One of my all-time-favs along with others like GTA VC, FC3 etc. Not only did I enjoy the single-player lots, I also spent an incredible amount of time playing Deathmatch. Thinking about it, I would probably say HL2 was *overall* THE best game ever or at least I spent the most time playing it.
IRONY...I just last week thought back about those good times and looked at the latest version of "cinematic mod" whether I should re-play it. (But I don't like the new Alyx model he choose there, stupid).
Remember how incredible fun HL2 is/was when you finally found the cart and you could drive...and HELL yes that boat ride. Or going to Ravenwood. It's such a long time ago but HL2 is ONE of those games where things are burnt into my memory, while MOST new games I forget just after one week.
I am SO tempted now to re-install it again, good games don't get old!
It was a good game though very "on rails".
What did Half Life 2 innovate over Halo?
WHAT?HL2 is directly responsible for the dramatic increase in game quality
HL1 established that a FPS could have a plot and still have fantastic game play. HL2 basically established that all other FPS's and most other games where stupid and that you can have a real story, real characters, and a truly cinematic experience from a game.
It might not be your kind of story, it might not be your kind of game play. But if you look back at game play of almost any genre before 2005 and after lets say 2007 (games that started or were early into development after HL2's release). HL2 is directly responsible for the dramatic increase in game quality and basically set expectations so high that garbage that used to come out can't see the light of day now. I mean most games 40-60 now were better than most 80+ games back then.
Now if HL2 alone was released today. It would be considered a little short and graphically distracting, while being a little too on rails even if it pushes the "movie feel" of it. I guess it would be 80-85 rated game. Which is still really good. No game is going to hold up for 10+ years later, but this one better than most.
+1
I can't play HL1 any more mostly because the plot literally is "experiment went wrong, aliens everywhere", following by alien splatting. I think you have to play the game for something like five hours before you get any more plot advancement, and even then it's pretty slim pickings.
you have to think that by the time HL1 was released, other FPS's stories were non existant.
Quake 1 story was included as a txt file, you wouldnt have a clue about it if u didnt read that.
Other games had a big load screen between levels with the story developing in a text
Devs didnt care about story in a fps at that time so, even though hl1 story was not great, it was perfectly shown as dialogues and gameplay. It was the 1st (or at least one of the 1st) games in which:
1) you didnt have ANY cgi cutscenes telling the important stuff, it was all gameplay
Judging it as a game (rather than specifically FPS), and comparing it to say Tomb Raider 1 and 2 (both released before it), it falls up short on the plot front. TR1 and 2 are pretty light on plot as well, but at least the gameplay is broken up a bit with plot.
Btw, I'm not saying HL1 was crap, it wasn't IMO. However, in my view, it hasn't aged well, mainly because of the lack of plot.
Quake 1 has less plot, but it makes up for it in gameplay. Having said that, I'm playing it a lot less than I used to, so Q1 is probably pretty comparable.