What's so great about Half-Life 1? (Not a rant) Poll included!

Just as a word of warning, this is not flamebait, trolling, or whatever you want to take this for, it's simply me asking what seems to be a community where most prefer the original Half-Life over Half-Life 2. I have read numerous posts for quite a while about how innovative and amazing Half-Life 1 is, but I just can't understand it.  I am not biased in any way, I have played both on the PC, but I felt Half-Life 1 lacking compared to its sequel. Half-Life 2 was a revolutionary game, and is undoubtedly the best FPS I have ever played, the gravity gun, the story, the vehicles, the physics, the enemies, the graphics, it was all perfect. The environments were very unique and you really felt like you was on the run from the combine the entire time, the action was intense and was extremely unique.

Half-Life 1 on the other hand, which I bought after enjoying the second one so much, left me wondering how it got the praise that it did. It's boring, the enemies aren't so much smart as they are overpowered, like a whole clip of machine gun ammo to take down ONE soldier, where's the fun in that? you spend most of the time getting frustrated because while you're trying to conserve ammo you have to waste it all to do something like that. People complain about Half-Life 2's lack of bosses, but what's so great about Half-Life 1's? it's not a boss fight, it's a puzzle with a massive monster trying to kill you. The graphics are bad, but i'll let that one slide because it IS an old game. The weapons are also not great imo, people say that the arsenal in Half-Life 1 far surpasses Half-Life 2's, that the alien weapons are "great fun" but after having the gravity gun. not a single one of these weapons felt any good, they all seemed lackluster, inclusing all of the prototypes. My last gripe with the original Half-Life, is the environments, it's just a bunch of labs and deserts, and at the end SPOILER WARNING you end up on an equally dull alien planet, what I thought to be an enjoyable journey like Half-Life 2's turned out to be nothing more than trapsing through labs and sand killing dull, overpowered enemies. The one thing good about this game is the AI, which they should have used in Half-Life 2, the health in Half-Life 2 was far more realistic, the enemies were not though.

Anyway, that's my opinion, so after all that, please, somebody give me a good reason why Half-Life 1 is the best Half-Life to have been released, and why Half-Life 2 pales in comparison. Or, can anyone else who preferred Half-Life 2 give their opinion on why they preferred it.

Half-Life 1 was much better IMO

You said it yourself, its an old game. When it came out, like in 98 or something, it was blew everything out of the water. Before that, most Fps's were stale and lacking in compelling stories. Of course you're gonna think Half Life1 is boring after playing the second.weffer

which I bought after enjoying the second one so much,weffer

Let me guess... you played Half Life 2 first, right?foxhound_fox

Before Half Life, most first person shooters divided the game into levels, and when you passed one you couldn't go back. Half Life made the entire game one huge level, one where you could pass back and forth between zones in the level. It also incorporated NPCs into its design, and made the world feel less isolated, and more realistic. The AI for the soldiers at the time was awesome, since most enemies in other shooters at the time would stand there while you gunned them down, and when you took cover they would foolishly move to where you were hiding. But in Half Life, they'd flush you out with grenades, retreat, take cover, regroup with other soldiers, etc. With scripted events like Black Mesa guards fighting aliens, you felt as though you were part of something bigger than the game. Also, there was item placement. Before Half Life, shooters had randomly placed items, like shotguns in the corner of the room, or ammo and health placed directly in the middle of the room. But in Half Life, you could get ammo from dead soldiers, or power up the environmental suit with powerups hanging on the wall.

Plus, it was Valve's first game. Being one of the biggest revolutions in the first person shooter genre with your first game deserves some credit, at least.

well, i have to disagree with most of what you said. Besides the gravity gun, half life 2's weapons were mostly bland. The half life experimental weapons rocked and the standard weapons were much better than half life 2's because they didn't feel weak, and they were more diverse. The first half life had better level design, better puzzles, was harder, was longer, had more surprises, and it had a lot of atmosphere, and it was revolutionary when it came out. I wouldn't exactly call half life 2 revolutionary like you did because it really didn't push the genre forward.

Also, there was more than 6 types of enemies, and i wouldn't call the boss battles,. besides the tentacles, puzzles. Gargantuas you could kill with explosives, and you had to kill nihilanth by shooting. There are other things i could list, but those are the main things. By the way, i love half life 2.

SystemShock2