*raises /vr/'s collective blood pressure*

>it revolved heavily around storytelling and physics puzzles gimmicks.
The storytelling is minimal. There's only a handful of locked rooms with speaking NPC's. People blow this out of proportion. The intro to HL1 is probably longer than all HL2 cutscenes combined.

that isn't condition zero deleted scenes

Attached: cscz.jpg (460x215, 30K)

>Half-Life is linear xDDD
Maybe the overall layout and progression is, but you still have autonomy and room for exploration, and that is what matters

MUH KEYHUNTING
MUH LABYRINTHS
MUH UNREAL

playing multiplayer maps with bots is better than this

That's a dumb argument anyways. Even Doom is "linear." Who cares if a hallway forks once in a while? You still need to run to the key, run to that key's door, and do everything in order.

>The storytelling is minimal
So minimal it's the first thing you remember when thinking of the game and the thing that makes you decide to not play it again.

>my personal anecdote applies to everyone!
Sure thing champ.

>So minimal it's the first thing you remember when thinking of the game
yeah because its good and non-intrusive

cause younger people come in who havent played the game and dont like being excluded, example:

>thread still going on
jesus.

contrarianism is an easy and quick way to gain attention

wanna bet OP is the same exact pcbro?

fuck off it's a masterpiece and it has one of the best final levels ever.

it's literally a corridor shooter with unskippable cutscenes and physics showcases.

>final boss is putting a bomb in a pillar

Fuck off Opposing Force is still a fine game and isnt even made by valve.

HL/BS/HL2 not so much

butthurt zoomer. hl2 is mediocre, physics puzzles, the vehicle segments and cardboard cutout combine are not fun.

except the parts that are open and like said
HL1 intra is longer than all of HL2 cut scenes combined

>a difference of 6 years between 1 and 2
ZOOM BOOM ZOOM fuck off. I was old enough to play both games and I enjoyed both. Nobody will ever say HL2 is a "step up" from HL1. but it still is enjoyable.

everyone in this thread who thinks they are better than the Half-Life Series, are all huge faggots to hate videogames.

My biggest complaint with 2 is that the enemy roster became alot lower and alot less interesting.

Even here you cannot escape truth.

Attached: 1993_vs_1998.jpg (640x516, 112K)

>randomly teleports into the main villains head office while he's scheming his schemes
Bravo Gaben

>open game
>return with tea in five minutes
>play game with only one scripted interruption

>play hl2
>constant bottlenecks and vehicle sections
>gravity gun busts the game and is not fun to use
>dude lets kill the pacing by making you scavenge for barrels minutes at a time
Basically everything they added in HL2 is bad.
HL1 is a still a very good game.

what the fuck are you talking about retard. I love hl1 and think hl2 is mediocre. saying there's years difference between 1 and 2 and 2 still came out mediocre is not a good defense for 2.

>enemy roster became alot lower and alot less interesting
Same with weapons.

I'm saying the years difference is not enough for the zoomer boomer shit, you retard.

Swing and a miss

Attached: Half-Life 1.jpg (1280x1820, 220K)

haha he edited the pic ebic

just used your own baseless insult against you. hl1 still holds up, hl2 is mediocre. that's it.

I honestly don't think I'll ever play hl2 vanilla again when you could install smod v8 or final and have much more fun with it.

I would not play brutal hl over vanilla hl because bhl is unfinished and broken but more importantly I can have fun with hl without it.

Attached: Smod30.webm (1280x720, 2.79M)

first the thief vs mgs edit. now is the doom vs hl one.
how lazy can you get?

I'm not I didn't mention age at all, fuckwad.

Attached: your_mind_on_half_life.jpg (800x600, 22K)

That's literally all "non-linear" shooters.

you are the fuckwad who thinks there's minimal storytelling in hl2, which is arguably even more of a joke.

>walk two inches
>loading...
>whoa they are sending helicopters and troops ( cool music starts ), start walking to rooftops pumped up
> loading...
> okay this is getting ob-
> loading...
> head to elevator
> loading...
> shoot gun
> loading...
> press escape
> loading..
> finish game
> loading...
> wait for sequel
> loading..
> 10 years later
> still loading

>If I keep forcing the meme, it becomes true!
You have no perspective if you think HL2 has a lot of cutscenes. Boy I sure hate standing around for 10 seconds, ugh practically a PS3 game!

Attached: literally_same.jpg (640x516, 50K)

>storytelling is just cutscenes
desperate

>I can move around in this tiny enclosed space therefore it isn't cutscene

but hl1 and even to an extent hl2 has optional areas.

Good ways to lower blood pressure? I lost some weight and am at a normal BMI, but my blood pressure is still at a resting 128

>how many microsoft pain doddles do i need to make to prove me right?

and half life 2 barely has like 3 or4 in total
if you include the intro and ending

Honestly, game forcing me to run around a room for a minute and a half multiple times is the worst story related thing the game can do to me. Absolutely the worst. I never finished those Metro games because following characters is unbearable, but their dialogue and the game's expectations for you to look around and actually move in some manner is ten times better. And it has to be said - even if Half Life didn't just lock you in a room, its dialogue is written horrendously. I have no idea how people don't cringe listening to it. Please help, I don't wanna listen to this Big Bang Theory tier drivel.

>I can enter the green room and shoot the enemy, or I can enter the blue room and shoot the enemy!
What captivating choices! This makes all the difference!

that's my point, tard

Single room where you can find some ammo = epic optional content.

Hello Mr. Contrarian.

Attached: kat.jpg (1087x735, 105K)

>Say why you don't like game
>Fucking contrarian downvote downvote
Do you think I'm just pretending to hate annoying loading times for epoints? What is this mindset?

Don't you think you are being a touch hyperbolic? It's just a pinch of pseudo science to justify the plot. It's not "ironic" science or "poorly coded n64 emulator!"

Attached: 1544457710198.jpg (194x148, 14K)

I still enjoy HL1. HL2 is the one I can't go back to.

Optional areas where you find weapons and supplies early are still optional areas you adhd-ridden spastic

>unlike npcs in hl1 who would actually move around.

HL1 soldiers can't even move and shoot at the same time

Contrarians.

HL1 and 2 had secret stashes, there's no call for being disingenuous.

I know. I was just mocking your idiocy.

>how many microsoft pain doddles do i need to make to prove me right?
It's actually pinta.

by this logic there are no non-linear games because you are always playing same game.

By this logic CoD is non-linear.

Here's a protip: you'll raise their blood pressure even more if you say you loved both.

>moving and the shooting is the same as just standing still
some real retards ITT

what's next for the Half-Life universe Yea Forums

Attached: HLU.jpg (833x777, 223K)

A bit, but the worst part of it is that every character goes "oh hey! it's freeman! ur so awesome wow dud". I mean, not even chinese eroge visual novels don't suck my dick this hard. I hate Alyx, tho. Freeman's Mind did well to interpret her as a cunt. Unironically what I thought.

Just to ground what I said, HL2 isn't a bad game, it's just so-so. HL1 is much better.

>make a bait thread on /vr/
>complain about it on Yea Forums afterwards
the fuck's your point

hopefully nothing

Being forgotten and getting even more godawful fangames.

its popular.
Thats it.
You wont find a more honest response in this thread.

This entire series sucks except for Blue Shift

the human zombies are dumb

blue shift is the worst one though

>by this logic there are no non-linear games because you are always playing same game.
Honest question. How do we go back to non-linear shooters without locking the player in tiny maps doing an easter egg hunt for keys? Players, generally speaking, are looking to advance to the next area. Either you put in arbitrary objectives that gate the player comb an area or you just make obvious directions the player can figure out they've never been to before.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a bit of exploration, but Yea Forums's placing "non-linear" on a pedestal is kind of under-thought.

yeah well

youll change your mind in a few years anyway

So heres the real deal. Half life was NEVER a victim of shitposting on this board orignally. In fact we made fun of the idea that one day Yea Forums would be contrarian enough to pretend this games suck. So here we are. Years and years later its so important to say half life sucks because it adds to your cred. So what games are better? If you dont answer quake or doom, then you're opinoion is nonsense. No, fear and crysis are not better. Come on, you know that.

This is the board now.

wtf i love hl2 now i dont want to be downvoted for being le contrarian DDD:

*raises everyone's collective blood pressure*

Attached: marc-320x320.jpg (320x320, 15K)

just make a small town and have some trickery that you loop around/reach different areas, WITHOUT loading screens, if legacy of Kain; Soulreaver managed this on the fucking PSX it should be even more possible today with better tech

it's just that nobody wants to do it

yup, youre the kind of poster

don't forget decay

HL2 is boring.

Why. Use specific examples. Explain why other FPS are better.

>So here we are
In a world where HL is liked even in "HL2 was a mediocre game" threads? Get your head out of your ass. Almost everyone still likes both of your games and you're overreacting that they're not considered best games ever made. You're the problem here pushing people to be more critical because you write posts about how nobody is allowed to give a critique.

Crysis 1 is good starting point. On few levels you can do some crazy sequence braking and game will actually adapt.

Why is Half Life 2 bad to you retards? It's almost perfect

there's nothing wrong with combing an area, a little exploration isn't bad, just make it so that if you know the exit, a returning player should be able to book it/run to that exit and not suffer any consequence for it.

>Almost everyone still likes both of your games and you're overreacting that they're not considered best games ever made

Absolutely not true

When I play Serious Sam, there are no vehicle sections and no turrets except for the one game in the series people dislike.

There's also enemy and gun variety and regular visual feedback when enemy health drops. Something both half life games suffer from in comparison to both the fps before and after it.

I've only played Far Cry, is it a similar situation where the game is just one wide hallway?

It's the Artifact of first person shooters :^)

It banked hard on physics but ever since then they've been improved substantially. I don't like the encounter design, the AI and most of the weapons at your disposal either. Everything but the gameplay is good (I still like HL1 more in this regard too), but it's not a game I go back and replay like FEAR or RE4.

Overexposure to the Source engine certainly doesn't help either.

Id agree. i like serious sam TSE much more. Use examples why hl2 is so bad. Be specific and use examples.

HL1's soldiers are less mobile, they can't run & gun and have much simpler AI. Their behaviour boils down to running around like a headless chicken until you're in their sights, which is when they start shooting you while sitting like a duck, and when hurt they tend to flee or gift you with a grenade.

HL2's soldiers actually work together as a squad, they actually try to flank you, lay suppressing fire, take cover, etc. and most importantly can fire while shooting. Ergo, you're wrong. :-)

It's zoomers being unable to understand the context surrounding the game's release, and bringing to it all sorts of baggage from their shitty era where games are terrible and Valve doesn't make them.

>a game by the developers of Artefact and scummy PC gaming platform isn't all that good
woooooooooow

I liked 1.3 the best. I miss maps like cs_thunder, de_vegas and cs_backalley. The balance might have been horrible but goddamn if they weren't insanely fun.

Attached: 1539167543842.png (1280x913, 956K)

>It banked hard on physics
Elaborate. The physics puzzles are minor sections of the game. Give examples on how the game banked (obvious means a majority of the game relied on) on physics.

>I don't like the encounter design

Why. Elaborate and give examples.

> Everything but the gameplay is good (I still like HL1 more in this regard too), but it's not a game I go back and replay like FEAR

Lets talk about FEAR. Because in my opinion everything BUT the AI is bad. Its extremely repetitive office corridors that people often get lost in.

>HURR DURR ERRYONE LUVD HALF-LIFE 2
Everyone is fully aware Half-Life 2 is a glorified tech demo that is great until the novelty of physics puzzles wears off.
Half-Life 2: Episode 2 has the best gameplay, best soundtrack and best story of the 2 trilogy.

oh no le downvoted now i am the sad ;^(

This opinion is completely nonsensical to anyone over the age of 12.

I love these games and I am glad they came out. I am upset that hl3 or hl2e3 never came out, especially after there was a story built up and ended on a cliff hanger.

Attached: HL2_Ted_Cohrt_Isaac_Kleiner.jpg (300x455, 195K)

>The physics puzzles are minor sections of the game
That's not a very convincing argument since the entire last level is played with the gravity gun. That's bad because the game becomes a joke. Everything's dead in no time and there's no strategy to it. Except on the hardest difficulty gameplay boils down to just spam the energy balls wherever.
So you have yet another gimmick that spoils the gameplay, just like the ingame cutscenes ruin immersion and pacing and physics turns the shooting into scavenge the barrel and vehicle sections are boring. Everything new added since the first game is a detriment to the core experience.

You fucked up my face

>this board is literally me
get a personality

tfc roc2 was the best map, most challenging, and most rewarding.

I'm not here to change anyone's minds. I simply stated that HL1 still engages me when I personally play it while HL2 doesn't. It has nothing to do with being a contrarian, I've no attachment to the Half-Life games. Hell I'm more attached to its mods than I am to them.

It's a joke, user. The specific joke in question uses the current state of Valve in an absurd judgement so the reader can contrast it with how things were before.

>That's not a very convincing argument since the entire last level is played with the gravity gun. That's bad because the game becomes a joke. Everything's dead in no time and there's no strategy to it

So what? Its still a minor part of the game. And when was the rest of HL1 +2 gameplay rely on strategy besides "defeat enemies however you see fit." Its first person shooter, you've single out a portion of the game that lasts about 1.5 hours towards the end. What about that was a physics puzzle? Be specific, give me an example.

>Elaborate.
"HOLY FUCK HAVE YOU SEEN THE GRAVITY GUN" is 80% of why this game was so loved, the other 20% being graphics.

why these games trigger idfags so much?

No. Take third level for example.

You start near small village, where koreans installed jammer. You can go there and disable it, which will give you objective to go main base to retreive data. If you don't disable it, you will only get this objective once you go near that base. From first village you will either go through road leading directly to main base or through heavly guarded checkpoint. If you go directly to base you can either cross brigde and enter it directly (but it's very hard to go stealthy) or drop iinto river and approach it form different side. If you went checkpoint route them you will approach base from different side. And despite what objective tells you base is full optional. This is only 1/3 of level.

So what?

Are you fucking autistic? People have been elaborating to you all the time and you're just spamming reply after a reply "please elaborate some more"

how can a game bank on physics when a vast majority of the game is your run of the mill FPS but polished. The gravity gun section is a minority. Explain to me specifically how the physics are a crutch the game relies on. Explain to me how the physics completely overrides the gunplay. Can't put it forward as much as that.

Idfags hate any and all storytelling

The point being, just like some other things mentioned in this thread, gravity gun ruins the core gameplay and to enjoy the game you have to stash it and not use it... except for final level which forces you to use it. Yet it was, like other gimmicks mentioned in the thread, the thing that made people love the game back in the day.

>muh grafix
>muh nu way of storytelling
>muh physics
>GRAVITY GUN
>road sections wow so realistic
And now that the novelty has worn off, nobody cares anymore and those things are criticized for being detrimental to the game. Games don't age badly, but gimmicks get old and people stop acting like retards when presented with a game jurno narrative about the greatest sequel ever.

Next you'll claim I hate your game and that Yea Forumseeee is ruined!!!11111oneoneone even though I think HL2 is a good game anyway.

>tech demo
You stupid zoomers love flinging this insult, but you clearly don't understand what it means.

Believe it or not, there were 25 fucking years or so where Tech was a driving force in the industry.
We would discuss things like "graphics" and obsess over minor visual improvements. And games that pushed in these areas also happened to be some of the best games of all time, seminal works that became highly influential.
Is Doom a tech demo? Is Mario 64?
Better question, who gives a shit about that, if the games are fun to play?

You poor souls are stuck in an era where games have so thoroughly plateaued that any hint of technical advancement appears disingenuous.

Attached: Capture.png (160x400, 145K)

I legitimately enjoy all Half Life games. Half Life 1 being my absolute favorite, Best fps ever

Attached: wojak.jpg (1600x900, 55K)

>gravity gun ruins the core gameplay and to enjoy the game you have to stash it and not use it

Why? Everytime ive played it and everytime ive seen other people play it they rely on traditional guns over 80% of the time. How does gravity gun (which is an exceptionally fun tool in the game) ruin half life? Be specific. Give me examples of multiple gunfights that are ruined by the mechanic, as well as explain why they are ruined.

Well, I'm not an IDfag. I hate MAZE level design even more than I hate CoD linearity. I'm fine with the middle like HL1 (HL2 was a bit too linear for me except the sand creatures and Nova Prospect levels).

In my FPS I like storytelling to be optional and(or) short. Consider Serious Sam. The encounters had a rich story, but all was hidden behind a menu. When I needed a breather, I'd open my message menu up and read up to three or four minutes the lore and story. Then continue playing. Or consider Serious Sam 3. Cutscenes belong at the beginning or end of the level and are skippable.
What I hate the most is, having way forward blocked and having to wait for NPCs to end some silly dialogue while I'm looking at the floor and jumping in a corner.

there is nothing wrong with enjoying them

>zoomers like hl1 and hate hl2
>boomers defend hl2
This thread is weird

Attached: 1512703601249.jpg (445x639, 42K)

>take out gravity gun
>shoot
>all enemies frop dead
lol every time
alternatively,
>get shot
>press button
>game summons a cover to you

If you use it, you're playing god mode. So to enjoy the game you stash it away. Except game makes you play the last level with it. So yes it ruins the game because it's not optional in the end.

half life is one of the greatest games ever.

Attached: download - 2019-06-01T191938.759.jpg (185x266, 15K)

Arguably. But HL2 is not.

yes it is. the see saw puzzle shows how smart it is, even today that blows me away completely with how innovative it is. physics have never been like this before.

That's because HL1 focused on core gameplay.
When Alyx goes
>omg Gordon oh youre so cool!
with the creepy seductive smile, it's like a brick hitting you in the head. My weeb games and even other FPS games surpassed Alyx with waifu quality so much it's not even cute, but cringe to see Volvo do ambiguous romance.

In hindsight now that diversity has become such an overdone topic and gamers are TOXIC REACTIONARIES having Valve put for your love interest a mixed black/asian girl is maddening. Or would be if it happened today. Literally nothing in HL2 stands up today lmao

romance is not the point. alyx admiring you is the game's way of toying with you.

Saw puzzle is a neat thing, but it's only in one level which is considered the best by people. The thing is, that's just a small part of the game.

My interpretation is more cynical.

Alyx seems to toy with you because Valve pretends Gordon is a self insert (he's so iconic you can't really claim it any more than you can claim Dragonporn is not a nord with a silly helmet) so they have to be non specific. Alternatively Valve wanted a strong and independent womyn so that's why. Either case, she's not likable. You may not agree, but
>opinions

>reducing all video game critique to waifus and /pol/shit
This thread has reached a new low.

Attached: pict00777ie1.jpg (655x435, 38K)

You can thank Valve for that. HL1 didn't have waifus nor any poolebait.

yeah but physics. it shows the game's physics. you have to put the blocks on the plank of wood in just the right proportion to make it across the plank. it blew me away.

in fact nothing has ever been so great in the history of gaming.

I thought smod was broken?

How do I get it working?

I liked both.

Agreed. People only play office and dust now.

Yeah, thank God a game from 1998 didn't bait an image board from decades later, you FUCKING DUMBASS.

Attached: 1509841017617.gif (1221x1007, 142K)

Do you have a brain? When I commented on it, I wasn't passing a value judgement. It was a tongue in cheek comment about how HL2 would explode the internet with anger today.

bsnooch.com/forums/index.php?topic=1360.0

Attached: Smod32.webm (1280x720, 2.83M)

the /vr/ hl thread got deleted after two days. Fucking mods being lazy.

So whats the problem? There is a point where you put a bunch of objects on a seesaw to cross a gap. It happens a couple of times throughout 3 games. Why does that ruin it?

Or you just shoot them? Hey, guess what, look at a speedrun of hl2, noones using the gravity gun. Everyones running backwards and abusing save files. I guess gravity gun isnt optimal and theres no reason to use it. I mean honestly, is the AI awful and easy, or is cover so necessary you need to use the gravity gun? Which is it?

Observe anyone playing half life, a vast vast majority are not going to play it with gravity gun beyond 5 percent of the game. You didnt either, you saw other people comeplain about it and latched on.

What is the issue?

Zoomers were too young, it was revolutionary in many ways that are taken completely for granted nowadays like dynamic lighting and physics

OH NO NO NO NO
he still at it

Games don't age, but people wowed by gimmicks stop being wowed by gimmicks. HL2 was never great.

im a zoomer and hl2 is good
shut the fuck up boomer

no i was being sincere, i thought that was amazing.

>pick up keycard
>backtrack
compelling game design

You do realize that's the entirety of HL1, right, and not a single map?

This. Was hyped for HL2 when it came out (HL was god tier in its day), but for some reason played for like an hour and put it away.
Played through HL 7 times or more, never got farther into HL2.

It's still not a crisscrossing line, now is it? Plenty of open areas and lots of side rooms.

Except if you break that map down by individual levels/chapters you see that the game is nothing more than a linear series of hallways, corridors, and tunnels; it only looks complex because they're all layered on top of one another. The saddest part is that that map of the entire game barely looks more complex than that single level from Doom.

oh okay, sorry then. I really thought you were being a smart ass

>being gated by keys is optimal game design! Who cares if it's just one or two optional rooms? N-NON-LINEAR!
Suck my dick.

if you want real non linear play deus ex or looking glass studios games. Oh wait too complex for doombabbies like you.
Or play far cry and crysis.

Key searching encourages exploration, which leads to alternate paths, more enemy encounters, and secrets. All of this is an aspect of gameplay.

I think saying "x game was never good" is the first symptom of "no game was never good". It's starting to happen to me. I never thought I would age out of games but it happened. You go through a period of denial where the nostalgia blinds you and then it hits you.

Funny how the whole genre went to shit real quick when they dropped key hunting.

zoomers
unironically

>Except if you break that map down by individual levels/chapters you see that the game is nothing more than a linear series of hallways, corridors, and tunnels

And so what?

You can explore just fine in Half-Life without being "encouraged." What difference do "alternate paths" make? Do you honestly play doom levels differently every time you play them? Fuck no, you visit all the areas every time.

Funny how it didn't happen with Half-Life. The genre went to shit more because of tacticool realism infesting the genre, not because you didn't have to find the red keycard. Fuck keycard hunting.

All doomfags this retarded or its just a falseflag?

Only a retard zoomer would pit ever games 5 years apart against each other as if they were contemporaries.
Their feeble brains can't grasp the concept that two games can be good.

doom is a cult

if you spend any time around the doom community you get brainwashed into believing that doom is the greatest game that has ever been and ever will be. t. have played doom since i was seven and the first thing i did when i got internet in 2004 was start lurking doom forums

syntax got away from me there, but you know what I meant

You can really feel how hard they pushed the story for HL2. It almost feels like every corner of the map was specifically crafted to create an amazing, realistic world for the game. If you're speeding through it, only looking for the action sequences, chances are you'll miss just how thought out HL2's atmosphere, setting, and story really are. Of course, it would be ignorant to say this without admitting that, yes, those same story driven sequences, while vital to the world building, do get in the way of replayability, and over time as people replay the game and don't care about the world and story anymore the (at times) heavy narrative sequences with very little player interaction really grinds on your enjoyment of the game. But, overall, Hl2 is a great game, with good action gameplay, a variety of different ways to mix things up (whether it be vehicle sections, diversity in tone and settings, or a change of weaponry), and an awesome story and atmosphere. But it's not as replayable as the older entries in the series, and the narrative moments can really drag on for a player who just doesn't care about them, which naturally would lead some to view the game less favourably over time.

There's also a fuckton of contrarian retards, redditors, and newfags that haven't played the game but just go with the first opinion they see

it's pretty obvious that everything is being set up by the Gman. The resonance cascade in half life 1 was implied to have been so unlikely that it was nearly unthinkable. Gman was behind that event, and was also behind placing you in the teleporter that day.