Loved Portal/2, is Half Life worth it?

[ZombieGenesis]

Just finished Portal 2 (put it off forever) and admit I adored the finale. Not just because the game is funny and enjoyable in itself, but also the layers of context involved (such as Coraline's relationship with Chel, and the subtext of the Promethius myth).
Since I believe Portal and Half Life will be absorbed into a singular entity from this point on, is it worth going back and playing the HL games? I game 2 a brief try in the past and found it utterly dull...
Seems even Valve has given up on that one.

 

[ZombieGenesis]

Playing through the game to the final hour for a bridge doesn't sound all that appealing to me. I'm sure HL2 is good in its own qualities, but the games have a totally different feeling that doesn't quite work for me.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well if you already decided then I'm not sure what this thread is about...
Maybe wait for the crossover, but I'm pretty sure it will mostly stay as a reference rather then a merge of these games.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Just finished Portal 2 (put it off forever) and admit I adored the finale. Not just because the game is funny and enjoyable in itself, but also the layers of context involved (such as Coraline's relationship with Chel, and the subtext of the Promethius myth).
Since I believe Portal and Half Life will be absorbed into a singular entity from this point on, is it worth going back and playing the HL games? I game 2 a brief try in the past and found it utterly dull...
Seems even Valve has given up on that one.

Half Life 2 will give you context. While Portal 2 is allegedly nearly a hundred years in the future, in reality the level of decay looks like only a few decades. Portal 1 is sometime after the events of Half Life 1, since GlaDOS has her offhand mention of the Combine tearing apart the surface. So in all likelihood, Portal 2 takes place during, or close after Half Life 2's and the episode's events.

Half Life 2 is a much more dystopian game, with far more sense of oppression. It is nowhere near as funny as Portal, but playing through the games gives you a better understanding of just how messed up the world is. Portal exists in its own, self contained bubble. With only the speakers and the computer's words to go on, it is a funny little adventure, self contained. When you play Half Life, that little bubble gets a bit darker.

Compared to Cave Johnson, Black Mesa is relatively functional, but the level of insanity behind their projects is no less ludicrous. Aperture Science is the happy head trip, while Black Mesa is the nightmare. Both are gigantic industrial complexes doing mad science, except while one only had the minor inconvenience of deadly neurotoxin, the other was ground zero for an alien invasion that wiped out 99% of Earth's population within hours.

Playing Half Life not only enhances the absurdity of Portal, but it gives you a new perspective. It really is quite dangerous, and it was only through luck and Cave Johnson's lunacy that the Resonance Cascade happened at his opponent's lab than at his.

Also, they're good FPS titles, with solid shooting mechanics and great level design. They're cheap, go ahead and check them out.

 

[McMullen]

They seem old to me now, but that's probably only because I used to play the last hour of HL2 every morning before getting to work.

Still, they ARE dated. If you can get over that, they're really quite good. There's not much emphasis on interesting weapons except for the gravity gun, nor do you spend much time being an unstoppable badass. What HL2 tries to do is give you the feeling that you're just a guy in a hostile world, being tossed from bad situations into worse ones, and trying his damnedest to survive it all. And it works pretty well; it's a kind of emotional immersion, and that Valve pulled it off is pretty impressive.

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

If you didn't like Half Life 2 before why bother playing it now? Read a quick summary of whats what and wait for another hundred years until Valve decides to make another Portal or Half Life Episode.

 

[everythingbeeps]

I liked HL2 a lot, but HL1 just gives me motion sickness. All those old-timey FPS games seem to.

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

Half Life Episode.

Please remember this:

There.
Will.
NEVER.
Be.
Another.
Episode.

Valve has said they are "Done" With Episodes, and why would you want one anyway? They last about half as long as the main games. They are currently making Half-Life 3. Not EPISODE 3, but just plain ol' 3.

Okay, I think this the first time I've ever brought up Half Life Episodes but thanks for driving it home anyway.

 

[bafrali]

I wouldn't recommend Half Life if you loved the tone of portal since they are quite different in tone, atmosphere and obviously gameplay.

If you didn't like HL2, don't force yourself to play it again for the sake of story integrity. Those who force themselves to enjoy it genrally make threads about it being overrated.