Why is Half Life such a cultural phenomenon?
- Thread starter CRAVE CASE 55
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Also i am tired of the companion cube praise it is a cube of metal it just has a heart painted on it. "the cake is a lie" is also dumb because i am eating cake right now thoughMardy said:
i thought it was funny on Doomsday arcade
"what is that" *looking at cake*
"it's real"
"noooooooo"
Well I know I liked Portal because it was a good puzzle game and had an awesome sense of humorMardy said:
I really hate Half Life 2. I've never understood the universal praise it gets. I wrote a negative review of it for a friend's website when it first got a release and got frenzied emails from the fanboys, as if my opinion was going to hurt Valve's feelings.
Amonst the things I didnt like:
*Every goddamned five minutes it makes me build a seesaw to get somewhere.
*You spend too much time in shitty driving sections.
* When you pick something up it floats there, as if you use telekinesis rather than hands.
* When you drive you operate the wheel with your mind too. Electricity from wallsockets and powerstations is still harmful, presumably having sided with the combine.
* Antlions.
* The aliens who were trying to kill you are now friendly, and electrical shock from them now charge your suit rather than killing you. This is never adequately explained.
I could go on but you get the idea.
I like Half Life, it was a fantastic game but I didnt feel that HL2 did anything original other than ripping off 1984, crossing out the word 'communists' and putting 'aliens' in its place.
In the interests of not triggering a flamewar I would like to remind you that the above is my viewpoint and if you did enjoy HL2 then I'm glad that you did so but for me it was a waste of £30 and was not fun.
Amonst the things I didnt like:
*Every goddamned five minutes it makes me build a seesaw to get somewhere.
*You spend too much time in shitty driving sections.
* When you pick something up it floats there, as if you use telekinesis rather than hands.
* When you drive you operate the wheel with your mind too. Electricity from wallsockets and powerstations is still harmful, presumably having sided with the combine.
* Antlions.
* The aliens who were trying to kill you are now friendly, and electrical shock from them now charge your suit rather than killing you. This is never adequately explained.
I could go on but you get the idea.
I like Half Life, it was a fantastic game but I didnt feel that HL2 did anything original other than ripping off 1984, crossing out the word 'communists' and putting 'aliens' in its place.
In the interests of not triggering a flamewar I would like to remind you that the above is my viewpoint and if you did enjoy HL2 then I'm glad that you did so but for me it was a waste of £30 and was not fun.
Actually it is, they were controlled by the creature you kill at the end of Half Life 1. Some of them express a degree of remorse about all the souls "Who's bonds were cut," in 2, although whether they mean the Humans they killed or the Vortigaunts you killed is left open.setting_son said:
I take your point but for me, that's not an adequate explanation so much as it is the storyline equivelant of wallpapering over cracks. For all the effort Valve put into seesaws, I'd have hope for better writing.fix-the-spade said:
I think most of the appreciation of Half Life was born when it was originally released, so coming into Half Life or Half Life 2 (or the many sequels/expansions of the main games) at this point is going to make some of the praise seem a tad unworthy. Despite this, there are still a number of reasons why the Half Life series is so popular.
Focusing on Half Life 2, which is what your question is mainly about, it is the excellent script writing, adaptive and realistic A.I. of the enemies, good voice acting, numerous little references to events such as as the Seven Hour War and the generally huge amount of attention to detail that causes Half Life 2 to command the respect it does.
The game isn't really innovative in as far as actual FPS gameplay, with the typical weapons loadout (aside from the Pulse Rifle and Gravity Gun, of course) common in many FPS games, but the realistic water, HDR, and physics engines are what really makes the game shine.
I feel that if you go into Half Life 2 expecting something along the lines of Halo, that is a traditional mostly-linear FPS with numerous different weapons and such modern affairs like being able to carry only a few weapons at a time or regenerating health that are now so typical to the genre, you might end up dissapointed.
Really, you need to look at Half Life more as artwork of the genre. Half Life 2 really shows what developers can do in games, and how they can create immersive worlds and fantastic characters even out of a bog-standard story.
There's also a bit of nostalgia to it; the game has a character with a health point system that can heal using first aid kits and carry an enormous weapons loadout without breaking a sweat. This callback to previous generations of FPS games definitely provides a much slower paced feel than in, for example, Halo or Gears of War. This only serves to facilitate the environmental exploration that can make the Half Life series feel so rewarding.
tl;dr version: Don't go in expecting a new and innovative FPS (after all it has been years since its release), go in looking for a deep and immersive game with realistic characters.
Focusing on Half Life 2, which is what your question is mainly about, it is the excellent script writing, adaptive and realistic A.I. of the enemies, good voice acting, numerous little references to events such as as the Seven Hour War and the generally huge amount of attention to detail that causes Half Life 2 to command the respect it does.
The game isn't really innovative in as far as actual FPS gameplay, with the typical weapons loadout (aside from the Pulse Rifle and Gravity Gun, of course) common in many FPS games, but the realistic water, HDR, and physics engines are what really makes the game shine.
I feel that if you go into Half Life 2 expecting something along the lines of Halo, that is a traditional mostly-linear FPS with numerous different weapons and such modern affairs like being able to carry only a few weapons at a time or regenerating health that are now so typical to the genre, you might end up dissapointed.
Really, you need to look at Half Life more as artwork of the genre. Half Life 2 really shows what developers can do in games, and how they can create immersive worlds and fantastic characters even out of a bog-standard story.
There's also a bit of nostalgia to it; the game has a character with a health point system that can heal using first aid kits and carry an enormous weapons loadout without breaking a sweat. This callback to previous generations of FPS games definitely provides a much slower paced feel than in, for example, Halo or Gears of War. This only serves to facilitate the environmental exploration that can make the Half Life series feel so rewarding.
tl;dr version: Don't go in expecting a new and innovative FPS (after all it has been years since its release), go in looking for a deep and immersive game with realistic characters.
Half Life story was always about the player looking for it instead of being spoonfed with it. Just look for the story dont wait for it to smack you on the head, cause it wont.setting_son said:
After 10 years people still havent get how the story in Half Life is told.
I never understood why more games do not do this "wallpapering over cracks" thing and instead decide that your too retarded to try to figure it out by yourself so they make it very clear with lengthy, horrible cutscenes. I'd prefer the G-man's mysterious "Wake up and smell the ashes" to faceless, nameless narrator's "By the year 2077, the destructive nature of man could be contained no longer..."setting_son said:
PS: There is 1 (ONE) mandatory seesaw.
Admit it! You really love see saws don't you?setting_son said:
Remember, saying nothing or denying is a sign of admittance!
All a matter of taste really, but compared to the vast majority of single player shooters Half-Life, Half-Life 2 and the 'Episodes' (Ep1 being my least favorite) are delivered with a superb polish and seamless gameplay.
When it comes to plot and NPC design few games can compare to Half-Life 2. The mannar in which the plot is delivered without cutscenes (excepting the G-Man sequences at the start and end of games) greatly enhances the feeling of immersion for me. In my opinion this is where the Source Engine comes into its own, the range of facial expressions displayed in the characters heightens this immersion even further.
Frankly, considering its 2004 release, the original incarnation of Source shows up the comparitively lazy production put into the NPCs that populate the likes of Oblivion, Halo, Fallout3 and many other games I can't be bothered to list.
The bespectacled Gordon Freeman is also a million times more iconic than any of the faceless space marines that populate most shooters (including the bland green master chief).
In short Half-Life is the gourmet shooter experience. If you don't care for the finer details then it isn't for you, you might as well stick with the crudity of Halo or FarCry; but if you are looking for absolute refinement then the Half-Life games are a cut above the rest.
When it comes to plot and NPC design few games can compare to Half-Life 2. The mannar in which the plot is delivered without cutscenes (excepting the G-Man sequences at the start and end of games) greatly enhances the feeling of immersion for me. In my opinion this is where the Source Engine comes into its own, the range of facial expressions displayed in the characters heightens this immersion even further.
Frankly, considering its 2004 release, the original incarnation of Source shows up the comparitively lazy production put into the NPCs that populate the likes of Oblivion, Halo, Fallout3 and many other games I can't be bothered to list.
The bespectacled Gordon Freeman is also a million times more iconic than any of the faceless space marines that populate most shooters (including the bland green master chief).
In short Half-Life is the gourmet shooter experience. If you don't care for the finer details then it isn't for you, you might as well stick with the crudity of Halo or FarCry; but if you are looking for absolute refinement then the Half-Life games are a cut above the rest.
yeah they are great but maybe overated. think its because hl2 was kind of first game to use physics well (might be wrong), so you might have be more impressed if you played it at release and it was the first game you ever played with decent physics. and valve are just a cool company, they don't fuck you around rip you off. all their games are good quality, and they update games like tf2 for free and definately have a great sense of humour. they release a SDK so people can make great mods and promote and pioneer modding community in general. if you buy hl2 or any source game theres so many full conversion mods you can play. plus they sell games like orange box dirt cheap so who can complain?
There has to be a happy medium somewhere though. HL2 is intentionally vague and contrary to what Valave think, leaving plot holes doesnt have artistic merit - at the other end of the spectrum is MGS 4 with it's soul crushing odyssey of cutscenefoolery which is frankly, ridiculous.Pyre00 said:
A little mystery can be intriguing but unless the answers are somewhere, it's just annoying. All I want is a few newspapers scattered around.
Remember Deux Ex? It didnt have cutscenes to explain every nuance of the game but it created a virtual world where the answers could be found if you bothered to look.
(And when I say seesaw, I refer to seesaws, silly floating wedges, washing machine puzzles, etc, etc.)
Looking for the story only works if the story is there to be found.oliveira8 said:
Deux Ex: Doesnt spoonfeed the story to you, leaves plenty of in game material to seek out if you choose.
HL2: Er... hey look, some crates! Why not stack them on top of each other, it's fun and in no way tedious.
No theres plenty story going around. Talk to NPC's, look at the posters, look around you! The story of Half Life 2 IS IN THE GAME! You just too lazy too look for it.setting_son said:
And theres 1 or 2 mandatory stacking stuff puzzles, play the game again and stop complaining.
