Is Half life 2 any good?

HL2 - Overrated massively imo. Good visuals, great engine however the trigger points for various scripted bits were very flaky, NPC AI was utterly pathetic including combine AI and worst of all the weapon sounds were complete garbage. Ambient sounds were spot on though.

I practically yawned my way through most of the game with Ravenholm and the final 'trip through the citadel' being the most memorable moments. The game just never felt fun to me.

Whereas HL1 had a ton of memorable moments as that is what the game was set out to do. Everyone can remember a specific moment in that game (scientists plummeting to their death in the lift?). Great weapon sounds, and best of all - it's Deathmatch mode was legendary. Oh and don't mention Xen...or the spider with the testicle bags.
 
It was good the first time but I admit it was overhyped. Some good graphics and some terrible, excellent dialogue and story but can be very boring in places. Definately worth buying and playing but replay I personally do not enjoy it for.

The story is good and that keeps you engaged if you dont know it.

Dont expect miracles like people make out and you will enjoy it.
 
It's a shame when people think even HL2 graphics make people unable to play because they think it looks bad, shifting aside a good story.
Makes me doubly sick people can't play the original to know more of the story for the same reason.

Spoilt generation I guess ;(
 
??? I would gladly play the original Half life again. Awesome game. Was iffy near the end, but great gameplay and fantastic music for scripted scenes.

HL2 has a cinematic mod i believe, it is meant to be very good but a huge download.
 
Yes, a huge download the Cimematic Mod is, forget how much but big! Adds quite a lot to the game, graphics, sound, music etc.

I did enjoy HL2 when it came out but it certainly doesn't rate in my top 5 all time PC games, a solid 8/10 though. Both HL2 and Doom3 are (at least to me) better for their technical achievements, rather than for the games themselves. Both must 'try and plays' though. :D
 
dmxdex2020 said:
Ahh what the hell i will get half life source and play it. Are their any texture mods for this game?
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Do it. HL1 is my favorite game in the series, favorite FPS of all time and probably in my Top 5 all time games. I played through it again not to long ago, and sure it looks a bit dated, but the gameplay is still fantastic.

And we all know gameplay > graphics, rght? :) (Hell I completed Doom just a few weeks ago. Looks old but great mindless fun!)

Once your done with that, get stuck into Opposing Force. Again, awesome. Best expansion I've ever played. Was so good could have been sold as a Stand alone game, and while shorter than Half-life still longer than most of today s FPS.

Blue-shift is a little short and average, but still worth playing through for completeness sake.

Then get stuck into the brilliant HL2 :) I think source holds up surprisingly well after 6 years, is a brilliant engine. There is a high res texture pack for HL2, or the mod mentioned previously. I might check out the cinematic mod, but never felt the graphics in HL2 effected my enjoyment. Again, game play over graphics :) I still play other source games like Counter Strike and Day of Defeat.
 
Ravenholm I love.. Dog is the best dog ever! And if you can get a decent enough server hl2 is great fun to play through on synergy (steam mod) upto 16 odd people playing the full campaign .. Hilarious :D
 
Found myself replaying HL2 recently (well, Episode 2 and DM anyway.) I'd forgotten just how good they were. DM had me in absolute stitches from mavity gun antics, and I found myself craving EP3. Hope Valve don't just forget about it.
 
Lyon85 said:
Putting my disgust aside for one second (I kid), I'd just like to add my thoughts on the cinematic mod.

This tends to happen with iconic games that start to show their age, someone tries to improve them. The problem is that while this old Source design looks technically dated the game design itself is artistically magnificent, this never ages, it's timeless.

When you start rewriting the technical design of a game it's almost inevitable that you also start taking liberties with the game art too. This is most apparent in the character design, it's cleary some geeks wet dream, it's just not an improvement.

The world redesign looks quite nice in some screens and overly gritty in others. I've not played it with the cinematic mod much myself and I'm not saying it's not worth it, my point is that you should probably play it stock on your first run. You might look at it now and think to yourself that you couldn't endure such dated graphics, but let this be a lesson to you in the power of fantastic art design. Let it immerse you.
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Perfectly put
 
You don't have to use the "geeks wet dream" characters :)

In fact I don't think they are enabled by default. I'm not sure if it is just because I hadn't played the game in a while, but I think the Cinematic mod made the game harder. I kept dying :)
 
Cinematic mod did rebalance some sections, but I think that was edited at one point as it went too far in one version and was toned back to be more consistant and in keeping with the original game later on.

I agree with whats stated above, as Valve upgraded some of the game themselves a little while back, it should probably be played 'as is' the first time round; however for a second or return playthrough, the Cinematic Mod is definately a very good way to go, not to mention as a personal project, its an amazing feat, you can really feel the love thats gone into the project, even if it is a 'rebuild'.

It only changes the feel if you want it to in terms of characters, and otherwise is a modernisation in many many ways (maps/levels blended together to reduce load screens), updated graphics and shadowing, more detailed areas retaining the feel of the original but increasing say the tree count etc. Alyx is of course the biggest change, but if you're on a recent version, there are quite a few different models for her; including several revamped modernised versions of the original, not just a 'wet dream version'.

Whilst sometimes the look changes slightly with CM, its hard to say the mod isn't in keeping with the original feel and spirit of the game, or the universe; its just been slightly more brought up to date with what the engine can handle nowadays; which is very different to what was available at the time (5770/GTX460 etc vs a 9800Pro!)

PS. I'm also really looking forward to Black Mesa...its kind of gone off my radar with how long its taken, but the stuff they've released does look great (definately bring it up to similar levels as CM - it'd actually be quite cool if they cooperated as the CM developer is obviously very good at what he does)...hopefully we won't get Daikatana'd.
 
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I would say the first Half Life is the best FPS of all time but HL2 was just merely 'good'. Probably an 8/10 game no higher. It was massively over-rated by the gaming press, all of them declaring it the best game ever with silly scores like 97/98%.
 
I have to admit the cinemod 10.90 is so OTT in all areas you need to install this just to marvel at what this guy has done. The landscapes are just jaw dropping, the source engine is such a great engine and the cinemod really shows what HD textures applied can look like in source.

I kinda think the whole cinemod is where FPS should be at now in terms of graphics. It just seems that FPS haven't really moved on since 2007, I've not seen a FPS since COD4 MW make me go - WOW look at the graphics.

Half Life 2 made my jaw drop in 2004, and it still does today - even more so with Cinemod 10.90 applied. COD4 MW on the PC was eye candy, and played well too..

Its not all about graphics - granted. But Half Life 2 and COD4 MW had a combination of both excellent visuals and superb gameplay. Since then, its all gone a bit flat really. I've held of on COD Black ops. I'm tempted but I think I'd be too busy comparing to COD4 MW...

Anyhow, Half Life 2 with the cinemod 10.90 is keeping me busy at the moment... Just at the hoovercraft sections.. The cinemod hovercraft looks a lot better...
 
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