Half Life 2 - just why is this game so great?

[runtheplacered]

Half-life 2 is a well crafted, nicely polished gem.

I'm not interested in your ideas that Half-life shouldn't be linear. Why not? Because that's not what Half-life is about. This idea that games need to be nonlinear is such a close minded approach. Half-life tells a fantastic story (if you actually gave it a chance, which you haven't), and it wouldn't be half as fantastic if the game was nonlinear.

As for your little disclaimer:

"NOTE - Please read through the entire thing before posting some reply that just makes you look like a dumb fanboy by people who have read through it and already seen where I've made a proper and thought out critique."

As beautiful of a run-on sentence as that is, it's a little off putting. You should try not sounding like a prick just before you're about to give your opinion. I'm also bewildered by the fact that you already call people fanboys right in the first sentence of your post. As if to say that anybody who disagreed with your oh mighty opinion was to be deemed a boy who is a fan.

Can't a person be..... just a fan?

 

[Neosage]

So great? Well I thought it was quite boring myself infact, I kinda gave up after the first half hour and just played portal and Team Fortress which IMO are better.

 

[WitherVoice]

The story is a complete mess and the characters are completely underdeveloped (case in point - Dog is the only character I care about or like or even find interesting). I have no idea why Gordon Freeman is so highly regarded nor even why I'm killing these supposed aliens. I don't care about the original Half Life, the second game shouldn't be so highly isolated and discriminatory like it is and players new to the series should NOT be so completely clueless.

The game takes place in a very brief time, in which the main character does not have time to sit down and reminisce about what happened before. I don't really like HL2 all that much, mostly due to my dislike of first-person shooters in general, but the storytelling kept me going through it. I was intrigued that the game does NOT jam its entire storyline down your throat, but rather lets you ferret out what's going on. I mean, at the beginning of HL2 your main character isn't supposed to know what is going on... if you pay attention, you do figure out quite a bit though.

 

[runtheplacered]

I was intrigued that the game does NOT jam its entire storyline down your throat, but rather lets you ferret out what's going on.

This game really does have a great story, but most of it is told by writing on the walls, or heard over loud speakers, or seen on Televisions, being talked about in the background, etc. Personally, I love that.

 

[Asehujiko]

HL2 came out in 2004. Don't judge it by 2008 standards.

 

[the jellyman]

Do remember that this is a 2004 game released four years ago. it isn't going to be on the same level as modern Shooters like COD 5 or battlefield bad compny or Resistance 2. Even Episode 2 is using the same engine and AI as HL2. It does help to play the origional and maybe trawl wikipedia for a bit to get a full sense of the plot.
EDIT okay, maybe the last bit is a bit fanboyish but still. And I do agree that the gravity gun is a bit nerfed. It would help if you could use a device that can throw engines, fuel barrels and cinder blocks to smash a wooden door.

 

[Terramax]

Do remember that this is a 2004 game released four years ago. it isn't going to be on the same level as modern Shooters like COD 5 or battlefield bad compny or Resistance 2.

I disagree. My fav FPS is Farcry and, having played the demo of Crysis (which I still can't be bothered to play to the very end) along with a number of other FPSs, none of them seem to reach the penacle of fun that Farcry reached with me. None of them have that perfect blend of action, freeroaming and urgency.

 

[geldonyetich]

The Half Life series is, and has always been, a remarkable achivement on the grounds of interactive storytelling, plopping the player right there in the middle of a series of remarkable events.

If you can't see that, you're either a soulless beast or so preoccupied with trying to validate the game as being "good" because you heard it was good that you weren't paying attention to what was right in front of you.

 

[[Gavo]]

The story.

Play the original, and the expansions. They're on sale on Steam.

Also, the game CAME OUT IN 2004. Think about that.

 

[johnman]

HL2 came out in 2004. Don't judge it by 2008 standards.

By 2008 and standards half life looks better than ever

Why do i love this game? Because it is simply awesome. I wont give a reason, its just awesome.

 

[x434343]

(even though I did find Portal to be awesome and the cake is NOT a lie!).

Dude. Portal is just as linear as Half-Life 2, probably even more. Now you complain about a game that gave an illusion of free choice but praise one of the most linear games ever.

 

[Logan Westbrook]

A lot of your points come down to personal tastes, and I highly doubt anyone here is going to change your mind, although, I don't think you can really criticise Half-Life 2 for being linear, as FPS games typically are.

 

[GenHellspawn]

The game part of Half Life 2 is, by all means, pretty good. However, the story is seriously messed up. How do you take something as simple as some scientist killing aliens and make it this convoluted? How did I go from killing an alien overlord to being some pawn in "The Rebellion"? Why weren't the combine even mentioned in the first game? Why does somebody with a PhD from MIT willingly enter a device ment for restraining prisoners...twice? The story is really what held this game back. If they would've let some better writers do it, this game's quality would be a much higher standard.

 

[the monopoly guy]

After succesfuly beating the game 28 times (including mods like SMOD) I can honestly say: I'm sick of it.
For now.

 

[calelogan]

Half-Life 2 is a great game, though it's far from being one of my favorites.

I understand it has many positive aspects, being one of them the story. But for some reason, except for the first Half-Life, the narrative just didn't cater to my interests.

I have to admit it, though, that Valve has a way with storytelling and their way of presenting narratives without using "cinematics", but only in-game interactive cut-scenes, is ingenious.

 

[Fraught]

HL2 came out in 2004. Don't judge it by 2008 standards.

Why not?
The only huge difference in games between now and then is graphics.
Except for physics, but I include that under the "appearance" category.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Wait... you're mad because you don't understand the story, but you've never played the first game? Alright, I'm going to walk straight into a story driven game's sequel and expect to know everything about it. Wrong wrong wrong.

Also, you're upset about having boring guns? Jeeze, does every game need a superpowered crazy gun to be good? Since when are guns boring? Were Counter-Strikes guns boring because they were real guns?

The enemies were pretty responsive for me, so I don't know where you're getting that from. If I walked into any enemy's line of sign, he and five other guys would be running at me.

And a game being too linear is a phrase that I'm starting to get annoyed at. Call of Duty was "too linear", Resident Evil 4 was "too linear". If you don't want to play a linear game then DON'T PLAY A LINEAR GAME! It's pretty easy to, you know, not play the damn game. Go buy an RPG if you don't want linear storytelling. So, I don't like romance films, I'm going to go watch the Notebook and get mad because it was a romance film.

 

[KarmicToast]

Instead of writing the 1000 word retort I was planning, I'll just say this to your statement: ARRRGGGUGLAGAKKK! Game...so...good...don't...make...me...defend it...
Okay, back to sane me.

 

[GCM29]

The story definetely could have been better....I think its a fun game, but not sure why everyone gets so worked up about it.