I would agree that HL1 was something truly remarkable and HL2 was a very decent game, but at the same time all over the place. But even the inferior HL2 is better then 99% of the competion.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
I know a lot won’t agree, but after replaying half life 2, again, I still think it’s the best fps ever made
- Thread starter nogoodnamesleft
- Start date
I would agree that HL1 was something truly remarkable and HL2 was a very decent game, but at the same time all over the place. But even the inferior HL2 is better then 99% of the competion.
I was kind of joking, but comparing HL2 to Halo 1 is kinda over the top. I can appreciate the encounter designs feeling better to some, but as a total package it's really not comparable. Even if it's just the story, environment and atmosphere.
The original Half-Life was the first FPS that I played from start to finish without being bored to tears before the end, and the second game was great too, but didn't have the same impact for some reason. It might be considered old hat now, but back then you just didn't have narrative driven shooters like that.
I played the Half Life series well after their initial release. I got a steam bundle in around 2013 and played through each game. And I can happily report that they held up and instantly became one of my favourite games. I'm talking about both Half Life 1 and 2 (and the episodes).
To each their own, I marathoned a bunch of FPS games; Prey, Halo CE, Halo 2, Metro Exodus, Legend: The Box, COD: Infinite Warfare, FEAR, Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Titanfall 2, and Halo 3 all in a row during the pandemic. Besides Legend: The Box, the Halo games were by far the least enjoyable single player campaign experiences in that run, and always felt like a slog to me.
While Halo CE hasn't aged particularly well, I think it does have enjoyable mechanics that I would admit are a little more accessible than jumping into an old source engine game. That said, I don't think any Halo's single player campaign has come close to matching Half-Life 2's presentation, pacing, art; I feel like a more apt comparison is Halo CE to HL1.
Halo's mechanics certainly do hold up better than the jank platforming sections of HL1. It doesn't have the weird ramp up in difficulty like HL1's surface tension level, but overall the pacing and variety is way, way worse. Halo's copy-paste level design within the corridor sections is horrid.
Halo's open battlefields aren't bad, but are also kind of jank. I've had a lot of people say Halo CE is the only game that feels like you are authentically immersed in a huge pitch battle. But you can oftentimes just bypass the action and walk broadly around the AI vs AI. These types of AI vs AI battles were done in 1998 by Half-Life as well. AI Marines aren't complete idiots, but games like Half-Life also had assist characters. They ultimately do little to help in either game, but in Half-Life they do a better job of drawing fire.
While Halo is lauded for it's enemy AI, which is not bad, sometimes it felt like the enemies were just moving for the sake of moving. Not taking on any sort of strategic attack. The enemy types are limited, so I feel like they ultimately become predictable and the game just feeds you the same clusters over and over again in repetitive game play loops, whereas Half-Life often finds novel uses for it's enemies through level design variety.
In the end, you know Elites are going to be tough, Jackals are going to be defensive, and grunts are just going to run away. The flood is on par with Serious Sam 1 villains; no AI to speak of, they just bum rush you and are an absolute slog to fight from the get go. Whether or not they constitute as much game as Convenant enemies or not, the flood feel like they take up 3/4ths of the game for how mindless and obnoxiously repetitive they are. The flood sections of all the games are like pulling teeth for me.
Anyway that's my two cents. Way, way more egregious than OP's assumption people don't like Half-Life 2, I am sure.
I know Halo is hugely important for the videogame world, and I'll absolutely buy Halo Infinite on day one to support the release and share the experience...but honestly, the legacy games were always kind of a chore to finish for me and certainly broke the pacing of my recent FPS marathon.
He's not wrong in fairness.
Half life 2's story lives and dies on the fact it basically tells the player nothing, HL3 was so sought after because the entire games cockteases the player without any reward, The characters they choose to kill off are not people the player even has the time to be invested in. Halo life 2 treats it's story as a barebones framework to push the player to the next encounter without cause or reason. The G-Man is the biggest offender, He exists to drop Gordon in and out of gameplay scenarios at a whim and does so purely to push the story forward in an unnatural way. We end the black mesa incident with a regular joe turned hero accepting an offer from a god to do his work and then wake up on a train in a city after an invasion. Nothing is explained, the characters are just pushed upon the player without meaningful connection and the player barely interacts with these people. But Gordon is clearly not a player avatar because he has a name and he has a history treating him as a blank slate doesn't work when you constantly double down on the fact that the player is "Gordon from Black Mesa"
In contrast Halo sets up it's story in the first level, You're a super solider on a ship that's being invaded, you crash on an alien world with the ships AI as a companion and the entire game from then on ties together the mystery of the world and what it is, the aliens who you are fighting and ends with the player averting disaster, Each step of the journey has reason and motive outside of "we need to drive this boat down river to get to a place" "we need to drive this car to get to a place" Halo has logical story steps unearthing story elements as you progress. There's a reason the Halo expanded univserse is as big as it is and it's strong story telling and world building.
Enviroment wise Half life is one of the blandest games I can imagine, I'm not sure how anyone picks any location in Half Life 2 and calls it inspired design, City 17 is an awful enivroment it's bland, static and barren of anything remarkable, The play spaces presented to the player are tiny corridors or generic cross road 3. Outside of City 17 and Ravenholm it's mostly roads that feel like they any source engine mod ever. Maybe the citadel is decent but even then it's just a few verticle corridors and lifts
In contrast Halo takes the player from a Military space ship to a grassy alien world to a mountain range at night to an alien ship to a snowy alien complex to a swamp to an alien archive back to the alien ship that is now overrun and being destroyed and finally back to the space ship from the opening now crashed and mostly destroyed. Variety is the spice of life and Halo is Spicy. Not to mention the vast majority of these locations have very engaging play spaces built into them.
As for atmosphere Half life is fine there's not remarkable about it but it's not bad by any means. Once you get out of the city (ravenholm excluded) the game feels like there's virtually no threat anymore and that's kind of poor. Ravenholm is decent enough but it's over quickly. The world is just empty and bland it invokes nothing at this point.
Halo constantly gives the player the feeling of alien and unknown and the once you get to the swamps the whole feeling of discovery and trepidation evolves into fear and survival because of the flood, Then the feelings of hope and a chance at victory kick in as the game reachs it's end. It's like .. Aliens or Terminator the story arc is about Discovery, Fear and Hope
Look to each their own but how are you going to say that there's no threat outside of the city while conveniently glossing over Nova Prospekt and its insane lead up. To me that's the best part of HL2, and it oozes atmosphere.He's not wrong in fairness.
Half life 2's story lives and dies on the fact it basically tells the player nothing, HL3 was so sought after because the entire games cockteases the player without any reward, The characters they choose to kill off are not people the player even has the time to be invested in. Halo life 2 treats it's story as a barebones framework to push the player to the next encounter without cause or reason. The G-Man is the biggest offender, He exists to drop Gordon in and out of gameplay scenarios at a whim and does so purely to push the story forward in an unnatural way. We end the black mesa incident with a regular joe turned hero accepting an offer from a god to do his work and then wake up on a train in a city after an invasion. Nothing is explained, the characters are just pushed upon the player without meaningful connection and the player barely interacts with these people. But Gordon is clearly not a player avatar because he has a name and he has a history treating him as a blank slate doesn't work when you constantly double down on the fact that the player is "Gordon from Black Mesa"
In contrast Halo sets up it's story in the first level, You're a super solider on a ship that's being invaded, you crash on an alien world with the ships AI as a companion and the entire game from then on ties together the mystery of the world and what it is, the aliens who you are fighting and ends with the player averting disaster, Each step of the journey has reason and motive outside of "we need to drive this boat down river to get to a place" "we need to drive this car to get to a place" Halo has logical story steps unearthing story elements as you progress. There's a reason the Halo expanded univserse is as big as it is and it's strong story telling and world building.
Enviroment wise Half life is one of the blandest games I can imagine, I'm not sure how anyone picks any location in Half Life 2 and calls it inspired design, City 17 is an awful enivroment it's bland, static and barren of anything remarkable, The play spaces presented to the player are tiny corridors or generic cross road 3. Outside of City 17 and Ravenholm it's mostly roads that feel like they any source engine mod ever. Maybe the citadel is decent but even then it's just a few verticle corridors and lifts
In contrast Halo takes the player from a Military space ship to a grassy alien world to a mountain range at night to an alien ship to a snowy alien complex to a swamp to an alien archive back to the alien ship that is now overrun and being destroyed and finally back to the space ship from the opening now crashed and mostly destroyed. Variety is the spice of life and Halo is Spicy. Not to mention the vast majority of these locations have very engaging play spaces built into them.
As for atmosphere Half life is fine there's not remarkable about it but it's not bad by any means. Once you get out of the city (ravenholm excluded) the game feels like there's virtually no threat anymore and that's kind of poor. Ravenholm is decent enough but it's over quickly. The world is just empty and bland it invokes nothing at this point.
Halo constantly gives the player the feeling of alien and unknown and the once you get to the swamps the whole feeling of discovery and trepidation evolves into fear and survival because of the flood, Then the feelings of hope and a chance at victory kick in as the game reachs it's end. It's like .. Aliens or Terminator the story arc is about Discovery, Fear and Hope
In general I don't think you'll find a lot of people agree that HL's atmosphere is just "ok". That's one of the things that makes the series so legendary for many. As for the story, it's just a different approach, but I do find it fascinating so the way they do it works for me.
I like Half-Life 2, but don't love it.
I think what it did was incredible, but I also think it just overstays its welcome and the actual gun combat isn't that good.
I think what it did was incredible, but I also think it just overstays its welcome and the actual gun combat isn't that good.
Meh. HL2 has problems with its pacing, has unskippable cutscenes, is heavily reliant on scripting and outside of a few exceptions, combat feedback is pretty poor.
It was groundbreaking when it came out. But it came out almost 20 years ago.
I think the "cutscenes" are what soured me the most on it. They were so lauded back then. Now, games get mocked if they lock you in a room or force you to walk with someone to listen to exposition.
It was groundbreaking when it came out. But it came out almost 20 years ago.
I think the "cutscenes" are what soured me the most on it. They were so lauded back then. Now, games get mocked if they lock you in a room or force you to walk with someone to listen to exposition.
I don't agree with this. The shooting feels better in Halo and some of the arenas, but all the rest HL2 is way superior.
I've probably played thousands of videogames in my life.
Nothing.
Nothing touches the experience of playing Half-Life 1 for the first time. It remains the most jawdropping leap forward in gaming I've had the pleasure to experience. It was astoundingly inventive, and kinda still is. Maybe you had to be there, but in November of 2008, it felt like Valve broke the genre over their knee and shrugged. No game I've played since has felt like it's lapping the competition in the same way, except maybe for Disco Elysium in pure writing terms.
Half-Life 2 was cool and had fun physics and added some stuff I mostly enjoyed. It doesn't compare.
Nothing.
Nothing touches the experience of playing Half-Life 1 for the first time. It remains the most jawdropping leap forward in gaming I've had the pleasure to experience. It was astoundingly inventive, and kinda still is. Maybe you had to be there, but in November of 2008, it felt like Valve broke the genre over their knee and shrugged. No game I've played since has felt like it's lapping the competition in the same way, except maybe for Disco Elysium in pure writing terms.
Half-Life 2 was cool and had fun physics and added some stuff I mostly enjoyed. It doesn't compare.
I agree on most everything OP.
It's an example of why I tend to prefer linear focused games as opposed to open worlds. HL2 is an excellent tailored experience one that I constantly replay
It's an example of why I tend to prefer linear focused games as opposed to open worlds. HL2 is an excellent tailored experience one that I constantly replay
Opinions and all but this is ridiculous. Especially the story part.
It has incredible level design and pacing. Almost perfect from start to finish.
It has also perfected environmental storytelling, which is sadly rarely seen/non existent in modern gaming.
Just imagine a modern game with such depth, it would be my dream game.
speaking of which, how's half life alyx in this department?
It has also perfected environmental storytelling, which is sadly rarely seen/non existent in modern gaming.
Just imagine a modern game with such depth, it would be my dream game.
speaking of which, how's half life alyx in this department?
I don't know how long after the original release the Orange Box came out, but that's when I played HL2 and I didn't think it was that great. The story bits were probably my least favorite part and they should have just done cutscenes instead.
I didn't think the gravity gun was anything special either, but I remember thinking at the time that Elebits on the Wii had done the gravity gun much better.
A lot of the game is a slog too, notably the endless dune with the bugs and the zombie city.
I didn't think the gravity gun was anything special either, but I remember thinking at the time that Elebits on the Wii had done the gravity gun much better.
A lot of the game is a slog too, notably the endless dune with the bugs and the zombie city.
I have this theory that people that prefer HL1 over HL2 don't really like FPS. It's the only way I can explain it.
It has some pretty massive pacing issues, but it's an incredible game. That it still remains so fun to this day is a testament to its quality. But there are a good few FPS campaigns I'd take over it in 2020
Its one of the leader in the fps revolution of the 2000s. With farcry and to a lesser degree, doom 3 and Stalker.
The interactivity with the environments and the gravity gun that let's the physics shine are amongst the things that seperates it from the rest. Personally also enjoyed MP back then.
Man, comparing halo1 to HL1 or HL2 is like comparing James Cameron to Kubrick. both play to their own audience and stylistic choices and besides it being both FPS games, it really does not overlap well.He's not wrong in fairness.
Half life 2's story lives and dies on the fact it basically tells the player nothing, HL3 was so sought after because the entire games cockteases the player without any reward, The characters they choose to kill off are not people the player even has the time to be invested in. Halo life 2 treats it's story as a barebones framework to push the player to the next encounter without cause or reason. The G-Man is the biggest offender, He exists to drop Gordon in and out of gameplay scenarios at a whim and does so purely to push the story forward in an unnatural way. We end the black mesa incident with a regular joe turned hero accepting an offer from a god to do his work and then wake up on a train in a city after an invasion. Nothing is explained, the characters are just pushed upon the player without meaningful connection and the player barely interacts with these people. But Gordon is clearly not a player avatar because he has a name and he has a history treating him as a blank slate doesn't work when you constantly double down on the fact that the player is "Gordon from Black Mesa"
In contrast Halo sets up it's story in the first level, You're a super solider on a ship that's being invaded, you crash on an alien world with the ships AI as a companion and the entire game from then on ties together the mystery of the world and what it is, the aliens who you are fighting and ends with the player averting disaster, Each step of the journey has reason and motive outside of "we need to drive this boat down river to get to a place" "we need to drive this car to get to a place" Halo has logical story steps unearthing story elements as you progress. There's a reason the Halo expanded univserse is as big as it is and it's strong story telling and world building.
Enviroment wise Half life is one of the blandest games I can imagine, I'm not sure how anyone picks any location in Half Life 2 and calls it inspired design, City 17 is an awful enivroment it's bland, static and barren of anything remarkable, The play spaces presented to the player are tiny corridors or generic cross road 3. Outside of City 17 and Ravenholm it's mostly roads that feel like they any source engine mod ever. Maybe the citadel is decent but even then it's just a few verticle corridors and lifts
In contrast Halo takes the player from a Military space ship to a grassy alien world to a mountain range at night to an alien ship to a snowy alien complex to a swamp to an alien archive back to the alien ship that is now overrun and being destroyed and finally back to the space ship from the opening now crashed and mostly destroyed. Variety is the spice of life and Halo is Spicy. Not to mention the vast majority of these locations have very engaging play spaces built into them.
As for atmosphere Half life is fine there's not remarkable about it but it's not bad by any means. Once you get out of the city (ravenholm excluded) the game feels like there's virtually no threat anymore and that's kind of poor. Ravenholm is decent enough but it's over quickly. The world is just empty and bland it invokes nothing at this point.
Halo constantly gives the player the feeling of alien and unknown and the once you get to the swamps the whole feeling of discovery and trepidation evolves into fear and survival because of the flood, Then the feelings of hope and a chance at victory kick in as the game reachs it's end. It's like .. Aliens or Terminator the story arc is about Discovery, Fear and Hope
edit: Comparing this stuff is dumb anyway
Last edited:
I think here's nothing wrong with HL2 and Halo they are completely different and valid in it's own way. For me I always had the impression that HL2 was always pushing the player forwards wich was fine because of the way the game was designed narratively as a road trip kind of story. Meanwhile Halo pushed for combat experimentation and CQC wich made backtracking still interesting.