Half-Life 2 is the game of the DECADE!

[Mazty]

Scoobes said:

Mazty said:

1. Your analysis though is too vague and misses a lot out. Why does Saren go rogue? Why does Shepard want revenge? What are the reapers?

Saying HL2 is just a rambo scientist who wakes up from some time-sleep to lead a revolution against the big-bad aliens isn't actually missing anything vital out. You meet a bunch of people on the way and then get put back into a time fridge after killing the bad guy by some dude in a suit. That's a good summary without missing anything vital out. Hearing about a random helicopter fight or using a gun that picks up things just isn't vital to the storyline. The fact that the reapers seem to be some sentient, dormant cleaning system for the universe who have control over the main travelling system around the galaxy is somewhat vital.

I'm not watering it down - there simply isn't a lot there whatsoever. Knowing that the earth fell in 7 hours is irrelevant. It could have been 5 minutes or 7 weeks, but either way the earth still fell. It's the equivalent of finding out Gordan won a ping-pong championship - it really doesn't matter as it doesn't alter the perception of the situation and therefore future actions are not altered in light of this new knowledge.

2. Having people talk at you isn't realistic, period, unless you are a soldier. I know preciesely why it was done, and it's retarded because of what I just said. Being immersive by being unrealistic is bull; at least have the people acknowledge your never-ending silence, or give a speech wheel or something. I felt much more myself as Shepard then as Gordon. Falling for someone who doesn't say a word is fucking rediculous. Not eye candy? Then why have that implied romance? Again, just nerd fantasy bull.

HL2 has very little story to tell. This is something you are just ignoring and saying I'm wrong without showing how. Please show me how "deep" the HL2 storyline is if it is so rich. You haven't written posts on it's story, just posts claiming it has a story and nothing more. 

I think the 2 gun thing is more to do with game balance then anything else, as well as the limited ammo they introduced into the non-realistic FPS genre. Having unlimited guns but limited ammo would defeat the point as you could just swap gun everytime you run dry. 

1. That's exactly the same as what you've done. Whose the "bad guy"? Out of all the posts in this thread he hasn't even been mentioned. Why was the war only 7 hours (yes, it is actually important to the "bad guy" character, how he got into his position and his motivations for doing so)? Is the "bad guy" actually dead? Why did the Vortigants decide to ally with the humans? Why did Judith betray the rebels? Your brief is even inaccurate considering the defeat of the "bad guy" isn't even the main goal, he just so happens to be in the way. The primary objective is to destabilise the Combine forces on Earth which they acheive by destroying the Citadel.

Using your logic on HL2 with ME 1 & 2, all the stuff about the Reapers, Saren and Shephard are all irelevant. It's just the generic, tried and tested aliens attack storyline throughout each game.

2. I've covered this before in at least two previous posts now. You don't like it, a lot of others love it. A couple of times people do mention Gordon's lack of speech (the main one that comes to mind is early in a meeting with Alyx she says "You don't say much, do you?"). A speech wheel would ruin the flow of the game. The whole point is to not be reminded you're playing the game and that all of the experiences that Gordon has, the player has. You don't normally see a speech wheel when in conversation do you? It's not nerd fantasy bull, you just don't like it. If you want nerd fantasy bull then you can look back to Mass Effect and Final Fantasy for that.

@ bolded. The stuff I've posted has already shown how you've missed some of the more basic elements of the story and disregarded others to fit your viewpoint. There's too much for me to cover in a post so I'll just post these links with their multiple articles:

Characters (including some from Portal as the universes overlap):

http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Characters

I suggest you read this one about the "bad guy": http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Wallace_Breen

Info about the G-man: http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/The_G-Man

HL2 main story:

http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Half-Life_2_storyline

Original HL + Episode 1 & 2 story:

http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Half-Life_storyline

http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Half-Life_2:_Episode_One_storyline

http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Half-Life_2:_Episode_Two_storyline

One guys attempt to bring it all together into a timeline:

http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/index.htm

There's a lot of info there.

The bad guys are the alien invaders, y'know, the combine? Not much room to expand on it other then that. Who cares why the war was 7 hours? It's irrelevant to the story. Who cares why the Vortigants are helping the humans? It could be out of charity & good will or a love of KFC - again it's completely irrelevant, not to mention only a sentence to explain it all so not really much there anyway, just as with the 7 hr war...

The stuff to do with the Reapers and Saren is hardly irrelevant given the choices you have to make and consider. You just want to praise HL2 because it's the cool thing to do rather then objectively compare it to other games or storylines. You yourself even said most game storylines are bad so are you including HL2 with that or not? You seem to be flip flopping from a great storyline, to a great storyline compared to some other games....
Reality check. A woman will not fall for a mute who she has seen for a handful of minutes. I don't care if Kleenex, vaseline and everyone likes it, that is reality, therefore to say it is immersive is just providing fap material for those who don't know how socialising works. 

If you could include links that weren't flagged by Norton, that'd be useful. Have you read the description of HL2's story from the link you gave?  Most of it is just detailing a journey from one point to another e.g.:

Chapter 7:
"This is the seventh chapter of Half-Life 2. Freeman is informed that Eli Vance has been taken to Nova Prospekt and sets out on a journey alongHighway 17 to rescue him. The player encounters Combine Soldiers for the first time as well as a new type of Xen alien, the Antlions. Colonel Odessa Cubbage is also met in this level, giving Gordon the RPG."

Chapter 11:
"This is the eleventh chapter of Half-Life 2. In it, Gordon Freeman teams up with Barney and together they lead a battle at the Overwatch Nexus, finally fighting at the foot of the Citadel. This section involves heavy urban combat, aided by resistance members, against Striders, Gunships, and elite Combine Soldiers."

In fact only about 3 or so chapters actually contain anything worthy of being a storyline....Most are just running & gunning...Frankly it's story is no more then what Halo: CE offers.