Half-Life
- Thread starter BolognaBaloney
- Start date
Recommended Videos
What Half-Life 2 has that makes it such a rich experience is not the shooting it's the characters. Half-Life 2 fleshes it's characters out making everything make sense for example:
The Combine are not easily defeated and for most people playing come across as a staggering force to take down. They are the ultimate army and the creators of Half-Life 2 did huge amount of research when deciding how to make them intimidating,they did this by using Nazi era imagery through the uniforms of the Combine etc.
The Rebels are also very fleshed: just rebels fighting for what they believe in, against what is basically a whole planet.(Though in Half Life 2 the follower rebels are meatpuppets)
But I think the most impressive thing in Half Life 2 is that they took generic NPC's from Half life,(Like a security guard and scientists that didn't have names) and made them into fully fleshed out characters like Kliener and Eli that I can care about.
/Half Life 2 buttraep
The Combine are not easily defeated and for most people playing come across as a staggering force to take down. They are the ultimate army and the creators of Half-Life 2 did huge amount of research when deciding how to make them intimidating,they did this by using Nazi era imagery through the uniforms of the Combine etc.
The Rebels are also very fleshed: just rebels fighting for what they believe in, against what is basically a whole planet.(Though in Half Life 2 the follower rebels are meatpuppets)
But I think the most impressive thing in Half Life 2 is that they took generic NPC's from Half life,(Like a security guard and scientists that didn't have names) and made them into fully fleshed out characters like Kliener and Eli that I can care about.
/Half Life 2 buttraep
While I do like Half-Life (better than Halo, even, and I'm defending Halo) your diversity can easily be applied to Halo.GoldenShadow said:
Shooter Sequences
Warthog Sequences
Tank Sequences
Mild stealth elements
Flood sequences
etc etc
Or any other game, for that matter. Just as I can easily argue that Halo and Half-Life are both easily repetitive and boring (not that I want to, obviously). I suppose the only real reason I'm responding to you is that you demanded a better reason for his opinion (implying your fanboyism), and it pissed me off.
Oh, and inb4 "halo completely ripped of half-life blahblahblah" or anything else that directs attention away from the fact that you don't really respect other people's opinions.
My gripe with Halo is the obvious architecture tiling. Just about all of the interior locations are a copy paste of the same rooms connected by similar tunnels. I mean the underground complexes and the insides of the space ships, both human and alien ones. Its easy to get lost because you might as well be going in circles. And this is the only game I can think of that does this. I played Halo and Halo 2 on my PC. Halo 2 is somewhat better at repeating the environments so much. I also feel like the gameplay stagnates too long before giving the player something new to try out. Most of the time you are just going to pick your favorite gun and mindlessly shoot your way to the end of each level.The Bandit said:
Half-Life's (and all the sequels) have extremely diverse environments. I was especially impressed by the citadel, a location that you would imagine to be easy to build out of cutout rooms to paste around in a maze like configuration for a developer. But no, valve really went all out and made it look and feel like a scary and dangerous place. I especially love the work they did on it in Episode 1. I never once passed a location and did a double take. Haven't I been here before? But I was thinking that question everytime I turned a corner in Halo. Come on, you know what I'm talking about.
Half-Life constantly is giving you new abilities and guns and then new ways to utilize them as you progress. Diverse environments and new enemies cause you to try different tactics.
You remember the giant tentacles in the test silo?(HL1)
Using 3 tripod turrets to defend a prison cellblock(HL2)
Using your flashlight to help Alyx see in the dark(Episode1)
Using your gravity gun to fight a chopper with its own bombs(Episode2)
Just an example from each game.
That battle was freakin' HARD!!AvauntVanguard said:
( don't give up. It's worth seeing the end.)
Okay, you're crazy.BolognaBaloney said:
On a serious note, yeah Half-life, like all games, has a repetitive nature to it. Run here and shot things, then run there and shot things, then run somewhere else and shot things. That's pretty much the formula for a lot of games, just replace "shoot" with "swing sword at", "solve puzzle", "level up", etc. It is all a matter of how well they present their gameplay. I think they do it well, but it really is all a matter of what you prefer that will determine if you see fun or just grind in the gameplay. If you don't like the game, more power to ya just ignore the Valve fanboys here.
I see what you did there.Sindre1 said:
I am a big fan of Half-Life, just thinking about the original right now makes me want to play it. It's an incredibly varied game, the immersion factor is pretty huge, and in my opinion it still stands up to today's gaming standards (excepting graphics, of course).
Well Metacritic says HL/HL2/Orange Box/Bioshock for the best shooter ever, so I suppose we're all rational here.Bofus Teefus said:
HL just has something a little more, for me. I enjoyed Bioshock a lot (so much that I managed to finish it in 2 sittings without intending to!), but Half Life, Valve's original game remember, completely revolutionised FPS ( I'm basing judgement on HL's mods, but they certainly affect the way I look at it.
I think Half Life is almost best-known for the excellent way which it *presents* a fairly standard story. Games up until then either used text or cutscenes -> to have the story happen *while you played* was pretty impressive.Arachon said:
As for the Tom Clancy comment, I think he mentioned that the gunplay/firefights weren't what he wanted. I was suggesting that it doesn't count as a good firefight unless it's Tom Clancy style -> with the voice on the radio constantly briefing you on the situation and the constant cries of 'Tango down!'.
I wasn't that impressed by HL2 when it first came out, and even less so impressed by Episode 1. I mainly bought The Orange Box for Portal, but after an hour in Episode 2 I couldn't stop playing it. Episode 2 was where I really started to like the characters, got immersed in the world and enjoyed every minute of the game. The finale was one of the most fun experiences I've had in a game.
wait, so you don't like halflife, and yet you played all the games of the series, save a few hours of game play in the latest one? wow, you really hate hate halflife.
i must say, halflife and it's sequel are just impressive muthers. that is all.
i must say, halflife and it's sequel are just impressive muthers. that is all.
It is on the 360, it was one of the first releases. Im talking about the 360 version. I know it came out on the PS3 recently, a few months ago if I'm not mistaken. Sorry about the confusion, my faultKstreitenfeld said:
I'm not gonna call you a noob, cuz, and you fellow escapists can make fun of me about this, it did take me a while to get the powers down. I mean, those abilities in your hand, I forget what there called, it's been a while. I understood how to use them, but swapping between them, and swapping between weapons, and swapping between the two...why could I shoot my pistol with one hand, and throw bees at the opposition with the other. IT'S CRAZY! but, it was a good game, good story. I've never played System Shock or System Shock 2, but I've heard they were both f-ing excellent. But, even if I did magically come across a copy, my pc isn't built for gaming, so I probably couldn't run it. Hell, half the time, I think my PC is older than I am...Triple AD said:No sorry I meant HL2 is hardoliveira8 said:
I occasionally go on my half-life tangent and do nothing but sit infront of my pc and grind through HL1 and HL2. But for the most part they never really won me over. Hell I still really dont "get" HL in general.