Replayed Half Life 2. Blew me away.

So, I just re-installed Half Life 2 yesterday, early in the morning and started playing the game once again. I was blown away after realizing that how well this game holds up even today, in pretty much every department.

The atmosphere, storytelling, characterization, pacing, gunplay, controls, writing, ending, everything is just fantastic. Now I can't stop myself from playing Half Life 2: Episode 1 and Episode 2 once again as well, so I am going to start playing them tomorrow as I wait for my Doom's copy to arrive because I don't want to leave the world of Half Life 2 and want to stay inside it. That's how well executed Half Life 2 series and its world really is.

I've played many story driven Single Player FPS in my life, and TBH Half Life 2 is still the best the genre has to offer. The game really shows hard work of extremely talented people at (old) Valve. The game also makes me extremely sad how Valve doesn't make games like these anymore. It's a masterpiece.

Did you play Half Life 2 when it first came out and still play/like it? Have you played it long after its release? What are your thoughts about it?

I've played it, and didn't care for it.

I disagree. The gunplay was crap in 2004, and it's still crap today. I loved the game for it's atmosphere, story and characters, but the gunplay really irritated me with it's lack of punch of sheer blandness.

Played it a few times back in the day. Good game. I should also give it another shot. See how it holds up.

Got it around release but never managed to finish it. It's really that boring. I absolutely loved the first one but just couldn't get into 2. Tried it several times through the years but I think I never got past Ravenholm before losing interest. It's still on my to-do list and one day I will finish it. Maybe it gets better.

It is a work of art, and the Episodes even more so. A lot of games do one or two things better than Half-Life 2, but few games do everything as good as Half-Life 2 does everything. The atmosphere and immersion, story telling, character development. I think Alyx Vance is likely my favorite female game character of all time.

When I reminisce about it, I get stuck in one of those "No, this is my favorite. But what about that part? That was amazing too!" and pretty much every time I recall a level, moment, or encounter I literally cannot think of a bad one. Ravenholm...the prison...even the buggy (the vehicle, not coding problems :D ) parts on the shores.

I really, really, really do not understand why they won't finish the series. Or maybe they have?...

It's still my favourite game of all time... it's just brilliant. I reckon I've played it at least 10 times over the years, and I never get sick of it. For a game that came out in 2004, it holds up incredibly well I think.

Man it makes me want to play it again, but I don't have a gaming PC anymore or my 360. Really hope it comes to XB1 BC.

Love it. I originally had the Xbox version (by God that was a shit port) but finished most of it. Replayed it on the PC years later, then bought The Orange Box for 360. Gonna be buying HL 2 soon again for my PC.

I absolutely loved HL2, the atmosphere was pretty amazing back then and I was really digging the physics based playground they put you in the time. Ravenholm was a standout area for me, i cant remember how many times I replayed that area for how tense and fun it turned out to be. It's still one of my favorites and I would certainly play it again (especially the episodes)!

I enjoyed what I had played of it years ago. I was thinking the other month, it might be nice to try to get and play through HL2 since it's so highly-acclaimed, but then there are lots of games I've enjoyed greatly over the years but have still to this day never completed.

Ravenholm, aka "that place with the terrifying headcrab infestation" aka "Sawblades and Fire"

That place was so spooky. Loved the preacher character, even if he was short lived.

I played it for the first time maybe a month or so ago and was really impressed with it given its age. It was a lot of fun and visually pleasing as well. I can't say I was into or followed the story as much as I wanted to. So I don't quite get the fuss with that aspect of the game, but everything else is pretty much amazing.

HL2 is one of the greatest games ever for sure. I am so glad that 4A Games continues that style of FPS with the Metro Series. Metro Last Light in particular is exceptional. Resistance 3 on PS3 is also a similar style of FPS. We need more games like these.

Funny you say that matey, I've been playing Resident 4, which is a great game, but anything involving Ashley is terrible, almost the sole blight on the game.

Aside from being an actual likable character, the Alyx Vance cooperation sections, particularly Episode 1's darkness sequence are far superior.

Yeah I agree. Episode 1 builds up her character really well.

I played it fairly recently. Didn't much care for it. It has its moments and its strengths but overall I found myself bored and frustrated with the game.

The respawning enemies, the puzzles - and just the general tedium - no thanks.

I got up to this part where these massive spider things appear - and there seemed to be some sort of bug that just made them keep coming and coming. The fact that I'm not very motivated to try to get around that bug speaks volumes.

Overrated.

Visually it is nice but the staging of the shootouts are Doom level of bad.

I loved riding that buggy in the desert to that building out in middle of nowhere near a cliff.

Memories man great game.

Really want Half-life 3

Likeable? Alyx is awful, worst character in any game ever for sure. Ruins the game and especially the episodes for me whenever she's around.

It's not a bug. They spawn when you step on the sand. The game tells you this a million times.

@employee427: She's generally commented on as one of the best examples of a companion character

Her personality and completely unrealistic expressions makes me want to barf. You want a good companion character, l4d zoey.

@employee427: Zoey is a playable character I.e. main...

She's still the best

Alyx's character is awesome. Not only that but she is very effective during combat, that alone makes her better than most useless NPCs that are either completely useless (like RE games) or their aiming suck.

She's horrible in combat, she almost never kills anything and you have to save her most of the time.

Nah bro, I'm playing Half Life 2 Episode One right now, and I can't count how many enemies she has killed so far already and I just reached the area where you encounter couple of "Zombines" for the first time (40-50 minutes into the game).

lol.

hl2 was / is a masterpiece. so much to praise it / thank it for. definitely a game that you needed to be around for at launch to fully appreciate though. even its weak aspects weren't too bad (although your "resistance squad" npcs who kept bumping into you and getting in your way "sorry dr freeman / better reload doc" were f*ckin annoying). the vehicle sections did drag a little and control a little funkily and the gunplay was a little weak but nothing worth really complaining about. games like cod, pacific assault, halo, painkiller, doom 3 and far cry were reasonable but fear was still a year away. plus hl2 did at least give us the gravity gun and pheropods. controlling an antlion army was f*ckin awesome.

one of gaming's greatest disappointments / mysteries is why valve have never made an episode 3 / hl3

They are making it...

you'd imagine so but people have been waiting for news since 07. that's nearly 9 years ago. the latest i heard is it'll be a vr game released in 2018. show me anything other than hearsay, speculation or anecdotal evidence that proves it's definitely coming and i'll believe you

/r/halflife

@employee427: so your proof is the reddit sub?

Ask around.

@ProtossRushX: I really liked the boat section with the helicopter, it's a great prolonged chase sequence.

I like everything about this game except the puzzles like moving boxes around to get across a water section with the gravity gun. Favorite part was arranging the turrets around in the prison level and fighting off all those enemies.

i did in this thread and ended up chatting with some know nothing tit spouting vague shit

No, no. I mean those mechanical things with really long legs. [It's a known bug - and there's probably ways around it but as I said - the fact that I can't be bothered shows how much I care for the game - not much!]

Also, don't get your hopes up for hl3 anytime soon. They make more money from all that Dota stuff...

You mean striders? They're supposed to keep appearing, you have to walk through the level to the other side.

Yet it's in development.

Oh well. I have all the games but never played one for more than 30 minutes. I guess I should give it another try then.

Half Life 2 is one of those rare games which i`ll hardly forget. It really has few flaws, like NPCs getting in da way, everything else is simply outstanding for me. I don`t think we`ll get something in FPS genre so unique anytime soon, maybe the new Deus Ex, which i can`t wait for.

i played it when it first came out also. Thought it was really boring. I remember quitting the game at the place where you drive this awful controlling watercraft thing, i couldn't believe how crappy and linear that level was and quit right there.

Eh, it was an okay game. Kinda overrated, I suppose.

@thereal25: Wow, hate to break it to you, but you just suck at games lol. That wasn't a bug, you have to get across that area without touching the sand, actually really liked that part of the game.

And yeah it's overrated haha, people from all over consider it to be one of the top games of all time, but we'll take your word on it being overrated even though a simple concept in the game (don't touch the sand) confused you so much. Thanks for the laugh.

Half-life is influential, regardless of opinion, it's objectively not overrated.

I love everything about the game up to, and including, Highway 17. From Sandtraps to Nova Prospekt and Entanglement, the game goes downhill, and after that (Anticitizen One and beyond), the game is just awful in my opinion. I particularly dislike the "Follow Freeman" chapter and thought the ending was a joke.

For me, the moment when Half-Life 2 becomes really good is in Episode 2, which is one of my favorite expansions/DLCs ever. I thought the Magnusson Devices were absolutely brilliant, because they made Striders fun to engage in combat with.

For all the praise that HL2 gets I was really not all that impressed with it. But I didn't play it when it was first released. At the time of its launch it was one of the best if not the best shooter on the market. I think I would have enjoyed it more had i played HL1 first. Which I still have yet to do. I can see the appeal though. Half life is to some people what Halo is to other people.

Loved it one of the best games of all-time.

Sorry for the confusion but I was referring to that part where you first encounter "striders", shortly after you get the rocket launcher.

... I think sometimes people say something (be it a book, a movie, a game) is good if everyone else is saying so.

Half life 2 was born in a time when there wasn't much competition in terms of AAA games and they just happened to have a huge budget and they utilized TONS of advertising.

It's definately a "critics game" because it has all the bells and whistles... the story, the innovation, the unprecedented graphics, the "physics-based" puzzles...

But was it really that fun? I, along with many others (that can think for themselves) would say no.

Doom 3 was released at a similar time, and in my opionion it's better than hl2. Holds up better in today's times too (bfg edition).

And you know what's better again? F.E.A.R. --- released only about a year later.

Marketing and competition has nothing to do with it. It's just your opinion. I played Half Life 2 after playing FEAR and I still consider Half Life 2 to be best story driven FPS out there. It's just the matter of preference.

Back in December, (2015) I recently started replaying Half-Life 2 in co-op via Synergy. It hasn't aged too well. The physics were awesome at the time but by today's standards they're pretty wonky. Also, the long unskippable dialog sections were fun the first time but they beg you to not play the game a second time since you're just standing around going "come on already, I know the story, let me play but you'll get the idea. I can't say I have a personal best FPS of All Time. I could make a list of the best FPS series but I don't think I could pick a single winner. They all have their own flavors and could all be the best for different reasons. Wolfenstein, Doom, Half-Life, GoldenEye/Perfect Dark, NOLF... Heck, I'd have a hard time just picking through the Build Engine games.