Is Half Life 2 the greatest first person shooter of al time?

call me what you will, but HL2 while being great gets knocked back by Halo CE and Borderlands for me. But it is definetly my third favorite FPS.

Storywise though it is definetly my favorite, no questions.

I totally agree with the TC. Over 6 years after its launch half life 2 is still a superb, one-of-a-kind game. It was certainly ahead of its time. Definitely could be called one of the best singleplayer FPS's of all time.

Crysis was another game that had amazing singleplayer.

Half Life 2 is a great FPS but I wouldn't call it the greatest.

Nope, that honor would go to Metroid Prime...

inb4 "but MP is not a FPS!"

Like HL2 even comes close to the perfection that is Call of Duty: Black Ops.:lol:

DerpyMcDerp

the fact that u even mentioned black ops makes your opinion invalid.

to answer the question, yes it is on many levels, in other areas no. but overall, i'd say absolutely.

I totally agree with the TC. Over 6 years after its launch half life 2 is still a superb, one-of-a-kind game. It was certainly ahead of its time. Definitely could be called one of the best singleplayer FPS's of all time.

Crysis was another game that had amazing singleplayer.

that guy

yeah, crysis was fantastic. but the story was really forgettable, along with the characters (okay i love prophet and psycho). so you have to dock it some points their.

[QUOTE="Arach666"][QUOTE="DarkLink77"] You just mad cuz a Nintendo game is better than a top teir PC franchise. :P

DarkLink77

HL2 over Galaxy any day. altho galaxy is pretty effing amazing.

Obviously not.

I think Deus Ex is the best.

Aside from story-telling... it is pretty low on the list of all FPS's. Its shooting mechanics are lame, its pacing is all over the place, the story is very generic and derivative, and the level design (aside from Ravenholm) really doesn't change all that much (especially in terms of tone and atmosphere).

What makes it worth playing is the way it approaches story telling and messing around with the gravity gun... which honestly has better uses in Garry's Mod and Portal.

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"]

[QUOTE="Arach666"] Meh,I guess some would say that Lego Duplo is better than Lego Technic,and I´m sure it is... ...for the target audience. :lol: :P jettpack

HL2 over Galaxy any day. altho galaxy is pretty effing amazing.

I haven't played hl1 yet, and have only played hl2 and episode one so far. Half life 2 was great, episode one was pretty terrible when compared to it. So far my take on all the praise of hl2 is that it's undeserved. Yes, it's a great game, but not the best game ever.

Not in my opinion. It's phsyics engine was decent though.

It is the best game I have played, to date.

I found it disappointing, compared to the FPS greatness the original Half Life is. So, no, far away from the title of the best FPS game.

No One Lives Forever makes Half-Life 2 seem pointless.

Yes. Half Life 2 is the greatest FPS of all time. The only games that come near it (within the FPS genre) are Half Life 1, Doom, Wolfenstein 3-D and maybe Goldeneye.

Nah, puzzle shooter? Yes.

dunl12496

Is that what they call non-CoD shooters which involve some brain processing now? :lol:

oh god half life is easly one of the most over rated games in the history of gaming .

dontshackzmii

The game was fun but... no.

Half-life 2 was what the Toy Story series was to the Animated film genre - emotionally powerful and fun at the same time.

Yes I would have to say its the best. It just puts an entire package together. Great story, shooting, physics, adventure, atmosphere, puzzles, epic scenes, emotional and great characters. Valve is great at mind twisting you in there games and I love it.

just because its so sad that its funny, black ops' story is better than half-life 2's story. hl2 is generic aliens taking over the world with generic mute protagonist that has no personality and just reacts like a robot would to the world around him. the gunplay isn't that great and the levels are all boring. all it has is physics and storyTELLING. its long, but all that is rewarding is hearing the other characters. unfortunately you cn be very lonely in hl2 being by yourself for many long sequences. black ops at least attempts something new. Vietnam shooters, while not exactly new, aren't done so often that they are everywhere on the market. however, this is not a vietnam war game. it has a few levels like that, but the focus is on other things happening. for a call of duty game, it is very unusual with levels revolving around breaking out of a prison and escaping a P.O.W. compound. there is much more focus on the stpry this time around and a few twists such as [spoiler] Nikolai from WaW meeting his gruesome end via Nova 6 to Reznov not actually being with you for most of the campaign as he was just a vision in your head [/spoiler] is it as good as it could be? no. but it is pretty entertaining. gameplay is a good as always (this is SP, there is no perks or killstreaks) and a good variety of missions from some interesting vechicle segments, to stealth, to standard war enviroments. Mason is actually believable as a human being and you kind of feel sorry for him after all that he has been through. Reznov is as awesome as always, and even woods is pretty good. (remember he won best character at the vgas for a reason) oh yeah. hudson is pretty sweet too. again not mentioning mp, because while good, hl doesn't really have much of one. there. believe my opinion or not, but the fact that i can even make an argument here over which shooter is better is kind of sad.antifanboyftw

I find Half-Life 2 to be one of the most overrated games of all time. It's a great game though.

AmayaPapaya

No that belongs to Halo and COD games pumped out every year. At least Half Life games take time and don't get rushed out.

No. As a pure video game adventure, it's rock solid due to its broad gameplay, likeable characters and excellent pace. In terms of action, though, I thought it falls short when compared to other shooters. Granted, HL2 came out a year before FEAR showed us what AI in modern FPS could and should be capable of, but even when placed in the context of its time, the AI just seems braindead. They don't even dodge grenades at times, which is like the most basic dynamic AI maneuver I can think of. Apart from the delicious gravity gun, the shooting mechanics were mellow and just not enjoyable at all to me. This is why I consider the late-game sequences in the prison and the return to City 17 to be a giant borefest that considerably lowered my enjoyment of the game.

So, in short: no. I think it's a great game that really pushed the genre forward in a few ways, but in the end it just falls a bit short to rank among the best.

It's fantastic, there is no doubt about it. But even I can't put my finger on "the greatest" or "my favorite" because simply.....that can change with my mood and what kind of experience I want. On some days, yes HL2 is the greatest. Other days it's halo, other days it's quake 3, other days its counter strike, other days it's riddick......just depends. amazing game tho.

It wasnt even the best of 2004. That goes to Far Cry.

Doom is better

Half life 2 close second