The contents of this editorial are purely opinion and continously flamebaiting them won't affect or change them. This is open for wise and analytical discussion but not pure fanboyism.
Wrote this on another forum:
I’ve always been a harsh critic of shooters. Despite me needing to play them I’ve never let them off easy. Why? I’m a child of the Goldeneye and Perfect Dark ages meaning I expect greatness. Too much these days you see shooters like Halo, Gears of War, Black, Red Steel, Call of Duty series, Killzone, Resistance, and the list goes on and they are good shooters. But they aren’t great.
I’ve recently been playing Half Life 2 and I’m 10 hrs through and just about done with the game and I’m am easily convinced that this is the greatest shooter ever created. Some see it as a cliche because that’s what everyone says but no one ever explains why. And to explain why it has to be done by harsh contrasts.
Let’s take Halo or Gears of War for example. The games progress by going from battle to battle and really it’s like a mini game. Just defeat the next horde of enemies. IN reality all games like these are are the multiplayer modes in Gears of War 2 called Horde. It’s fitting. However, to be fair, every now and then you’ll have unique gameplay elements. In Halo 3 there is a boss fight with a giant scarab or in the first Gears of War there is unique light battle versus bat like creatures. And these are great elements, but the problem is there are so few and far between that the single player becomes boring.
Up until this point every shooter I’ve played since Goldeneye and Perfect Dark has not kept me interested. It’s been like a struggle and a pain to just finish the game. But not Half Life 2. Why? Because it is the exact opposite of Halo and Gears of War. Half Life 2 has the gameplay change so much throughout the game it is almost impossible to get bored. Of course it has the core elements of going from horde to horde, but you also have moments where you control bug creatures to help fight your battles, use the gravity gun to solve puzzles or cross “death” pits, find ways to cross things that seem impassable, and the list goes on.
The game is so dynamic that I can only describe it in one way. If Legend of Zelda was a shooter, Half Life 2 would be it because it’s like playing Zelda in shooter form. And what breed does it spawn from? The Goldeneye and Perfect Dark age which had similar variations in gameplay. Only other shooters recently that I can think of that do this is Metroid Prime series and Bioshock.
This is not to say I don’t enjoy my stereotypical shooters for online which I do for Halo, MOHH2, and eventually COD5 and The conduit. But Half Life 2 is the standard to beat. Not Crysis, not Killzone 2, not Gears of War 2, not Halo 3, not any of those games. The standard was set awhile ago and no one has touched it. This is why I criticize shooters so much because THIS is what they should be... like Half Life 2. Congrats Valve... you have shown me why shooters can be so amazing like Rare and Nintendo did so long ago.
Now I bring this over for a few reasons. I know I'm late on the HL2 bandwagon but I feel justice needs to be served here. So much praise for games like Gears of War 2 or Resistance 2 lately and talks of these being the greatest shooters ever created. And yet I feel this since of injustice because of it. They aren't the greatest shooters ever created. Hell they aren't even close. All you need to do is play Half Life 2 to understand why. This is the pinnacle of shooters in gaming and there is nothing like it. Why do people like Resi 2 and GeoW 2 anyways? Because the online saves it. HL2 doesn't need that to save it's usually abysmal single player as it is so amazing that it would almost feel like online would hurt the game... similar to Metroid Prime.
I'm not trying to discredit any game from being good but I am seeking to make a statement: to reviewers and gamers a like. Remember when you think of the pinnacle of shooter gaming you look first at Doom, then at Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark, then on Metroid Prime, and you end it with Half Life 2. Because nothing after that has come close to even displacing it ever. The evolution stopped then and HL2 deserves that justice and so do the games releasing nowadays. Half Life 2 is the shooter still to beat and so far it looks like we are going in a reverse direction. So just like the next guy I like the Halo's and call of duty's and what not, but I only like and respect the games like Half Life 2 as the greatest of them all.
Next Gen 
