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Weird Opinion: Half-Life 1 is actually way better than Half-Life 2 (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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First, some background: I first became aware of PC gaming in 2012 (15yrs after HL1, 7yrs after HL2). I played both games back-to-back and then later replayed both separately.

There's so much to be said about these two games, but I'll sum up my feelings in a few bullet points:

HL1 is more thematically unified. It plays true to its Sci-Fi & Die Hard roots up to the point of campiness, but that fits rather well for a game whose protagonist is effectively a nerdy Doom Marine -- more a force-of-nature embodiment of survival than traditional hero.
HL2, on the other hand, feels weighed-down by this legacy. It wants to tell a serious story about a charismatic freedom-fighter. That's an aesthetic which clashes terribly with HL1's mute, stoic survivalist.
HL1 has a better core gameplay loop. It plays to its strengths: gunplay & level exploration. Exposition & puzzling are almost always delivered through these mediums wherever possible. Those few chapters which depart from this philosophy (On a Rail, Xen) are the weakest in the whole game as a result.
HL2, by contrast, seems almost insecure. It only trusts the player to stick with the core gameplay-loop for a few chapters at most before pivoting into yet another gimmick -- almost all of which (barring the gravity gun sequence) feel painfully drawn out:
- Water Hazard: Boating
- Highway 17: Driving
- Sandtraps: Physics "Puzzling" + "Platforming"
- Nova Prospekt: Wave-Based Point Defense

What do you guys think? There's a lot worth unpacking here which I couldn't quite articulate. What are your takeaways?

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Eh. I don't really agree. I agree that they're both excellent games and that they differ in the ways you've listed, but I just replayed both and I have to say, hl1 drags. There are long chunks that consist of seemingly endless corridor crouching jumping puzzles with headcrabs lurking predictably for jumpscares.

The things you call "gimmicks" in hl2 to me broke up that loop. They are still parts of the game and use the same mechanics, but they shake the loop up just enough that you don't get sick of doing the same jumping puzzle-->crouch through narrow tunnel and hit headcrab with crowbars-->fight pattern, and it still includes enough of those to feel like an extension of the same game.

I do think it was a mistake to keep Gordon mute for hl2. He had a reason to not talk in hl1, there wasn't really anyone to talk to. It makes way less sense in 2, and hamstrings them on further story aspects as they try to get serious with the plot.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It's another thing that's also become widely adopted by the industry as well: games that give the player different types of gameplay loops and don't get stuck in an endless-enemies-all-the-time Serious Sam scenario. There's a lot of reasons to hold Half-Life 2 up as a great game, especially with how widely influential literally every aspect of it became. It was doing a lot of things that were firsts at the time, and just because they don't hold up well against a modern standard is an imperfect argument. It laid influential groundwork that other games these days follow because they were shown to be effective in Half-Life 2, especially in respect to less-repetitive gameplay loops.