Half Life 2 15 to 20 hours...? What?

[ManOwaRrior]

A lot has to do with playstyle. Someone who just wants to beat a game will be quicker than one who spends the odd minute to look at level details, to backtrack half a level because he thought there might have been an area he missed, or to just play around with the gravity gun.

Another example for me would be Doom3. My first playthrough of that game was about 20 hours.
If I just wanted to beat it, I could have done it in half the time.

This is one of the great things shooters of the past had that modern ones have lost: The confidence to let the player decide the pace. Modern shooters (well, not only shooters) are so densely packed with events that drive the action forward, that the player rarely is left to explore a level (or a setpiece, as it is called nowadays) at his own leisure. There is always that one squadmate telling you to catch up, or that headquarter guy that tells you to hurry up. Exceptions exist, but they are scarce.

So if one is used to these kind of games, it is only natural that he will blast through older ones as well.
So yes, HL2 is a 10 hour game, but at the same time, it can be a 15 or 20 hour game. It depends on the player and what he wants to do.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

Yeah, people are kind of hypocrites about Half Life 2. Despite being held as one of the most innovative shooters of all time, it happens to contain all of the following:

-Hours of gunning down identical, generic enemies with a machine gun.
-A sewer level. (A BIG sewer level)
-Random, extraneous vehicle sections only thrown in to break up the action.
-Environments largely made up of grey, urban areas and empty brown desserts.
-A mute protagonist that is NO DIFFERENT from ANY other mute protagonist EVER.[footnote]I guarantee that anything you could say to defend Gordon Freeman's muteness applies to all other mute protagonists as well.[/footnote]

All of which are things Call of Duty takes shit for all the time. Seriously, tell me I'm wrong.

 

[Woodsey]

Just by the way, how are people measuring the time taken? 'Cos just using the `hours played' given by the steam software is notoriously unreliable.

It's only unreliable in that it gives an inflated figure.

No: on occasion, it has been known to not start counting.

Anyway, think it took me between 12 and 15.

 

[AmzRigh]

I take my time exploring when playing games, and I'm ridicu-bad at FPS games. My one playthrough of HL2 took me a little less that a week, playing a good chunk of each day, so I'll estimate somewhere in the range of 25-30 hours. Episodes 1 and 2 were then a solid day each, so...8 hours apiece?

Granted, having played through it, I'm certain I could come in under the 15 hour mark, assuming I can remember where everything is.

Still never did find all the lambdas, though...

 

[latiasracer]

Took me 11 hours, which is't plenty' long for me. That was on hardest difficulty, and made quite a bit of effort to find the lambada's. Still didn't manage it though

 

[Dark Prophet]

I usually play it on hard and it takes me about 12-15 hours, depends on how careful I am, if I don't want to die at all it takes me longer. And I have played through it around 10 times by now so I'm pretty good at it. I know that the speed run record is 1.36 but I still call bullshit on the 7, 6 hours and under play throughs because you are not playing then you are already speed running.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

This really depends on what you try get and what difficulty you play it and do that on and so 15-20 is not that big of a stretch but a normal play through without collectibles would be around the 9 hour mark.

 

[Furioso]

Of course not it's an fps...wait... wouldn't episodes 1 and 2 factor into this? Would that make it 15-20 hours? Why does anyone care anyways?

 

[Li Mu]

It took me 49.6 seconds. I'm THAT good.

 

[Vykrel]

my first playthrough involved me getting lost quite a bit, so i definitely clocked out at over 15 hours. maybe he had the same problem.

 

[XMark]

I'd say 12 hours is an accurate guess for someone who's not in any particular rush.

 

[Chicago Ted]

Bragging about how quickly you finished HL2, i'd compare that to bragging about how quickly you finished having sex.

I would give you an internet cookie or something, but that is over-rated and rather bland, so I'll just say that there is no better way I could have worded this sentiment.

Half Life 2 is a bit of an experience. While it may not say it out of the gate like Amnesia or something, a lot of it comes from letting you get into the atmosphere, and appreciating the little details. If you're speeding through from one section to the next, just blazing to the end to finish it, you may as well go watch the LOTR or something but at twice the normal speed.

 

[Hiroshi Mishima]

Just by the way, how are people measuring the time taken? 'Cos just using the `hours played' given by the steam software is notoriously unreliable.

It's only unreliable in that it gives an inflated figure.

It records all time the .exe was active so loading times and idling count as gameplay time.

This is utter bull cause I have a number of games on steam that I've played for HOURS and it often says I've played half of the time. Psychonauts was a good one, cause that took me over 16 hours to finish with 101%, only accidentally failing the "Live Forever Achievement" cause I didn't know something was missable. Steam said I'd been playing it maybe 7-10 hours.

Hell, Recettear said I'd only been playing for like 2 hours when I played it all day long. Cthulhu Saves the World still says I've only been playing it about 48 minutes despite playing it for several days.


But anyways, regarding the topic, I am a player who enjoys taking his time and looking at stuff. My first playthrough of Half-Life 1 was easily upwards of 20+ hours. I got stuck a few times, got lost twice, and spent a lot of time going back and looking around or reloading a previous save to try an alternate method. I also died quite a few times. That was back in 2010, by the way, which was when I finally got around to playing the copy I'd bought several years earlier.

I still haven't played HL2 yet, mainly cause my previous computer didn't have a lot of room, and I was also kind of afraid it would crash if I tried HL2. I should play it soon, I just need to finish Blue Shift. Keep forgetting to start it. But I would wager it'll probably take me at LEAST 15 hours to finish Half-Life 2, if there's a lot to look at or things to explore for. I played Portal 2 for a couple days before I finished it, cause I was trying for achievements and enjoying trying a variety of puzzle solutions, and sometimes just replaying earlier sections to listen to the dialogue again.

 

[Korten12]

Bragging about how quickly you finished HL2, i'd compare that to bragging about how quickly you finished having sex.

I didn't beat it quickly. In fact, I took my time, even stopped and explored a bit. Yet, I beat it in 9 hours. Even after I beat it, I thought it was short.

 

[Lukeje]

Just by the way, how are people measuring the time taken? 'Cos just using the `hours played' given by the steam software is notoriously unreliable.

It's only unreliable in that it gives an inflated figure.

This... is not true. There have been numerous times when steam has not logged hours I've spent playing.

 

[Wintermoot]

maybe you didn't bother with the scripted sequences or you (unknowingly) skipped parts of the game.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

...I think the more pertinent question than "How long is Half Life 2?" is "Why do you care this much about Half Life 2's perceived length?"

 

[JediMB]

One day, I will play through Half-Life 2 for a second time, and have a look at all the achievements and other neat things Valve have added since I finished the game shortly after release. Maybe around the time when we finally get some sort of confirmation on Episode 3's status.

Then I might just dig this thread back up and post how long it took me. >_>

 

[Argtee]

On my first playthrough, I finished it in 10 - 11 hours.

...Maybe everyone got stuck on the puzzles?