Don't lynch me... Half life 2 - whats the big deal?

It was ok but think when it was first released way back when what other "great" games was on the market at the time ? That is why it has a rep behind it because at the time it was one of the best games around.
Gotta keep in mind its a few years old now if you compare it to whats out now well, its kind of obvious whos going to win.....
 
HL2 was absolutely worth the hype. Depending on your taste in video games and your expectations based on other experiences in the FPS genre it can difficult to see what HL2 did that was so different.

First up, art direction. Valve are Masters of atmosphere, City 17 and it's surrounding environments are so lovingly and almost obsessively detailed. Everything is designed to capture your imagination, from mind blowing vistas to the narrow corridors, every detail creates an atmosphere that evokes an emotion. Note, this is not about technical complexity, it's about artistic prowess.

Character interaction. Not many people give a toss about any NPCs they encounter along their journey in other games. Some are lovable, others not so much and some are just (intentionally) plain confusing. Not an easy task.

Unless you just love to shoot everything to shreds every waking moment Half-Life 2 has fantastic pacing. A huge problem with many shooters is battle fatigue, it's the reason I give up on so many FPS games before I reach the finish. HL2 builds up the fights with brilliant puzzle and exploration sections to divide them.

As for the story, the methods used use to tell it are brilliant. It's not just that everything happens through your eyes, it's that the story is all over the world. If you check out newspapers, propaganda sprayed on walls, posters and what the NPCs tell you, you will have a much greater understanding of the HL universe. All these things can be ignored, but if you wish you can try and peice it all togther, making for some interesting debates.

Amongst other thing. HL2 has the right to be deemed one of the greatest video games ever made, you might not like it if you were expecting one great big shoot 'em up, but it is a fantastic bit of story telling.

ExRayTed said:
HL1 and 2 both have the dubious honour of being the only fps games that give me motion sickness.Must be the engine or something..anyone else get this?
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You're not alone. It's something to do with the default FOV I believe. Google it, I'm sure there is a solution.
 
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Bengaboy said:
Hi guys.

I'm having problems understanding why the half life series is regarded as one of the best series / fps of all time.

I'm 18 and didnt play hl1 on the pc, I played it on the ps2, so I can understand why I may not of liked it (due to the not so great visuals, and not great gameplay. Didnt really wow me until the end where you had 2 choices - thought that was cool.

Now - half life 2. What a boring game... Why does everyone rate it so highly?

Not one point in that game did I go "wow!!" , just a mind numbingly boring fps. Also played ep1 aswell because I bought it in a deal, and again was bored.

Played ep2 and things were a bit better, and quite liked the ending.

The only reason I played ep2 was because of the orange box, and I may aswell play through ep3 to see what happens to complete the series.

So why do you all rate half life 1/2 as the greatest game of all time?
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agree with you OP, I got orange box as my mates wanted to play me online in TF2 and they said HL2 was amazing etc. I've got I think about half way through the game and its a big *yawn* from me tbh, the one I got has also got lots of bugs even after patching, some of the bugs that happen according to various places on the internet should only happen on pirate copies, well mines not a copy so dunno what thats all about either:confused:
 
another great thing about the HL games, they run on basically any pc spec

sure the difference between low & high is massive, but it's good that they cater for everyone... unlike crysis, where they cater for people in 2 years time :p



best way to Play HL2 is with a decent soundcard & either decent 5.1 speakers or £50+ stereo headphones. it's really atmospheric


EP1 was disappointing imo, EP2 was back on track, they really should keep the engine the same for all these EP releases, and fire out as many as possible..

it's not as if we won't buy them :)
 
Hl 1 worked because of the game elements, a storyline the players wants to follow, mystery, fps, action, drama, horror, graphics at the time were pretty amazing, concept, twists and turns in the storyline, the mysterious man who appeared everywhere, you felt like you were gordon freeman clawing your way out of a hell whole that could theroetically be created in reality.
Hl2 was "ok" i think the wait along with the storyline being dragged on is what brings it down, it just doesnt feel "new" or "innotive". Graphics are nice but thats about it.
 
At the time, I enjoyed Doom 3 more than Halflife 2. I actually couldn't wait to finish HL2 and the ending was just pathetic. Not saying Doom 3's was any better but over all it was a way better game for me.

I enjoyed multiplayer in Doom 3 way more aswell.

Haliflife 1 was ok, but it wasn't as amazing (to me) as some people say.
 
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You played through HL2, EP1, EP2 and plan to play EP3 yet you find it all a 'mind-numbingly boring' experience. OK. Usually if I find a game mind-numbingly boring I stop playing it immediately. I'd ditch the game and find something less boring to do :( I mean Bioshock is meant to have a really good story, but I found the actual gameplay boring so I stopped playing it.

Maybe its just me.
 
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skullman said:
You played through HL2, EP1, EP2 and plan to play EP3 yet you find it all a 'mind-numbingly boring' experience. OK. Usually if I find a game mind-numbingly boring I stop playing it immediately. I'd ditch the game and find something less boring to do :( I mean Bioshock is meant to have a really good story, but I found the actual gameplay boring so I stopped playing it.

Maybe its just me.
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Haha, I was about to post something similar.

Best advice I can give is that if you don’t like a game don’t play it. Okay you’ve payed money for it then maybe you want to play it to the end, but why buy the sequels….?

Personally I love the HL games.
 
well hl1 was something special same as cs serries. hl2 is good i think do hl1 was bit better but anyways. steam is doing great job at games. example team fortress2, cs:s . left 4 dead soon to. one thing is that they dont produce game more frequently
 
I always expected there to be a massive influx of HL2 mods over the years but they are pretty rare compared with the first game. It must be harder to implement certain things, i'm not sure.

The whole vehicle thing is already in the game so I would have thought someone would use that to their advantage. That aspect had to be modded into the first game with CS being the first to do it in the betas. There was a really well made rally game too called HL Rally
 
At the time of release, HL2 was mind blowing..

Great visuals and art direction, fantastic 'mini-game' shorts, extremely well done character design, game-altering physics, innovative weapons, immersive sound, amazing set pieces..

It's all bog standard for decent modern games, but back in the day it was astounding!
 
Half life 2 was very average, compared to the high quality of the 1st game hl2 is just boring, the worst part was the buggy section it just wouldn’t end.
 
uvmain said:
At the time of release, HL2 was mind blowing..

Great visuals and art direction, fantastic 'mini-game' shorts, extremely well done character design, game-altering physics, innovative weapons, immersive sound, amazing set pieces..

It's all bog standard for decent modern games, but back in the day it was astounding!
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yup, but it is still very entertaining to this day imo.
i've played through the whole series recently from h1 to e2 and still love every minute of them all.
 
As many have said HL2 raised the bar when it was first released. On the whole i loved it, one of my favourite games (as well as HL1). The 'problem' now is that games have set new higher standards which changes how you look at older titles.
 
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