Half life 2 boring?

AfternoonLemon said:
Halo - now that IS a boring game, and the sequel was even worse. Just constantly wading thru hoardes of enemies - single player Quake anyone? In fact, Quake 1 SP was better for the time of release in terms of a revolutionary advances.

It amazes me how highly regarded Halo is on the Xbox, when, quite frankly, it is a run-of-the-mill FPS which barely raised an eyebrow when ported to the PC.

I can't understand why anyone can see HL2 as being anything other than the best game ever made, to me there is no doubt, the games is so close to flawless it's unreal (no pun intended...).
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its microsofts advertising, good arent they, imagine how hyped up we are gona be over there next OS , and most probably how upset we are gona be with it
 
:sniper: :devil: D-I-S-A-G-R-E-E, for those of u who agree, wtf is wrong with u?
It all action man!
 
HL2 pwns.

The main problem with HL1 was that i was stuck in the freaking science labs for almost the whole game.

SCIENCE LABS! ARE THERE ANY WORSE PLACES TO BE STUCK?
 
I really can't see how people clinging onto the belief that HL1 could possibly be better than HL2 (in anyway) can be doing it with anything other than Rose-tinted glasses. As I'm pretty sure I've already said!

For the starter of the Topic...just...just got to hell! WTF? It's like saying "You know that Hitler chappie....he was rather funny dontcha think?" and then nothing. No explanation. Nothing! Why, How and When was it boring?

I totally agree that HL1 was revolutionary for its time. Playing a single level from start to end (essentially) rather than having loading screens in between that told you how many baddies you didn't kill. A proper story. Coherent baddies that made sense to be there. Squad AI that chucked grenades. Not to mention the graphics which, when I turned on the OpenGL option, totally blew me away!

But no game has ever absorbed me so much as HL2 did. Maybe it was because I played it non-stop for about 9 hours the first time I sat down with it...maybe. Or maybe it was for all the reasons 'Logic' stated above! It's actually funny playing through Doom3 now - it has physics but...why doesn't that book case move? And why do all the enemies just disintegrate instead of ragdolling?

HL1 Revolution
HL2 Evolution
Doom3 Devolution
 
HL1 seemed to have more replay value, I really wanted to replay HL1 a couple times but I felt like I had to force myself to replay HL2.
 
Yeah, I know what the guy feels, I felt each of the levels was just a BIT too long... Like they were milking the same thing just a TAD too long... Didn't feel like replaying it at all...

Especially Canal Route and the boat sequence were horrible near the end! :dozey:

But apart from that, I think 2/3rds of each level kicked ass, and overall, the game was immensively immersive... Too bad they didn't do anything music, A-I or story-wise, 3 not so difficult elements that could have made the game really LEGENDARY instead of excellent...
 
Yeah I completely agree, HL1 was muuuuuch more fun.

HL2 is just another scripted FPS game, and I've seen plenty of these including call of duty and fra cry and so on (farcry was much less crpited btw).

HL1 had better weapons better enemies better levels...

The only truly unique level in HL2 was the last one with the super gravity gun, now that was some fun.

But driving I've seen, sewers I've seen, city fighting I've seen. They were well done granted but nothing special.
 
I think the only real problem with HL2 was that it was too short. In other words, the only problem with this great thing is that there's not enough of it! The original HL was a good, long game... like 30 hours or so... at around half that, HL2 seemed to me to be brief, but I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.

If you'll notice, the parts that people site as 'boring,' like the "Route Kanal" level, are really pretty short. "Route Kanal" is maybe an hour and a half, if that, including load times AND parts when you are off of your airboat. It SEEMS like it covers so much more game because you cover a lot of distance in a short amount of time, requiring like 9 map changes.

And from Buggy-start-to-Buggy end is a few hours, it has enough breaks for combat and such (houses, crane sequence, bridge sequence, gunship sequences) that the DRIVING time is down to like maybe 20 actual minutes.

Of course, when the game itself is only 15 hours or so long, this seems like a significant portion.

And if you think that they somehow went downhill from the first Half-Life, remeber the openning tram sequence? Although I remember being SO impressed by it 6 years ago, and even reqatched it to catch EVERYTHING, it soon became the standard for how NOT to open your game. And remeber that few-hour sequence called "On a Rail?" That gave the name to rail shooter. Granted, at the time it was great to be able to actually control a vehicle in game... but it wasn't the most "open ended" of levels.

Not immersive enough, you say? The whole mysterious nature of Gordon Freeman is that YOU are him. He has no voice, no internal monologue, no body... because its supposed be YOUR internal monologue... it lets the player cast himself on the role. That being said, I don't know how it could be more immersive, while casting you as the hero-leader of the resistance, letting you interact with the real-world environment, and not only making you the sole weapon against "invaders on earth," but actually making it seem realistic enough that you, as one man, are actually pulling it off.

And don't even compare Far Cry or Halo2 to HL2. Far Cry is a Far Cry from anything remotely fun or interesting. Let me guess the next mission... I have to invade a base of mercenaries in a tropical environment. Why? Because some guy over the radio told me I should... And Halo2... that's a whole other topic...

My point is basically reinstating what everone else has said above, with examples. Many people seem to have this shining memory of the perfect game, Half-Life, which while it was REALISTICALLY perfect, it, nor HL2 is or can be what everyone wants it to be. I, personally, loved the buggy sequence, loved the eerie, horrific feeling atmosphere in Nova Prospekt, and loved the whole game. You just have to stop and appreciate how awesome it really is while not focus on everything that it ISN'T, which is 'what everyone wants it to be.'

Perhaps that will be HL3's "evolution."
 
Hmm... I completely disagree... HL2 was better and exhilrating than HL1. not that I sound that I dislike HL1. but the levels in HL2 made me say... WOW!!!
 
hl2 is way better.. i couldn't even stand to beat through the entire singleplayer of hl1.
 
The driving along the coast with the buggy wasn't boring. It just so happens to be my favourite level. It's supposed to be a relaxing part of the game where your like thank f**king god I got the f**k out of there. It's just a level where your supposed to re-cooperate for the next intense battle. It's like Sunday driving if you will.
 
I found Hl1 much more exciting. I really felt I was in "there" (BM) and i had to get outa there. Also the first levels where it gets invaded is so fricking awesome
 
I am not saying HL2 is bad. It's just a different shooter and it's genre it is one of it's best
 
HL2 is more exciting/fun to play because you have the grav gun and the l33t physic system :cheers:
 
physics system is taken care of by the havok physics engine. But I did find it wort my 50 euro :p.
 
I think if you compare hl1, the week it came out, to hl2, the week it came out, you might see what hes talking about

Compare hl1 today, to hl2 today, and hl2 would be better (even though i thought hl2 has a major dissappointment, its pretty, and has physics, hl1 didnt)

IMO hl1 is much better overall because of that first thing i said. :D
 
I think if you compare hl1, the week it came out, to hl2, the week it came out, you might see what hes talking about

Compare hl1 today, to hl2 today, and hl2 would be better (even though i thought hl2 has a major dissappointment, its pretty, and has physics, hl1 didnt)

IMO hl1 is much better overall because of that first thing i said.
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I dont get your point....:hmph:
 
I prefer HL2. Probably because I hate jumping puzzels. Probably the ony realy bad thing about HL1. Probably
 
Half Life 2 has little to no replay value. The game is far too short and far too easy. Don't get me wrong. It's pretty. But that's it. Making a game with the best graphics in the world doesn't mean shit to me if the game just isnt fun after the second or third time through. The multiplayer games are crap so basically Im just hoping a good mod gets made. HL2 was completely filled with tons of bugs, not to mention the whole Steam issue. Steam would have been great if it were implemented when it was actually working properly, same goes for the game itself, but the customers shouldnt be expected to be the beta testers.
 
i didnt like hl1 myself, so im gonna have to disagree. i wasnt able to complete the game a second time though, it was too linear for me.
 
I think that the difference between HL1 and HL2 is that what was new and innovative in HL1 was obvious and skin deep while in HL2 it is more subtle and in a direction most people didn't expect. At the time HL1 was released, the big goal was to make games more like interactive movies and HL1 did that extremely well. Now at this time, the big fad is non-linearity while HL2, instead, went in a direction most people weren't looking at as much-- to make a more complex narrative.

With this mind-set, it is very hard to be introspective and ask yourself (a lot of people probably didn't even think of this question when they judged the game): has Valve taken the next step in interactive storytelling? The truth is that yes it has (how big of a step is debatable). It has taken immersion, complexity of scene, scene transition, imagery/visual cues, character interaction, etc. to a new, more sophisticated level in FPS gaming. The problem is that many people are not looking for these things. They are looking for the most high-tech CG animation in Schindler's List, or the best choreographed martial arts scene in Casablanca-- and then being dissappointed in both cases.

I can't, however, condemn this because we all look for different stuff in the games we like. I just don't think it's very objective to label a game as boring because you didn't get what you went in looking for (especially when the game has one of the most varied SP experiences I've ever played).
 
HL 2's weak spot is it's story. Why ? Because it practically doesn't exist. In 3 days in which the action takes places, you do nothing but wander from point A to point B, where they'll give you directions to point C... and so on.
I expected a lot more depth. Seeing that HL 1 had a very superficial storyline, I thought HL 2 will come and fill some gaps, make it all believable. I'm not complaining about the characters, or the general feeling of the game. It's just that I'm not very fond of killing for 15 hours straight, whithout knowing what I am fighting for. You can't just throw a player into a gameworld which tries so hard to be misterious, without giving him some solid background of what the heck is going on. Or at least at the finale, an answer or two, something, anything ! But, NOOO ! The G-Man re-appears thanking you for the killing-spree and puts you to sleep till 2007 when HL 3 will probably do the same thing once more.
You know, I love the idea of giving the player a feeling of insignificance. But this is too much. It's just too watered up. This game could have been so much more with just the tiniest bit of effort. I mean adults created it. Are they satisfied with this storyline ? Maybe they even find it complex... Do they still read fairy-tales ? Is simplicity the same with simplemindedness ?

Yeah, I'm just acting too mature... why ask for more when it's easier to just be content with what you get ?
 
HL2 was fun when I hadn't beaten it, but just remember, how long did you play HL before you had to wait for a mod to come out because you were bored.
 
HL2 has no storyline?!! :O WTF?!! Now this is getting TOO FAR! :hmph:
 
I found hl2 boring too. Well fun for the first time, but once you played it once, it gets dust on your PC because seriously, scripted sequence like these are boring to replay.
 
I think the scripted sequences are tolerable as long as the grav gun is in play, it added a lot of replayability values. :cheers:
 
I finished it 5 times. The gameplay is practically perfect. But for those of us who NEED more substance , it's almost nothing but an empty shell. (only talking 'bout the way the stroy's presented)
Look at Syberia. Now why the heck shouldn't shooters have that kind of complexity ???
 
Because we'll all be pointing our crosshair at stuff and clicking away like crazy...*click**click**click* :p
 
I think if Valve are honest with themselves they'll admit that HL2 while a success of style does fail in certain areas.

Undoubtably HL2 hits many high points, the start right up to entering the power plant is great with the feeling of 'what the?' and running for your life. Right out of an action movie, great fun.

However when you hit the rest stop, instead of some chat filling in blanks your shoved a gravity gun in your hands and told to 'look at the pritty physics'. A little brief would of been nice, but the closest you get is 'oh it's an honor to work with you' and other such irritating prattle.

I'm all for subtle, but I still think a game has to tell a story. HL2 has a story, but you're not told any of it, you have to gleen tiny amounts of info out of random chatter and the odd picture. Just makes that one area of the game lacking for me.
 
I'm all for subtle, but I still think a game has to tell a story. HL2 has a story, but you're not told any of it, you have to gleen tiny amounts of info out of random chatter and the odd picture. Just makes that one area of the game lacking for me.
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Some people actually like this approach, though. Don't just scream "BAD STORY" because it is not. It is an obscure, unconventionally told, thought provoking story.

It is unique in that its interest comes from what is NOT said, not what is.
 
HL2 as a story was great the first time, but once the scripted sequences were off, replaying it wasn't that fun.

(except for when i forgot what happened. then that was fun)

Also, Modding will extend the life of HL2 until, by the time HL3 comes out, we'll be playing the Sims: Source....
 
Originally posted by um on bun
HL 2's weak spot is it's story
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I think your absoutley wrong there, the one main thing is its ability to tell a story. The ability to be emersed in the world around you, alot of gamers who played the game expected it to be your usual romp with someone filling in the details.

They didn't get it, what they did get what as a totally unique and immersive approach to storyline which, some gamers somewhat ignored by not taking in thier surroundings and little details.

If you do the latter, you will relize its more than just A to B.
 
To be honest I'm sick to death of being "told" a story in computer games.. characters stating the obvious and clarifying plot points over and over again... briefings before missions that tell you everything you could have known within seconds of seeing it with your own eyes.. The thing I love most about HL2 is that you "experience" the story. The player is given the benefit of the doubt that they have enough intelligence to figure things out for themselves.
 
Logic said:
The player is given the benefit of the doubt that they have enough intelligence to figure things out for themselves.
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And most players don't deserve it.
 
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