What is the appeal to Half-Life franchise?

Herms like to talk about half life more than play it. (if you have a gander at some of the prominent herm steam libraries here, you'll find that half life is among the dozens of games they haven't even touched)

Half life , voted by many as the GAME OF THE CENTURY. THE innovative , revolutionary , and awesome FPS that really brought FPS genre in entirely other level , combined everything someone was looking for in an FPS game and is the formula all others copied since then . Yes , it was THAT big the impact it had in FPS genre.

Game was so successful and had such impact that countless mods , including the most popular online FPS multiplayer game , COUNTER STRIKER , poped up for free. So many mods is ridiculous really. A true revolution for its time.

HL2 was an awesome game ... So great physics , first time seen in an FPS ! Great story , settings and all. Not so innovative and revolutionary as the first one but it was great as well.

With HL3 i bet we will shit our pants. New graphic engine from Valve!! I cant wait.

@jg4xchamp: Champ, I keep visiting SW with the hopes to troll you in some way, but your posts have been making so much sense (too much sense, actually. Maybe Liz has been whipping you into shape). Damnit, I'm proud of you, boy. *sheds tear*

They are great games, that is why.

Well it has variety you never do the same thing for too long, that is a benchmark of how to make games... yet in a world the utterepettiv TLOU and bioshock infinite get 10/10 that wouldnt matter.

I played a bit of Half Life 2 last night on my new eyefinity setup, amazing, game is clean, voice work is amazing, plenty of gameplay and level change ups, Gordon Freeman just kicks ass as well.

Oh it also has one of the greatest female protagonists as well with Alex Vance. Then there is Dog, Barney, The G man, Dr Breen, Eli Vance and also the iconic Crowbar weapon that is so simple a weapon but very very useful and important.

Half life 2 was also the first game I ever played where I could splinter wood, react with environments with physics, I remember spending ages just putting things on the see-saw and jumping on the other end to watch them fly. Also having TV screens and monitors show full video of characters talking and moving was rarely done (I know Doom 3 did this also a little).

I'm sure Half-Life 1 was amazing in its time, but 99% of the fanboy praise for this franchise that I see is solely for its sequel, which I just cannot find THAT impressive.

the puzzles were annoying. the car sections were annoying. the giant empty world was annoying. The fact there were no cutscenes (something EVERYONE loves about this game) was even annoying, because this resulted in time where you just had to stand there in a room doing absolutely nothing while other characters talk to reveal story or whatever. Can't skip.

I didn't even care for Ravenholm. I don't care if it was 2004, I'd played PLENTY of zombie games by then, so that whole vibe just didn't click. Not to mention it was out of place with the rest of the game.

Literally the only thing I'd even give any credit to the game for is the physics, which hardly made the game better. Like, who the **** cares if you can open all these doors and explore? There's no reason to explore anything in this empty world.

Half-Life 2 came out the same year as Halo 2 did. I cannot honestly say it was the better game. Countless people on various internet forums will, but I have yet to hear a decent excuse or explanation as to why they feel that way.

I'll list my reasons why Halo 2 was better.

• - Amazing MP which added to the value
• - Story was at least as gripping as HL2's if not more
• - Could play co-op with a friend
• - Vechicle sections were not utter shit that overstayed their welcome
• - Better gunplay
• - Better music
• - Much better enemy variation

And as basic as they made MC in 1-3, at least he was his own character. Gordon Freeman isn't character. Only a face for boxart. Only a name so other characters don't have to shout "you" and confuse the player if there's more than 1 person in the room. Of course, if they REALLY wanted to make you feel like the person saving the world, they shouldn't have given him those things or a back story. But they did, so really I have to call it all for what it is. Lack of effort in storytelling.

while i appreciate hl2s level design and rather enjoyed ravenholm and highway 17, i found the game terribly overrated. i played it about six months after release and played through it once more since then and both of its episodes. ep2 certainly had moments of brilliance but i refuse to agree that the series is worthy of the copious amounts of praise it receives.

the ai was horrible, the gunplay was some of the most basic and bland i've seen since the inception of the fps as a subgenre, and there was practically no story to speak of. not only that, i don't care for puzzles in my shooters. placing a cinder block on a board is not fun, and the last time i checked games were about fun. don't even get me started on the stupid gimic that was the gravity gun either.

@ghostwarrior786: half life 2 wowed the **** outta me the first time i played it, which was 3-4 years ago.

you do know that all half-life games have been released before steam started to record game hours? which means if i logged 50 hours of half-life before 2011 it is not recorded?

gj ignorant pleb

i also love how your account is not even a year old, and yet you have more posts then alot of users on here with accounts much older than yours,

irony is strong with this one

BOOBS !

@Sharp-Shooter89: He's our lil ceasar.

What's so appealing about The Last of Us? What's so appealing about The Legend of Zelda? What's so appealing about Halo?

Such a general question. It's a great game, I've barely played both Half-Life 1 and 2, but I can understand some reasoning behind why people think it's such a great game.

The games are good but highly overrated, just like Valve in general

nostalgia.

Agreed. These are the best FPS made and rightly influenced the gaming industry today.

Indeed. Greatest shooters I have ever played in my life. They can not be touched.

@Jimmy_Russell

That doesn't sound very appealing.

I thought that Half-Life 2 was overrated for a while myself, but another play-through and a bit of reflection on my experience helped me see the light. Others in this thread know more about the game's importance, innovations, etc. I just appreciate the dark, damp atmosphere and great in-game scenarios. Yeah, it had some annoying parts, namely vehicles, but overall I really enjoyed it. Probably a top 50 all-time game for me.

It is way better than TLOU.

Just in case anyone here hasn't yet... Play Black Mesa. Just do it.

This. they even both scored higher than TLOU both here and metacritic.

I only played HL2. I never could understand the hype either. It was a cool game for its time, no doubt about that. I just wouldn't consider it one of the all time best. Plenty of amazing games came out around that time. 04 and 05 were some great years, so I definitely felt out of the loop when I saw HL2 getting so much praise for so long.

It happens though. There is always some big craze in gaming that I just don't get. No biggie.

I played HL2 for the first time a few years after it released. I played the original for the first time just before I played HL2. The original is a much better game. HL2 had too many boring vehicle sections. Far Cry came out around the same time as HL2 and is much better than anything in the Half Life series. Far Cry is pretty much the best shooter ever made, though.

I've only played the first HL back in the 90's.

It was cool because it actually had this air of "believability" about the whole thing (a first if I recall). You weren't some super soldier capable of wiping out entire demon hordes ala DOOM. You weren't Duke Nukem. You weren't an undead cowboy like in Blood. You were Gordon Freeman, an everyman, and the ONLY reason you could survive such serious injuries was your Hazardous Environment Suit. If it ran out of power you were dead.

That, and beating shit to death with a crowbar.

Half-Life 2? Are you sure you didn't make that up?

it was one of the first FPS with a good background story besides see enemy blast away, gravity gun was nifty. the mod community was really strong from what i gather. it was a good game but i never thought it was the best either i preferred Halo during that time

I don't dislike TLOU ... infact... I have a copy waiting for me as a birthday gift tomorrow. to play through once. I just don't buy into 10 hour corridor shooters being anything close to GOTY's just because of the immaculate presentation..... not even in my top 50 games....

My critism all stems from this game somehow being worth more than the hundreds of amazing AAA/AA games we've had .... just because of petty movie like awards.

If it helps, I feel the same way about MGS4 ... it was not graphics king. it wasn't even the best in its series... it had a grand total of about 7-8 hours story gameplay... (not factoring in ridiculously long cutscenes) .... yet 10/10 cows went on about it for a year or so (sound familiar) then it became irrelavant and not even the best in its franchise.

Mario Galaxy 2 I can sort of sympathise with in its own genre it is a PRIME platformer.... yet... we barely heared about it after a few weeks.

Just reeks of Cows being desperate in their drought. its a last gen game now. a remaster doesn't hold as much weight. its a multiplat.

so u havnt actually played yet? haha and its not 10 hours it took me around 18 in normal mode and the game has solid gameplay. at least play it before talking shit about it but of course u are the same guy who said bloom isnt a big deal in halo without knowing what bloom was

no its the remaster. playing it again because I didnt try the DLC or the MP due to not being my copy i nthe first place. then trading it in for £30 ... then getting something else... as you consolites do.

Bloom... Halo... wut?

The graphical effect? I think you have me confused with someone else.

so u completed tlou in 10 hours and it had shit gameplay and consisted mostly of cutscenes? i might have mixed up with the other guy who has titanfall avatar

I agree it's overrated but still a good game. Has a cool setting and fun set pieces.

I played through the entire franchise for the first time this year, and it instantly became one of my favourite franchises. In fact, the first one (which came out in 1998) was my favourite out of the lot.

Even though I played a 12 year old FPS game, it felt so refreshing. It was not over the top theatrical, but it still conveyed the atmosphere perfectly. I felt trapped underground, and the gameplay felt on point. It didn't hold your hand, and you could go at it your own pace and explore a little. You had to think about what you were doing. Something similar can be said for the sequels.

mediocre gameplay yes.... no that was me. I've explained already this... sigh.

Be interesting to see if at the 20 year mark Halflife (due to being incredibly, groundbreaking and influential) is still talked about. It's getting there.

Hmph. I played the original Half Life first in 2008 I believe, couldn't bother playing more than 30 min at the time. I played Black Mesa, and got to a part with office rooms or something.

Half Life just isn't a very good series for those with short attention spans like myself. Although I am very inconsistent, like I love Red Dead Redemption which is horrible drawn out and yet fucking wonderful.

oh so it was u who said 'bu-bu-bu bloom isnt a big deal in halo!!!!!' without having played halo and 'bots are not big deal in titanfall!!!!' haha

if tlou has mediocre gameplay name a tps with better gameplay

Fair enough! I just thought I'd like to put my story out there to show that this franchise shouldn't be put down because of its age, or accusing those who love it only because of nostalgia or overrating it for whatever reason. I'm just an example of just showing that it's possible for people to still enjoy the games so much that it becomes one of their favourite franchises.

I remember this now... I didn't know what bloom was mainly because halo reach was dogs*ite to me.

Why? whats the point? I could say the majority of them (the quality ones at least) given they are played over years by millions for their gameplay.... whereas TLOU will dissapear just like MGS4 into "that title cows wouldn't shut up about .... for a year."

@MBirdy88: halo reach is dog shit to everyone as is halo 4. if u consider tlou gameplay mediocre i want to know what tps u think has good gameplay, please name one

The appeal to me is simply that it's a near-seamless player-driven game with great atmosphere, characters, and storytelling which is an incredibly rare commodity in video games. If only Half Life 2 didn't have those few parts where you get stuck waiting for someone to talk, and other boring parts. It can be a chore sometimes.

Half Life 1 and the expansions are amazing though. The pacing is perfect all the way through, you choose whether or not you give a crap about what someone says (and picking up on the story this way rather than cutscenes is an amazing experience), and the puzzles and exploration are more engaging. You owe it to yourself to play the first games even if you didn't like Half Life 2. They're so much better.