly like Duke3D.
Levels aren't really drastically linear, you can find many "good" FPS of the time with similar linearness.
That's HL2. HL1 has almost none of the "cutscene masquerading as not-a-cutscene" bullshit.
This is why Half Life was beginning of the end.
Wow, these boring box puzzles make sense in the environment! Much better than "non-immersive" puzzles that are actually good, right?
HL1 on Hard is moderately challenging if not one of the more difficult singleplayer games, especially Blue Shift and Opposing Force. What are you comparing it to that you think its easy?
HL2 is where Valve dropped the ball and made the whole thing a fucking carebear game.
See: FPSs before and after 9/11. Fucking terrorists taking away our games. Osama Bin Laden invented modern FPS.
Only half joking here, the war on terror is probably the biggest reason why modern shooters with "realism" took off, and the influx of casuals is responsible for the dumbing down as a whole.