hl2

[Anonymous No.10917696]

replayed it recently, what holds up and what not from a modern perspective?

Still good
>graphics
>sound design
>shooting

not so much
>unskipabble not cutscenes that go for too long
>the defend point for x minutes of waves of enemies is not good

the intro is too long but i concede that it was impressive back then. even then its just a chore to replay and i recommend anyone to start playing when you receive the crowbar.
was absolutely hyped by that game release and couldnt play it with good framerate ntil around 2013, back then we didnt had hd longplays no commentary like today so while i saw 2 times the alyx no commentary run i think this looked better back in the day compared to the present release of alyx. whats your opinion on that??

[Anonymous No.10917702]

>>10917696
i think hl 1 has more soul since you dont have annoying npcs that dont stop talking to you but the gameplay and combat on this is way better

[Anonymous No.10917709]

>>10917702
copare the gunplay with shooters from the era and this was on another league, really impressive it still fells really good to shoot on normal (dificulty scaling was shit though, they should have gone with more enemies instead of insanely spongy ones)

all the messages on this post were made by the same person

[Anonymous No.10917719]

>>10917696
I replayed this recently also, and I disagree with you on the graphics part, that was what actually seemed most dated to me. With a lot of games, the graphics retain their sense of style as an artform, but with HL2, now it just looked to me like a game that looked realistic in 2004, but blurry and smushy in 2024. The textures are really bad a lot of the time.
I wasn't really bothered by the cutscenes seeing as the vast majority of them are not really cutscenes but just scripted events where you can still move around. And even the actual cutscenes like the intro and the ending don't feel any longer than they need to be, they have their place, and you only have to see them once. Overall I thought the game was still really great, the pacing is very good, and as you pointed out, the shooting is very nice.

[Anonymous No.10917726]

It's not very fun. The guns feel wimpy as hell, enemies are spongey as fuck.

[Anonymous No.10917727]

>>10917709
>copare the gunplay with shooters from the era and this was on another league,
The gunplay is the worst part of Half-Life.
Any classic shooter does it better.

[Anonymous No.10917732]

>>10917727
what game from that era does it better?
not a shooter expert but killing enemies coupled with sound design and ragdoll felt really satysfing to me

[Anonymous No.10917743]

>>10917727
Gotta agree with that. Half-Life is a great game, but the guns feel off somehow. Can't really describe it. It's not like a game where the guns feel weak, they just don't feel right.

[Anonymous No.10917805]

>>10917719
>blurry and smushy
>The textures are really bad a lot of the time.
What the fuck? This is opposite of why Half Life 2 looks dated, it has very detailed textures on very low poly geometry. I hate the way source engine games look

[Anonymous No.10917936]

>>10917696
The characters. Spunky sexy Alyx with her perfectly groomed cyberpunk look is already cartoonish enough but she and the rest of the Saturday morning resistance fighters look doubly callous and cartoonish when contrasted directly against how the rest of the humans are burlap sack wearing concentration camp inmates weeping in their dilapidated apartments while traitorous alien controlled overseers bust in to help cull the last few remnants of the species. It kills the vibe of the game when you finish battling through some slums while civil protection coldly calls out tactics couched in medical jargon and out of nowhere Barney or Alyx jump into scene with a grin and quip, and forcing her to have the hots for Gordon flirting with him while you're tensely sneaking through war zones infantilizes the whole thing.

This problem only got worse in Episode I and II.

[Anonymous No.10917950]

The only bad parts are the gimmick sequences

[Anonymous No.10917959]

>>10917950
That's 90% of the game.

[Anonymous No.10917967]

>>10917959
the vehicle sequences aren’t 90% of the game

[Anonymous No.10917996]

I don't like the addition of pocket reloads and the infinite ammo rocket crates make the rocket launcher boring as it goes from power weapon to your dedicated helicopter killing stick.
Hot rebar crossbow is cool as fuck though.

[Anonymous No.10918013]

>>10917967
There are way more gimmick sections than the vehicle sections.
Like the physics puzzles, Ravenholm, the lion pheromone thing, strider fights, etc..

[Anonymous No.10918069]

And you can't believe it's the same guy who made dishonored this game looks so boring

Also the XBOX version has better audio than the PC version

[Anonymous No.10918127]

Only remembered because of Garry's Mod and TF2.

[Anonymous No.10918227]

>>10917696
>>the defend point for x minutes of waves of enemies is not good

This is my only gripe with it. Otherwise it's basically a perfect game.

[Anonymous No.10918274]

>>10917805
This, the poly count is very inconsistent.

[Anonymous No.10918287]

>>10918274
Source is also very inconsistent with normal mapping and is clearly an afterthought. It's so fundamental in this 2004 game that you can't even disable it.

[Anonymous No.10918347]

why'd they stop making these

[Anonymous No.10918374]

>>10918274
The fuck are you talking about?
>>10918287
Every character and most surfaces are normal mapped. You have no idea what you are talking about.

[Anonymous No.10918380]

>>10918347
they released cs 2 and hl alyx couple of years ago, pc gaming just changed and now its mostly online so they adapted to that

[Anonymous No.10918384]

>>10918013
You have a broad definition of gimmick
>>10918347
They got bored and Steam made megabucks

[Anonymous No.10918425]

>>10918274
>Better physics
>better scripting
>more things per scene and particles
Both are worse than the Epic, Ea and Rockstar engines, but ID has always been inferior to the Source Engine. Even Source 1 did things better than Id Tech 2

[Anonymous No.10918605]

>>10917936
thats spot on, dialog between MCs always bothered me but i couldnt explained it like that. visuals and atmosphere are great but when main characters talk it takes a hit.

[Anonymous No.10918958]

The gunplay was fucking garbage, ehat the fuck are you talking about? Easily the worst aspect of the game.

[Anonymous No.10918960]

>>10918347
They released Team Fortress/Half Life/Portal as tech femos for their engine. They must have an internal policy which prevents from making continuations without making an entirely new engine.

[Anonymous No.10919142]

>>10917936
This

[Anonymous No.10919508]

>>10917936
i agree, dr breen and g man are the only tolerable characters because they don't break tone

[Anonymous No.10919801]

>>10917696
>unskipabble not cutscenes that go for too long
Now I'm not a huge fan of these either but I got to wonder how much of this being annoying is due to having already played it before. I don't really remember having issues with this back then.

[Anonymous No.10921373]

is the "half life 2 has bad shooting" bait?? just played it again and its exelent.
can those people provide examples of whats a better shooter of that era?
>they cant

[Anonymous No.10921485]

>>10917696
>we know you're lonely piece of shit
>here's a waifu who constantly praises you even though you haven't done anything

I found this shit insulting/alienating. It broke itself and all other video games for me by reminding me they're a form of pornography and playing them is gooning. I'm not lonely. I can be with people when i want to be. My calendar has social activities for every day.

[Anonymous No.10921492]

>>10921485
>My calendar has social activities for every day.
arts and crafts time at your group home doesn't count.

[Anonymous No.10921497]

>>10921373
Counter-strike Source is similar. I don’t think CS would be where its at if most people throughout the series felt its guns weren’t fun to shoot.

[Anonymous No.10921504]

>>10921497
HL1 had awful guns too, yet CS, with all new guns, was extremely popular.

[Anonymous No.10921660]

>>10917696
I only find the not cutscenes to be annoying on repeat playthroughs. Even then, I like to take in the atmosphere.
I also liked the hold out sections, especially the ones with the turrets.
I'd actually say the gunplay is the weakest part of the game as everything is too spongey and don't seem to react much to your shots. I mostly play through the game with mmod now

[Anonymous No.10921684]

>>10921504
If HL1’s weapons “feel awful” to someone, the ones in CS are likely to feel worse with how they handle.

II also enjoyed HL1’s gunplay. It also quietly gives a lot of enemies a health boost on the ‘hard’ setting, something that can make a difference in ‘gun feel’ when compared to the squishier targets in CS. A lot of enemies in HL are kind of beefy even without the difficulty health buffs.