Honest Opinion on Half-Life 2

[Morenatsu.]

80,000 dial-up and/or Geforce FX users?

 

[Hag]

Aye, they're full of shit. I don't know why people feel like they have to lie, who are they trying to kid?

The hype was unreal from day 0 when it was first revealed in PCZone magazine, to those high quality bink trailers that dominated download sites.
It killed any and all momentum Id and doom 3 had, and the beta client leak broke the internet and topsites.

It put ATi ahead of Nvidia in marketshare for the first and far as I know last time -because 97 and 9800's were the cards to play HL2 on.

It was so good that no other game in existence could have gotten us to accept the bullshit that was early steam.

I played it near release. I found it mildly entertaining and an overall slog, with a few great parts and many tiring ones. The gravity gun was a novelty that was never used to its full potential. Alyx was a PITA. There was no scenario whatsoever. It was looking good though.
As for Steam, I believe its wide adoption has more to do with Counter Strike than HL2.

HL2 and Doom 3 are the FPS equivalent of Morrowind and Oblivion. People with no FPS culture beforehand loved them and the other found them overrated. With the difference that Morrowind is actually good, of course.

 

[NecroLord]

If I had to pick between Half-Life 2 and Doom 3, I choose Doom 3.
Still fucking good, just a different kind of Doom. It strayed from the tried and true Doom formula, which irked people some.
Game is also really damn stable (that's one of the perks of having a guy like John Carmack do the programming). No crashes, bugs, etc

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

It strayed from the tried and true Doom formula, which irked people some.

A lot of kids played Doom keyboard only as a slow paced horror game back in the day. It deviates from modern Doom but it's quite accurate to many people's Doom 1/2 experience.

 

[seco]

>codex
>fps culture
Lmao.
This is truly the most pretentious forum.
Can't wait for other retarded takes of other genres.
Also no the game was loved on release, nice revisionism.
You fags have yet to answer to this
https://rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=11398

 

[Hagashager]

>codex
>fps culture
Lmao.
This is truly the most pretentious forum.
Can't wait for other retarded takes of other genres.
Also no the game was loved on release, nice revisionism.
You fags have yet to answer to this
https://rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=11398

What the fuck? How is Jedi Academy on that list in any way? And it's ranked higher than Outcast even!

Codex has shit taste.

 

[Semiurge]

It strayed from the tried and true Doom formula, which irked people some.

A lot of kids played Doom keyboard only as a slow paced horror game back in the day. It deviates from modern Doom but it's quite accurate to many people's Doom 1/2 experience.

Classic Doom single-play doesn't benefit from the mouse in any way. You can use mouse even in Wolfenstein 3D, but why on earth would you?

 

[Average Manatee]

Classic Doom single-play doesn't benefit from the mouse in any way. You can use mouse even in Wolfenstein 3D, but why on earth would you?

Faster and more precise mouse movement? Any doom wad released in the last 20 years is probably unplayable with pure keyboard,

If I had to pick between Half-Life 2 and Doom 3, I choose Doom 3.
Still fucking good, just a different kind of Doom. It strayed from the tried and true Doom formula, which irked people some.
Game is also really damn stable (that's one of the perks of having a guy like John Carmack do the programming). No crashes, bugs, etc

On release I would have chosen HL2, but nowadays Doom 3 is clearly better. I attempted replaying Doom 3 and HL2 a few months ago. Doom 3 was overall pretty good and I ended up finishing the expansion as well. HL2 I only got about an hour into before getting bored going through the motions.

 

[seco]

idfags especially doombabies have no taste in fps.

 

[Semiurge]

Faster and more precise mouse movement?

Yeah, but there's no map in existence that needs it with single-play. With Quake and others that have some z-axis gameplay it helps more, but again I do just fine with the keyboard alone.

 

[Morenatsu.]

The choice is between one of the most samey, predictable, over-long shooters ever, and Half-Life 2.

I don't know, I only played it once a decade ago, was Doom 3 particularly hard at all?

Classic Doom single-play doesn't benefit from the mouse in any way. You can use mouse even in Wolfenstein 3D, but why on earth would you?

The manual says you should use mouse and keyboard. I also played Wolfenstein with mouse, too, and it was fine. Yes I used turning on both mouse and keyboard at the same time. Real question is why would I play the game at all to begin with

I played it near release. I found it mildly entertaining and an overall slog, with a few great parts and many tiring ones. The gravity gun was a novelty that was never used to its full potential. Alyx was a PITA. There was no scenario whatsoever. It was looking good though.

so whats its full potential. can you explain that

Alyx in the original HL2 (NOT THE EPISODES) barely interacts with you for most of the game and only shows up to make you play tower defence

What does no scenario mean. doom has a scenario no reason hl2 cant

 

[Lemming42]

Mouse control in Wolf3D/Doom is fine, I dunno what people are talking about. Moving forward and backward with the mouse in Wolf3D is the best way to play since you can control your exact speed, and when you go into strafe mode, you can quickly pop out from behind cover.

It only feels weird if you compare it to mouselook shooters from the late 90s onwards, but if you compare it to dungeon crawlers of the era then it's pretty intuitive.

 

[Semiurge]

The manual says you should use mouse and keyboard.

They must've been thinking of the "Can I play, daddy?" crowd.

 

[Morenatsu.]

The manual says you should use mouse and keyboard.

They must've been thinking of the "Can I play, daddy?" crowd.

https://www.starehry.eu/download/action3d/docs/Doom-Manual.pdf

TIP: When you're comfortable playing the game, try using the keyboard and the mouse simultaneously.

Gee why did they word it that way I wonder

SOPT troalling!

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

Alyx in the original HL2 (NOT THE EPISODES) barely interacts with you for most of the game and only shows up to make you play tower defence

Alyx is in most story scenes and tries to make funny one liners which never land. She will stand talking to you when it's an emergency and you need her to open the fucking door.

Real question is why would I play the game at all to begin with

You don't seem to like any good games. Maybe Farmvilles more your speed?

It only feels weird if you compare it to mouselook shooters from the late 90s onwards, but if you compare it to dungeon crawlers of the era then it's pretty intuitive.

Playing Doom like a dungeon crawler is an interesting perspective. I never considered it that way before but it's exactly what we were doing as kids. I think we played on hurt me plenty and I remember the maze in one of the early shareware maps with pinkies in it to be especially scary. And trying to do the final boss of Doom 2 by cheating to it and the PC lagging so fucking hard.

 

[Morenatsu.]

Alyx in the original HL2 (NOT THE EPISODES) barely interacts with you for most of the game and only shows up to make you play tower defence

Alyx is in most story scenes and tries to make funny one liners which never land. She will stand talking to you when it's an emergency and you need her to open the fucking door.

(NOT THE EPISODES)

She's most present for only one chapter, and most of that is spent not being around you except when it's time for a not-cutscene. In which case complaining about her makes no sense because you're really just saying you hate watching the story, in which case you should just stop trying to replay the game lmao. Rest of the game is made up of relatively drawn-out sections of mostly gameplay, which is will never be acknowledged here unless it's to complain about vehicles.

The typical complaints towards HL2 only really make sense when applied to the Episodes, where Alyx follows you everywhere while you complete self-contained combat encounters interleaved with physics and dialogue rest areas with forced gravity gun usage. The design in HL2 is more loose and overall much closer to HL1 than that.

Either way I'll take it over those crummy games that would constantly take the camera away from you whenever anything happened.

Real question is why would I play the game at all to begin with

You don't seem to like any good games. Maybe Farmvilles more your speed?

It's Wolfenstein 3D. It's just a maze game. Not much to it other than it being the first.

 

[Average Manatee]

Either way I'll take it over those crummy games that would constantly take the camera away from you whenever anything happened.

In those games you press esc to skip cutscenes. In HL2 you piss your life away. What good is camera controls when you have nothing to do with it? Short of installing Alyx nude mods, nothing.

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

In which case complaining about her makes no sense because you're really just saying you hate watching the story, in which case you should just stop trying to replay the game lmao. Rest of the game is made up of relatively drawn-out sections of mostly gameplay, which is will never be acknowledged here unless it's to complain about vehicles.

Just off the top of my head.

Alyx opening the vending machine door
Alyx and the teleporter sequence
Alyx and Dog basketball tutorial
Alyx and Nova prospekt teleporting
Alyx in the citadel

She's in a lot more than 1 chapter. And the episodes need to be considered for how she is constantly annoying you making her an annoying person in the first game on top of built up resentment for Valve forcing her down your throat for 10 hours.

 

[Morenatsu.]

Alyx opening the vending machine door
Alyx and the teleporter sequence

Both are part of the same mega-cutscene

Alyx and Dog basketball tutorial

Another story-only chapter

Alyx in the citadel

Another big scripted cutsequence

These aren't Alyx moments, they're just story moments. Featuring all the characters. So basically what you're saying is you just hate the character's existence. (How dare I twist your words)

Alyx and Nova prospekt teleporting

This is the only part of the game where she has frequent appearances and some presence during actual combat. The generator plaza later on also counts but that's a single level out of many.

Overall, in terms of actual impact on gameplay, all Alyx does is run up the stairs too fast and stand around typing. The Episodes do constantly pause to have her talk but those aren't HL2 so you can't copypaste your complaints from them onto the original. Like what if I said:

Barney joking about beer
Kleiner using a retinal scanner
Barney dropping a crowbar on your head
Woman puts gas in your boat
Mossman's wild elevator ride
Vortigaunt bugbait tutorial
Dog fights stuff

That's just a list of things that happened in (what would be cut-)scenes. All those characters suck because they stopped my game and I'll never forgive them. Never mind the long sections of gameplay between them.

 

[Gambler]

What is your honest opinion on Half-Life 2? Is it better than the original? Is it guilty of opening the way for scripted cinematic bullshit in FPS games?

I didn't like HL2 all that much originally. Didn't bother to play Episodes when they came out. The game was (and still is) overhyped.

I've replayed it after finishing HL: Alyx and finally played the episodes. I enjoyed it much more the second time around. Valve did an excellent job constructing a believable techno-fascist setting. It was easier to appreciate that when I saw some of the same stuff appear in real life. The goons, the propaganda posters, the fatherly figure of Dr. Breen on countless screen, etc. In 2020 that didn't look nearly as "science fictiony" as it did in 2004. Plus, HL: Alyx made me more interested in the setting for its own sake. Combine is one of the most interesting and colorful enemy factions in computer games overall. Of course, it's almost certain that a lot of the "mystery" around them is just developers making stuff as the go. Nevertheless, there are a lot of nice touches there.

Generally, I liked fighting alongside various allies and also fighting against striders and gunships. I disliked the approach of introducing some new gimmick into the game and then forcing the player to use that gimmick for the next 30 minutes. I hated the hoverboat. Too cheesy.

After finishing the episodes, I re-played some of HL1. It's a totally different game. I don't mean the obvious fact that it mostly takes place in a research facility. It uses an entirely different game formula. More of a pure shooter with extra narrative bits. I bailed about 1/3d way through. These days I'm not particularly interested in pure single-player shooters.

 

[jebsmoker]

80,000 dial-up and/or Geforce FX users?

i had a compaq presario that had a 5200 fx; i bought half life 2 on release and played it on... low to medium settings

it was tolerable, but i envied anyone who had a high end ati 9800 pro at the time

 

[Beastro]

You all loaded your pants when you saw the gravity gun.

HL2 had more systems built for it alone than any other game, except maybe Crysis.

Half of these didn't play Half-Life 2 when it was still new, which is why they can't appreciate its significance. Some codexers weren't even born yet when it came out 20 years ago. It didn't take long for other games to adopt the same mechanics and ideas that are still a staple today.

Half-Life 2 in 2004 was like Wolfenstein 3D in 1992. They had people playing with mouths agape.

Nah, those people are the ones who will tell you all FPS besides a random Doom sourceport are all shit, even though they are 19 years old.

I recall perfectly what playing Half-Life 2 was like, it was exactly like what playing through Thief 2: The Metal Age was like, a strong initial adrenaline rush of playing your favorite game with some improvements, that burned out before the game was even over, leaving behind a bad aftertaste, a feeling that something is missing compared to the previous game.

I agree with this except for the Thief 2 comparison, but I'm someone that can't get enough of the Thief games.

 

[Hag]

so whats its full potential. can you explain that

Alyx in the original HL2 (NOT THE EPISODES) barely interacts with you for most of the game and only shows up to make you play tower defence

What does no scenario mean. doom has a scenario no reason hl2 cant

The gravity gun is used for a couple puzzles, Ravenholm and such sections. But I wanted to dispatch combine with it, use it as a real weapon of murder, and revel in complex fights. I wanted to throw enemies at my enemies and enemies onto the sky and kill them with bricks onto the head. Like in the level at the end where it is your only way to fight so it actually becomes old after five minutes.
Alyx barely interacts indeed, she's some kind of dead weight you have to carry around until the script says so. She is there only to show off the engine, she doesn't bring ANY help to the player. Nor entertainment. And that's worth for all PNJ : good looking, but useless and boring to the extreme. Nothing made me care about the rebellion at all, nothing made me want to save the Earth. They all act like some Prozac-laden drones with switchable personality. If anything, the bad guys were more interesting, because Breen has a personality at all (albeit shitty), and the traitor girl is a milf in a turtleneck so more points in my book.

And the story... Doom has a scenario of "kill the demons kthxbye" that works because the weapons are great and the encounters are great and the levels are great (Doom 1-2) or at least serviceable (Doom 3).
Half-Life 1 has a story of "Reach reactor lambda" that works because the weapons are good, the encounters are great and the levels are good. Plus reaching the reactor is a huge relief that feels like a real achievement.
HL2 has a story of "Hmm, do something about the Earth Gordon" that doesn't work because the weapons are shitty, the encounters are bland and the levels are all slightly too long. Plus there is no real closure, the end is one long sequence where you don't do anything. Yeah.

 

[NecroLord]

Alyx is annoying.

 

[Morenatsu.]

The gravity gun is used for a couple puzzles, Ravenholm and such sections. But I wanted to dispatch combine with it, use it as a real weapon of murder, and revel in complex fights. I wanted to throw enemies at my enemies and enemies onto the sky and kill them with bricks onto the head. Like in the level at the end where it is your only way to fight so it actually becomes old after five minutes.
Alyx barely interacts indeed, she's some kind of dead weight you have to carry around until the script says so. She is there only to show off the engine, she doesn't bring ANY help to the player. Nor entertainment. And that's worth for all PNJ : good looking, but useless and boring to the extreme. Nothing made me care about the rebellion at all, nothing made me want to save the Earth. They all act like some Prozac-laden drones with switchable personality. If anything, the bad guys were more interesting, because Breen has a personality at all (albeit shitty), and the traitor girl is a milf in a turtleneck so more points in my book.

And the story... Doom has a scenario of "kill the demons kthxbye" that works because the weapons are great and the encounters are great and the levels are great (Doom 1-2) or at least serviceable (Doom 3).
Half-Life 1 has a story of "Reach reactor lambda" that works because the weapons are good, the encounters are great and the levels are good. Plus reaching the reactor is a huge relief that feels like a real achievement.
HL2 has a story of "Hmm, do something about the Earth Gordon" that doesn't work because the weapons are shitty, the encounters are bland and the levels are all slightly too long. Plus there is no real closure, the end is one long sequence where you don't do anything. Yeah.

You can use it whenever you have stuff to throw and does a pretty good job of killing people that way. Admittedly the later city levels don't give as much to use with it, but the weapon itself is fine. I find 'this weapon should be the most awesomest weapon of all times, i want it to nuke all the combines because thats so kewl' to be really stupid (unless it had very limited ammo or something).

Also no surprise that someone who refuses to pay attention to the dialogue while he hides in the corner boring himself to death has no idea what the scenario is supposed to be. Like maybe if you watched the scenes for once you'd be slightly less bored or something idk