Half-Life 2: General Consensus.

[Wildhound]

I'm very curious as to what the overall impression is now that almost everyone has played through a large portion, or all, of the game.

 

[lans]

Not best game of all time. But definately the best PC FPS since HL.

 

[f|uke]

Read my tag.

 

[mayfer]

best game ever without a doubt

 

[UnmarkedOne]

I've played pretty much every shooter that has ever come out on any platform, and HL2 truly is the greatest. I still have a favorite RPG, RTS, and other games in other categories, but as far as shooters, HL2 goes above and beyond what it promised. I had really high expectations (and have been disappointed by a number of other games because of that) and was still very impressed with this game.

 

[MajorPayne]

This is the first game (since halflife1) to actually live up to my expectations, and pass them! I have had so much fun, and there is so much depth to this game, that I will be playing and replaying it for years (just like halflife). Best Game Evar. (untill hl3 that is )

 

[PvtRyan]

Best FPS game ever. Although slightly disappointed in some areas.

 

[Spartan]

It's too early to say if it's one of the best fps games ever. I played Quake for about three to four years, and I played Half-Life from 1998 to the present. We'll have to see if HL2 can match that.

In all honesty, there was something very special about Quake, and I doubt that any game can do that again. Not even HL2.

 

[Rotary]

I was not disappointed at all. Best game ever. Easy.

 

[mortiz]

I voted for the second option, not obviously the best FPS (since I don't believe in something being the "best", since it all comes down to personal preference) but the most enjoyable FPS for me since Half-Life.

I just wish there was more dammit.

 

[Wildhound]

Well that's reassuring. With all the complaining going on I was starting to wonder if maybe I was the only one that thought it was fantastic. It seems though that there's just certain bits that people are nitpicking while loving it on the whole.

 

[Plug]

I voted the second option, i expected it to be that good... i would say best game ever too, though.

 

[[46] pushit [2]]

Well that's reassuring. With all the complaining going on I was starting to wonder if maybe I was the only one that thought it was fantastic. It seems though that there's just certain bits that people are nitpicking while loving it on the whole.

yeah, i have been keeping away from the forums cuz it seemed the first few days of it's release it was just getting bashed for stupid things. it was people coming in who had played it on easy and rushed through, didnt' even really get a feel for the game. that bugs me a lot.

voted option1, definetely the best game of all time. i loved it from the first second, it the train ride in surpassed my hype. and i haven't even beaten the game yet....so glad there's still more!

 

[redrain85]

I haven't finished the game yet, so I can't really say for sure. I think I'm about 1/2 way through. I've been purposely taking my time so I don't finish the game quickly. Up until this point, I'd say it hasn't quite lived up to my expectations but still far surpasses all other FPS titles. Definitely game of the year.

 

[Acert93]

What to vote.

I paused before voting.

Memories of Zelda: OoT came to mind--for its time, ZOot really just slapped the competition down. The polish, the "ripe" fullness of the game. In an odd way it was like the total refinement of a genre, yet it also was one of the first 3D Action RPGs. You expect a game like ZOoT to be a the last game in a technical series--not the first. Zelda, like HL2, was its own world.

And then there is GoldenEye, yet another game for the N64. While not as shiny as top teir FPS of today, the features and story still hold their own. Not much had really changed for the positive in FPS since the days of Quake/Duke Nukem/HL/GoldenEye, and GoldenEye is an example of a good (and fairly difficult) FPS with a story with an excellent multiplayer. I wasted years playing MP in this game. I would get new games and they would stink, so my friends would and I would all go back to GE. This happened until Conker's. Nothing on the consoles really touched GoldenEye.

You also have such great games like the original HL--which was stellar. And oh, it had little things like TFC (my favorite), Natural Selection, and a little mod called Counter Strike. The PC has had some great titles of the years (Starcraft and almost anything made by the old Blizzard come to mind).

And I must not forget titles like Madden. 2005 is testiment to refinement in gameplay. I was sad when Dynamix dropped the FPS Football series, but Madden after all these years has finally reached that platform in features and has gameplay in spades.

Recently there have been some very addictive games like Battlefield 1942 and its mods (which I play to death) that have really taken off (BF1942 sold over 4 million copies on the PC ALONE).

But, if we all honestly look back, while these games were groundbreaking in their time, we do look on them with some hefty nastolgia.

HL2 is not perfect (no game is "perfect"), but the total package it delivers, in my opinion, was perfect in comparison to what it measures up against. FarCry, Doom 3, Splinter Cell, BF1942, all great in their own ways, just are not even in the same league.

HL2 is not revolutionary in the way most games are. You cannot say, "HL2 has a unified lighting system with all dynamic lights and dynamic shadows". You cannot say HL2 tells a great story--it does not have a story even in the traditional sense. But HL2 IS a story--HL2 is about an experience that IS a story. HL2 pulls you into Gordon and holds tight and never lets go. The story is there, but in a new way--you there, lost in the middle of it, LIVING the story.

We can nick pick little things, but HL2 does so many things so well it just gels. It is a beginning of a new way of thinking about how a FPS evolves and expresses itself.

And I doubt HL2 will be matched in full for many, many, many years. I would put money that HL3 will be the only game in the next 2 years to do all HL2 does.

And for those reasons, nostalgia aside, I think HL2 is the best game ever. A game has never made me "feel" for the world and players in the game, and no game has told a story where I did not feel like a viewer looking at a game, but feeling LIKE the center of the game. It sucked me in and never let go--and for that I think HL2 is the best game I have ever played. It may not have the replay value (I bet it will be around a long time with mods... but we will see) of BF1942 right now, but the ride is like no other.

 

[Ownzed]

I love it!!

 

[Asuka]

Surpassed the hype: Best game of all time.

It surpassed everything i thought a game could possibly have. I mean i knew it would be the best game of all time. I knew it would be perfect. But this is just simple insane. My jaw droped at so many parts of hl2. I couldnt believe my eyes. I mean how can you posibly think of some of that stuff. I am very sad the game finish but i am also very very happy. I got to play Half-Life 2 and beat it. Now we all wait for Half-Life 3 the finial chapter. I love the story i love valve for thinking of this great trilogy. I cant possibly imagine how valve will top Half-Life 2 off. We will wait and see.

 

[Rafa 5.0]

I have played some of it, looks and feels great thus far, great game :thumbs:
So... what happens after HL3???
We all just kill ourselves??

 

[F1R3DR4G0N]

Right feel free to bash me on this one as some of this is self inflicted , It is most deffanetly one of the best FPS ive played since HL1 but i felt a little cheated as i just completed the game (the self inficted part) but i felt there wasnt enought of the story told like what happened inbetween HL1 and 2 for the world to be in the state its in. Also the speicial edition is all but impossible to get hold of in the uk, one shop could have imported it from the us but it would cost £70 which is £40 more then i paid for the game i couldnt warrant paying that just for HL:source which was why i wanted it. And lastly the whole online steam thing, stopping people copying good, making me log into steam only to be told the servers full bearing in mind i want to just access single player, bad. its a nice idear but needs a few more patches, and if i had been told i would have to do this just to play i would have bought the silver steam package anyway.

Sorry enought nagging the game is brillient i felt it was short (maybe i shouldn't have played for 19 hours yesterday, lol) but i was really impressed and it is so much better then doom3 which is great because all my mates went on about is how good it was. if i could just buy HL:Source i'd be even happier.

As i said i know ive nagged a bit so feel free to hit me with large sticks

 

[lanzemurdok]

I pretty much have enjoyed this game immensely.. i've never enjoyed a game more than this.. and that's saying something.

I like how someone put it the words that YOU are living a story, and you are not being spoon fed the story. Create it and make your own assumptions and ideas about the story you just EXPERIENCED.

 

[Wildhound]

What to vote.

I paused before voting.

Memories of Zelda: OoT came to mind--for its time, ZOot really just slapped the competition down. The polish, the "ripe" fullness of the game. In an odd way it was like the total refinement of a genre, yet it also was one of the first 3D Action RPGs. You expect a game like ZOoT to be a the last game in a technical series--not the first. Zelda, like HL2, was its own world.

And then there is GoldenEye, yet another game for the N64. While not as shiny as top teir FPS of today, the features and story still hold their own. Not much had really changed for the positive in FPS since the days of Quake/Duke Nukem/HL/GoldenEye, and GoldenEye is an example of a good (and fairly difficult) FPS with a story with an excellent multiplayer. I wasted years playing MP in this game. I would get new games and they would stink, so my friends would and I would all go back to GE. This happened until Conker's. Nothing on the consoles really touched GoldenEye.

You also have such great games like the original HL--which was stellar. And oh, it had little things like TFC (my favorite), Natural Selection, and a little mod called Counter Strike. The PC has had some great titles of the years (Starcraft and almost anything made by the old Blizzard come to mind).

And I must not forget titles like Madden. 2005 is testiment to refinement in gameplay. I was sad when Dynamix dropped the FPS Football series, but Madden after all these years has finally reached that platform in features and has gameplay in spades.

Recently there have been some very addictive games like Battlefield 1942 and its mods (which I play to death) that have really taken off (BF1942 sold over 4 million copies on the PC ALONE).

But, if we all honestly look back, while these games were groundbreaking in their time, we do look on them with some hefty nastolgia.

HL2 is not perfect (no game is "perfect"), but the total package it delivers, in my opinion, was perfect in comparison to what it measures up against. FarCry, Doom 3, Splinter Cell, BF1942, all great in their own ways, just are not even in the same league.

HL2 is not revolutionary in the way most games are. You cannot say, "HL2 has a unified lighting system with all dynamic lights and dynamic shadows". You cannot say HL2 tells a great story--it does not have a story even in the traditional sense. But HL2 IS a story--HL2 is about an experience that IS a story. HL2 pulls you into Gordon and holds tight and never lets go. The story is there, but in a new way--you there, lost in the middle of it, LIVING the story.

We can nick pick little things, but HL2 does so many things so well it just gels. It is a beginning of a new way of thinking about how a FPS evolves and expresses itself.

And I doubt HL2 will be matched in full for many, many, many years. I would put money that HL3 will be the only game in the next 2 years to do all HL2 does.

And for those reasons, nostalgia aside, I think HL2 is the best game ever. A game has never made me "feel" for the world and players in the game, and no game has told a story where I did not feel like a viewer looking at a game, but feeling LIKE the center of the game. It sucked me in and never let go--and for that I think HL2 is the best game I have ever played. It may not have the replay value (I bet it will be around a long time with mods... but we will see) of BF1942 right now, but the ride is like no other.

That pretty much sums up how I feel. Although I think it will have some great replay value. I'm already half way through it for the second time. I can see myself finishing it maybe four times before it starts to get... too familiar. By then some mods should be poking their heads out. Then of course there's the mods I'll be making myself.

I definitely agree on BF1942 though, there's something about it that'll just keep pulling you back again and again. Battlefield 2 looks fantastic. If it manages to be as fun, it will be a treat.

 

[Wildhound]

So... what happens after HL3???
We all just kill ourselves??

Well I don't know, have Valve actually said there won't be any more games in the HL universe? They may go on to make HL4... or even another game in the same world but with a new title.

Or else they could move on to a whole new project, which I'm sure would also be fantastic.

 

[Sparta]

Not the best game ever but certainly one of them. Ties with the original game as the best FPS ever.

There were some parts in the game that just made my jaw drop with how amazingly cool they were. Such as the scene with Dog and combine dropship, or the end sequence. It was like, everything Valve decided was going to be cool, it had to be so damn good that no one else could've done it like that.

My only complaint, is that the A.I wasn't able to show itself off as much as it should have. Take Halo 2 or Far Cry for example. Far Cry had this entire jungle for the A.I to use as cover. With Halo 2 every portion of the level is designed to recreate the same type of battles, over and over again. Both those games pull it off really well. With Half-Life 2, some of the levels, particularly the early ones, were set-up so it was just supposed to be a straight-forward shooter, the A.I didn't really have anywhere to hide in the open, except maybe behind a dumpster or a car.

The only thing i really wanted was for the early levels to be a bit more tactical. Especially "Route Kanal", hate that level, its too straight-forward.

But it didn't bug me the least bit when i got to Ravenholm, when i was listening to every single noise around me incase there was a poison headcrab :X. Or in Nova Prospekt when i was commanding my army of Ant-lions to slay the combine

The game is just awesome. If anything i hope i can mod some of the levels so i can add a few more obstacles to use as cover.