I'm not impressed. Don't get me wrong it is a good game but I just don't see how it is viewed as one of the best games ever made. There was only two parts of the game where I was 'wowed' and the rest of it seemed less than amazing. Maybe it was better for its time or maybe there's something I'm just not getting, but I certainly didn't even get close to the same feeling that I got while playing Portal 2 (which I very much loved). Can somebody who has played the game please explain to me why it is so highly regarded? Maybe then I'll develop a greater appreciation for the game.

It's about timing. You should have played it when it released.

Timing is what makes it a perfect game? I disagree.

I played the game in the future and didn't find it to be the game people said either, but I don't think time should be hailed as the reason it's good.

This.

Many games have since taken influence from Half-Life 2, stealing away it's novelty.

When it came out it was amazing. Not so much anymore.

It's a pioneer of several elements of FPS (just like the first Half-Life).
storytelling, graphics, length, physics and physic based puzzles and NPC interaction.


You should definitely play Episode 1 (relation between Alex and you) and even more so Episode 2, which is much closer to the newer standards.


EDIT: I agree that it was better in 2004, but still great to play today. For comparison I only really enjoyed the first level of HL1, because the rest feelt archaic when I played it 5 years after release for the first time.
Nevertheless I know it has spawned many many ideas for games like Halo or Metroid Prime and the rest and therefore I fully respect it.

What? I never said anything about it being perfect. Don't impose on me. The game is considered one of the greats. A good game indeed. It came out 8 years ago and introduced a variety of new things to the genre and gaming itself. Think 2004, using a physics engines you don't see on home consoles. This was a PC game and it stood out. It had multiplayer with a mod community and played fluidly. The graphics were amazing, the weapons are great, and the first person shooters were stepping into their own. Steam grew in major populatiry thanks to this game.

When I say timing I say it was the best thing out there back then. Obviously today, games have taken some of its aspects and improved on them, as well implement physics engines. So yes, timing will have a large effect on this games seminality.

As already stated, so many games took from it that it doesn't seem as ground-breaking as it used to be (though still excellent game). Pretty much the same thing with HL1, just in my opinion HL1 was (and still is) better game.

I've played both of the episodes. I'm referring to Half-Life 2 and it's expansions as one game. I do agree that Episode 2 is better and it contains one of the 'wow' moments (minor spoiler: Alyx getting stabbed and beaten by a Hunter. It was just so cool and unexpected.). The biggest praise I can give to the game is that it has some amazing characters (namely Alyx), but certianly no one that compares with, say, GLaDOS.

One of my biggest problems with the game is that it just drops you into the middle of the story with no explaination of what's going on. That would've been fine if other characters would've reacted accordingly, but they didn't. At the beginning of the game people are like, 'Whoa, Gordon Freeman is back.' but no one thinks to ask where he's been for the last twenty years or care to explain what has happened since he's been gone. It was quite frustrating.

Basically think of it this way, HL2 at the time was a year late and still managed to hold its own graphically for almost a year after its release. HL2 was the first to incorporate physics of any kind up to that point. I don't even think doom 3 which came out a year later was up to par in that respect with HL2. Same with lip syncing and computer AI. It broke the record for pretty much every aspect of gaming at that point. Every graphically impressive thing reviewers take note of in todays gaming market was started by HL2 and HL1 as well.

Until HL2 I think the only thing I remember the AIs in games doing was follow and shoot with the occassional grenade thrown in. Physics was a completely new term which almost no one ever even heard of up until HL2.  Hell they didn't just add physics in, they threw in toys like the gravity gun to play with them.  Puzzle solving before HL2 was a series of button pushes and breaking walls that looked weak.