People like to pretend Half-Life is some perfect series Valve blessed us mortals with. In reality, Half-Life 2 is simply a cool story with gameplay that was great at the time and is simply okay now. Nothing incredible or amazing, despite how fervently the fans froth at the mouth to tell you otherwise.
It's partly due to it being 'in' to like Valve and to think Half-Life (namely the second) is amazing, and also because it was one of the first to blend the FPS with actual story telling fairly well. Nowhere near the best, but hey, nostalgia makes fanboys of people pretty easily. Oh, and Yahtzee likes Half-Life 2, so, you know, sheeple and stuff.
It's partly due to it being 'in' to like Valve and to think Half-Life (namely the second) is amazing, and also because it was one of the first to blend the FPS with actual story telling fairly well. Nowhere near the best, but hey, nostalgia makes fanboys of people pretty easily. Oh, and Yahtzee likes Half-Life 2, so, you know, sheeple and stuff.