I just finished Half Life 2

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: Soviet
Half life 1 is a great game, but i never like original games if ive played a sequel first. Simcity classic was balls because i had played simcity 2000 first, warcraft 2 sucked because i had played 3 first, c&c 95's saving grace was the story, apart from that it wasent as good as red alert which i played first.

So i dunno i cant see you having any fun, but it might be worth a try. In half life 1 there is next to no character development, the storyline is much thinner than half life 2.

Most of those comparisons are right on though.

WC3 > WC2 (for a lot of reasons - come on, both sides were identical with just a few changed spells). WC2 is still a fine game, but it's not as good as WC3

SimCity 2000 > SimCity Classic

Red Alert >> C&C (from 95) but that's hardly fair, Red Alert was just an incredible game

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: Psynaut
Alot of varying opinions. I think that the only reason I would go back and play a game that old is if it helped to make the experience of HL2, ep1 and ep2 better. Since it apparently wouldn't, I think I will read the guide Eeezee posted, and then go play ep1.

Yes, do that if you just want the backstory. Be careful though, the guide also covers events in ep1 and ep2 (and portal). I think there may be warning tags placed around the guide... maybe...

Your best choice might be to play ep1, ep2, and portal before reading the guide so as to not spoil anything.

It's useful for covering a lot of the background that may be harder to pick up on during HL2, since you're playing the game and not looking for tiny clues

I still recommend playing HL1 sometime; if graphics is a huge deal to you, suck it up because it's a lot of fun even if it's not the prettiest game anymore

 

[Eeezee]

Psynaut, that's pretty interesting, I had no idea that the source version used the old textures. I wonder who decided that was a good idea... blue shift had already been out for years!

Definitely try it with the blue shift graphics update if everyone says that it's where the best graphics are. That's a real shame that they didn't add better textures to the source edition.

 

[BFG10K]

To me HL:S has far better looking textures than the original HL ever did.

 

[FuryofFive]

i think i played HL2 before Hl1, and while HL1 is good, but not as great as the others. but again, just a preference. i thought EP 2 was awesome though soo yeah

 

[CP5670]

Originally posted by: Soviet
Half life 1 is a great game, but i never like original games if ive played a sequel first. Simcity classic was balls because i had played simcity 2000 first, warcraft 2 sucked because i had played 3 first, c&c 95's saving grace was the story, apart from that it wasent as good as red alert which i played first.

I liked C&C better, and I got it two years after RA. Apart from the story, it had much better unit/side balance and generally more interesting campaign missions (just in terms of the gameplay). I did spend a lot more time playing and messing with RA than C&C, but that was only because of its skirmish mode and mod capabilities.

 

[JoLLyRoGer]

HL1 was such an epic game when it came out. I remember playing hours and hours of HL, TFC, and CS back in tha day.

I had a brand new top of the line PC I had built with an Althlon 800 (Slot A), an ASUS, K7V Mobo, 512 MB of PC-133, a 30GB Maxtor DiamondMax, and a 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500. I even paid $45.00 for a Microsoft Optical USB mouse back then and I was kicking supreme ass.

Good memories. I hated that part where you had to climb up the missle silo with that three headed monster that you had to lob the grenades at just to have even half a chance... That's still to this day one of the most challenging video game sequences I've ever played rivaled only by the last strider scene of HL2 E2.

Go play HL1, you owe it to yourself to experience it and like others have said... play it for the game, not that the graphics are THAT terrible (it's not like the game looks like Wolfenstein3D or Duke Nukem).

My $.02
JR..

 

[Smilin]

Let's all cut to the chase:

HL1 is a great game and he should definately play it if he never has before.

 

[SuPrEIVIE]

I played the first hl1 and i didnt see what was so great about it i mean in terms of story, story is as flat as Far Cry the gameplay was not bad the thing i like about the half life games is that some weapons r pretty cool, and the vehicles etc that you would use. However i dont see why people make it out to be like the best thing ever. I found Deus Ex to be like the best FPS in terms of the marriage of gameplay and story, however it is considered RPG + FPS

 

[Smilin]

Deus Ex, Far Cry and many others that went for an immersive experience did so because Half-Life revolutionized this concept.

 

[SuPrEIVIE]

Well there are older games that had immersive experience like Dark Forces 2 so i wouldnt call Half Life too revolutionary, its popularity of course helped it. I have not gotten much into Half Life 2 yet but i expect way more than the first with all the hype this series has had.