Cons of HL2

[fragShader]

those complaining about spreadable fire - read the info from valve thread, they were debating wether that feature would be included well over a year ago. no-one ever promised you it would be there.

recognise the e3 videos for what they were - promo sequences for a game that was largely unwritten at that time. go read the gamespot final hours article. the e3 sequences are based on "proof-of-concept" sequences that were created BEFORE work started on the game proper.

just 'cos u think a feature would be cool doesn't mean it would actually work when put in a full game. for example the hydra was cut because it was not fun to play against.

 

[PvtRyan]

those complaining about spreadable fire - read the info from valve thread, they were debating wether that feature would be included well over a year ago. no-one ever promised you it would be there.

recognise the e3 videos for what they were - promo sequences for a game that was largely unwritten at that time. go read the gamespot final hours article. the e3 sequences are based on "proof-of-concept" sequences that were created BEFORE work started on the game proper.

just 'cos u think a feature would be cool doesn't mean it would actually work when put in a full game. for example the hydra was cut because it was not fun to play against.

Not to mention that everyone seems to forget that they showed REAL gameplay footage this year at E3 2004, so there goes the 'deception' thing, everything that was in there, is in the game (I wished I hadn't seen it )

 

[Lt. Drebin]

Steam plays too big a role in the single player. Seriously, I only want Steam running when I play multiplayer. I know it uses few resources, but oh well.

 

[corkscru74]

I think everyone whining about things being cut isn't aware of the term "pacing". Yes in theory it would have been fun to take on the Combine in Traptown, or face the hydra but unless you were actually involved in the development of the game there's no way for you to know whether it would have worked or not. Same goes for Scripting - as long as the illusion that I'm playing against intelligent foe isn't broken I'm not fussed.

I was a bit disappointed by the Resistance AI at times. Stopping in the middle of the road to fire an ineffective gun at a Strider only to get cut-down in seconds or ignoring a grenade while I ran for cover. This was disappointing because the Combine AI seemed so realistic.

 

[Fliko]

OK... guys, read final hour on gamespot, that will tell you what happened to the game, and it is impossible to make a game without scripts that is half decent.

 

[ScRaTcH-A-HoLiC]

I don't believe that Valve ever said that this would occur. I also don't recall seeing any other game, ever, that does this.



I think a lot of people have strange definitions of what "scripted" means.

HL2 has no scripting language. You cannot script events. You can have triggers, with inputs and outputs. i.e. when you get to the part of Raveholm with the fast zombies, they don't appear until you reach a certain point. Is that your definition of scripting? That's a necessity. Things have to occur at certain times and in certain places. That isn't scripting.
The striders aren't "scripted". The gunships aren't scripted (although they are constrained by paths). The closest thing to scripted sequences are the "cutscene" events which, again, are just triggers causing the dialogue.

I couldnt of said it better myself..

 

[CookieCuttah]

Games back in day sometimes did not have scripts, they threw out some enemies and hoped to god they would work. Did it work? Sometimes. Was it fun? Not really. It felt like everyone was just standing around waiting for someone to come kill them/kill someone. I mean seriously, AVP comes to mind instantely, just a bunch of soldiers standing around. Theres some commander screaming on monitor for them to run and they just standing their staring off into space, it was rather depressing.

 

[diluted]

One thing I was really disappointed in was that the strider sequences were too short and only took up a small part of the game. Oh well, guess I'll have to wait for the user-made maps and Sven Coop.

 

[CookieCuttah]

The strider sucked totally....There were 3 things it did:Walk,crouch, shoot...Oh wait and stand around like a dumbass watching as it got shot...Okay 4 then.

 

[Spiffe]

but it's still the most awesome game I've ever played

 

[jimbo118]

the ai of the combine elite wasnt the best,a peerfect ex wud be when you get the turrets for the first time,setup them up at both stairs and just watch the combine line up o be killed,i mean did valve not see this when developing it?

i would have liked the combine to be more like the clearing teams in mgs2,when you were caught in that the sentry would take shot at you b4 runnung off and radioing for backup,then a clearing team would move to your last known position with riot shields,kevlar vests,shotguns,etc and do a sweep for you,they would search under tables,in lockers,in vents for throwing in grenades if they saw you.also if they spotted you run into a room they throw in a few stun grenades b4 entering to finish you off,and this was the ps2 in 2001 ffs!

 

[aerasal]

the ai of the combine elite wasnt the best,a peerfect ex wud be when you get the turrets for the first time,setup them up at both stairs and just watch the combine line up o be killed,i mean did valve not see this when developing it?

i would have liked the combine to be more like the clearing teams in mgs2,when you were caught in that the sentry would take shot at you b4 runnung off and radioing for backup,then a clearing team would move to your last known position with riot shields,kevlar vests,shotguns,etc and do a sweep for you,they would search under tables,in lockers,in vents for throwing in grenades if they saw you.also if they spotted you run into a room they throw in a few stun grenades b4 entering to finish you off,and this was the ps2 in 2001 ffs!

the AI in mgs2 was NOTHING NEAR that good...

 

[jimbo118]

if you played it it was

 

[bluesman]

The strider sucked totally....There were 3 things it did:Walk,crouch, shoot...Oh wait and stand around like a dumbass watching as it got shot...Okay 4 then.

The striders where awesome. They made the chaotic fights so incredibly good. It was a little short, but it really kicked ass.

 

[^Ben]

Maybe it was just more fun to watch them get shot up?

They probably could of got the combine to throw a grenade up and knock down both turrets down, but wheres the fun in that.

Plus that sequence was probably just a trainer(like everything in the game is when you first get it) to how you would deal with it later in the game.

Examples.

Stacking.

Breaking stuff.

Driving.

Gravity Gun.

When you first get theese items its super easy to get accustomed to what you actually have todo.

 

[koopa]

HL2 has no scripting language. You cannot script events. You can have triggers, with inputs and outputs. i.e. when you get to the part of Raveholm with the fast zombies, they don't appear until you reach a certain point. Is that your definition of scripting? That's a necessity. Things have to occur at certain times and in certain places. That isn't scripting.

It certainly is scripting - however its implemented is irrelevant, but much of HL2 works in terms of 'actor X do Y at Z time'. There's no room for emergence or variable behavior - it just follows the preset directions. To me, that's scripting - to insist that it's only scripting if it uses a scripting language is a little narrow.

A good way to test these things is to cheat (!) - you very quickly see how scripted much of the game is when you fiddle with some of the triggers.

And while I'm moaning at the game, the AI sucks - with the exception of the pathfinding/NPCs moving out of the way, I've seen better AI in fps games 5-6 years ago. Valve rightly figured that scripting is much easier than coding AI, but it's still disappointing.

 

[barnett]

lmao at you guys sitting there with your super computers. I am playing HL2 in 800 x 600 low detail and I am f**king loving it. Its a "GAME"

 

[aerasal]

if you played it it was

yah...i have it and i've played it a lot.

 

[Wicked Spider]

Physics - Most part - wonderful. However, there were many physics traps/uses like in the binks. Traptown was basically turned bland. The same spinning blade and car crush over and over again. The game really didnt show of the engines physics system.

Overall - too much was cut. Too much good stuff was cut. Over abundence of scripted sequences made it very non-believable. Not alot of fun with physics to show it off though it is a great physics engine. (ive never seen so many boxes in a damn city.) Also was kinda stupid how wooden fences when shot, half of it dissapears and the rest falls stupidly.

i totally agree with every word too much scripting despite what valved claimed

 

[SFLUFAN]

Bitch. Whine. Piss. Moan.

Why don't you all appreciate what a wonderfully fun game this is instead of working yourselves into a lather.

Fine, it wasn't what YOU thought but to 99% of the gaming public, it's an absolutely delightful experience.

Get over yourselves already...geeze.

 

[clarky003]

on the other hand, i dont agree... I mean... what do you honestly expect...? Valve never proved or promised any of this stuff consistantly.

secondly,, i find inperfection in games alot of fun when it all still works well for gameplay (e.g when you fight your first gunship, seeing your friends try to shoot it and fail miserably, resulting in a flying ragdoll death is hilarious, and great entertainment... if they where too clever you wouldnt see as much of that entertaining stupidity), teammates are apologetic when they get in your way... then you just be a little patient back off and they move for you to pass.

Alot of the E3 2k3 stuff we saw were test rig sets, for small intensive concentrated display's to show as much off as they could in a short space of time ,, you have to spread the load with physics tricks and all the cool stuff when your actually playing a game that takes a while to get through, or One really wickedly fun part would make other areas seem more bland, and the game would become inbalanced. and may not be quite as good as you think it would be.

as for realisim complaints, i cant see anyones problem outside of too higher expectations... games progress and this is as close as it gets for now. Overall, it seems like nit picking.. thats a great thing , because if all we can do is nit pick at a game... it truely shows it up for how good it actually is.

 

[smsKONG]

Ok, first of I'm not getting into the scripting thing, suffice to say that it's extremely difficult to tell a story in a game without any kind of scripting(read: impossible). Valve never said scripted events wouldn't take place- just that the AI would react differently each time depending on how you play.
Now I played it thru first on medium, tbh at the time I thought the AI was quite weak and certainly nothing special. Many things were unchallenging and the AI didn't max out the damage on you- eg striders didn't use the IR blast out of the E3 vids and the elites didn't use their Alt fire. Oh yeah and the freindly AI getting in your way thing really got on my tits!
However I am now playing thru again on hard, I'm at the bit in the factory thing with the glass roof in follow freeman. This time round I've noticed quite a change, the AI has really been dishing out some punishment and reacting to things(first time round combine would shout grenade then stand there..). They use grenades effectively and move around a lot more. Also I've only recently come up against the elite combine and they've already used the Alt fire of the IR rifle on me, even the striders have used their IR blast and I haven't even taken one on properly yet, it was just passing! Damnit even the antlions were braver Plus I've got round the annoying freindly AI by pointing them in front of me all the time with c, it's really useful for getting them out of the way or drawing fire

So now I've seen how good the AI can be, my opinion has changed, and that's not to say that I haven't noticed glitches or stupidity beyond belief, because I have- but at the same time some of it has actually been quite challenging and cunning -
In ravenholm when you get the shotty, I took out one of the howler zombies but accidentally fell off the roof whilst doing it(!), naturally I legged it back inside and naturally the other howler dove off the roof and ran like the billio straight at me....luckily I managed to get inside (and accidentally blocked the doorway with some cardboard boxes as I went), anyway I legged it upstairs but didn't go onto the roof itself, I could still hear the howler below and it wasn't coming for me. So i decided to creep back down and see what it was making all that racket for:E When I got to the bottom I realised that while jumping the boxes as I came in, I had knocked them all backwards and blocked the doorway enough to impede the zombies progress. I could see it so I popped out my shotty and shot it once. Immediately it backed off and legged it....I was sat there listening and I could hear the little bugger clambering around, after a short while it dawned on me what the hell it was upto, the little get had only run outside, back up the drainpipe and in thru the roof (and it was bloody fast at getting to me I can tell you:0 )!

So a thumbs up on the AI for me with the exception that AI initiative can be a bit random(but hey it wouldn't do for them all to be the same now would it, afterall you're bound to get the odd numpty who can't tell his arse from his elbow being "unified" into the combine forces. Now with the benefit of combine brain enhancement this otherwise useless lump of meat can now -point a gun in the correct manner i.e away from himself, possibly even being able to tie his own shoelaces....but don't expect him to notice that grenade that just rolled into his boot while doing so!)

 

[Lt. Death Charge]

i know what happened, stupid winny fanns kept winning that it wasn't being released, and so they had to cut out alot so they could release a "good" version of it, so us fans would stop winning. but noooo, that didn't stop everyone from winning.

 

[ShinRa]

the ai is rediculously retarded when you introduce a change in the maps plans. such as, trainstation, simply entering impulse 101 makes the ai the dumbest pieces of garbage on earth. you can shoot a combine in the face, and the other combine will just stand there and act like nothing happened, let alone even look at you. sorry, but for it to be that bad, it just shows they didnt even bother with reaction ai. they were gonna make it so if u jump around like an idiot alyx would say something, or if u just stared at someone theyd start to feel weird. not only did we not get that (ill somehow make myself accept it ), but we can now take a gun and cap a combine square in the face, but since ur not supposed to have a gun, the ai isnt even programmed to even hit you.

 

[fragShader]

ShinRa thats just stupid.

HL2 is not a general purpose simulation, it's a piece of entertainment, like a movie. a LINEAR piece of entertainment meant to be played a partcular way.

u aren't supposed to have weapons in the first level, and the combine that spawn there have flags set to make them behave in certain ways - like only using non-lethal waeapons and not attacking in packs.

the metrocops u meet later have different flags set, and do not react kindly to you shooting them. u are completly missing the point.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Look! If I cheat, I can completely break how the game works! Valve suck!

 

[junco]

Now I played it thru first on medium, tbh at the time I thought the AI was quite weak and certainly nothing special. Many things were unchallenging and the AI didn't max out the damage on you- eg striders didn't use the IR blast out of the E3 vids and the elites didn't use their Alt fire. Oh yeah and the freindly AI getting in your way thing really got on my tits!

i played through it on medium and the striders used their big blast thing several times and the elite soldiers used alt-fire quite a bit.... fwiw

 

[bluesman]

Something i'm still wondering... do normal bullets hurt the striders?

 

[G-Uni7]

Some of you guys take this game way too seriously, and have to realise that games aren't everything. It was a good game, so quit moaning; end of story.

 

[koopa]

HL2 is not a general purpose simulation, it's a piece of entertainment, like a movie. a LINEAR piece of entertainment meant to be played a partcular way.

Interesting that you say that. Movie's are non-interactive entertainment - you sit back with your popcorn for 90 minutes and be passively entertained. Computer games are supposed to be interactive. Now, obviously HL2 is interactive - but for a lot of the game you're whisked along on rails where you don't really need to be. Using the cheats demonstrates the fragility of the whole thing - suddenly you can see the guys with ropes pulling the scenery back - and you sort of realise that there's not much point in playing the thing again, because so much is predetermined.

I remember in Deus Ex 1 being able to play through scenarios in different ways. Personally, I'd have liked to see more of that in HL2 - I don't mean make it like Deus Ex, I just mean having more freedom then having to press 'W' and 'E' at the proper times. If, for example, in the trainstation, you could have just used the existing AI to take you out if you managed to do enough damage. You know somebody would have been able to throw a briefcase up from a high point and knock down a combine guard. That would have been something I could have gotten fanboy over