HL1 -> HL2?

[Stormy]

i was just wondering if you would of have to have played HL1 before you played HL2 to totaly understand the story. I my self have played most of HL1 (didnt like the alian planet at the end) but most of my mates + some people on the fourms havnt played HL1.
Do you think they will have lost out alot on the story?
and
How much effect will it have if you go stright to HL2 on story? will they be going around saying WTF?!

 

[Svv4T]

Probably. If they don't know a thing about Gordon, Black Mesa and what happened there, they surely will be disorientated when it comes to explanation of what happened at BF.
If the GMan intro in the video is a scene ingame in HL2, they won't know who that guy is, what's the hell he is talking about, etc...
But then again, HL story isn't too complicated and you can tell them the story in 5min, and they will know what's HL all about. An experiment that goes wrong in a secret research facility creating a resonance cascade and opening a rift between our world and some alien world. Bla bla. So that's not a big deal. The main story isn't that complex, but it's all the little details ingame that makes the game really interesting.
Anyway, if your friends have some time on their hands, they should play the game, just because HL2 will be release in probably 3-4months.

 

[Beserker]

You really want to play it safe now, eh? 3-4 months? Hardly. They said 'this summer' and I said 3 months ago 'this summer' even the previews said 'this summer'. I'm not hyping but 3-4 months is kinda overshooting it.

 

[Letters]

I don't know if I even ever got to the half-way point... but I know what happens just from reading these forums.

 

[egon]

saying all that I cannot see any reason for anyone not to have played half life. If you havent, put on your headphones or a cool speaker system, put the game on the highest possible res with fsaa and af and play it thru on the difficult setting. itll be the most amazing gaming experience you've ever had, period.

The graphics might look a bit dated but apart from that nothing about half life has aged, its still worth playing as much as it ever was. infact im playing it for the 10th time right now

 

[Polykarbon]

You will be in the cool guy club if you do play it though!

 

[Lobster]

Get them to watch the 1 hour half-life vid, its pretty nuts but its a crash course in the basics!

 

[Brian Damage]

VALVe have stated repeatedly that having played HL will help, but it won't hurt if you haven't.

 

[Dead-Inside]

i was just wondering if you would of have to have played HL1 before you played HL2 to totaly understand the story. I my self have played most of HL1 (didnt like the alian planet at the end) but most of my mates + some people on the fourms havnt played HL1.
Do you think they will have lost out alot on the story?
and
How much effect will it have if you go stright to HL2 on story? will they be going around saying WTF?!

DEFINENTLY no. You will not say WTF? because VALVe aren't morons. You don't NEED to know the story that leads up to City 17 and HL2 in general, it's a new branch on Gordon's life.

 

[wayne white]

please tell me there are NO xen levels in hl2 ,i could never play that part in the original,i hated that disorienting feelingso i never finished the game.

 

[Svv4T]

You really want to play it safe now, eh? 3-4 months? Hardly. They said 'this summer' and I said 3 months ago 'this summer' even the previews said 'this summer'. I'm not hyping but 3-4 months is kinda overshooting it.

Lol, yeah I don't know what I was thinking when I posted this. Let's say 1-3 months? Between June and August.

Valve said Gordon won't go to Xen in HL2, but they said Xen will be coming to Earth or something like that. I guess there are some Xen plants and stuff somewhere in HL2, but no platform world like in Hl (or so I hope).

 

[The.Spiral]

Maybe the people who never played HL1 would want to wait for Half-Life Source?

 

[SubKamran]

They said that they made the game so people who HAVE played and people who HAVEN'T played can still understand it and have fun.

It's not a requirement but it's a good idea.

 

[CrazyHarij]

please tell me there are NO xen levels in hl2 ,i could never play that part in the original,i hated that disorienting feelingso i never finished the game.

There will be no Xen levels in HL2.. I hated that part too, never finished the game due to that aswell.

 

[Beserker]

Lol, yeah I don't know what I was thinking when I posted this. Let's say 1-3 months? Between June and August.

Valve said Gordon won't go to Xen in HL2, but they said Xen will be coming to Earth or something like that. I guess there are some Xen plants and stuff somewhere in HL2, but no platform world like in Hl (or so I hope).

That's more like it! But real men say 5-24 hours! >_<

 

[galoot3000]

if you havent played HL, shame on you, stop reading, go out, and buy the game. i hear your able to understand the whole story if you haven't played it though, Eli will probably catch you up on most the story.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

i was just wondering if you would of have to have played HL1 before you played HL2 to totaly understand the story. I my self have played most of HL1 (didnt like the alian planet at the end) but most of my mates + some people on the fourms havnt played HL1.
Do you think they will have lost out alot on the story?
and
How much effect will it have if you go stright to HL2 on story? will they be going around saying WTF?!

well u may know the story from what pple tell u and stuff.. u ever hear pple say "u gotta do it urself to understand it"

i think same applies here.. u won't understand the depth of the story if u skip HL1 and just go to HL2.

of course the question remains how hardcore are u into the HL series.. the more u like the series, the more the reason to complete HL1 before starting HL2.

if ur just a casual gamer then i guess as along as u know most of what happened, i guess ur okay.

 

[brightgreen]

Xen took a while at first, but it's the best part of the game after all IMO.

 

[Brian Damage]

Id agree, I thought that Xen was really cool... All the low gravity, organic terrain, and sparky things...

 

[A.I.]

i was just wondering if you would of have to have played HL1 before you played HL2 to totaly understand the story. I my self have played most of HL1 (didnt like the alian planet at the end) but most of my mates + some people on the fourms havnt played HL1.
Do you think they will have lost out alot on the story?
and
How much effect will it have if you go stright to HL2 on story? will they be going around saying WTF?!

VALVe said it playing HL1 won't be prerequisite for understaning HL2, but I think it will be much more rich experience for those who have (including me :cheers: ).

Oh, yeah, Xen rocked. I was totally blown away by that really alien feeling, without any earth-like logic. Although there was really a bit too much platforming...

 

[Didymium]

I guess I'm one of the few who really liked the Xen part.
And I also guess won't have to worry about missing anything of the story because I have finished the game well over a dozen times. :E

 

[Baal]

I think it would be a good idea to play HL1 first...

Xen was kind of neat......

But since I didn't play HL1 for so long after the original release (I think the first time I beat the game was last summer) that my opinion can't really matter too much...since I didn't even like the game all that much because it was so outdated by then.

But I can totally relate to like....if I had of played it years before, best game ever.

I still think it's the best game ever though.....

blah, ramble.

 

[Cole]

I finished HL, was really fun n kick ass. Along with blueshift(Blueshift takes like 1 hour) n Opposing force..(1-2 hours)....
Personally i think that you should beat HL1 to understand what exactly happened. About G-Man n everything. Thats just my personal thought though...

 

[egon]

zen was incredible. the jumping puzzles were irritating yes. infactr most jumping puzzles in hl were irritating eg the lambda core ones.

but the rest was plain scary esp the factroy where the slaves do not attack u until u disturb them and the giant spider fight. the encounter with the gargantua in interloper and killing him with snarks and whatever else uve got. xen was amazing because of the believably scarce ammunition and great environments.

 

[[sl@yer]]

It's amazing that from all the people I've heard talk about Xen, these are the first positive comments. I've always thought that Xen was alright, but have only heard people call it "that really crappy alien world place at the end" up until now! I didn't like the tedious puzzles, but the look of it was good.