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Thread: Half Life 2 Complete! Impressions...

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    Senior Member retroborg's Avatar
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    Half Life 2 Complete! Impressions...

    I completed HL2 two weeks ago at a friend’s computer in a single weekend.
    The levels are very nicely/realistically connected & actually give out a nice illusion of continuity in the story line flow. I haven’t witnessed this since I completed Unreal 1 back in 1999! The enemy AI was great & those troopers with the blue-eyed mask/helmets were the most sinister looking foes I’ve seen in a FPS for some time now.

    My favorite highlights were:
    1. Overall the physics engine in HL2 was great. Probably even better than the all mighty Doom3!
    2. Incredible outdoor scenes. The city surrounding the Citadel & the sea view next to the road on the cliffs was truly breath taking. (Only Far Cry can beat it in this department)
    3. The part with the hovercraft, where you race through the polluted river in the outskirts of the city. I loved the part where one of the rocket tanks blows down a tall chimney and you speed right under it just in the nick of time. Later on when you get the machine-gun on the hovercraft you 1st encounter those cool 4-engine spaceships flying over you & dropping mines in front of you.
    4. The transport spaceships with the 4 engines & the gunships were the coolest looking air-born vehicles I’ve seen in a FPS. They definitely had a Japanese/Anime feel into them. I loved fighting them with the laser guided rocket launcher. Specifically, the gunships looked like Mecha/Squids!
    5. The part where you 1st get the buggy and drive through a very long route, while having to stop and use the huge crane to drop down the bridge & fighting the ant-lions.
    6. I thought the part where you get trained by the DOG-Mech, to using the gravity-gun, was a very nice touch. Later on when hell brakes loose and DOG opens the huge gate that lead to the zombie city and then slamming it in your face, gives you a shiver down the spine that you’re completely disserted, compared to the warm home-feel of the training.
    7. The Gun Fight with your comrades at the light house after you park the buggy. When the carrier spaceship lands on top of the light and the troopers start poring out, was one of the coolest fights of the game.
    8. Having to pass under the bridge with the strong side-winds pushing you from every direction.
    9. The small force field protected forts, blocking the city blocks & the enemy troops firing at you from on top.
    10. The street warfare at the besieged city around the citadel, where the rebels were fighting against the Walkers and you hiding under trenches as the storming Walkers were rampaging right by you, was a shocking experience indeed!
    11. When you 1st enter the besieged city, (last level before the citadel) you encounter the DOG/Mech fighting a group of evil troopers. They try to smash it by driving an armored transport unit against it, but DOG picks it up and throws it right back in their face! A few seconds later DOG jumps one of the enemy transport spaceships and flies away. Surprisingly you meet him again later on when it uses all it’s might to lift a part of the expanding/moving wall of the citadel clearing the way for you. This was definitely one the coolest character I’ve encounter in a FPS.
    12. The citadel it self was one the most shocking & sinister looking structures I’ve seen and so was the last level inside it.

    Now what I did not like:
    1. The 1st part of the game up to the point where you get the hover craft, was very boring & repetitive. I actually thought about stopping if my mate hadn’t encouraged me to play further.
    2. The Grand/Administrator Evil Villain looked like Mr. Bean and was by far and away the most retarded looking bad guy I’ve seen in a game. I was very happy when I blasted him & his generator at the last stage.
    3. The haunted/zombie/ghost city was very boring, repetitive tiring. Not very fun at all.
    4. Same goes for the disserted Prison stage.
    5. The way that the Gravity-Gun was powered at the last level, was very cheap imo. I was like, Umm... Yeah Right!
    6. The Boss fights were very disappointing & the Bosses them selves very uninspiring. A FPS without some cool Bosses to back it up is... ahh…hmm.. Well…a novel.
    7. The ending was total crap! Worse ending ever! Even worse than Quake 4

    So HL2 was a great game, (definitely not overrated) with many nice touches, innovations, incredible graphics & sound and cool physics engine, but it’s short length, the lack of cool bosses (very important in my book) & the crapy ending, place it behind Doom 3 & Quake 4 imo.

    P.S. I think Gordon Freeman was a wimp and the most retarded leading character in a FPS. It’s hard to believe that a scientist could operate a dozen high-tech assault weapons, fight through that entire holocaust & live to tell the tale in the end… Ahh.. Yeah right!
    And no I’m no Halo fan.


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    Banned Smokey21's Avatar
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    Agree on most of your good points, bad points, it's an awesome game, not as good as the orginal, but close.

    I really enjoyed Ravenholm myself, i thought it was brilliant.

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    Капраз dkmech's Avatar
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    First of all - I don't think that Doom 3 really had much of a physics engine... So i don't see where you are coming from there:
    Overall the physics engine in HL2 was great. Probably even better than the all mighty Doom3!
    The crowbar picture - he didn't just have the crowbar, he had the rocket launcher, the gravity gun and the alien weapon. So master chief can stfu.

    Finally - scientists are supposed to be clever people. Surelly they can work out how to use a gun, after all it was scientists and engineers who developed them in the first place.
    Tough on mirrors, tough on the causes of mirrors.

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    Studmuffin Flibb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by dkmech
    Finally - scientists are supposed to be clever people. Surelly they can work out how to use a gun, after all it was scientists and engineers who developed them in the first place.
    Thers about 250 scientists working here, most of them couldnt find their arse with both hands and a map.

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    Капраз dkmech's Avatar
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    Yes, but arse isn't much of a weapon is it It hasn't been created by scientists in the first place.
    Tough on mirrors, tough on the causes of mirrors.

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    Studmuffin Flibb's Avatar
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    Well a chicken makes eggs, but you wouldnt trust it to cook you an omelette.

    Actually the average scientist can cause more damage with their car than a gravity gun or rocket launcher, and the ones around here frequently do.
    Last edited by Flibb; 13-01-2006 at 05:39 PM.

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    Well you wouldn't expect women to cook their babies would you... That's not what we do in a civilised society.

    I still stand by my belief that an average scientist would be better at figuring out how to use a gun than say a hair dresser (no offence to them).

    It also depends on the kind of science I suppose, but I am not thinking about linguists or historians here.
    Tough on mirrors, tough on the causes of mirrors.

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    yeah it was a great game.

    I hated ravenholm and highway 17 though, 2 pathetic levels imo which caused me to stop playing for quite a few months.

    However nova prospekt probably remains the finest level i can remember in any game i thought it was really, really well put together and spurred me on to continue with the game (after finishing H17 i was ready to drop the game again).

    I thought the citadel level was a great change although you are practically invincible but the final "boss" fight was pathetic as was the previously mentioned "ending".

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    Well its mostly chemists here (not the dispensing kind), you can trust them to burn the building down, have the odd explosion, generally set light to things, use a gun noooo way. They are possibly the least practical people on the face of the planet, just about the only way they could figure out how to use a gun would be to phone a lab technician.

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    Ive played thru this game since it came out, and each time I beat it I go play something else for a while. Each time I come back to play it again Im still impressed. Top Game tbh, Allthough I wouldnt rate it as the best game ever, it is certainly one of them.

    CoolerMaster ftw!!!

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    It think its a top game as well, I also play many of the mods and add ons like do and a bit of cs.

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    hmmm...thanks for that. i've not played HL2...I love far cry, just can't top that unless its REALLY impressive!
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    Quote Originally Posted by shiato storm
    hmmm...thanks for that. i've not played HL2...I love far cry, just can't top that unless its REALLY impressive!
    It's really impressive

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    Quote Originally Posted by dkmech
    The crowbar picture - he didn't just have the crowbar, he had the rocket launcher, the gravity gun and the alien weapon. So master chief can stfu.
    LMFAO
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    I loved HL2 when I played through it the first time but I found it has virtually zero replay value. When I started playing through the second time I began to realise just how linear and tightly plotted it is. I got bored very quickly the second time through..until I found the cheat to enable the enhanced gravity gun from the start. Then it became a fun challenge to play through with ONLY with gravity gun.

    Far Cry was IMHO a much superior FPS in many respects, especially in replay value. The huge open vistas allow lots of exploring and potential for approaching problems in different ways. There is also the stealth option in Far Cry which is lacking in HL2. I've played through Far Cry four times and enjoyed it every time.
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    Senior Member retroborg's Avatar
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    Yes, I agree. Far Cry is one of the few modern FPS that uses the old school non-linear formula, up to a certain extent.
    Even so, I found it very boring and never got close to complete it. Unlike HL2, which nailed me right on my sit and I completed it in just 2 weekends.

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