All of your negative points seem to reflect that you had a tough time getting through the fire fights in the game, and I'd like to point out that just because that you aren't good at something, doesn't mean that it isnt great. I never had a problem with the control's, excluding a few driving parts. They could touch up those for sure.

I won't even begin to comment here.

Well, maybe a bit.

'Take a silly number of body shots to go down'? Yeah, that's why you aim for the head. Or use a better weapon. Or scenery. 'Button mashing'? I do recall running recklessly around in a number of places, but certainly I personally preferred tactics to all-out gunplay. Which is what the game tries to get you to do, I suppose?

So what if it relies on health packs etcetera? Would you rather Freeman suddenly be able to heal himself over time, no matter how serious the injury? That sounds awfully close-minded and, in all honesty, Halo-fanatical to me. The conservation of health is vital to add to the tense combat and horror sections. Have you never played a Resident Evil - or any reasonably difficult survival game?

The puzzle sections are there to slow down gameplay; adding a bit of a break between action, and to demonstrate to Source engine's prowess; which came about with the creation of HL2. Can you explain the fun or even sense of having an 'unpassable wall' in terms of gameplay? You raise a great point by saying that some of these puzzles have awkwardly random placement within the context of the world, but blow it by making a suggestion which would, in my opinion, ruin immersion even more.

Reviews are highly subjunctive expressions of opinion. Most of the time, I don't agree with what other people say. For the majority, I let sleeping dragons lie, and even post some of them up on 3scapism because the points the authors make are superb. This post just seems rushed and appears to be coming from a writer who just got killed many times by Civil Protection. In future, just take a bit more care with your posts to avoid embarrassment.

Kudos for taking on a monolith of a game with a new angle, though. Just seems you're playing Devil's Advocate for the sake of it. :/

Your level design and enemy placement point seems odd, considering if valve went through even half the play testing they seem to have done for ep1 and ep2 (listen to the commentaries if you haven't already) they'd have got the placement done decently if not perfectly.

Also I'd like to be the first one to predict a 'Haha I was baiting you!' post shortly followed by a ban.

I know that it's me talking, but the word "Consoletard" comes to mind right now.

Please stop spelling tactics with a K. You're causing me to have a stroke.

I agree with the fourth point. The physics puzzles were a bore. I also see where you're coming from with the second point, because I am VERY conservative with ammo in most shooters, and ended up using weaker guns simply because ammunition was more plentiful. If you do this, the gunfights do seem a bit like what you describe. As soon as you stop doing that, though, you realize it's not the game that's the problem.

Of course, that doesn't stop this from being an awful review. It's an affront to the English language, and reads like trolling.

Melty Blood:
Please stop spelling tactics with a K. You're causing me to have a stroke.

lol indeed. Again OP. Valid points, but poorly written and with a seemingly Devils Advocate stance. I myself thought HL2 was a good game, but wondered why so many people thought it was amazing. This I surmised was because I played it on the xbox long after its original release and haven't played the first, so don't have the bond with the characters/ story etc.

Apone:

Melty Blood:
Please stop spelling tactics with a K. You're causing me to have a stroke.

lol indeed. Again OP. Valid points, but poorly written and with a seemingly Devils Advocate stance. I myself thought HL2 was a good game, but wondered why so many people thought it was amazing. This I surmised was because I played it on the xbox long after its original release and haven't played the first, so don't have the bond with the characters/ story etc.

There honestly isn't any bond to be formed with the characters in the first game, and the connection between the story of the first and second games is not only subtle, but rather tenuous. You aren't really missing anything in that regard.

Hmmmmm,

I don't really know how to respond.
I have never played the console version so what you could be true about the gun-play.
However, on pc the enemies fall at the right rate and SOURCE is quite possibly the best
engine for a shooter. After playing on it, all other FPS feel sluggish.
I do agree with the physics puzzles though, albeit not in the same light as you do, but it
was just valve arrogantly boasting their engine's properties.

felltablet:
Hmmmmm,

I don't really know how to respond.
I have never played the console version so what you could be true about the gun-play.
However, on pc the enemies fall at the right rate and SOURCE is quite possibly the best
engine for a shooter. After playing on it, all other FPS feel sluggish.
I do agree with the physics puzzles though, albeit not in the same light as you do, but it
was just valve arrogantly boasting their engine's properties.

I don't think Valve really cares a whole lot about consoles. I played a bit of TF2 on the 360 and it was truly awful, the whole thing made me feel like they just released the Orange Box on consoles to make a little extra, like as an afterthought. The controls, as mentioned, were rather sluggish and imprecise. I imagine HL2's controls can't be much better on the same platform.

I really can't agree with you - I've been playing this as part of the Ogance Box, and had HL:2 on the PC before that, and the only problem I had at all was with the end sequence of Episode 2, which drove me to the point of madness.

I have to agree with some of the other posters here and say: With the points you're bringing up, I can only say that you're probably not a big FPS player, are you?

theindecisivegamer:
Now i realise that this wil probably only diminish my popularity, which honestly is not my objective, but i am a huge fps fan. It's just that halo 1 happens to be the only good fps game ever made. You must understand that i am refering to the gameplay rather then story, style or any other artistic elements, not that these things do not go hand in hand. But as far as i'm concerned, however good halflife's story etc may be (which isn't very good at all compared to the arts outside of gaming), it's gameplay is soo poorly designed that i cannot consider it to be a good game.

You are DEFINITELY a troll.

Ok, having played BOTH the PC and XBOX version of Half-Life 2, the XBOX version is vastly inferior. The Xbox didnt have the processing power to have as many enemies and is why the enemy placement felt odd. Many epic battles on the PC, such as Nova Prospekt, were really easy in the xbox version because there were no man hacks and less enemies overall. PLEASE dont judge the game by the XBOX port, spend the money to get the PC version it resolves many of the issues that you claim. (The xbox 360 could also fix these issues, I dont know havent played orange box on 360)

cant say much becaus i just played the pc version, but this game was designed for pc, so i think if you want a better expierence of the game thats the version you have to play.

theindecisivegamer:
Then i make you a jerk.

You might want to work on your grammar, first.

I just want to say first that I played Half-Life 2 one the xbox360.

I can't agree to anything of the points you made against the game. When I played it at first I was interested, but then I played it alittle longer and fell in love with the game. Every confrontation with Civil Protection was epic, with great strategic placing. I also loved the combat, the ducking the covering, I loved it. I played both halo 2 and halo 3, they both felt slugish and cheap after playing HL2. There was nothing wrong with the health system by the way, I mean the health packs are EVERYWHERE if you look for them and you would have to suck pretty bad to have problems keeping your health up. plus it did make the fighting more suspenceful.

HL2 made me feel like a real hero.

Maybe you suck at videogames?

HL2 isn't exactly a controller-snappingly hard game.

And regenerative health is stupid-- New strategy: Don't get shot.

I agree with indecisive, there's no 'tactical' way to get through halflife 2, it's a game about conserving every bullet, every battery, every health station (oops wasted 5 health, better reload!). I remember having to find old saves to get myself out of sticky situations thanks to shoddy gamebalancing.

Most of the enemies don't even flinch when you shoot them (unless it's with a physics-driven weapon like the crossbow). Most of the physics is a gimmick, we're probably looking at the dumbed-down result of their original vision after valve realized that physics-driven gameplay sucks because it is glitchy and unpredictable (Esp. w/havok).

It definitely has great atmosphere and characters, but it's perfectly linear. I really have nothing great to say about the level design, since it all boils down to a twisty hallway with a couple of sets of stairs.

Story? yawn, good twist with the g-man stuff tho.

theindecisivegamer:
But the story is nothing to write home about when you have the stories of great writters like hermann hesse out there and it is in the details that the lackluster gameplay is formed.

I would write to home about the HL story?! Come on, the story was amzing. It was the biggest selling point of the damn game.

theindecisivegamer:
whoose

Huh?

theindecisivegamer:
It's just that halo 1 happens to be the only good fps game ever made.

Ahh, now we see the problem here.

I don't think linear game play is a bad thing. I mean it allows the game developers to set ome some climatic events. To me, the whole thing was an action hero story. Not including the physics puzzles, but they gave me a chance to relax for a moment instead of constant epic battles.

And by the way, the health system doesn't need to be fixed, Bioshock? Resident Evil 4? any of those had regenerating health?

theindecisivegamer:
It's just that halo 1 happens to be the only good fps game ever made.

We've discovered the source of his symptoms!
Diagnosis: Consoletardation.

eggdog14:

theindecisivegamer:
It's just that halo 1 happens to be the only good fps game ever made.

We've discovered the source of his symptoms!
Diagnosis: Consoletardation.

Hey! Don't lump all of us who play on consoles into the same group as him. You'll make us look bad.

Negotiator, is that you?
The story in HL was great, the graphic were awesome, great sound, overall awesome. The only valid point you had was the physics part, Valve did come off as saying "We make teh best physics, ur teh sux." Other than that though, I had no problems with the game.

are you a gamer?
Most of your issues seem to come from,to be blunt, sucking at the game. The placemnt of enermys is realistic. So if you dont like it, play halo or COD4.
Or you problems came from playing it on xbox, try PC.

Are you a gamer?
Most of your issues seem to come from, to be blunt, sucking at the game. The placement of adversaries is realistic, so if you don't like it, play Halo or COD4.
or you problems came from playing it on Xbox, try PC.

Do you see the what I did there? Before edit, after edit. Give it a try.

Far be it from me to tell someone that their opinion is wrong, but using such inflammatory language serves no purpose other than to get people's backs up and prejudice them against your point of view. Saying people are insane because they don't agree with you isn't doing you any favours either.

It's fine if you don't like Half-Life 2, you aren't required to. Your comments on the physics puzzles and the enemy AI are entirely valid and they are things I've observed for myself, but isn't it better to say that it just isn't your sort of game rather than decrying it as being 'shit'?

I really want to believe that you aren't a troll, but you're making it very difficult.

theindecisivegamer:
W
2ndly the acctual gun play is obismal, with each enemy taking a silly amount of body shots to go d