Zero Punctuation: Half-Life
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
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A retrospective review, nice.
I first played half-life 1 in 2007 (about 9 years after it launched) and thought it was excellent (even without modern graphics and nostalgia). The atmosphere, simple but effective controls and interesting method of storytelling makes it one of my favourite games.
I first played half-life 1 in 2007 (about 9 years after it launched) and thought it was excellent (even without modern graphics and nostalgia). The atmosphere, simple but effective controls and interesting method of storytelling makes it one of my favourite games.
Gotta say I disagree this time. I tried the original half life when the orange box came out, never really had the chance to play it when it did come out and I wasnt interested in it at the time either.
That said, I didnt like the game after the first hour or so. It all happened pretty early in the game when you get on a jet ski to go through military unites and aliens to get somewhere and do something (Ive forgotten what). During that sequence it just dragged on so long that it wasnt fun or interesting. So I turned off the game and have never picked it back up.
Before that I found the game had a problem that most games with poor storytelling have today. That is to drop hints and not give an actual explanation as to whats going on in a reasonable time frame.
Im not going to say its a bad game because that would require me to play the whole thing through to form that kind of complex opinion. However what I will say is that of what I played it was tedious, boring, and just not any fun. I did not enjoy playing Half life so I fail to see why it is this shining messiah that will lead us to the promised land that so many claim it is
That said, I didnt like the game after the first hour or so. It all happened pretty early in the game when you get on a jet ski to go through military unites and aliens to get somewhere and do something (Ive forgotten what). During that sequence it just dragged on so long that it wasnt fun or interesting. So I turned off the game and have never picked it back up.
Before that I found the game had a problem that most games with poor storytelling have today. That is to drop hints and not give an actual explanation as to whats going on in a reasonable time frame.
Im not going to say its a bad game because that would require me to play the whole thing through to form that kind of complex opinion. However what I will say is that of what I played it was tedious, boring, and just not any fun. I did not enjoy playing Half life so I fail to see why it is this shining messiah that will lead us to the promised land that so many claim it is
I initially read that as "Mr Crowbar". My subconscious is apparently getting the better of me this evening, it seems.Pearwood said:In a bit of a self indulgent mood are we Mr Croshaw?
Ah, Half-Life, one of the last great FPS's, until things turned to grey-brown samey shite. I died so much in that 1st game and Opposing Force, especially in Surface Tension. EAT SCIENCE!, indeed! I thought this would be a retrospective of the whole series to show how FPS's lost their way, but there's next week.
Now, Yahtzee blames Counter-Strike for inspiring what's wrong with multiplayer shooters, but who's to blame for the CoD's nonsensical single player stories? I think HALO's at fault for the two-weapon-maximum mechanics that plague us (I'm an armor-clad super-soldier who can flip over an overturned Warthog or Ghost and cave in my opponent's skull with one butt from my gun, but I can't carry more than two at a time?!) and HALO 2 for no health pick-ups.
Now, Yahtzee blames Counter-Strike for inspiring what's wrong with multiplayer shooters, but who's to blame for the CoD's nonsensical single player stories? I think HALO's at fault for the two-weapon-maximum mechanics that plague us (I'm an armor-clad super-soldier who can flip over an overturned Warthog or Ghost and cave in my opponent's skull with one butt from my gun, but I can't carry more than two at a time?!) and HALO 2 for no health pick-ups.
Too true. Could you elaborate more on that early 2000's part? Could it have to do with Grant Morrison's New X-Men or his JLA work?malestrithe said:
Possibly the only Valve obsessed fanboy who doesn't like Half Life.
I never really understood why Half Life was so popular. I got up to that bit with the big thing with 2 flamethrowers before stopping because I didn't know whether I had to shoot at it or somehow sneak past it or find a button which destroyed it. My weapons didn't 'seem' to be doing any kind of damage to it.
And then there was the story, I couldn't find one to follow. First you're a Scientist, who pushes a cart into a glowey thing to complete an experiment which goes wrong and there's a big explosion and a few blips with teleportation back and forth and when you get back everyone's dead and there are lots of aliens running around. Then it all gets a bit vague.
You're escaping, I gathered that, then the army comes in and starts shooting at you too. Umm.. a big thing with tenticles you have to sneak back and forth to and from while you gather the resources to burn it. And that's about as much as I remember.
Same thing with Half Life 2. Lost interest when after almost 2 hours of gameplay I still didn't know why I was running around. It just dragged on and on without any other human interaction to give direction.
I generally don't like single player games too much. They get old after a while whereas multiplayer games like TF2 and L4D(2) are different every time you play.
I never really understood why Half Life was so popular. I got up to that bit with the big thing with 2 flamethrowers before stopping because I didn't know whether I had to shoot at it or somehow sneak past it or find a button which destroyed it. My weapons didn't 'seem' to be doing any kind of damage to it.
And then there was the story, I couldn't find one to follow. First you're a Scientist, who pushes a cart into a glowey thing to complete an experiment which goes wrong and there's a big explosion and a few blips with teleportation back and forth and when you get back everyone's dead and there are lots of aliens running around. Then it all gets a bit vague.
You're escaping, I gathered that, then the army comes in and starts shooting at you too. Umm.. a big thing with tenticles you have to sneak back and forth to and from while you gather the resources to burn it. And that's about as much as I remember.
Same thing with Half Life 2. Lost interest when after almost 2 hours of gameplay I still didn't know why I was running around. It just dragged on and on without any other human interaction to give direction.
I generally don't like single player games too much. They get old after a while whereas multiplayer games like TF2 and L4D(2) are different every time you play.
That was insanely unexpected! And awesome.
[sub]EAT SCIENCE![/sub]
I like how he talked about the HL engine graphics without bashing them. The very reason I find HL very difficult to play today.
[sub]EAT SCIENCE![/sub]
I like how he talked about the HL engine graphics without bashing them. The very reason I find HL very difficult to play today.
Ah yes, I still remember the days before Halo and CoD, when the Counter-Strike community was the prime source of bile-filled assholes. Though in many ways, it wasn't that bad. Not as many people had mikes yet, so the douchebaggery was mostly limited to just text.Sober Thal said:
Anyway, back to Half-Life. One of the many things I liked about it were the many mods and total conversions, some of them high-quality enough to be called a game by themselves. In fact, yesterday I got myself a whole bunch of my old favorites and some new ones I didn't know about and set out to get my fill.
Yay, retro August is once again upon us! I always love to hear Yahtzee talk about older games and like others have already mentioned, I almost enjoy them more than the "regular" reviews. As for the game itself, Half Life was just one of those games that really fascinated back when I first tried it. I've spent so many hours, not only playing Half Life, but also all of it's assorted expansions and mods.
As an actual game Half-Life is really average, extremely linear and pretty boring. Yahtzee usually comes down pretty hard on a game that's not actually that much fun. But I feel he's blinded a little by nostalgia and the story he remembers so fondly. The story and setting and voice acting might still be all right but the actual game play was unbelievably average. I guess the story and his immersion in the world and character because of that is selling the rest of it for him, but normally he's objective enough to see when there's just not enough to do in most of a game to keep it interesting.
(I played Half-Life when it came out, though I was a lot older than Yahtzee when I did so).
(I played Half-Life when it came out, though I was a lot older than Yahtzee when I did so).
And Thomas Dolby is blinded by his own fucking stupidity.DVS BSTrD said:
Guy honestly believes the world is flat...
Well, so did Gordon, albeit he was forced...Matthew Swircenski said:
At the end of the day, Breen and Freeman are just working for different alien agencies. Breen for the Combine, Freeman for whatever the G-Man's agency is. It's just that the latter's goals are much friendlier for the human population.
Ah, the old classic. It wouldn't be appropriate for Yahtzee to do all of these retro-reviews and not do one for the titular title that influenced so much since it's release.
I too quite enjoyed Xen and it's affiliated level designs. The jumping bits were never hard, and I liked the completely alien feeling of the world. It was an almost shocking departure from the dark, military-industrial look of the rest of the game.
I especially loved exploring every little nook and cranny of Xen, looking for little easter-eggs and other interesting tid-bits.
And here I thought I was alone.RJ Dalton said:
I too quite enjoyed Xen and it's affiliated level designs. The jumping bits were never hard, and I liked the completely alien feeling of the world. It was an almost shocking departure from the dark, military-industrial look of the rest of the game.
I especially loved exploring every little nook and cranny of Xen, looking for little easter-eggs and other interesting tid-bits.
Ummm. Metroid Prime? The series did just get murdered last year and you did say it had good shooting compensation. Not the best compliment ever I admit.
You know it's weird, I hear so much praise for Half Life 2, but I never really hear much about the first game.
I might actually play that game someday, if I ever get a desktop. I guess I technically could play the game on a laptop considering how old it is, but I don't really trust my laptop right now. Lately it seems like it's just barely running TF2 at a decent framerate.
I might actually play that game someday, if I ever get a desktop. I guess I technically could play the game on a laptop considering how old it is, but I don't really trust my laptop right now. Lately it seems like it's just barely running TF2 at a decent framerate.
If you can run TF2, even with a crappy framerate, you can definitely run Half-Life at maximum settings. The game is 14 years old, after all.scorptatious said: