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

[Wolfram23]

Well you're supposed to play the game twice, duh!!!

 

[DaSpoony]

So my suspicions have been confirmed - you are unable to have a conversation.
Every point in you most recent comment I have already answered.

You are acting high and mighty "oh look I can appreciate games" just because it takes you longer to do it.

It does not worry me in the slightest that I believe you to have missed out. I'd be interested to hear why you'd disagree, rather than continually hearing you just saying no, as if to imply I'm the first person you've ever disagreed with about anything and you have no clue as to how a discussion works.

For the record, I in no way believe myself to be a superior gamer to you, or in actual fact superior to you in any way that would give me the right to be 'high and mighty'. Not only do I not possess the knowledge to make such a judgement, I also have no idea how such an attribute would be ranked nor know the limit of factors which would influence it.

Your reasoning is bullshit

In what way? Elaborate? Please for the love of the internet back up something you say with some sort of reasoning.

and don't say I don't get it but I do

Do you? Because multiple times now you seem to be under the impression I'm criticising you, when clearly I'm in no position to do so nor would have any reasoning!

it's just that you are plain wrong.

Not only incredibly rude but once again a shallow comment with no intelligent thought put into it whatsoever.

Have a nice day.

Cute.

 

[Smeggs]

My first playtrhough was easily about 20 hours. The last time I played it I just sort of ran through it and knocked it out in about 12-14.

If you're just running and gunning through the game for the sake of reaching the end, I imagine it would only take around ten hours. But if you're like me, who usually stops to smell the flowers, so-to-speak; take your time to look at some things. Stop to screw around with the physics. Mess around in the Citadel with the Blue Gravity Gun for half an hour

You see where I'm going with this.

Most people who play games like Half-Life I hope aren't simply playing to hit the end. You play to experience it.

I remember at the starting level in the train station I spent about ten minutes alone just grabbing bottles and phones and smacking them against tables and crap.

It really just boils down to how easily one is amused, and what it is that amuses you. Sniping Pidgeons and other birds with my pistol was also a passtime of mine in the game.

 

[Lilani]

So I was in class and a student says that HL2 is 15 to 20 hours long. I told him no, it's not. As I have beaten the game in 9 hours.

So I go and google it and apparently many people say the game is 15 to 20 hours long. But I don't see how that's possible. I beat the game on normal, I died a bit, and yet I beat it supposly 6 hours earlier then everyone else.

I just can't see how a game as linear as HL2 is apparently 15 to 20 Hours long. Where did those 6+ hours I apparently missed are.

HL2 + Episodes is that long, but they specifically mention just HL2.

So for disscussion value, is the game that long? and what time did it take you to beat it.

You can run through the main story in probably 8-10 hours, but getting it to "completion" is a whole other matter. There are lots of achievements and nooks and crannies to explore. For example, it took be about an hour to run through the Water Hazard level again and track down the singing vortigaunt for the achievement Vorticough (which turned out to be a much more interesting encounter than I expected, it really solidified the link between HL1 and HL2). Then there's the Lambda Locator achievement, and then there's all the background NPC dialog to listen to, and physics and animals to screw around with. It may not be a long game, but it's definitely lush.

 

[Agente L]

I think I might spend more time in my second/third/etc gameplay because I know the entire game.

So I proceed to create crate barries to stop combines from coming into bottlenecks due to a progression trigger, crowbar zombies to dead, dance around, try to bug the game purposeful, try to do stupid shit and then proceed to quick reload, try to run over combines with boat/car, walk over the beaches with only 2 props so no antlion annoys me, etc

Heh. But I think I take 12-14 hours in my first play run.

 

[Panorama]

i played it once through in like 8 hoursish, but then i played it again and it took me 14 i found it much more fun second time i went and explored and found it much more fun. (not saying the first play through was not fun, but the second was a lot more).

 

[Gmans uncle]

I think it took me around 25 hours the first time, I was new to FPSes, I was playing the crap console port, I was young and inexperienced.
I've beaten it in under 10 hours since, but y'know what it's still a shit-ton longer than your average AAA shooter today...

 

[DaSpoony]

I have missed out because I play "too fast"

I take that as criticism, you say the way I approach games limits my ability to experience them while your style does not.

That's where I am coming from.

Pedantic much? Honestly you need to stop being so self-conscious and realise that nobody is attacking you or trying to claim that in some way your are worse! I'm sorry to be blunt but after explaining this multiple times I cannot believe you still don't get it.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

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

Post of the year.

If you rushed through HL2 you missed a whole bunch of great stuff. The reason some people take 20 hours to finish it is because they're exploring all of the secrets and environmental storytelling.

It's a game to be played slow and smooth, taking the time to savour it and breathe it all in. Just like a good f-

 

[kasperbbs]

I think it might have been 20 hours on my first playthough, spent a lot of time annoying guards by throwing trash at them and then running away, i was young then. And i like to explore.

 

[repeating integers]

I think it took me slightly less than 15. I spent a lot of time looking at the environments, and even more trying to figure out which way to go after I'd finished killing a load of enemies. I suspect I'd be able to complete it much more quickly if I played through it again.

 

[Vigormortis]

I have to say...does it matter?

Is it really that important?

No. It doesn't. But that's not the point. The point is to find an excuse to make another "Why do you like Half-Life" thread disguised as something else.

However, one good thing did come out of this thread. I've been proven half correct. (so far)
Just yesterday I posted in another Half-Life hate thread that it wouldn't be a week before at least two more threads like it would crop up.

One down. One to go. And it hasn't even been 48 hours.

 

[SciMal]

So I was in class and a student says that HL2 is 15 to 20 hours long. I told him no, it's not. As I have beaten the game in 9 hours.

So I go and google it and apparently many people say the game is 15 to 20 hours long. But I don't see how that's possible. I beat the game on normal, I died a bit, and yet I beat it supposly 6 hours earlier then everyone else.

I just can't see how a game as linear as HL2 is apparently 15 to 20 Hours long. Where did those 6+ hours I apparently missed are.

HL2 + Episodes is that long, but they specifically mention just HL2.

So for disscussion value, is the game that long? and what time did it take you to beat it.

Depends on difficulty level, depends on how many achievements you're going for, depends on if you stick around and listen to Alyx and the other characters talk, etc.

For instance, on the ant-lion portion, you can take the careful route with the gravity gun by laying out doors and tin roof chunks, or it's entirely possible to just bolt for it (on lower difficulties) if you know where you're going and how to hold them off. The careful route will take you about 30min-60min depending on experience. The "fuck it" route will take 5.

For what it's worth, my Steam shows 14 hours - but I've played it at least twice and don't have all the achievements, so I'd say 12 hours isn't unreasonable.

Plus, a short time doesn't make the game any less great. I'd rather watch 4 hours of Scrubs than 20 hours of Grey's Anatomy, for instance.

 

[CCountZero]

So, does anyone know how to reset the 'time played' stat on Steam without having to delete and reinstall it?

I wouldn't rely on it if I were you.
It counts how long the game has been run, not how long you've played. Those bathroom breaks? Better make them short!

And don't even get me started on what happens if you run it in Offline mode, namely, it doesn't count anything, at all.

Just use a stopwatch.

 

[Aethren]

The extra 6 hours is spent trying for that damn gnome achievement.

Seriously, fuck that gnome.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

And for the record, Water Hazard is my one of my favourite sections of the entire game. And that's because of the hovercraft. The car levels aren't quite as good, but I still have no idea why people vehemently hate the vehicle levels.

I'm gonna hazard a guess that you're playing on PC?

On the 360 I found the controls for the vehicle to be loose, counter-intuitive and cumbersome due to the very badly ported control scheme. Made the vehicle levels a bit of chore.

 

[TitanAtlas]

I guess it takes more time for people that don't know what to do, or don't know the solutions for the puzzles, or don't know where the secrets are...

Considering those factors it's normal it takes above 8 hours or so.

Heck the first time i played it i don't remember how much time i took playing it, i just know that now, i know where everything is and i can finish it in way less then 6 hours...

 

[Tilted_Logic]

I have it down at 13 hours, but I'm pretty sure that was a playthrough and a half. Collected all the Steam achievements I could, then went back and redid some chapters for those I missed.

I can definitely beat it in 8ish hours though I'd say. Then again, I have played it multiple times, so perhaps for people new to the game it would take much much longer. Some of the puzzle solutions definitely aren't clear on first glance.