This fucking game right here

Why is it so good? Every year or so I always crave a replay of it. I don't feel that way about any other game. Why?

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it's not. It's overrated in virtually all aspects, only nostalagia fag and underages suck it dicks.

it's the MW2/PUBG of its time. It killed the FPS genre.

Only retards like it.

wew

Overrated game. Played pirated copy in 2004-2005. It was mediocre even at that time.

combination of great variety and pacing, really good sound and visual design, quality gunplay (where did the meme that it's bad even come from?) and a really really good physics engine that actually contributes to the world
Sup Forums has become even more of a contrarian hellhole in the past couple years so ofc people hate HL now even though every (valve/gearbox made, I can't believe I have to clarify that now) HL game is great

same here
Far Cry was better

Half-Life 1 is better though
Half-Life 2 is easy and babby's first singleplayer game

I always go back for the Breen speeches. Really underrated writing.

>aged physics puzzles
>guns feel like shit to use
>shitty vehicle sections
>interactive cutscenes aka unskippable cutscenes
>flaccid final stage that doesn't even closely compare to Xen
HL2 is an absolute disgrace to Half-Life name

Yeah Half-life 1 is infinitely better but 2 was a decent sequel that made up for itself with good writing and world building. The episodes were a mistake and Valve realized they wrote themselves into a corner.

this. every fight feels satisfying and can be approached a ton of different ways. the world just feels physical and a part of the fight unlike most games. only part that drags on slightly is highway 17 and sandtraps but they are broken up nicely by being able to get out and scout abandoned buildings filled with combine

>good writing and world building

You think breens speeches aren't incredibly written?

You weren't interested in why the ocean dropped 50 feet? Or you don't think the intro isn't the most effective way to establish an alien totalitarian state in 5 minutes? Can you give me a better example or do you just hate all videogames?

the first HL was better

Actually just give me one line of bad writing from the game. I'm curious

Atmosphere

Its got some good memorable setpieces. I'm especially fond of the open levels with the vehicles that let you explore.

The best part of half life 2 was the sound that health packs made when you picked them up.

Half-Life 2 fucking sucked

>bland story
>bland gameplay
>horrendous vehicle sections
The only thing good about it was the gravity gun, which was a fun and novel concept for a while.

>just give me one line
Every time Alex makes a smug reference, turns to Gordon and waits/pauses for applause.

such as...?

Have you played any other FPS at any point ever?

How do you love

>le generic science man aliens and zombies

I played it when it came out and I always felt like it was overrated.

it's literally aliens invaded, here is your crowbar because memes, now go save the world. It's a generic as can be fps story with no interesting characters.
Nobody played HL2 for the story. It was about the pretty graphics and spectacle and in 90% of cases just the free game that came bundled with CS:S just like Half Life was the game you had to buy to play CS

>overrated
>only underage fags like it
>its the MW/PUBG of its time

imagine being this factually wrong and turbo-retarded

It was impressive when it first came out but in the fourteen years since it was released, I'm more inclined to play through HL1 over 2. Why? Because HL1 is a video game. 2 is a tech demo. After the boring first chapter HL1 is a fast, fluid, fun Quake-era shooter with atmosphere and non-intrusive set-pieces. HL2 is long meandering displays of its engine, with short segments of gameplay broken up between long-ass, boring, drawn out "interactive" cutscenes and long-ass, boring, drawn out shitty vehicle segments.

Wow. A character that's barely in HL2 and accounts for less than 10% of the dialogue. We're you that triggered by a female character or can you actually give me an actual line instead of a generalization.

every sound effect in hl2 (and gmod) is basically hardwired to activate dopamine release in my brain. and the music, god damn

youtube.com/watch?v=ImDxuy371zs

inb4 someone claims that HL2 has revolutionary and incredibly environmental storytelling by pointing out random corpses in different poses and some graffiti on walls.

...

HL2 just frustrates me. Even fucking ladders are ruined. I have good memories of the shotgun hospital segment (in ep1?) and some ep2 but thats about it. Maybe I'm a little spoiled with familiarity from running it so much, but even if there's a segment you don't like in HL1, just can just blaze through it in minutes with that crisp fucking movement.

This is accurate. Also dialogue wise HL2 sucks its own dick a little too hard at times to stand.

List of characters in HL2:
- Cameos of characters that had no significance in HL1 but are retconned to be major characters
- Generic evil maniac bad guy
- Alyx

It's not, it had a good physics engine and very little else, it wasn't that great of a game.

Sorry that the story wasn't spoon-fed to you but it was there.

Half-Life 2 has great immersion, that portion where you go under the bridge and it starts shaking, it really feels like that shit is going to fall apart or something.

The pacing and soundtrack are horrible. What the hell are you smoking?

I agree with all you said, user

>setpieces

This cinematic shit is why games are getting worse.

If those are the only examples of world building you found you probably have ADHD

>Generic bad guy
Damn you really are straight tarded. Breen was arguably the best written character and justified the shit out of his actions.

So pic related is better?

epic picture I love oneyplays!
I am 12 years old like you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
bro Half Life 2 is shit and I was alive when it came out unlike you and everyone who praises it as the best game ever

"Did the lungfish refuse to breathe air? It did not. It crept forth boldly while its brethren remained in the blackest ocean abyss, with lidless eyes forever staring at the dark, ignorant and doomed despite their eternal vigilance. Would we model ourselves on the trilobite? Are all the accomplishments of humanity fated to be nothing more than a layer of broken plastic shards thinly strewn across a fossil bed, sandwiched between the Burgess shale and an eon's worth of mud?"
Generic "maniac" bad guy here for sure.

breen was a faggot and half life doesnt need an epic generic dystopian setting it needs cool guns and fast fucking gameplay which half life 2 does not have

Honestly loved it when it first came out. But nowadays it's pretty boring. There are a lot of filler segments that we just kind of put up with back then, like hallways of shooting the same guys over and over again. Nowadays though it's aged.

Nice argument maggot

The major thing that Half-Life games do right is that their are always new elements introduced in almost every chapter, so even thoguh HL2 has some awful chapters like Ravenholm, Nova Prospekt, and Anticitizen One. It's still interesting to replay it every once in a while.

>far cry

>the game where enemies have x ray vision

>the game where the combat is completely built around stealth in open environments, but then you're forced into linear corridors filled with infinite HP one hit bosses spammed at you

>the game which has huge environments but it doesn't matter because the game barely rewards you for exploration

>drm that is even more obtrusive than Steam and doesn't allow you to play offline

Half-Life 2 has its problems, but don't be a hipster

>things that literally don't happen

Shit taste and nostalgia.

You gonna set that straw man on fire?

You keep spouting generic like there is any game or film that handles this premise in a more realistic manner. What was generic exactly? You're just spouting buzzwords.

epic facebook meme there, friend

How did they write themselves into a corner? They had the whole dyson sphere and Gman taking Alyx since 2005

1>OpFor>Ep 2>Ep 1=BluShift

I don't consider it timeless as HL1 was, but the graphics and gameplay hold up for the most part and there are a lot of excellent moments to be had.

What I remember the fondest from HL2 was early in the game, running into Manhacks in the sewers.
The physics stuff on the whole may seem gimmicky by todays standards, but I still don't think I've seen an enemy in any game that took advantage of it this well.

>Sup Forums is so contrarian they shit on half life 2 and praise the xen levels now

>ravenholm is generic
>grigori is a generic character
I agree with some of what you said but ravenholm had pretty goat atmosphere and was anything but generic for its time

also you didnt need hl2 to play CS iirc, thats garrys mod your confusing it with
and Orange box was revolutionary

I hate that we can't even talk about HL2 here any more.

I can't think of any game with better sound design.

You know what fuck it

I'm going to play HL2 again. It's been too long.

fpwp

>ravenholm had pretty goat atmosphere and was anything but generic for its time

They Hunger was what, 1999?

They're not bad. But I think it was a bad idea to break from the format of the gman controlling your fate and keeping you in stasis in-between the games. The idea that a couple of vortigaunt grunts can stop him kind of trivializes him being an all powerful deity. Like why would the combine need to go to such lengths to assemble an all powerful synthetic Armada to rival him and his "employers" if a few peons can stop him? Also in general I feel like we've spent too long with these characters, Alyx and everyone kind of already served their purpose. The episodes in comparison to HL2 make you feel like a delivery boy instead of a god like strong man that topples an entire society in mere hours. We could have been somewhere much further in the timeline or another dimension, but thats kind of out the window now.

>1 other obscure game mod did something kind of similar
anything that isnt goldsrc engine or related to half life?

Me too OP. This year with the PS3 Hack I tried the Orange Box after playing this game on Xbox and Xbox 360 these past years. Kinda iffy but playable. I love seeing different versions of this game.

Ravenholm was incredible for what it was
>foreshadowed heavily in the lab
>alyx looks down the hallway to ravenholm "we don't.. go there anymore..
>eli desperatley tries to warn you not to go through ravenholm before beig cut off in the airlock
>spooky as hell
>free form physics sandbox with sawblades and traps
So damn fun

HL2 was arguably the best FPS of it's era. The physics were revolutionary, the graphics were top of the line... the scripting and pathing were miles ahead of anything else. Anyone here talking shit is likely comparing it to modern games and claiming that HL2 is shit in contrast.

>free form physics sandbox
>So damn fun

I bet you're entertained by keys dangling in front of your face.

Besides the fucking vehicle sections this game is one of the best first person adventure games I've ever played.

FEAR did all of that better.

I think Sup Forums forgets that this game came out in 2004. HL2 was leagues ahead of it's competition and it looks generic now because every other developer modelled it's standards off HL2.

HL2 has aged like shit and the only good things going for it are basic physics puzzles. There far better shooters before it's time, during it's time and afterward.

>It's overrated
You could also just say
>I don't like it because it's popular

Yeah. A year later. Not knocking FEAR, it still has the best enemy AI to date, but think before you speak.

If you do, get pic related. It fixes a lot of shit without ruining anything.

>of its era

Name one better shooter from 2004

A year makes a difference, especially when HL2 set the foundation

Yeah whatever, post more.

>Why is it so good?
Same reason Angry Birds was

People love physics puzzles

I think the reason that Half life is so good is because of its atmosphere and variety of gameplay. Its intresting because as a shooter its quite lackluster, but i still think its one of my favourite shooters. People dont remember the game for its gunplay, they remember it for ravenholm, for city 17, the citadel and Nova prospekt. Its a game defined by its world.

>The physics
gimmick
>the graphics
gimmick
>the scripting and pathing were miles ahead of anything else.
Except Half-Life fucking 1 © 1998

I've never finished either half life, I usually drop them a few hours in. Whatever people find appealing about them just doesn't do it for me. Boring as fuck. And no I'm not underage I played both of them around release.

Unreal Tournament 2004 though not really comparable.

Because it's a fun shooter with excellent moment-to-moment gameplay variety that's paced very well (for the most part, let's just ignore the physics puzzle speedbumps in water hazard)

Halo 2

this was more of a blueprint for modern FPS than HL2 was.

Say what you want about Xen but it's a proper end stage to an epic adventure. Citadel is fucking boring and gay, and enhanced gravgun gimmick turns into press x to win once the initial power trip is over

>console fps

Sure it is and you're right that it's way better.

says a lot when a console fps is even better than HL2

>be me
>join the military because why not
>do pretty well, get selected for special unit
>something about hazardous environments or some shit idgaf
>go through boot camp again
>this time it's to be familiar with the shit i do
>notbad.jpg
>eventually get deployed
>some shithole in ground in middle of nowhere of new mexico
>apparently some egghead did something to make something go boom
>make it to the ground, orders are to kill everyone involved
>okay.png
>get told to be on lookout for a dude in orange suit or some shit
>suddenly something orange literally fucking whizzes past us
>wtf.gif
>half of squad dead
>don't know how i survived
>later on get word that shepherd's team got fucked
>also hear the orange dude's name was freeman
>mfw i had the fucker go past me at light speed
>mfw the same dude single handedly stopped an alien invasion

>be me
>just stopped ayys from fucking up earth
>killed buncha marines while at it but it was self-defence
>some creepy motherfucker puts me in stasis
>wellfuck.hev
>wake up 17 years later
>different ayys made us their slaves
>fuck.pcv
>do stupid bullshit for a week and half just so the resistance could get it's shit together
>meet some old bros from black mesa meanwhile
>eventually once in relative safety i hear that some dipshit is hunting me down
>lolwut.hdtf
>this guy apparently is ex-marine, same guys who tried to kill me
>he looked 17 years for me, built an army on a fucking ship from former child workers
>even worked with combine if it meant getting a drop on me
>his scars are even from my own crowbar
>what.prospekt
>don't remember giving some asshole a beatdown with crowbar
>get to figure out later it was the creepy dude who made someone pose as me to beat his ass
>same creepy dude then waited 17 years just to have the poser get killed by the marine dude
>nobody was any wiser when truth came out
>mfw HEV suit is associated with me exclusively
>mfw someone posing as me gave a guy ptsd because he thought it was me
>mfw the entire shitshow was set up by creepy dude wanting to probably amuse himself

I want HL3 to be honest.

>tfw won't ever get a varied FPS
>tfw won't go to the Borealis
>Tfw you will never hear Kelly Bailey's music again

I liked the episode model, made it to where you can consume it in a day without serious time investment, and it advances the story and the world while being its own contained experience. I wish Valve kept making Half-Life episodes.

Right game right time for its era.
A lot of positive nostalgia surrounding it.
Fairly replayable because you can't get sidetracked by any side quests bullshit like a more recent game would have.
And, in my opinion, one of its core strength compared to nowadays' games is its world building : HL managed to immerse you into its own universe very efficiently without it feeling forced or shoehorned. It relies a lot on suggestion : who are the Vortigaunt really ? What are the Combines and the alien civilization behind them ? Who is G-Man ?
It's a good shooter with great music and the story makes you feel like you're still trying to discover how deep the rabbit hole goes when you finish it.
You don't have this kind of subtlety in today's FPS.

Have you even played it? Better than half life at least

haven't read this thread but was anyone around the HL thread the other day? can't believe Sup Forums is creating such mentally broken posters that think HL was in on the plot of white genocide

>who are the Vortigaunt really ? What are the Combines and the alien civilization behind them ? Who is G-Man ?
It's just Lost before Lost was even a thing

WHAT'S IN THE BOX????? oh another box WHATS IN THAT BOX?

its not Sup Forums or anything. its just kids and im not even trying to sound dramatic
hl2 is simply seinfeld of video games