/vr/ - Retro Games

>>8496224
>Half-Life 2 is dogshi
I am glad that someone finally agrees with me. Everyone seems to love the game, but it felt like a glorified tech demo that lacked any real lasting power.

>hide thread

It was okay, but honestly overrated as all fuck back in the day because graphics and physics. If you dared criticized this game, you were opening up yourself to hurt and no one wanted to admit or see the truth that other games were just better. I think people only liked it because PC gaming had a severe drought in the 2000s where many devs just left the PC in the dust.
I'm glad people realized HL1 is the better game now.

>>8496224
It's still my favourite FPS and I've played them all (nearly)
I love how seamless it is, it really does feel like a long perilous journey from one place to another.
The enemy ai is pretty smart and really fun to play against.
The physics are fantastic and can lead to all kinds of crazy situations, especially with the addition of the gravity gun.
The setting is bleak but hopeful and the story is told well enough to immerse you in it.
The pacing is perfect to me, there's always something new and interesting happening so you never get bored or feel like you're doing the same thing again (even half life 1 had parts that felt very samey)

i like this game bcuz it was fun to mod and fuck around with. it also got me into mapping. i will agree that its pacing was terrible in some places and the weapons are kinda shit.

>>8496224
>>8496304
Agreed. It's annoying how much of a step down it was in terms of quality to Half-Life 1. Sure it looked pretty for the time I guess but literally everything else was a huge step down
>less cool aliens
>less cool guns
>less cool locations
I seriously don't get why everyone jacks it off.

The problem is that the game has really shit enemy design and guns.

>>8496224
I like it.

It's nowhere near as good as HL1 and definitely very tech demo-y, but it's very far from being a bad game. Its biggest problem is that it introduces all these level gimmicks and then all but drops them after their focal Chapter. Given the extremely boring weapon loadout (with the Gravity Gun being pretty much the sole exception) and limited enemy variety, I can see why so many people are disappointed when they revisit HL2 and its episodes.

I think a better approach would have been to keep some of the level gimmicks around and have them build on each other over the course of the game. This gradually increasing complexity somewhat would've made up for the dull set of weapons you've got to work with. We got a glimpse of what that could've looked like in the last act of the game after Nova Prospekt, where a few of these gimmicks were active at once in what I thought was a pretty solid finale.

On the other hand, the physics are fun to play around with, and it does a good job of seamlessly portraying a grand adventure. Although there's no getting around the fact that, for the most part, the settings just aren't as interesting as Black Mesa with all the weird B-movie scifi shit going on around every corner.

>>8496304
>everyone
Have you been living under a rock? It's been cool to hate HL2 on /v/ for years now.

the only thing I dislike about and that stops me from replaying half life 2 is the unskippable "cutscenes"

>>8496421
The AI is retarded, what are you talking about.

>>8496224
The original Half-Life sucks too.

>>8497181
Nope

So what was the supposed "good" FPS that was around at the same time? Halo?

It's all linear, story-based bullshit. Just because you have control during what's basically a scripted story section doesn't make it any less of a fucking cutscene.
The controls are wonky, the gameplay is crap, the weapons are shit, the forced goddamn vehicle sections are trash, and the entire game is exactly what's wrong with modern "gaming". HL1 as well. Shit controls, shit gameplay, shit weapons, horrible fucking "super mario half-life" imprecise platformer shit at the end.
Fuck Half-Life.

>>8496304
Yeah, I know.

I've been saying this for a long time.

>>8497209
True.

The only thing I agree with is that it's dumb how you're treated like a god figure. But some people are treated like god figures in real life, so....
It was earned. Freeman did some crazy shit in HL1

As for how good it is, I agree that as a shooter it's inferior, but not by much. The shooting is still fun and technically the game was amazing for the time, also I think as a sequel it's perfect. Seeing what society was like outside of this bum-fuck-middle-of-nowhere facility was what they had to do and they nailed it. I'm also a fan of plotlines where you're a fugitive. (Condemned also does it)

>>8497209
Noooooo le based gaben is our lord and savior

>>8496224
I'm sorry you completely missed the zeitgeist mr zoomer or ultraboomer or whatever the reason you have for being a butthurt moron.

>>8496762
>I seriously don't get why everyone jacks it off.
Physics and Gravity Gun. Also it's a base for GMod and new Cancer Strike.

>>8496224
Absolutely based. I liked this game a lot when it came out, but it’s aged worse than the original. I never have a desire to replay it.
Story is boring, gunplay is boring, levels are truly badly paced.
HL2 was more about showing off physics, lighting and body/facial animations, which every AAA game was doing at the time.
Gravity Gun is the best part of the game. Shooting the saw blades at the headcrab zombies is the most memorable part of the experience for me.

I like HL2 better than HL1.

The criticism of "poor pacing" can be far more easily levelled at the first game. On A Rail, Residue Processing, Xen... HL1 is only really engaging for the opening chapters, up til roughly the end of We've Got Hostiles. The parts where you're exploring the underbelly of the facility are the best sections of the game. As soon as you get to Blast Pit, the rest of the game is basically full of padding and gimmick set pieces, with only a handful of memorable segments and a couple of good chapters later on.

Half Life 2 at least stays consistently engaging most of the way through, even if the combat itself is arguably weaker. People commonly complain that the vehicle sections drag on for too long but those were actually some of my favourite parts. I really enjoyed exploring all the little locations you stop off at along the way, there was some top tier environmental storytelling.

1/2 Quake and Doom have much better core gameplay than either Half-Life. Large levels, good weapons, good enemy variety.

Both Half-Life games start with overly long cutscenes-that-are-not-cutscenes, where you can walk around but still have to wait until the scene is over, with no option to skip it. Half-Life 2 has a TON of these. You go meet your allies, they talk about shit, meanwhile you crowbar Alyx's boobs and throw computer hardware at Dr. Kleiner's face who don't even react to your shenanigans. There's no way to skip these scenes on a second playthrough, other than straight-up quitting back to the main menu and restarting from the next chapter... or using a level skip cheat. Apparently having a silent protagonist increases the immersion because YOU are Doctor Freeman and the devs never put any words in your mouth... but when your game has you interact with NPCs this much, and instead of making those into cutscenes you allow the player to dick around like a retard, it just becomes absurd.

"Oh hey Dr Freeman it's so nice to finally meet you, I respect you so much, you're a great scientist!"
Proceeds to dick around like a turboautist on a mixture of meth, speed and cocaine, crouching down and savaging her cunt with a crowbar, then grabbing all the science equipment in the room and tossing it around like a monkey throwing poop.

>>8497584
2/2 The weapons in HL2 feel merely okay, and they all have pitifully low maximum ammo counts. In some scenes, you absolutely need to use one specific weapon (usually it's the rocket launcher) and the game gives you infinite ammo in a respawning ammo box. While the physics engine is great and it's fun to explode red barrels to send combine soldiers flying, the average moment-to-moment gunplay is merely mediocre compared to Doom and Quake. The game is too preoccupied with showing off its engine capabilities with some gimmick scenes, rather than focusing on delivering a solid shooting experience. There are a lot of vehicle sections, there's that antlion section where you toss a pheromone ball to command your antlion army, it all feels very gimmicky and designed to show off what the engine can do. "Hey guys, we have physics! We have a decent AI and the ability to command a squad! We have vehicles! Isn't that cool??"

Also, both Half-Life games are incredibly linear. Far, far more linear than your average shooter of the time. Doom, Quake, the Build Engine games, Unreal... sure, they all had some linear levels, but your average level there involved exploring a small hub, hunting down keycards, finding secret areas, etc etc. The levels often had expansive spaces that could be tackled in several ways. You can go to the left wing of the building first or the right wing of the building, you can cross that bridge by walking over it or jump down into the water and find another way up to the other side, etc. In the Half-Life games, there is usually only ONE way forward. Not two ways, not three ways, just one. They are among the most linear shooters of their time, and a huge step back in level design compared to what came before, especially the Build Engine games and Unreal 1.

lol the faggot has returned yet again

replayed hl2 and loved it the same, sucks to be you lil buddy

>>8497590
>>8497584
you literally copy this from rpgcodex,
kys schizo

>>8497094
What are you talking about? HL2's ai is some of the best out there.

>>8497590
>>8497584
>>8497317
>>8497220
>>8497209
>>8497181
>>8497590
>>8497584
the average anti hl everyone
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/half_life_was_never_good/page1

>>8497909
>has returned
I am a hypernewfag who only got around to actually playing Half-Life 2 recently, because I was scarred from actually trying to play Team Fortress 2 and assumed all Valve games from that time period would run equally horrendous, so I sticked to playing the original Half-Life because it would run more fast and I didn't care.
Seriously, is there actually one fucking retard who just walks in here like once a month and spergs out about this game?

>>8498427
>he doesn't know

>>8498435
no shit i don't know you retard I'm a fuckin plebbit-tier faggot who only larps as someone who isn't a refugee from that shithole (still never used reddit in my life though)

>>8498457
https://www.doomworld.com/profile/32840-alf/
https://archive.is/h0d0r
https://archive.is/HNSTZ
https://archive.is/nUJ63
https://archive.is/poBZJ

>>8496304
It lacks the sense of dark humor of HL1. And I'm bummed that we'll never see Valve go back, having now tried to recreate HL2 3 fucking times now.

>auto sage
Based

There is no bad HL game unlike Doom or Quake

>>8499369
Half-Life: Decay says hi.

>>8499369
half life 2: episode 2 exists

>>8496762
If it weren't for Axel Gembe, we'd have gotten a much better game.
The infiltration of a popular game development company's network and leaking their WIP beta development materials is the biggest bed shitting moment in videogame history.

>>8501842
Fuck you, I liked the Half Life 2 episodes.

>>8496421
This. It may not seem special right now but it was way ahead of its time and still plays better than most story focused fps games.

>>8496224
Of course it doesn't feel like a sequel to HL. It couldn't. HL until the very end is about escaping a deathtrap facility, which is a very specific scenario and theme of level design, but its sequel can't be laid-out like that anymore because its events lead to a fucking global alien invasion. Half-Life was Facility Escape Sim, and Half-Life 2 COULDN'T BE Facility Escape Sim 2.

>>8496224
>>8496304
It's god tier
Seethe