Did HL2 feel like a new game rather than a Sequel to you?

[songwriter]

Here me out first.

I've been waiting and praying for this game since I finished HL1.

I was up at 8am UK time to play HL2, and first impressions were amazing. It was everything I wanted it to be. It was the best fun I have had in a game. It had Barney G-Man Eli Dr Kliener and headcrabs cool guns and an interesting enigma of a plot line.

The begining was just perfect. It felt like the second game in the Half Life series, YES!!!.... but this feeling of beautiful familiaraity soon started to fade and it replaced with confusion.

I didn't understand what was happening...until it was explained to me.

The middle 80% was endless set pieces( Ravenholme and The prison), not plot that I wanted so badly. I am a Fan of the HL World so I wanted secrets, conflicts with characers I cared about. I couldn't care for Eli or Aylx because we didnt see them enough.

As the game continued it started to feel brand new and after I finished the game, it felt like HL1 never ever exsisted

I wanted HL1 weapons
I wanted HL1 enemies.
I wanted to transport places more
I wanted more Dr. Kleiner and more Barney.
I wanted more G-man.
I wanted to feel hunted like in the first game.
I wanted the amazing set pieces in the Trailers that weren't there.
I wanted answers to the first game?
I wanted answers to the second game?

Sure I am moaning, and maybe I was expecting too much and I am sorry about that but only because HL1 was perfect.

The first game was perfect. I loved the first game it had everything I adore in games. Action, amazing narrative and set pieces, shooting, excitement, its what made HL1, one of the best games ever made and I got that all expect for what made HL1 the best game ever...the amazing narrative. That is what made HL2 just a great game not the greatest game.

In all the trailers I felt like we were getting it but personally it didnt feel like a game from the HL world.

I wanted HL2, the sequel.
I got HL2, a brand new game.

Anyone else feel the same?

 

[ktimekiller]

maybe is because you dont understand the story?

 

[Jiffra]

Some people say HL2 is a rehash of the first HL1. Some people say HL2 is too different from HL1. You really can't please everyone.

 

[Spartan]

I wanted HL2, the sequel.
I got HL2, a brand new game.

Anyone else feel the same?

Yes and no.

HL2 departs from the first game in the sense that it has a very different feel to it, and its story isn't as strong, interesting or compelling. It's more about shooting and blowing shit up, or wandering through setpieces. On the other hand, it doesn't have enough new features and ideas to be a really different or new game. An inventory system, for example, would have made it more interesting. Or maybe it could have been more nonlinear. And so on.

 

[songwriter]

maybe is because you dont understand the story?

Did you even read what I said?

Thats what I didn't think the game was amazing because of the lack of story telling.

They added a whole new civilaization into the game
(The Combine) and we weren't told who or what they were.

That is bad story telling.

It felt we were plonked into a numerous situations and made to battle people for no reason...For action to be convincing it has to the result of interaction between the characters, their conflicts, their dilemmas. Yes, there is a sketch of a conflict here but that's all it remains, a sketch and so we're left watching a gamer move his characters around as though he's a chess master.

It didn't work for me.

HL1 the reason we fighted was to escape and get out of there alive!

 

[freeman2]

Some people say HL2 is a rehash of the first HL1. Some people say HL2 is too different from HL1. You really can't please everyone.

I agree and it will be the same when HL3 comes out if not worse.

 

[Asknoone]

I think its because you dont really understand the story.

But it all honestly, this is a sequel, but becasue it is, it doesnt generally mean you have to have the same weapons, the same enemies...its meant to be a new game that continues the story..

You transport to further away places more than you ever do in hl1, from the plaza to ravenholm to the coast to the prison...its not like in hl1 where you go from one place in the research facility to the other..you realyl travel places in this one.

After 6 years of waiting, who would want a compelte rehash...its meant to be a new game

 

[songwriter]

Yes and no.

HL2 departs from the first game in the sense that it has a very different feel to it, and its story isn't as strong, interesting or compelling. It's more about shooting and blowing shit up, or wandering through setpieces. On the other hand, it doesn't have enough new features and ideas to be a really different or new game. An inventory system, for example, would have made it more interesting. Or maybe it could have been more nonlinear. And so on.

THAT is what made HL1 the best game ever. HL2 lacked it.

 

[Warbie]

It did to me, HL2 'feels' very different to HL imo.

Both great games, though.

 

[Yellonet]

Yes it did.

 

[songwriter]

I think people are missing what I am saying.

I wanted HL2 the sequel. I dont think I got it.

 

[Asknoone]

They added a whole new civilaization into the game
(The Combine) and we weren't told who or what they were.

That is bad story telling.

You did actually, its just its shown rather than told, you have to understand it. Thats bad storytelling is it? No its just not what your usedto and you dont like it because of that

 

[iamaelephant]

Why does everyone keep saying "You didn't understand the story?" There was no story! They set us up in what looked like an extremely interesting premise, and then told us nothing about it. I really, really enjoyed this game, but by the end of it I was getting a bit annoyed. They sit you into a super interesting world, that made you want to know more about it, then didn't tell you a damn thing.

What is this story everyone keeps talking about?

 

[Spartan]

What is this story everyone keeps talking about?

I've been asking the same question ever since HL2 was released. Still waiting for someone to tell me.

 

[HunterSeeker]

What is this story everyone keeps talking about?

http://members.shaw.ca/storage_4/hl2story/

Gameplaywise HL2 felt very different from HL1 (I think it was for the better) despite the fact that almost all HL1 weapons was in half life 2.

Storywise they felt then same, the story was told in a pretty similar method (No one in HL1 told you that the experiment screwed up I think, no one told you that the vortigaunts where slaves etc...).

 

[Asknoone]

All of the clues are there, its just up to you to put two and two together, it doesnt take a genius, but it does require alot more thinking than most games..its in there...you just have to find it

 

[SFLUFAN]

Thank God Almighty it was a different (and far superior) game to the first one. The last thing I wanted was a rehash of the original with its fairly pedestrian, standard sci-fi storyline.

 

[Iconoclast]

I agree with the OP - I thought HL2 was an amazing game, but unless there are major plot revelations in the last couple of levels, the plot is a fairly.. bland.. 1984-fascist future.

Nothing is really explained. Hey, go up the river. Hey, rescue this guy. Hey, get in a car. It's fairly trite and boring, and nothing is really explained. Most of the plot details I only know because of reading forums such as these - it's never explained to you in the game. I'm a big fan of subtle story points but there really aren't many here - it's just a backdrop to a game about shooting people, which is a shame, because it could have been so much more.

 

[Bobcat]

Lack of immersion and answers, to put it short.

I never got to feel the story of the characters.

It did feel a little like a sequel, it had a fair amount of touches that made it still seem in the same genre, but all in all it was more of a "new" game.

 

[SFLUFAN]

What amazing narrative did the first Half-Life have exactly? It had absolutely none!

The story in Half-Life 2 is INFINITELY stronger, more interesting, and more compelling than the pedestrian, sci-fi standby of the first game.

I honestly don't see how people can praise the first game and criticize the second when they both employ the same narrative devices and give you roughly the same amount of storyline information.

It absolutely boggles my mind entirely.

And I'm damned glad that this game is significantly different than the original - and more fun I might add.

If Valve had replicated the original I would have been quite disappointed.

 

[subtlesnake]

HL2 only has 2 new guns, so it's not like they've really changed the combat. And most of the scenes from the video were there:

Barricade: check
Traptown: check (ravenholm)
Tunnels: check
Coast: check
Bugbait: check

The Strider segment was replaced with something a lot more exciting and there wasn't anything really special about docks anyway.

 

[subtlesnake]

Woops. Double post

 

[Zerox]

Things like this one explains a lot of what happend after Half-Life. Maybe a lot of people didn't notice this when they played.

http://members.shaw.ca/storage_4/hl2story/evidence/historynewspapers.jpg

 

[Iconoclast]

"Aliens came. There was a war. It was very short." does not explain a lot of what happened after Half-Life, no.

 

[CriYam]

What amazing narrative did the first Half-Life have exactly? It had absolutely none!

The story in Half-Life 2 is INFINITELY stronger, more interesting, and more compelling than the pedestrian, sci-fi standby of the first game.

I honestly don't see how people can praise the first game and criticize the second when they both employ the same narrative devices and give you roughly the same amount of storyline information.

It absolutely boggles my mind entirely.

And I'm damned glad that this game is significantly different than the original - and more fun I might add.

If Valve had replicated the original I would have been quite disappointed.

Well, in short, I felt in HL1 you had a purpose. You're a scientist arriving to work and you run an experiment that obviously makes the shit hit the fan. You need to get the hell out of there, along the way you learn pieces of what was going on.

And then a new development, government agents don't want anything coming out of mesa alive. So, you figure if you can get rid of the alien presence (in another dimension) everything will be Q5.

Problem --> Solution --> Problem -->Solution


In HL2 you start by running for your life pretty much(the whole way gathering questions), right up until the final "confrontation" where it ends abruptly.

I didn't feel there were any real goals, you kinda just went through the motions.

 

[sham]

I wanted HL1 weapons
I wanted HL1 enemies.
I wanted to transport places more
I wanted more Dr. Kleiner and more Barney.
I wanted more G-man.
I wanted to feel hunted like in the first game.
I wanted the amazing set pieces in the Trailers that weren't there.
I wanted answers to the first game?
I wanted answers to the second game?
Anyone else feel the same?

There are HL1 weapons(machinegun,shotgun,crowbar etc.)
There are HL1 enemies (headcrab,zombies,bullsquids,barnacles etc.)
You get lots of Barney. He fights with you, he saves you etc.
There is hardly any G-Man in HL1 either you just see him a couple more times than in HL2.
You are hunted in HL2 by the combine.
You get a few answers to the first game (what happened after you killed nihilanth)
Its quite obvious you wont get answers to the second game because it is the second game.!!

So actually Half life 2 is quite alot of sequel. Much more than (doom 2 and 3 or Halo 2)

 

[subtlesnake]

Your purpose was to rescue Eli and then mount a final attack on the combine.

 

[Black Mesa corp]

it felt like a sequel to me

 

[Ames]

There are HL1 weapons(machinegun,shotgun,crowbar etc.)
There are HL1 enemies (headcrab,zombies,bullsquids,barnacles etc.)
You get lots of Barney. He fights with you, he saves you etc.
There is hardly any G-Man in HL1 either you just see him a couple more times than in HL2.
You are hunted in HL2 by the combine.
You get a few answers to the first game (what happened after you killed nihilanth)
Its quite obvious you wont get answers to the second game because it is the second game.!!

So actually Half life 2 is quite alot of sequel. Much more than (doom 2 and 3 or Halo 2)

Doom 3 was a remake of Doom 1....

 

[silverstealth89]

um i think its a sequal otherwise it wouldnt have a2 at the end of the name

 

[not28]

Why does everyone keep saying "You didn't understand the story?" There was no story! They set us up in what looked like an extremely interesting premise, and then told us nothing about it. I really, really enjoyed this game, but by the end of it I was getting a bit annoyed. They sit you into a super interesting world, that made you want to know more about it, then didn't tell you a damn thing.

What is this story everyone keeps talking about?

I said the same thing (almost) but everybody thinks I'm crazy.

 

[Spartan]

What amazing narrative did the first Half-Life have exactly? It had absolutely none!

It didn't really need one. You are miles below the surface in a research lab, when shit happens and you need to escape. It was simple but it worked.

The story in Half-Life 2 is INFINITELY stronger, more interesting, and more compelling than the pedestrian, sci-fi standby of the first game.

It didn't feel compelling because I never felt like I was doing anything for a reason. Not to mention that I didn't even understand what was going on and why.

No one, I am sure wants to listen to characters drone on with endless dialogue explaining things.

Breen's monologues are very long and articulate.

 

[SFLUFAN]

"Not to mention that I didn't even understand what was going on and why."

Guess that superior IQ of yours must've taken the day off huh?

 

[Spartan]

um i think its a sequal otherwise it wouldnt have a2 at the end of the name

Quake 1-3 are seemingly sequels, even though they have no relation to each other.

 

[CriYam]

Your purpose was to rescue Eli and then mount a final attack on the combine.

Well, you never really do rescue Eli, you're kinda captured to him.

And mounting a final attack on the combine would have been great, that's what I felt was missing, after all that running away I was hoping for a complete turn around where you unite everyone to go on the offfensive.

Instead they installed a shortcut by making you slow teleport over a week, so the resistance had all the fun of working towards that old museum for that week; where you cakewalk up to the place.

When you are outside the trainstation and the resistance fighters pull down the monitor that had Breen on it, that felt like an accomplishment until I realised I had nothing to do with that. Did I (Gordon Freeman) do anything but give these people a fighting spirit just by arriving?

 

[Spartan]

"Not to mention that I didn't even understand what was going on and why."

Guess that superior IQ of yours must've taken the day off huh?

Or maybe Valve just doesn't know how to tell a story.

 

[SFLUFAN]

"Or maybe Valve just doesn't know how to tell a story."


Nah - I'm pretty sure the fault lies with you.

 

[Spartan]

"Or maybe Valve just doesn't know how to tell a story."


Nah - I'm pretty sure the fault lies with you.

Or maybe Valve just doesn't know how to tell a story.

When you are outside the trainstation and the resistance fighters pull down the monitor that had Breen on it, that felt like an accomplishment until I realised I had nothing to do with that. Did I (Gordon Freeman) do anything but give these people a fighting spirit just by arriving?

I think the whole messianic undercurrent wasn't used properly. Ok, everyone's telling you that you are The One, basically, but it doesn't really lead anywhere. There's no final, epic battle where you lead the resistance to victory, or awe-inspiring heroism.

 

[CriYam]

You arrive in city17 (curtesy of the G-man)
***The Combine realise who you are and they know what your capable of (ala Black Mesa)
Your part of the resistance against the combine forces along with the fighters, scientists from Black Mesa etc
***You try to evade combine related death or capture meanwhile trying to reach possible safety
You join the resistance against the combine
***The combine have been tracking/tracked you and mount an assault for your capture/death
***Eli is unfortunately captured and you are separated from Alx
etc
etc

I personally did not feel like I was just running around being shot at.

Almost every point you listed has you running away being shot at, except the 2 times you mentioned you join the resistance, even though you really don't join them except for the last little bit where they did all the work, seems like the only time they needed you really; was to fire the RPG's at the ships and striders.

*** is the need to just run away because if you don't you will die. Where am I going and why? No time to ask, must run.

 

[Fighter]

Or maybe Valve just doesn't know how to tell a story.

They certainly do! The story was deep and the way it is done is very well executed. You have to dig for the facts and it makes you think about it.

You just don't appreciate this kind of storytelling or simply lost. Hey, but that is just you....

As for it being a sequel. Well the the story is a direct continuation. Yes a long time has past but if you pay attention it is not difficult to understand what happened.

Read this. It is a good theory about the story even though I dont personally fully agree with everything.

http://members.shaw.ca/storage_4/hl2story/


The gameplay gave me the same feel as I had playing HL1.