Zeh Don said:
There are a few ways to "look" at Half-life 2, however in my opinion it stands up in all of them - feel free to disagree.
In terms of First Person Story telling, Half-life 2 remains the champion. It's story is less told through lazy cut scenes and more through the world and incidental details present therein. The lack of children and pets, the deep philosophical ramblings that bombard the citizens, even the furnishings in the houses tell a story better than some pathetic shock-value opener. The trips to Ravenholm and Nova Prospect towards the middle of the game dip the world in a dark and terrifying vibe that supplants most full fledged Horror titles because it doesn't SAY anything. It just puts the details in the world and lets them speak for themselves.
In terms of Gun Play, Half-life 2 isn't as visceral as it's modern day counter parts, however the moment-to-moment gameplay is still well ahead of basically everyone in the industry save for perhaps Halo. The A.I. drives the scenario based combat, meaning it reacts to the player and allows them to employ wildcard strategies that the A.I. adapts to. Most modern shooters all but ignore A.I. in favour of scripted battles - Half-life 2 weaves it's scripting amongst the on-the-fly scenarios. The first real battle against the Combine drop ship on the freeway, the fierce firefights through the City during the game's final chapters, and even the moment-to-moment use of the gravity gun allow for a more varied and immersive experience.
Lastly, it's setting is incredible, though lacking the awe of something akin to Bioshock's Rapture. It's eschews the realism of the modern shooters, leaving behind your glocks and M14s for more inventive and "fun" firearms. Instead of simply killing "The Non-Americans" as is the norm for the industry today, you're fighting monsters and alien soldiers, not because they "Hate Freedom for [reasons]" but because they're simply trying to wipe out humanity, turning them into zombie soldiers for their army. It's escapism, pure and simple - and for the dreamer in me, it wins out over the endlessly boring Military Shooters of today.
All my opinions, of course.
Gah, what this is telling me is that Monolith got screwed over by Valve's hype machine not once, but twice XD
Half joking here, but
Shogo: Mobile Armor Division came out around the same time as
Unreal and the original
Half Life, did a lot (though admittedly not all) of what
Half Life is famous for, did it extremely well, and then proceeded to sell so few copies that both expansions were cancelled, let alone the sequel.
Fast forward now to 2004:
Half Life 2 comes out. So does
F.E.A.R.. Solid
Half Life-style storytellingPersonally I'd rather have a cutscene, the whole "sit in a room while two other people talk" routine doesn't do much for me., absolutely amazing gunplay, a sci-fi/horror plot (so not a modern military shooter) and Havok physics. Read: it matches or exceeds HL2's feature set outside of two areas, those being the driving sections (did anyone like those?) and the level design, which was kind of boring, but that had more to do with the writers than the mappers. The main thing I wanted to say here, though, is that game had absolutely friggin' amazing gunplay. Best Shotgun this side of
Doom 2, and the other guns were no slouches, either.
As for HL2 itself, I think it holds up as a solid shooter, even today. Just don't go in expecting a choir of angels to suddenly appear in front of you -- no game could possibly stand up to the kind of hype that thing has at this point.
Edit: Side note, I think this thread is a big sign of how and why the current console generation has overstayed its welcome. I know the consoles didn't start coming out until 2005, but the PC games of 2004 were where then-next-gen graphics started showing up for the first time. 2004 was nine years ago. Given an average console life span of five years, this would be like a fan of PS1 JRPGs circa 1999 asking how the original Final Fantasy on the NES held up compared to FFVII, VIII, and IX, and expecting to get an answer somewhere in a range from "it's good but not as good" to "it's still the best JRPG ever made."
