Do you think Half-Life 2 is kinda overrated?

What makes HL 2 great is that it combined some new, fun technology with all the amazing puzzles and exploring from the original one, coupled with all the new gameplay mechanics added by the gravity gun and the new vehicles, all that put into a bigger and richer world made it one of the best FPS around. That and considering it still looks as good or better than some so called "next-gen" games, no I think it deserves all it's recognition.

While I agree that the combat and enemy AI isn't all that especial and it's kinda weak, I think the game did a nice job trying not to force you into more combat than exploring and keeping the two tied together, except for some instances like the last few parts of the game which felt dragged.

Why does everyone hate the driving sections? I thought they were cool, especially when the chopper is chasing you.

Why does everyone hate the driving sections? I thought they were cool, especially when the chopper is chasing you.

KG86

Half-Life 2 was definitely "critically acclaimed". Overrated? Perhaps a bit; I think it was one of the first of a new gen game; one that had gameplay and graphics that were superior enough to what had come before, to earn such praise from reviewers.

The game was good in every imaginable way for me. I feel that it totally deserves the ratings it gets. The gameplay was great, the story was great, the level design was great and the sound was great too. For me, it is as close to a perfect game as you can possibly get. The setting and mood are two of the things that really make it such a great game.

You could call the gameplay generic, but it's not, it's really quite good, even if some of it has been done before. The inclusion of the gravity gun, facial animations, storytelling, pacing, and art design are all incredible game design choices that make it what it is. Does it hold up to modern shooters? Suprisingly yes. I would still rather play Half Life 2 and all of source's multiplayer over Call of Duty 4 or 5, or 6 (etc..)

Half Life 2 continues to impress me to this day.

Not overrated, and this topic will remain debated until the eventual release of Half Life 3...in 20 years.

Quite frankly Half-Life 2 is the greatest game ever just becouse it gave rise to the Source engine brining me neverending happyness and glee for 5 years and counting.

[QUOTE="Luigi_Vincetana"]Well, I just finished HL2 the other day (I've been slowly making my way through it over the course of the last year). And I have to say it's one of the better FPS's I have played. I'm not big on the genre so fact that I kept on coming back to it obviously means something (can't say the same about Halo CE, which is boring as).g805ge

NOTE TO EVERYONE ELSE: He scored Halo 2 a 1.0 while he scored Big Rigs a 10. Even as a joke it fails and it's not funny. FAIL!

It wasnt bad a.i, it was just rather unremarkable. Which of course relates to my critisms of the combat.skrat_01

Actually the A.I was pretty bloody bad. I would say it's a mix of character design and half-baked scripting. I guess the non-humanoid aliens acted the way they were suppose to (which was pretty much only rushing), but the Combine were just incredibly underwhelming. It was due to the fact that other FPSs had much better humanoid A.I and of course, all the pretty scripted HL2 demos which showcased what appeared to be really intelligent A.I.

Worst failure of HL2 imho, even more so than the crap combat.

It's much better than any console shooter.

Not really. It's a superb game that I can enjoy even til this day.

Only thing I didn't like were the driving sections.

No it is not overrated. If anything I would say it is underrated, it deserved more than the 9.2 it got here on Gamespot. I mean look at Halo 2, the first Halo was a good game but the second one was NOTHING special, the SP was just terrible IMO (especially compared to the SP of the original Halo). Still it got a score higher than HL2, why ?

For me HL2 is one of the greatest FPS ever, in gameplay, storyline, characters, even the graphics hold up pretty nicely today. I'd say it was and still is deserving of a higher score than it was given.

The only FPS I've played that amazed me more and I had more fun with than Half-Life 2 is the original Half-Life. That game changed FPSs into the way we know them today. And what did that game score ? A ten ? No the same score that was given to Halo 2 *sigh*.

Half-Life 2 is trash. Valve is trash. I would rather play the Unreal Tournament campaign mode than HL2

No it is not overrated. If anything I would say it is underrated, it deserved more than the 9.2 it got here on Gamespot. I mean look at Halo 2, the first Halo was a good game but the second one was NOTHING special, the SP was just terrible IMO (especially compared to the SP of the original Halo). Still it got a score higher than HL2, why ?

For me HL2 is one of the greatest FPS ever, in gameplay, storyline, characters, even the graphics hold up pretty nicely today. I'd say it was and still is deserving of a higher score than it was given.

The only FPS I've played that amazed me more and I had more fun with than Half-Life 2 is the original Half-Life. That game changed FPSs into the way we know them today. And what did that game score ? A ten ? No the same score that was given to Halo 2 *sigh*.

R4gn4r0k

Firstly, GameSpot acknowledged the single player campaign was crap. What elevated it to 9.4 status was because it had excellent multiplayer, and raised the standards of Xbox Live when it was in its infancy. Secondly, Half-life 2 scored lower because it was rated on PC shooter standards, not console standards.

You can tell the story in 60 seconds. So whats so good about it ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slRsexrhbG8

Not in the least, HL2 is my favourite FPS of all time.

I personally found Half-Life 1 to be enjoyable, the dull, repetitive driving sections put me off, the lack of a true end boss was disapointing and the lack of zombies was another disapointment ( "We Don't go Through Ravenholme" chapter was bloody awesome but i wanted more of it )

Episodes 1&2 took care of these problems mostly but this is a thread about half life 2 so not sure if they're included :P

If I think it's overrated as one of the best FPS games ever? No I don't think that.

If I think it's overrated as one of the most influential or revolutionary FPS games ever? Yes I think it is. HL2 did not do what Wolfenstein 3D, Quake or HL1 did for the PC FPS market or what Halo did for the console FPS market.

It's like the Goldeneye of PC FPS games. Amazing and easily one of the best quality FPS games ever but it didn't revolutionise how we see at FPS games or change the FPS market.

Don't get me wrong Half Life 2 was a really great game but..... Some of AI was just shocking though...the Metro police all they would do was stand next to an explosive barrel or hide behind it. walkingdream

Half-Life 2's A.I. isn't bad eh? Hmmm...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0WqAmuSXEQ

g805ge

Based on when I played it upon release years ago!

.

Things I loved:

1. The story line
2. The variety of settings and how believable the game world is
3. The variety of gunplay, puzzles
4. The subtle little moments, people you run into along the way
5. The graphics (especially the water)
6. The scripted set peices and climactic boss fights
7. The atmosphere and game universe

Things I didn't love:

1. The linear game levels and lack of exploration (although by moving ahead in the game, you did gain a sense of exploration, because it was such a beautifully envisioned apocalypse, I just wanted to go off and explore yet more!)
2. Lack of platforming or climbing (again, the game world begs you to want to climb, find secret places and explore)

Edit: I guess for me atleast, I felt that Half-life 2 is one of those rare games that is more than the sum of its parts and trying to explain that to people can be difficult to get across.

None of these "puzzles" stumped me. Zelda and a million other games have far better puzzles. Hell, the only two I can really think of is the one where you stack a bunch of cylinder blocks on one end so you can jump up to a ledge, and the one where you move a bunch of barrels in to this sewer waste so you can jump across it. They are basic as hell, and I can't even remember any others because they are not memorable at all, and Half-Life's puzzles are an absolute joke and are easy as hell.DeathScape666

You are comparing an FPS to one of the biggest and most remarkable adventure series, I think HL did make some progress for the FPS genre after all ^_^

Now while I agree that it doesn't have teh best puzzlez evar it does an amazing job at blending all these puzzles with the pace and combat, the game is just fluid all the way well..most of it.

No. The amazing pacing and level design deserves all the praise it gets.AAllxxjjnn

Based on when I played it upon release years ago!

.

Things I loved:

1. The story line
2. The variety of settings and how believable the game world is
3. The variety of gunplay, puzzles
4. The subtle little moments, people you run into along the way
5. The graphics (especially the water)
6. The scripted set peices and climactic boss fights
7. The atmosphere and game universe

Things I didn't love:

1. The linear game levels and lack of exploration (although by moving ahead in the game, you did gain a sense of exploration, because it was such a beautifully envisioned apocalypse, I just wanted to go off and explore yet more!)
2. Lack of platforming or climbing (again, the game world begs you to want to climb, find secret places and explore)

Edit: I guess for me atleast, I felt that Half-life 2 is one of those rare games that is more than the sum of its parts and trying to explain that to people can be difficult to get across.

DAZZER7

Yes, in my opinion it is very overrated. Its not that special.

[QUOTE="DeathScape666"] None of these "puzzles" stumped me. Zelda and a million other games have far better puzzles. Hell, the only two I can really think of is the one where you stack a bunch of cylinder blocks on one end so you can jump up to a ledge, and the one where you move a bunch of barrels in to this sewer waste so you can jump across it. They are basic as hell, and I can't even remember any others because they are not memorable at all, and Half-Life's puzzles are an absolute joke and are easy as hell.Dystopian-X

You are comparing an FPS to one of the biggest and most remarkable adventure series, I think HL did make some progress for the FPS genre after all ^_^

Now while I agree that it doesn't have teh best puzzlez evar it does an amazing job at blending all these puzzles with the pace and combat, the game is just fluid all the way well..most of it.

For me the "puzzles" in HL2 felt more like small tech-demos of what the source engine could do.

[QUOTE="Dystopian-X"]

[QUOTE="DeathScape666"] None of these "puzzles" stumped me. Zelda and a million other games have far better puzzles. Hell, the only two I can really think of is the one where you stack a bunch of cylinder blocks on one end so you can jump up to a ledge, and the one where you move a bunch of barrels in to this sewer waste so you can jump across it. They are basic as hell, and I can't even remember any others because they are not memorable at all, and Half-Life's puzzles are an absolute joke and are easy as hell.JLF1

You are comparing an FPS to one of the biggest and most remarkable adventure series, I think HL did make some progress for the FPS genre after all ^_^

Now while I agree that it doesn't have teh best puzzlez evar it does an amazing job at blending all these puzzles with the pace and combat, the game is just fluid all the way well..most of it.

For me the "puzzles" in HL2 felt more like small tech-demos of what the source engine could do.

For me the "puzzles" in HL2 felt more like small tech-demos of what the source engine could do.

JLF1

[QUOTE="JLF1"]

For me the "puzzles" in HL2 felt more like small tech-demos of what the source engine could do.

Dystopian-X

That still doesn't make the puzzles good which was my point.

Firstly, GameSpot acknowledged the single player campaign was crap. What elevated it to 9.4 status was because it had excellent multiplayer, and raised the standards of Xbox Live when it was in its infancy. Secondly, Half-life 2 scored lower because it was rated on PC shooter standards, not console standards.

FrozenLiquid

That still doesn't make the puzzles good which was my point.

JLF1

My only beef with HL2 is how linear it was. At times, the game could have practically been an on the rails shooter. There is one direction to go, and that is forward.

[QUOTE="JLF1"]

That still doesn't make the puzzles good which was my point.

Dystopian-X

Yeah but you can't look at the puzzles on their own. It was the overall pacing of the game that made them work so well. I never really got the sense of, ok now its time for a puzzle, it was more ok what do I need to do now to get through there.

It was the mix of action, then puzzle, then often action that added pressure on you to do the puzzle. They were also quite relevant to where you were going and in progressing the story line.

People forget that HL2, did cross genres quite a lot into the realms of survival horror. It also did it and achieved one heck of an atmosphere.

Yes to some degree, not to another. Half Life 2 is i think overrated as far as some revolutionary work of greatness that is made out to be(and no, i don't feel even in 2004 it was as revolutionary as it was made out to be), Half Life 2 however is one of the best First Person SHooters of its era, and at this point all time. It has more than held its own against all of the current offerings and more or less shamed alot of the current offerings. jg4xchamp

Sometimes I think we're like one and the same person :P

[QUOTE="jg4xchamp"]Yes to some degree, not to another. Half Life 2 is i think overrated as far as some revolutionary work of greatness that is made out to be(and no, i don't feel even in 2004 it was as revolutionary as it was made out to be), Half Life 2 however is one of the best First Person SHooters of its era, and at this point all time. It has more than held its own against all of the current offerings and more or less shamed alot of the current offerings. FrozenLiquid

Sometimes I think we're like one and the same person :P

[QUOTE="FrozenLiquid"]

Firstly, GameSpot acknowledged the single player campaign was crap. What elevated it to 9.4 status was because it had excellent multiplayer, and raised the standards of Xbox Live when it was in its infancy. Secondly, Half-life 2 scored lower because it was rated on PC shooter standards, not console standards.

R4gn4r0k

[QUOTE="FrozenLiquid"]

Firstly, GameSpot acknowledged the single player campaign was crap. What elevated it to 9.4 status was because it had excellent multiplayer, and raised the standards of Xbox Live when it was in its infancy. Secondly, Half-life 2 scored lower because it was rated on PC shooter standards, not console standards.

R4gn4r0k

Well the campaign wasn't abysmal, it was technically a fine game. In comparison to the first game (which is what people do), the campaign blew hard. You simply cannot argue that, all things considered, both the online service and the actual gameplay of the multiplayer, wasn't something to marvel at for a gaming console at the time. Halo 2 is pretty much the reason most online console games are the way they are now, and even then some don't touch the service Halo 2 had offered.

Note well that Halo 2 was released three years after the first game. It's around the average time for a sequel to happen. Also note that they were both in the same generation i.e, to expect a super duper revolution would've been folly. However, Bungie was able to make a game that looked a generation ahead of the original Halo (way more impressive than Halo 2 to Halo 3 which actually is a generation leap), better A.I, gameplay mechanics that further refined Halo's combat system, and had, of course, the much lauded online multiplayer component which was more than expected for the sequel at the time. Again, that took three years.

-

Half-Life 2, which had sixyears of development time in between the release of the first game, only had to show great graphics and a new physics engine. The physics engine, as mentioned before, was immensely pretty, but really did nothing to further the actual gameplay of Half-Life. Instead of context-sensitive puzzles, you had physics based puzzles. Instead of shooting bullets, you threw bricks. I've played the original Half-Life 2campaign about six times from start to finish, and the more you play it, the more you start to think it's more of a showcase for the Source engine than it is a game with real soul.

And I guess that line of reasoning kindof works (why would Valve's flagship title be a tech demo anyway? I mean, it's Half-Life 2), if you were to think the Episodeswould flesh out the gameplay. Episode Two certainly did more than showcase the Source engine. Definitely the best Half-Lifeentry yet.

[QUOTE="R4gn4r0k"]

[QUOTE="FrozenLiquid"]

Firstly, GameSpot acknowledged the single player campaign was crap. What elevated it to 9.4 status was because it had excellent multiplayer, and raised the standards of Xbox Live when it was in its infancy. Secondly, Half-life 2 scored lower because it was rated on PC shooter standards, not console standards.

FrozenLiquid

Well the campaign wasn't abysmal, it was technically a fine game. In comparison to the first game (which is what people do), the campaign blew hard. You simply cannot argue that, all things considered, both the online service and the actual gameplay of the multiplayer, wasn't something to marvel at for a gaming console at the time. Halo 2 is pretty much the reason most online console games are the way they are now, and even then some don't touch the service Halo 2 had offered.

Note well that Halo 2 was released three years after the first game. It's around the average time for a sequel to happen. Also note that they were both in the same generation i.e, to expect a super duper revolution would've been folly. However, Bungie was able to make a game that looked a generation ahead of the original Halo (way more impressive than Halo 2 to Halo 3 which actually is a generation leap), better A.I, gameplay mechanics that further refined Halo's combat system, and had, of course, the much lauded online multiplayer component which was more than expected for the sequel at the time. Again, that took three years.

-

Half-Life 2, which had sixyears of development time in between the release of the first game, only had to show great graphics and a new physics engine. The physics engine, as mentioned before, was immensely pretty, but really did nothing to further the actual gameplay of Half-Life. Instead of context-sensitive puzzles, you had physics based puzzles. Instead of shooting bullets, you threw bricks. I've played the original Half-Life 2campaign about six times from start to finish, and the more you play it, the more you start to think it's more of a showcase for the Source engine than it is a game with real soul.

And I guess that line of reasoning kindof works (why would Valve's flagship title be a tech demo anyway? I mean, it's Half-Life 2), if you were to think the Episodeswould flesh out the gameplay. Episode Two certainly did more than showcase the Source engine. Definitely the best Half-Lifeentry yet.

Objection outside of maybe the final sequence in Half Life Episode 2, i felt majority of the 5 hours that is Episode 2 was basically stuff you had seen in Half Life 2.

jg4xchamp

I guess. I just remember bits of the game vividly which means it's gotta be good. I think the best of the cIassic Half-Life gameplay was in that villa and you were trapped in that house. It was a beautiful sequence. Of course the final bit was also worth mentioning. I was like daym, Half-Life caught up with the times lol.

The other Episode Two bits were forgettable to me, even the cinematic plot twist moments. In fact, I almost forgot a really important character died at the end of Episode Two. I mean, if that's happening to me, then obviously something that needs some reinvigoration lol.

-

On a side note, Prototype is getting addicting. I really wanna find out what the hell's been going on with Gentek lol.

Yes to some degree, not to another. Half Life 2 is i think overrated as far as some revolutionary work of greatness that is made out to be(and no, i don't feel even in 2004 it was as revolutionary as it was made out to be), Half Life 2 however is one of the best First Person SHooters of its era, and at this point all time. It has more than held its own against all of the current offerings and more or less shamed alot of the current offerings. jg4xchamp

[QUOTE="jg4xchamp"]

Objection outside of maybe the final sequence in Half Life Episode 2, i felt majority of the 5 hours that is Episode 2 was basically stuff you had seen in Half Life 2.

FrozenLiquid

I guess. I just remember bits of the game vividly which means it's gotta be good. I think the best of the cIassic Half-Life gameplay was in that villa and you were trapped in that house. It was a beautiful sequence. Of course the final bit was also worth mentioning. I was like daym, Half-Life caught up with the times lol.

The other Episode Two bits were forgettable to me, even the cinematic plot twist moments. In fact, I almost forgot a really important character died at the end of Episode Two. I mean, if that's happening to me, then obviously something that needs some reinvigoration lol.

-

On a side note, Prototype is getting addicting. I really wanna find out what the hell's been going on with Gentek lol.

[QUOTE="jg4xchamp"]Yes to some degree, not to another. Half Life 2 is i think overrated as far as some revolutionary work of greatness that is made out to be(and no, i don't feel even in 2004 it was as revolutionary as it was made out to be), Half Life 2 however is one of the best First Person SHooters of its era, and at this point all time. It has more than held its own against all of the current offerings and more or less shamed alot of the current offerings. skrat_01

[QUOTE="jg4xchamp"]Yes to some degree, not to another. Half Life 2 is i think overrated as far as some revolutionary work of greatness that is made out to be(and no, i don't feel even in 2004 it was as revolutionary as it was made out to be), Half Life 2 however is one of the best First Person SHooters of its era, and at this point all time. It has more than held its own against all of the current offerings and more or less shamed alot of the current offerings. skrat_01

The only game that seems to have better facial animation is Heavenly Sword, and even then it only truly outshines Half-Life 2in the pre-rendered cutscenes. Guess it goes to show how much time Valve put into making lip syncing and facial animation spot-on.

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On another side note, I kinda wanna buy Heavenly Sword.I finished it, and it's noDMC/Ninja Gaiden, but it's fun. Maybe when it comes down in price.