Half life 2 overrated?

so true, it sucks that valve had to release part 3 as epsiodic content, which though beneficial in its own right , i would rather have a single combined game as HL 3 naval

The episodes aren't HL3

HL2 IS a great game but it has SO WEAK combat that you can't call it the best FPS of all time. FPS are about shooting through first person and then you can do cool storytelling through first person too but the combat is still central. I don't want a game to be like a movie I want a game to be all that a game could be

Post

Mankyblobs

/\ That is probably the worst critism ive read. What a waste of time.

Half Life was never a free roaming game. It was never designed to be. Just because Valve offers you to view the scope of the enviroment, doesent mean it isnt freeroaming.

Jeez if you hate that so much, then you are going to spontaneously combust if you play Halo 3 singleplayer.

"he first half-life had all kinds of vehicle madness" What M1A1s, bradelys and Apaches?

I'd take striders any day.

Sig its obvius you just dont 'get' Half Life 2 and it doesent suit your personal tastes. All your grievances are very trivial

HL2 IS a great game but it has SO WEAK combat that you can't call it the best FPS of all time. FPS are about shooting through first person and then you can do cool storytelling through first person too but the combat is still central. I don't want a game to be like a movie I want a game to be all that a game could be

kyrieee

It is much more intense than many other shooters out there. Actually almost all other shooters.

There is nothing special about HL2's combat. You have a gravity gun that made you throw physics. It was the was first game to have this feature, but it is just being copied by other developers because it is cool, not because it is innovative.

True_Blu3

"Throwing stuff" isn't innovative but using physics to interact with the game world is. The way the gravity gun allowed for immersion into the world is creative and innovative. If you could think it, you could do it.

Also, HL2's gameplay is out-dated by all means. You can carry a crap load of weapons, there is no left-handed grenades throws, and there are no melee attacks for your weapons. These three features were invented by Halo, and many shooters copy these features because of how they made shooters feel more fluid and made things easier.

for instance, instead of going through so much pain to take out a melee weapon, but can just press a button to smack a guy with your gun. Grenades were the same; you had to select grenades from your inventory while in combat. This, too, was painful

True_Blu3

Oh please, Halo is crap and didn't innovate at all in any way. Why does it matter what hand you throw a nade with? I haven't seen gravity-gun-propelled nade in any other game. In fact...I miss the gravity gun for its nade chucking ability when I play other games. The melee attack was thrown into Halo because of the limitations a gamepad provides. On a PC you can easily bind a key to switch to your melee weapon. On a gamepad there aren't enough buttons to provide that amount of control so they had to make it "easy" to get your melee out. Plus that way they didn't have to design any melee weapons.

Did I mention health? No, I did not, but let me go into detail with that. HL2's health is outdated too. If you have 2% health, it is inevitable to win. The only have two choices to get through this; Do the impossible or start over a level. Easy as that. FPSs today have different health systems to make up for that flaw.

True_Blu3

If you get down to 2% health in HL2 you should just stop gaming. In fact...if you can't beat a level on HL2 with 2% then you're doing something wrong. It's probably one of the easiest games ever made.

What FPSs have this everlasting health system that you speak of? Call of Duty 2 is the only one I can think of...and it sucks because there is no challenge to the game at all. That's why when you play online you have actual health instead of everlasting health.

Also, how does Gordon Freeman carry an RPG, crossbow, machine gun, pistol, assualt rifle, grenades, and a gravity gun? don't use the HEV suit as an excuse. A wimpy and useless suit cannot carry that much equipment, neither can the MJONR suit from Halo or the Nano Suit from Crysis.

True_Blu3

You could apply that statement to any and all FPSs. How did Jack Carver carry a sniper rifle, rocket launcher, deagle, and mp5 at the same time? How did whoever you are in FEAR carry multiple weapons? What about Quake 4? Etc...Etc...Etc...

The only thing that HL2 has is a decent story and very memorable characters. This sort of saves the game, but games are all about entertainment, not story.

True_Blu3

Games without good stories are not entertaining.

There is nothing special about HL2's combat. You have a gravity gun that made you throw physics. It was the was first game to have this feature, but it is just being copied by other developers because it is cool, not because it is innovative.True_Blu3

It's probably being copied for both reasons, IMO.

Also, HL2's gameplay is out-dated by all means. You can carry a crap load of weapons, there is no left-handed grenades throws, and there are no melee attacks for your weapons. These three features were invented by Halo, and many shooters copy these features because of how they made shooters feel more fluid and made things easier.True_Blu3

I wouldn't say the entirety of HL2's gameplay is out-dated. Certain elements could be seen as "out-dated", if that's how you want to look at it. I'd call them "old-school" or "cla-ssic". It is a sequal to agame that's almost a decade old, and it pulled a huge amount of inspiration from that game.Oh, and Halo didn't invent any of those things. There were games that did that type of stuff before Halo was sparkle in Bungie's eye. However, Halo did popularize and standardize these elements, so I'll give you that.

Did I mention health? No, I did not, but let me go into detail with that. HL2's health is outdated too. If you have 2% health, it is inevitable to win. The only have two choices to get through this; Do the impossible or start over a level. Easy as that. FPSs today have different health systems to make up for that flaw.True_Blu3

I think you meant that it's 'impossible' to win, which it's not. There's plenty of health packs and med stations all over the place. I've never had to restart an entire level because I had low health, even on Hard. And I actually prefer a percentage health system to recharging shields. It starts to get really, really easy when all you have to do is take cover for five seconds to let your health recharge.

The only thing that HL2 has is a decent story and very memorable characters. This sort of saves the game, but games are all about entertainment, not story. True_Blu3

Since when are stories not entertaining? And why does everyone think video games shouldn't have stories? We're past the days of pong, guys.

No way man, compared to Halo 3 is pretty underrated!!!everson_rm

[QUOTE="SentientGames"][QUOTE="Nigel_Tufnel"][QUOTE="SentientGames"][QUOTE="Nigel_Tufnel"]

[QUOTE="SentientGames"]But when you come into a convorsation and start making broad offensive comments with no ability to back them up, then I'll have to put you in your place.Nigel_Tufnel

rofl

Hehehe.That's pathetic dude. Way to stand up for yourself.

It's just that you're such an arrogant little brat that nothing I say would make any difference to you. I know the type.

And I certainly don't need to "stick up" for myself on an anonymous internet board. This account will probably be TOS'd out of here soon so it really doesn't matter what anyone thinks of old Nigel Tufnil.

Yeah...I'marrogant.

I'm going to miss you when I am gone ;-(

Likewise.

You kidding Half Life is praised for its combat.

It is much more intense than many other shooters out there. Actually almost all other shooters.skrat_01

HL1 perhaps. The AI of the grunts in HL2 was nothing special and the guns feel really weak. I know I'm not the only one who feels that way, browse through the earlier pages of this thread.

[QUOTE="skrat_01"]You kidding Half Life is praised for its combat.

It is much more intense than many other shooters out there. Actually almost all other shooters.kyrieee

HL1 perhaps. The AI of the grunts in HL2 was nothing special and the guns feel really weak. I know I'm not the only one who feels that way, browse through the earlier pages of this thread.

The magnum, shotty and pulse rifle packed a punch.

And yea your not the only one to have said that. Iknow.

And the Combine soldier A.i (overwatch not special forces) is average. It feels like Valve purposley made it that way, such as in HL1 - you didnt start fighting intelligent solders into a quater in.

It is the variety and amount of enemies in HL2 that shines. Headcrabs, Zombies, manhacks, overwatch, special forces, antlions, anlion gaurds, gunships and synths.

[QUOTE="Mankyblobs"]

Post

skrat_01

/\ That is probably the worst critism ive read. What a waste of time.

Half Life was never a free roaming game. It was never designed to be. Just because Valve offers you to view the scope of the enviroment, doesent mean it isnt freeroaming.

Jeez if you hate that so much, then you are going to spontaneously combust if you play Halo 3 singleplayer.

"he first half-life had all kinds of vehicle madness" What M1A1s, bradelys and Apaches?

I'd take striders any day.

Sig its obvius you just dont 'get' Half Life 2 and it doesent suit your personal tastes. All your grievances are very trivial

oh goody a criticism!

and its brainless!

Skrat_01 yeah striders are ok but theyre encountered in the closing stages of the game. You dont even meet combine vehicles on the highway section. Not coming across a moving combine vehicle on patrol was a wasted opportunity. btw iplayed ep1 all the way through and will buy ep2, i still want to know what happens.

[QUOTE="skrat_01"]

[QUOTE="Mankyblobs"]

Post

Mankyblobs

/\ That is probably the worst critism ive read. What a waste of time.

Half Life was never a free roaming game. It was never designed to be. Just because Valve offers you to view the scope of the enviroment, doesent mean it isnt freeroaming.

Jeez if you hate that so much, then you are going to spontaneously combust if you play Halo 3 singleplayer.

"he first half-life had all kinds of vehicle madness" What M1A1s, bradelys and Apaches?

I'd take striders any day.

Sig its obvius you just dont 'get' Half Life 2 and it doesent suit your personal tastes. All your grievances are very trivial

oh goody a criticism!

and its brainless!

Skrat_01 yeah striders are ok but theyre encountered in the closing stages of the game. You dont even meet combine vehicles on the highway section. Not coming across a moving combine vehicle on patrol was a wasted opportunity. btw iplayed ep1 all the way through and will buy ep2, i still want to know what happens.

And as you saw the combine dont bother patrolling the freeway, they have checkpoints, and send out drop ships or APCs to strike points. You see all of those in the game.

Its how they operate. Gather information then strike.

[QUOTE="Mankyblobs"]

Post

skrat_01

/\ That is probably the worst critism ive read. What a waste of time.

Half Life was never a free roaming game. It was never designed to be. Just because Valve offers you to view the scope of the enviroment, doesent mean it isnt freeroaming.

Jeez if you hate that so much, then you are going to spontaneously combust if you play Halo 3 singleplayer.

"he first half-life had all kinds of vehicle madness" What M1A1s, bradelys and Apaches?

I'd take striders any day.

Sig its obvius you just dont 'get' Half Life 2 and it doesent suit your personal tastes. All your grievances are very trivial

and by the way, how is it trivialme finding hl2s lower variety of weapons, enemies and terrible enemy ai in comparison to hl1 a problem??? dont these things matter?? and THAT ending? was like a kids cartoon from the 1980s: I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME GADGET!!

"Its how they operate. Gather information then strike."

whos been reading 2 many Tom Clancy novels? do you wear a helmet while playing battlefield?

and by the way, how is it trivialme finding hl2s lower variety of weapons, enemies and terrible enemy ai in comparison to hl1 a problem??? dont these things matter?? and THAT ending? was like a kids cartoon from the 1980s: I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME GADGET!!

Mankyblobs

HL2s weapons offered variety.... The enemy A.i differed. yes overwatch was dumb - cant say the same for Striders, Gunships or Combine Elite Gaurds.

Just small nitpicks of the game.

And the ending. It is supposed to be a cliffhanger, and im sure personal opinion would agree and disagree. It was designed so the episodes could add on to the ending

You can say the ending was pretty abrupt and the final 'battle' sucked - that is a fair critism. Heck Look at HL1s ending. Just a abrupt as the seconds, exept it had "time to choose"

"Its how they operate. Gather information then strike."

whos been reading 2 many Tom Clancy novels? do you wear a helmet while playing battlefield?

Mankyblobs

If you cant notice these things then its no wonder you nitpick at the most trivial things.

"No I actually notice blatantly obvius things in the game enviroment"

except spelling mistakes.

The weapons/enemies points are not nit picking, and its a bit harsh to say so.The ending is poor because we are none the wiser as to what the G-man is/does than after the first game, except that hes a bit naughty. That means waiting a long time tofind out ...bugger all.

Hang on lets just stop a second, honest question, im curious to know, have you played HL1?any of the expansion packs?would you say thehl2 is better than hl1? or the other way round?

"No I actually notice blatantly obvius things in the game enviroment"

except spelling mistakes.

Mankyblobs

Where were the spelling mistakes in HL2???

Mistakes in the message he wrote, you can see it in what i quoted.

Now come on,poor weapons and enemies is not nit picking, is it??

"No I actually notice blatantly obvius things in the game enviroment"

except spelling mistakes.

The weapons/enemies points are not nit picking, and its a bit harsh to say so.The ending is poor because we are none the wiser as to what the G-man is/does than after the first game, except that hes a bit naughty. That means waiting a long time tofind out ...bugger all.

Hang on lets just stop a second, honest question, im curious to know, have you played HL1?any of the expansion packs?would you say thehl2 is better than hl1? or the other way round?

Mankyblobs

The ending was the same as the previous game. All it does is open up the episodes. As I said, you can argue about the ending, im sure you are not the only person who doesent like the cliff hanger ending, and finds it unfulfilling.

And yes I bought HL1 in 98', and played the uplink demo.

And for its time, Half Life is a better FPS no question, but by nowdays standards HL2 is better.

If I had to ultimatley say best FPS ever, i'd say Half Life 1 though.

edit*

A broad thing like "I didnt like the enemies or weapons" is a valid critism, but it is based on personal preferance, as anyone can argue against it.

Mistakes in the message he wrote, you can see it in what i quoted.

Now come on,poor weapons and enemies is not nit picking, is it??

Mankyblobs

You make no sense.

He's talking about taking note of the obvious parts of HL2 and you're talking about his spelling?

What does that have to do with HL2? It just makes you look desperate to call him wrong because you know your argument is smothered in tard sauce.

Good we can agree on something, HL1 would be my personal favourite.

The thing is in hl1 you were prepared for an ending of some sort that might not solve everything, after one game a sequel could be spawned, so you play, watch the ending (going through the lift with the gman seeing those hellish scenes of wrecked aircraft and bodies and stuff was just so atmospheric i thought, then i thought, what a b#stard he is!) and think about what might happen in the next game.

but to go through it AGAIN, still being largely in the dark about this guy. Thats just too much to not get cross about. I would bet money that episode 3 wont really resolve things.

the weapons/enemies are a step back from hl1. Trip mines, remote charges, the tau gun, the .50 caliber are all missing. So you cant set traps or satisfyingly mow people down, which could only have added to the gameplay.

All the enemies are pretty muchexlusively foot soldiers, and thats dull after a while. Infinite ant-lions is cheesy, friendly ant-lions and human teams that you cant get rid off is even more cheesey. Being whisked to the penthouse suite of the monolith so level designers dont have to make a nice battle-royal in the middle as you fight your way up, is über cheesey.

...And the games easy, easy cheesey.

Riddled with cheese in fact.

I still get the orange box though, would like to play through hl1, blue shift, opposing force, hl2 & ep1 to get into ep2 beforehand.

You make no sense.

He's talking about taking note of the obvious parts of HL2 and you're talking about his spelling?

What does that have to do with HL2? It just makes you look desperate to call him wrong because you know your argument is smothered in tard sauce.

no its just friendly light hearted fun, not everyone here is a flamer, and its not ment to be a shot to the heart or to hit a raw nerve. calm yourself down.

Good we can agree on something, HL1 would be my personal favourite.

The thing is in hl1 you were prepared for an ending of some sort that might not solve everything, after one game a sequel could be spawned, so you play, watch the ending (going through the lift with the gman seeing those hellish scenes of wrecked aircraft and bodies and stuff was just so atmospheric i thought, then i thought, what a b#stard he is!) and think about what might happen in the next game.

but to go through it AGAIN, still being largely in the dark about this guy. Thats just too much to not get cross about. I would bet money that episode 3 wont really resolve things.

Well this is all Valves way of story telling. That is fair enough you dislike it, I cant dispute that, it is your own opinion. Valve seemed to trick the player into thinking the ending would be the same as HL1s, befoe giving us Ep1, which resolved the final quesion of what happens to Gordon. Over the Episodes we find out more. HL3 will be the finale.

I can tell you (I know how HL2 ep2 ends, and HL2 ep3 begins, that Ep2 will give you more information, but you will still be asking questions.

Put it this way - things get much more interesting in the story. Especially of the story in EP3.

the weapons/enemies are a step back from hl1. Trip mines, remote charges, the tau gun, the .50 caliber are all missing. So you cant set traps or satisfyingly mow people down, which could only have added to the gameplay.

In return there is the pulse rifle, grav gun, therapods, and of course the HL1 ones. Sure the weapons are less exotic, but you could still mow people down. And yea trip mines are reserved for Multiplayer, though in return you have antlion minions for a period.

All the enemies are pretty muchexlusively foot soldiers, and thats dull after a while. Infinite ant-lions is cheesy, friendly ant-lions and human teams that you cant get rid off is even more cheesey. Being whisked to the penthouse suite of the monolith so level designers dont have to make a nice battle-royal in the middle as you fight your way up, is über cheesey.

The enimes arent just foor soldiers. 3 types of zombie (4 in HL2 ep1), 3 types of head crab, manhacks, striders, gunships, dropships, helicopters,ant lions, ant lion gaurds, roller mines, deploable turrets ect. ect.

And there was a battle royal fighting your way up to breen, or through the Citidel. What about when you duke it out with the combine + strider.

Yea Breen having you in his office with everyone else, and Judith going all good has been done before in plenty of films, but that doesent make the game cheesy.

...And the games easy, easy cheesey.

Not very easy on hard, and not that cheesy.

Riddled with cheese in fact.

I still get the orange box though, would like to play through hl1, blue shift, opposing force, hl2 & ep1 to get into ep2 beforehand.

I'd like to go back through the HL ttiles I played before hand, but im patiently waiting for Black Mesa Source Instead.

This may just tickle your Fancy. Its Half Life 1 - re made on the source engine - a massive mod in progress.

Link.

Hell ive been playing through Ep1, in the build up to Ep2. When I come to think of it that had a pretty abrupt, but cool ending too.

Mankyblobs

[QUOTE="naval"]so true, it sucks that valve had to release part 3 as epsiodic content, which though beneficial in its own right , i would rather have a single combined game as HL 3 kyrieee

The episodes aren't HL3

HL2 IS a great game but it has SO WEAK combat that you can't call it the best FPS of all time. FPS are about shooting through first person and then you can do cool storytelling through first person too but the combat is still central. I don't want a game to be like a movie I want a game to be all that a game could be

QFT

"though in return you have antlion minions for a period."

Fly my prettys! fly! yeah was fun but you cant leave them behind.

Your right hl2 has its share of enemies, but hl1 had oodles of them. Marines, special forces, weird and wondeful aliens, some really meaty nasty buggers that would chase you, and you had a myriad of weapons to dispatch them with, favourite being a huge mound of trip mines and remote charges or the m16 (not as powerful as it looked or sounded when you first picked it up but satisfying). But i did like the fast zombies and the elite guards with the fetching white suits and single red eye.

oh... and the running-round-squealing-then-exploding-alien-insects from the first game were missing, and they were pretty fun. You know the ones your character held in his hand and could throw after enemies.

Yeah noticed the source mod thing in an earlier post on this thread, must say im veeeeeeery interested. Thanks for the link.

How'd you find out the story for ep2?

Games without good stories are not entertaining.

D9-THC

rofl - explain Tetris, DOOM 2, Mario Brothers, UT 2004, etc.

[QUOTE="skrat_01"]

[QUOTE="Mankyblobs"]

Post

Mankyblobs

/\ That is probably the worst critism ive read. What a waste of time.

Half Life was never a free roaming game. It was never designed to be. Just because Valve offers you to view the scope of the enviroment, doesent mean it isnt freeroaming.

Jeez if you hate that so much, then you are going to spontaneously combust if you play Halo 3 singleplayer.

"he first half-life had all kinds of vehicle madness" What M1A1s, bradelys and Apaches?

I'd take striders any day.

Sig its obvius you just dont 'get' Half Life 2 and it doesent suit your personal tastes. All your grievances are very trivial

and by the way, how is it trivialme finding hl2s lower variety of weapons, enemies and terrible enemy ai in comparison to hl1 a problem??? dont these things matter?? and THAT ending? was like a kids cartoon from the 1980s: I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME GADGET!!

True dat, motherf******.

"though in return you have antlion minions for a period."

Fly my prettys! fly! yeah was fun but you cant leave them behind.

Your right hl2 has its share of enemies, but hl1 had oodles of them. Marines, special forces, weird and wondeful aliens, some really meaty nasty buggers that would chase you, and you had a myriad of weapons to dispatch them with, favourite being a huge mound of trip mines and remote charges or the m16 (not as powerful as it looked or sounded when you first picked it up but satisfying). But i did like the fast zombies and the elite guards with the fetching white suits and single red eye.

oh... and the running-round-squealing-then-exploding-alien-insects from the first game were missing, and they were pretty fun. You know the ones your character held in his hand and could throw after enemies.

Yeah noticed the source mod thing in an earlier post on this thread, must say im veeeeeeery interested. Thanks for the link.

How'd you find out the story for ep2?

Mankyblobs

Ya both titles have their merits, though HL1 did have more exotic aliens no doubt. But HL2s syths really were a sight to behold - somthing that was really like no other in the genre.

And those lil exploding aliens, scamps or somthing - I remember them. Yea they were damn awesome, and it made deathmatch extra crazy. Heck even Opposing Force had the grappling hook.

As for the source mod, np, it is looking mighty dandy.

As for the Ep2 / Ep3 spoiler bit.

here you go:

SPOILER LINK

Couple of things I noticed in the spoiler - if you want to read on:

*****SPOILER*****

The Borealis was actually slated for Half Life 2, but got scrapped.

And Aparture Science is where Portal is set - in the Apature science center, with the hald held portal device.

Considering they rival Black Mesa - things seem to be unfolding..

*****EPISODE 3 SPOILER***********

*****END SPOILER*****

oh... and the running-round-squealing-then-exploding-alien-insects from the first game were missing, and they were pretty fun. You know the ones your character held in his hand and could throw after enemies.

Mankyblobs

snarks

yes I miss them too they were über awesome especially in MP

and lol @ "I'll get you next time gadget"

[QUOTE="D9-THC"]

Games without good stories are not entertaining.

Nigel_Tufnel

rofl - explain Tetris, DOOM 2, Mario Brothers, UT 2004, etc.

Tetris isn't fun...I've never liked it at all.

DooM 2 was one of the biggest let downs ever for me. Why do you think it's so amazing? What about it makes it worth mentioning as an amazing game without a good story? DooM had a great story...DooM 2 just ran with it and didn't add anything.

Mario Bros. wasn't that good. Super Mario Bros. rocked though and it had as much of a story as games would allow for then. You might not have noticed it but it was in the manual...

UT2004 had a single player campaign?

[QUOTE="naval"]so true, it sucks that valve had to release part 3 as epsiodic content, which though beneficial in its own right , i would rather have a single combined game as HL 3 kyrieee

The episodes aren't HL3

HL2 IS a great game but it has SO WEAK combat that you can't call it the best FPS of all time. FPS are about shooting through first person and then you can do cool storytelling through first person too but the combat is still central. I don't want a game to be like a movie I want a game to be all that a game could be

these episodes are hl 3 . what i mean is that there would be no hl3 or hl 3 would be all these episodes as combined. well I consider Hl 2 to be one of the best simply because it isn't all about combat, it offers things above above that. if the only thing i had to do was shoot people/things for 20 hrs, then it would have been just doom 2 with pretty graphics, just like doom 3 was.

[QUOTE="Nigel_Tufnel"][QUOTE="D9-THC"]

Games without good stories are not entertaining.

D9-THC

rofl - explain Tetris, DOOM 2, Mario Brothers, UT 2004, etc.

Tetris isn't fun...I've never liked it at all.

DooM 2 was one of the biggest let downs ever for me. Why do you think it's so amazing? What about it makes it worth mentioning as an amazing game without a good story? DooM had a great story...DooM 2 just ran with it and didn't add anything.

Mario Bros. wasn't that good. Super Mario Bros. rocked though and it had as much of a story as games would allow for then. You might not have noticed it but it was in the manual...

UT2004 had a single player campaign?

You've added a half-dozen qualifers to your original statement; that changes things dramatically.

Shoot, why am I posting reasonably here?

HL:2 is TEH SUCK and should have been aborted, just like its fat, disgusting creator, Gabe "The Liar" Newall.

Thanks for the spoiler links!

andthanks! i was pretty pleased with the inspector gadget connection

:)

Doom 3 aint that bad, the thing with the audio logs was well done, i liked to find a quiet spot in the game where i felt "safe" lol, and listen to the last few i picked up. They really added to the atmosphere: "ive been hearing weird stuff in the lower levels again, seems to be getting more and more strange round here, im gonna check it out.." and then you find his corpse. Excellent stuff!

Seeing the martian wind blowing around through the windows was pretty cool too.

Roll on the source mod!

No one can deny that the Half-Life series is one of the best games for it's story. To tell you the truth, I'll play this game for it's story alone. While other games like MGS and Final Fantasy are all good gameplay and story games, they can go over the top with the story which makes me want to turn it off at some points, but with Half-Life 1 and 2 and all the episodes, the story is very well planed out. I don't think the gameplay is its strength, but it's better than most and when Valve released all these mods, it completely changed the way gamers thought about video games. so yes, Half-Life is overrated if you purely look at its gameplay alone, but a DEFINENT NO if you look at it's story. Actully to me its sorta underratted.... but thats my opinion. If you agree, disagree leave a message and thell me why.

Half Life 2 is auseless game because it doesn't mention it requires a broadband connection on the box. I was given this useless game on my B-day and tried to make it work for 5 hours!! I had it on an old laptop but it was too old of a laptop to run the damn thing, so in the end I returned it to Best Buy and recieved full compensation of $55 and instead purchased the original Star Wars trillogy on DVD instead.I will never purchase a valve/steam product ever again!!Raider762

half life2 is a brilliant game

overrated? pssch, i'd say it's misunderstood

i find the genius of half life 2 to be in the way that it is frankly contrary to the standard of first person shooters - in a typical fps, the focus is on the gunplay, and the environments are - by and large - incidental... you'll play through level x then level y and level z, and while the locations may change from factories to offices to ocean liners, you're still doing the same thing: you're running from a to b while killing enemy c, over and over again

this is where half life 2 excels - the gunplay itself is pretty bad... you've got generic ai that is poor when placed beside its predecessor and the game was notoriously easy... but that's because, i think, the gunplay is incidental - it's there because it has to be... but what half life 2 is, is a game of changing scenario

you'll start with a cool warm up period where you're exploring a desolate, dystopic 1984-style world, then you're in a frantic unarmed escape as you try to evade the law, then you fall into a series of decent firefights as you arm up - you're speeding down a waterway in a hovercraft, you're exploring a creepy horror movie style ghost town, you're playing catch with a giant robot dog, you're leading a team of giant insectoids on a prison raid, you're speeding down a road in a mad max style buggy, you're in your very own version of the movie tremors, you're battling war of the worlds style walkers from rooftops

the focus of the gameplay is constantly shifting, and even the very best of the generic fps crowd tend to stagnate in those last few hours because you're just doing the same thing over and over and over - but with half life 2, every corner you turn brings a brand new focus for gameplay

i really don't think of half life 2 as a first person shooter - i think it transcends the genre - the label 'fps' doesn't do the game justice... i'd say calling it the best game ever made is hyperbole - but i'd say it's one of the finest achievements of the computer gaming industry so far, and its biggest flaw is probably how it made most of the rest of my gaming library feel so mediocre and stale after i'd experienced such awesomeness

overrated? nah

mfsa

No one can deny that the Half-Life series is one of the best games for it's story. To tell you the truth, I'll play this game for it's story alone. While other games like MGS and Final Fantasy are all good gameplay and story games, they can go over the top with the story which makes me want to turn it off at some points, but with Half-Life 1 and 2 and all the episodes, the story is very well planed out. I don't think the gameplay is its strength, but it's better than most and when Valve released all these mods, it completely changed the way gamers thought about video games. so yes, Half-Life is overrated if you purely look at its gameplay alone, but a DEFINENT NO if you look at it's story. Actully to me its sorta underratted.... but thats my opinion. If you agree, disagree leave a message and thell me why.

majorracoon

All hail the master thread necromancer!

I hope you guys realise that this yet another thread revive.

No I loved the game and think it defiantly deserved the ratings etc it got.

by time to time i buy a game that most gamers/websites said they are awsome and end up over-rated (in my mind), but HL2 wasnt like those.

and it is still the best FPS imo. and thanx to it we have many great multiplayer shooters that are still most played on the net. and portal.

I dont know if this was covered because i was lazy and didnt read past the first post, but i played half life orginal opposing force blue shift.. blah blah blah and the multiplayer lan and even internet was GODLIKE there was no better way to spend 43 hours yeah i said 43.... and then they upped th graphics and made the game suck... it was a fun game single player once... but compaired to the amazing times of the before time... i would give it a 8.4.. or a 82/100

Brilliant game. So are episodes 1 & 2. My favourite ever. The advantage of HL1 though is that it's more puzzle-oriented which I like. HL2 is brilliant but in more of an action sense. Every level offers something different and unique. How cool is Dog?

Valve should make an FPS based on Terminator 2, where you can choose either the T-800 or T-1000 and the game would show off the T-1000's liquid metal effects as well. Only Valve could pull it off. They really don't make enough games often enough do they?