HL2 shorter then HL1?

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Hey. I got HL2 up and running a week or so ago and completed it in about three days. Is it me or is HL2 shorter than HL1? It took me bloody ages to complete HL1 and although that was a couple of years ago and I've gotten better at fps games since, I sorta get the feeling that HL2 was definitely shorter, quicker and easier. I think the lack of a boss at the end contributed (personally I hate bosses).
 
Half Life 2 is much easier than HL 1, but I don't think it's shorter. Took me ages to finish both.
 
HL1 is way longer, due to the difficulty part.
 
Scottish? Nice. Half Life feels longer, because of all the crazy puzzles and backtracking to switch levers and etcetera, and because it's inside and encolsed. And because the guns are less good.
 
KineticAesthetic said:
Scottish? Nice. Half Life feels longer, because of all the crazy puzzles and backtracking to switch levers and etcetera, and because it's inside and encolsed. And because the guns are less good.
Click to expand...

You take that back.

The Gluon and Gauss are 2 of my favorite weapons.
 
No, not 'less good' like stupid and ugly and whatever, but just that HL2 guns are a bit overpowered. It takes more to kill a soldier in HL than a combine in HL2 with the pistols. Yes?
 
HL1 is definitely felt longer. That had 17 chapters right? And of course the Grunts from HL1 are not wussies like the Combine. Damn I miss them. Really hope BMS would use that AI model.
 
HL1 had far too many chapters and was so overly long it wasn't even funny.
 
Both felt long enough during the first two times playing, both feel short enough now that I remember them well :).

HL1 had quite a bit of backtracking. Levels such as Power Up or Blast Pit were, essentially, puzzle levels, and had heavy backtracking. Also, there's the On A Rail chapter, which just about everyone agrees was too long. I don't hate it as much as some people, but still think it was a good 30% too long.

That said, I could probably go through HL1 faster now than through HL2. Other than the Lambda and Interloper chapters, HL1 is easy enough even on Hard, after getting used to it.
 
HL1 is longer and more difficult. HL2 is more condensed, polished and fun.
 
I'm betting the load times are distorting the perception a bit. Half-Life 2's still take about a minute to load the levels, whereas Half-Life's are a matter of seconds.

Half-Life 2 may be the easier game, but to me it's still longer in length.
 
Hmmm, I agree that HL feels longer, but with the following qualifications:

--HL2 has several long cinematic scenes that can't be bypassed. Even in the exploit-laden HL2DQ, Gordon doesn't get a gun until about the 16 minute mark, the reason being that he'd been stuck in Kleiner's Lab for several miuntes with no option but to wait. For this reason, the HL2DQ speedrun on Google Videos takes fully three times as long as its HL1 counterpart--though, it should be noted that the use of exploits bypasses large sections of both "Office Complex" and "We've Got Hostiles" in the latter.

--Someone with knowledge of how to solve the puzzles in HL2 (through having played before or having consulted spoilers) will be able to complete large segments of the game in a breeze. Likewise, anyone with a knack for solving HL-style puzzles quickly will also make short work of the ones in HL2. HL1, in contrast, relies far more on combat choke points and platform-style elements (i.e. jumping puzzles) requiring timing/coordination to slow the player's progress. These both feel longer and are more effective in drawing out the game--witness the much bitched-about Xen chapters.

--For someone who, like me, played through HL1 after finishing HL2, the differences in level-design can be a bit disorienting. It took me longer than it should have to complete both "Blast Pit" and Power Up" (two rather short levels) because I was expecting them to be more straightforward. There is substantial truth to the belief that HL2 is more linear, IMO.
 
I dunno, HL1 was really long. I had friends who thought that the tentacle in Blast Pit was the final boss. So did I at first, but I was kind of glad it wasn't. I loved that game, and everytime I thought I was almost finished, it continued. I had so desperately hoped that (when I DID reach the final boss) it wasn't over. I thought that HL2 was too short, and would make sense if it were (with or without overpowered weapons) because HL2 was more advanced so they had to fit a huge amount of AI and textures and so on onto one disk, rather than the lower texture quality and polygonical characters in HL1. HL1 was a bit harder and ergo a lot funner because of the really good AI. Like some one mentioned, fighting the marines and almost every enemy in HL1 was fun because of the difficulty. There was also the fun fact that you could kill civs. Like in the 'Questionable Ethics' chapter, The scientists you're supposed to rescue can be killed til you only have one, and oh the many ways I did that *evil grin*
 
HL2 is more polished because it is newer.
If the remake ever comes out HL1 will kick the crap out of HL2.
Of course I think Valve should do a rebuild of their own, but Im a dork so what do i know.
 
Valve shouldn't make Episode Two and beyond. They should just spend all their time remaking Half-Life :p.
But seriously, HL1 did at least feel much longer than HL2. It might even be too long. I've been replaying Episode One a lot recently probably because it's doesn't take long to complete, I get a sense of accomplishment at the end. HL1 feels like a marathon in comparison.
 
BMS will have Xen levels. They're changing a few things here and there for better immersion/consistence/gameplay, but they're staying faithful to HL1 at the same time. So it'll certainly have all the levels that HL did, starting with the trainride and ending with the G-Man conversation.
 
Omega11 said:
Ve-ree nice! It looks really good, but I think that there is a more classic feel to HL1 and so on. But when BMS DOES come out, I'm almost positive that EP2 will have loads of competition. Unless BMS doesn't have the Xen levels, then I'll be greatly disappointed.
Click to expand...

Hehehe can't wait to fight this bad boy

gargantua_beauty.jpg
 
I was expecting BMS to do some of the stuff that VALVe couldn't do because of the computer limitations of the time, but no use. :|
 
Such as? The above post is a good example of that anyway. Such amazing-looking models weren't possible in 1998 - well, the entire graphics of BMS is something that wasn't possible back then. The physics, too. What else do you want?
 
My first time playing HL1 was pretty tough, I remember that damned tentacle, the maze at the Office Complex, the confusing hell that was the Lambda Core (the teleport puzzle) the many reloads of surface tension, and of course, Xen.

Well actually Xen wasn't that bad; the gravity is lower, so one can fall from farther and live, but the very first (stepping stone) part gave me the impression that it would all be like this.
Luckily it wasn't.
 
HL1 was great, but just about too much of anything. HL2 was pretty much perfect. Losing all your guns in the citadel kinda sucks, after the complete amazingness of Follow Freeman.

Which is probably the greatest level in any game, ever.
 
HL2 had a much larger type of story so it felt short considering that you were fighting in a major action rather than just going away from an area way more exciting to go on
 
In HL1 they built the story around the game, in HL2 they built the game around the story.
 
Pretty good description I'd say.
 
Herr Mike said:
In HL1 they built the story around the game, in HL2 they built the game around the story.
Click to expand...

And the enemy was very well designed, along with the city and all that they spent so long in developing the concepts they almost rushed the game
 
A lot of that beginning felt like a mod with all the barrels but the enemies and story were great to go through and the action was quick
 
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