This is a Half-Life 2 appreciation post

I haven't played it in over a decade but I've been playing it a bit at work lately, partly because my laptop can't really run recent games and partly because I just wanted to play it.

I just got through Ravenholm and I forgot how fantastic that whole level is. Crazy adrenaline the whole way through. What a fantastic game.

So about that Episode 3...

Still my 2nd favorite FPS game behind only Metroid Prime.

I know people always talked about how revolutionary half life 1 and 2 were at the time and how well they directed the player in a magical dreamlike trance

But i personally got lost/stuck enough times back in the days before YouTube could just show me which cinder block i was supposed to climb or which square on the elevator's ceiling to click to process. i eventually just lost interest and never finished either game

The main reaction to this is usually "git gud" or "i didn't have any issues", but i know it was an issue for a certain percentage of normal players. I know this because gaming was infested by big honking arrows, quest markers, and fast travel in the years following

That fad didn't appear for no reason! It was in reaction to something

Half-Life is one of my favorite games and I still haven't played 2 lmao

banananor posted...

But i personally got lost/stuck enough times back in the days before YouTube could just show me which cinder block i was supposed to climb or which square on the elevator's ceiling to click to process. i eventually just lost interest and never finished either game

This reminded me of the video where the one youtuber couldn't figure out crouch jumping and threw a little fit What a throwback.

Anyway HL2, it's a game I tried to play a few times, but it was one of those FPS games that gave me massive headaches which happened for me a bunch back then. So I never got past the second level. It was weird, Counter Strike Source didn't give me headaches but HL2 did.

Half-Life 1 has aged like corpse but 2 is timeless.

HL2 remains the most "next gen" feeling game I've ever experienced, at least in contrast to previous games. I distinctly remember barely being able to believe what I was seeing looking at previews and especially playing that game on day one.

Xtlm posted...

This reminded me of the video where the one youtuber couldn't figure out crouch jumping and threw a little fit What a throwback.

I remember my friend and i trying to burn through HL1, and we thought we had already tried opening the roof of a stalled elevator from above

We wandered around forever! It turned out only 1 quarter of the elevator roof responded to the open button. "Oops"!

We figured it out a couple of weeks later after scouring gamefaqs guides

A lot of games back then were incredibly aimless

I've never met anyone who completed the ps1 casper game

Xiahou Shake posted...

HL2 remains the most "next gen" feeling game I've ever experienced, at least in contrast to previous games. I distinctly remember barely being able to believe what I was seeing looking at previews and especially playing that game on day one.

Honestly the physics are still amazing, as well as the way you can use all the different items with the grav gun. Still feels unique and satisfying.