Originally Posted by
Xipilgrim
Lol....Iv'e never understood the rave reviews that people give half-Life. I thought it was Ok, but certainly not anywhere near as good as people bang-on about. And half-Life 2 was, again just Ok, but certainly not that good, or at least it seemed that way to me.
Anyone else feel the same way?
Yeah, it was kind of like Halo in that regard. Not a bad game at all but certainly not "all of that" as it was made out to be.
The only way Half-Life 2 and Halo are similar is the fact that they are FPS style games.
The reason why Half-Life 2 is/was hailed as the best video game ever made to date was:
1) Optimized code: The game designers optimized the code well enough that the game runs at its maximum graphics/sound settings on even "legacy" machines, as opposed to the rest of the FPS world, where you need a top-of-the-line graphics card, CPU, RAM, etc.
2) Awesome graphics: HL2 had the most advanced graphics engine at the time it came out.
3) The state-of-the-art physics engine.
4) Engaging storyline.
5) A huge variety of enemies and challenges to overcome, as opposed to Halo, where you find yourself fighting the same 2 varieties of enemies, ad nauseum.
6) Well constructed maps: HL2 featured some of the most unique game settings (post-apocalyptic West-European towns, alien dimensions, a deserted prison, a bridge, city streets, etc.) and possessed very well engineered maps.
7) Great soundtrack and effects.
8) First FPS to have people with real looking faces.
9) The Gravity-gun.
10) Unique arsenal of weapons.
11) Interesting puzzles to solve.