Does this game still hold up in 2016?
Absolutely not
This game will always hold up
Yes.
Sure. Games look better but they still run like shit. HL2 doesn't run like shit.
No, it's boring as fuck
Yes, actually. Water Hazard and Highway 17 are a little janky, but the game still plays great and looks great.
I played it for the first time in 2012 and it was absolutegreatnessI replay it + the episodes about every year now
no, hl1 is better in every way
It's the same game that it always has been, anon. Nothing has changed apart from a slight graphical upgrade when they moved it to a new version of the engine in 2007.
>>342640209
Have you played black mesa
Yes, especially considering no FPS has topped it since
>>342640209
Yes. Extremely well.
The visuals are still superb, gameplay smooth as butter, no consolitiz shit in sight, and pacing + variety are just damn well good.
>>342640209
In short; yes.
>>342640209
HL1 held up better, t b h.
>>342640209
Games don't "age poorly" , Anon. That's literally a meme, A meme that gets spread by normal and shitters who have no patience for great, but old games.
>>342640209
Replayed it few weeks ago. Gameply is still good as was in 2004, shoothing may fell little bit weaker after 12 years of fps game (I know it's looks like we got like 5 good fps every year past these 12 years) but it still holds up. Some physics puzzles may be booring at times, but after "Route Kanal" it starting take it place and dont fuck up pacing. I love how 95% of game never stops you for cutscene or taking controls away from you, i miss that in most of the games today. And yeah, i always love vehicle sections, dont get all the hate. Especially like Highway 17. That antlion thumpers, that optionality for exploration of old houses and combine blockpost, and it even less linear as first vehicle section. Episode one was kinda dull at most times, some moments would work better as part of main game. And i kinda like Zombines. Episode Two is good improvment, but for me lacks content like new enemies, weapons and variety of chapters. Episode Three... oh wait, yeah.
>>342640306
Explain
Funny this thread should show up. I'm playing HL2 for the first time in several years. My verdict is yes: it does hold up well. I'm currently at Ravenholm, which is noticeably worse than the earlier parts. The game is still good though. Even if you don't like the changes they made from the first game, you have to admit that it's a fun and important game regardless.
>>342640209
Yeah, I played it for the first time last year.
>>342640209
Yes it does
>>342643071
Go play a master piece like BioShock infinite or last of us, then you will understand why hl2 is bad
>>342640209
Aside from the shitty sounding pistol, yes
>>342643313
Bad bait, try better next time.
So we can all agree that Episode 1 was shit, right?
>>342643558
I liked it up until they tried to pad out the ending by making you run back and forth in the same area a few times. But it was super cool seeing c17 getting its shit fucked up
>>342643313
desu i see where your coming from but i honestly kinda got bored of bioshock near the end. But it was great im sure i just have poor taste
>>342643197
Ravenholm isn't very good because they fucked up the zombies in 2. In the first game they did an insane amount of damage and often appeared right behind you. HL2 just makes them hobble out slowly from a doorway right in front of you.
They also shouldn't have gotten rid of the gonomes
>>342643812
>But it was super cool seeing c17 getting its shit fucked up
This, the combine losing control over the city led to some memorable moments, like the zombines, the antlion guard that headbutts cars into you, and the autoturret killing the zombies. Also, Lowlife (the pitch black chapter) was a much better zombie chapter than Ravenholm in my opinion.
>>342642757
Yes they do, you memelord.
>>342644592
No they don't, you memelord.
>faggots bring up HL2 instead of HL1
>>342640209
No, it was even a cutscene filled basic shooter snooze fest with bad plot and easy twists to predict
Save your time
HL2 > HL1
>go back to play through base hl2
>realize its like a rollercoaster that goes fast but comes to an immediate stop every 5 minutes for you to finish a gradeschool tier physics puzzle or get through an unskippable interactive cutscene waiting for characters to stop talking to each other and move on
>replay hl1
>the games flow is constant and smooth and only gets a bit too slow around the middle for a single chapter
>>342645780
>the games flow is constant and smooth and only gets a bit too slow around the middle for a single chapter
are you forgetting the entirety of xen
>>342645854
we don't talk about xen
>>342645901
What about On A Rail?
>>342645901
it's part of the game bruh. You can't just talk about the boring parts of HL2 and skip over the worst parts of 1
>>342645901
I liked its aesthetic and overall feel, but it felt horribly designed for moving on.
I played through HL2 and both episodes last week, and while I did have some fun, I didn't really see what was so amazing "10/10 best game ever made" about it
The vehicle sections go on for way too long and all of them control like ass.
The squad AI is annoying at the best of times, and abysmal at the worst.
Physics are kind of wonky, I would often get stuck on debris or have trouble entering a vent or getting off the stairs.
You're rarely given ammo for the fun weapons (revolver and crossbow) but you constantly have shitty SMG ammo and pistol ammo which you never wanna use because they both suck ass. At least the shotgun is pretty good.
The shooting could be a bit better, combine soldiers never really seemed to react to being shot, even when it was a shotgun blast to the face.
Some of the cutscenes (that's what they are, don't kid yourself) drag on for WAY too long, which really kills any desire to go back and replay it.
Still, the game looks pretty good even a decade later.
There's a lot of cool moments (the bridge is probably my favorite)
Music is cool, whenever there is any.
Most of the cast is at least likeable.
>>342645901I liked zen... one of the few games to make me feel like I was actually on an alien planet
>>342640209
HL2 honestly has pretty bad gun/shooting mechanics. That's the one thing that holds it back, because aside from that it's a great game. The guns just feel clunky. And that's not because it's old, it always felt like that.
>>342646521
I don't think the guns feel clunky, but I do think that some of the sound design on them are fucking bad. Like why does the pistol sound like a dog fart. Or why they have a shitty SMG instead of a neat RL submachine gun like in the beta
Well I guess this is a pretty good place to ask
I've played through Half Life 2 and both episode and I enjoyed them.
Haven't played HL1 but it doesn't look too appealing to me. Is Black Mesa a good alternative?
>>342640209
yes
>>342646785
Why not just play the original? It's better than BM. And anyway I'm not sure why black mesa would appeal to you if the original didn't. It's the same game.
SMOD Redux is still fun as fuck
>>342645996
It was good.
>>342646894
I meant the overall look of the game.
I get that it's like 20 years old but it's just a little hard to look at it
>>342647016
>onemanshow will NEVER make another SMOD: Tactical
>>342647098
I mean if graphics are that important for you then I guess just play black mesa. But I think the OG halflife graphics have a certain charm to them. They feel "classic" to me because despite looking dated they don't look nearly as bad as other games that came out around that time.
>>342647059
no it wasn't
No. It never held up. The only people who liked it are millennials who never played the original.
>>342647682
yes huh
Why did people like HL2 so much when it came out? I don't really remember it doing much that other shooters didn't do in some way aside from the physics engine. The first I get, but not this one.
Also, someone post the obligatory screenshots of that mod.
>>342648236
>>342648236
for 2004 it had pretty amazing graphics, cutscenes that weren't just Blink videos playing, and a brand new physics that hadn't really been introduced up until then.
People seem to forget how revolutionary it was at the time.
>>342648236
I'm fairly certain it popularized the linear set piece first person shooter. Plus, you could put crates on people's heads while you were supposed to be listening to them.
Consider the time period.
>>342645407
You clearly have never played the game.
Also,Sony fag detected.
>you will never climb across the underside of the bridge for the first time again
>>342640209
Ohh yeah it does.Started playing it recently on my original xbox.Also running it from HDD,I have to say it brings in some points xbox to its limits and kinda lags momentarily,but yeah it definetely is a game that could be played in 2016.Though I dont know as far multiplayer goes,but overall looks pretty fun and a gem that someone should definetely play before he dies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZO6N-IL3xY
>>342648545
Also don't forget to mention that a bunch of games were made using source engine.
>>342649804
Use the fucking spoiler feature you dumb nigger,I haven't finished half Life 2 yet
In my opinion, Half Life 2 is a meme game like Dark Souls and Undertale. It's good for what it is, but it's way overhyped.
Nothing about Half Life 2 is special. There are 0 unique mechanics to the game besides the gravity gun, and that's just a physics gimmick.
>FPS
>Linear
>Vehicle sections
>Cliche story
>Acceptable graphics
>Simple gameplay
>Not very hard
I seriously don't understand why people love this game and praise it the way they do. It's so average to me. It does hold up, but not because it's particularly good - It's because we haven't advanced at all since then. Half Life 2 is just like any other FPS released in the past decade.
>>342640209
It's a competent shooter but the genre has evolved beyond it and feels dated. It's still fun, but it's not mindblowing anymore.
>>342640209
sure, if you want a nice generic bare bones fps.
>>342648236
>>342645407
Save his time and do what,play a game of your taste ?
>>342650313
>It's so average to me
*tips*
>>342650313
>lists two good games and undertale
fuck off
best part
>>342648236
Because it came with Counter-Strike: Source for free.
Because it was a new generation of HL games in the works. People had been playing HL1 mods, like Counter-Strike 1.6, Day of Defeat, TFC, Etc.
So HL2 and CS:S coming out was huge because we knew more was coming, and it did, all of the source games.
>>342650313
>What is the Seinfeld effect?
Everything BUT the prison
>>342646785
WATCH OUT FOR THOSE POINTY BITS
>>342647098
Millennials everybody.
>>342650568
>>342650580
You didn't refute my argument.
Why do you like Half Life 2? What makes it good?
>>342648545
Also, one thing that people seem to not realize in their furious memering is that The Physics were not impressive because of their use in seesaw puzzles, they were impressive because they governed the entire game world, making every object behave more believably, resulting in a mind blowing increase in the general "realism" of the game.
>>342640209
Yeah it's still (one of) the greatest games of all time.
Probably the best FPS you can ask for where you actually go on an adventure and explore a fleshed out world with many distinct areas in a overall well fleshed out environment that makes sense.
HL1 does gameplay better, but HL2 does level design and atmosphere better. All these people in the comments who say it's shit are millennial newfags who think they look like they have good taste for hating a overrated game. It is overrated, but overrated doesn't automatically make it terrible, it's still one of the best.
Not only does it "hold up" it still exceeds in quality than pretty much every other singleplayer FPS that have come out in the last 5 years. I don't understand how you would deny this, the FPS genre really started to fall apart after COD4.
Also Water Hazard rules, I will defend that shit. I think lots of shitty players missed the ramps and got buttmad when the excitement got cut off a little bit instead of boosting off every ramp you see.
Its the same way how people always bitch about On a Rail in Hl1. People were just too retarded to figure it out.
>>342653153
out of hl1, quake, doom, wolfenstein, duke nukem, and serious sam, SS had the best gameplay
>>342640209
No and anyone who says it does needs to loosen their nostalgia goggles.
>>342640209
Yes and anyone who says it doesn't needs to loosen their /v/ contrarian goggles.
Is it worth it buying HL2 and episodes to play them in synergy co-op with friends? Half life 1 in sven co-op was pretty fucking good but does synergy have good quality or is it worse than sven?
>>342655030
Obsidian Conflict is fun too
>>342643071
its seriously devoid of features or a story or weapons or characters
One of the most bearbones games I've ever played. Go play HL1 again instead.
>>342656335
>devoid of story
what
It didn't hold up in 2004, unless you were an idiot.
This game was the cream of the crop in computer game technology.
Now the boxy level design and broken pacing is very noticeable.
>>342656716
The story feels like it was written by somebody who read a synopsis of half life 1 and ignored most of it.
>fuck all those cool alien flora and fauna, the cool teleportation story line, the cool alien races
>fuck anything that happened in the expansions
and then they made up an entirely new plot for what happened at black mesa with a whole new cast of characters and events. I don't know why people are excited for HL3, its clear valve could give a shit about the half life """canon""" or really the storyline of any of their games see: left 4 dead, TF2, portal.
>>342657849
blame the people who leaked the beta, all of the old aliens were going to reappear originally, and the story was a lot different
my personal gripes are that I wish the reloads were a bit faster and the head hitboxes on combine elite are fucked
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH BOY DID SOMEONE SAY FERNS????
BOY I SURE LOVE FERNS, DO YOU GUYS LOVE FERNS?
FERNS, GUYS!
FERNS FOR EVERYONE!
>>342660217
FULLY
>>342660217
post dr breen
>>342651015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78Wvoo8jXqA
>>342660409
MODELLED
>>342660775
VAGINA
>>342645901
>>342645854
>>342645780
Why do people hate on and a rail and xen? There's nothing wrong with these chapters.
Xen is great. it's just platforming mario fun with weird bullshit and great enemies.
>>342640209
Yes. The hoverboat section sucks balls, but it always sucked balls.
the amount of exposition scenes suck when you already played the game, they slow shit down too much
>>342651015
This is incredibly nerve wracking when you're playing Synergy and the guy in the passenger seat
>>342640728
I played the first version with awful AI, they seem to have butchered some levels like my favorite Office, so it's shit. Also shitty walkspeed and jump height, it's like they modernized Half-Life it a horrible way.
>>342660893
I personally ok with them. On a rail is kinda non-linear set of levels that plays around exploarion and that train thing. There is some places with hidden items and some places with hecu or aliens and some times both at same time. I guess some people hate in for it's disconnected nature from previous chapters, there it hub-like chapter or linear loop and train is kinda tedious.
Xen is cool tho, dont get hate for it. Completely new aesthetics and change of gravity adding layer to movement (I kinda like fact that hl1 did it back in time and there was no fuss about it, when todays new trend is double-jumping\jetpacks and another type advanced movement) And they pack you full of ammo and trow enemies and two bosses at you. It like grand finale when they making it last challenge that you must overcome to complet game and show what you learned through the entire game.
