Honest Opinion on Half-Life 2

[Halfling Rodeo]

Half-Life 2 is better than 90% of shooters, simply because:

1) It was designed for pc.
2) It has quick and manual saving.
3) It has no horrid quicktime events.

Features that are long gone since late 2000s.

No arguments here.
It is still nowhere near as good as the 90s classics though.

What do you consider to be the classics and what aspects of each do you think makes them Classics?

Doom(2) - Simple arcadey FPS with just the right balance of enemies and atmosphere to make a good solid dungeon crawl or a fast paced action game.
Duke 3D - Utter jank of a game but the original episode is some of the best FPS action ever. Leans heavily into the shotgun for it gun play being so good both used by and against you. A good mix of puzzles, exploration and combat.
Half-life - Well balanced adventure with fun to fight enemies. Probably the most flawed of the bunch because of it's story telling but once you're let off the hook the level design is basically everything Duke wanted to be but better.
Halo CE (2 years off but forgive me, it matters to the discussion) - Halo has many flaws but it's combat is far superior to almost every other FPS because Bungie designed enemies to be fun to kill. Grunts are threatening on mass, comedic and a constant skill challenge to head shot to preserve ammo on higher difficulties. Halo's Sandbox is unmatched in later games but Grunts are always an important part of the feel and it's a shame more boomer shooters don't take Halo's weak point system and enemy response to threats and incorporate them into the genre.
Quake 3 - It defines multiplayer shooters even to this day. It was the peak of arena shooters and the genre hasn't evolved much since.

Other classics like Quake 1 (too brown, disjointed enemy selection and rarely used well together) or Blood (hit scans pushed to 11) I don't think I would put on the classics list any more. If you play Half-life you get a very similar experience to Quake 1 because the engine is so close and many enemies function the same but better. They're not bad games and you should play them, but if I'm picking top 5 important games I would pick the above 5 for each doing something exceptionally well (Arcade FPS and atmosphere, Interaction and personality, Story telling, Enemy/sandbox/vehicle integration and peak of Multiplayer). Even if you don't like the game or think it sucks for whatever reason the aspects listed are pretty universal and can be respected on pure game design.

 

[NecroLord]

There's quite a lot of them, brother.
Doom 1 and 2, Quake, Half-Life, Blood, Shadow Warrior, Heretic, Hexen, etc.

 

[Morenatsu.]

quake 1 encounter design is fucking awesome stfu gaylofag

 

[JoacoN]

I say it's a pretty good game, but obv the overall gunplay and action aren't as good as hl1, and it has a lot more pacing issues due to filler chapters such as the intro being divided into 2 parts, black mesa east, and the streets section being too long with 3 chapters.
I think it did enviromental design better than hl1, NOT level design, I mean generally how places are constructed to make them feel connected, HL1 did this very well, but I think with HL2 being mostly outdoors makes it even more impressive how they managed to connect so many distinct looking places and how they managed to mantain crutches to the minimun (with the worst offenders being the teleport section after nova prospekt and the citadel being a railroaded section).
The whole section from the start of Ravenholm to the end of Nova Prospekt is my favourite section of the game, mostly from my love of the beach irl, so I really love the coastside aesthetics and how calmed it all feels, going through these once populated locations, now only infested with aliens and combine soldiers, having small skirmishes in small houses, and doing freefall platforming under the bridge are all highlights of the game to me.
The grav gun is awesome, and the Havok physic's engine supports the game extremely well, so those are 2 extra bonuses.
And I also just generally really enjoy how Source engine games look and the general player's movement that feels really comfortable.

I can't really compare it to most 90's or 2000's shooters cause I still got a long way to go before I experience a good amount to make more objective opinions, but in a purely subjective vision of what I enjoyed from it, I'm pretty happy and I like revisiting it from time to time.

 

[JoacoN]

As for the episodes, they're ok I guess, I like them a lot less than HL2 because of the lack of Antonov's influence in the art style, they feel much more clean and a little more stylised than base HL2, and the world feels a lot less dead, with stuff like episode 2 having completely fertile forests.
positives? episode 1 has a better citadel section than hl2 and the strider usage at the end is better than anything in the base game, and episode 2 had better driving, a cool vortiguant companion that was more fun than alyx, and the hunter's which make the physics engine shine a lot more than with most enemies.

 

[Morenatsu.]

HL2's world wasn't ever really that dead it's just autumn

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

HL2's world wasn't ever really that dead it's just autumn

All the horrific stuff Combine were doing to the planet was dropped from the story. We barely see them do anything but turn humans into drones.

 

[Morenatsu.]

HL2's world wasn't ever really that dead it's just autumn

All the horrific stuff Combine were doing to the planet was dropped from the story. We barely see them do anything but turn humans into drones.

Yeah all those things that got cut, such as Air Exchange and

 

[Saldrone]

 

[NecroLord]

Yeah, this is unfortunately pretty accurate.

 

[Morenatsu.]

yeah half-life 2 doesn't have zombies or headcrabs or turrets or antlions or barnacles or helicopters or mines or snipers or special hazards or anything like that

that ichthyosaur is literally hl2 btw

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Both games are p lame when it comes to the enemy cast. And I actually think marine/black ops encounters were the most memorable in HL1.

 

[Modron]

I don't remember a single encounter from HL1 besides the one with the marines immediately after getting the smg and riding up the elevator.

 

[lightbane]

Yeah, this is unfortunately pretty accurate.

That's unfair, there's also a lot of identical zombies, and often showing up in hordes, which makes their "uniform" stand out hilariously.

 

[NecroLord]

Both games are p lame when it comes to the enemy cast. And I actually think marine/black ops encounters were the most memorable in HL1.

On Hard difficulty they can cloak and become invisible, not to mention that they are fast and do high damage.

 

[Losus4]

Didn't like HL2 at all, the airboat section outstays its welcome by about 4 hours. Not only that, but they stick another long vehicle section is later. I found the constant NPC fawning over "You're Gordon Freeman" very tiring after the first few times let alone the dozenth. The first HL was a far more enjoyable FPS.

 

[NecroLord]

Didn't like HL2 at all, the airboat section outstays its welcome by about 4 hours. Not only that, but they stick another long vehicle section is later. I found the constant NPC fawning over "You're Gordon Freeman" very tiring after the first few times let alone the dozenth. The first HL was a far more enjoyable FPS.

I found Alyx to be way more annoying than everything else, really.
Half-Life 2 shouldn't have strayed so far from the design principles of the first game and also be a solo game, without Alyx or that bland squad mechanic you get later in the game after you escape from Nova Prospekt.

 

[seco]

Didn't like HL2 at all, the airboat section outstays its welcome by about 4 hours. Not only that, but they stick another long vehicle section is later. I found the constant NPC fawning over "You're Gordon Freeman" very tiring after the first few times let alone the dozenth. The first HL was a far more enjoyable FPS.

>all these newfags making accounts to shit on HL2
Mindbroken.
Did 4chan or other forum bully you so hard?

 

[Saldrone]

I don't get what you're trying to imply buddy.

 

[soutaiseiriron]

grr fucking newfags posting in a popular thread on the very top of general gaming about one of the most popular pc games of all time i hate when they do that

 

[seco]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DON'T MAKE FUN OF MY CIRCLEJERKERINO HL2 IS BAD AND I NEED TO FIT IN SO HARD UPVOTE PLEASE
IM GONNA REHASH THE SAME ARGUMENTS OVER AND OVER AND GONNA GET VALIDATION FROM STRANGERS IM TOO PUSSY TO TRY IN IMAGEBOARDS OR OTHER FORUMS BECAUSE THEY WILL DISAGREE WITH OR MAKE FUN OF ME
BTW MAKING THE 10000TH SEETHE HL2 THREAD AFTER THIS

 

[Morenatsu.]

I love on a rail

 

[Hag]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DON'T MAKE FUN OF MY CIRCLEJERKERINO HL2 IS BAD AND I NEED TO FIT IN SO HARD UPVOTE PLEASE
IM GONNA REHASH THE SAME ARGUMENTS OVER AND OVER AND GONNA GET VALIDATION FROM STRANGERS IM TOO PUSSY TO TRY IN IMAGEBOARDS OR OTHER FORUMS BECAUSE THEY WILL DISAGREE WITH OR MAKE FUN OF ME
BTW MAKING THE 10000TH SEETHE HL2 THREAD AFTER THIS

Care to explain why you believe HL2 is so great in your opinion instead of having a breakdown ?
Also we really need that "you seem upset" reaction.

 

[SlamDunk]

This thing still on?

*sigh*

Certified retards bashing Half-Life 2 as if it's a bad game, or something. The fact is that both games are great fun with different advantages and disadvantages.

End of thread.

 

[NecroLord]

This thing still on?

*sigh*

Certified retards bashing Half-Life 2 as if it's a bad game, or something. The fact is that both games are great fun with different advantages and disadvantages.

End of thread.

I made this thread with the intent of seeing just how well (or not) it was received by some of you here who played it.
It's certainly not an attempt to shit on the game that, yeah, still has its merits.
I'll gladly play HL2 over the shit that comes out of the industry nowadays.