Does Half Life 2 Hold up?

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Uarg, this thread has been done ad nauseum.

Here, read through these.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.373160-That-Was-Half-Life-2?page=1

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.395676-I-really-dont-believe-that-Half-Life-2-is-overrated-I-think-modern-Gamers-just-missed-the-boat?page=1

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.259339-Can-someone-please-tell-me-why-Half-Life-2-has-such-appeal

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.281309-Half-Life-2-why?page=1

Captcha: mumbo jumbo (quite right Captcha)

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

I played it last year and it quickly became one of my favourite games of all time. Having played a lot of other shooters from that era, I have to say that it's flaws now were flaws back then, too. It never had particularly visceral gunplay, for example. Quake, Soldier of Fortune, Unreal, Riddick, Black and many other games all had far more visceral and satisfying gunplay than HL2 (and, to me, a lot of modern games, too). It's not so much aged badly as people are willing to admit it's flaws.

It still had some intense as fuck moments. The last part of episode 2, where you have to defend the base was the single most adrenalin pumping section of a game I have ever played. And I loved how so many cool things could come out the engine, organically. I remember being pinned down by a Combine soldier in a machine-gun bunker with almost no health left, when one of my Antlion buddies slowly crept up behind him and pushed him over the ledge into the rocks below. Unplanned and unscripted shit like that just doesn't happen in linear modern games.

I much prefer HL2 to every modern shooter I've played, but maybe that's why I like it. Modern shooters have gone in a direction that just isn't for me so I don't feel like HL2 has been bested yet. People who do enjoy modern shooters will probably find it dated but I still loved it 8 years after it's release.

 

[V3rtig0]

Quite simply put, HL2, at its release time, was out of this galaxy because of the sheer awesomeness. And it remains among my favourite games to this day. I play through HL2 and all its episodes at least once in two years just because I get the urge to and I never get bored.

 

[The Madman]

To those dismissing the story, Half Life has never been about that, at least not in the way you're thinking. It's about using atmosphere and immersion to weave a narrative as opposed to the pages of text or rambling exposition speeches we've gotten used to in gaming. A 'story' doesn't need to be either direct or complex in order to be good, nor does it even need to be original, there's much more to how well a tale is told than just those. And in terms of using the environment to weave together a narrative experience for the player even today there are few games that can match Half-Life 2 in that regard.

Which isn't to say there's not room for improvement, not by any stretch, I just really wish people would stop equating exposition to story as though the only good way to make a 'story' is through a dozen pages of scripted NPC banter explaining a minimum of three generations backstory with the mandatory half-dozen plot twists and a few sob story thrown in for good measure. You can have a good story with all those, they're not necessary, it's just what we've gotten used to equating with 'good' in the gaming industry.

Citizen Kane, often considered the best movie ever made by cinema critics, has a shit simple plot to it. But the presentation, the way in which characters react and in which things are presented are what makes it amazing. Which isn't to compare Half Life 2 to Citizen Kane, it ain't that good and I doubt it'll be considered as much a classic ten years from now whereas Citizen Kane will continue to hold critics attention, but HL2 does use a similar trick where a simple plot is made meaningful through its presentation rather than relying on complexity to carry it through so don't be quick to dismiss HL2.

Just some food for thought. Obviously well done or no story is one of the most subjective things out there to gauge, but even so it's something to consider.

 

[Camaranth]

I too came to HL late, about '10. I set it aside as a "gaming weekend" title and played through the game and both episodes.

I know it's been said but you cannot allow yourself to compare it to say Bioshock (which I just finished). Adjust expectations.

From what I can recall, gameplay was a little underwhelming but not broken and I still giggle like a school girl when I effectively use the gravity gun. and any time I fire the magnum, I love firing that gun.

I actually found myself projecting onto Freemon a little, during chatty points I leaned gordon against the wall, put the controller down and sipped my tea, like I would IRL if I was listening to two people talk without contributing to the conversation. And in my head-cannon he talks. not much, but he talks.

I think it does get better, if a little repetitive but the games weren't meant to be played in the time frame I played them so that maybe my bias.

I couldn't put the controller down in the last few hours and when I got to the episodes. I was genuinely invested in the characters (instantly loved Alyx) and wanted to know what happened next. Still do, to be honest, stupid episode 3.

PS sorry if this rambled, it's 330am and I should have been asleep hours ago.

 

[mrhappy1489]

Considering the fact that I didn't play Half Life 2 until last year and found it to be one of the best shooters ever, I'd say that it holds up fairly well.

 

[Terramax]

Here we go again.. The game is 9 years old.

Why don't people bring up this argument about GoldenEye 007? Metal Gear Solid? Classic games that were revolutions in their own right, but if they were released today (even with modern graphics and sound), they would be considered AWFUL based on their gameplay mechanics and design.[/quote

Because, the fact is, both of these games play better than the majority of games today as well. Which is why they've earn't the distinction of being timeless classics..

Having recently played MGS again, the design of the game is better than any of the sequels, or any game in its genre for that matter, as is the music and storytelling.

Only recently played GoldenEye 007 multiplayer, but that game holds up better than most multiplayer FPS as of today also. Multiplayer maps are better designed, and the characters move so well. Can't say that for current gen shooters, all of which feel like you've leadweights to your feet.

And so, my point is, it doesn't happen to those two games because they're still amazing.

It's interesting, I started playing the first Half Life a week ago, and sad to say, I didn't find that game to be very fun to play (only single player I'll add). It certainly doesn't have the atmosphere of FPS like Quake and Hexen before it, or the imagination. That being said, I've not completed yet, so here's hoping that it sudden gets very fun to play the more you progress.

 

[TheBestPieEver]

the "I like the giant-ass screen guy but not the others" makes me think you missed the plot but again that is for the individual to piece together.

Well I haven't gotten all that far into it, and I think he is supposed to be the bad guy but that does not stop me from liking him.

 

[VladG]

Hell, even Half-Life still holds up. In fact I've recently played it and I still liked it more most shooters I've ever played.

Half-Life 2 is pretty much better in every way.

 

[Nazulu]

I first played HL2 at the end of 2011 and it's by far one the greatest games I've ever played. The game play is so fluent it's near perfect, the design and the sounds create it's own special atmosphere, the gun play felt fine to me and stapling enemy's to walls or throwing furniture into them is very satisfying, and then there is all the different challenges you come up against which are great.

What games are you comparing this to any way? I think you're just into different types of shooters with what ever raw power feel your speaking of.

As for the story and the characters, they aren't interesting. I was just happy they aren't stupid/annoying and get in the way.

An old game is either good, or it's bad. It doesn't matter how far games progress, it doesn't make an old game WORSE. You take it for what it is, respect the context of its era, and then you have a fair judgment. But to say "Battlefield 1942 is a shitty game, it looks like shit, plays like shit, sounds like shit, Battlefield 3 is way better" is just illogical.

Yeah, I don't get how people jump to call these games dated straight away. Most of these games they call dated I still come back to with no problem, and some of them move even better than the games released these days. I reckon it's another stupid criticism just like when they crtiicise people who like older games more and tell them they have rose-tinted nostalgia glasses or some ignorant bullshit.

 

[Thedutchjelle]

I think the graphics still look fairly awesome. Sure, I wish the textures were a bit more HD, but aside from that I don't mind how it looks. It has that very Source-y feel without trying to be photorealistic. I'm fond of it.

The gameplay itself is hit and miss for me. Some sections I love, such as Black Mesa East, Nova Prospekt. Others are just meh, such as the Sewers and the city fighting near the end.
The physics are still beyond anything I've seen in other FPSes. I can move cars and containers in Half Life 2 with the G-Gun, but a car side-mirror can still block my M1 Abrahams in Battlefield 3.

The other two episodes were better than the main game imo.

 

[Karoshi]

Like many people I played Half-life 2 just a years ago.

3 am, I just finished HL1 and decided to take a short peek at its sequel. A couple minutes later, I was. Blown. Away.

Just how did they manage to pull of such good graphics in 2004?! Sure, Source had a few updates since then, but it still feels nothing short of a miracle. Gothic and Kotor 2 were released around that time and they look (by todays standards) like shit. Yet HL2 had great environments and amazing face animations (better than in most games these days), good story and much more.

HL2 is subtle and it's hard to explain whar makes it so good. Alien invasions are a topic done to death, but HL2 still gets praised for its story. Why? Because you got the feeling as if it's a very normal human dictatorship. It's real and horrible and people let do that to themselves.

There are no quest logs or trackable objectives, yet it always feels intuitive and obvious what to do next. What other game has done that? It has a special feeling that no other game managed to capture.

 

[Batou667]

I have a very similar story to the OP. Picked up the Orange Box on 360 a few years back, started Half Life 2, was initially impressed by the atmosphere but got majorly bored around the first mine/antlions sequence, and ended up playing through Portal instead. A few months back I finally decided to give the Half Life 2 trilogy another crack, and I'm glad I did.

A lot of the time - especially in the first game - is spent wandering through increasingly lonely and decreasingly appealing crumbling architecture. The guns are a living, breathing example of everything that was wrong with the bad old days of PC FPS weapon design - over a dozen weapons, most of which are very samey grey pew-pew sticks, with a couple of obscure "joke" weapons thrown in. The level design is often confusing with a diabolical lack of signposting at times.

But, it gets better over time. Both in terms of accustoming yourself to the game and setting your expectations accordingly, and the gameplay and level design does get quite noticeably dragged into the current decade in Episodes 1 and 2. When the credits for Ep 2 started rolling, I was genuinely upset that there wasn't more content to play (Where the fuck is Ep 3, you lazy swines!?).

 

[CCountZero]

The moment-to-moment gunplay is a little dated for my taste, but it was still fun.

It was dated when the game came out, the first game had better gunplay. Gameplay wise, I felt HL2 relied a bit too much on gimmicky stuff like forcing me to move around platforms to walk across or littering Ravenholm with sawblades and dropping cars. Gravity gun was still awesome though.

I replay the whole series, from the top down, maybe once every two or two-and-a-half years, and yeah, HL2 really does abuse its fancypants physics engine. In 2004, it was cute and adorable, but all those physics "puzzles" kinda get old on you.

The Episodes are much better in that regard.

And today we have Black Mesa Source, with a possible Blue Shift recreation on the way too, so I guess that's nice.

 

[Sordin]

Yeah I think it kinda does. Yeah its old and things have progressed but its regardless still a solid game and not bad to look at. The gameplay is still fun and while the shooting is not amazing its still fun. While a lot of people claim their is no plot their really is a fun and it will immerse you if you let it. Plus the chapter "our benefactors" does ramp the gunplay up to 11.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

... is it worth it? Is Half life 2 all that great today or is it just remembered fondly because it was the king in its time?

Half Life 2 and the episodes are one of my favourite gaming experiences and I have returned many times to replay them all.

But just like you I was bored by my first play through of HL2. I didn't see what was special about it either; it all seemed rather generic and shootery. But I gained a greater appreciation after my second play through when I started to see details in the world that I missed before. I really think the episodes do a far better job at giving you a reason to care about the characters though, especially Episode 2...

 

[al4674]

I played HF2 only two years ago and while I enjoyed it, I couldn't see what was so damn special about it. Ultimately it was a completely forgettable experience and I won't shed a tear if it would suddenly disappear from the face of the earth.

It appears to me that HF2 is the sort of game you had to play at the right time in the right place - namely when it launched and when it dazzled gamers with its then-new, but now-old features. To me, it's patently obvious that it hasn't stood the test of time and there have been many games that have completely surpassed the legacy of HF2. That is not to say that HF2 is bad - it's not bad, but there are better FPS games out there now. I don't think saying this is heresy or problematic - I think it's simply true.

Games like Contra or Link to the Past are examples of games that are truly timeless and can be enjoyed with the same vigour as in the past. HF2 just doesn't have that appeal to me.

Overall I never really saw what was that special about the series. There is some fringe quality or element that I clearly cannot see or don't understand.

 

[DoPo]

I played HF2

While that is well and good, the thread is about Half-Life 2.

 

[theriddlen]

Hell I played it for the first time in, I think, 2011 or 2010, and up to this day I believe it to be one of the genre's finest.

 

[bafrali]

I think It holds up fine. Sure there are other games that have better gunplay, level design, facial expressions or maybe enviromental storytelling, Half Life 2 is the complete package that balances it all into a fantastic little trip. I would recommend it to anybody who has an ounce of patience to get them through the intro sequence.