Half Life not that great?

[RedDeadFred]

I honestly have no idea why people rave over it. Even when the Orange Box came out, I didn't see what the big deal was. Maybe it was ruined for me because I watched my friend do the stupid gnome challenge. Most boring 3 hours of my life.

Also, I think the cliffhanger ending is even worse than Halo 2's. It just felt like they went for shocking for almost no reason. They should have opened Half Life 3 with the death instead. That way, the villainy of the enemy would be fresh in the player's mind. Honestly, after this long of a wait, I just don't really care much about how it ends. The shock value wore off along time ago and I'm left with an overall feeling of meh.

 

[RedDeadFred]

It's amazing enough in my opinion, to be a part of my skin as a tattoo. The world and detail is amazing, the characters are likable and not cliche, the story is interesting and the paste it all moves on keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time, especially in part 2. THe first one leaned more on creating an incredible atmosphere and generating most of the big questions. 2 anwsered some, hinted at some and asked more, all the while having an incredible story about the fight for humanity, rebellion against fascism and police state. Freedom. It's amazing. Truly a one-of-a-kind experience and I find something new to love about it every time I play it again.

EDIT: I would like to link you guys to a show by everyones favorite THe Escapist-columnist, Shamus Young! These guys explain it better than anyone:

What? People actually like Shamus Young?! Granted I've only read two of his articles but they were two of biggest piles of crap I've ever subjected my eyes to.

 

[MysticToast]

Can we make it against forum rules to make threads like this? I'm serious. We see one every couple of weeks and it's all the same.

Only if we also make it against the rules to complain about threads like this.

I'd be fine with that.

 

[Mysterious Druid]

I'm going to be honest, I've never really liked the Half Life series. I've tried to play it multiple times and I've never been able to force myself to finish. And before anyone accuses me of having bad taste in games, I've played many great games. System Shock series, Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, Elder Scrolls, Red Dead Redemption, both Portal games, you get the idea. I've just never found it to be so good that it should receive the praise that it does. It just feels like a generic run and gun shooter. Is there something that I'm missing?

You have to grow up with the games to appreciate them fully. The reason why Half-Life is so loved is because it revolutionised the FPS genre. Of course, now that many games have copied it to some extent, it doesn't seem like anything special.

 

[Cowabungaa]

In my eyes it's a triumph of narration. Half Life 1 was one of the first shooters to forgo the traditional level structure and present us with a seamless adventure in one big world. Then Half Life 2 came along and perfected that.

HL2 also added storytelling through environment; a lot of the backstory and lore about the world can be deduced from the game itself. Until Metro 2033 I still hadn't seen a game that did that at least as well as HL2 did. It's still one of the most atmospheric games I've ever played.

Gameplay-wise it's not that big of a deal. At the time the AI was pretty good, but in that area it has been surpassed already.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

No, they're not that good.

The newest Half-Life game came out almost five years ago.
The one everyone holds the highest praise to (Half Life 2) came out around eight years ago.
The first one came out around fourteen years ago.

It's outdated. There isn't much variation between the gameplay from Half-Life 2 to Episode 1. The original is really outdated, repetitive, not that good, and gray. I've had a lot more fun with the game by loading up GMod and replaying the levels with a bunch of weapons I've downloaded.

 

[rob_simple]

When I finally make my millions I'm going to invest at least half of my money into creating a two week course that will be mandatory for all gamers to teach them the difference between subjective and objective.

 

[Vigormortis]

By now I am annoyed by all those people crawling out of the woods and creating threads just with this topic and it has actually nothing to do with the HL series being my standard for FPS.

I just see that this people do not understand one thing: HL back than redifined the FPS genre, it was a total gamechanger. It brought story to a more or less storylacking genre, and not only that, they told it without breaking the player out of his perspective. It introduced also many mechanics that seem standard today. Someone here mentioned System Shock. Just look at the difference of SS1 (pre HL) and SS 2 (post HL). The influence of HL is unremarkable.

You don't have to like it (adressed at the person who'll create the next HL thread) but you can't say that a gamechanger like HL "is not that great".

But that is just my bad mood speaking, maybe the next thread dealing with this topic actually brings arguments why the person assumes that HL is "not that great" and I'll get something to laugh.

You're preaching to the choir, my friend. Even if I didn't like the Half-Life series I'd still argue it's place in gaming history. Much of what we come to expect in game design today; gameplay-wise; likely had it's start or inspiration in many of the things Valve has done in Half-Life.

Like I said in my previous post, I'm not really a fan of Bioshock. The game-play just didn't suit me. It had it's flaws. However, I'll be one of the first to trumpet it's amazing design and one of the first to herald it as one of the greatest artistic achievements in gaming.

This, I think, is the issue a lot of people have. They simply can not grasp the difference between objectivity and subjectivity. Most people think: If they don't like something, then that something is "bad". And, if they like something, that something is "good".

Their sole gauge on the quality and craftsmanship of something is how they like it.

That, my friends, is an opinion; not a critique.

The sooner people realize this, realize that an opinion (though we're all granted one by right) is NOT the same as a critique. You are more than welcome to hate something that is good, and to like something that is bad. God knows, I dislike plenty of well-made things and adore plenty of poorly made things. I mean, hell, I absolutely love Tron: Legacy and the Evil Dead movies. Yet, I'll be the first person to tell you they were most definitely not good films. But, unlike most, I don't let that ruin my enjoyment of those films.

Why? Because I know the difference between an opinion and a critique. Something I wish more people could see as well.

 

[TheScientificIssole]

It's overrated but it's not bad either.

Don't you use that word. That word is incorrect! I'd say that the opinion that it is great is over-vocalized and over-stated, but I think it is a great game; I'd say it holds up as a great game.

 

[Vigormortis]

Gonna go ahead and be the one to say this (Unless someone beat me to it):
The Half Life fans are a minority here. For every single fan who makes a thread about him liking to it there would be 1000 threads saying Half Life really isn't that good, and they will fill with 200 replies agreeing with the OP.

Not really. If anything, a majority of this forum are fans of the series.

The problem is, the minority that aren't are so fervent in their hate, so vitriolic in their disgust of everything relating to the games, that they simply drown out everyone else. They are the only ones who constantly (and by constantly I mean a weekly basis) start up Half-Life related threads. Simply to be mean, cruel, and to stir up controversy. Whereas most of the fans are just sick and tired of having to see these same people constantly berate them for liking the series.

It'd be quite aggravating if it weren't so pathetically hypocritical. More often than not, one of the biggest complaints these people leverage on the fans of the series is that, "they're tired of hearing people constantly talk about and praise these games".

The irony (or hypocrisy) of it is, they're the only ones fucking constantly bringing it up.

What's even more disturbing is, more and more, it seems like the mods on the forums either turn a blind to or actively encourage these sorts of threads.

Half Life is one of those rare cases where I don't really like playing a game, but I acknowledge that just from a technical, design, concept standpoint, those are really good games. They are well-paced, offer a well-designed game world, challenging and offer just the right balance between new challenges and familiarity.

So yeah, while i agree that one doesn't have to like them, I also think that, objectively, the HL games are among the best out there.

Well I'll be damned...

Someone who DOES appreciate the difference. Good sir, I do believe I owe you either a box of cookies, a case of beer, or a delicious cake. Your pick.

 

[Im_not_Akira]

It's my least favourite Valve game but it paved the way for their other games so we can't really complain.