What held hl2 back

[BigJack]

Please vote on this topic, whether you feel valve were too precious about creating the perfect game as a sequel?

I think the main thing that held hl2 back was how succesful hl1 was. Now we all know how hard it is to create a successful sequel, judging from the star wars double trilogy, matrix trilogy etc, all seemed to upset the fans with their sequels. The success of hl1 must have overshadowed anything that Valve did with hl2, and would have most definately made them much more hesitant about what they put in the game.
What made hl1 so original and popular was its unnerving way of doing new things. One thing i particularly like hl1 for was the way you could shoot scientists. I know its evil, but its more real. I found it fun killing scientists that i didnt need. This was a big thing missing from hl2, it felt like we were being controlled, and brought us out of this imaginary world and told us we were in a game.
What i feel hl2 lacked was confidence. It was an amazing game dont get me wrong, but a lot of content that could have made the game a lot better was cut, i think partly because of hesitant developers not sure what the fans want. We want developers that know how to make a game and know whats cool, not people pansying around because their last game was so popular.
Valve wanted to create the perfect shooter, with graphics, story, everything to match...but in their search for perfection they lost their real aim. In a sense hl2 is the perfect fps, but hl1 was nowhere near that. I loved the imperfection of hl1, it had charm which hl2 just lost through an over-refined game.

 

[mega maniac]

I beleive this is better than the original, or maybe im just forgetting how much i enjoyed the first. However i look at it this is definatly the best game since hl1, if not ever.

 

[Foxtrot]

HL2 can't even be compared to HL1, HL2 is..well I could list everything but you already know. Also, in HL2 they were going for immersion and fun. They cut anything that wasn't fun, is it fun to accidently kill your teammates? I sure as hell don't think so, even more so when I need them.

 

[Ownzed]

I think this is alot better than the first one.

 

[operative x]

It's better in every way compared to the original.

 

[BigJack]

hmm maybe i am in a minority then? i felt a lot more for the hl1 characters than i did for the hl2 characters. I couldnt have given a toss if alyx or whoever died, but those screaming scientists.....so much fun.

 

[Baal]

I can't compare a new game to a 6-7 year old game...I just can't do it, especially since I didn't play half-life for the first time until 2001, I couldn't really appreciate the awesomeness that is the original.

HL2 is..awesome, but I'm not going to compare it to the original, it's too different.

 

[BigJack]

I've finally found what i was trying to get at that makes hl1 better for me, its much more funny. Its very simple, but i find humour in a game is very important. Situations like the scientist's dangling on rope only to fall to their doom, or lifts full of them crashing to their death. scientists appealing for help from the army, only to be pwned by them. These scenes were very funny and made me fall in love with the half life world.

Hl2 had its own fair share of humour, but i felt it wasnt as malign as it was in hl1. Hl1 was essentially a black comedy in a game with some serious elements. I feel hl2 did not bring over that black comedy element well enough.

 

[$niffy]

I've finally found what i was trying to get at that makes hl1 better for me, its much more funny. Its very simple, but i find humour in a game is very important. Situations like the scientist's dangling on rope only to fall to their doom, or lifts full of them crashing to their death. scientists appealing for help from the army, only to be pwned by them. These scenes were very funny and made me fall in love with the half life world.

Hl2 had its own fair share of humour, but i felt it wasnt as malign as it was in hl1. Hl1 was essentially a black comedy in a game with some serious elements. I feel hl2 did not bring over that black comedy element well enough.

That's true about the black comedy, but an essence was still there. One factor that really makes me enjoy the game more, you know the developers aint emotionless retards and do (quite clearly) have a very good sense of humour.

Valve owns

 

[f|uke]

I've finally found what i was trying to get at that makes hl1 better for me, its much more funny. Its very simple, but i find humour in a game is very important. Situations like the scientist's dangling on rope only to fall to their doom, or lifts full of them crashing to their death. scientists appealing for help from the army, only to be pwned by them. These scenes were very funny and made me fall in love with the half life world.

I didnt find that stuff funny at all. So when you say you felt more for the HL1 characters,. you mean you felt more amusement watching them die?

Well I'll tell you, you arnt alone,. but youre certainly the minority.

Now Barny saying "Good job, Gordon!", that was a most amuzing patronizing comment about Gordons work as a so called PHD. That was funny.

 

[Foxtrot]

hmm maybe i am in a minority then? i felt a lot more for the hl1 characters than i did for the hl2 characters. I couldnt have given a toss if alyx or whoever died, but those screaming scientists.....so much fun.

You cared about the many Barnies in Half-Life? I just wacked him with the crowbar and took his ammo.

 

[MrWynd]

i absolutely loved it, even more than the first one. now that i've completed it a few times I'm wishing there was more content. It's not that the game is short, it's just so cool and lacks enough multiplayer options. (i hope mods are up soon!!!)

 

[wilka91]

HL2 made me feel even better than HL1

total immersion into another world ... wow, I had never experienced something like this before!

 

[Wandering Kid]

i thought half life 2 was an amazing achievement but...it was really short. theres alot of numbers about how many gameplay hours people had and it seems to vary from 8 to 30. i think thats deceptive. which ever way you spin it and however long you take to walk from one end of a room to another, hl2 is a very short game. shorter than any single player FPS game i think ive ever played. i also did not particularly find any of the characters in half life 2 3 dimensional in any way. i didnt really care what they were fighting for or what they were doing. because the story was so 'mis en scene' oriented without actually hving that much going on within your frame of view that didnt involve you killing lots of things, i assumed that gorden fights for the resistance purely because hes a sociopathic nutcase and he has to satisfy his bloodlust somehow. combine soldiers are plentiful and make satisfying noises when they kiss the dirt.

 

[Absinthe]

Half-Life 2 utterly surpassed Half-Life in every aspect IMO. I can't relate to you because I was never one to mindlessly slaughter my fellow scientists and security guards. In fact, I often tried very hard to keep them alive, and felt a twinge of sadness when I had to abandon them once we reached a short ledge or a ladder.

 

[wonkers]

There were a lot more cool scripted events in HL1. They totally shy'ed away from scripted because people would freak out. They didn't want the game to be like doom3 or like the old hl1 so they made as much of it as possible non-scripted. I liked the scripted events alot though. All the story moments and being in the lab was really cool.

I don't know why they didn't focus on the tradgedy of war or urban combat. They made the war between the resistance and the combine look almost clean. When someones friend gets sniped down they just keep running like mindless idiots really.

When you see a scientist get pulled into a vent screaming "oh god oooohh god nooooo" Then you feel for them! Where in HL2 did you feel attached to an NPC? the random ones not the characters.

It's not bloodlust. It's emotion. I didn't hate the combine either. Shouldn't you hate them then sympathise with them? who knows.

 

[Cyclis]

Half-Life 2 pulled me into the game world more than any other game I've ever played with the possible exception of Fallout. I really liked Alyx, you know? She seemed like a real person, the voice acting and the facial animation all came together to make a character that felt like a real person. Even the expressions of terror from the combat NPCs felt real, they sometimes look at you with awe or hope, emotions that most games don't have a chance of conveying without dialogue.

 

[BigJack]

yeah i agree wonkers. The scientist screaming as they got devoured were both very amusing moments, but also ones that made me want to save the scientists. I felt compassion for them, and therefore wanted to destroy the soldiers and everything to do with them that bit more.

I didnt particularly want to do anything in hl2, i just did it to complete the game and see whats next. I didnt feel like "oh these heartless killers sent in to destroy us" about the combine, they were just things to shoot at and that shot me.

What hl2 lacked was a sense of purpose. Alot of modern fps lack purpose, thats why i can hardly stand most of them....half-life stood out as one that made me actually WANT to do stuff in it.

 

[Zio]

I felt I had a purpose, and I felt bad for Alyx, when Eli got kidnapped. I was truly immersed in this game, and didnt want it to stop.
I do feel in was short in the 12-13 hours of play. but I missed a lot, I think a lot of the immersion facter comes with looking around, like actually looking at this city they made. It's truly amazing.
I love this game, and think it does surpass Half Life 1 very slightly

 

[jet jaguar]

One thing I'd change is having those npc allies stay where you order them to stay and not always follow you around, constantly getting into a cluster **** in narrow hallways. That got old real quick. In HL your allies were alot more obediant and imo setting up firefights with the old Barneys was more rewarding and less frustrating.

 

[Asuka]

I think Half-Life 1 was Great but Half-Life 2 is just insane. I cant wait to see how Valve will top it off with Half-Life 3!