Is Half Life 2 overrated?

[-slash-]

you know the S in FPS stands for SHOOTER, right? its a shooter game if you win by shooting. you could shoot in flashback but you win by jumping on platforms and thats why that was a platformer. you get to pick your parts in gran turismo but that doesnt make it a managerial game or an rpg - its a racing game. same as wipeout, you can shoot, but you win by the core mechanic of goin'reel'fast.

So uhhhh, whats your point? That because its a fps its the same as all fps games? Point, you have none.

 

[Rakewell]

Disparate opinions. Very interesting.

In my opinion, the answers would seem to depend upon how one views gaming in their life:

1.) A distraction from life.
2.) A substitute for life.

Probably a weird thought. My 2 cents.

 

[xXx orange]

I really didn't like it, but then I never finished the first one either. I have never been a fan of HL generally, I think its a pretty generic FPS.

Exact same view as you. I am trying to force myself to complete it but I am still at the motorboat part. Very long and boring in my opinion.

 

[Vanth]

Exact same view as you. I am trying to force myself to complete it but I am still at the motorboat part. Very long and boring in my opinion.

You fail to acknowledge and assimilate the splendid atmosphere of the game within your mind. If you are incapable of perceiving and experiencing the environment of the game, then I can understand how it could be boring to you since you simply don't understand it. To understand the game, a lot of work is required on part of the experiencer to put himself or herself in the shoes of the character of the game. This requires your utmost attention while also opening oneself emotively to the world of the game.

Half-Life and Half-Life 2 are the greatest games ever made for those with the eyes to see, with the ears to hear, with the mind to understand and the heart to feel. If you lack any of these, then a wholesome experience of the game falls apart.

 

[Veliko]

You fail to acknowledge and assimilate the splendid atmosphere of the game within your mind. If you are incapable of perceiving and experiencing the environment of the game, then I can understand how it could be boring to you since you simply don't understand it. To understand the game, a lot of work is required on part of the experiencer to put himself or herself in the shoes of the character of the game. This requires your utmost attention while also opening oneself emotively to the world of the game.

Half-Life and Half-Life 2 are the greatest games ever made for those with the eyes to see, with the ears to hear, with the mind to understand and the heart to feel. If you lack any of these, then a wholesome experience of the game falls apart.

What an utter load of pretentious shite.

 

[reallyscrued]

Yes.

I was just thinking about this the other day.

I went back and played Doom3 recently - if I remember correctly, it got critically panned in favor of Half Life 2.

I see the games as equal now. Playing D3 in the proper setting, with a large plasma TV, in 1080p with tons of AA, and a home theater surround sound system, is a game changer. I think the reason people did not find the game engaging was that they were playing it in the daytime on their 15 inch monitors and dinky desktop speakers.

Seeing as how I see them as equals, calling HL2 the greatest FPS of all time equates to calling DIII the same, and I don't see that as the case.

 

[TheSlamma]

yes, but then i played it years after release. there was nothing special about it.

I feel the same way about fire, what were cavemen so impressed about it for? you pull out your bic and with the flick of your thumb there it is. Geez get over yourselves cavemen!

 

[flexy]

What an utter load of pretentious shite.

Yes, and no. But I am seeing his point.

HL2 is one of those games where they did a BRILLIANT jobs with creating a "realistic" dystopian atmosphere, better than any other game to-date. (You won't be able to understand what I mean UNLESS you have once in real life experienced, say, a former socialist/communist/authoritarian regime and the atmosphere/flair you get to understand HOW genius/brilliant a job HL2 did there, I think.)

Now, a gamer might simply see the "FPS shooter" aspect of this game and can not (or is not willing to) "perceive" a lot more than that. Maybe that's what he is saying there.

For me, the atmosphere of this game was/is crucial. There is a lot happening "in the mind" which ultimately creates the entire experience. LOTS of today's games entirely skip that important aspect, they are "straight in your face", no subtleties etc. it's all about "boom! and bang" and your own mind/creativity is shut off.

 

[Veliko]

The dystopian atmosphere was only prevalent at the beginning of the game and your "won't be able to understand" part is going down the same nonsense route that Vanth was.

HL2 was a commercial bit of entertainment released by Westerners, marketed at Westerners. If I have to have experienced a former authoritarian regime to get the best out of it, then it isn't genius at all it's poor story telling.

 

[Olikan]

breaking news, people have diferent tastes 🙄

 

[cmdrdredd]

The dystopian atmosphere was only prevalent at the beginning of the game and your "won't be able to understand" part is going down the same nonsense route that Vanth was.

HL2 was a commercial bit of entertainment released by Westerners, marketed at Westerners. If I have to have experienced a former authoritarian regime to get the best out of it, then it isn't genius at all it's poor story telling.

I agree with you. The game was made to be enjoyed without having a certain point of view or real life experience.

I thought HL2 offered a decent bit of story telling back when it released in 2004 but when looking at today's games that build tension and atmosphere it is lacking. The weapons don't have any recoil and there is very little muzzle rise if I remember correctly. Basically the gun play is not very realistic and over the years games have gone for a little bit of realism in the weapon handling.

Small things that have changed over time for game designers makes me less impressed with HL2 today than I was in 2004.

 

[BudAshes]

If we want to talk overrated from 2004 lets talk world of warcraft. Now that is an overrated game.

 

[flexy]

The dystopian atmosphere was only prevalent at the beginning of the game and your "won't be able to understand" part is going down the same nonsense route that Vanth was.

HL2 was a commercial bit of entertainment released by Westerners, marketed at Westerners. If I have to have experienced a former authoritarian regime to get the best out of it, then it isn't genius at all it's poor story telling.

You misunderstood. I merely pointed out that Valve did a brilliant job there, and again I am blatantly stating that for, say, someone from the US it is likely not easy to see WHY and WHERE this brilliance is. I had the "fortune" living in Europe and was living for a bit in Eastern Berlin after the wall was down, and of course also know what it meant before when there was still an Eastern and Western Germany, or Soviet Union for that matter... Later on I also met many people who lived in this "Eastern Zone" and got an idea about where and how they lived, how limited their lives were, how "odd" an experience for example Eastern Berlin was...shortly after the wall came down and there wasn't too many changes yet. It is very difficult to describe this atmosphere.

You are right it's a game made by Westerners "for Westerners" but I am 100% convinced that Valve had help by people who had such first-hand experience developing the setting of the game. There is no way that they managed to convey the setting/atmosphere of the game otherwise.

What I am saying, it's no big deal to develop a game with a "dystopian atmosphere" since every other game does this, and there are books, movies etc. and they are not even scarce.

But doing it RIGHT and creating a genuine "eeriness" is a different story. A Westerner would (IMHO) not have an idea about how a person would live in a socialistic society, say, somewhere in some former Russian/Eastern European town, squeezed into some socialist apartment building and then facing realities of every day like how their authoritarian gvt spied on them, limits imposed on thinking, literature etc. because it goes against the authority's ideology. Stuff like that.

 

[futurefields]

You misunderstood. I merely pointed out that Valve did a brilliant job there, and again I am blatantly stating that for, say, someone from the US it is likely not easy to see WHY and WHERE this brilliance is. I had the "fortune" living in Europe and was living for a bit in Eastern Berlin after the wall was down, and of course also know what it meant before when there was still an Eastern and Western Germany, or Soviet Union for that matter... Later on I also met many people who lived in this "Eastern Zone" and got an idea about where and how they lived, how limited their lives were, how "odd" an experience for example Eastern Berlin was...shortly after the wall came down and there wasn't too many changes yet. It is very difficult to describe this atmosphere.

You are right it's a game made by Westerners "for Westerners" but I am 100% convinced that Valve had help by people who had such first-hand experience developing the setting of the game. There is no way that they managed to convey the setting/atmosphere of the game otherwise.

What I am saying, it's no big deal to develop a game with a "dystopian atmosphere" since every other game does this, and there are books, movies etc. and they are not even scarce.

But doing it RIGHT and creating a genuine "eeriness" is a different story. A Westerner would (IMHO) not have an idea about how a person would live in a socialistic society, say, somewhere in some former Russian/Eastern European town, squeezed into some socialist apartment building and then facing realities of every day like how their authoritarian gvt spied on them, limits imposed on thinking, literature etc. because it goes against the authority's ideology. Stuff like that.

What are you trying to say? That Half Life 2 had such a brilliant atmosphere that could have only been made by people who lived in Eastern Europe during wartime?

Maybe we played different games.

 

[Moe Zart]

You misunderstood. I merely pointed out that Valve did a brilliant job there, and again I am blatantly stating that for, say, someone from the US it is likely not easy to see WHY and WHERE this brilliance is. I had the "fortune" living in Europe and was living for a bit in Eastern Berlin after the wall was down, and of course also know what it meant before when there was still an Eastern and Western Germany, or Soviet Union for that matter... Later on I also met many people who lived in this "Eastern Zone" and got an idea about where and how they lived, how limited their lives were, how "odd" an experience for example Eastern Berlin was...shortly after the wall came down and there wasn't too many changes yet. It is very difficult to describe this atmosphere.

You are right it's a game made by Westerners "for Westerners" but I am 100% convinced that Valve had help by people who had such first-hand experience developing the setting of the game. There is no way that they managed to convey the setting/atmosphere of the game otherwise.

What I am saying, it's no big deal to develop a game with a "dystopian atmosphere" since every other game does this, and there are books, movies etc. and they are not even scarce.

But doing it RIGHT and creating a genuine "eeriness" is a different story. A Westerner would (IMHO) not have an idea about how a person would live in a socialistic society, say, somewhere in some former Russian/Eastern European town, squeezed into some socialist apartment building and then facing realities of every day like how their authoritarian gvt spied on them, limits imposed on thinking, literature etc. because it goes against the authority's ideology. Stuff like that.

It's the bloody linear nature of the game that kills the atmosphere. The whole game feels like you're crammed inside a long tunnel, going from A to B to C.
The surrounding environment is little more than background wallpaper, for I have to repeat, you are traveling inside a tunnel.

There is no interaction with the world besides running forward and shooting, and the primitive puzzles that are roadbumps. This makes it impossible to appreciate any form of atmosphere.

 

[OCNewbie]

I was truly amazed by the game when it first came out. Haven't played it in years, but probably will give it another spin once I get my current computer situation under control.

 

[TheSlamma]

It's the bloody linear nature of the game that kills the atmosphere. The whole game feels like you're crammed inside a long tunnel, going from A to B to C.
The surrounding environment is little more than background wallpaper, for I have to repeat, you are traveling inside a tunnel.

There is no interaction with the world besides running forward and shooting, and the primitive puzzles that are roadbumps. This makes it impossible to appreciate any form of atmosphere.

So what do you like? sandbox games where it's 95% fetch quests?

Yep those are amazing...

 

[Moe Zart]

So what do you like? sandbox games where it's 95% fetch quests?

Yep those are amazing...

No. I like sandbox games where there's hundreds of different things to do, and interacting with near-sentient NPCs, and making decisions and getting different reactions, as well as engaging narratives and witty non-childish writing.

 

[Dumac]

It was good for its time but some parts of it haven't aged well (physics puzzles, vehicle scenes, etc).

I also thought the story was hinged on you playing HL1 too much.

Episodes 1 and 2 were pretty lame for their time of release.

 

[Dumac]

No. I like sandbox games where there's hundreds of different things to do, and interacting with near-sentient NPCs, and making decisions and getting different reactions, as well as engaging narratives and witty non-childish writing.

Does such a thing exist? I would love to play it...

 

[Dumac]

If we want to talk overrated from 2004 lets talk world of warcraft. Now that is an overrated game.

It was most people's first MMO. Nothing compares to the first...

 

[Moe Zart]

Does such a thing exist? I would love to play it...

There's 3 of them. I posted it in a previous thread.

 

[Dumac]

There's 3 of them. I posted it in a previous thread.

Deus Ex.
Fallout 3.
Skyrim.

None of those fit the bill. They don't even get close.

 

[Moe Zart]

None of those fit the bill. They don't even get close.

Actually they do.

 

[Xcobra]

No. I like sandbox games where there's hundreds of different things to do, and interacting with near-sentient NPCs, and making decisions and getting different reactions, as well as engaging narratives and witty non-childish writing.

I don't think you're describing an FPS. Most FPS are linear in nature. So gtfo.