Poll: Is Half-Life Necessary to Understand Half-Life 2?

[SpaceSpork]

Uh, yeah, what it says in the title. You see, I just got Portal a few days ago, and man, that is a damn short game. Finished in 3 days. (Some of you probably finished faster, but I kinda suck at video games.) Anyways, I was planning on getting Half-Life 2, but then I realized: "Wait, Half-Life TWO. That means it's a sequel." So should I play the original first or should I just skip to the sequel?

EDIT: Alrighty then! I've decided to buy The Orange Box. But now I have another question: If you already have Portal on Steam, and the proceed to buy Portal with the Orange Box, what happens?

 

[Ldude893]

I played Half Life 2 without playing Half Life, I read the whole backstory on the internet. You don't have to know much about the backstory, but it helps.

 

[razerdoh]

Short answer: Yes

Long answer: YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

 

[MetaMop]

You could just read up on Half-Life 1, but I recommend playing it. It's still a pretty good game. Or you could watch Freeman's Mind, or something.

 

[Grabbin Keelz]

"Wait, Half-Life TWO. That means it's a sequel." So should I play the original first or should I just skip to the sequel?

Valve did a great job at making the sequel not confusing for those who haven't played the first. All you need to know is that in Half Life 1 there was a lab called Black Mesa where some serious shit went down. However I still recommend you play Half Life one jut because it was so good.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

Half Life 2 may be the only game in existence where playing the prequel makes it harder to understand.

 

[Zayren]

Here's pretty much all the plot you need to know from Half-Life 1: Aliens came! And then after (bit before HL2 starts, not actually in HL1, but it's confusing if you don't know this) ANOTHER alien force came and took over Earth. The bad guys from HL1 were running from the BIGGER bad guys, who now control Earth. Good job breaking it, hero.


Also, at the end of the game, the G-Man (random briefcase dude) put Gordon to cryo sleep on a space train thing.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

To get the basic understanding of the creatures and aliens you'll be fighting? Ya, it kinda is. To get an understanding of the story you're about to go into now? No.

Trust me when I say Valve stepped the story up in Half-Life 2. In fact, if you play Half-Life 1, you'll probably have more questions on whats going on then if you didn't.

 

[SpaceSpork]

Alrighty then! I've decided to buy The Orange Box. But now I have another question: If you already have Portal on Steam, and the proceed to buy Portal with the Orange Box, what happens?

 

[Spydercake]

Nothing really, you won't be able to gift the extra game of portal.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

No, I understand pretty well what is going on and haven't played HL1 (yet I have it).

Alrighty then! I've decided to buy The Orange Box. But now I have another question: If you already have Portal on Steam, and the proceed to buy Portal with the Orange Box, what happens?

They MIGHT let you gift it to someone, if not, nothing. You just have 2 copies...

 

[DeadlyYellow]

To get the basic understanding of the creatures and aliens you'll be fighting? Ya, it kinda is.

Yes, because the headcrabs and barnacles require so much deep understanding.

 

[BreakfastMan]

No, not really. Just read the small snippet of the plot on wikipedia, and you are good. I played 2 before 1, and I had no real problems.

 

[Vern]

You don't need to play the first to understand it. Most references are pretty clear, and really the only character that carries over from Half-Life is Gordon. Vance and Kleiner didn't even really exist in Half-Life, it was just thee or four different faces on the same scientist model, and all they did was open doors, scream, run around, and die. Same thing with Barney, it was the same model and dialogue used throughout the game for quite a few different "Barney's". It also had the G-man. The whole story really didn't start to exist until Half-Life 2 when they assigned identities to these copy+pasted characters and filled in the back story. All you have to know for Half-Life 2 is that Gordon worked at Black Mesa, bad shit happened, and now the Combine controls the Earth.

That description kind of makes the first game sound bad, but honestly I think it was funner to play than Half-Life 2. Mainly because it didn't feel the need to cram this giant elaborate story down your throat. It was more about action, Half-Life 2 feels very slow in comparison. I never felt really threatened by the Combine in Half-Life 2, I just walked towards them, shot them in the head with a pistol and walked past them. In Half-Life, the hgrunts still give me a hell of a time. They were faster, they sought cover behind walls and crates, and I've never really seen enemies flank as effectively in a game. If you fire at one and he runs behind a crate across the room, pretty soon you'll find out he ran around the left side of the room in your blindspot and fired a grenade up your ass.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

To get the basic understanding of the creatures and aliens you'll be fighting? Ya, it kinda is.

Yes, because the headcrabs and barnacles require so much deep understanding.

True, but the first time I played Half-Life 2, I was caught by surprise by those fucking Barnacles. Its also a good way of seeing the Vortigaunts in action without having to play all the way to Episode 2.

 

[Chicago Ted]

Alrighty then! I've decided to buy The Orange Box. But now I have another question: If you already have Portal on Steam, and the proceed to buy Portal with the Orange Box, what happens?

They MIGHT let you gift it to someone, if not, nothing. You just have 2 copies...

They should let you gift it. When I got Orange Box on release, it gave me two gift copies of HL2 and EP1 since I already had them. It should do the same for Portal.

 

[AlternatePFG]

That description kind of makes the first game sound bad, but honestly I think it was funner to play than Half-Life 2. Mainly because it didn't feel the need to cram this giant elaborate story down your throat. It was more about action, Half-Life 2 feels very slow in comparison. I never felt really threatened by the Combine in Half-Life 2, I just walked towards them, shot them in the head with a pistol and walked past them. In Half-Life, the hgrunts still give me a hell of a time. They were faster, they sought cover behind walls and crates, and I've never really seen enemies flank as effectively in a game. If you fire at one and he runs behind a crate across the room, pretty soon you'll find out he ran around the left side of the room in your blindspot and fired a grenade up your ass.

Yeah, I got the anthology of the Steam holiday sale and I must say it's more challenging and fun than Half Life 2 is. The AI is quite good.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Alrighty then! I've decided to buy The Orange Box. But now I have another question: If you already have Portal on Steam, and the proceed to buy Portal with the Orange Box, what happens?

They MIGHT let you gift it to someone, if not, nothing. You just have 2 copies...

They should let you gift it. When I got Orange Box on release, it gave me two gift copies of HL2 and EP1 since I already had them. It should do the same for Portal.

I know it does with those two, since they were already out when the Orange Box was released, but not sure if it would do the same if you already owned one of the other three.

Oh, as a side note, you will be lost if you play Half-Life 2: Episode 1 first. I bought that when it was on sale at Circuit City, before having ever played HL2, and I was lost. Well, I didn't have any trouble with the game, just wasn't sure what was going on the entire time...

 

[thethingthatlurks]

That description kind of makes the first game sound bad, but honestly I think it was funner to play than Half-Life 2. Mainly because it didn't feel the need to cram this giant elaborate story down your throat. It was more about action, Half-Life 2 feels very slow in comparison. I never felt really threatened by the Combine in Half-Life 2, I just walked towards them, shot them in the head with a pistol and walked past them. In Half-Life, the hgrunts still give me a hell of a time. They were faster, they sought cover behind walls and crates, and I've never really seen enemies flank as effectively in a game. If you fire at one and he runs behind a crate across the room, pretty soon you'll find out he ran around the left side of the room in your blindspot and fired a grenade up your ass.

Don't forget those ninjas. Fucking ninjas man, fuckin' ninjas...

Anyway, the answer is not really. HL1 is an amazing game, and you should probably play it at some point to see where some of the modern elements in gaming came from, but it is not necessary to understand the story of HL2.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

I played the Orange box half life games before the original, and really it didn't give much insight playing the second afterwards just a few references here and there. Ironically, quite an important plot point regarding the G-Man in episode 2 refers back to HL1 though. Ultimately, you don't have to play the original in terms of story but it's worth it for the game itself.