What's so great about Half Life 2
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I would replace this with Valve. Valve is the King Midas of gaming, everything they touch is gold(even if it's not). Look at L4D, just because it's associated with Valve, a series of if/else statements becomes "the most innovative AI ever!".On topic, HL2 is an great game, although I think it would be harder to appreciate if you first play it now rather than when it came out.
ANeuralPathway
^ Because paradigm shifts in video games world occur much, much faster than in any other worlds, plus many of people just look for instant entertainment, and don't place given game at certain point of time, and they won't evaluate their significance, innovations, technical prowess on that basis, because standards have changed, but they not evaluate the game in the standards at the time it came out, but in current standards.
Ill answer your question with another question, whats so great about WoW that made you play 1000 hours of it?HelbrecI can't answer that in less then a thousand words "World of Warcraft is one of the few games that shatters the high level of hype. People regard this game as the best massively multiplayer online role playing game, and well they are right to do so. World of Warcraft has something to offer to everyone and both fans of Warcraft and MMORPG's have something to get from this. Of course World of Warcraft is also an excellent way to get into the MMORPG genre as it is easy to pick up but difficult to master. World of Warcraft is a game that rewards you for putting the time into it but of course this game also requires a lot of skill, especially in the later part of the game known as 'end-game'. World of Warcraft centers on the struggle for power between the horde and the alliance. The player can choose from 8 different races in the original game and can choose from a variety of classes including warlock, warrior, hunter, mage, priest, paladin, shaman, druid, and rogue. Once the player customizes their character, they are thrust into a unique beginning portion of the game which is only available to the race they select. Each race has their own home city and area with the exception of Dwarves and Gnomes, and the Orcs and Trolls who share a beginning area and home city. Each race also has unique characteristics which make them specialize in a certain play style and class. This helps bring incentive for players to make alternative characters. On a technical level World of Warcraft is pretty amazing. The fact that a world the size of Australia can be loaded within a few seconds is a great feat in itself. The bigger feat is the game is absolutely gorgeous. Four years down the road and the game is still a pleasure to look at. The world is beautifully rendered and even though it doesn't have the highest-res textures or the best character models the world is still gorgeous, colorful and memorable. Each region in the world is completely different from the rest and they all have something awesome in them. It's often fun to just explore regions and search out the amazing scenery. The player models aren't amazing looking and could look better but I won't hold that against the game. Most of the time your player is covered head to toe in armor so that's a non issue. The armor looks great for the most part, especially the flashy epics and legendary weapons you can get later down the road. World of Warcraft offers a lot of things in term of gameplay. In fact the game is almost endless due to the constant updates Blizzard gives for the game. Be it new raids or updates to the PvP in the game, World of Warcraft has something to satisfy hardcore fans of Player versus Environment or Player versus Player. The PvP in World of Warcraft is secondary to the PvE but it's still great. There are three battlegrounds in the base game, there are Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch, and Arathi Basin. Eye of the Storm and Arena was added later on the in the expansion pack, Burning Crusade as well as a variety of world PvP but that's for the review of Burning Crusade. Warsong Gulch is your basic capture the flag mode, Arathi Basin is your basic capture the point mode and Alterac Valley is something else all together. The objective is to bring down the other teams recruits either by killing the other sides players, killing the other sides captains, capturing the other sides points or eventually killing the other sides general which is an instant win. All of these games are very fun and each one is well played and well made. A lot of strategy is required and failing to work as a team will equate to a loss. The game rewards players for PvP by giving them tokens to buy gears and weapons with. It's a system that works well and I have no complaint with it. I just wish there was more world PvP implemented. There are also some problems with classes being overpowered but Blizzard fixes these issues often due to the constant patching the game gets. The PvE is the strong part of World of Warcraft. The quests are all interesting and though they can be repetitive it's difficult to really make varied quest structure in an MMORPG. They tried their best for the most part and it's nothing to complain about. There are also quests requiring you to do a dungeon or raid which often leads to you gaining some great weapons, armor, and other items. A great feature implemented into World of Warcraft is the ability to share quests with your friends easily so if you find a friend and want to pair up it's easy to do so. World of Warcraft has a lot of features like this and they put a lot of care into these little details. PvE is a blast with a friend and it's very easy to get together and quest. Dungeons and raids are also well implemented into the game and provide satisfying and challenging gameplay. There is no feeling more satisfying then completing a dungeon and getting the gear you wanted. Completing raids is also amazing as they often require intense team work and great strategy. The game is quite challenging at these moments and they are the bread and butter of the game for many users. The game offers many dungeons for almost every level above level 10 so there is no moment in the game where you can't do an instance. There is also a handy feature where you can look for a group to do a dungeon with and it works well and is the easiest way to find a group. There is also a teleportating device at every dungeon to summon other players which makes it easy to get together. Raids are not easy to get a group together for. To raid you'll have to join a guild but this is no bad thing. Guild are well implemented into World of Warcraft and they are great as many are strong and active communities. I've met countless great people in guilds. Most of them are very similar to clans as they have forums, websites, and teamspeaks. Starting a guild is easy but guiding it to greatness will take a lot of time and many great friends. Guilds are easy to find though and it's easy to get into raids for the most part once in a guild. If you don't want to socialize though in World of Warcraft don't bother beause you'll need to if you plan to raid or do any end-game. I could talk about everything in World of Warcraft but it would take far too long. All I can say is that now is as good a time as ever to buy the game, the game is constantly updated and endless. There is a great community and the game is an awesome experience for any fan of PC gaming. With some friends World of Warcraft is well worth experiencing and the 14.99 monthly fee is very reasonable for what you get. This game has my seal for being one of my favorite games of all time. Good: Endless content, amazing artistic graphics, challenging, strong PvP element, great community, guilds are great, raiding and dungeons are some of the the most satisfying moments in gaming history. Bad: You'll be hooked, 14.99 is a bit much for some people, world PvP could use an overhaul Overall: The perfect game, endless value and a lot to do World of Warcraft will have you hooked for a long time. " Answer your question?
I keep trying to play this game but it bores me beyond tears. There is little that is good in this game and honestly I've put it off for so long because so many other games look better but now that I'm finally playing it what the hell was the hype about.
Goods:
- Looks Nice
- Controls alright except for...
- Neat characters like Alyx
- Decent Envrionments
Bads:
- Controls in driving are weak, driving sequences weak overall
- Gordon Freeman is as stale as yesterdays oatmeal, worst character I've seen in a long time
- Apart from the gravity gun the weapons are uninteresting
- Enemy is stupid on the standard difficulty
- Anti-climactic
- Poor story in every shape or form, I have no care for it at all even though I get what's going on. None of the plot twists have even impacted me one bit
- Derivitive, I know it's an FPS but it feels so repetitive.
- There are some annoying platforming and puzzling like that sequence with the crane, what was the point?
So tell me hermits, what was so great about this. I've played up to the end of the prison and at this moment I give it a 5.0 out of 10
Does it get better or is this game just a dud
EDIT: Yes I played Half Life 1 when it came out 10 years agoToriko42
LOL it took you this long to finaly play HL2????
anyways half life 2 is one of the best games of all time,/thread
[QUOTE="Helbrec"]Ill answer your question with another question, whats so great about WoW that made you play 1000 hours of it?Toriko42I can't answer that in less then a thousand words "World of Warcraft is one of the few games that shatters the high level of hype. People regard this game as the best massively multiplayer online role playing game, and well they are right to do so. World of Warcraft has something to offer to everyone and both fans of Warcraft and MMORPG's have something to get from this. Of course World of Warcraft is also an excellent way to get into the MMORPG genre as it is easy to pick up but difficult to master. World of Warcraft is a game that rewards you for putting the time into it but of course this game also requires a lot of skill, especially in the later part of the game known as 'end-game'. World of Warcraft centers on the struggle for power between the horde and the alliance. The player can choose from 8 different races in the original game and can choose from a variety of classes including warlock, warrior, hunter, mage, priest, paladin, shaman, druid, and rogue. Once the player customizes their character, they are thrust into a unique beginning portion of the game which is only available to the race they select. Each race has their own home city and area with the exception of Dwarves and Gnomes, and the Orcs and Trolls who share a beginning area and home city. Each race also has unique characteristics which make them specialize in a certain play style and class. This helps bring incentive for players to make alternative characters. On a technical level World of Warcraft is pretty amazing. The fact that a world the size of Australia can be loaded within a few seconds is a great feat in itself. The bigger feat is the game is absolutely gorgeous. Four years down the road and the game is still a pleasure to look at. The world is beautifully rendered and even though it doesn't have the highest-res textures or the best character models the world is still gorgeous, colorful and memorable. Each region in the world is completely different from the rest and they all have something awesome in them. It's often fun to just explore regions and search out the amazing scenery. The player models aren't amazing looking and could look better but I won't hold that against the game. Most of the time your player is covered head to toe in armor so that's a non issue. The armor looks great for the most part, especially the flashy epics and legendary weapons you can get later down the road. World of Warcraft offers a lot of things in term of gameplay. In fact the game is almost endless due to the constant updates Blizzard gives for the game. Be it new raids or updates to the PvP in the game, World of Warcraft has something to satisfy hardcore fans of Player versus Environment or Player versus Player. The PvP in World of Warcraft is secondary to the PvE but it's still great. There are three battlegrounds in the base game, there are Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch, and Arathi Basin. Eye of the Storm and Arena was added later on the in the expansion pack, Burning Crusade as well as a variety of world PvP but that's for the review of Burning Crusade. Warsong Gulch is your basic capture the flag mode, Arathi Basin is your basic capture the point mode and Alterac Valley is something else all together. The objective is to bring down the other teams recruits either by killing the other sides players, killing the other sides captains, capturing the other sides points or eventually killing the other sides general which is an instant win. All of these games are very fun and each one is well played and well made. A lot of strategy is required and failing to work as a team will equate to a loss. The game rewards players for PvP by giving them tokens to buy gears and weapons with. It's a system that works well and I have no complaint with it. I just wish there was more world PvP implemented. There are also some problems with classes being overpowered but Blizzard fixes these issues often due to the constant patching the game gets. The PvE is the strong part of World of Warcraft. The quests are all interesting and though they can be repetitive it's difficult to really make varied quest structure in an MMORPG. They tried their best for the most part and it's nothing to complain about. There are also quests requiring you to do a dungeon or raid which often leads to you gaining some great weapons, armor, and other items. A great feature implemented into World of Warcraft is the ability to share quests with your friends easily so if you find a friend and want to pair up it's easy to do so. World of Warcraft has a lot of features like this and they put a lot of care into these little details. PvE is a blast with a friend and it's very easy to get together and quest. Dungeons and raids are also well implemented into the game and provide satisfying and challenging gameplay. There is no feeling more satisfying then completing a dungeon and getting the gear you wanted. Completing raids is also amazing as they often require intense team work and great strategy. The game is quite challenging at these moments and they are the bread and butter of the game for many users. The game offers many dungeons for almost every level above level 10 so there is no moment in the game where you can't do an instance. There is also a handy feature where you can look for a group to do a dungeon with and it works well and is the easiest way to find a group. There is also a teleportating device at every dungeon to summon other players which makes it easy to get together. Raids are not easy to get a group together for. To raid you'll have to join a guild but this is no bad thing. Guild are well implemented into World of Warcraft and they are great as many are strong and active communities. I've met countless great people in guilds. Most of them are very similar to clans as they have forums, websites, and teamspeaks. Starting a guild is easy but guiding it to greatness will take a lot of time and many great friends. Guilds are easy to find though and it's easy to get into raids for the most part once in a guild. If you don't want to socialize though in World of Warcraft don't bother beause you'll need to if you plan to raid or do any end-game. I could talk about everything in World of Warcraft but it would take far too long. All I can say is that now is as good a time as ever to buy the game, the game is constantly updated and endless. There is a great community and the game is an awesome experience for any fan of PC gaming. With some friends World of Warcraft is well worth experiencing and the 14.99 monthly fee is very reasonable for what you get. This game has my seal for being one of my favorite games of all time. Good: Endless content, amazing artistic graphics, challenging, strong PvP element, great community, guilds are great, raiding and dungeons are some of the the most satisfying moments in gaming history. Bad: You'll be hooked, 14.99 is a bit much for some people, world PvP could use an overhaul Overall: The perfect game, endless value and a lot to do World of Warcraft will have you hooked for a long time. " Answer your question? To sum that up: Addictive gameplay and alot of content. I like WOW, but I have steered clear of it due to money issues. Not worth it right now for me. I might get into the next Blizzard MMO though.
[QUOTE="Toriko42"][QUOTE="Helbrec"]Ill answer your question with another question, whats so great about WoW that made you play 1000 hours of it?TREAL_SinceI can't answer that in less then a thousand words "World of Warcraft is one of the few games that shatters the high level of hype. People regard this game as the best massively multiplayer online role playing game, and well they are right to do so. World of Warcraft has something to offer to everyone and both fans of Warcraft and MMORPG's have something to get from this. Of course World of Warcraft is also an excellent way to get into the MMORPG genre as it is easy to pick up but difficult to master. World of Warcraft is a game that rewards you for putting the time into it but of course this game also requires a lot of skill, especially in the later part of the game known as 'end-game'. World of Warcraft centers on the struggle for power between the horde and the alliance. The player can choose from 8 different races in the original game and can choose from a variety of classes including warlock, warrior, hunter, mage, priest, paladin, shaman, druid, and rogue. Once the player customizes their character, they are thrust into a unique beginning portion of the game which is only available to the race they select. Each race has their own home city and area with the exception of Dwarves and Gnomes, and the Orcs and Trolls who share a beginning area and home city. Each race also has unique characteristics which make them specialize in a certain play style and class. This helps bring incentive for players to make alternative characters. On a technical level World of Warcraft is pretty amazing. The fact that a world the size of Australia can be loaded within a few seconds is a great feat in itself. The bigger feat is the game is absolutely gorgeous. Four years down the road and the game is still a pleasure to look at. The world is beautifully rendered and even though it doesn't have the highest-res textures or the best character models the world is still gorgeous, colorful and memorable. Each region in the world is completely different from the rest and they all have something awesome in them. It's often fun to just explore regions and search out the amazing scenery. The player models aren't amazing looking and could look better but I won't hold that against the game. Most of the time your player is covered head to toe in armor so that's a non issue. The armor looks great for the most part, especially the flashy epics and legendary weapons you can get later down the road. World of Warcraft offers a lot of things in term of gameplay. In fact the game is almost endless due to the constant updates Blizzard gives for the game. Be it new raids or updates to the PvP in the game, World of Warcraft has something to satisfy hardcore fans of Player versus Environment or Player versus Player. The PvP in World of Warcraft is secondary to the PvE but it's still great. There are three battlegrounds in the base game, there are Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch, and Arathi Basin. Eye of the Storm and Arena was added later on the in the expansion pack, Burning Crusade as well as a variety of world PvP but that's for the review of Burning Crusade. Warsong Gulch is your basic capture the flag mode, Arathi Basin is your basic capture the point mode and Alterac Valley is something else all together. The objective is to bring down the other teams recruits either by killing the other sides players, killing the other sides captains, capturing the other sides points or eventually killing the other sides general which is an instant win. All of these games are very fun and each one is well played and well made. A lot of strategy is required and failing to work as a team will equate to a loss. The game rewards players for PvP by giving them tokens to buy gears and weapons with. It's a system that works well and I have no complaint with it. I just wish there was more world PvP implemented. There are also some problems with classes being overpowered but Blizzard fixes these issues often due to the constant patching the game gets. The PvE is the strong part of World of Warcraft. The quests are all interesting and though they can be repetitive it's difficult to really make varied quest structure in an MMORPG. They tried their best for the most part and it's nothing to complain about. There are also quests requiring you to do a dungeon or raid which often leads to you gaining some great weapons, armor, and other items. A great feature implemented into World of Warcraft is the ability to share quests with your friends easily so if you find a friend and want to pair up it's easy to do so. World of Warcraft has a lot of features like this and they put a lot of care into these little details. PvE is a blast with a friend and it's very easy to get together and quest. Dungeons and raids are also well implemented into the game and provide satisfying and challenging gameplay. There is no feeling more satisfying then completing a dungeon and getting the gear you wanted. Completing raids is also amazing as they often require intense team work and great strategy. The game is quite challenging at these moments and they are the bread and butter of the game for many users. The game offers many dungeons for almost every level above level 10 so there is no moment in the game where you can't do an instance. There is also a handy feature where you can look for a group to do a dungeon with and it works well and is the easiest way to find a group. There is also a teleportating device at every dungeon to summon other players which makes it easy to get together. Raids are not easy to get a group together for. To raid you'll have to join a guild but this is no bad thing. Guild are well implemented into World of Warcraft and they are great as many are strong and active communities. I've met countless great people in guilds. Most of them are very similar to clans as they have forums, websites, and teamspeaks. Starting a guild is easy but guiding it to greatness will take a lot of time and many great friends. Guilds are easy to find though and it's easy to get into raids for the most part once in a guild. If you don't want to socialize though in World of Warcraft don't bother beause you'll need to if you plan to raid or do any end-game. I could talk about everything in World of Warcraft but it would take far too long. All I can say is that now is as good a time as ever to buy the game, the game is constantly updated and endless. There is a great community and the game is an awesome experience for any fan of PC gaming. With some friends World of Warcraft is well worth experiencing and the 14.99 monthly fee is very reasonable for what you get. This game has my seal for being one of my favorite games of all time. Good: Endless content, amazing artistic graphics, challenging, strong PvP element, great community, guilds are great, raiding and dungeons are some of the the most satisfying moments in gaming history. Bad: You'll be hooked, 14.99 is a bit much for some people, world PvP could use an overhaul Overall: The perfect game, endless value and a lot to do World of Warcraft will have you hooked for a long time. " Answer your question? To sum that up: Addictive gameplay and alot of content. I like WOW, but I have steered clear of it due to money issues. Not worth it right now for me. I might get into the next Blizzard MMO though. Blizzard is gonna keep WoW as it's MMO, believe me
[QUOTE="ANeuralPathway"]I would replace this with Valve. Valve is the King Midas of gaming, everything they touch is gold(even if it's not). Look at L4D, just because it's associated with Valve, a series of if/else statements becomes "the most innovative AI ever!".
On topic, HL2 is an great game, although I think it would be harder to appreciate if you first play it now rather than when it came out.
Salt_The_Fries
^ Because paradigm shifts in video games world occur much, much faster than in any other worlds, plus many of people just look for instant entertainment, and don't place given game at certain point of time, and they won't evaluate their significance, innovations, technical prowess on that basis, because standards have changed, but they not evaluate the game in the standards at the time it came out, but in current standards.
Pretty much.
Seems kinda foolish to me, there are a lot of great games from the past that are still great if you don't judge them by current standards, I still break out my old 16bit consoles all the time(best gen IMO). I've also been having a lot of fun with HL1 lately, I lost my disc to it at some point, so that .98$ deal on Steam was an awesome steal.
its shooting is health based which isn't good so no recharge. but i think shooting annoying enemies like lionbugs and headcrabs were bad. Id give 8.5/10. Best feature is it's actually long and has good story gordan freeman is so cool all he needs is a voice.
I HATED HL2 when it first came out. But only over time, as I started to observe the games subtleties, did I actually begin to like it. It took years for me to "get" the game. And now I think it's brilliant.
So I can undertsnad why you didn't like it. I too felt the AI was underwhelming. Especially after the marines in HL1.
But the Hunters in Episode 2 are the equivalent of the marines. They are amazing.
I think you're right. A lot of the story is told through subtle snippets of information - a magazine here, an off-hand comment there. You really need to take your time and pay attention to get the story. That being said, I loved the game but thought Half-Life was better - probably because it amazed me so much at the time of release.Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Your judgement is different than anyone elses.
I will say this however, why are you playing it now for the first time? It's 4 years old, so I would argue that you are not far enough into the game (including the episodes) to feel for the story.
I had a weak computer that couldn't run it back then so I played Half Life 1 that year and loved it, then I forgot about the second till now because of so many other games.Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Your judgement is different than anyone elses.
I will say this however, why are you playing it now for the first time? It's 4 years old, so I would argue that you are not far enough into the game (including the episodes) to feel for the story.
purple_MAN1832
I think you're right. A lot of the story is told through subtle snippets of information - a magazine here, an off-hand comment there. You really need to take your time and pay attention to get the story. That being said, I loved the game but thought Half-Life was better - probably because it amazed me so much at the time of release. mattbbpl
It's sublty is brilliant. To this day, almost every single time I play, I encounter something I've never discovered before. Valve LOVES to put effort into the littlest things, even if that means that their effort is going to be ignored by the significant majority.
For example. I was playing Highway 17 about five minutes ago. I just got off. So I storm the house that the three combine with the binoculars are while they are observing Odessa's base. I kill them all. Get some ammo, and then leave. When I go back to my car, I see that a seagul has landed on my car. I giggle and pull out my pistol and shoot it. As I approach my car to get back in, I look on the ground and see poop from the very bird I shot. That poop was not there before. They put THAT small little detail in the game, and it took me over 4 years to notice it. That is the genius of Half Life 2.
Alright, I've almost completed the game and I say this now My opinion has tottally changed Once you start the 3rd last chapter of the game it becomes amazing, this is an awesome game I'm hookedToriko42:lol: That is why you finish a game before passing judgement.
lol this whole thread just proves that console fanboys wouldnt know a good game if it hit them in the face....voodoochild815Yeah I'm a console fanboy My xfire is a mere 2 hours played of PC games, I obviously hate PC gaming man I hate all pc gaming And I didn't just say "Alright, I've almost completed the game and I say this now My opinion has tottally changed Once you start the 3rd last chapter of the game it becomes amazing, this is an awesome game I'm hooked" Proof herms don't pay attention
For it's time, the game was excellent IMO. How the hell do you make FPS gameplay feel "special" anymore when there are so many out there now.SMR-Venom
I'd take it a step further and say the gameplay holds up to any shooter that's out now. It's certainly better than every shooter I've played. I just finished geow recently, and I'm playing crysis now, and while the visceral feel of running, and the kickback of the guns feels sooo much better in these newer shooters, Half Life 2 gets the very basics of games down: level and event design. By comparison in this respect, crysis and gears are bland, and halo is repetitive and basic. The atmosphere is also one of the most well established in any fps, including bioshock. The issue with bioshock is that you need to invest a fair amount of time to really get a lot of the atmosphere, the background, where as in HL2, it's interegrated perfectly into the gameplay, from the simple opening of breen's speech on the monitors to finding alyx etc. The story is straight forward except for 2 things: it doesn't answer all the outstanding questions, and the ending is a cliffhanger, otherwise there's little to be confused about, but it's compelling. One issue with gears, crysis, and most FPS's is that aside from the very broad goals of save archeologists, kill north koreans, or some such, you're basically dragged from one scenario to the next. For instance in crysis, you've saved the archeologists, oh wait, now it's time for all out war. It's not as cohesive as the errands you run in HL2, where each "quest" isn't nearly as easy to separate from the last.
For its time it was amazing. Now, I'd say CoD4 is up there with it, but HL2 still takes my vote as the best FPS around. If you dont' like linearity though, this could be a problem game.
BTW when are vehicle segments ever great in FPS's? they usually suck. Especially tanks. It's point and death. Halo is really the only exception I can think of and it's not because the vehicle segments themselves are great, it's just the variety of vehicles available which spice up this obligatory part of shooters.
[QUOTE="voodoochild815"]lol this whole thread just proves that console fanboys wouldnt know a good game if it hit them in the face....Toriko42Yeah I'm a console fanboy My xfire is a mere 2 hours played of PC games, I obviously hate PC gaming man I hate all pc gaming And I didn't just say "Alright, I've almost completed the game and I say this now My opinion has tottally changed Once you start the 3rd last chapter of the game it becomes amazing, this is an awesome game I'm hooked" Proof herms don't pay attention Good to see that you're finally having fun. Playing Episode 1 I see.
[QUOTE="Toriko42"][QUOTE="voodoochild815"]lol this whole thread just proves that console fanboys wouldnt know a good game if it hit them in the face....mo0ksiYeah I'm a console fanboy My xfire is a mere 2 hours played of PC games, I obviously hate PC gaming man I hate all pc gaming And I didn't just say "Alright, I've almost completed the game and I say this now My opinion has tottally changed Once you start the 3rd last chapter of the game it becomes amazing, this is an awesome game I'm hooked" Proof herms don't pay attention Good to see that you're finally having fun. Playing Episode 1 I see. Yep, need to find out how it goes
[QUOTE="mattbbpl"]I think you're right. A lot of the story is told through subtle snippets of information - a magazine here, an off-hand comment there. You really need to take your time and pay attention to get the story. That being said, I loved the game but thought Half-Life was better - probably because it amazed me so much at the time of release. organic_machine
It's sublty is brilliant. To this day, almost every single time I play, I encounter something I've never discovered before. Valve LOVES to put effort into the littlest things, even if that means that their effort is going to be ignored by the significant majority.
For example. I was playing Highway 17 about five minutes ago. I just got off. So I storm the house that the three combine with the binoculars are while they are observing Odessa's base. I kill them all. Get some ammo, and then leave. When I go back to my car, I see that a seagul has landed on my car. I giggle and pull out my pistol and shoot it. As I approach my car to get back in, I look on the ground and see poop from the very bird I shot. That poop was not there before. They put THAT small little detail in the game, and it took me over 4 years to notice it. That is the genius of Half Life 2.
Going loco over a bird crapping after you've shot it is THE definition of a fanboy, I'm sorry. I really struggled not to wake up my daughter laughing with that one. THAT kind of detail "is the genius of Half Life 2." Wow... rich buddy... rich...Half-Life 2 is a good game, but it doesn't deserve the praise it's getting. I found a good third of the game to be "meh"; in other words, there were areas that felt either very repetitive (much of the driving sequences minus the bridge sequence in what I think is Highway 17), tedious (all of the find-the-switch "puzzles" in the levels before Ravenholm), or just plain dull (the gunplay in the levels before Ravenholm). On the other hand, the story was great for an FPS, even though it dragged on at times. The environment was rich and heavily detailed, and the only thing stopping the "immersion factor" from achieving its full effect was the lack of ambient sound. And running around with a fully charged gravity gun is just plain awesome.
The game has some really great moments; it's just that people are blowing them out of proportion.
Episode 2 was awesome, though.
Up to that point, it was just everything a shooter could hope to be. I sincerely believe though, that the amazing presentation hid some of its flaws. It had odd pacing, almost no story, crap A.I, and save the Gravity Gun, 10 year old gameplay. I mean, it plays almost exactly the same as the original, which itself wasn't known for its gunplay, simply because it wasn't evolutionary.
On vanilla, the replay value of this game sucks (As opposed to F.E.A.R, Condemned, or Halo which just want to make the shooting as fun as possible). You can play it two or three times, then it just becomes lame. Partly because of the stupid gunplay, but yeah you'll need the Substance mod or some other mod (or if you like your graphics, a FakeFactory mod) to tank through it again. Actually, the Substance mod makes all the freakin' difference. Wow, you can finally play Half-Life 2 for sheer gameplay value :P
Episode Two is probably the best of the Half-Life 2 franchise, but it's not an essential like the original is.
It's a commendable series, and if I had to rank them, it would go:
Half-Life > Half-Life 2 > Opposing Force > Episode Two > Episode One > Blue Shift
Anyway, you can read my more informed review here. Also reviewed Episode One and Episode Two.
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