Just finished Half-Life 2 and...

[Kantor]

Hooray, somebody agrees with me.

Like you, I played it long after launch (late 2010), and I found that:

• The weapons were bland and uninteresting
• There was little variety amongst enemies
• It turned into a corridor shooter towards the end
• The characters were wooden and I didn't care about them
• Gordon Freeman has no personality and I didn't care about him
• The design is clumsy and despite the linearity it is often unclear where you are supposed to go next.

I actually really liked the game at the start, and could barely tolerate it by the end, which seems to be the reverse of how most people feel.