Poll: Half-Life 2

[Counterwise]

Bla bla bla...

So, because my opinion doesn't match yours I'm stupid? Yes I played the original. Having hints lying around the game is not a good way to tell a story, some might miss them(not me, I'm kinda like a OCD when it comes to exploring games), but the point is, though they are hinting at something you never know what actually is true. What I think the game hinted at was that Aliens had conquered earth and installed a dictatorship with Dr.Breen as its leader. Though I'm not sure, it might be, that Dr.Breen is trying to rid the society of hooligans and anarchists and has to dispatch a bunch of heavily armoured units to catch them. I never saw them do anything evil, when they broke down flat doors was because they were chasing me. Again I had no idea what kind of regime it was, what it had done. It is never revealed anything they have done in the past.
Stop trying to win this case by saying that we can't see or hear shit(pardon my language), cause most of us are competent gamers. The connection to the first game is basically that Black Mesa was fucked up, G-man, and aliens. What happened between the 2 games? Tell me, based on half life and half life 2(not based around the episodes). You have no idea what war you are in, and the new characters are not very likeable.
Shooting was like any other average shooter, with that damn annoying error-rate where you can't rely on the accuracy of a weapon.
But for me the atmosphere was the biggest drag, it was dull, sterile, un-lifelike. The whole game just cruised by me, with no excitement, captivation or anything. When it ended I said, well that was dull and I'm glad I don't have to play it any more. The characters inability to interact with the environment killed any connection to the game personally. It was kinda like someone showing you their holiday pictures and you sit there uninterested and say, yeah, ok, that's nice. I just didn't care about it. Citing Jeremy Clarcson "It's like Germany, everything works, and works well. But for a holiday you still go to Italy, Spain or France."
Anyway, I didn't like it. And trying to change my opinion after I've played it is impossible.

 

[Rickyvantof]

Episode 2, best game ever.

 

[Yoshemo]

the head crabs that seem like the Infection form Flood from Halo on a permanent sugar high,

Half Life 1 came out years before Halo, so if anything, Halo ripped off Half Life

Plus, those giant crawler things take a ton of damage to. For something that seems like a grape held up by three toothpicks, it can take an upwards of 8 rockets. I bet I could cut through that thing's leg with a butter knife, and it takes 8 rockets? Get out of here!

Strong alien armor is strong

The level design is what kills it for me

Strange... I never got lost for more than a couple minutes =\

Oh, and why is it that whenever you have a plot-important ally around, they can die? That makes me groan whenever Alex or someone else rears their ugly head, because suddenly things turn into an escort mission!

Its called realism

 

[Breaker deGodot]

Considering that I'm a total fanboy, I'm the wrong person to ask. HL2 is my favorite game of all time, with Mother 3 at a close second.

[http://dragcave.net/view/rYtd]

 

[unoleian]

It's horribly generic to me and seems really overrated, especially on these forums. Long and short I dislike it, a lot.

Ha!, that's because every shooter from the past almost 15 years now has borrowed part and parcel from Half-Life's philosophy!

Even Half-Life 2 is rather old by now, everything it did new is downright expected now in newer FPS's!

When the games were new, though...man, they were at the top of the game, for both titles.

 

[Yossarian1507]

I posted this one just yesterday in other thread, so I'll just rest my fingers and copypasta my opinion on HL2:

Half Life 2 - I was expecting a nice shooter in interesting setting with a great plot as everyone were saying. Shooting part? Scripted as hell and boring (gravity gun was fun for 10 minutes then lost it's appeal as well). Setting? Ok, City 17 was fine, but all those severs and Ravenholm? Yuck.

Story? rrargh, this is my berserk button in here. It sounded interesting with G-man at the beginning and all, but then 'Omigosh Gordon, we misteleported you, you have to kill 1kk combine and crab guys, to get back to the FUCKING starting point'. Ok, that was boring as hell, but I did it. Let's go with the plot again... and then after another 5 minutes we have 'Omigosh Gordon, the path is blocked, and we got separated. You need to go through the spooky town to again go back to the FUCKING point, where still nothing actually happened.

I stopped here, after meeting with Grigori (or whatever that wacko priest was named). This isn't a good plot exposition. In fact it's probably one of the most terrible plot expositions in the history of gaming. It's okay in a shooter that have a plot as an addition to entertaining gameplay, but when the shooting is average as well, and the story was one of the main selling points of this game, this is FUCKING unacceptable.

[/rant]

Sorry for harsh language, especially emphasis on F-words, but HL2 really really pissed me off in that aspect and I can't really do anything about it.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

I suggest you start Spawning NPC's!! it's the Resistance Dammit ! start making human resistants! XD

 

[Yossarian1507]

Even Half-Life 2 is rather old by now, everything it did new is downright expected now in newer FPS's!

I disagree. Far Cry 1 came up half a year earlier and it did everything that HL2 did but better IMO (graphics, intelligent enemies instead of scripts, better weapons, overall gameplay etc.)

 

[Outright Villainy]

You know, until I read on the wiki that Alex or other plot important characters could die, I never even thought of it; it didn't happen once. She's like the best companion ever...
Plus, I love the immersiveness of never taking you out of first person at all, and I thought the level design was stellar throughout.
[small]/gushing Valve fanboyism.[/small]

 

[Weaver]

It's my favorite FPS ever made so I picked the one claiming it was the best ever.

 

[SulfuricDonut]

I couldn't manage to play Half-Life 2 for that long, I disliked it so much. I did enjoy Gary's Mod however, and managed to play that for a very long time. Try it (if you're on the PC).

 

[micky]

you need to play the first one, you really wont understand anything and put the difficulty down if its to hard. personaly its one of my favorite games.

 

[Yeager942]

How could you let your npc's die. The game gives them oodles of health, unlike other escort quests, making them nigh invincible.

To each their own I suppose. I, personally, loved it, and I loved its story. It doesn't just shove it down your throat. Its very ambient.

 

[SonicKoala]

Stop making threads about this - seriously, it's stupid. A lot of people like Half-Life 2. If you don't, that's fine; honestly, nobody fucking cares if you don't like Half-Life 2. These threads are just a haven for flaming (which has already begun to take place), and all you EVER get are a bunch of people who come and post "Yeah I loved it" or "it's average" or "it's terrible, I don't get it". The redundancy is staggering, and it really makes one question the universal claim that these forums are "so fantastic" when really the majority of threads on this website consist of the same old tired shit over and over and over again - like this one.

 

[Lem0nade Inlay]

OP: HL2 is myfavourite game of all time. The story (which I don't think you have any right to complain about, as you haven't played the first one so obviously you're not going to understand it) is fantastic. It's not just some generic alien shooter, because it focus' a lot more on character development and interaction, whereas other games lack in this sense. Also I can't think of a game which has a better level design than half life (in terms of holding your hand and showing you where to go)

I don't understand how you can find the enemies frustrating, you know that the "pimples from the ceiling" (barnacles) can be distracted with basically any prop so you can walk past. The poison zombies? I can think of one situation in which you're forced to fight one, otherwise if they're such a pain for you, you can always walk past.
Striders? For a game with no boss battles (really) you have to expect some sort of challenging enemy, if they didn't make the striders as strong as they are then people would always be complaining that the game had no challenge aspects etc.
Escort missions? There's like two of them in the whole game, and they're in the same level. Unless you count the rebels that follow you, but nothing happens when they die so there's no reason you have to sacrifice your life for them.

Yeah sure I might be a bit of a fanboy (judging from my avatar here) but I can still know what was innovative for it's time and what wasn't. By the way I played HL2 before I played HL1 as well, and I still got the story, maybe you shouldn't spend so much time jerking around during the cutscenes. Phew, I think that was my first rant (flame?) on this site so far...

 

[Juan Regular]

I played through it 7 times now and I guess I can call it my absolute favourite game. I even went so far as to play the whole series in one weekend, meaning Half Life, Opposing Force, Blue Shift, Decay, Half Life 2, Episode 1 and Episode 2. This game was basically made for me.

That being said, I get some of the arguments here, especially considering the sometimes dragging gameplay and the way the story is told. I like it just the way it is. It uses the medium videogames in ways that other developers wouldn´t dare to and always pulls it off.

 

[ThePirateMan]

Why do I feel I was the only person who enjoyed the vehicle sections in HL2?

You're not alone.

 

[thom_cat_]

You're complaining about being hit by the enemies that broadcast their attacks and are easily dodged? I haven't heard very many people complain about the game being too hard, and in fact the specific instances you mentioned are fairly straightforward enemies. I don't see why the engineering of the striders has anything to do with his health limit; would you be less frustrated if it was just shaped differently? It's the time of the game where you get into boss fights, so a challenge is sort of expected.

The plot doesn't ever need to be "explained" because what you need to know is very apparent. Aliens have taken over from another world and turned the place into a 1984-esque dystopia. People have high expectations of you being able to help, and your antagonist is Dr. Breen. You can read a bit more into EXACTLY what's happening if you like by paying a bit more attention during "plot sequences" like Kleiner's lab, but no BS story about experiments and portals is stuffed down your throat because they realize, not everyone really cares. Instead there's more a focus on the individual characters, and what's important right now. (ie, finding Eli, helping the rebels, etc)

I would also like to note to you that headcrabs were in fact invented BEFORE the Flood. Thus, you can only call the Flood "headcrabs on prozac"

I really don't see how a waypoint system would help. I in fact absolutely hate it when a game grants me a very obvious pattern of "Go Here Then Here"; it's much more interesting when they guide you into where to go using subtle hints, so you more or less "figure it out" on your own. Otherwise you're just going through the motions as it instructs you. I worry that you're perhaps just a bit too used to games that focus on the linear sequences of enemies rather than the exploration/problemsolving systems.

Obviously, I can't affect your opinion as you play; if it's not your kind of game, that's fine. Games have certainly changed more than we realize since 2004, so that could be part of it.

I couldn't agree more with you.
and as for the OP getting lost? HOW!? It's a linear game! There is no way you can get lost!
The story is clear, and you can gather anything from talking to civilians and just looking around you! They tell you where to go, there are no obscure routes and it's bloody obvious where you go. Please can I get a screenshot/map name and location to tell me of just one of the places where you got lost?
Escort missions? I've played through HL2 many many many times and only a few times have my ally characters died, and it was because I totally ignored them with 50 zombies coming at them.
As for enemies? You do realise the striders aren't made out of papier-mâché? A butter knife? It's a reinforced metal leg!
Yes, the poison zombies do take an unnatural amount of damage, that's why they are a feared enemy. Just get over it.

 

[Jekken6]

The only problems I had with Half Life 2 is the fact that when you climb a ladder, you can still fire a .44 Magnum with both hands and when you're turning a wheel, you can still hold a rocket launcher and when you drive a vehicle, your hands don't move the wheel.

And that fucking gnome in Episode 2.

Just those things annoyed me. Otherwise, it was awesome.

 

[StBishop]

I really liked it when I did my first play through, but you can never play it a second time, it has absolutely no replay value, and that's why I think it's not deserving of the ridiculous amounts of praise it gets.

A game doesn't have to change itself every time you play it in order for you to want to play it again. Sure, it helps, but it doesn't set the replay value.
Movies never change after you see them, yet there are many movies I will have no problem and even be glad to watch again.

Whereas I will rarely, if ever, watch a movie more than once.

Some people, do require a new experience to find any value in a second playthrough.

Just because someones opinion is different to yours doesn't mean it's wrong.

I will almost never play a game a second time unless I have other options to explore. So for me, a game changing it's self does set the replay value.