100 things that SUCKED about half-life 2

[Wolfy Snackrib]

Hey guys, in UTsomething 4k3 something like that, does corpses gib when u blow them up? If so I GOTTA GET THAT GAME :bounce:

 

[ríomhaire]

Unreal Tournament 2004. You can also slice them in half with some vehicles. And there's a mode called insta-gib
Edit: these's also slow-mo corpses option

 

[Shippi]

The only bit I was really disappointed about was the introduction.. I was looking forward to a tram-ride like train journey through City 17.. but no

 

[jimbo118]

The only bit I was really disappointed about was the introduction.. I was looking forward to a tram-ride like train journey through City 17.. but no

yeah me too, i was hoping we would come through the countryside down by the coast or something and see the combine enforcing their rule etc throughout city 17.

 

[Chav]

But Half-Life 2 didn't have that, which is why they didn't have gibbing. If they did have a situation when you had to gib monsters to kill them, you'd they gibbing.

What you're saying makes as much sense as saying "Half-Life 2 doesn't have proton torpedoes, can you imagine trying to take down a Star Destroyer without proton torpedoes?" Because Half-Life 2 doesn't actually have Star Destroyers, it's a non-issue. Half-Life 2 doesn't have a situation where you need to gib enemies to kill them.

Well thats to bad actually, I would have loved to see some gibbing to make sure someones dead.
But I guess this would bring the rate to mature and higher (if there is any higher)

 

[kirovman]

It wasn't as good as HL IMO, but it wasn't far off.
It didn't fall in to the Xen jumping puzzles trap though, Xen could look amazing in the source engine, and not be an annoying jump puzzle too.

I loved the secret underground research facility feeling of HL - in the middle of the desert, underground, trying to find a way out. Might have been nice to visit a kind of Russian equivilant of Black Mesa in HL2, but what the hell do I know.

Maybe we'll get to goto the combine homeworld in the Expansion? Or off earth at least.
HL2 rocks.

 

[Feath]

Well thats to bad actually, I would have loved to see some gibbing to make sure someones dead.
But I guess this would bring the rate to mature and higher (if there is any higher)

Fair enough that you want gibbing, I'm just saying it's a silly argument to say that gibbing is anything but eye-candy because Quake II needed it.

 

[Laivasse]

My goodness....ragdolls are SO much more fun than gibbing. Having a soldier's body fly 30 feet into the air and then hit half a dozen things on the way down vs. some lame comedy chunks. I used to try to kill HL1 marines without explosives because I thought gibbing was so lame.

 

[Chav]

Fair enough that you want gibbing, I'm just saying it's a silly argument to say that gibbing is anything but eye-candy because Quake II needed it.

Well it is eye-candy I agree with that.

 

[JellyWorld]

34. Annoying tomboy female main character added to make it appeal to a more mainstream audience. Swap Alex with that other lady that was in the lab and it would've been better.
35. Steam dependency slows load times hugely.
36. Only the overarching story is somewhat interesting, the immediate one with stupid kidnappings is just crap.
37. Too much travelling to all these random locations. The greatness of HL1 was Black Mesa.
38. Crappy short intro, most of which was shown in its entirety before the game was even released. The most famous part of of HL1 was the tram ride in.
39. Uninteresting enemies.
40. No decent RP section in the beginning, like walking around the lab in HL1 and putting on your suit. They tried it in HL2, but failed.
41. Maps aren't that good. Probably because of the acquisition of the Counter-Strike team.
42. It didn't feel like you were even in the same universe as HL1. It felt like an entirely different world, not a good thing in this case.

The tram ride was the only part of HL1 that I've played. It was at a LAN center somewhere.

 

[Noobulon]

I agree with a lot of these criticisms. But most of them just counter-balance themselves.

"Too much time alone - lacked character"
"Too much pissing about talking to muppets - lacked atmosphere"

"I hated the vehicles"
"Only two vehicles!!"

"It's not long enough"
"There's too much time spent in each location"

Etc, etc.
In a game with as much variation as HL2, it seems inevitable you can only please some of the people some of the time.

LMAO, nice job on warping everyone's points. You're taking them wrong.

1. On the too much time alone vs. the muppets.

You hardly ever had a squad with you, and when you did, they were a bunch of shallow (As in no character) extras only meant to die.

2. "I hated the vehicles" and "Only two vehicles" are both valid arguements that work together.

I thought the buggy was too hard to control, however that doesn't mean that there should automatically be no vehicles in the game. I would have liked more vehicles, and other people would have simply liked for them not to suck. How is this conflicting?

3. "It's not long enough" and "There's too much time spent in one location." is simply saying the game was too short, and lacked variety.


The criticisms do NOT counter-balance themselves.

Okay, so those criticisms don't directly eliminate each other. Maybe they were crappy examples.
What I was trying to say is that, although everyone agrees "HL2 should have been better", there's far from a consensus on just how it should have been better.
Excluding the universal wishes of "more" and "better" (which IMO aren't serious criticisms because they can be applied to any game), I think we're all trying to pull the game in a slightly different direction.
And Valve couldn't appeal to everyone at once.

I'll try finding a better example of this.

1. To much time in the same damn environment so you get bored of it

37. Too much travelling to all these random locations. The greatness of HL1 was Black Mesa.

I'm not trying to spill anyone's pint here.
I'm just pointing out that it's easy to criticise. But when it comes to actually improving the game - it's not clear-cut how to do that. Your changes will probably end up pissing someone else off.
One man's underplayed feature is another man's "THIS SUCKS!!".


And yes, I agree with all the major criticisms about difficulty and storyline and yadda yadda

 

[Laivasse]

Okay, so those criticisms don't directly eliminate each other. Maybe they were crappy examples.
What I was trying to say is that, although everyone agrees "HL2 should have been better", there's far from a consensus on just how it should have been better.
Excluding the universal wishes of "more" and "better" (which IMO aren't serious criticisms because they can be applied to any game), I think we're all trying to pull the game in a slightly different direction.
And Valve couldn't appeal to everyone at once.

I'll try finding a better example of this.


I'm not trying to spill anyone's pint here.
I'm just pointing out that it's easy to criticise. But when it comes to actually improving the game - it's not clear-cut how to do that. Your changes will probably end up pissing someone else off.
One man's underplayed feature is another man's "THIS SUCKS!!".

Very much agreed. Someone said "yeah, email this to Valve, so they know what bits to improve for HL3". Chances are if Valve followed this list they'd end up with the most confused and poor game ever. Not enough people realise what a fine balance was struck with HL2 when they leap to criticise.

And yes, I agree with all the major criticisms about difficulty and storyline and yadda yadda

See, I don't agree. Proved your point.

 

[Flyingdebris]

i would have liked some more of the original hl1 aliens brought back. it would have given a good "where are they now" effect.

headcrabs and vorties are nice but i'd like to see houndeyes, gargs, snarks, icthies, and a few more of the other critters. Crosses fingers for their inclusion in hl2 AM

The weapons were fun to use but ultimately irritated me. some weapons not having nearly enough ammo, some being totally unrealistic, and the forced 1 size fits all recoil of the smg and pusle rifle

the whole problem of things in the skybox not showing up in water reflections was a bit of a letdown, as it is something the farcry fans will lord over us.

while the combine were a cool enemy, it wasn't nearly as fun fighting them as it could have been. I would have like to see some combine ninja type elites, some combine medics, and some more accurate gunfire, rather than stormtrooper type aiming

 

[Top Secret]

Okay, so those criticisms don't directly eliminate each other. Maybe they were crappy examples.
What I was trying to say is that, although everyone agrees "HL2 should have been better", there's far from a consensus on just how it should have been better.
Excluding the universal wishes of "more" and "better" (which IMO aren't serious criticisms because they can be applied to any game), I think we're all trying to pull the game in a slightly different direction.
And Valve couldn't appeal to everyone at once.

Oh, but ofcourse good sir. =D

It's very well impossible to please everyone, as you said. But it is possible to please the majority, or at least the largest *chunk* possible. I've got a perfect example: Ragdoll.

I'm going to assume 90% of the people who play Half-Life 2, like the ragdoll. (As in, it's there.) However, as I've read on this forum, some people hate ragdoll. They like death animations much more. In this event, the 90% was pleased, the 10% had to sacrifice. Not everyone's happy, but at least most people are.

Now obviously it's not always 90% - 10% or you'd have a lot more people who are in love with Half-Life 2. Sometimes it's 75-25, 60-40, or even 50-50.

About going on to make Half-Life 2 better:

Well, many things have been generally excepted as "improvable". The weapon selection for example. I think most people would like to see more weapons. However the counter-arguement for this is that having less weapons creates more tactical gameplay. Both are valid arguements, More is fun, less is creative. But I do believe there are more people that want more weapons, than people who don't. Not every criticism here is a great idea, or even one that will be generally excepted. (Example: Alyx nude.) That just happens to be someone from the 10% crowd speaking. Which is fine I suppose. :E

But you can't say all points have to value no them because everyone is a critic mate. :cheers: Valve's got to know somehow. I'm not saying this thread will change a thing. But if they generally get the whif that people thought Half-Life 2 needed more weapons and a tram ride, then there'll be more weapons and a tram ride in Half-Life 3. Valve is a pretty smart crew in my opinion. :farmer:

I see your point though.


53. Where in the HELL was the tram ride in the beginning of the game?

 

[Mechagodzilla]

53. Where in the HELL was the tram ride in the beginning of the game?

The 'tram ride' was the entire ordeal you go through before Alyx saves you from the CPs.
Sure, you weren't literally on a tram, but it was the same idea. A scripted trip loaded with details that establishes the location and atmosphere, plus some future obstacles/enemies.

 

[MarcoPollo]

Great graphics and physics+gibbing = me throwing up

 

[Flyingdebris]

oh man, you know what would have definitely made hl2 cooler?

those exosuits that the elites were originally going to wear. Sven Coop is adding them in. Their only difference being the shape of the feet and a pair of belt fed machine guns in each arm

if you could have stolen one of them, all the better

 

[Noobulon]

I agree with you there Top Secret. A balance has to be struck - game design is more complicated than a linear spectum of 'Good' to 'Sucks'.

Also, I'm not saying that criticisms have no value because we don't all agree.
I was trying to respond to the posts which read like: "HL2 WOULD HAVE BEEN 200x BETTAR IF [insert half-baked thought here]".

 

[Solidsocom]

Look, half-life 2 is a great single player game, it's loads of fun to play but there were some moronic things in it that pissed me off.

1. To much time in the same damn environment so you get bored of it for example driving the car or the airboat for 1 hour.

2. Thery cut like 75% of all monsters, most of the monsters are like different combine soldiers and there's not many really exciting monsters.

3. Citizens are complete wimps, none of them are cool or say something cool ever.

4. The ending was pretty shitty, shooting powerballs at a big stationary thing so it falls appart, thereby killing Breen, also it was to easy.

5. A bit to short.

6. Grenades are to weak.

7. We never got to see Alyx take it off!! :naughty:

8. The popup suit power thing sucks. Displays same power for underwater extra air, sprinting etc. Totally stupid idea.

9. They cut all parts except 1 that we got to see on video that semt sooooo fun to play.

10. Headcrabs can't jump onto citizens heads. It wouldn't necesserely turn them into zombies since that is a long process but it would be cool if the headcrab would kill them by jumping and attaching on their heads. It's stupid just to see them jump and scratch them. That's not what they are for.

11. Barnacles sucks because when they eat a citizen or a combine their mouths aren't large enough and the citizen/combine is seen through the mouth, also when it eats it looks retarded.

obviuosly u got an illegal version that speaked in french explains why nobody says anything cool and u smoked tons of weed the night before got high and gouged out ur eyes so u cant see then said wee while touching ur toes to a tramp then had the biggest, longest, most painful shit that u ever had

 

[Foebane]

Fair enough that you want gibbing, I'm just saying it's a silly argument to say that gibbing is anything but eye-candy because Quake II needed it.

Feath, I don't like you because you worship HL2 ragdolls so much you fail to see how essential gibbing is in today's FPS games.

 

[Feath]

Feath, I don't like you because you worship HL2 ragdolls so much you fail to see how essential gibbing is in today's FPS games.

Erm, it doesn't come across well on the internet so I'm going to ask. You are joking, aren't you?

EDIT: okay, you are joking. I thought you were someone else.

 

[Top Secret]

The 'tram ride' was the entire ordeal you go through before Alyx saves you from the CPs.
Sure, you weren't literally on a tram, but it was the same idea. A scripted trip loaded with details that establishes the location and atmosphere, plus some future obstacles/enemies.

Key phrase:

"in the beginning of the game"

 

[Sieg]

I never said half life 2 sucked, it's the greatest singleplayer game i've played but as everything it has it's flaws. anyways post what you think sucks about it

...where have you been?

 

[head_crabs]

i was pleased i did not find any real problems in single player. i thought the game rocked and is the best game ive ever played

 

[Someone]

I think for me I don't see anything as "sucking" , but would say I saw things which annoyed me.

Some are the obvious ones: length of game, load times.

Some are based on expectations of what we were told/shown before the game was released (weapons, monsters, AI, length of game ).

But these things are just the nature of the beast when it comes to game making and I can't rag on them too much.

I think the one thing which did bother me was the definite pattern of the game. Once you got into the game, there wasn't the feeling of randomness like in HL1. You pretty much could predict what would come around every corner. There would be travel (with or without vehicle), there would be a battle, after the battle there would be exposition to explain what was going on and to tell you where to go next (rinse, repeat, etc). It NEVER changed...it was 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4 and that got old for me.

In HL1 you never knew exactly where you might be going or what you would be doing next. There were surprises (like when we first find out the military is not our friend...and the g-man etc). In HL2 once the initial pattern was seen...it was easy to prepare for each section because you already knew it was coming. And were there really any surprises?

On a related note: I think some of the game was there only to impress, not to make sense or add to the game. That's a pet peeve in books and movies for me also. THe car and airboat for instance...they didn't NEED to be in the game, but rather felt like they were there only to impress and do what other games are doing.

So..wouldn't say I thought anything sucked...more just personal annoyances.

 

[pEchep]

My only complaint was that it wasn't "big" enough... HL1 was epic

and also i wish there was a big boss at teh end instead of shooting fish in a barrel, also it needed new monsters like the last one... or just a wider monster variety...

 

[Phalanx114]

A lack of Snarks.

Nothing more to be said.

 

[wilka91]

100. what sucks about HL2 is that nothing sucks in HL2, so in the end you can't make a top 100 of things that sucked about HL2

 

[BlackMesaDude]

The load times are really a joke.. compare to Far cry a whole island is rendered on just one load at the start of level then only your HD stutters a little but no stupid loads all the time like in HL2 that pisses me off

 

[The_Wookie]

The flashlight, suit-assisted sprint, and life support systems are probably running off a single power source to keep the suit's weight down. My bet is that the energy source isn't quite up to the task of producing oxygen or sustaining a sprint but a certain amount is stored in a faster (probably more bulky and expensive) energy storage device for quick access, which is displayed by the power meter... which would explain why the flashlight doesn't run down the power meter on its own, while more complex actions do. Whatever the case, the infinite total amount of energy that the suit has is a bit odd...

Ever considered the possibility that the heat that Gordons body gives off coupled with the movement of his body could operate small servos to recharge the short term boost battery?

 

[Mikey10]

- Overrated like hell.

- Stupid stuttering ruins the game. (Are they ever gonna fix this?)

- Not the game's fault, but the fan boys who are gonna attack me like I've insulted their mother for saying these things.

Meh.

 

[Fliko]

-It was so good... I find it hard to play other games...

The game ran perfectly for me, no stuttering, and they released a patch a while ago.
Best game ever, great storyline, I would like some more NPC interaction though, instead of always fighting alone.

 

[Reaktor4]

load times, shadows, some of the ai was crap, lack of diversity compared to hl1, not enough enemies, far too linear, no detail textures, more weapons and vehicles wouldve been nice, not enough fights with striders, only being able to take down striders with rpgs (maybe other explosives can damage them too but still), and the crouching in dm is a ****ing joke

 

[KoreBolteR]

- Overrated like hell.

- Stupid stuttering ruins the game. (Are they ever gonna fix this?)

- Not the game's fault, but the fan boys who are gonna attack me like I've insulted their mother for saying these things.

Meh.

xbox sucks.

you gonna insult me like ive insulted you mother?

no? good.

 

[r2000]

The load times are really a joke.. compare to Far cry a whole island is rendered on just one load at the start of level then only your HD stutters a little but no stupid loads all the time like in HL2 that pisses me off

Then compare graphics. Physics. Gameplay, effects.

 

[Lanthanide]

Ever considered the possibility that the heat that Gordons body gives off coupled with the movement of his body could operate small servos to recharge the short term boost battery?

Have you ever tried using one of those hand-cranked torches? Or just a hand-cranked generator at all? You have to wind the hell out of them to get them to work at all.

There's no way that gordon's movement/heat could possibly recover the energy required to do these sorts of things by the suit in so little time.

 

[Bobcat]

Have you ever tried using one of those hand-cranked torches? Or just a hand-cranked generator at all? You have to wind the hell out of them to get them to work at all.

There's no way that gordon's movement/heat could possibly recover the energy required to do these sorts of things by the suit in so little time.

The game is fictional, it's entirely possible.

 

[Dead-Inside]

19. No detail textures - textures on environment and models appeared blurry and pixelated when viewed up close. Could have been solved with tiling detail textures but wasn't, and still isn't.

-- I'm sorry, the blurrnow? I seriously can't see the "blurryness". That's your texture option setting combined with the textureresolution on the given wall you're looking at. I seriously doubt the engine itself de-renders at point blank ranges.

20. Creaky old engine - source is blatantly quake1 on lsd and acid at the same time. my favorite is the 3d skybox 'feature' (read: render hack) designed to make up for spatial shortcomings of the bsp engine

-- Oh yes, I've heard about it. I also heard how it's "Some lunatic's crazy scheme to take over the world" and "Just another trick from Blair Underwood".

21. Load time to get to the main menu, even when the background map was disabled, even for HL:S. What the hell is it loading? Nobody knows.....

-- I never noticed any long loadingtimes (Concidering other games, and taking into account the internet checking with steam every time you start a game) while starting games through steam, Source or not.

22. Heavy scripting, valve reported about free-thinking ai that assess and make decisions about their environment to produce emergent gameplay. In actuality, the enemies are stupid as hell and show no signs of 'sensing' their environment or the player, as any unique npc action is scripted.

-- Scripted and hinted. Those two are different. The leaping zombies in ravenholm (When you're taking the lift down) is probably the most, so called, scripted in HL2. In general the AI does deliver, although it's not always given room to. Try a harder difficulty.

23. Hitboxes, completely unnecessary and tech dragged over kicking and screaming from the hl1 engine. Per-poly hit detection could be perfromed, an analysis of a model's polygons occurs when the engine is mapping a bloodspot decal onto the model but this system is unrelated to weapon hitscan. Nobody knows why.

-- I never knew, or at least I never thought about it, that decals were applied per pixel. I'm not going to take your word for it however, as it can just be applied "Somewhere along - these - pixels" and still create a good effect. Some comfirmation would be great.

Oh yay, I needed 6 characters here because the text in the qoute didn't count. Well here you have my 6 chars...

 

[Fluxtah]

Damn, I never noticed anything wrong with it, I just played it through and was gutted it ended.

Next time I play a game, maybe I should hang around the levels looking for stuff that sucked.

 

[FictiousWill]

Btw, can somebody edit Dead-Inside's post so it doesn't look like I spouted bullshit after each calmly stated opinion? I'm all for quoting and responding point-by-point, but it's not cool to edit quotes and put words in the mouth of other forumgoers, even if you don't know vbscript from your left buttock.

1.) I'm sorry, the blurrnow? I seriously can't see the "blurryness". That's your texture option setting combined with the textureresolution on the given wall you're looking at. I seriously doubt the engine itself de-renders at point blank ranges.

2.) Oh yes, I've heard about it. I also heard how it's "Some lunatic's crazy scheme to take over the world" and "Just another trick from Blair Underwood".

3.) I never noticed any long loadingtimes (Concidering other games, and taking into account the internet checking with steam every time you start a game) while starting games through steam, Source or not.

4.) Scripted and hinted. Those two are different. The leaping zombies in ravenholm (When you're taking the lift down) is probably the most, so called, scripted in HL2. In general the AI does deliver, although it's not always given room to. Try a harder difficulty.

5.) I never knew, or at least I never thought about it, that decals were applied per pixel. I'm not going to take your word for it however, as it can just be applied "Somewhere along - these - pixels" and still create a good effect. Some comfirmation would be great.

I'll hit these in order. Ahem:

1. You sound like you've been taken in by direct3d texture blurring. Blur != resolution. And wtf is a de-render?

2. wtf

3. wtf

4. wtf

5. wtf I said per-polygon

That about covers it.