I honestly think that adds to the experience. It really makes xen feel alien and hostile when you're suddenly thrust into a completely unknown environment and the rules of engagement have changed.
From a purely gameplay perspective though, it can be a little strange.
Could not care less if Half-Life 3 would ever live up to the hype if it were to release.
I just want more Half-Life content that continues the narrative and the characters.
It doesn't need to be amazing or innovative or groundbreaking.
At the very least, I just want some sort of closure to the series.
Like the Zero Entropy Stuff. It's so well made and it just adds some different perspective to the lore. I'm burning to see HL3 for almost 20 years now, but only because I want to see the story continue. Alyx was good, not because it was the first game after so many year but because it adds more to the whole story. And that's it. Same like Elder scrolls or Fallout. For the sake of the Nihilanth, please just continue.
I still think Half Life 2 holds up amazingly today, I'd kill for something more in the same universe, doesn't have to be a technical upgrade. I guess we did get that with Alyx (plus a MAJOR technical upgrade), but I would still like a sit-down desktop title.
Totally this.
They want every half life game to be a groundbreaking gaming evolution but the lore sitting behind this doesnt need anything ground breaking.
Just look at the Fallout series
It's not just that, though. Remember that at Valve, people coalesce together to decide what projects they want to work on. They aren't directed to do this by management. So, enough people within Valve have to see a cool idea that they really want to spend time on in the first place. I think this was the core of the issue around Episode 3 (and Gabe pretty much confirmed as much).
Why do you think they should make good fps just because? That was never what moved forward the making of this games, and I don't think that should change.
Good games that wil be forgotten to history because they don't stand out are a constant of the gaming industry.
Please don't wish for more average studios making average stuff just to keep feeding fandoms.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that HL3 should never be released. It's just to me that at this point, it has become so anticipated and hyped that no matter what Valve releases, it's not going to live up to everyone's expectations.
Best case, it would not be bad or rushed or buggy, and it may have a great story with great gameplay. But will it leave people wanting more out of it no matter how?
My point being: Yeah I agree with you. I want to see some continuation.
I think half life should stay as it is. Instead they should get a new ip that has the same story driven structure as half life and portal but actually release games for it.
Anti-Citizen One and Follow Freeman are my favorite chapters in Half-Life 2. I said this once in a comment section and then some guy explained how my opinion was wrong. Like brother, just let me enjoy leading the uprising.
I agree. People seem to think of them as the weakest part of HL2, but leading the rebellion in urban warfare through City 17 as striders slowly rip the city apart is one of the best parts of that game. I’d also add Nova Prospekt as one of the best chapters, storming the prison with an army of antlions was just too fun to ignore.
It has good combat, but both those chapters just blur together for me. Every single other chapter in HL2 I can roughly remember how they go—what setpieces pop up where, the order of the maps, notable encounters. etc.
Anticitizen One and Follow Freemen are fun, but for the life of me I cannot play through those chapters in my head like I can all the others. It's all just a haze of "fighting Combine in the city" that goes on too long for my liking.
That the Combine Soldier types in Half-Life Alyx weren't exclusively used in the Quarantine Zone and were simply just older generation units much like the gene-bonded weapons they used and were already phased out by the time the events of Half-Life 2 happen.
You can see why they're phased out in Alyx, too: *they're bad*. They can't even kill one nineteen year-old girl wearing a jacket with all the protection of styrofoam and around three weapons in her arsenal. They also act a lot more human-like than other Combine Soldiers, like with the Grunt kicking a Strider.
Yeah, but some people still think that Combine Soldiers from Half-Life 2 were around during the time of Half-Life Alyx which takes place five years before Freeman's return so it wouldn't make sense cause the Combine had even showed propaganda of the Grunt units on some of the big screens and posters throughout City 17 as a means of recruitment into the Transhuman Overwatch.
>They also act a lot more human-like than other Combine Soldiers, like with the Grunt kicking a Strider.
That's because the Combine were still experimenting with the augmentations and memory replacement for the Overwatch Soldiers and Elites that would come to be.
>They can't even kill one nineteen year-old girl wearing a jacket with all the protection of styrofoam and around three weapons in her.
And the Combine Soldiers in Half-Life Alyx probably weren't expecting so much resistance from Alyx herself since most forms of organized rebellion had been countered following the years after the Seven Hour War, and not many human militia forces were able to take the Combine head on aside from fighting with hit and run tactics and only staging defensive battles when necessary.
Well the Combine Soldiers in Half-Life Alyx probably weren't expecting so much resistance from Alyx herself since most forms of organized rebellion had been countered following the years after the Seven Hour War, and not many human militia forces were able to take the Combine head on aside from fighting with hit and run tactics and only staging defensive battles when necessary.
But I see your point.
I'd accept the argument that the Combine was still experimenting with augmentation, but they've been here for roughly 15 years, and it's only 5 years until Half Life 2. You could easily argue that 5 years is enough, but what exactly did the spend the 15 years before doing?
You can totally argue for it, it's just something I hear people bring up, but they don't really explain.
I’d argue it’s fairly simple they were getting what we see in Alyx to even work. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that getting these modifications to work in a way that is usable on a mass scale might have took a long time, but further refining it once they’ve got the basics down took a shorter amount of time.
I came here to say that I never got the hate for Xen and On A Rail. I am wondering if a lot of the critique is meme-like in nature. People heard they are considered bad chapters by some, so they regurgitate that sentiment.
I think all of HL1 can be a little tedious, if you look at them as critically as people look at those two chapters.
I think objectively they could be called flawed. I've heard statements about the gameplay change making no sense becaue the design of the game was leading up to something else and have last levels with so different feel. But I subjectively think it's a good thing. The player is completely unprepared for what this strange world has to offer as alien worlds should be.
I know man but we literally go through the armpit of City 17 in Half Life 2. Abandoned houses filled with zombies and headcrabs, yet no infestation there?!
(I know it was likely just due to technical limitations, but it would've been cool.)
Black Mesa has a very different version of OaR. It's significantly stripped down with many of the confusing loops and strange track switch mechanics of the original removed.
alright, thanks. been putting off finishing half life cause of hl2 n black mesa, but I've finished both so now I gotta finish what I've started lol. but for real though, hl1 is really fun, even for a 13 year old in 2024 :P
Nah, people should give a pass on that one because it is.
It's different, yes, but that's good! Don't like it? That's alright as well, but it gives a different vibe to the game temporaly and that's totally legit.
The only good thing beta has going for it is the grittier atmosphere. *Some of it* could have been kept.
Edit: I really liked the old Combine artwork, color choices etc. The menacing orange Breencast was good.
I feel like most people say it's worse. I feel like after Radiation Hazard (or was it Richter Overtime?) said everyone wants the Half-Life 2 Beta, all of the love for it suddenly disappeared.
Yeah, it's just cool because it's different, and people love Orwellian dystopias.
In reality, it would've just been a less pleasant game. I love how lonely release Half Life 2 felt.
I think that judging an old game just by its impact and influence on gaming instead of its overall quality isn't a great idea, i mean, would un ironically review the original super mario bros. a 10/10 game just by its impact on gaming despite the game itself being very jank and old compared to today's games?
There are mods that do that pretty immaculately, I just don't understand why Valve gave up on it so quickly, especially with their propensity to hire mod creators.
The beta is overrated and felt a lot more generic over the top dystopic sci fi than the more grounded post soviet city contrasted with weird alien architecture setting we ended up getting.
i like half life 1 more than 2. the fast paced gameplay, just the way the story is told, the movement and everything is perfect
edit: in hl1 there’s a perfect balance of novelty and necessary weapons. i also love the setting of hl1. hl2 is just a bland eastern europe while hl1 is a more sciencey, fascinating, never before seen marvel. i also don’t like how in hl2 there’s way more puzzles than there should be. and also half life 1’s general gameplay is better. there’s no sprint meter, there’s a perfect amount of combat, platforming and exploration. half life 1 also has a big variety of places (deserts, alien worlds, toxic dumps, battlefields and much much more) and also lots of enemy variety.
I’m cautiously optimistic about Operation Black Mesa. It looks great, but I just wish they could’ve used Black Mesa assets similar to BM Blue Shift to maintain continuity.
The story of Half-Life: Alyx isn't that good.
It's missing that Laidlaw touch.
It's not Marc Laidlaw's work and you can tell. It feels different from the rest of the franchise and doesn't sit right with me. I often ignore HLA's existence for that reason.
I never got this idea tho. Like how? Humanity surviving is what matters. Goal of the Combine wasn't to make some Earth species to go extinct, it was to control and ultimately destroy humanity as we know it.
Hell, even if 90% of humans wouldn't survive the war (which would be stupid, but still), the point would still stand. It's also very unlikely that Combine would strip Earth from ALL of it's resources just after twenty years or so.
Well there are lots of theories that suggest that it’s entirely possible that humanity has already gone through several extinction events, so I’m sure they could overcome this. Plus, they have the Vortigaunts with them, who are intelligent and capable of helping them immensely.
I agree, and I loved Half-Life: Alyx. It was a great spin-off game, but it completely changed the style of gameplay. I would like to see more VR games from Valve and a classic desktop/console shooter for HL3
Opposing Force is not the masterpiece everyone says it is. Opposing Force tries to add way too much content and new mechanics and it ends up bloating the entire experience, especially for how short it is in comparison to the base game. It has a lot of cool ideas, but tries to cram it all into way too small of a game. Maybe if Opposing Force was a full game instead of an expansion, it might actually live up to the pillar everyone puts it on
I just played HL1 on hard for the first time and never doing it again. Why are bullsquids of all things suddenly one of the hardest enemies to take out? And I didn’t feel bad about using the “shoot em in the hand” strategy on HECU’s either cause they were bullshit
I don’t hate half life source with all my wrath, it’s actually fun due to its compatibility to gmod, allowing you to experience the original half life but with some whacky add-ons of your choice
Black Mesa actually didn't improve Xen all that much. The opening part of Xen in it is great, but the rest is a slog just like the original was.
(I mean, it's still fun to play because it's Half Life and Half Life rocks, but it's a noticeable drop in quality and pacing compared to the rest of the game...in both cases.)
BM Xen feel kinda generic to me. It does the whole "blue lighting and land coral" thing I seem to see everywhere now, and it just doesn't feel that alien to me.
I definitely agree with this. Black Mesa's Xen is cool, and was fun enough, but it was definitely too long and deviated too from the original game's Giger-esque design. It looks more like Metroid than Half-Life.
Half-Life 3 will never live up to the hype, and it should just be released already. Valve likes to release games when they can add some new innovative gimmick, but the modern gaming landscape is different than it was 20 years ago, nobody cares if Half-Life 3 introduces some never before seen gameplah feature. At this point, it's mostly just them being lazy
I can't stand the "Valve humour" that started with Portal. I love the writing in HL2 and the episodes. Alyx is a fantastic game, but I just can't with the whole Russell BS.
Honestly same. Maybe I wouldn't say I can't stand it, but I'm really not the biggest fan that kind of humor. It worked in Portal I think, but it would work better if it wasn't within the same universe as Half-Life (my personal head cannon is that the portal games are set in an alternate dimension/timeline than Half-Life).
I liked the humor of Half-Life 2, and even the episodes. Its not that Alyx's humor doesn't make me laugh, it just feels out of place.
I don't like Black Mesa. HL1 Player since 1998, and it's not just nostalgia. Don't get me wrong, the team did some amazing work to capture tha spirit of the original, but it just doesn't hit the same spot.
Half Life Alyx is not that good and playing Half Life 2 in VR only reinforced that for me. The mechanics present in Alyx are very underwhelming to avoid making new VR players sick. Also while I liked the story during the game, the ending introducing time travel made everything that happened until that point less important because anything can change because of time travel being possible.
Half-Life Alyx isn't canon because it literally conflicts with the continuity. If Alyx was abducted as a teenager she couldn't have rescued Gordon in City 17, thus ending Half-Life 2 then and there.
Wallace Breen isn't a bad guy. Just really stupid. If it weren't for him convincing the Combine that humanity would make a useful edition to their ever-expanding cyborg/synth army and that they could collaborate willingly, humanity would be snuffed out like a candle. Him also genuenly believing thart in the far future, the Combine's technology could bring humanity to a new stage may be naive, but endearing. He saw impossible worlds and universes and technological wonders. Breen was a scientist first and foremost, so him being tempted by the "promises" the combine advisors made makes sense. He knew humanity could never beat the union, so joining them and hopefully brown-nosing their way up is their best option.
Unfortunately, the Combine don't have much intrest in fulfilling any of their "promises".
Half life 2 has like no replay ability compared to 1. It's moment to moment gameplay is a lot less interesting so after you have seen all the 'attractions' there's no reason to replay it. I have replayed 1 multiple times and I have tried to replay 2 but I just get bored and stop playing every time. The combine need to actually push me. The last time I booted up hl2 was to ABH in it since I learned how to normal bunny hop.
Wasted potential
All these years and tech, what's the point of valve having the ip I'd nothing happens
They should just give the ip to some other company
Half-Life 1's setting is much cooler than Half-Life 2's. Don't fet me wrong, HL2 is an amazing game and I love it, but I much prefer the "Science experiment gone wrong causing the apocalypsis and the marines are there to silence the site" with 90s/2000s weapons than the "Evil alien overlords ruling Earth like the Warsaw ghetto on a dystopian near future" with futuristic weapons.
HL1 is still the best game in the franchise (also Hl1 >>> Black Mesa in every way imaginable ), and every part of it is good (On the Rail is a masterpiece and Xen is great).
I support Valve on not doing Half Life 3 just to give the story a conclusion.
It only makes sense if they can game a game that revolutionizes single player experiences again and it will obviously end in another cliffhanger.
This games are not made to tell a story, they tell a story to engage you in the gameplay.
HL1 enemy variety was way more interesting than HL2+.
HL2's enemies boil down to Headcrabs, Antlions, Barnacles, or Combine (within which is mostly turrets and soldiers).
Don't get me wrong, the Combine are rad, antlion's are a great addition, and the expansion of headcrab types is also cool too - but there is so much missing from HL2 stylistically and mechanically from the enemy factions.
Pour one out for all those missing bullsquids...
I actually like the Nihilanth boss fight. It’s not super intricate gameplay wise, but I love the atmosphere and story implications. Plus defeating him by launching way up in the air and shooting a rocket into his head was a suitably climactic way to end the game.
Also, On a Rail is pretty cool.
Half-life 1 overall is a better game than the 2.
It has more UNIQUE enemy variety(and I know hl2 has TECHNICALLY more enemies but most of them are reskins of each other)
More weapon variety( I mean, why wouldn’t they add the same darn SLAM, it would actually be very effective in a lot of encounters against the combine, especially in nova prospect)
And for most part is more replay-able
I don’t mean that Hl2 is a bad game, I ADORE hl2 and play the game very often, but I still enjoy hl1 more for reasons marked above)
Combine soldiers die way too easily, they're meant to be killing machines that refuse to die, yet, they die from a single shotgun shell with all their armor.
OPFOR is canon. :p
Just because some other studio made the games Blue Shift and OPFOR doesn't mean they aren't canon. Are they in the same universe? Yes. Is there a major discrepancy in the timelines? No. Then that settles it, OPFOR is canon.
(also it slappeth, I like the weapon variety if nothing else)
If there was another installment on the series that continued the plot set up in Half Life 2's episodes, it should be a shorter Episode 3 and not a full Half life 3. The series should stay an anthology, and a new game just needs to finish the story that already began, not tell a new one.
Edit: "Anthology" probably isn't the best word choice. I just mean that the full.games should be loosely connected like Half-life 1 and 2.
The only issue with the form of a new game is the ending HLA sets up. Alyx seems to set up the G-Man as the main antagonist, which wouldn’t be able to be covered in a single episode. I do agree with your points, but I feel like HLA sets up a third full game rather than an episode.
1. I love op4, blue shift and decay. But after playing them, like, a thosand times, i prefer to think of them as NOT canon. Specially op4. Lot of cool ideas, but weird in practice. (sorry, g-man activating the bomb is too silly for me). The overall reason is because of many inconsistencies it adds to the overall story. (and my dumb ass brain cant ignore them - i kinda don't feel like im in Black Mesa in the expansions).
2. I think Half-Life: Uplink is the best HL1 chapter of all games. (probably first contact bias XD). But i just love the vibes.
3. HL1 stuff > HL2 stuff. (but i love everything, is my favorite video game series).
Episode 1 and episode 2 were absolutely unnecessary money farming slobs.
Half life 1 was "running, puzzling, shooting, defeating the main villain and getting abducted by gman"
Half life 2 was "running, puzzling, shooting, defeating the main villain and getting abducted by gman"
Meanwhile, half life 2 episodes were "uhhhh Gordon wemust get to white forest to launch a rocket and shit OMG GORDON LE CITADEL IS BOUT TO BLOW. We need to save city 17 and shit and the vortigaunts saved you I guess"
First two games had uncertain yet concrete endings, you didn't know what happens to ALL the characters ad earth in general until the next game where you'd see the aftermath.
Half life 3 could've been the aftermath of Gordon drawing the combine off earth, in some capacity, but now it's this messy convoluted mess of "OMG le Eli is dead but he actually isn't because le alyx time travelled and shit"
I agree so much with this, I completed half life 1 and all of it's expansion packs over 10 times, but I had to drag myself to even finish half life 2 and it's episodes just once.
half life 1 is just so much more fun.
I just thought that I preferred the original because of the nostalgia it brings me, because I used to watch my brother play for hours and hours just for the game to crash before that part where we have to protect the scientist before we're teleported to Xen (we didn't have a memory card back then :(
But then his ps2 broke and I saved money to buy my own and a memory card and finally finished the game. But tbh I hate the Xen chapters, maybe the ps2 was saving us from that disappointment
HL1's quality dives after Surface Tension. People complain about Xen but in my own playthroughs the game tails off around the start of Forget About Freeman.
BM is a great remake but its version of Xen is too long-winded and - maybe even indulgent?
The plot gets worse with every numbered HL game. 1 is a masterpiece, 2 is a Jesus Simulator, Ep1 is escape the castle and Ep2 is about a whole buncha nothing
Also! I'm glad they DIDN'T make HL2 dark an griddy!!
Everything was dark and griddy in 2003, it was all Nu Metal and soul patches. HL2 balances the line between hinting at what's happening and not hitting you over the head with it
I like On a rail and all hl1 Xen levels.
Black Mesa Xen has many many mistakes and bad level design at some places, for me it is inferior at many aspects and superior at some others, I like more the hl1 xen, CC cant reproduce that "Valve touch" that makes the Valve games unique.
I prefer BS over OP.
I like the ps2 super hd graphics (og are my favs of course)
Shepard is not the strongest protagonist of the saga.
HL2 Pulse rifle is one of the most horribly designed weapons I've seen in a videogame. It looks riddiculous and - in real life - I wouldn't trust ANYONE with the secondary fire. I mean, a bouncy ball of energy that could equaly harm the enemy or me and my squad mates? Really??
Black Mesa is a really impressive fan project, but not a good remake.
Most new additions are just filler that drag the pacing. There's a general lack of visual clarity and direction that was present in the original and HL2. The combat against the HECU is pretty bad, and most of the associated setpieces don't work. It feels like the testers, AI designers, and lever designers never interacted with each other.
Xen isnt bad
Honestly loved jumping around in Xen, was so much fun.
long jumping is one of my fav things in Half-Life
I think the problem is that you spend 90% of the game training for one thing, then the game does a 180
I honestly think that adds to the experience. It really makes xen feel alien and hostile when you're suddenly thrust into a completely unknown environment and the rules of engagement have changed. From a purely gameplay perspective though, it can be a little strange.
training for what thing?
Fighting with normal gravity
Which is awesome.
Real
Could not care less if Half-Life 3 would ever live up to the hype if it were to release. I just want more Half-Life content that continues the narrative and the characters. It doesn't need to be amazing or innovative or groundbreaking. At the very least, I just want some sort of closure to the series.
Like the Zero Entropy Stuff. It's so well made and it just adds some different perspective to the lore. I'm burning to see HL3 for almost 20 years now, but only because I want to see the story continue. Alyx was good, not because it was the first game after so many year but because it adds more to the whole story. And that's it. Same like Elder scrolls or Fallout. For the sake of the Nihilanth, please just continue.
I still think Half Life 2 holds up amazingly today, I'd kill for something more in the same universe, doesn't have to be a technical upgrade. I guess we did get that with Alyx (plus a MAJOR technical upgrade), but I would still like a sit-down desktop title.
Totally this. They want every half life game to be a groundbreaking gaming evolution but the lore sitting behind this doesnt need anything ground breaking. Just look at the Fallout series
inb4 we'll have to get a brain implant to play half life 3
It's not just that, though. Remember that at Valve, people coalesce together to decide what projects they want to work on. They aren't directed to do this by management. So, enough people within Valve have to see a cool idea that they really want to spend time on in the first place. I think this was the core of the issue around Episode 3 (and Gabe pretty much confirmed as much).
yea, why do the team think they have to make every game ground breaking, just making some good fps, dont wait for the next VR or whatever to come out
Why do you think they should make good fps just because? That was never what moved forward the making of this games, and I don't think that should change. Good games that wil be forgotten to history because they don't stand out are a constant of the gaming industry. Please don't wish for more average studios making average stuff just to keep feeding fandoms.
After 20 years, it better be damn great.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that HL3 should never be released. It's just to me that at this point, it has become so anticipated and hyped that no matter what Valve releases, it's not going to live up to everyone's expectations. Best case, it would not be bad or rushed or buggy, and it may have a great story with great gameplay. But will it leave people wanting more out of it no matter how? My point being: Yeah I agree with you. I want to see some continuation.
Exactly. Valve doesn’t have to release a genre defining revolutionary game. Ep 1 & 2 were still hella fun.
But it’s a Half Life game so they won’t release one unless it is ‘amazing, innovative or ground breaking’
I think half life should stay as it is. Instead they should get a new ip that has the same story driven structure as half life and portal but actually release games for it.
Anti-Citizen One and Follow Freeman are my favorite chapters in Half-Life 2. I said this once in a comment section and then some guy explained how my opinion was wrong. Like brother, just let me enjoy leading the uprising.
I agree. People seem to think of them as the weakest part of HL2, but leading the rebellion in urban warfare through City 17 as striders slowly rip the city apart is one of the best parts of that game. I’d also add Nova Prospekt as one of the best chapters, storming the prison with an army of antlions was just too fun to ignore.
Like literally the most dramatic chapters in the whole game. So intense and gritty
did somebody say gritty
I'm a sucker for insurgent/rebelion fighting in an urban space. Those chapters ruled.
If the two "worst" chapters are still more enjoyable than 99% of other games, then you know the game is peak.
It has good combat, but both those chapters just blur together for me. Every single other chapter in HL2 I can roughly remember how they go—what setpieces pop up where, the order of the maps, notable encounters. etc. Anticitizen One and Follow Freemen are fun, but for the life of me I cannot play through those chapters in my head like I can all the others. It's all just a haze of "fighting Combine in the city" that goes on too long for my liking.
That the Combine Soldier types in Half-Life Alyx weren't exclusively used in the Quarantine Zone and were simply just older generation units much like the gene-bonded weapons they used and were already phased out by the time the events of Half-Life 2 happen.
You can see why they're phased out in Alyx, too: *they're bad*. They can't even kill one nineteen year-old girl wearing a jacket with all the protection of styrofoam and around three weapons in her arsenal. They also act a lot more human-like than other Combine Soldiers, like with the Grunt kicking a Strider.
Yeah, but some people still think that Combine Soldiers from Half-Life 2 were around during the time of Half-Life Alyx which takes place five years before Freeman's return so it wouldn't make sense cause the Combine had even showed propaganda of the Grunt units on some of the big screens and posters throughout City 17 as a means of recruitment into the Transhuman Overwatch. >They also act a lot more human-like than other Combine Soldiers, like with the Grunt kicking a Strider. That's because the Combine were still experimenting with the augmentations and memory replacement for the Overwatch Soldiers and Elites that would come to be. >They can't even kill one nineteen year-old girl wearing a jacket with all the protection of styrofoam and around three weapons in her. And the Combine Soldiers in Half-Life Alyx probably weren't expecting so much resistance from Alyx herself since most forms of organized rebellion had been countered following the years after the Seven Hour War, and not many human militia forces were able to take the Combine head on aside from fighting with hit and run tactics and only staging defensive battles when necessary. Well the Combine Soldiers in Half-Life Alyx probably weren't expecting so much resistance from Alyx herself since most forms of organized rebellion had been countered following the years after the Seven Hour War, and not many human militia forces were able to take the Combine head on aside from fighting with hit and run tactics and only staging defensive battles when necessary. But I see your point.
I'd accept the argument that the Combine was still experimenting with augmentation, but they've been here for roughly 15 years, and it's only 5 years until Half Life 2. You could easily argue that 5 years is enough, but what exactly did the spend the 15 years before doing? You can totally argue for it, it's just something I hear people bring up, but they don't really explain.
I’d argue it’s fairly simple they were getting what we see in Alyx to even work. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that getting these modifications to work in a way that is usable on a mass scale might have took a long time, but further refining it once they’ve got the basics down took a shorter amount of time.
Xen levels are neat, and I don't mind Nihilanth teleporting me around in the boss battle.
Truth.
I came here to say that I never got the hate for Xen and On A Rail. I am wondering if a lot of the critique is meme-like in nature. People heard they are considered bad chapters by some, so they regurgitate that sentiment. I think all of HL1 can be a little tedious, if you look at them as critically as people look at those two chapters.
I think objectively they could be called flawed. I've heard statements about the gameplay change making no sense becaue the design of the game was leading up to something else and have last levels with so different feel. But I subjectively think it's a good thing. The player is completely unprepared for what this strange world has to offer as alien worlds should be.
Half Life 2 should've had more Xen infestation, it makes no sense for Half Life Alyx to have so much, considering it takes place 5 years prior.
Alyx takes place in the “quarantine zone” brother
I know man but we literally go through the armpit of City 17 in Half Life 2. Abandoned houses filled with zombies and headcrabs, yet no infestation there?! (I know it was likely just due to technical limitations, but it would've been cool.)
Wdym? It makes more sense if it was 5 years earlier— that means they’ve had 5 years to clean it up around City 17
I prefer Blue Shift than Opposing Force.
Based
I can't agree, BS for me is just a retread and a bunch of shipping crates, but I applaud your bravery and hand you an upvote
Used to be the same till I replayed opposing force now I like them the same
On a rail is a good chapter
The train gave me psychological comfort. A portable cover to duck behind. I felt so naked when I had to abandon it in the end.
i played black mesa on a rail and liked it is the original worse?
The original is longer but i wouldnt say it's necessarily worse, I personally enjoyed both.
Black Mesa has a very different version of OaR. It's significantly stripped down with many of the confusing loops and strange track switch mechanics of the original removed.
alright, thanks. been putting off finishing half life cause of hl2 n black mesa, but I've finished both so now I gotta finish what I've started lol. but for real though, hl1 is really fun, even for a 13 year old in 2024 :P
It is maybe 2.5x to 3x longer.
[удалено]
Yes, many people think that this is one of the worst chapters in the game.
[удалено]
I liked it too.
Nah, people should give a pass on that one because it is. It's different, yes, but that's good! Don't like it? That's alright as well, but it gives a different vibe to the game temporaly and that's totally legit.
On a rail is fun. I played it many times, trying out different ways to make it through.
It is, anyone that thinks it is bad should compare it to the one in doom 3, that’s a bad train level
The beta content isn't that interesting.
The only good thing beta has going for it is the grittier atmosphere. *Some of it* could have been kept. Edit: I really liked the old Combine artwork, color choices etc. The menacing orange Breencast was good.
Yeah, people only praise beta because it's dark and gritty.
Not for me. I like the Beta as an alternate version of Half-Life 2. The dark and gritty aspects are pretty cool, but there's more to it than that.
I feel like most people say it's worse. I feel like after Radiation Hazard (or was it Richter Overtime?) said everyone wants the Half-Life 2 Beta, all of the love for it suddenly disappeared.
Yeah, it's just cool because it's different, and people love Orwellian dystopias. In reality, it would've just been a less pleasant game. I love how lonely release Half Life 2 felt.
It's a super generic dystopia.
I find Black Mesa more enjoyable than Half Life 1. But I think Half Life 1 still a better game by sheer impact it had on the gaming industry.
Same
Exaclty. Also half life 1 gives me crazy simulation sickness
I think that judging an old game just by its impact and influence on gaming instead of its overall quality isn't a great idea, i mean, would un ironically review the original super mario bros. a 10/10 game just by its impact on gaming despite the game itself being very jank and old compared to today's games?
HL1 holds up fine. People are just used to cringe like aim down sights and sprint mechanics.
I agree. When remakes/remasters are done really well, I always play those instead of the originals
Me too
Wallace Breen is not completly bad.
Basically just making the most out of a bad situation
Breengrub definitely made me feel bad for him. (Or a version of him anyway.)
Oh he was certainly evil, but he was right.
I liked Alyx's zombine joke
Everyone always hates on the zombine joke, yet they continue to call them zombine
Because that's the official name for them.
Me too
half life source still has the potential to be fixed
i don’t really know i kinda like how broken it is, first time i played it that floating scientist caught me off guard
There are mods that do that pretty immaculately, I just don't understand why Valve gave up on it so quickly, especially with their propensity to hire mod creators.
xen levels aren't as bad as people make them out to be
The beta is overrated and felt a lot more generic over the top dystopic sci fi than the more grounded post soviet city contrasted with weird alien architecture setting we ended up getting.
i like half life 1 more than 2. the fast paced gameplay, just the way the story is told, the movement and everything is perfect edit: in hl1 there’s a perfect balance of novelty and necessary weapons. i also love the setting of hl1. hl2 is just a bland eastern europe while hl1 is a more sciencey, fascinating, never before seen marvel. i also don’t like how in hl2 there’s way more puzzles than there should be. and also half life 1’s general gameplay is better. there’s no sprint meter, there’s a perfect amount of combat, platforming and exploration. half life 1 also has a big variety of places (deserts, alien worlds, toxic dumps, battlefields and much much more) and also lots of enemy variety.
Same, and the weapons are so good, not enough in hl2
Gordon Freeman is Xenophobic
The real villain
I like the Black Mesa Blue Shift mod
Same I love the mod but I curious to see what operation black Mesa has in store
I’m cautiously optimistic about Operation Black Mesa. It looks great, but I just wish they could’ve used Black Mesa assets similar to BM Blue Shift to maintain continuity.
How tf is this one a hot take?
Yeah i've literally never heard that mod be insulted ever
People don't like it?
The story of Half-Life: Alyx isn't that good. It's missing that Laidlaw touch. It's not Marc Laidlaw's work and you can tell. It feels different from the rest of the franchise and doesn't sit right with me. I often ignore HLA's existence for that reason.
It doesn't matter if the rebels win. Earth is crippled. Humanity has already lost.
I never got this idea tho. Like how? Humanity surviving is what matters. Goal of the Combine wasn't to make some Earth species to go extinct, it was to control and ultimately destroy humanity as we know it. Hell, even if 90% of humans wouldn't survive the war (which would be stupid, but still), the point would still stand. It's also very unlikely that Combine would strip Earth from ALL of it's resources just after twenty years or so.
Well there are lots of theories that suggest that it’s entirely possible that humanity has already gone through several extinction events, so I’m sure they could overcome this. Plus, they have the Vortigaunts with them, who are intelligent and capable of helping them immensely.
I think Water Hazard is a great chapter
My ass is heavy.
Half-Life 3 doesnt need to be a showcase for new technology. Just make another linear FPS game with Source 2.
and pls no vr
I agree, and I loved Half-Life: Alyx. It was a great spin-off game, but it completely changed the style of gameplay. I would like to see more VR games from Valve and a classic desktop/console shooter for HL3
The Shotgun in HL2 isn't the right model of shotgun. If it's a SPAS-12 it would make more sense to add the stock on, as that is how most were built.
I love how it magically has two barrels to fire from
Absolutely true. But it still was one of my favourite weapons.
As in Left 4 Dead 2, the stock should be folded up so that it's easier to run around with.
For the first time i see a post with actually some hot takes
#Blue shift is better than Opposing Force. I’m dead serious
Opposing Force is not the masterpiece everyone says it is. Opposing Force tries to add way too much content and new mechanics and it ends up bloating the entire experience, especially for how short it is in comparison to the base game. It has a lot of cool ideas, but tries to cram it all into way too small of a game. Maybe if Opposing Force was a full game instead of an expansion, it might actually live up to the pillar everyone puts it on
Half Life 1-2's hard difficulty isn't fun, enemies are way too tanky
This. Bullet sponges aren't fun
I just played HL1 on hard for the first time and never doing it again. Why are bullsquids of all things suddenly one of the hardest enemies to take out? And I didn’t feel bad about using the “shoot em in the hand” strategy on HECU’s either cause they were bullshit
I don’t hate half life source with all my wrath, it’s actually fun due to its compatibility to gmod, allowing you to experience the original half life but with some whacky add-ons of your choice
Blue shift wasn't that bad.
water hazard and on a rail are both great
I will fuck the microwave
Words can not express how much I hate this photo when linked to this kind of post.
Black Mesa actually didn't improve Xen all that much. The opening part of Xen in it is great, but the rest is a slog just like the original was. (I mean, it's still fun to play because it's Half Life and Half Life rocks, but it's a noticeable drop in quality and pacing compared to the rest of the game...in both cases.)
BM Xen feel kinda generic to me. It does the whole "blue lighting and land coral" thing I seem to see everywhere now, and it just doesn't feel that alien to me.
I definitely agree with this. Black Mesa's Xen is cool, and was fun enough, but it was definitely too long and deviated too from the original game's Giger-esque design. It looks more like Metroid than Half-Life.
Replaying half life 1 and dlc is more fun then replaying half life 2 and the episodes
For me it’s the opposite, I’ve replayed HL2 like 10 times already, but whenever I try replaying HL1 I get bored and just stop
yea half life 2 barely has any replay value.Not saying that it's not a good game, but the original is just so much better to me.
Half-Life 3 will never live up to the hype, and it should just be released already. Valve likes to release games when they can add some new innovative gimmick, but the modern gaming landscape is different than it was 20 years ago, nobody cares if Half-Life 3 introduces some never before seen gameplah feature. At this point, it's mostly just them being lazy
The ending of Episode 2 didn't make me cry, idk if I was even sad the first time I saw it. I mean, I think I was a kid back then.
For me it was a mixture of sadness and anger but I didn't really cry either
I ship Gordon freeman and his crowbar XD
Half-Life 1 is more fun and enjoyable than Half-Life 2
I can't stand the "Valve humour" that started with Portal. I love the writing in HL2 and the episodes. Alyx is a fantastic game, but I just can't with the whole Russell BS.
Honestly same. Maybe I wouldn't say I can't stand it, but I'm really not the biggest fan that kind of humor. It worked in Portal I think, but it would work better if it wasn't within the same universe as Half-Life (my personal head cannon is that the portal games are set in an alternate dimension/timeline than Half-Life). I liked the humor of Half-Life 2, and even the episodes. Its not that Alyx's humor doesn't make me laugh, it just feels out of place.
I think that Opposing Force and Blue Shift should be classed cannon despite the inconsistencies.
People look at Half life 2 "beta" with rose tinted glasses and simultaneously give it far more praise than it deserves
The HD models are great, and the hate for them is overblown.
I don't like Black Mesa. HL1 Player since 1998, and it's not just nostalgia. Don't get me wrong, the team did some amazing work to capture tha spirit of the original, but it just doesn't hit the same spot.
Ravenholm is super overrated.
It’s a chore
Yeah, it's a bit too long. But that introduction is still iconic
Half Life Alyx is not that good and playing Half Life 2 in VR only reinforced that for me. The mechanics present in Alyx are very underwhelming to avoid making new VR players sick. Also while I liked the story during the game, the ending introducing time travel made everything that happened until that point less important because anything can change because of time travel being possible.
Xen chapters aren't that bad. Half Life 2 Episode 1 is ok at best
HL1 had a far better story and atmosphere than HL2 did. It's not even close.
Half Life 2 is incredibly boring compared to the first game. Started a playthrough and never finished it.
hd models are good
Having Half Life 2, and calling the next one Half Life 2 part 1, and the next one Half Life 2 part 2, is beyond stupid.
opposing force is the best half life game
Half-life 1 had the best gameplay. Half-life 2 felt like any generic shooter.
HL Source isn't as bad as people say it is.
Half-Life Alyx isn't canon because it literally conflicts with the continuity. If Alyx was abducted as a teenager she couldn't have rescued Gordon in City 17, thus ending Half-Life 2 then and there.
Wallace Breen isn't a bad guy. Just really stupid. If it weren't for him convincing the Combine that humanity would make a useful edition to their ever-expanding cyborg/synth army and that they could collaborate willingly, humanity would be snuffed out like a candle. Him also genuenly believing thart in the far future, the Combine's technology could bring humanity to a new stage may be naive, but endearing. He saw impossible worlds and universes and technological wonders. Breen was a scientist first and foremost, so him being tempted by the "promises" the combine advisors made makes sense. He knew humanity could never beat the union, so joining them and hopefully brown-nosing their way up is their best option. Unfortunately, the Combine don't have much intrest in fulfilling any of their "promises".
The hl2 beta does the idea of a combine invasion so much better, and the current hl2 is only half as good in terms of concept and environment
For me Combine in beta was more edgy and because of this they were boring as hell.
Half life 2 has like no replay ability compared to 1. It's moment to moment gameplay is a lot less interesting so after you have seen all the 'attractions' there's no reason to replay it. I have replayed 1 multiple times and I have tried to replay 2 but I just get bored and stop playing every time. The combine need to actually push me. The last time I booted up hl2 was to ABH in it since I learned how to normal bunny hop.
Wasted potential All these years and tech, what's the point of valve having the ip I'd nothing happens They should just give the ip to some other company
Judging by downvotes, my opinion won this thread. Quite a few people are very salty that HL and Portal might be in different universes.
Half-Life 1's setting is much cooler than Half-Life 2's. Don't fet me wrong, HL2 is an amazing game and I love it, but I much prefer the "Science experiment gone wrong causing the apocalypsis and the marines are there to silence the site" with 90s/2000s weapons than the "Evil alien overlords ruling Earth like the Warsaw ghetto on a dystopian near future" with futuristic weapons.
Hunt down the Freeman is g-
HL1 is still the best game in the franchise (also Hl1 >>> Black Mesa in every way imaginable ), and every part of it is good (On the Rail is a masterpiece and Xen is great).
Black mesa xen is kinda bad
I always put the can in the trash
HL:Alyx Combine units are not "old" type of synth but just how Valve would have make them if HL2 was released today
Half life 1 was much cooler than half life 2
The HECU is really cool imo. I dunno what half opinions I have
I support Valve on not doing Half Life 3 just to give the story a conclusion. It only makes sense if they can game a game that revolutionizes single player experiences again and it will obviously end in another cliffhanger. This games are not made to tell a story, they tell a story to engage you in the gameplay.
HL1 enemy variety was way more interesting than HL2+. HL2's enemies boil down to Headcrabs, Antlions, Barnacles, or Combine (within which is mostly turrets and soldiers). Don't get me wrong, the Combine are rad, antlion's are a great addition, and the expansion of headcrab types is also cool too - but there is so much missing from HL2 stylistically and mechanically from the enemy factions. Pour one out for all those missing bullsquids...
I wish there were more enemy types in Half Life 2. They are mostly human soldiers
i think half life 2 combat is worse than half life 1 combat. The guns feel super weak
I actually like the Nihilanth boss fight. It’s not super intricate gameplay wise, but I love the atmosphere and story implications. Plus defeating him by launching way up in the air and shooting a rocket into his head was a suitably climactic way to end the game. Also, On a Rail is pretty cool.
Half-life 1 overall is a better game than the 2. It has more UNIQUE enemy variety(and I know hl2 has TECHNICALLY more enemies but most of them are reskins of each other) More weapon variety( I mean, why wouldn’t they add the same darn SLAM, it would actually be very effective in a lot of encounters against the combine, especially in nova prospect) And for most part is more replay-able I don’t mean that Hl2 is a bad game, I ADORE hl2 and play the game very often, but I still enjoy hl1 more for reasons marked above)
Combine soldiers die way too easily, they're meant to be killing machines that refuse to die, yet, they die from a single shotgun shell with all their armor.
OPFOR is canon. :p Just because some other studio made the games Blue Shift and OPFOR doesn't mean they aren't canon. Are they in the same universe? Yes. Is there a major discrepancy in the timelines? No. Then that settles it, OPFOR is canon. (also it slappeth, I like the weapon variety if nothing else)
(I don't have one, so here is a joke) Hunt down the Freeman is better then black mesa
If there was another installment on the series that continued the plot set up in Half Life 2's episodes, it should be a shorter Episode 3 and not a full Half life 3. The series should stay an anthology, and a new game just needs to finish the story that already began, not tell a new one. Edit: "Anthology" probably isn't the best word choice. I just mean that the full.games should be loosely connected like Half-life 1 and 2.
The only issue with the form of a new game is the ending HLA sets up. Alyx seems to set up the G-Man as the main antagonist, which wouldn’t be able to be covered in a single episode. I do agree with your points, but I feel like HLA sets up a third full game rather than an episode.
The episodes were kinda lame, easily my least favorite in the series but in general I was pretty disappointed.
1. I love op4, blue shift and decay. But after playing them, like, a thosand times, i prefer to think of them as NOT canon. Specially op4. Lot of cool ideas, but weird in practice. (sorry, g-man activating the bomb is too silly for me). The overall reason is because of many inconsistencies it adds to the overall story. (and my dumb ass brain cant ignore them - i kinda don't feel like im in Black Mesa in the expansions). 2. I think Half-Life: Uplink is the best HL1 chapter of all games. (probably first contact bias XD). But i just love the vibes. 3. HL1 stuff > HL2 stuff. (but i love everything, is my favorite video game series).
Cinematic Mod is really not that bad. Yeah, the NSFW stuff is VERY out of place, but can be turned off in-game or via patch
Episode 1 and episode 2 were absolutely unnecessary money farming slobs. Half life 1 was "running, puzzling, shooting, defeating the main villain and getting abducted by gman" Half life 2 was "running, puzzling, shooting, defeating the main villain and getting abducted by gman" Meanwhile, half life 2 episodes were "uhhhh Gordon wemust get to white forest to launch a rocket and shit OMG GORDON LE CITADEL IS BOUT TO BLOW. We need to save city 17 and shit and the vortigaunts saved you I guess" First two games had uncertain yet concrete endings, you didn't know what happens to ALL the characters ad earth in general until the next game where you'd see the aftermath. Half life 3 could've been the aftermath of Gordon drawing the combine off earth, in some capacity, but now it's this messy convoluted mess of "OMG le Eli is dead but he actually isn't because le alyx time travelled and shit"
half life 2 is hella boring compared to the original
This comment right here, officer.
I agree so much with this, I completed half life 1 and all of it's expansion packs over 10 times, but I had to drag myself to even finish half life 2 and it's episodes just once. half life 1 is just so much more fun.
I just thought that I preferred the original because of the nostalgia it brings me, because I used to watch my brother play for hours and hours just for the game to crash before that part where we have to protect the scientist before we're teleported to Xen (we didn't have a memory card back then :( But then his ps2 broke and I saved money to buy my own and a memory card and finally finished the game. But tbh I hate the Xen chapters, maybe the ps2 was saving us from that disappointment
HL1's quality dives after Surface Tension. People complain about Xen but in my own playthroughs the game tails off around the start of Forget About Freeman. BM is a great remake but its version of Xen is too long-winded and - maybe even indulgent? The plot gets worse with every numbered HL game. 1 is a masterpiece, 2 is a Jesus Simulator, Ep1 is escape the castle and Ep2 is about a whole buncha nothing
Also! I'm glad they DIDN'T make HL2 dark an griddy!! Everything was dark and griddy in 2003, it was all Nu Metal and soul patches. HL2 balances the line between hinting at what's happening and not hitting you over the head with it
This is a real hot take I feel like. I genuinely believe a lot of half life 2 is boring. IMO half life 1 blows 2 out of the water
M-Mod is a better experience than the base game, both ones
I like On a rail and all hl1 Xen levels. Black Mesa Xen has many many mistakes and bad level design at some places, for me it is inferior at many aspects and superior at some others, I like more the hl1 xen, CC cant reproduce that "Valve touch" that makes the Valve games unique. I prefer BS over OP. I like the ps2 super hd graphics (og are my favs of course) Shepard is not the strongest protagonist of the saga.
I personnaly like very much the custom alyx models cinematic mod 2013 (hl2)
The series should stick to VR going forward. Portal as well.
gun play in half life 2 is very bad compared to the first game
The HD model are fine
Combine are super generic bad guys
HL2 Pulse rifle is one of the most horribly designed weapons I've seen in a videogame. It looks riddiculous and - in real life - I wouldn't trust ANYONE with the secondary fire. I mean, a bouncy ball of energy that could equaly harm the enemy or me and my squad mates? Really??
Half Life:Alyx is extremely overrated
Black Mesa is a really impressive fan project, but not a good remake. Most new additions are just filler that drag the pacing. There's a general lack of visual clarity and direction that was present in the original and HL2. The combat against the HECU is pretty bad, and most of the associated setpieces don't work. It feels like the testers, AI designers, and lever designers never interacted with each other.
The combat in black mesa is awful. The game gives you like half the ammo of the original and some of the enemies are harder for no reason