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Love the Half-Life games, although I definitely prefer 2 over 1. I dunno, I’ve never really got the takes that the games are outdated, I really wish I lived in the world where they were because I’d fucking love to have more games like this, but I really don’t see anything that has surpassed HL2 (I can see it to some extent with HL1), there’s just something about it. Even with the whole boomer shooter trend, most games seem to be taking inspiration from the earlier generation of shooters, few true HL2-style games around.

Black Mesa’s alright, but I really don’t like a lot of the changes that were made. Never understood the On A Rail hate (especially when, like, Residue Processing exists, no way On A Rail is worse than endless fucking conveyor belts), I actually genuinely love all the vehicle segments and wish more games had that “road-trip where you occasionally stop to explore a little or deal with something blocking the path” vibe, Metro: Last Light had its own On A Rail style section and it was pretty good. So that getting cut down was kind of annoying, and Xen I just really don’t like - it drags way worse than the original ever did, that one cable puzzle just comes up again and again, and aesthetically, while the whole space jungle thing is kind of neat (and the “Sauron-eye tower as landmark to indicate how close you are to the end” is really cool, although of course HL2 did that with the Citadel too to some extent, but I just love shit like that, give me less minimaps with objective markers and more massive towers for me to inch towards), the barren wasteland (or really, little pockets of floating mini-wastelands) of the original Xen makes it feel so much more unique, and, well, alien. I’ve had several Black Mesa playthroughs which just fizzle out at that point - maybe the final section is better, but I’ve played through it so few times because my spirit was drained by cable puzzles that I can’t really comment on what happens there.

How about other mods? There’s just so much amazing stuff, HL1 in particular basically has several extra expansion packs thanks to mods - Echoes, Field Intensity and Delta Particles are all amazing and I would pretty much consider them on the level of the actual expansions (maybe even better than Blue Shift, tbh), maybe short of voice acting but that’s understandable for free mods. Plenty of great stuff for HL2 as well.

I like source engine games a lot but when I tried HL2 recently I didn’t like it at all. It just makes me run through messy, confusing environments trying to find the one place I’m allowed to go next whilst I’m constantly being shot. Horrible, stressful gameplay. I liked the can thing though.

The creatures from Xen had a right to defend themselves

The first time a fast zombie attacks you in Ravenholm is the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me in a video game.

HL1 > HL2

I’ve only played Half-Life 2 and it’s good but clearly been Seinfeld-Effected by the industry in the twenty-odd years since release, to the point where I’d feel weird recommending it outside of “it’s very cheap and pretty good but nothing jaw dropping”

Hot Take: HL2 is probably one of my favorite games ever, but the time gap between then end of HL1 and the beginning of HL2 feels very much like “our game made too much money and so we had to make up some shit” in a way that is less a continuation and more like an entirely different story.

But HL3 confirmed, its coming, i’m camping outside valve headquarters already.

The first game was okay. Never got around to playing any of the others, they looked pretty generic.

Using ladders in half life sometimes can get very annoying.

I played HL2 for the first time when it was free recently. It was fun, definitely dated, but not in a bad way. Valve really cooked with the gravity gun.

It’s funny to go back to it now after years of player characters that can mantle and slide and so on and find yourself as a little quake guy just vibing out. pingin around the environment like a perfectly capsuloid collider with only ladders and vehicles as your intimate companions

The gun play in HL2 is weak. Without the gravity gun making up for it the rest of the arsenal is lackluster. The pistol has terrible sound design for a gun you are forced to use at anything medium range. Puff puff puff.

Otherwise it has a fun campaign. Drags in a few places with the urgency of the plot getting slowed down by vehicle segments.

The urban combat against the alien overlords and their cop minions as you spearhead a rebellion against them was great, though.

Im old. Got HL1 on a CD ROM IIRC. Amazed the first time I saw a bullet hole in a wall behind where I had shot. That was so revolutionary!

When HL2 came out it was one of the first games I bought on steam. Took the day off work. The dystopian beginning, the cop telling you to ‘pick it up’ as he knocks the can off the garbage. Just so ground breaking. Terrifying. Don’t even get me started on ravenholm lol.

When Alyx came out, again day off work and again a total light year ahead of all video games in terms of content and interaction. The only thing missing is Alyx 2 goddamnit. Gabe I know you’re on lemmy, throw us a bone!

I tried playing HL2 once, got to the airboat section near the start and then got so motion sick from it for multiple hours that I have accidentally Pavlovian conditioned myself to never want to try another Half-Life game again