VALVE!!!!!......STOP IT!!!!!

[TheComedown]

what with the tiny enemy variety in the first few levels (hell, even Ravenholm had only 6 enemy types or so, excluding the one barnacle in the flooded mining shaft).

holy shit 7 enemy types, that's about 5-6 more then the rest of your average shooters, Seriously what shooters do you play that have more then 1-2 different type of dude? 1 dude wearing a grey hat and another dude wearing a green hat don't count as different varieties, they are both dudes wearing hats.

 

[repeating integers]

what with the tiny enemy variety in the first few levels (hell, even Ravenholm had only 6 enemy types or so, excluding the one barnacle in the flooded mining shaft).

holy shit 7 enemy types, that's about 5-6 more then the rest of your average shooters, Seriously what shooters do you play that have more then 1-2 different type of dude? 1 dude wearing a grey hat and another dude wearing a green hat don't count as different varieties, they are both dudes wearing hats.

Well first of all, let me assert that the small enemy variety didn't break the game for me or anything. Ravenholm still managed to be terrifying even with only 3 kinds of headcrabs and their corresponding zombies.

Secondly, 1-2 types of dude with 1 guy wearing a different coloured hat is pretty much chapter 3 of Half-life 2 summarised. You fight Metrocops and damn-near only Metrocops. For variety, these sometimes carry SMGs instead of pistols. Then there's the odd barnacle.

Chapter 4 introduces the odd headcrab, and you get to kill a Hunter-Chopper. Other than that, your enemies are the same.

Thirdly, the only other FPS I really play is Halo. So let's count, using Reach as an example.

Normal enemies:
Grunts
Jackals
Skirmishers
Drones
Elites
Brutes
Hunters

And all the different ranks, which often fight differently (for example, Jackal Snipers and Shield Jackals are very different kinds of enemy).

Vehicles:
Ghosts
Revenants
Spirit dropships
Phantom dropships
Banshees
Wraiths
Shade turrets
Fuel-rod turrets (unsure of technical name)
Seraphs (if you want to include the space combat section)

If you want a fairer comparison, let's look at Halo 2, which came out in the same year.

Normal enemies:
Grunts
Jackals
Drones
Elites
Brutes
Hunters
Flood Combat Forms
Flood Infection Forms
Sentinels
Hell, we could even include human Marines, which can be fought as the Arbiter if you're clever enough at manipulating physics.

And all corresponding ranks, which often fight differently (particularly Sentinels and Sentinel Majors).

Vehicles:
Ghosts
Spectres
Shadows
Phantom Dropships
Banshees
Wraiths
Scorpion Tanks
Warthogs
Enforcers

Bosses:
Elite heretic leader WITH JETPACK!
High Prophet of Regret
Tartarus, High Chieftain of the Brutes

In addition, you encounter these scattered about the campaign. You don't have to wait for the Sorting Algorithm of Evil, as TVtropes calls it, to give you the more powerful enemies to fight.

...You catch my drift?

 

[TheComedown]

Secondly, 1-2 types of dude with 1 guy wearing a diffterent coloured hat is pretty much chapter 3 of Half-life 2 summarised.

Wait so because HL2 doesn't throw every enemy type at you from the get go, its all of a sudden a worse game? From almost every aspect it makes more sense to have them slowly introduced, from a story point, it helps the game progress, as a tutorial it helps you introduce you to new creatures and lets you learn new strategies it helps with pacing and also can be used to create more varied and different experience by modifying the enemies behavior to different environments (antlions)

-halo ass kissing-

Wow 9 different bad guys to kill that's so much more then 7, wait a minute, planet Half-life lists 22 different enemies well 18 once you take turrets and hopper mines and such out of the list.

Anyway you say you play basicly one FPS and we are supposed to buy this

Well personally I found the game to be a bit more repetitive than most shooters

Halo is not most other shooters it's just another shooter, you are comparing Half-life to a whole genre, but the extent of your knowledge of that genre seems to come from just one game. This is a stupid way to judge a game and a genre, it's also a stupid way to put together an argument.

 

[repeating integers]

As odd as it feels to be doing this just after a guy accused me of rampant HL2 bashing, I may as well respond to this whole debate thing.

Wait so because HL2 doesn't throw every enemy type at you from the get go, its all of a sudden a worse game? From almost every aspect it makes more sense to have them slowly introduced, from a story point, it helps the game progress, as a tutorial it helps you introduce you to new creatures and lets you learn new strategies it helps with pacing and also can be used to create more varied and different experience by modifying the enemies behavior to different environments (antlions)

I feel we shouldn't debate too much about this particular point because it's like comparing apples to oranges. Half-Life 2's use of the Sorting Algorithm of Evil is kind of necessary, due to the way it hands out weapons to you (starting off with the weaker ones, then building up to more powerful ones). Meanwhile, Halo lets you pick up a variety of weapons in each level. It's a different style of game design, it's hard to compare them - though I will go on record as saying I prefer the latter method. Also I didn't get to the Antlions, I had to stop at the conclusion of Ravenholm for reasons that, as I have to repeatedly explain, are complicated. I'll finish it... sometime...

Wow 9 different bad guys to kill that's so much more then 7, wait a minute, planet Half-life lists 22 different enemies well 18 once you take turrets and hopper mines and such out of the list.

First of all, if we're referring to Halo 2, the number you're looking for is in fact 21 including bosses. Secondly, could I get a link to that source?

Anyway you say you play basicly one FPS and we are supposed to buy this

Well personally I found the game to be a bit more repetitive than most shooters

Halo is not most other shooters it's just another shooter, you are comparing Half-life to a whole genre, but the extent of your knowledge of that genre seems to come from just one game. This is a stupid way to judge a game and a genre, it's also a stupid way to put together an argument.

I will give you this one, because I stupidly wrote something down without thinking about it properly. Though if it helps, I play the Mass Effect games often (which are TPS games along with being RPGs) and find them less repetitive than HL2. Slightly.

What I should have said was "Well personally I found the game to be a bit more repetitive than Halo".

Happy?