Does anything beat Half-Life 2?

[ClayMeow]

So I played HL2 on release day...had it pre-loaded and stayed up until 3A ET just to play it right away. In fact, it may have been the first game I ever pre-ordered.

 

So why am I bringing this up now?

 

Well in my History of Games grad class, four times throughout the semester, each of us has to present a game we feel is significant in gaming history. My first presentation was Half-Life, showing off the lack of cutscenes and voiceless protagonist. I basically played through the whole intro section. For my second presentation, tomorrow (2/29), I'm presenting Half-Life 2.

 

So to prepare myself, I've been playing HL2 again. I started up a new game during that "Call for Communication" day, and have been playing a little bit here and there, finding the sections I want to show off in class. I'm hooked again. This game is over seven years old, and yet it totally has me engaged like no other game. The graphics may not be quite on par with today's games, yet the gameplay, story, and mechanics more than make up for it. This is coming from a person that often has trouble going back to old games due dated graphics and/or horrid controls. Ravenholm was just as awesome as I remember (and rather tough going for the gravgun-only achievement...back at release, there were no achievements). Highway 17 Bridge section was even tougher than I remember. The gravity gun is just plain awesome sauce. I mean, seriously, aside from Episode One and Episode Two, has anyone done it better?

 

In the March 2012 issue of PC Gamer (US), they list their Top 100 Games of All Time, with the note that these are the top 100 games of all time that they'd still play today. HL2 was obviously on the list, and the blurb about it was as follows:

Half-Life 2 managed to both create the blueprint for the modern single-player shooter and be the genre's high water mark. It was the first and, arguably, still is the best at what it does. Ravenholm still makes me yelp like a frightened puppy, Dog is still the reason my pets have crippling self-esteem issues, and I still keep a crowbar in my car's trunk. You know, just in case.

It's like he read my mind.

 

 

tl;dr: 7+ years later and Half-Life 2 is still the best!

[BluePanda]

I'd have to say Synergy is the next best addition to the Half-Life series...what's better than making an already awesome game into an awesome game you can dork around with all your friends.

[Stonerboy779]

Never ever got into it

[sack_patrol]

Yes it is. It's what a real game looks like. I've said this before, but I've beat hl2 13 times, and thats not counting the playthroughs of the episodes. Each time I enjoy it as much as I did the first time I played.

 

The interesting thing about this game is the way they present the story. Depending on the player's interest in story as opposed to gameplay, he can learn as much as he wants. It's not forced on him like most other games. The way they do that is obviously by the lack of cut scenes but also by adding things into the game that the player can find on his own, things he can hear, etc. It's pretty much the same with all of valves games. An excellent example of this is the laboratory of Eli Vance in the "Black Mesa East" chapter. More precisely, the Corkboard where you can see pinned newspaper articles. They aren't all readable but they explain a little bit about the 7 hour war which is obviously a big part of the half life universe but it's not presented to the player directly, so basically the more you are interested in the actual game, the more of it's story will be revealed to you. There's also the photograph of scientists in Kleiners lab where you see that he has scratched off one of the faces of the scientists and said scientist is the G-Man.

 

One of my favorite moments in half life is in episode 2 when Dr. Magnus is teaching Gordon how to use the Magnus bombs and at the end he tells gordon that if he succeeds he just may forgive him about a certain accident back at Black Mesa. At that point you think he's talking about the resonance cascade, but after the short pause he continues and says something like "you know the one... involving a certain microwave casserole". I found that hilarious. But it's very subtle because you need to have not only played the first game but also noticed said microwave which you could press E on and after a few times the food inside it would explode. So that was a really nice nostalgic moment.

 

In left 4 dead it's pretty much the same way with the story. There is one, but it's really small and not relevant to the game too much, but for those who are interested, there are plenty of indications, writings on walls, etc. to read and understand a little bit. A good example of that would be the corpses covered with some sort of long towel or blanket with only the feet showing. It sort of shows how previous survivors that have passed through that place might have had compassion for each other and they showed respect to their fellow survivors, or some became infected and had to be killed. Stuff like that.

 

In all of valve's games though, no matter how much you want to know about the story or how much you already know, there is always that element of mystery surrounding it that's always present and there is always something unsettling or incomplete about it (in a good way). I've spent hours reading additional informations about the half life universe in the internets and there's always things will leave you wondering.

 

There's also the half-life 1 expansions: blue shift, opposing force and Decay which was never released for PC i believe so I haven't played it, prolly gonna need some sort of ps1 emulator. For the observant people, those games are directly connected with the main half life game and as you progress through it, events take place that are the cause of what is happening in half life supposedly at the same time. Like at the start of hl1 you see barney knocking on a door to the left of Gordon, and in Blue shift you are playing that guy and you're waiting for the door to get opened and as you're doing that you see the tram with gordon in it passing by. So all that gives an excellent sense of time and space in the games as well as making it more 'alive'. The stories of the expansions also end up being directly connected with gordons storyline and they end up revealing additional information about what's happening around him and why.

Edited February 28, 2012 by sack_patrol

[Waco]

But it's very subtle because you need to have not only played the first game but also noticed said microwave which you could press E on and after a few times the food inside it would explode. So that was a really nice nostalgic moment.

I thought I was the only one who played around with all that stuff in the first game.

[Andrewr05]

Never ever got into it

You don't have to play HalfLife to enjoy HalfLife2, though to be a 'real' gamer you have to at least play HL2.

 

[ir_cow]

i'm gonna say Mass Effect series is better than Half-Life. I mean i beat Half-life 1 and 2 plenty of times (i even did a speed run just because) but Mass Effect (1) takes the cake. Hands down the best game to date.

[90sgamer]

i'm gonna say Mass Effect series is better than Half-Life. I mean i beat Half-life 1 and 2 plenty of times (i even did a speed run just because) but Mass Effect (1) takes the cake. Hands down the best game to date.

 

ME1 is probably one of my all-time favorites. But.. if we are bringing other genres into this...

 

DEUS EX 1

 

'Nuff said.

[Andrewr05]

DEUS EX 1

I actually agree, though it is actually a hard decision to choose which one I like better.

 

Both different, but both excellent.

[Deathmineral]

Diablo 2

 

/thread

[Speedway]

Um, the HL series spawned the CS mod.....nuff sd

[ir_cow]

Um, the HL series spawned the CS mod.....nuff sd

 

 

true. Medal of honor: AA was a direct response to cash in on the online gaming than came call of duty and stole the show. without Half-life, all modern day shooters would still all be like duke nukem.

Edited February 29, 2012 by hornybluecow