Half Life 2, why?

[Bootbunny]

This is kind of funny. When I first picked up this game I was in generally the same position as you. And I also got bored of it around Nova Prospekt (The prison) just like you have. I ended up trying it again a couple months later and now it's one of my favorite games of all time. I really have no idea what changed my mind about it. I used to hate the shooting and the lack of story just left me empty inside, but now I REALLY enjoy the shooting and I already understand the story to its' full extent so I spend most of the game just trying to figure new things out and pick up and hints and clues.

I really can't tell you what made it good for me, but my advice is this; just try to play it again every now and then. Hell, I even started a new game to start fresh and that was the time I started liking it. Maybe it was because since I knew what was going to happen I spent my time observing the things that I missed last time. But again, I can't tell you how to have fun with it. Just give it a try

 

[Nazulu]

I have a hard time trying to understand why people wouldn't like Half-Life 2? It seems like it's usually from people who just want to go straight into war and that's it. Well, there is plenty of those games.

HL2 is an adventure game though and a really well designed game that aimed to be something other than a battle zone. I reckon it's great that it's broken up into different sections because that's what made it interesting to me. Just like Ocarina Of Time, it challenged me in many unique ways and I found the whole game a thrill ride.

Another thing I love about Half-Life 2 is the gravity gun, never before have I used furniture to kill waves of zombies and military.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

No story you say?
Please start over and pay at least some attention this time.

Why is he doing all this?
Basically, he seems to work for the gman, who hired him at the end of the first game (after he was in the middle of the accident in Black Mesa which pretty much caused the alien invasion, killed zombies, soldiers, ninjas, aliens and giant aliens alike and traveled to some other dimension, where he killed more aliens).

 

[JET1971]

This was obviously a troll post. Notice how he hasn't responded to anything.

Talk smack about a popular game = insta flame war!

And he succeeded.

Naw he failed, nobody is flaming anyone. though i was close in my post but i was vague on who i was talking to. we are all just rehashing the same tried and true arguments for no reason at all really except its a new thread with none of it posted already.

OP is a troll as far as i can tell, but a failed one for not trolling a more recent title thats well loved with a controversial aspect to it. something more obscure rather than the 5-6 this week on HL series. He is more of a coat-tail grabbing mini troll fail.

 

[nicebuffalo]

i dont get why this guy said the game had no plot or dialogue. the characters are very fleshed out and the story is great. if this guy really wants to enjoy it he should play the first one which is less character based. when i read forums like this i get ashamed of the gaming community.

 

[RowdyRodimus]

It has a story... a great one... I guess it doesn't make much sense if you haven't played the first one, but even then a lot of the story is hidden. It's not all told out loud in a cut scene. It's more subtle.

and can we please stop with all of the "half life sucks" threads

When all the "Half Life is the Greatest Game Series EVER!!!!!!!!! And if you don't like it you're a console playing noob that lives in their parents basement" type threads stop, then yes, we can stop the "Half Life Sucks" threads. Deal?

 

[Agayek]

I wasn't saying I didn't like the character or thought he was boring, no I think he's probably one of the most interesting characters in gaming, yet, I don't, hell, I can't believe he's a bad guy. Conversely, can't really feel he's a good guy either. I'm simply curious as to why everyone is so certain he is evil, and I said he's mysterious... I'm sure where either of you were going with your posts, but it definitely didn't answer my question... Why is the general opinion that he's evil?

Edit: I think the bad guys are the combine, and in the first game, the vortigaunts.. just saying.

People like to think he's evil because he acts like a Chessmaster [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheChessmaster]. He basically takes free will out of the equation and more or less enslaved Freeman, and is quite possibly indirectly responsible for the death of Eli Vance.

I haven't really made up my mind over whether or not he's "evil", per se, but I do think he has an agenda and won't let morals get in the way of it.

 

[Laser Priest]

It was amazing when it came out and it's still competent now.

It's atmospheric and pretty much great if you don't go in hating everything for the sake of hating it.

And congratulations on your opinion. We needed threads about it.

 

[ManOwaRrior]

Crysis: run/sneak - shoot - drive car - run/sneak - shoot - drive car - run/sneak...

Pfff, wow, all credibility GONE, just because you decided to play it like CoD doesn't mean that's all it had going.

Sheesh, loser.

Thanks for the insult. I like how you missed my point: Just because you *can* break down a game like this, doesn't mean it *is* just like that. I really did enjoy all the various ways you could play Crysis (including getting to the korean general killing as few korean soldiers as possible. Previews sugested, he reacted differently based on your body-count beforehand, too bad that was cut).

As a question to those that didn't like HL2 when it was new, what fps'es that existed up untill that point did you like, and why?

Perfect dark; great graphics for it's time, well thought out and varied game play, a nice mix of stelth and action.

Also a great multiplayer, with sims which you don't see much nowendays. Brilliant pre-setup challenges. Target range with a variety of goals for each gun as you unlocked them in single player mode. Each level having it's own set of goals depending on difficulty.

I thought this may have been a rose tinted youth experience so I downloaded it on XBLA, still amazing. I know there have been a ton of advances since it came out in 2000 but it still stands up on it's own merits, even against a lot of modern FPSs.

Agreed, PD was an amazing game. Even though the framerate on the N64 was mess.

 

[Lenin211]

Play the original before talking about how the story in the sequel makes no sense...

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Meh its a bit more complicated than a poorly made corridor shooter like Gears,Bulletstorm or Haze.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Basically, he seems to work for the gman, who hired him at the end of the first game (after he was in the middle of the accident in Black Mesa which pretty much caused the alien invasion, killed zombies, soldiers, ninjas, aliens and giant aliens alike and traveled to some other dimension, where he killed more aliens).

Also, and this hardly a spoiler by now.

These guys are not the Combine.

These guys are the Combine. Did you listen to Breen's speech about 'our benefactors', or did you just run out looking for something to crowbar?

Does it make more sense now?

I cannot think of a single 'alien invasion' scenario I have seen done better than the combine invasion of Earth, or one which serves as a better metaphor for real geopolitical events.

 

[TH3_D15HWA5H3R]

because you touch yourself at night

 

[krugerrand123]

I liked it because of the atmosphere and the sense of isolation.

 

[Zantos]

It was a decent game, but I'm not quite sure how a silent protagonist running around in a suit of power armour and going around from place to place shooting aliens, humans and zombies with a selection of fairly common weapons is really that far from the FPS I usually play.

I'm actually old enough to have been of shooter playing age (which was a little higher back then) when the original half-life came out, and first person shooters were not the ubiquitous dominant genre they are today. We had doom, quake, unreal and goldeneye. That was pretty much it until 1998.

Half life is not similar to the other shooters on the market. It set the formula which other shooters have followed. Before that point, just about every FPS was copying Doom. After that, they started copying Half Life. Every game since, without fail, especially any kind of concept of realism or story in shooters, has felt the touch of Half Life either as a direct influence or very occasionally as something to rail against.

Half Life does not have a story in the sense that Halo has a story, it doesn't pull you out every few minutes for an exposition-laden cut scene. Still, it is one of the best examples ever of integrating storytelling and gameplay. Sure, the story itself is relatively simple if you ignore the fact that it's about a dimension-travelling lab technician being manipulated through events by a shadowy puppet master with seemingly complete mastery over time and space, but the proof is in the execution. Listen to doctor Breen's speeches, listen to the bizarre newspeak Overwatch dispaches, look around for the hidden clues as to what's actually going on.

Because seriously, I had to play the game a couple of times to even feel like I'd gotten the full story.

The problem is I didn't really enjoy the gameplay enough to want to go back and play it. I'm sure the story is great if you play through both games several times to pick each little bit up, but at the end of the day there were things in the gameplay I just didn't enjoy.

Besides, I'm not talking about in the days when these games came out, I'm sure at the time they were revolutionary. The people I get annoyed at are the people my age or younger who believe that, despite the fact that the Half-Life series probably did inspire most of the FPS that exist today, it's still far more advanced (the definition of what advanced means changed daily, today was colour scheme) even to this day than any other shooter game. Also in many cases honestly believing that disagreeing with them over half life genuinely makes them smarter than you, and quite often remark that the games industry should just all stop as nothing will ever be able to match it.

 

[MrGalactus]

Confused. Context is given for everything you do in HL2...

 

[tikalal]

I'll assume that if you think HL2 has no story. Then you also think CoD: Black Ops tells one of the greatest stories in any videogame?

Creating the bajillionth thread about Half-Life 2's suckage = not cool.

You know, you can all just ignore the threads if you like. You don't all have to post.

 

[bojac6]

No story? My my Mr.Un-Observant. valve has done something brilliant with this game. They tell you the story almost completely through your surroundings and in doing so create an incredibly immersive environment. If you want story out of it, just pay attention.

Really? Summarize this amazing plot then please. Keep in mind, I mean the plot. Not the setting, not the world, but the actual character development and progression through the narrative. You'll get no argument from me that Valve created a really interesting setting, but storywise, what actually happened?