Codex Opinions on Half Life 2?

[Gragt]

Well the gravity gun is fun and rather useful. It also makes Ravenholm too easy because it gives you an infinite source of ammo. Nice to quickly pick up a grenade and send it back or other stuff like that. That said, if I'm close to the grenade I expect to be able to simply use my hands to do that.

 

[DefJam101]

Gameplay is mostly boring. Player and enemies absorb far too many shots before dying. Guns feel weak. Gunplay feels awkward.

Game is relatively long. Level design is so-so. Levels lack memorable set pieces because the combat is so awkward and they drag on for too long.

Story and characters are nonexistent. Game generally fails to build atmosphere outside of a few select areas (Ravenholm sorta, Nova Prospekt sorta).

Graphics are pretty good but lack grit; everything is so goddamn monotone it's just fucking depressing. Not as bad as, say, F.E.A.R., but still rather bad.

Music is good overall but used sparingly.


Basically, HL2 has shit pacing. Redeeming features? Yeah, lots of 'em, but the game is just so fucking boring to play. It's almost like Valve forgot they were making a shooter...

 

[MDH]

Agree with defjam... why do people love HL2 so much. Pretty physics and graphics in 2004. I get it already.

 

[praetor]

banal.

shit.

boring.

 

[deuxhero]

Gameplay is awful. The episodes at least had interesting commentary feature.

 

[Cassidy]

It is to Half-Life what Thief III is to the predecessors, except it lacks much in highlights. In truth it was among the forefathers of the "cinematic" shooters that ruined the genre.

Basically an average to mediocre game that was covered in hype during its release.

 

[Reject_666_6]

Fun game. Play it once.

 

[Jezal_k23]

It is quite fun and worth playing through. Sure the story is weird (and most of the stuff hasn't even been explained yet, ep3 hopefully?) but most of what you see in the game is actually pretty well written (such as Breen's monologues).

Voice acting and atmosphere are the highlights I think. Other than that it's really simple and similar to Half Life.

 

[Jezal_k23]

Yeah, if there's one thing that everyone can agree upon is that the voice acting of HL2 is pretty excellent generally.

Also, don't forget to play the first time through on "hard". The game is retardedly easy on normal. In fact I generally have no problem with it even on hard.

 

[Felix]

Got bored half way through.

 

[Gragt]

Got bored half way through.

Looks like your interest for this game was …





half-lived.

 

[Jaesun]

Play until you get to the Pick up the can moment, un-install it, then play Half Life.

 

[DraQ]

Great game, but one step further and you're into dumbed down territory. It's located at the very border of the non-retarded continent.

Also:

(such as Breen's monologues)

Some of the best things of the game. Breen is a p. good character and his voice acting is excellent.

Pretty much this.

I was annoyed by lack of variety in terms of weapons and enemies as well as some retarded or gimmicky stuff (LEDnades, floaty-beepy bombs, pattern attack boss, Gordon's damage resistance, lengthy gimmick sections), but as a whole it was surprisingly fun and solid. Also, unlike most games today it used physics and had really good faces and facial anims.

Linear, cinematic FPS, sure, but still more of an FPS than cinematic, and not nearly as linear as, say, Unreal 2. Sure, HL1 was better, but HL2 is still good enough.

 

[el Supremo]

HL2 is by no means the best FPS game ever. That honour befalls on the first Riddick. HL2 though holds the solid, second place.

I do know it is cool to gain sophisticated image by bashing the masterpiece, but the one thing that HL did not is: it did not disapoint the fans of the first HL, fans waiting for years for this to come out:

http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=82907&sid=b1bcb8069e0612c4b99ced39ae6dd4a6

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

It's the epitome of the rollercoaster FPS games, but those are a watered-down version of FPS. I played it to the end which is more than I can say for most games, so I rate it good for what it is.

 

[deuxhero]

Breen's VA died last year, so we aren't getting any more of that cool stuff.

 

[Gragt]

Meh, Breen had some fun speeches but does that make it a good character? There are hints of something decent but he got so little screen time that they are just that. None of the characters in HL2 + episodes is actually developped past the superficial.

 

[racofer]

As Skyway once wrote:

Episode 2 with the "ride for two"-stuff from '80s on-the-road comedy movies made me want to kill that bitch. And did those combine guys make my wish come true - but unfortunately and predictably she was saved by teh alien magik. And just to think that Valve wanted to make her a player character in Episodes...

The Gman, the Combine, Vortigaunts, everything, alone making no sense, together they can possibly help explain one another (ranging from comments made by Dr. Breen to Vortigaunts hunting Advisors).

Uh huh - considering that not long before the game's release Valve cut out nearly 1/3 of the game, including very cool looking levels (some of which they now put in Episodes).
http://www.hlfallout.net/forums/index.p ... opic=51266

Fucking Valve:

This bit was meant to be very cool - people were playing a video game where they hunted down criminals - except in reality they were controlling those bees and killing real people without knowing it - it is a reference to some Philip K. Dick book iirc

Incredibly atmospheric cut out part from Ravenholm. Reminds me of that Undying atmosphere

Tower stealing air

Aliens were originally meant to be draining Earth's oceans

some cool concept art:

The Consul office

The factory where slaving kids would've constructed parts for semi-organic combine technology.

HL2 is okay, but it could've been so much more.

 

[TripJack]

I liked it. But then again I really don't see what is so great about HL1, which is mediocre at best.

Biggest problem with HL 2 is how easy it is.

 

[Jezal_k23]

Just want to clarify that the Combine are indeed sucking up the natural resources of the planet. That's why the waterline is so low on Highway 17.

 

[DraQ]

As Skyway once wrote:

*snip*

HL2 is okay, but it could've been so much more.

There are many things that should have made it into HL2, but didn't, starting with actual weapon and enemy variety.
OTOH, Valve has incredible talent for coming up with all kinds of stuff, including completely retarded shit, then filtering it so that most of the completely retarded shit gets thrown out.
Remember mr. friendly? Maybe you'd prefer gonarch to be more recognizable in terms of what inspired it?
Similarly, I'm glad that aliens stealing our oshuns were, if not removed, then at least moved out of sight - invading alien civilization to steal their water would make as much sense as Bedouins attacking some oasis to steal the sand.

 

[Jasede]

Boring, terrible. The final nail in the coffin of the FPS genre.

 

[Obsidian Squid]

I thought it was decent, but if you've played one FPS you've pretty much played them all.

 

[Winter Ale]

With all of the responses,

Thanks, guys.

And thanks for the feedback about the previously posted thread.

Aah, Codex.

You know, I started this poll and it was that set of incredible graphics, the wonderful immersion that did it for me... Every time that they did something that struck me as gawdawfully dumb as Emil's Fallout 3 Child City, I'd just come right straight out of the spell.

Gaming goodness of about an hour, maximum.

Thanks, and wishing well to the folks who loved the thing. Thanks. But oh man, how we disagree.