FIRST IMPRESSIONS THREAD FOR HALF LIFE 2!!!

[warcrow]

This is the thread where you post your initial thoughts on your experience with HL2. This isnt a thread about how sh!tty Steam has been, or how much the new drivers for your videocard kick a$$. No, this is about your initial impression of the game.

We've got several threads for HL2, but I thought that we would try to keep spoilers and impressions out of the main thread and put them in here. If you guys think this is a bad idea, let me know and I'll kill this thread.

I'll start:

Well, lastnight I joined about 40 of you guys in Qosis's PHP web based chat (I cannot do IRC at work) and anticipated the release of HL2 at midnight. It was alot of fun, and boy did we ever lose it as we neared midnight. It was alot of fun though, and I hope we do it more often with the big releases. Anywho, on to the game.

When the game first loaded up to the menu, I could already feel the slick and simple design of the interface filling my senses. It was just screaming simplicity! I configured the controls, adjsuted the video settings, and clicked on new game.

As many of you know, the very first images you see in the game are of the G-man. He talks to you with a rythm known only as the G-man, and I couldnt help but smile. The voice acting was already perfect, and I was happy for that. And thats when I noticed the 5 o'clock shadow on his face, the pores on his nose.....the glossiness of his eyeballs. Thats when Valve had me. I knew, all of a sudden, that this game was going to be what I was expecting -A solid, poloshed product. Once you "awake" in City 17 and begin wlaking around, it feels comfortable......very familiar. The controls....the flow of the scripted sequences. I dont want to get too deeply into details since this is a first impression, but its difficult not too.

I guess I should just come out and say this: This is the best FPS I've ever played. I say that with the utmost in confidence and I'm not even 1/2 through the game. I'm going to hold off on the "greatest game ever" comment until I finish the game. But, according to some people who have finished the game already (WTF?!?), we're in for an amazing ending.

Pros:

+ Best graphics I've ever seen, this includes Doom 3 and Far Cry.
+ Best use a physics engine in any game. Its logical and just makes sense. Good use in puzzle/escapes too.
+ Voice acting is top notch. Its perfect.
+ The animation is incredible! Faces actually express sarcasm! Cheekbones move to acommidate for a smile. Its not just the faces though!
+ The Gravity gun.
+ The Dog.
+ The teleportin sequence.
+ Not having any kind of weapon for the first 15 mins of game time, and not even realizing it.
+ The combine are supper cool!
+ The water!
+ The Pistol! WTF! who makes a pistol in a game as cool as this one! Valve, you just rock! I love the sound and how it feels!
+ Alex in tight pants! :heart:

Cons (yes, there are some):

- Why did valve decide to throw a new "zone" in the middle of a gun fight? This happened to me twice in the hovercraft. Nothing to serious, and I enver even crashed or missed an extra shot, but its weird to be in the middle of a helo chasing sequence, jumping through a concrete tube, the cool new-age-techno is pump'n, and *wham!* new zone is laoding, and then you begin where you left off....and suddenly the blasting music is gone, with no fade down of anything. For such a well polished game, I thought this was odd.
- Mutiplayer! Vanilla HL2 DM for us none CS:S fans absolutely should have been inculded in the game on release. Shame on Valve for letting this slide. I want to use the Gravity gun in DM!


....ok, that about does it for me. What about you guys? I'm interested in hearing detailed first impressions from some of you guys. As for me, as you can see, I thinks the game is simply incredible...and hey, it was worth the wait.

 

[Todd33]

I don't like the long load to get to the main menu, I like the look, but it should be an option.

I think the sub machine gun is worthless, the accuracy is super bad, even close up. The two pistols rule.

Other than that the game is perfection, I just entered that weird ghost town after meeting dog.

 

[warcrow]

Originally posted by: Todd33
I don't like the long load to get to the main menu, I like the look, but it should be an option.

I think the sub machine gun is worthless, the accuracy is super bad, even close up. The two pistols rule.

Other than that the game is perfection, I just entered that weird ghost town after meeting dog.

Yea, the Desert Eagle is a tough gun! I dont mind the machine gun. I think it does exactly what its suppose to do, make swiss cheese out of the combine. If it were acurate, you would never use the pistol, you know?

Yea, when I met dog....thats when I was like, oh ok.....this game is revolutionary!

 

[naruto1988]

well, after 3 hours, i thought it was really fun. adrenaline-pumping, i found 1 bug, and i loved the airboat. still on it =D can't wait til i get to use the gravity gun and alien pheromone.

the graphics are superb, audio is too. the puzzles aren't too hard (this is the first FPS single-player game that i'm going to play through). my computer gets a few stutters from time to time...hopefully the 512 RAM that's coming in the mail will help that. what else is there?...i jumped when i turned around after not being able to find an exit up ahead for my airboat, then a crabhead guy rose from the water.

as for the weapons, i agree w/ Todd. SMG is useless but the two pistols are good.

edit: i don't like how it takes a while to start up the game itself. but then loading a level or saved game takes less than 30 seconds.

 

[GZDynastar]

best game to date.. im not even close to finishing.. but that way i'll have something to look forward to when i get home tomorrow... then the next day etc.

graphics/physics/engine is the best ive ever seen. i love it.

good job VALVe and to Gabe for making another great game.

 

[warcrow]

The RAM will deffinitly help ya, especially with load times. With my 1GB machine, laoding isnt too bad at all.

 

[naruto1988]

this is selfish of me, but does anyone want to explain Half Life 1 storyline to me? or point me to where i can read a summary? i don't know who g-man is...or anyone, lol. i think i would appreciate this game more with some background info.

 

[warcrow]

Originally posted by: naruto1988
this is selfish of me, but does anyone want to explain Half Life 1 storyline to me? or point me to where i can read a summary? i don't know who g-man is...or anyone, lol. i think i would appreciate this game more with some background info.

Allow me to take a crack a this, and please...correct me if I'm wrong guys:

You work as a scientist at a gigantic research facility located in Black Mesa. Working on a exciting new experiment, your dumba$$ colleuges accidentally create a time rift in the space continueum teleporting a bunch of aliens that fvck up your colleuges up along with Black Mesa. Later on in the game you come across some military solidiers who you think are there to save you, but end up fvcking up even more scientist and trying to track you down to kill you as well. Along the way for catch glimpses of a guy in a blue suit, carrying a breifcase always going somewhere. Anyways, you wind up hooking up with some last remaining scientics who spooge evertime they see you. They teleport you to the aliens worlds, Xen. You end up fighting a gigantic nut sack-spider thing and then eventually the head alien dude, who has a very large mellon, but has an exposed brain on top so you can shoot missle at it. After killing Mr Fathead, G-man picks you up, offers you two options: 1) To come join him on some quest, or 2) To go back on your fight too kill everything and fight against the G-man. Option 1 will take you with him on his train ride, and option 2 will teleport you in the middle of a bunch of those hulking aliens with the heat seeking bee/wasp shooters.

The End.

 

[high]

Unbelieveable game....graphics/physics/pistol/water..ESPECIALLY THE WATER...see how if you hop into that canoe and it fills up with water??? wow!

 

[naruto1988]

so g-man is the guy in a blue suit, carrying a briefcase?

 

[warcrow]

Originally posted by: naruto1988
so g-man is the guy in a blue suit, carrying a briefcase?

No no....hes the guy in the g-string. I'm kidding....yes, thats him.

 

[naruto1988]

so...who's the world leader guy? alex mentioned something about him. and we saw glimpses of his office during the teleport messup.

 

[warcrow]

Originally posted by: naruto1988
so...who's the world leader guy? alex mentioned something about him. and we saw glimpses of his office during the teleport messup.

Dunno.

 

[Cdubneeddeal]

Originally posted by: warcrow

Originally posted by: naruto1988
so g-man is the guy in a blue suit, carrying a briefcase?

No no....hes the guy in the g-string. I'm kidding....yes, thats him.

Thanks for the laugh

 

[blurredvision]

My thoughts on the game. Not really first impressions anymore, as I just reached Ravenholm and quit for the night.

The character models are simply amazing. This is the closest videogames have come to mimicing a human outside of CG work. Though a little stiff at times, it's great to watch the characters react with what they are saying or doing. I love to watch the eyebrow movement as they talk. Try zooming in on someone's face and eyes while they are looking directly at you. Kinda eerie, huh?

As for the airboat, I did not care for not being able to see the hands and arms steering. While I realize why they didn't do this due to complications of tight steering and shooting the gun while steering at the same time, it's kind of disappointing. I did, however, like the length of that part of the game. Not only did it feel like you covered some ground, they also took you off the airboat for a few sequences so it wouldn't become monotonous. Afterall, how boring would it be to just keep driving through every gate with no contention?

I'm kind of sad not to see really any variation of enemies at the point I'm at in the game. Off the top of my head, not counting the scanners, helicopter, or the missle-launching armored truck, I can only think of 5 different types of enemies so far. The combine soldiers, a couple headcrabs here and there, a couple zombies here and there, those flying things with the spinning blades, and the things hanging from the ceilings. I know that Ravenholm should hold lots of the original Half-Life enemy, but I would expect atleast a couple different types of Combine guards at the very least.

The loading segments are awful, but I guess that's the tradeoff when you have such gorgeous textures and such. There's nothing worse than getting immersed in this game (which is quite easy), then getting sucked out to load the damn rest of the level. Then, after it loads, it likes to stutter again. Then at various times throughout the game, it stutters even more just for the hell of it. This shouldn't have made it past testing, but I'll gladly take it for getting the game when we did.

Basically, everything about this game is great. I don't know what's not to like, and I find it very odd that Gamespot gave this a 9.2. I typically trust their reviews, even if I don't agree with them. But so far, this chapter in the Half-Life series is leaps and bounds above what they did with the first game. The first was all about experience and exploration. Now it's about fighting in a living, breathing world, and Valve has trumped everyone. This game blows me away.

 

[Bonesdad]

hey, no spoilers or clue giving here please...i come to get an impression of the game (can't afford it yet) and all of a sudden I am reading bout the plot, no fair. At least put a ****SPOILER**** alert on the subject line!!!

 

[warcrow]

Yea, I was curious about the review scores too. 9.2? I ahve not read the review yet, but I think I'm going to head on over and check it out now. IGN gave it a 9.7, saying that it did nothing new.

EXCUSE ME!>! :shocked:

 

[warcrow]

Originally posted by: Bonesdad
hey, no spoilers or clue giving here please...i come to get an impression of the game (can't afford it yet) and all of a sudden I am reading bout the plot, no fair. At least put a ****SPOILER**** alert on the subject line!!!

I did, look again.

 

[adlep]

I am impressed so far and totally hooked. The game seems to live to its hype. Everything works/loads fluently on my OC P4@3.1GH, 768MB of RAM and Radeon 9800Pro. I am running at 1024x768 max detail with 2xAA on.
Overall, the game seems to be tad better than FarCry....
My ranking:
HL2>>FarCry>>>>>>>>>Doom3 (stinks, its off my hdd now)...

 

[slag]

I like the eyecandy also. Not too big on the storyline, but the gameplay seems pretty good.

*SPOILER ALERT
































I Just beat the big bug thing and got the sack you squeeze. Anyone who has beaten the game, how close am I to the end?*

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: warcrow

Yea, when I met dog....thats when I was like, oh ok.....this game is revolutionary!

Dog is the best. Is anyone else really starting to identify with the characters? They seem real. Movements have body language, their faces have unscripted emotives. The characters are alive. They have soul.

Valve has purely astounded me. I just finished Ravenholm, so I can't say anything past that, but so far the game has been grand slam after grand slam. It's intense, but does so without sensory overload - it makes you think. Some of the puzzles are genuinely difficult until you start thinking outside the box and breaking the rules.

For too long we've been used to level geometry as just something to contain targets. Half-Life 2 changes all that. Need to move from point A to B? Grab a barrel and use it for cover. Need to slow those combine bastiges down? Clog a door with stuff. Not to mention the HUGE immersion factor the physics add to firefights. When you duck behind barrels only to have them shot away, or are firing at a boarded up old house and wood and glass go flying everywhere during the exchange, or explosives send shelves and boxes flying across the room...it's....magical.

This game is already a top contender for the best I've ever played, and has taken best shooter hands down. My hat is off to Valve.

 

[microAmp]

Originally posted by: slag
I like the eyecandy also. Not too big on the storyline, but the gameplay seems pretty good.

*SPOILER ALERT



I'm about 5 hours past that and from the estimated time of complettion from review sites, another 5 hours to go.

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: blurredvision


I'm kind of sad not to see really any variation of enemies at the point I'm at in the game. Off the top of my head, not counting the scanners, helicopter, or the missle-launching armored truck, I can only think of 5 different types of enemies so far.

Come see us again after you've done Ravenholm.

 

[xSkyDrAx]

I barely got into the game and the graphics stunned me once i got out of the train. The lighting outside and then inside the trainstation was amazing especially when you look up to the windows, it's just like WOW.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I didn't read this thread on purpose...don't want spoilers...but all I will say is wow! I am already thinking of different ways to play the game next time to witness a different response. Some of the details are great: mid-way through the first level (insertion point), you walk passed a swing set. Just play with the damned swings and watch the physics and lighting involved. Wow! Alas, I have to stop after two hours of play. Got to work tomorrow.