Started Half Life 2 Am i missing something?

Ugley_Matt

Ugley_Matt

Ugley_Matt

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Just started though Half Life 2 and so far have made it onto the jet boat and skimming down the canals. I know i am late to the party but i remeber all the excitement that greated this on release, but i cannot really see whats that great about it. Ok the graphics are very good, but think about it, pretty much every game that has come out over the last 3-4 years looks good. The AI isnt all that, ok they use cover so you just have to wait for them to stick a head out and shoot them, thought they do seem psychic. The physics is a nice touch, although barrels that contiue to roll about under their own steam is a little off puting. The puzzles are a nice touch that breaks up the gameplay but, thats the problem.
So far it seems very very linear and awfully scripted. The path is set out for yoyu with the usual locked doors blocking your path. You turn a corner to find several objects in convient places to duck behind so you know the combine (and why have a sinistar baddie named after agrucutural machinery??) are coming from that direction. So far its very much run and gun to the next set piece, shoot eveything then on to the next one, shooting gallerys linked by walkways.
I never played the original so i am not carrying any love over from that.
Have i seen through the emperors new clothes or does it improve later on?
I was looking forward to playing it but feel slightly dissapointed and will probably only complete it for the sake of completing it.
 
I played and enjoyed Half Life 1. Like you I wasn't impressed with Half Life 2 much either. I have had it ages and still haven't got round to completing it.

Far Cry just blew Half Life 2 and Doom 3 away (for me at least).
 
Half Life 2 is highly overrated. Its success was carried along by the original game, which dwarfs its sequel. Prior to the release of Half Life 2, Valve had made a gameplay trailer in 2003 which really gave the game a stunning look. Unfortunately, almost all of that turned out to be fake - dynamic behaviour and physics interaction turned out to be scripted events.

Farcry is the far better game. I think Half Life 2 signalled the beginning of an era of PC gaming's decline in quality. Valve really did set the bar for making over-hyped mediocre games that cashed in on well-known names without giving a toss of when it's out. Every other company really did follow suit. If Valve could get away with such stinking practice, then why not ?

Nothing memorable has came out ever since. Which is a great shame.
 
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i would say fear is better. really enjoyed it. i did enjoy hl2 but it wasnt amazing. i play cs:s which is enjoyable
 
KNiVES said:
Half Life 2 is highly overrated. Its success was carried along by the original game, which dwarfs its sequel. Prior to the release of Half Life 2, Valve had made a gameplay trailer in 2003 which really gave the game a stunning look. Unfortunately, almost all of that turned out to be fake - dynamic behaviour and physics interaction turned out to be scripted events.

Farcry is the far better game. I think Half Life 2 signalled the beginning of an era of PC gaming's decline in quality. Valve really did set the bar for making over-hyped mediocre games that cashed in on well-known names without giving a toss of when it's out. Every other company really did follow suit. If Valve could get away with such stinking practice, then why not ?

Nothing memorable has came out ever since. Which is a great shame.
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I enjoyed HL2 far more than Far cry, admittedly the AI was far more realistic in Far Cry but for me this just made the game extremely hard and frustrating in places.
Maybe I just enjoyed HL2 because it wasnt that difficult and Im a crap gamer :D
 
HL2 was too linear for me also. And the boat sections went on too long. There's supposedly a great story in there, but it's more back-story and set up than anything. The actual gaming action didn't make me feel like I was affecting anything that was happening overall.

As an action title I thinks it's pretty good, and it's biggest strength is the atmosphere and sense of a world that you are part of. Other FPS games I've played don't quite manage that as well.

What it needed for me though was more interaction on the actual story, so you feel really connected to what's going on.
 
Although HL2 is quite linear and is built mostly upon set pieces, what set pieces they were! Even Farcry, which trys its best to present non-linearity is only a smokescreen for the fact that all games with a story are linear, to some degree. You were able to take several routes in Farcry, but your objective is still the same - you are still going to the same point whether you take the scenic route or go directly. HL2 was revolutionary in the way it utilised physics in its set pieces, and the immersive storyline which follows from the original (so you have more appreciation for it if you have played the original and the expansions). Added together with the typical elements of an FPS for me make it a fun game to play.

Still, a fun game is where you find it, no matter how hyped it is or how good other people tell you it is. If you don't enjoy it that's a matter of personal taste and is totally understandable. The same can be said of anything.
 
bah we remember what was good about initial releases but not the bad...

played half life 2 first decent game...played half life 1 didnt find it very interesting to be honest
 
I got up to "sandtraps" and didnt realy think it was that great. ravenholm was good but that was the only bit that realy stood out imo. I have played COD2, Q4 and Fear since then and had more fun playing them than i did hl2. hl2 is a good game but nothing special imo. i will complete it one day but at the moment im just leaving it for when i have no other games to play.
 
Problem is, games like this are way too overhyped by everybody, and people have such high expectations that they'll be hugely disappointed in the end.

Though I really enjoyed Half-Life 2, I did feel it was lacking in something. It was well made, had a good atmosphere, but it didn't give me the feeling Half-Life 1 did when I initially played that, and that's what I was hoping for.

People playing Half-Life 1 for the first time now these days for the most part wont see what the fuss is about, as it's a 7-8 year old game, but when it first came out, for most people, it was a huge breakthrough.
 
HL2 has incredible production values but the combat is a bit too simplistic, except for Ravenholm. Fear on the other hand has great combat but awful level design, not combat wise, but visually repetitive. Tried the new expansion demo and did not like it due to the samey boring level design.
 
I know what you mean! i started again not so long back and i got bored with it pretty quickly! where as FarCry is a play again game! and also looks class!
On your holidays shooting people! belting! :D
 
I must be the worlds most picky gamer as over the last couple of years I tried Doom3, Quake4, Half Life, Half Life2 and all of them I found boring and never completed any of them. Quake 4 I gave up perhaps 2 hours in as got bored. Doom3 was just so dark it was tedious and not enjoyable. Half life 1 I found boring as hell and Half life 2 gripped me for a fair old while (probably got half way through) and then got bored of the tediousness of the stupid puzzles and predictability of it.

I think the only time I have ever been really gripped by a game has been on playstation 1 with games like Resident Evil 2 and Metal Gear Solid. I dont recall a PC game that gripped me much.
 
johntmanic said:
I know what you mean! i started again not so long back and i got bored with it pretty quickly! where as FarCry is a play again game! and also looks class!
On your holidays shooting people! belting! :D
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Right Ive got to try Far Cry! Everyone says its great.
 
- Thes best thing about Far Cry is the shooting battles, the way the bullets go into the bodies and the guns are much better than hl2s guns etc.

- In hl2 the face expressions are stunning and the way you interact with everything, completely mind blowing.
 
Interesting discussion, heres a question, if you took the name Half Life out of it, took out Gordan Freeman so it was just another shooter without the link to the original, would it have been so well recieved or does it ride a lot its predecessors coat tails. Maybe thats why i am not that into it as i dont have the fond memories of the first game. Its a sequel to a franchise that i didnt buy into at the time of creation and now cannot get into.

I think also FarCry is to blame as that came out of nowhere and really stole a lot of HL2 and D3's thunder.
 
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