Poll: Half-Life, Why Everyone Finds it Wonderful?

[Burck]

Half Life 2 was beloved because it was a forerunner of its kind, in both realistic in-game physics, and story telling through characters and setting. The Source Engine was (at least one of) the first games with realistic physics, which now-a-days are par for the course. It also had the best graphics of its time, and a person's computer could be given a rough scale by how well it ran. (Like Crysis on full settings is for modern computers) With this, and amazing voice acting, the cast of HL2 were the most realistic gamers had ever seen.

I personally loved HL2 for the haunting settings such as the enslaved City 17 with its Gestapo like police force of Civil Protection and Overwatch. Ravenholm, a former safe haven turned hell. And who could forget the infinitesimally tall Citadel filled with armies, prisoners, and secrets.

A lot of threads on this forum have compared Half Life 2 with Bioshock, and in this thread, I have seen Mass Effect. Honestly, I think its amazing that HL2 can even hold a candle to games like those, that was released years later with all the knowledge and technological capabilities gained.

What I think distinguished HL2 was that it got into my mind while I played it, and allowed me to really experience the game a bit more in-person rather than just be an observer.

 

[Xx7 elevenxX]

I like this game a lot, Good controls,great graphics, and the source engine+Gravity Gun= Win.

The story is easy to follow, although there is a lot of room to OVERCOMPENSATE. To go to there hardcore fan base. They also trashed a lot of things from the first, because of this he got some people ticked but it made it so new people who had never played the original , like me being 15,. I did also recentaly play the original and I found it much more of a challenge. If short for my post. Its good enough for Casual gamers to pick up and play. But hard enough to keep and make its hardcore fan base grow.

 

[Nimbus]

Half-Life was very good when it first came out. It hasn't aged well, however.

Half-Life 2 on the other hand is still a great game today. I would even say it is one of the best shooters I have ever played, if not the best.

 

[Swaki]

found all the games to be meh, i played the original when i was very young and found it to be way to scary, but they should be played when they where launched as the graphic is a big part of their specialness, but i think a big part of the love comes from the orange box, the epicness of that still shocks people.

 

[NotAPie]

I am PANCAKES.
But seriously, I think its a good game, not perfect but its good.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

Because I'm not about to pretend that Half-Life 2 didn't shock the shit out of me when I first played it. Going back and playing it, it's not as much fun, but neither is watching a movie that relies on important plot twists for the second time. Similar to such a movie, the game keeps taking you to extremely interesting places, and it's part of the experience. Second time through, and they're old news. Ravenholm isn't nearly as scary the second time through.

The game was un-fucking-believable the first time I played it, which is something a game had never done before, and hasn't done since; that's why I'm a fan of the Half-Life series. Well, from Half-Life 2, forth, anyway... didn't much care for the original, for whatever reason.

Fandom won't stop me from voting "pancakes", however.

 

[Professor M]

I personally like how they've managed to create the game so that it flows nicely, and your task of "what to do/where to go next" is one that you can just run into because you know what to do. Like, the whole first scene, where you get off the train, leave the station, run across rooftops etc etc, it all works so well, and the first time I did it I already knew where I was going, what I should do to complete this part of the task.

I just like how they managed that whereas other developers have to resort to "Hey look guys I'm gonna draw your path for you so you dont get lost and so the game flows ok?"

 

[A random person]

I'd consider Half Life 2 to be one of my favorite games. I'm going to sound like a fanboy (but we established that, didn't we), but I love the atmosphere (the bridge is awesome, dissent will be punished by Combine beating), the setpieces, and how it has nicely varied gameplay while fundamentally being an FPS.

But because I'm weird, I'll vote for pancakes.

 

[sneeson]

I personally think eps 1 & 2 are much better than Half-Life 2 but since I played them back to back on The Orange Box I tend to think of them all as the same game.
One of the standout features is that-apart from loading screens-the immersion is never broken. No level progression, no points system, nothing that screams YOURE PLAYING A GAME! Makes it a lot easier to lose yourself in the world.

 

[GenHellspawn]

Aside from the absence of a Gravity Gun, Half Life is better than HL2 in almost every way. Putting the emphasis on story (a very bad thing to do with an FPS) made the game quite dull in comparison.

 

[Dogstile]

i can't be bothered to complete it

its honestly boring me

 

[Satin6T]

because everyone forgets the driving parts

 

[pompom8volt]

I like mine with peanut butter... In case you were wondering I'm talking about pancakes. (I've never played half life)

 

[Rascarin]

I despised Half Life (2). I tried so hard to get into it, honestly I did.

But it was THE most boring game I've ever played. I got to the bit where you have to carry a building sites worth of bricks onto one end of a giant see-saw just the get up onto a ledge that any normal person would just *climb* up and decided that I really, really wasn't enjoying myself, put the disc back in the box, and never touched it since.

 

[Sprogus]

I have to say I liked Half Life 1 better. I never saw the attraction to Half Life 2, there are just long periods of nothing with really bad vehicle sections.

 

[ddon]

i think because it has good graphics and such a good physics engine.

 

[Ph33nix]

NOTE: This is not a thread for insulting the game. (And when I say insulting I mean, don't go "THIS GAME ) Also, I did not find anything like this after searching.

So, I have been searching for a game and picked up Half-Life 2 this week. I played through it and I want to know - Why is it as big as it is? Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad game, but it also isn't the greatest one either.

So, what I am asking is:

Why do you find Half-Life to be one of the best games (or a bad one), is it the puzzles, the shooting, and where do you stand with the series?

(I was quite fond of the driving sections actually.)

when it came out in 04 its graphics where epic and so was its physics engine but now both are starting to lag behind.

 

[Arkhangelsk]

Haven't played it yet, although I own it, so I'll say... Pancakes.