Can someone tell me what's so good about Half Life 2?

I enjoyed HL2 and episodes but I can totally relate to what the OP is saying.

The beginning chapters of HL2 (route canal and water hazard) are quite dull in terms of gameplay.
Its just a long run through weak enemies for 3 hours straight with no events.
Two of my friends that purchased OrangeBox stopped playing at Water Hazard level! I think that says something.

HL2 start getting interesting after Ravenholm IMO.
 
Ravenholm for the win..

Love the Half Life series. What's not to like?
 
The sheer variety of locals and gameplay in HL2 did it for me. The only weak section of the game was the airboat and even then, its only because it was too long, its actually pretty exciting. There also hasn't been a game which immerses you into the world better than HL2, I mean, the moment you walk out of the train you know you are in a strange world. Alyx is also the only video game character I actually give a shit about.
 
Duke Nukem 3D with newest opengl port + high resolution textures/audio/music beats the crap out of HL2 in any way imaginable.

Hail to the King baby!
 
The high resolution graphics mods for Duke absolutely destroys the look of the game. Kinda like the cinematic mods for HL2.
 
pigwalk said:
Yeah, that's what they say, but I don't like it. It's a lazy cop out imo, and I empathize much more with a real character than a puppet. Especially a character with arms. There are many games that do it so well, Chronicles of Riddick especially that I'm just not satisfied with cardboard cutouts anymore.
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I disagree completely. It's annoying when your character says random corny stuff.. You're supposed to believe that you are the character playing, but that notion is spoiled when your character has opinions of his own that is sure to differ from what you the player are thinking.
 
Ive talked with a few friends who have played a bit of HL2 too. They said the game made them nauseous as well. Whats the deal with this? Ive also read a few people saying the same thing in the forums here and there.

Do we all share a commonality of poor resolutions or something? Perhaps a frame rate issue?

I was thinking it was mainly just me. I was thinking maybe I was getting motion sickness....Never happened before, so I also thought maybe it was due to me getting older too. Now that I think about it..I believe PainKiller also gave me nausea too.

I seriously, just can not play this game for more than an hour-ish at a time. After that hour or so, I actually have to quit the game thinking if I play any more, Im going to have to make a run for the toilet. To me, that makes loading the game back up another day not all that exciting and is probably the reason Ive restarted 4-5 different times, each time, never getting passed the sewers section.

I keep reading people say the beginning is mundane and boring till you get to "x" level and get the gravity gun. Im beginning to wonder if I should just leave this game alone if thats all I have to look forward to enjoying.
 
SAW said:
Ive talked with a few friends who have played a bit of HL2 too. They said the game made them nauseous as well. Whats the deal with this? Ive also read a few people saying the same thing in the forums here and there.

Do we all share a commonality of poor resolutions or something? Perhaps a frame rate issue?

I was thinking it was mainly just me. I was thinking maybe I was getting motion sickness....Never happened before, so I also thought maybe it was due to me getting older too. Now that I think about it..I believe PainKiller also gave me nausea too.

I seriously, just can not play this game for more than an hour-ish at a time. After that hour or so, I actually have to quit the game thinking if I play any more, Im going to have to make a run for the toilet. To me, that makes loading the game back up another day not all that exciting and is probably the reason Ive restarted 4-5 different times, each time, never getting passed the sewers section.

I keep reading people say the beginning is mundane and boring till you get to "x" level and get the gravity gun. Im beginning to wonder if I should just leave this game alone if thats all I have to look forward to enjoying.
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It's the extremely narrow field of view. 75º is just too low. Quake for example defaults to 90º, it's a huge difference. I know in TF2 and Portal you can change FOV to 90º and IIRC in Episode 2 you also can, but not in the original HL2 or EP1.
 
I can (and do) play TF2 for HOURS and HOURS....never once even a hint of nausea.

So, basically what your saying is, HL2 is like playing a game in tunnel vision, ehh?
 
Yea, that's the problem. It's like moving around wearing binoculars, I feel pain in the back of my eyes after a while, not to mention that the notion of movement (how fast you run/walk, how objects approach you, etc) becomes extremely unrealistic. Unfortunately in HL2 the only way to change FOV is to enabling cheats and forcing a higher FOV but I also remember that this caused weird clipping issues with your weapons.
 
forsberg78 said:
I played it for a few hours, I'm at the part where I'm on this water bike, but I just don't have the urge to continue playing. It's just very boring to me.

What is it about Half Life that everybody loves so much? I'd really like to know!
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I get to the same point too and quit. Its just not that interesting.
 
Get past the water bike level. Trust me the game only gets better from there. I'd have to agree that aside from specific events that take place at the water bike level that whole chapter of the game is boring as hell. Trust me, it does get much better though.
 
OK. I finally got past the water bike level and playing in Ravenholm. It's more "acceptable" now, but I'm still completely lost in the story - as in I don't know where I'm going and why. But this is probably because I didn't play original Half Life. Maybe I will read up on the storyline to catch up.

As for posts above about nausea: Yeah, I got dizzy and wanted to puke after playing this game for longer than 10 minutes straight. But I changed the fov to 90 instead of 75 and it "SEEMS" better. Could be placebo, dunno. I still take breaks every 15 minutes because I'm still not that immersed in the game. haha.
 
If you missed this game back in 04 when it first game out, I feel bad for you. It's exceedingly tough to enjoy a game that is more than a couple of years old IMO, as we are blessed with an ever higher quality bar in the video game sector.

Make no mistake, this was a milestone in game development - you have to remember that this was the first game with REAL havok physics - WOW! You could shoot something and it would actually move in a realistic way! The bundle also came with counter-strike: source which was a great multiplayer componant and a reason to buy the package in and of itself.

Go back and read reviews for this game and I think you'll see that we are merely underestimating the improvements that have been made in terms of quality in the past 4-5 years. A level of quality built, ironicly, on a foundation that half-life 2 is no small part of.
 
twoeyes said:
If you missed this game back in 04 when it first game out, I feel bad for you. It's exceedingly tough to enjoy a game that is more than a couple of years old IMO, as we are blessed with an ever higher quality bar in the video game sector.

Make no mistake, this was a milestone in game development - you have to remember that this was the first game with REAL havok physics - WOW! You could shoot something and it would actually move in a realistic way! The bundle also came with counter-strike: source which was a great multiplayer componant and a reason to buy the package in and of itself.

Go back and read reviews for this game and I think you'll see that we are merely underestimating the improvements that have been made in terms of quality in the past 4-5 years. A level of quality built, ironicly, on a foundation that half-life 2 is no small part of.
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That could be true. I went to this game from COD4 on PS3 (first FPS since... duke nukem 3d).
 
Tzzird said:
I had a copy of it for 3 years before I got around to playing and finishing it. As I progressed my way through, I couldn't help but ask myself why the hell I didn't finish this game years earlier. It was that good.
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I had it and never finished it until about 3 years later also. Great towards the end though. You gotta love the guns and the upgrade you get on your gravity gun! Just keep playing, it gets better. That boat stage was hard.
 
Frostex said:
... steam roll through the game like a bad Arnold Schwarzenegger movie...
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No such thing mate - unless you're one of the girly men :D

HL2 = good, solid and entertaining.
HL1 = good, solid and entertaining with a bit more legend status, because it was the first.

Crysis = It's pretty damn cool if you have the rig to pull off the eye candy. Maybe not legend status, but worth an honorable mention.
 
HL2 was fun and I got through it, but I was never able to finish off HL1. There was some awesome areas of the game, I LOVED the cliffside part, but it seemed to go on for too long and just never ended.
 
Where to start about why it's good.....

Honestly I love Half-life to DEATH, HL2 was a major disappointment. Nothing about it was original or fun except the gravity gun idea which got SOOO old SOOOO quickly. The story blows as does the locals of the game.

The driving levels don't even get me started!! They are one of the worst parts, they go on forever and you just want them to end.

I don't feel the episodes did anything for it either. I found EP2 rather boring and same old same old except the last boss area.

I've played through HL2 a few times and nothing ever sticks as amazing... I look at HL2 like Doom3. It was the game to show off the new engine and the engine has gone on to do much bigger and better things. Valve sells HL2 because it says Half-life, people love it because the box says half-life. Again, Half-life one was AMAZING, it do so much stuff to push it so far ahead of the rest, HL2 just didn't do anything but make a run of mill shooter, much like Bioshock.
 
Hoo boy! another one who just dosen't get it.:rolleyes:
well @ least he had since enough to not post this @ half life 2 .net or something:D
 
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