Disappointing piece of garbage..

CrazyHarij · Nov 30, 2004

Half-Life. The name itself makes people tremble and shiver with joy, feeling sudden remembrance of past golden gaming days. That first time you rode the train track. When things started going wrong. The headcrab suddenly jumping out of the first corner, making you scream as your pants suddenly weren't that roomy anymore.

The realism in the game, the atmosphere. How it took gamers with storm. What other games were around there back then? Games where the peak of the complexity of the game was "Find the red key to open the red door to the red vault with the red boss so you could find the green key to the green door to the green vault with the green boss."

No, Half-life was completely different. It had substance and consistance. The story was, albeit in the old b-movie "Experiment goes wrong"-style, was carried out with perfection, due to one thing: Storytelling. Storytelling is the language of the game, it's way of explaining the game to you, telling you the story, immersing and embracing you into the illusion that you really are there.

Half-Life did that in a way which has yet to be surpassed. The whole game was like a solid, uninterrupted consistent journey towards freedom. Gordon was, ironically, not a free man. He was trapped in the depths of humanity's own manufactured Hell, Black Mesa. A ridiculous amount of corridors, rooms, office complexes and machinery stations which was once a haven, was now an inferno, with aliens waiting in every corner, aliens who weren't as friendly as E.T, rather, they were sure to massacre everything that wasn't part of them.

Your goal? You had no goal. There was no score to reach, no set amount of enemies to kill, no red door with a red vault with a red boss. All you wanted to do was to get out of there alive.

As things went more and more wrong, the government decided to try and clean things up. However, not in the ways you or that unlucky scientist friend thought; They wanted to clean everything up, including "unauthorized" human witnesses.

Anyhow, I hope you get the idea. Half-Life was perfection. The story did not end in the traditional movie fashion, rather it left you standing there, considering you did not choose to be eaten alive by Xen aliens, looking at the mysterious G-Man, putting you in stasis as the screen turned black.

Now.. I hate to say this, but in comparison with this masterpiece, Half-Life 2 sucks. The story? You're thrown into an urban meatgrinder you barely know anything about and become the resistances little paperboy to travel here and there only to be interrupted there and continue traveling with boring vehicles.

You meet up with Kleiner, Barney, Alyx and before you know it, you're running away from the police you have no idea which you have no knowledge of. Why did Gordon choose to fight with the clueless resistance? Why aren't you fighting directly against the aliens, but instead fighting local authority?
Why are you in one place at a maximum of 20 minutes before you're sent away on a long repetitive journey with a vehicle just to show off Source's capabilities for vehicle travel? Gordon is a real man, he uses his feet to get through things. He's not lazy, taking the boat or the car to job, he walks through heaven and hell to it.

It just seems like it's all.. rushed. It's nowhere near Marc Laidlaws first job.. You're interrupted everywhere, you don't get a clue about what City-17 is and what humanity has become of, except tiny subtle hints just to rush through the storytelling and focus on advertising the Source engine. The battle AI is good, the graphics are impressive, but that means jack shit when the game's most pure essence is nothing but a gray blob. I don't see why the game is worthy of all this praise..

I'd have loved to fight around more similar areas in City-17 and being more in the actual city rather than being in one spot one second and being 10 miles away the next. It lacks consistency, it lacks innovativity, it lacks essence. Now the game's nothing but something to pass the time with, battling a combine soldier or two to play around with the ragdolls.

I honestly thought Valve would do something at least as impressive again, but it seems like astonishing, truly revolutionary, pieces of software are only seen once in a blue moon. It's frankly obvious that the game is just an interactive advertisement for Source.. Shame on you, Valve.

Anyone who agrees or disagrees with me?

edit: in-post ads suck almost as much as HL2.

Kakashi · Nov 30, 2004

Go Burn =]
How can you hate such a game... tsk tsk :thumbs:
Either way, Valve still has your money :E

sHm0zY · Nov 30, 2004

your a wheener

Dsty2001 · Nov 30, 2004

Disagree

There is just as much story in HL2 as HL1. It still suprises me that people don't realise that Half-Life 1 really didn't have a magnificant story, HOWEVER, it was the expansion packs that did.

Dalamari · Nov 30, 2004

CrazyHarij said:
Half-Life. The name itself makes people tremble and shiver with joy, feeling sudden remembrance of past golden gaming days. That first time you rode the train track. When things started going wrong. The headcrab suddenly jumping out of the first corner, making you scream as your pants suddenly weren't that roomy anymore.

The realism in the game, the atmosphere. How it took gamers with storm. What other games were around there back then? Games where the peak of the complexity of the game was "Find the red key to open the red door to the red vault with the red boss so you could find the green key to the green door to the green vault with the green boss."

No, Half-life was completely different. It had substance and consistance. The story was, albeit in the old b-movie "Experiment goes wrong"-style, was carried out with perfection, due to one thing: Storytelling. Storytelling is the language of the game, it's way of explaining the game to you, telling you the story, immersing and embracing you into the illusion that you really are there.

Half-Life did that in a way which has yet to be surpassed. The whole game was like a solid, uninterrupted consistent journey towards freedom. Gordon was, ironically, not a free man. He was trapped in the depths of humanity's own manufactured Hell, Black Mesa. A ridiculous amount of corridors, rooms, office complexes and machinery stations which was once a haven, was now an inferno, with aliens waiting in every corner, aliens who weren't as friendly as E.T, rather, they were sure to massacre everything that wasn't part of them.

Your goal? You had no goal. There was no score to reach, no set amount of enemies to kill, no red door with a red vault with a red boss. All you wanted to do was to get out of there alive.

As things went more and more wrong, the government decided to try and clean things up. However, not in the ways you or that unlucky scientist friend thought; They wanted to clean everything up, including "unauthorized" human witnesses.

Anyhow, I hope you get the idea. Half-Life was perfection. The story did not end in the traditional movie fashion, rather it left you standing there, considering you did not choose to be eaten alive by Xen aliens, looking at the mysterious G-Man, putting you in stasis as the screen turned black.

Now.. I hate to say this, but in comparison with this masterpiece, Half-Life 2 sucks. The story? You're thrown into an urban meatgrinder you barely know anything about and become the resistances little paperboy to travel here and there only to be interrupted there and continue traveling with boring vehicles.

You meet up with Kleiner, Barney, Alyx and before you know it, you're running away from the police you have no idea which you have no knowledge of. Why did Gordon choose to fight with the clueless resistance? Why aren't you fighting directly against the aliens, but instead fighting local authority?
Why are you in one place at a maximum of 20 minutes before you're sent away on a long repetitive journey with a vehicle just to show off Source's capabilities for vehicle travel? Gordon is a real man, he uses his feet to get through things. He's not lazy, taking the boat or the car to job, he walks through heaven and hell to it.

It just seems like it's all.. rushed. It's nowhere near Marc Laidlaws first job.. You're interrupted everywhere, you don't get a clue about what City-17 is and what humanity has become of, except tiny subtle hints just to rush through the storytelling and focus on advertising the Source engine. The battle AI is good, the graphics are impressive, but that means jack shit when the game's most pure essence is nothing but a gray blob. I don't see why the game is worthy of all this praise..

I'd have loved to fight around more similar areas in City-17 and being more in the actual city rather than being in one spot one second and being 10 miles away the next. It lacks consistency, it lacks innovativity, it lacks essence. Now the game's nothing but something to pass the time with, battling a combine soldier or two to play around with the ragdolls.

I honestly thought Valve would do something at least as impressive again, but it seems like astonishing, truly revolutionary, pieces of software are only seen once in a blue moon. It's frankly obvious that the game is just an interactive advertisement for Source.. Shame on you, Valve.

Anyone who agrees or disagrees with me?

edit: in-post ads suck almost as much as HL2.

Crazy, you stupid SOB

HL2 has by far the BEST gameplay including both physics in the gameplay as well as a interesting storyline, so STFU about boring gameplay. It also blew away everyone with great graphics and did a awesome job with making it run on low end comps.

I hope that valve sends Gabe over to put a foot in your ass.

azz0r · Nov 30, 2004

Whine much?

Kakashi · Nov 30, 2004

Dalamari said:
I hope that valve sends Gabe over to put a foot in your ass.

I 2nd that motion :thumbs:

Dsty2001 · Nov 30, 2004

Oh yes, you claim HL1 was good because of the story. Let me tell you something - Your wrong

It was how the story was presented (Just like HL2), not the story itself. Most people didn't even put together the peices from HL1 until recently.

the5th · Nov 30, 2004

HL2 is the best game yet.

Thimbob32 · Nov 30, 2004

Bad story, but not the distaster the above author feels.

nagual678 · Nov 30, 2004

i like how people can express their own opinions without having the fear of people insulting and flaming them reasonlessly.

especially on halflife2.net when you speak bad of a certain game.

Edcrab · Nov 30, 2004

Half-Life 2 is a great game, and the story is pretty damn good for an FPS.

It's just ironic, to me at least, that it has a more epic, more complex story than the first game yet somehow spends a far briefer time actually involving the player in it when (proportionately) compared to the original HL.

I think the general problem is that people expected HL2 to do to the game world what HL did all those years ago. HL was a revolution, HL2 is just a counter-revolution- we've seen it all before, it's just more modern, younger and better equipped. I don't think that's entirely a bad thing, however- I love the game.

Dsty2001 · Nov 30, 2004

It's just ironic, to me at least, that it has a more epic, more complex story than the first game yet somehow spends a far briefer time actually involving the player in it when compared to the original HL.

I think the general problem is that people expected HL2 to do to the game world what HL did all those years ago. HL was a revolution, HL2 is just a counter-revolution- we've seen it all before, it's just more modern, younger and better equipped. I don't think that's entirely a bad thing, however- I love the game.

I've said it 500000 times and I'll say it again. When HL1 was first released, people were just as clueless about the story as they are now about HL2. It took about 4-5 years before people even started realising that the Vortiguants were being controlled by the Nihilanth. In four more years, after all the expansions and mods, people will have peiced together the story and praise it for its genius. Just like HL1

CrazyHarij · Nov 30, 2004

Dsty2001 said:
Oh yes, you claim HL1 was good because of the story. Let me tell you something - Your wrong

It was how the story was presented (Just like HL2), not the story itself. Most people didn't even put together the peices from HL1 until recently.

"It was how the story was presented" Is in a shorter phrase STORYTELLING. That was the whole thing about it. The storytelling in HL2 is utter shit.

Crazy, you stupid SOB

HL2 has by far the BEST gameplay including both physics in the gameplay as well as a interesting storyline, so STFU about boring gameplay. It also blew away everyone with great graphics and did a awesome job with making it run on low end comps.

I hope that valve sends Gabe over to put a foot in your ass.

It has good gameplay. "Interesting storyline", can you elaborate instead of headlessly putting your shit comments and thinking with your arse? Fanboy.

Running on low end comps? That's because that's all the game is about: Source. All that has to do with Source and making Source looks impressive is because of, you should've figured it out by now, SOURCE! It's just a big damn ad.. Valve spent the most of all those years building Source, now they can earn bigtime cash by licensing it to companies, and they've already done that twice.

Ch1cKeN · Nov 30, 2004

Bravo for typing it up so intelligently and civilly.
*clapclapclapclap*

To be perfectly honest. I agree on some part: I never had to find a keycard in Half-Life.
A large number of people here are too thick in the head to think past the eye candy.

Half-Life 2 is nothing special, nor does it even surpass as a sequel. At the very most it lives up to its name as a squel, but does nothing to improve on the formula.

I can only say that the physics system is by far the greatest bit of the entire game, more games should be made off it.

thats only my 2 cents.

Incitatus · Nov 30, 2004

lol the fanboyism is starting to make this forum utterly uninteresting.

good points Crazyharij, don't agree with all of it, but I do agree with your general opinions

Redjackel · Nov 30, 2004

nagual678 said:
i like how people can express their own opinions without having the fear of people insulting and flaming them reasonlessly.

especially on halflife2.net when you speak bad of a certain game.

aye, i agree with you. i disagree with what the original poster said, but im not about call him a stupid sob for voicing his opinion.

Dalamari · Nov 30, 2004

CrazyHarij said:
"It was how the story was presented" Is in a shorter phrase STORYTELLING. That was the whole thing about it. The storytelling in HL2 is utter shit.

It has good gameplay. "Interesting storyline", can you elaborate instead of headlessly putting your shit comments and thinking with your arse? Fanboy.

Running on low end comps? That's because that's all the game is about: Source. All that has to do with Source and making Source looks impressive is because of, you should've figured it out by now, SOURCE! It's just a big damn ad.. Valve spent the most of all those years building Source, now they can earn bigtime cash by licensing it to companies, and they've already done that twice.

I really hope you die Crazy for not seeing the greatness in this game. It has to be the best game ever made. I doubt VALVE even made it, God must have came down and made it.

The way they show the story, unravell it for the player is pure genius. Also the SOURCE is what makes HL2, mods will use that and make some amazing things that the Q1 engine could NEVER EVEN COME CLOSE TO!

Mr-Fusion · Nov 30, 2004

Dsty2001 said:
I've said it 500000 times and I'll say it again. When HL1 was first released, people were just as clueless about the story as they are now about HL2.

I know. I was reading the exact same complaints 6 years ago.

"Story is crap, ending sux, xen is g3hy."

Ryjalon5k · Nov 30, 2004

the original poster is ungrateful.

Dsty2001 · Nov 30, 2004

Ch1cKeN said:
Bravo for typing it up so intelligently and civilly.
*clapclapclapclap*

To be perfectly honest. I agree on some part: I never had to find a keycard in Half-Life.
A large number of people here are too thick in the head to think past the eye candy.

Half-Life 2 is nothing special, nor does it even surpass as a sequel. At the very most it lives up to its name as a squel, but does nothing to improve on the formula.

I can only say that the physics system is by far the greatest bit of the entire game, more games should be made off it.

thats only my 2 cents.

It's funny that people that have to run the game at low resolution even are praising it. I guess thats still the eye candy huh?

Half-Life 2 does surpass as a sequel, it has all the original game did and more. Linear game? So was HL1. Not alot of questions awnsered? HL1. Tons of freaking puzzles (moreso than HL2) HL1. Honestly, if you enjoyed the first game, and you don't enjoy HL2, you either
A: Didn't play original
B: Played original but rushed through it.

Edcrab · Nov 30, 2004

Dsty2001- wah? I presumed that every single Xen creature in HL was controlled by the Nihilanth when I first played the game.

I don't know why you're focusing on me- I'm not being hostile. It's a bit of a misguided notion here that if Poster a) forwards an opinion, Poster b) is contractually obliged to aggressively attack it. It's not as if I said "anyone who thinks otherwise is a worthless idiot who needs to line up for the next evolutionary moron cull".

I've said it plenty of times- HL2 is a damn great game; it consists of frantic action scenes between fluid setpieces. It's just that a lot of people would have preferred a story system identical to that in the first game- doesn't mean that I do.

Oh, and a word of advice to all the "whiners" out there- stop using such sensationalist bloody titles. You're guaranteeing that everyone'll ignore half your post and leap at the chance to torment the "troll". Just face it- you're in the minority here if you think HL2 is utter shit. There's not much point trying to debate when over 90% of the population vehemently (and violently) disagrees with anything you try to say...

Dsty2001 · Nov 30, 2004

Mr-Fusion said:
I know. I was reading the exact same complaints 6 years ago.

"Story is crap, ending sux, xen is g3hy."

Exactly! I played the game three times before I came to internet forums to figure out about the story. I had some stuff figured out, but overall I felt that my questions wasn't awnsered and that the main story itself wasn't that great. It wasn't untill I started digging deeper I realised how vast and amazing the story was. Same with Half-Life 2

Dsty2001 · Nov 30, 2004

No hostility toward you man, I'm just saying what is true. People were as clueless about HL1s story as they are about HL2s story. People didn't even figure out alot of stuff from HL1 untill a year or two ago.

CrazyHarij · Nov 30, 2004

Dsty2001 said:
It's funny that people that have to run the game at low resolution even are praising it. I guess thats still the eye candy huh?
Half-Life 2 does surpass as a sequel, it has all the original game did and more. Linear game? So was HL1. Not alot of questions awnsered? HL1. Tons of freaking puzzles (moreso than HL2) HL1. Honestly, if you enjoyed the first game, and you don't enjoy HL2, you either
A: Didn't play original
B: Played original but rushed through it.

There's a fault in your statement since I

C: Played it like hell, played it through several times, and loved it.

HL2 is just a blatant ad for Source, stealing some elements from Half-Life to try and earn more cash. (What the hell is up with the ancient sound effects and the same old except for the tracks we've already heard in the BINKs? It's not classic, it's just an attempt of milking something even more. Thanks to Source people are so blinded they are being tricked into it.)

Ryjalon5k said:
the original poster is ungrateful.

Yes, considering of how long and how much Valve hyped it with their bullshit.

Dalamari said:
I really hope you die Crazy for not seeing the greatness in this game. It has to be the best game ever made. I doubt VALVE even made it, God must have came down and made it.

The way they show the story, unravell it for the player is pure genius. Also the SOURCE is what makes HL2, mods will use that and make some amazing things that the Q1 engine could NEVER EVEN COME CLOSE TO!

Well, that'd have to be a proof of god not existing since he would never made a game as horrid as this.

"Unravel"? Rather, "Hide everything and try to tie two out of a hundred strings together at the instant end." I hope I die too, then I'll probably not have to discuss with incredibly stupid fanboys like you.

HL2 is what makes Source. It's just a damn cover for earning the bigtime money with that lil' engine of theirs.

Mac Daddy · Nov 30, 2004

hl2 is a lord of the rings type trilogy.

Dalamari · Nov 30, 2004

CrazyHarij said:
There's a fault in your statement since I

C: Played it like hell, played it through several times, and loved it.

HL2 is just a blatant ad for Source, stealing some elements from Half-Life to try and earn more cash. (What the hell is up with the ancient sound effects and the same old except for the tracks we've already heard in the BINKs? It's not classic, it's just an attempt of milking something even more. Thanks to Source people are so blinded they are being tricked into it.)

Yes, considering of how long and how much Valve hyped it with their bullshit.

Well, that'd have to be a proof of god not existing since he would never made a game as horrid as this.

"Unravel"? Rather, "Hide everything and try to tie two out of a hundred strings together at the instant end." I hope I die too, then I'll probably not have to discuss with incredibly stupid fanboys like you.

HL2 is what makes Source. It's just a damn cover for earning the bigtime money with that lil' engine of theirs.

Big time money, do you have a f***ing CLUE how much they make? Don't come in here acting like you work at Valve, you are just a ungrateful bastard who can't appreciate a good game.

Edcrab · Nov 30, 2004

Yeah... thing is, HL really doesn't have that much story to analyse.

Resonance cascade- presumably initiated by a shady Administrator, or at least due to his gross negligence- allows aliens into our dimension/world. Player shoots aliens and tries to make way to surface. Encounters the military- but they're actually a clean up squad ordered to silence the entire facility, including the player. Ends up heading to puzzle-ridden Lambda, whereby they're (eventually) instructed as to what to do next. Player travells to Xen, thwacks Mr. Head Petals- que G-man and mysterious, dramatic offer.

There's not that much to speculate on- in HL2, everyone'll be hanging on every little reference, word, sighting... just like in the first game.

Both games posed masses of questions, but neither answered them. The problem? A lot of people expected HL2 to answer their most pressing questions about the first game. Personally, even after six years, I never expected any great revelations... though we're closer to understanding who the Administrator actually is.

azz0r · Nov 30, 2004

Even if it is an advert for source, people are enjoying it and on the most part saying its the most fun gameplay experience they've ever had.

Wheres the harm in that.

joule · Nov 30, 2004

Wow, CrazyHarij. I didn't know...

Anyway. I disagree. Not strongly though.

It just comes to show that you can't please everyone. And I thought Half-Life 2 would accomplish just that.
I'm sorry that you feel this way and I surely hope that Half-Life 3 can bring better days for you.

Do I need to say any more?

SFLUFAN · Nov 30, 2004

We needed another thread like this like a hole in the head.

CrazyHarij · Nov 30, 2004

azz0r said:
Even if it is an advert for source, people are enjoying it and on the most part saying its the most fun gameplay experience they've ever had.

Wheres the harm in that.

Well, it's harming the gaming generation itself by promoting games with complexity and level storytelling this low, since people seem to be too ignorant to realise it. Same thing with Communism, same thing with the nazi regime and many other things.

The gaming industry is a democracy and you vote with your money. Don't vote for silly and unintelligent games.

<RJMC> · Nov 30, 2004

arg why you hate it Crazy?you are a nice guy

I didnt played HL2 yet but for what I heard of all you looks like is not so uber masterpiece as I thought

but still I want to play it but now tha many that played HL1 thousands of times are saying that HL2 sucks I am worried

Fury16 · Nov 30, 2004

wow...yet another person that thinks half life 2 sucks, im kinda interested on why you felt the need to tell us..i mean you wrote quite a bit on the differences of half life vs hl2 which is entirly your opinion. and sinse its your opinon im interested on why you think that is going to change our opinion, half life 2 is good..i like it and im glad i bought it. so why dont we just shut up with the hl2 is bad cuase your not the first and unfortunatly not the last to come on the forums and say this.

what has happend with all these ppl is that they followed hl2 from the second they heard of the possible making of it, they worked there expectation of the game up so high that there is no way that any company can make what they expected. so they come on the forums and act all pissed off when in the end they bought the game and if it was worth it to them or not is their problem and nothing has to be said to us cuase its not gonna change anything.

Edcrab · Nov 30, 2004

Maybe I'm just weird because I'm comparing HL2 to other games rather than its actual predecessor... suppose I'm lucky in that sense, as, to me, HL2 can't lose.

I liked it better than Doom 3 or Far Cry. Heh, id are the masters at the "techdemo"- look at Quake 3. I guess though that Doom 3 had far less mystery and actual gameplay to live up to- although to a lot of people it didn't manage it either. Maybe it's just rare to get a sequel that people actually like.

That's me voting with my money... I was underwhelmed by Far Cry, which I bought, and I like Half-Life 2 a lot more, so that's got a pride-of-place position on my shelf.

SFLUFAN · Nov 30, 2004

HL2 does NOT suck. Some people are disappointed in it for their various reasons but the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY love the hell out of it.

The game is quite different than the original and thank God Almighty for that - I would have been quite disappointed to have played a rehash of the original game.

frusion · Nov 30, 2004

holy moley crying noobs batman!

Kakashi · Nov 30, 2004

Why do we even bother to make these threads..... your going to get flamed or insulted in anyways. Why bother whine about a game in which the forum and website is dedicated too....

The_Great_Walter · Nov 30, 2004

Haha, this thread amuses me...

by the way, NOLF rules... ; )

hehe...

CrazyHarij · Nov 30, 2004

Fury16 said:
wow...yet another person that thinks half life 2 sucks, im kinda interested on why you felt the need to tell us..i mean you wrote quite a bit on the differences of half life vs hl2 which is entirly your opinion. and sinse its your opinon im interested on why you think that is going to change our opinion, half life 2 is good..i like it and im glad i bought it. so why dont we just shut up with the hl2 is bad cuase your not the first and unfortunatly not the last to come on the forums and say this.

what has happend with all these ppl is that they followed hl2 from the second they heard of the possible making of it, they worked there expectation of the game up so high that there is no way that any company can make what they expected. so they come on the forums and act all pissed off when in the end they bought the game and if it was worth it to them or not is their problem.

Hey, this is a forum. In other words, a place where people express and exchange opinions and ideas. I didn't really felt the need to tell you, I just posted my opinion to see if others agreed or disagreed.

I'm most of all disappointed since this game will be so popular every other game will mimic it and ignore the story, since it's obviously in the words of Carmack like a pornography movie story, "It's there but not needed".

Disappointing piece of garbage..

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