Can someone please tell me why Half-Life 2 has such appeal?
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Wow this might be one of the greatest quotes ever.Lordmarkus said:
Half Life 2 is one of those games that wins by the fact that it's way more unique then a good chunk of other FPSs. Plus it really rules when it comes to the little things. For example Gordan Freeman does absolutly zero talking or really any form of communication, but when the player sees the recognition Freeman gets from the other characters just gives him great prescence that could only be made in a video game.
Also the gravity gun, its just way too awesome. Picking up saws and decapitating zombies is one of the greatest pleasures in the world of FPSs.
Umm... I enjoyed it? That is to say, I played the game and found the experience to be a pleasant one.
...
What more do you want me to say?
I could crap on and on about exactly why I enjoyed it, but what's the point? If you didn't enjoy the game then me explaining why I did enjoy it isn't exactly going to change anything.
Screw it, I have time. I'll try anyway.
I liked the manner in the which the story was told. Much (but not all) of it was done through observation of the environment instead of front-loaded exposition. For example, at no point does anyone say, "The Earth has been invaded by aliens who have established a totalitarian government through human proxies." Instead the game just sticks you into the whole mess and lets you figure it out for yourself. Much of it was done through implication. Nobody ever says, "The world outside the city is a wild and dangerous place." Instead, Dr Breen just says, "It's safer here". On a similar note, nobody ever says "Ravenholme has been infested with headcrabs delivered via Combine missile tubes." Instead, Alyx just says, "We don't go there anymore". Later on the player discovers the reasons for themselves.
I found the characters (Alyx, Isaac, Eli, Dog, Barney, etc) to be likable and relatable, albeit rather simple.
I found the gameplay to be... alright. I don't think it's the best ever. But it was quite adequate. If nothing else it had plenty of variety. Old-school run-and-gun, high speed jumps in a fanboat, grabbing manhacks out of the air and using them as improvised missiles, playing catch with a boisterous robotic ape, commanding a squad of giant insects, guiding missiles into gunships, the occasional physics puzzle. I was never bored, which is more then I can say for many games.
And there you have it. Somehow I doubt the above paragraphs have caused a epiphany on your part. If the game isn't to your liking then I'm sure there will be others out there that are.
Like Call of Duty 7.
(Sorry, sorry. That was uncalled for. But I couldn't resist.)
...
What more do you want me to say?
I could crap on and on about exactly why I enjoyed it, but what's the point? If you didn't enjoy the game then me explaining why I did enjoy it isn't exactly going to change anything.
Screw it, I have time. I'll try anyway.
I liked the manner in the which the story was told. Much (but not all) of it was done through observation of the environment instead of front-loaded exposition. For example, at no point does anyone say, "The Earth has been invaded by aliens who have established a totalitarian government through human proxies." Instead the game just sticks you into the whole mess and lets you figure it out for yourself. Much of it was done through implication. Nobody ever says, "The world outside the city is a wild and dangerous place." Instead, Dr Breen just says, "It's safer here". On a similar note, nobody ever says "Ravenholme has been infested with headcrabs delivered via Combine missile tubes." Instead, Alyx just says, "We don't go there anymore". Later on the player discovers the reasons for themselves.
I found the characters (Alyx, Isaac, Eli, Dog, Barney, etc) to be likable and relatable, albeit rather simple.
I found the gameplay to be... alright. I don't think it's the best ever. But it was quite adequate. If nothing else it had plenty of variety. Old-school run-and-gun, high speed jumps in a fanboat, grabbing manhacks out of the air and using them as improvised missiles, playing catch with a boisterous robotic ape, commanding a squad of giant insects, guiding missiles into gunships, the occasional physics puzzle. I was never bored, which is more then I can say for many games.
And there you have it. Somehow I doubt the above paragraphs have caused a epiphany on your part. If the game isn't to your liking then I'm sure there will be others out there that are.
Like Call of Duty 7.
(Sorry, sorry. That was uncalled for. But I couldn't resist.)
Yes, you have.OhJohnNo said:
I've seen you on many previous "why do people like HL2" threads. In fact, I think I've seen you on every such thread. You have seen plenty of answers that didn't consist of "It's DEEP/it's the THINKING MAN'S FPS/ It's made by VALVE".
You clearly didn't agree with those answers, but you've seen them.
Alyx didn't build Dog. Eli built him when Alyx was a kid. Alyx just added stuff onto him later.Zanaxal said:
If you wish criticize the game, go ahead. But do us the courtesy of getting your facts right.
Well, I never played Half-Life 1, so in terms of story, I gave up on HL2 early on. All that I can gather is that you're some scientist in power armor who has a hard-on for crowbars.
Half-Life 2, I really didn't like. I don't know if "hate" is the term I'm looking for, but it's certainly sub-par in my books. Why? It has variation, it has cool weapons, and there are lots of squishy targets to shoot, right? Well, in my opinion, the level design is mutilated. I've spent upwards of half an hour looking for a place to proceed only to find that there was a staircase camouflaged in the corner of an area that I couldn't see. Now, I'm all for puzzles and stuff, but it doesn't count as a puzzle when the game is just hiding the next part of the game from you.
However, despite my dislike of HL2, I did think Episodes 1 and 2 were pretty good. The level design was much better, and I had a lot of fun with those parts.
Half-Life 2, I really didn't like. I don't know if "hate" is the term I'm looking for, but it's certainly sub-par in my books. Why? It has variation, it has cool weapons, and there are lots of squishy targets to shoot, right? Well, in my opinion, the level design is mutilated. I've spent upwards of half an hour looking for a place to proceed only to find that there was a staircase camouflaged in the corner of an area that I couldn't see. Now, I'm all for puzzles and stuff, but it doesn't count as a puzzle when the game is just hiding the next part of the game from you.
However, despite my dislike of HL2, I did think Episodes 1 and 2 were pretty good. The level design was much better, and I had a lot of fun with those parts.
A good story maybe?
you know something IW can't make for shit.
anyways an old game will look dated HERP DURP!
you know something IW can't make for shit.
anyways an old game will look dated HERP DURP!
In all my years of Gaming, there haven't been many First Person Shooters that had me coming back and playing them over again once I had finished playing them at least once. Two are the Halo and Fallout Games. Both of them I have played multiple times (Halo for achievements and with friends and Fallout for the immersive universe Bethesda created for it)
But I have played Half-Life 2 at least 10 times since I bought it. I know that doesn't sound like a lot at first, but keep in mind I play them solo and mostly in one sitting from HL2 to Episode 2 (FINISH EPISODE 3 ALREADY VALVE!!). There so much to love about the game that I can't honestly make a complete list, it's the most fun Ive had while gaming in my life honestly. There's nothing wrong with Half-Life as a series at all (EXCEPT FOR VALVE's RELEASE DATES. We get it Valve, Left 4 Dead and Portal are popular, that doesn't mean you can just coast on them for a while and act like we forgot about Ep 3! Put down the Portal gun and pick up your damn crowbar!)
But I have played Half-Life 2 at least 10 times since I bought it. I know that doesn't sound like a lot at first, but keep in mind I play them solo and mostly in one sitting from HL2 to Episode 2 (FINISH EPISODE 3 ALREADY VALVE!!). There so much to love about the game that I can't honestly make a complete list, it's the most fun Ive had while gaming in my life honestly. There's nothing wrong with Half-Life as a series at all (EXCEPT FOR VALVE's RELEASE DATES. We get it Valve, Left 4 Dead and Portal are popular, that doesn't mean you can just coast on them for a while and act like we forgot about Ep 3! Put down the Portal gun and pick up your damn crowbar!)
It was a fun game, it took longer than the average fps and it had an actual story rather than the average fps excuse plot. I've got nothing against most fpses without propper stories as long as the gameplay holds up, but it was nice to see that someone made the effort to write a good plot
I, personally, liked the game because it was a shooter with a relatively interesting story/setting as far as FPSs go. I've played many FPSs, and Half-life 2 really came alive for me. Yes, it played like a generic shooter, but let me list of the things it did that I thought made it specifically good.
-Your female companion was unsexualized.
-You were a mute, something that most top-of-the-line shooters avoid (Which I thought was charming, since in some shooters, like Halo, the main character doesn't add much anyway, so why bother?)
-Cinematics were literally few and far between, making the exposition of the story more involving to the player (take the scene in Kleiner's lab in the beginning, for example).
-The story was easy to follow, and the action was nicely paced.
-The setting really made a universe for me. Shooters don't often do that. Shooters that did include Halo, Marathon, and Metal Arms. Most of the games that create universes (a game passes this test if I ever find myself thinking about the game's universe outside of playing the game) are RPGs like Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, Fallout, ande Geneforge*. As well, there are adventure games, like The Zelda games. Even StarCraft and WarCraft (not the World of, but the RTS) managaed to do this to an extent. Most other shooters I've ever played (as old as Duke Nukem 3D to newer titles like Gears of War) just didn't create universes for me to think on. I know this point is silly, but I'll make it anyway.
Then again, all of this is futile, because video games, like any other potential art, are personal. People take what they can from it. If it's different from someone else, there's really no use trying to convince them that it's good or bad. Because that person, deep down inside, knows what they think about a given game. If they found it average, then it's average to them. No two ways about it.
-Your female companion was unsexualized.
-You were a mute, something that most top-of-the-line shooters avoid (Which I thought was charming, since in some shooters, like Halo, the main character doesn't add much anyway, so why bother?)
-Cinematics were literally few and far between, making the exposition of the story more involving to the player (take the scene in Kleiner's lab in the beginning, for example).
-The story was easy to follow, and the action was nicely paced.
-The setting really made a universe for me. Shooters don't often do that. Shooters that did include Halo, Marathon, and Metal Arms. Most of the games that create universes (a game passes this test if I ever find myself thinking about the game's universe outside of playing the game) are RPGs like Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, Fallout, ande Geneforge*. As well, there are adventure games, like The Zelda games. Even StarCraft and WarCraft (not the World of, but the RTS) managaed to do this to an extent. Most other shooters I've ever played (as old as Duke Nukem 3D to newer titles like Gears of War) just didn't create universes for me to think on. I know this point is silly, but I'll make it anyway.
Then again, all of this is futile, because video games, like any other potential art, are personal. People take what they can from it. If it's different from someone else, there's really no use trying to convince them that it's good or bad. Because that person, deep down inside, knows what they think about a given game. If they found it average, then it's average to them. No two ways about it.
I will really never respect this game. Not that many fps's are respectable at all. People saying like the story is nice. Just have really low standards to fps's i guess.
Sending 100'dreds of combine soldiers all over a city to find one man is really stupid. all the way along sewer canals and roads. Also pretty prepostorous. Putting Explosive Barrels in every area of the game also really unlikely and stupid. The whole winding 1 way road of the game is also silly and just puts ridgidity into a game of where you are allowed to go, A closed door is alot better then placing a no crossing barrier just BECAUSE you have to cross through a army of boring bland zombies and Combine. Why have a car in a game when you can only drive within a small stretch of road.
It's like they intentionally put in bits of different crap with no real story correlation or common knowledge involved (Yep people use see-saws as ladders in the future) just to keep players from getting bored. While everything else just suffers. Focusing on enemy types and weapons is always the main goal of a fps them map layout being the final piece. And hl2 fails in all of those 3.
It's kind of like a fps that isn't a fps. More like a driving, physics, speedboating, whiny girlfriend, cranedrving, gravity beam simulator. Well it's just not a pure fps in that respect. Most likely they found it was the best way to keep the human mind interrested in blandy fps games.
So hl2 is like a designed by psychyatrists, wanting to tickle the attention part of the brain of low attention span ppl.
I on the other hand prefer my fps's to be a fps and will always see hl1 to be far far superior.
Sending 100'dreds of combine soldiers all over a city to find one man is really stupid. all the way along sewer canals and roads. Also pretty prepostorous. Putting Explosive Barrels in every area of the game also really unlikely and stupid. The whole winding 1 way road of the game is also silly and just puts ridgidity into a game of where you are allowed to go, A closed door is alot better then placing a no crossing barrier just BECAUSE you have to cross through a army of boring bland zombies and Combine. Why have a car in a game when you can only drive within a small stretch of road.
It's like they intentionally put in bits of different crap with no real story correlation or common knowledge involved (Yep people use see-saws as ladders in the future) just to keep players from getting bored. While everything else just suffers. Focusing on enemy types and weapons is always the main goal of a fps them map layout being the final piece. And hl2 fails in all of those 3.
It's kind of like a fps that isn't a fps. More like a driving, physics, speedboating, whiny girlfriend, cranedrving, gravity beam simulator. Well it's just not a pure fps in that respect. Most likely they found it was the best way to keep the human mind interrested in blandy fps games.
So hl2 is like a designed by psychyatrists, wanting to tickle the attention part of the brain of low attention span ppl.
I on the other hand prefer my fps's to be a fps and will always see hl1 to be far far superior.
Yes, because there's not a REASON that people like the series, or become fans of Valve's work, NO it's all just BLIND CREATOR WORSHIP.Blatherscythe said:
The reason I love half life 2 is the amazing atmosphere that it maintains throughout, likable characters and the great writing.
EDIT: also
personally i can not stand the games to stand my life, i fall asleep everytime playing them, literally, BUT i see what they do, as i have checked out tons of videos about them after seeing so many valve fanboys rave about it, and i can easily respect the game and what it did,
so i may not like it, but hell i will fight for their right to like it and i can see why they would like it, but it is not my tastes at all.
so honestly, just stop bickering about it and dont play the game, its that simple, enjoy what you enjoy and others will do likewise.
so i may not like it, but hell i will fight for their right to like it and i can see why they would like it, but it is not my tastes at all.
so honestly, just stop bickering about it and dont play the game, its that simple, enjoy what you enjoy and others will do likewise.
The story, characters and the immense amount of literary tricks that they used when making it. Let's just look at this for a second shall we? But before we do, this is my opinion/interpretation/deconstruction. Not to be taken as fact.HappyDD said:
The most important thing that people miss is that you are not playing as Gordon Freeman like any other game where you are the character, but in HL Gordon Freeman is you. Not the other way around. This is very important to remember and is what separates it from almost every other game with a silent protagonist. This distinction also has the side effect of making the characters all the more easy to relate to.
Another piece of design brilliance is the character G-Man. Just think about him for the moment. He is, as far as we can tell, an employee of an inter-dimensional corporation that hires out/sets loose people like Gordon Freeman to do whatever needs doing, but to what end? We don't know, but that's part of the intrigue, the motivation to keep playing. Finding out why this has all happened and, perhaps more importantly, why this is all happening to you. Just by listening to G-Man's speeches we can tell that there is much more going on than we can tell from our viewpoint. There are multiple interactions and sightings of G-Man that hint at not only a larger world, but also some strange hidden agenda. A great example of this is near the end of EP2 Eli Vance let's on that he knows G-Man and that he also suggested the experiment that caused everything to happen in the first place.
Also, as I'm sure you've noticed, the game is linear. From that we can extract some interesting literary interpretations. The fact that almost every time you try to do something you're railroaded into some insanely contrived and (comparatively) difficult path. This brings about the notion that what you are doing is right, the lack of any other option almost makes you feel as if it's some sort of divine providence. But that then leads to questioning of this notion. Is this path being set up by G-Man to further his own ends? Is this single path leading not only you, but the universe itself to destruction? Should you turn away from the beaten track ahead of you?
All of this leads to a particular thought. Are the rebels right? Are you really a messiah sent to save everyone? Are you just some guy who happens to be good at this sort of thing? Or are you inevitably going to lead to the downfall of humanity?
Another piece of design brilliance is the character G-Man. Just think about him for the moment. He is, as far as we can tell, an employee of an inter-dimensional corporation that hires out/sets loose people like Gordon Freeman to do whatever needs doing, but to what end? We don't know, but that's part of the intrigue, the motivation to keep playing. Finding out why this has all happened and, perhaps more importantly, why this is all happening to you. Just by listening to G-Man's speeches we can tell that there is much more going on than we can tell from our viewpoint. There are multiple interactions and sightings of G-Man that hint at not only a larger world, but also some strange hidden agenda. A great example of this is near the end of EP2 Eli Vance let's on that he knows G-Man and that he also suggested the experiment that caused everything to happen in the first place.
Also, as I'm sure you've noticed, the game is linear. From that we can extract some interesting literary interpretations. The fact that almost every time you try to do something you're railroaded into some insanely contrived and (comparatively) difficult path. This brings about the notion that what you are doing is right, the lack of any other option almost makes you feel as if it's some sort of divine providence. But that then leads to questioning of this notion. Is this path being set up by G-Man to further his own ends? Is this single path leading not only you, but the universe itself to destruction? Should you turn away from the beaten track ahead of you?
All of this leads to a particular thought. Are the rebels right? Are you really a messiah sent to save everyone? Are you just some guy who happens to be good at this sort of thing? Or are you inevitably going to lead to the downfall of humanity?
This is, as I said, my interpretation of the events within the game. But I hope it helps.
EDIT: I think I might save this and use it if I ever need to do something like this for school.
EDIT: This is of course the artsy interpretation, but that's how I saw it, so whatever.
Throw me in with the people who don't get it. I don't know what it was about HL2, but some of the stuff people are talking about I just never saw. The "atmosphere" was just some desert city and you were on the run from that city's cops. I didn't see a reason as to why they were after you. I didn't get much motivations from the resistance other than they just wanted to overthrow the oppressive government. I don't remember if I ever saw why they had all those white pods around (assuming human trafficking).
Nothing made sense, especially since Gordon supposedly saved the world in the last game. What happened to Black Mesa after G-Man took Gordon away? How did the aliens still come to earth? Why weren't you around to try to stop this? Is G-Man working for the aliens or humanity, and why does he not seem to have a reason to be making you do what you do? There are too many questions left unanswered, and I don't know how I could have missed so many of them if they are there. Keep in mind I didn't play the episodes because I want them to finish before I get balls-deep in them, only to run out of content mid-story. All in all, I just found the fight for survival much more compelling in HL1 because of what you were dealing with.
Nothing made sense, especially since Gordon supposedly saved the world in the last game. What happened to Black Mesa after G-Man took Gordon away? How did the aliens still come to earth? Why weren't you around to try to stop this? Is G-Man working for the aliens or humanity, and why does he not seem to have a reason to be making you do what you do? There are too many questions left unanswered, and I don't know how I could have missed so many of them if they are there. Keep in mind I didn't play the episodes because I want them to finish before I get balls-deep in them, only to run out of content mid-story. All in all, I just found the fight for survival much more compelling in HL1 because of what you were dealing with.
I think you have a pretty good handle on why it doesn't appeal to you. A lot of us gamers(my generation at least) were raised on platformers, so the jumping puzzles might just be a welcoming subconscious reminder and/or it may be that gone are the days of the plethora jumpy shooters like Quake 3 (it seems to be mostly cover-based nowadays).HappyDD said:
For me, I think part of it (aside from the above reasons) is the fact that Valve Shooters like HL
eathmatch, CS 1.6, and TF Classic were staples of the LAN parties my friends and I used to throw in high school, so its entirely possible that there is some nostalgia factor at work as well.As for Half-Life 2, there seems to be inexplicable elegance about it. I love the diverse level settings and I'm a huge fan of 1984 so that's a plus. HL2 takes some of the best things I love about shooters and wraps them in one package. One level, I'm fighting hordes of (HL style) fast and slow zombies with a shot gun. Next thing I know I'm fighting off killer bugs on a sandy beach with a machine gun as if I were in Starship Troopers. Sometimes I'm zipping through canals that vaguely remind me of JSR: Future, another game I love. HL2, for me at least, is very good at mixing things up so it doesn't get too boring too quickly.
The story is embracing, the AI intelligence is well designed, characters have dimention and backstories of which aren't thrusted down your throat, the female character is likeable and appropriately clad, the graphics (which aren't important I know) are pretty, the protganist is silent... I could go on.
That's the thing though, you have to remember that Hl2 was "The Shiz" when it first came out because it was the crysis of today, beautiful graphics, nice sounds, cool story and HOLY SON OF A COWS UNCLE! PHYSICS!Mcface said:
It's so popular because of
A) Fans
B) It does have a nice story, you have to credit it that.
C) It's still got good graphics while not requiring godly ammounts of PC steroids, most people might not be able to run Crysis with a decent framerate but they sure as hell can with Half Life 2