At the annual Who Can Shout The Loudest competition that is the PC Gamer UK Top 100 meeting, there are rules. These rules differ from year to year, and in 2008 one of them was “only one game per series.” So we couldn’t say Thief and Thief 2, or Morrowind and Oblivion – which sounds harsh, but the idea was to ensure as diverse a list as possible. And yet still no-one nominated Big Mutha Truckers 2.
There ended up being a couple of exceptions to this rule, and the one I particularly fought for was Half-Life. I simply don’t consider HL1 and HL2 to be especially comparable games, despite sharing a lead character, partial arsenal and a name. I also much prefer the first game, for all its greater shlockiness.
Why? Because it’s Indiana Jones. HL2 is more 1984-as-action-movie, and while it’s marvellously well-realised, far more polished and thematically consistent, I don’t find that as thrilling as all of HL1’s rip-roaring high adventure.
(note – I’m pretending Xen didn’t happen for the purposes of this post. Yes, it’s a bit crap).
While the events of HL1 are hardly comical – alien invasion leads to massacre, exacerbated by governmental evil – Black Mesa is nonetheless a jollier place to be than the oppression and horror of City-17. HL the first is a b-movie and it knows it, but HL2 comes off, despite knowing comedy beats, as a lot more aloof, a lot more convinced it’s something more than an action game. That has its place and I certainly admire its accomplishments, but collapsing elevators, tentacle beasts and hapless scientists perishing in their dozens is something I’m much more inclined to return to. HL2 doesn’t mix things up anywhere near as, bar the vehicle sections and some physics-puzzling. It’s more like a sci-fi Call of Duty in a lot of ways, and it does it excellently – but it never surprised me as often as its forerunner did.
Oddly, I find HL a much more convincing journey too. Being trapped underground excuses the linearity, while HL2’s more open topography requires more uncomfortable compromises such as being unable to smash through the thin wooden fences throughout Ravenhom. (For all its spooky atmosphere, Ravenholm was the one element of HL2 I actively disliked. It was shooting for the sort of setpiece-based diversity HL1 does so well, but it felt so ghost train-contrived, especially in the maze-like layout of the level).
In Hl1, I’m stuck inside a sprawling concrete mega-bunker, a construct of tunnels and ducts: I entirely appreciate that I don’t have too much freedom of directional choice, and so the annoyances of that quintessential design handicap almost all singleplayer FPses suffer just… evaporates . As a result of this claustrophobia, those moments when I emerge into the outdoors are overwhelming and terrifying: it’s all so big, so exposed. The game entirely takes advantage of this confusion too, hovering helicopters over the open roads like deadly wasps, placing fortified RPG bunkers ominously overlooking the short jogs between shelters. It makes me long for a return to the concrete underworld, back where I feel much more like powersuited master of my domain. HL2 has plenty of outdoor/indoor switching, but there’s never that startling sense of contrast.
The age of the engine means it doesn’t work on me now, but on the first HL1 playthrough, my embarrassing vertigo kicked in when I was shuffling nervously along high-up cliff edges during one of the earlier outdoor escapades. So I faced the wall, walked sideways and refused to look down – a plan that rather fell apart when murderous soldiers started shooting at me. It all seemed so impossibly huge, like I’d been locked in a car boot for three days then suddenly awoke to find myself parachuting out of an aeroplane.
And of course there are the setpieces. HL2 has its Striders, but HL1 has the tentacle beast. The former are an incredible sight, heavy with menace and the defining statement on how the Combine manage to keep Earth in check. But once you fight them, they become just another enemy with so many hitpoints, and even worse the way to take ‘em down involves a magic box of infinite rockets. The Tentacle beast though – that you can’t fight. You can distract the stupid blind thing by lobbing grenades, but you can’t hurt it. Able to kill you in a single strike and fearsomely fast for something so huge, it’s an unforgettable monster.
You can kill it, eventually, by dousing it in fuel and setting it alight with a flame the size of a lighthouse, but you cannot fight it. Now that’s a bossmonster that never loses its threat, one that’s never diminished by falling over once you’ve shot it precisely x number of times. It’s great boss design all told, some annoying back-tracking aside – an entire level of the game is structured around it, with this huge, invincible, terrifying thing at the centre. You hear those dread bangs on its giant talons on steel wherever you are – even if it’s out of your sight, it’s never out of your mind.
I could go on, about the other splendid setpiece monsters, about how much more creepy the G-Man is when he barely speaks, about how it succeeds in making simple humans the creepiest enemies of all… But then I’d never finish this post. Half-Life 1 is the great omni-sci-fi adventure – Indiana Jones with aliens (there’s an Indy film like that, you say? You must be mistaken – there are definitely no aliens in any of the three Indy films ever made). HL2 narrows its focus in the name of tightness and polish, but silly, cocky old HL1 is the rollercoaster I want to ride again and again.
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I hate it when people cry nostalgia/rose-tinted because they can’t believe someone likes a game even though it has “old” graphics.
Since Half-Life 2’s release, I have played through it exactly once. I tried playing through it again recently, but it was too dull. I have played Half-Life 1 many times since 1998. In fact, I’ve played through it 2-3 times since I’ve finished Half-Life 2.
I am also one of the few who like Xen.
I had a distinct fear of the tentacle beast. The tapping, it’s invulnerability, the tapping, it’s blindness, the tapping, it’s massive size, THE TAPPING. Oh god, the tapping.
i remember HL1 scaring the crap out of me and being horribly difficult. new one was seriously easy, don’t think i completely ran out of ammo for the entire thing. but still twas mint, love the HL storyine more than anything
Wow…
WOW…
W…O…W…
I am shocked.
I found what I thought did not exist.
A person, who isn’t an idiot.
I HATE HL2 fanboi’s, NONE of them care about the single player game as much as the multiplayer kill fest… but they’ll drone on and on about how superior HL2 is to ALL OTHER GAMES. (Graphics and Physics do not make a game… expecally if the only use physics has is to show how pitiful HL2’s weapons are. *To Instant kill with grav gun… or to expend absurdly limited ammo* is our motto.
Though… I must say… the linearity of HL1 and HL2 is purely awful. Every other FPS is superior (in that regard) because of having far less linear levels. (Oh, did I say levels? HL doesn’t HAVE levels… it’s just a walk across the entire game) and more STORY in between. Though, HL1 has a better “story” than HL2… (why is gordon freeman known by everyone… he’s a nobody scientist who died after a top secret lab was nuked (or so says the obituary).).
HL1 simply… is better. Xen creatures… the Xen levels (though the jumping gets old)… there was soo much more aww factor and MUCH cooler enemies. HL2 has only one enemy. The combine. Zombies aren’t that big a deal (cept in ravenholm where you never want to see another f’n zombie again).
And HL1’s puzzles were pletiful… and actually THERE. You BACKTRACKED more often than not in HL1 making the game seem far less linear. HL2? No such thing. A few stupid physics puzzles (I HATE physics puzzles… it’s allways “lift up some heavy stuff and put it in a basket” STUPID… HL2 fanboi’s call THAT premium entertainment?
I just can’t understand why anyone would call the peice of shit that is HL2 “Game of the Year”.
PORTAL deserves Game of the Year… that WAS unique, it WAS cool… and I had far more fun with it than HL2. (Unfortunatly it was a pet project… too short, puzzles either too difficult or too easy. [And the only ones that were difficult were ones that required you to run and throw a portal somewhere else… and pray that the timing was right.
I mean, portal is one of those games where physics COULD have gotten REALLY REALLY FUN (without a DAMN grav gun). But was JUST slightly off (Mostly, things became more “portal” than physics… I think if they threw some of those HL2 physics problems into portal, they would have been a little LESS stupid… or how about catapults? Or Merry-Go Rounds :D.
HL2-Physics without substance.
Portal – Physics… but just not enough… rube goldberg! (Maybe if there were some perminate portals like in the beginning of the game, througout the game) Or even another portalgun (unstealable this time)
I mean, PORTAL is just awsome when compared to HL2…. It’s not an FPS so it’s a bit hard to compare to a decent game like HL1 but… If HL2 had a PORTAL gun instead of a grav gun… then only 1 of 200 things would be fixed. (Such as how barnicles become your primary enemy for a while… or how annoying manhacks are if you don’t kill then with the grav gun.) .
But portal is awesome. And it was just a pet project. But HL2 sucked.
*hehe* One MAJOR gripe here.
The HEV Hazardous Environment Suit… does NOT protect against radiation or biohazard. HL1 had it protect as long as it has a charge.
Wait, I’ll take it back.. HL2 does have a FEW decent puzzles…. but they’re SOO HORRIBLE when compared to HL1. I’m talking about the maze puzzles… and they’re all single room puzzles so they’re horribly short versions of the HL1 ones.
More griping… HL1 has the Tau Cannon which = Superior Grav Gun. WHY? Because Newton’s thrid law says picking up a person with a grav gun, and hurtling that person at 200m/s, will cause you to be hurtled in the oposite direction. Tau cannon allowed COOL Physics puzzles where Gordon jumped and fired to get to distant platforms. (Instead of just being a noob and pressing “suck object to me”)
tl;dr
l2opinions
Stop applying real world science to a video game
That is all
HL2 Fanboi’s
But, Half Life 2… despite its simplistic AI, unsatisfying weapons and combat, and promise that ultimately wasn’t entirely fulfilled, is just a much better made game. Its quality keeps up throughout the brilliantly told story –
So HL2 has HORRIBLE AI, HORRIBLE Combat, HORRIBLE Weapons… but the “story” that was… not there (seriously, there IS no story. You’re gordon freeman… out for revenge. And you kill every poor combine soldier so that you can kill breen, the damn man who caused that cursed G-man to ruin your life) It works JUST AS WELL. There’s nothing to really explain why you’re doing anything… and asside from Breen TV or Resistance Radio there’s nothing to go on. You just do things because you can only move in a straight line.
To HL1 fans: Stupid bouncy alien levels.
HL2 is vastly superior. It has a gravity gun and atmosphere
It has a GRAV GUN… So what, Grav Gun = Covenant Sword… a weapon for n00bs. Of course the only GOOD “real” weapons in HL2 is the Combine Rifle’s grenade and the Crossbow. (Only an idiot claims otherwise. HL:DM is all about crossbow… and grav gun.)
As for Xen. It’s a SINGLE ARC, of a game that is easily larger than HL2.
And how can you say HL2 didn’t have the contrasts of the original. For me, fighting your way through Ravenholm at night, down into the claustrophobic mine, to emerge into the open air and sunlight is one of THE. BEST. GAMING. MOMENTS. EVER!
Give me FUCK’N AMMO. And it’d be fun. Maybe. But any sane person would realize ravenholm is a failed physics experiment. You have more traps than ammo and you end up using the grav gun way too much.
I liked HL because the level design, open areas, and history.
Source is a horribly weak engine. Just remember that before talking about “open areas” (maybe Halo, for instance…) Level design? “Didn’t we just pass that door? That building… that ROOM?
History? Most of it is player made up. People CLAIM Gordon was frozen because of the “wakeup” (you’re NOT asleep in suspended animation) scene… and the breen tv convos where he talks about how you were unable to improve your skillz (How would breen know ANYTHING in the firstplace)… All player interpretations.
including HL2 (although, to be fair, it still gets it much better than most).
Don’t be fair… be even. HL2 sucked. You ONLY fight combine… everything else is just “there” Ravenholm does not exist… antlions are just annoying (till they become weapons), and the slaves aren’t even your ENEMY… HL2 is Combine, more combine… and more combine. There really isn’t much else (and stalker / gunships are… well… stupid. Ulimited Ammo FTL)
From the standpoint of a critic I think that both Half-Life and Half-Life 2 are equal.
Fanboi
It and Deus Ex showed what gaming could be at about the same time.
OMG DEUS EX > HL2 (actually, it is… thats why I reinstalled Deus instead of HL2… gunfights and AI suck… however)
HL2 does not feel this way, although its structure parallels that of HL1 from the start. Instead of a stationary and mostly passive tram ride, you explore City 17 as a new citizen at your own pace.
For all of 5 min… Stop Roleplaying. HL1 has the same damn opening,
But whereas HL1 keeps building momentum, HL2 suddenly stops and reverses direction at the critical point of your mission to assault Nova Prospekt. After you emerge from Ravenholm, you finally stop running from the Combine’s escalating attempts to hunt you down and instead go on the offensive to rescue Eli.
No, you have allways been on the offensive. Gordon is a Retard who can only walk in a straight line. You don’t RESCUE anyone… you just keep walking until someone tells you to do something. There IS no offensive, there is no DEFENSIVE… only snipers and the inability to aim a grenade.
HL1 is a videogame with all the silly childlike characteristics that make up the attached stigma, while HL2 is something more.
NO IT ISN’T…. STOP ROLEPLAYING.
HL2 is a MOD HAPPY game, HL1… less so… but realize that you’re roleplaying this entire review… you MAKE Standard Dystopia 17 into something it isn’t… you’ve been brainwashed by graphics and nothing more.
SERIOUSLY, is a Big Brother system… with a few random and completely stupid levels in between… more immersive? NO. It’s just something that is easier to roleplay in. (Roleplay a smart person… it’s hard… roleplay an idiot… it’s even harder :P)
“Fanboi’s”
“Fanboi’s”
“Fanboi”
“Fanboi’s”
“Fanboi”
“n00b”
“fanboi’s”
I get the distinct feeling you’re on the wrong website.
RE. HL2 combat
Yes it sucks. I have been using a file with buffed damage values since day one!
In Other Words… HL2 SUCKS (You said so yourself).
If you have to MOD a game for it to be a good game… it is not a good game.
For instance, the sequence where you are trying to hold the combine back while Mossman and Alyx get the combine teleporter to work. I loved that the game created a moment where I was fully distracted by the combine, and Alyx shouted over to me and I turned around just in time to see that I’d ‘dropped the ball’ and let Mossman go rogue and had to watch her escape in the teleporter.
No, it’s completly scripted and completly stupid. Alyx should have cuffed Mossman, alyx should have tied her up… but NO, you let her escape because she was MENT to escape. Completly unrealistic. (let alone that mossman would beable to USE the teleport) Alyx is just too hot over you to care.
“I think this improves in the eps” No it doesn’t… Besides HL2: EP2 is NOT HL2. Expansions are NOT the original. So you can’t rate them into the game.
HL2’s weaponry is practically the exact same as HL1’s, just a few weapons less and with an added gravity gun (which is fun but not the messiah of fun as often portrayed, plus its transformation to the blue ubergun makes the end even more boring)
Are you an IDIOT? Yes you are… HL2 removes the Tau cannon, the Guon Gun, the SAW, Sniper, Satchles, Mines, a GOOD pistol and a GOOD assault rifle… and those were the GOOD weapons (seriously, the pistol was soo good that I used it whenever I didn’t need the heavy artilery)
HL2 has… a crossbow and a combine rifle… everything else just sucks.
I do have to add as well that HL2 and its episodes are one of the very few FPS games where the vehicle sections aren’t pure pain, so credit to that.
HALO.
And HL2’s vehicle sections are a FUCKINGPEICEOFSHIT YOU RIDE ABOAT FOR what 5 LEVELS?
HL2’s vehicles are GOD AWFUL… the only plus is that they aren’t track vehicles…. but even ADVENT RISING has better vehicles than HL2
“HL2 took itself more seriously” angle. Are we forgetting that HL1 opens with a 10-minute train ride with a portentous (though also amusing) monologue? At the time that was the very definition of “taking itself seriously”, compared to similar games of the time (which were essentially load-first-level-evil-alien-quick-shoot).
You mean Duke, Quake, Doom and those games? System Shock Anyone? Uhh, can’t remember any other old games… but HL starts a little slow. And the intro is only 3 min (mostly because it’s a “we are valve… read our names” intro)
.
Personally I prefer HL2, but that’s primarily because I love the storytelling technique.
THERE IS NO STORY.
Xen…
RAVENHOMN… The fuckn beach… the Citidel (though that was the one repetitive part I loved to play… it’s the ONLY TIME when there are more than 5 enemies around)
I think I am the only person on earth who enjoyed the Xen levels…
I liked Xen… I liked the jumping… there was just a little too much of it.
Also – I want more crazy alien guns like OpForce had – those were awesome
Barnecle Weapon > Grav Gun
Personally I hated the vent crawl of HL1, seemed like half the damn game was designed as vent-room-vent-room-ventGODDAMNHEADCRAB. The linearity of the game also felt much more pronounced to me than it did in HL2
Thats because you’re an idiot. Idiots have short attention spans and typically quit on level one… idiots also like shiny shit (thats right, SHIT) and they like to look at how shiny it is. HL2 just has purdy graphics… it distracts you longer so you don’t realize that EVERY DOOR in HL2 is locked (actually… it isn’t… as those doors aren’t real doors) Also, HL2 LACKS doors where there should be doors.
HL1 has similar faults… but there are more “traverse the area” levels where you backtrack… than HL2.