Half-Life 2 Please Explain

[Sniper Team 4]

I love the story. It is not fed to you, you must pay attention to flush it out. You get the bare basics if you just listen to what people tell you, but if you LOOK, there is so much more. Great story telling.

I will agree that Half-Life 2 doesn't have as much to do with Half-Life, but the links are there. Once again, you simply have to look for them.

 

[s0m3th1ng]

I remember watching the tech demo for Source about a year before HL2 came out and crapping my pants...then I crapped them anew when I played it on launch day. Only single player campaign to make 8 hours seem like 1.

 

[Continuity]

I do not get what everyone thinks is so good about this game, it seems like a run of the mill shooter with a plot that while well written, holds no relevance to the first.

Note: I am not a troll, I seek legitimate enlightenment.

Well first, its not as good or as ground-breaking as the original so it is over-hyped, this is unavoidable when the first game is such a classic and the sequel doesn't suck.

Second it does follow on from the first game very well, there are some disjointed elements but on the whole it is actually pretty good in this department compared to many game sequels.

Third, whilst its not a great classic like the original it is still a very competent and well presented shooter which has intelligent gameplay... that is actually quite a rarity in shooters, so it does deserve some of the praise.

All that said, it is a bit "meh" but you have to bear in mind when it was released, games should be judged in the context of their original release.

 

[icame]

I played it for the first time after this years christmas sale and it became my favorite game. Everyone has different taste's I suppose? Also the game ties completely into the first game, I have no idea what you talking about.

 

[nodanaonlyzuul]

In order to find the enlightenment you seek you must somehow transport yourself back in time to 2004 when the game was new.

This.

 

[Cheesus333]

Honestly? Because it absorbs you. It takes you in.

Think about Gears of War for just a second, if you've played it. Did you feel like you were exploring a world? In spite of all the epic backdrops and expansive cavern systems, you didn't feel like you were in anything big. You were just following paths.

Now Half-Life 2. Sure, you're still following paths, but now the paths contain a story of their own: from a smouldering car pile-up to an abandoned shack or a body floating slowly face-down in a river, the game tells a story beyond the actual plot.

I'm often quite shocked by how much people discount the importance of environment and atmosphere in games, when they're the elements responsible for all the immersion you feel - if any - when you play. I'd say Half-Life 2 was among the first shooters to give you a world that wasn't shallower than a puddle, and the means to interact with it in a way that was inviting and yet ominous at once.

Half-Life 2 wasn't just a first-person shooter. It was a story, and a world, of its own.

 

[Sindre1]

In my time at the Escapist I haven't seen any, if they had i would have looked at them. Have you complained about the "friday" threads yet?

But those have only been going on for a week, not years.

I am new to it aswell, but I loved it ^^
Can't explain why.
Think the point about pacing was a good one.

 

[Zechnophobe]

I do not get what everyone thinks is so good about this game, it seems like a run of the mill shooter with a plot that while well written, holds no relevance to the first.

Note: I am not a troll, I seek legitimate enlightenment.

I think tvtropes has us covered here:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnFunny

Basically, HL1 and 2 are both classic standards that defined a lot of the narrative and game styles of their day. They may not feel new now, having played the huge number of games that were influenced by them, but in their time, they SET those trends, they were not following them.

Even look at the visuals of halflife 2. Compare screenshots from it to other games of its time. It is freaking beautiful.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

In order to find the enlightenment you seek you must somehow transport yourself back in time to 2004 when the game was new. Most of the exciting new things the game did have since been done in many other games thus making the impact of the game virtually non-existant.

I would point out that this is always the answer to any question of the form "Why do people love this game that came out years ago" when asked by someone who only recently played the game.

I don't agree with this. I played the first Half-Life last year after having played dozens of other shooters and I still thought it was excellent. Same for Super Mario 64. On that note I hate Half-Life 2 due to lack of atmosphere, enemy variety and the fact that you spend the first level running away from enemies and the second level driving a boat in what may just be the worst vehicle section of all time.

I covered your case in the bit in bold where I qualified it as the answer only when someone didn't understand why the game was good. You do not fall into this category and as such are not in need of an answer.