I just got the crossbow, and it's my first play-through, so this is mostly just "first impressions".
To be honest, I find the gameplay somewhat repetitive - you walk forward from A to B, shooting everything that you meet along the way. The game also seems a little too eager to continue that, because as soon as you get to B, you're sent to C for whatever reason. The vehicles handle horribly, but they're probably supposed to, considering that they're made out of PVC and duct tape.
My biggest problem is the story, though. I haven't played Half-Life 1, which probably contributes, but a little more exposition would be nice nonetheless. All I know is:
I'm Gordon Freeman, who is some kind of hero because he presumably did something in Half-Life 1.
Gordon works for Black Mesa, which is an organisation trying to fight some white-haired authority figure by painting yellow labdas everywhere.
Oh, and there are brown Metroid-like things that make corpses alive somehow. They're delivered by rockets, so they're probably some kind of alien race trying to take over the world or something.
On a more positive note, the way your environment acts independently from you is nice, although the way Gordon never responds to anything (not even non-verbally) offsets this rather heavily.
I'm not sold on it quite yet. Maybe it'll get better later on.
To be honest, I find the gameplay somewhat repetitive - you walk forward from A to B, shooting everything that you meet along the way. The game also seems a little too eager to continue that, because as soon as you get to B, you're sent to C for whatever reason. The vehicles handle horribly, but they're probably supposed to, considering that they're made out of PVC and duct tape.
My biggest problem is the story, though. I haven't played Half-Life 1, which probably contributes, but a little more exposition would be nice nonetheless. All I know is:
I'm Gordon Freeman, who is some kind of hero because he presumably did something in Half-Life 1.
Gordon works for Black Mesa, which is an organisation trying to fight some white-haired authority figure by painting yellow labdas everywhere.
Oh, and there are brown Metroid-like things that make corpses alive somehow. They're delivered by rockets, so they're probably some kind of alien race trying to take over the world or something.
On a more positive note, the way your environment acts independently from you is nice, although the way Gordon never responds to anything (not even non-verbally) offsets this rather heavily.
I'm not sold on it quite yet. Maybe it'll get better later on.