Half-Life is 15

[scar3crow]

This just reminds me of many of the reasons why I loathe Half-Life. The first big push toward the trend of linear levels where the player exists more like a game show contestant than a protagonist, where set pieces and NPC exposition are more important than decisions and gameplay. All to justify a story that was Doom with a sprinkle of BlakeStone, but shoved down your throat at every other turn. Don't even get me started on the comments about how it had this Revolutionary Mod Scene, considering most of its successes were continuations of Quake and Quake 2 mods.

Feel free to join me in a bitter frown, 15 years later and I still don't like it.

P.S., I did want to like it, but it was the first game to deeply disappoint me, it was the first game to take away some of that gaming magic that had defined my adolescence and childhood.

[frag.machine]

TBH I like Half Life... Except the Xen part. It just doesnt work to me, it looks too goofy. OTOH the Nihilant was a disturbing vision for a final boss.

I think that attaching a plot to a FPS will always require the price of putting it on rails at some degree. That said, Unreal was a story driven FPS sharing the same problems and I dont see many people complaining...

[revelator]

Also one of the likers and i actually liked xen hehe.

Probably i was fortunate in having a voodoo2 i remember some stuff like water looked dreadfull in the software renderer (couldnt see shit) and the d3d renderer had a nasty tendency of crashing all the time

And im still waiting on episode 3 valve!!!! get cracking.

[jim]

[Dr. Shadowborg]

I feel Half-Life could have had a lot of potential, but pissed it all away by making things too linear and scripted. The maps are boring. Nothing feels spontaneous, or unexpected. Even the fights feel over scripted. End result pretty much kills replay value.

Xen wasn't all bad, the platforming stuff is what ruins it.

Opforce and Blue Shift were more entertaining, but also suffered greatly from the original game's primary issue.

I refuse to try Half-Life 2 because of all I've heard about the "loiter and we will kill you with grenades from nowhere", and the same issues that kill the first game.

Seriously, if they were just gonna make me play SmashTV in fps form, they should at least be upfront about it. (come to think of it, that was Serious Sam. Which was crazy. In a GOOD way. )

Unreal differs from Half-Life in this regard because Unreal feels and behaves more like Quake. The level design is also much better for replay value.

So yeah. HL is the best game evar. Bitter frown here? Very much so.

[frag.machine]

[revelator]

Hilarious jim thanks for the laugh

But yeah not sure what the guys over at valve are thinking its ok to iron out bugs but the timeframe is nearing Dukenukem "forever" style.
And im quite sure they hit the same snag that put that game in release hell, new shiny tech stuff and devs going crazy to show of there uber skills.
Well listen to an old customer i like shiny stuff like the next guy but id rather play the game your engine looks good enough in its last incarnation.

Story wise i quite like half-life its a crazy mix of war of the worlds mixed with other dimensional baddies and a rather unlikely hero (me scientist go hulk smash with crowbar) whats not to like hehe.