Half-Life was just a perfectly paced game. It almost never takes you out of the experience and from the moment of the resonance cascade to the ending it's a tense roller coaster ride that never lets up. That's why it's fun to revisit again and again.
Half-Life 1 feels tighter and more coherent to me. It feels like it has a clear vision of what it wants to do, and it does it well. It doesn't necessarily feel more polished, but more ... streamlined.
Except, yes I can. Great games that age well NEVER get old no matter how many times you play them. F.E.A.R., Rainbow six vegas, Serious sam, doom, etc etc. All classics that age well and never get old no matter how many times you play them.
Its either that or a permanent offworld-assignment. I take more issues with Mass Effect 2s mercinaries. Yeah, a three person Squad just wiped out 90% of your mates, but keep fighting, you're probably the one guy to take them down, I'm sure the paycheck will be worth it.
god, the civil war part in HL2 was so mother fucking intense! I'll never forget the relative calm and silence after killing the last strinder. that was awesome
HL2 has more story, vehicles and gravity gun....but HL1 has the better gameplay and my favourite levels are from HL1. Both games are timeless however and I will still be playing both for years to come!
Great review, but you missed a BIG point. The ability to attack/kill friendly NPC's in Half-Life 1. This made the world feel more real. Whenever you shot a security guard, he shot back. When you shot a scientist, he ran away. But in Half-Life 2, whenever you shoot at friendly NPC's, nothing happens. The NPC's just continue going about their day like nothing's happening. Really takes a BIG chunk of realism out of Half-Life 2's world. That aside, this feature from Half-Life 1 gave the player a sense of freedom in that you weren't necessarily the good guy. Maybe you're saving mankind throughout your journey in Half-Life 1, or maybe you're just trying to get the fuck out of Black Mesa, killing any guard or scientist that gets in your way. You being the good/bad guy was up to YOU in Half-Life. In Half-Life 2, the game automatically decides that you're Jesus. Big loss of realism, big loss of freedom. Definitely plays a role in why I prefer the first game over the second.
This video took a full week to make. If you enjoyed this type of content it'd mean a lot to me if you left a like, comment, subscribe, and share the video around! Thank you for watching!
I have to agree with him. but funny thing though, it was fellow UA-camr named "BigMacDavis" who actually got me interested in the "Half-Life" games, and he's even explained the lore on his channel as well.
This is great. I agree with most everything here. Half Life still tends to be the favored game of mine but HL2 was still very good. Ravenholm is my favorite chapter but most of Half Life is still far more entertaining in most chapters. (screw on a rail though.)
Its the exact opposite for me. Don't get me wrong half life is a great game but holy shit, you know a game is insanely good when its graphics hold up very very well 20 years later.
I wholeheartedly agree with the points made in this video, but I still personally prefer Half-Life 2's ending chapters over Half-Life's any day of the week. The buildup and progression towards approaching the Citadel and confronting Wallace Breen is extremely well done in my opinion. You've been looking up at the imposing Citadel for almost the entire game, making the ascension and eventual destruction of the Citadel far more climatic in my book. Half-Life doesn't exactly execute it's climax quite as well as it's successor, if you ask me. Sure, you've been hearing about Xen for the entire game, mainly during the Lambda Core chapter, and even went there during Anomalous Materials, but the game isn't doing itself many favours by populating the last few hours of the game with awkwardly-designed platforming and those fucking Alien Controllers. The design and direction of prior chapters really do accentuate the bizarre and otherworldly nature of Xen, I'll give it that, but the rest of it just falls flat. Fantastic video, by the way. You just earned a sub.
I personally disagree with this as well. HL2 is mostly an easy game but the difficulty suddenly ramps up at anticitizen one and follow freeman then takes a nose dive for the last two chapters. Anticitizen one/follow freeman don't add any new enemies or weapons to keep the players engaged. In my experience it's suddenly a few frustrating, tedious, and annoying chapters to slog through before the ending. As for HL1, people love to hate Xen and it honestly confuses me. The biggest complaint, and usually the only complaint, people have is platforming, but Xen only really had a few platforming sections. They weren't good but for some reason people remember these platforming sections far more than every thing else about xen. Xen aside from this was great. It was this strange, weird, alien world. It gave you insight on the alien world. It showed they were more organized than you thought with full on factories and vortigaunt slaves. Most importantly, gonarch is one of the most memorable boss fights in the entire franchise and the interloper is a much better ending boss battle than breen was.
My complaint with Xen isn't the platforming itself, but instead, the combat poorly mixed with the platforming. While every platforming section until that point has serve as a way to take a break from combat , with Xen they try to mix both wich was not a good idea. It's extremely difficult because you almost no cover watsoever and is very tedious to try to time you jumps while you an obcene amount of aliens shooting at you at the same time from all directions.
Opposing Force is my favourite expansion game. But.... I also find it too creepy for its own good. Seriously...those long, pitch black tunnels populated by huge aliens that suddenly charge at you out of nowhere whilst firing energy balls directly at your face!!!
I agree with all your points. Also, for me, I like the setting of the sprawling military-industrial complex of Black Mesa better than the dismal Eastern European setting of HL2.
I think HL1 was steadily fun throughout the entire game. HL2 has some extremely fun parts. Ravenholm was one of the most enjoyable things I have played in a video game. But it also has really bad parts like "drive car, raid house full of combine, drive, knock annoying things off car, repeat*12.
I personally adore both games, but I do have a slight preference for Half Life over Half Life 2, not just because it's more playable for everyone. Maybe it's just nostalgia getting in the way of things, considering how many hours I put into the PS2 port of Half Life as a kid, compared to the fewer hours I put into Half Life 2.
It's probably because Half-Life 2 wasn't suppose to come out that way. If you do a comparison between Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2's beta, then you'll see that it almost feels like two different games. Half-Life 2 beta is definitely more on track with Half-Life 1. Seriously, check it out.
I only played Half Life for the first time in 2013. I played the first one, then the 2 expansions, then tried HL2 and it's episodes. And while I only played Half Life in 2013 when the game was way past it's due date, I still regard it as my favourite single player FPS, the same cannot be said about HL2, which I did enjoy, but not quite as much. In a basic sense HL2 was fun to play because of all the inovation it brought to the table, but now, it has been surpassed, while HL1, while may be less advanced is more mechanically refined. To me the weapons also feel better to shoot in hl1 than hl2. The shotgun and revolver seem to have more power, the only exception would be the crossbow which is amazing in HL2. If you're into cars, it's a bit like comparing a Mclaren P1 to the Mclaren F1 next decade. The Mclaren P1 will no longer feel like it's innovative, so it will feel stale in comparison to newer cars, while the Mclaren F1 was built with the filosophy of being the ultimate driving machine, not the fastest. Ok, that was weird, why did I have to go on a rant about Mclarens? Anyway, other reasons why HL1 is so great is how every single enemy is trully different to fight and changes up the flow of combat. The bigger weapon variety also makes the decision making process much more fun, like you said the satchel charges and motion mines allowed for much more possibilities. You made the great point about the MP7 which by the end of the game really is just the grenade launcher.
Obi-Wan Kannabis And the fact that there is a LOT more attention to details compared to Hl-2, roaches, even roaches, have "advanced/realistic" A.I, they run away from lights, search for meat, and the fact you can calm down a Bullsquid by feeding him, on Office Complex fridges, or the fact that H.E.C.U Grunts are separated in Squads of 4 to 5 and have a Squad Leader which DO give them orders, i could list lots of stuff here, while in HL-2 the only detail ive noticed since 2004 was, if drop your car on the coast, seaguls poop on it.
Honestly, I just think Half-Life 2's failing point is its enemy variety. Where Combine only had one way of attacking -- charging forward and shooting at you -- there were also enemies like the Hunter, who had three methods of attack -- shooting you, charging at you, and slashing at you. For Combine, there were only ever one real way to fend them off, and that was to shoot them before they killed you. Hunters, though... *When they shot at you,* you could use the gravity gun to catch some of their arrows on an object and hurl it back at them, essentially making them damage themselves. Or you could use that time to just unload your rounds on them, because they can't move when shooting you. *When they charged at you,* you could just strafe out of the way and have them crash into a wall, which opened up another opportunity to fire at them while they were stunned. *When they slashed at you,* you could (theoretically) just move back and attack as they missed, although I don't recall ever successfully doing that. But as simple as Hunters were, they had multiple distinctive methods of attacking you, and that served to give the player multiple ways of getting around those attacks. For the soldiers, the most plentiful enemy in the game, there should have been more diversity in the ways they attacked you. Just like every squad had a shotgunner, there could have also been a sniper, or a soldier that only ever planted trip-mines or something. But that's just my dumb, gaymer take on it all.
Imagine if on the way to Black Mesa East or further away from City 17 you would find Xen aliens, after all it is said in lore that they are out there and Eli lost his leg to a Bullsquid. Hell the beta even has models for the aliens.
Black Mesa Source made me realize how good HL1 was and HL1 is definitely a better game. As for the original HL1, I think there's something about it's engine, graphics, and sounds that make it so special; it's just so pleasing to the eye and ear.
So HL2 is pretty much like having too much candy. All the different treats are awesome until you have enough and feel sick. While HL1 is a tasty, easily digestible meal from start to finish. Geez, I'm hungry.
HL1 had better combats and gameplay, HL2 had better puzzle and overall design. All HL2 mechanics can be combined inside a level in virtually infinite ways to create gameplay, and that's where HL2 really shines. Turrets, barnacle, zombies, antlions, rollermines, all of these ennemies aren't really threatening. But as puzzle/minigame elements they are pretty fun. Then there's the physics objects of all kind (exploding barrels, gas can, sawblades), grenades, forcefields, ammo crates, energy balls generators, gravity gun, etc. HL1 had none of that, it was mostly button pressing and shooting all the way through. It's really a shame the combats of HL2 were so boring. Even with all the puzzle elements it's still a FPS at its core, and a good FPS without good combats isn't that good.
I disagree with this. HL2 basically just recycled the same physics based puzzles over and over. HL1 created a road block in the form of a large enemy and had you explore through a maze like map to eventually clear said enemy road block which is a much better puzzle design than what HL2 offered.
I agree! My biggest problem with Half life 2 is that I just don’t think the combine are just not as interesting as the military in Half life 1. The military in Half life 1 were a lot more bad ass and somehow more fun to play against than the combine. Combine feels like you are just fighting robots and the battles against them just remains the same throughout the whole game, and it just kind of gets old fast, and there’s no real memorable parts where you are fighting against combine soldiers......and yeah; the lack of weapon variations in HL 2 is a let down as well.....also I think the water kanals and high way 17 both just dragged on for way too long and the controls of the vehicles were too stiff IMO
IMO Half Life 1 was just so mysterious and interesting and just had a more captivating vibe to it. It was a lot faster and the weapons just felt so sastifying. Not saying HL2 sucked but Half Life 1 was way better for me
I played through a bit of HL1 AFTER I played HL2 and holy crap, it feels way tenser. It feels like I could die any time of day. HL2 feels a bit too... secure? Safe? Yeah, safe. It doesn't feel like I'm going to die. The enemies are easier to kill. In HL1 though... yeah. It's just really tense
one thing about HL vs HL2 is the location. I'm surprised no one has mentioned this before. But Black Mesa allows for lots of different environments and provides tons of crazy sup quests- The fact that you had tons of "super science" things that could kill you or other employee's instantly (lasers, nuclear waste, reactors, live high voltage wires, secrete weapons accidental discharge, Public Transportation gone array, falling debris, ventilation ducts, teleports, explosives dangers) (just to name a few) and not even looking at the dangers of the Aliens and Marines. The Thing i missed most in Half-Life 2 was Black Mesa.
@@MrChickennugget360 Agreed, so hard. Black Mesa as a setting was a gem, and I still find myself wanting to find out more about it. Getting a chance to visit all the different sectors was just amazing and allowed for so much exploration
What I personally love about the first 2 Half-Life games (and probably Alyx) is that the game only ever takes control away from you TWICE during the entire series. Freeman is a blank vessel for you to embody. Whatever you see or do is canon. You could react to meeting Alyx for the first time with normal actions, a praising action, or even a more... uncivilized action.
Half-Life 1 had a more interesting plot and atmosphere. Half-Life 2 has more interesting gameplay and focus on character. But when you compare the overall impact in the gaming world Half-Life 1 just can't be toped, and it baffles me how a game from almost 20 years ago can be better designed and more atmospheric than most of the gargabe the drops out these days...
I personally think that HL1 is better because it feels different, and flows different. I have played so many Source Engine games its amazing, and HL1 just feels different, simple, and just fun.
not a bad comparison! It's always nice to see people being critical and debating the supposed best games of all time rather than just claiming them to Be, nice work!
Half-Life was more visceral and raw and I think overall it's the better game. It was so shocking and impactful for its time. Not that HL2 didn't...but it just lacked that certain atmosphere 1 had. The original had terrifying enemies and insanely competent soldiers/AI. The biggest character absent in HL2 is Black Mesa as a setting itself. That said, they are both a hair apart.
Frank Lee there are rumors that they had tried to make HL3 as RTS or interactive movie and had 2 teams working on each. If that's true they are better to not release anything. Anymore. At all.
Houndeyes were cut from HL2. They looked skinnier, and still hunted in packs. Their blue stripes, were orange I recall. And skinnier due to lack of food in the wasteland. There are working versions of them in mods. We were to encounter them especially during the Highway 17 map. Bullsquids were also created and cut. Two types in fact. The regular red-brownish one, were to be encountered in the canals. Instead you are constantly attacked by Metrocops instead in the final game. There was to be a skinnier green-yellow ish bullsquid to be encoutered in water, that could swim. Looking like a mix between a pike, crocodile and bullsquid. The Icthyosaur was kept in for the teleport reflux malfunction, but were to be ecnountered in the Highway 17 maps if you ventured into the water. Instead they included the leeches from HL1 as a natural barrier if you swim to far out, but you are not able to kill them like in HL1. They are still canon, and Valve has said that those enemies are still "out there in the wasteland", we just dont encounter them. Alien Grunts and Alien Controllers were not made for HL2, as they were probably annihilated and killed off either by Earth's military forces after the Nihilanth's death, or by the combine. Gargantuas were cut too. During the original longer trainride at the start of HL2, you were to see a Combine Razortrain ram right into a Gargantua that attacks it, when you approach C17. A model looking like the HL1 version was created, but no texture files have been found in sourcefiles unfortunatly.
Great video! I couldn't agree more. HL1 is so dang replayable. I constantly catch myself starting up another playthrough, whether it be Black Mesa, Source, or vanilla. HL2 is good, but I can't be bothered to replay it. Once you've seen everything once, the game becomes somewhat of a repetitive slog in certain parts. If I want fun source physics, I'll just play Gmod :p
As someone who not only played Hl2 before HL1, but also played HL1 20 years after its original release date, I still lean more heavily to the first game. HL1's gameplay is fast and energetic, while Hl2 seems slower and methodical. Seems that Valve put its cards into physics and the grav gun for Hl2, sacrificing many of the aspects that made HL1 so popular.
Ah, I found this video again. Here's my take: Half-Life 1 is better through virtue of its environment and story and gameplay merging together so well. There's no doubt HL2 does this supremely well too, and in a different and interesting way, but it relies on the limitations of the medium to do so. I'm reminded of BioShock being set under the sea; Ken Levine said this was initially done to provide the players with a realistic reason for the game's limitations - why can I not go to this part of the city? Well, you've got hundreds of gallons of freezing seawater in the way, and the bulkheads keeping you alive. Irrational then built the bulk of the story out of that setting. Half-Life 2 does something very similar, but builds it into the puzzle aspects of the game too: why can't I explore City 17? The totalitarian Combine won't let you. Why are all these physics puzzles everywhere? To prevent the Combine from following you, and also for killing the zombies infesting the place. It took me three playthroughs of HL2 to realise this, but it's a very ingenious cover for the cracks in a linear shooter. Now, why do I think HL1 is superior? It has nothing to do with the weapons, to be honest - both games have some doozies. No, it's my belief that HL2's narrative-supported limits and artificiality backfire in making it all too obvious. Half-Life 1, on the other hand, has some of the best puzzles I've ever seen in an action game, both in terms of setting and execution. Tell me, where else would you find a gargantuan tentacle beast that had to be killed by negotiating an enormous silo complex to power a rocket? HL1's puzzles are engaging, immersive, and best of all, fun. There are few things better paced and more fun than conveyor belt mazes, alien research labs, hopping across the pistons of waste processing vats, and using lasers to blow up a wall, all alongside a balanced, challenging, varied shooter with an interesting and well-paced story. So yeah. HL1 > HL2, in my opinion.
For the most part I agree with you but I'd like to point out that Half-life 1's platforming puzzles are some of the absolute worst. Residue processing is especially obnoxious.
Half Life 2 is linear while Half Life 1 is circular. People talk about linear vs non-linear levels, but they forget circular levels. A level like Blast Pit or Lambda Core is circular -- you end up where you started. These circular levels make the game world feel a lot more real.
I was sceptical when I first started watching this video, but then I went back and played HL1 again (I also used to play it when it came out) and I think I agree. As well as playing faster, HL1 is more of a sandbox than HL2 because of there being a bit less scripting. You can have fun with, and make up your own little stories about, the scientists and security guards more in HL1 because there's more scope for you to put a personality onto them yourself. When I managed to keep a guard alive for a while, both of us fighting marines and aliens, it was fun, we'd survived something together. HL2 doesn't really have this (except for the resistance later in the game). It's a bit like reading a book over watching a film. A book's more immersive because you have to create part of the experience (the pictures) yourself.
Half-Life 2 was my favorite game when it came out, but it just doesn't stand the test of time. Forced characterisations, fragile scripting system, dialogues forcing you to stand idle for minutes, absolutely atrocious pacing in many chapters make replaying it a really painful experience for me these days. Yet I still often return to original and have a blast every single time I go through it.
"They tried to make it entertaining and it was.. the first view times.." Some games never made me play through.. some were great but never made me play it a second time.. half life 2... > i played it 5 times through in 3 years.. that's a high level discussion here but still you are right. after 5 times these things get boring.. but many things in hl1 were boring too.. i never wanted to activate the oxigen and gas tubes for the rocket engine test more than once.. but that's something personal i think.. well made video, thank you for your efford.
Absolutely agree. HL1 has greater weapon and enemy variety, replayability, and a way higher skill cap. I also just prefer the faster movement of the days of yorr - a game's movement mechanics can make or break it for me.
half-life2 feels handholding, meeting with the characters after every section, and the characters itself are little odd, this is the combine holocaust and Alyx and Barney seems so happy, they should be sad and stressed
I think that when you right click with the Spas-12, Gordon trigger fingers 2 rounds in the semi auto mode. You can kind of hear two shots in the sound effect of HL1's shotgun.
Half-Life one was so revolutionary and immersive. Its ability to tell a nuanced story with no character exposition or scripted sequences that just relies on the genius of its level design, etc. Whereas Half-Life 2 has to spoon-feed you every little detail via endless character exposition and scripted sequences.
I love hl1 man, it's one of my favorite video games that even tho I know the story I could come back and replay it and it would feel like new. hl2 is a good game, but after playing through it a couple more times the puzzles felt dull to me, and the excitement of killing an alien or a combine shoulder just lost its spark for me. its main takeaways for me is that in hl1 as gordon you could kill any npc you wanted which in my opinion made hl1 very emissive because even though they were just bots and some would only walk up 3 steps and say something like "I'll stay here, and wait for my colleges" it really just depended on the player, because you could be good and try to save as many as you can or you could kill everyone you come across. it really adds to the mystery of that being if gordon in hl1 is the good guy or the bad guy. in hl2 it's obvious you're fighting for the good guys and every npc (like Alex or Barney) you have to listen to them talk on and on and it's so boring and you can't even skip it and it really makes the game a pain to play.
14:25 This section was especially brilliant in a small way I noticed. Earlier in the level, the game teaches you that a headcrab shell contains 3 headcrabs, and yet when you enter the building, you only see 2 headcrabs and their unlucky companions. If you paid attention you know there's a third headcrab but you have no idea where. It's only when you climb up to the second floor and get jumped while trying to grab the loot cache that you find it.
The ONE thing that bugged me about HL2 was no gibby meat. I got an odd satisfaction from beating things into chunks of meat or watching something suddenly rupture into pieces unexpectedly. Or when I beat a headcrab with a crowbar and the husks of alien meat that flung out were all two big to have fit inside it. I loved the reactions when I introduced my friends to the old Half-Life as a huge monster with a menacing red eye and jet engines for harms crushed two grunts into guts as it pressed a Jeep up against a wall in the Surface Tension chapter. A few games have gibbed well but Half-Life did it the Half-Life way. It was just cool LoL
"Evolution of shooters" or is it? I couldn't care less about the god damn story, but not because I don't like a good story. The best sensation that the first person shooter gives is a feeling of being in control of the situation. A key thing. And that is what should be glorified, not a story that doesn't even react to your actions. Especially in the form of the cutscenes, or "dialogue pauses" where npc's take all the time they need to tell you things. I didn't enjoy HL2 nearly as much as I enjoyed HL1, because with HL1 I was mostly all to myself, in control, making decisions. There were just too many people telling me what the hell to do next in the second game, and it just felt like a big long tube with me being slowly pushed out of it by all those story events. And I actually blame Half-Life 2 for making that a trend, because pretty much every other shooter since then is a god damn tube. In my humble opinion it hurts replayability and it hurts the sensation of being a master of the game. Too much emphasis on a story turns player into its puppet. A puppet that is capable of destroying anything on its way. Do you feel the dissonance? Also, do you remember the times when people discussed the cool things the physics would enable us to do? Like breaking the walls, blowing up the doors, another words making our own way no matter what? Well look what we have now with all the CPU power that is barely used. Evolution my ass.
I was never a big fan of first person shooters, but HL1 was one of the best games I ever played. That game was such a huge leap from all the other fps, that the impact of it's release just over shadows the impact the sequel had during it's time. The only way anyone can understand this impact has to have been a gamer during the 90's with a decent PC. After figuring out the best video settings with the old nvidia voodoo gc, I was completely blown away. Two words... Barney's Helmet! lol. Not only were the textures and overall graphics where amazing, the environments, game design, and story telling were above anything else i ever played. It wasn't just a bunch of repetitive corridors, it was an exquisitely woven tapestry embellished with hundreds of uniquely crafted gems. HL2 was a great game too, but it did lack in variety. It didn't take great leaps, graphically, and level design. It may have been my state of mind at the time and I dont know about anyone else, but I remember feeling a weird sense of depressing isolation while playing hl2. It may have given most people an exciting eerie feeling, but it was probably the main reason why it didn't have the same replay-ability for me.
I just finished HL2 (working on episode 1) and I really agree with you. Already during the game there were moments in which I was like "is it over yet?". The boat and car thing were way too long. I still enjoyed it for this time, but I don't think I'll go back to this game again as much as I know I'll play the first one
Half life 2 lacks the cool exotic content from half life 1. Hl2 is just more realistic and generic in its content, compared to hl1 where you were on a trip through very cool and creative environments, whereas in hl2 its just common cities. And I do miss the weapons from hl1 a lot in hl2. Plus the soundtrack from hl1 is way better.
I find Half Life 1 better than 2, but i dont feel bored with it as you do, i do love both, just i find the aliens and marines on labs more fitting to my taste.
I like the claustrophobic atmosphere of half life 1 better. When I first played it, I almost felt hopeless and terified that I am locked in a facility that is filled with vicious alien monsters.
My problem with Half-Life 2 is that its realism doesn't contribute to memorable setpieces, story or pacing. While Half-Life 1 was a masterpiece of video-game storytelling, Half-Life 2 felt drastically different and lost some of its focus. I only got hooked after playing Episode One and Two, which had a better sense of progression. And well, I had a lot of fun in the situations presented in these episodes, such as the hospital section in Episode One, or the fight alongside Vortigaunts in Episode Two. They also expanded HL2's puzzle solving in really fun ways, so that too is a big plus for me.
Half-Life is, I think, tighter story set in fairly specific, enclosed environment(s). Half-Life 2 broadened the world massively and added a lot of interesting lore to it, but at the same time it had to lose the tight focus of Half-Life 1. Half-Life is one intense adventure from the Black Mesa Inbound to ending credits. Half-Life 2 to better facilitate its expanded scope switches between intense, action-packed sequences and slow moments that allow for exposition or character interactions. Speaking of which... Half-Life is a one actor theatre. Half-Life 2 added real characters to the formula, a well done cast of interesting supporting roles, but that unavoidably muddled Gordon focus somewhat. Half-Life has a really large and interesting weapon selection. Half-Life 2 arsenal is more limited but it perhaps is better thought through with every weapon having its place and game construction that encourages you to constantly switch between them based on particular section of the game. And it adds amazing tool/toy/weapon in the form of Gravity Gun. I think that's the gist of it. Half-Life and Half-Life 2 are two very different games for them being direct (from Gordon's perspective) sequels. Hard to pick a better one between the two. I will admit, though that Half-Life 2 begins to feel a little boring about halfway through. I think it is a byproduct of the fact that by about that point you already have all available weapons and, since at no point you lose your entire arsenal (unlike Half-Life 1), gameplay-wise (or at least gunplay-wise) it is pretty much repetition from then on. Episode 2 is the perfect mix for me. It has story focus and character focus. It keeps the pacing really well thoughout and at the same time does a great job of showing another area of the world and having illusion of open world at times. The game is shorter, so any issues with weapon variety are less pronounced, even more so because of the Muscle Car which constantly gets new toys and features as the game progresses. I rank the main games as follows: Episode 2 > Half-Life > Half-Life 2 > Episode 1. Also, presonally I tend to enjoy chapters like Black Mesa East or exposition/tutorial section of White Forest base. Ravenholm is a masterpiece in itself.
I love HL2, but I feel exactly what you said in the beginning. I can play HL1 over and over again and it's always fun, but HL2 isn't that replayable. I only play HL2 when I'm in the mood to immerse myself into the lore and story of the Half-Life universe.
Half life 2s biggets weakness is the combat Mmod helps alot the projectile shooting makes combat so much better for me But again the weapons always feel like worse verisons of half life Plus the smg in half life feels so satisfying to shoot and use plus I think shotgun wise half life still has the better shotgun feels punchier
The thing that makes me enjoy replaying the first game more than the sequel is the variety of environments to explore - Black Mesa, as a setting, just feels a little less predictable and more varied (and yes, dare I say more interesting) than City17 and its surroundings. While I had a blast playing Half Life 2 as well, I could always sort of predict what I was going to find around the next corner - which I guess is the case with more realistic settings.
You are very right. HL1 is better than HL2. In Single- and Multiplayer, too. HL1's Quake 1 style movement with bunnyhopping, circlejumps, wallstrafing, the Longjump Module and Tau-Cannon jumps it was fucking great in TDM because you were able to control parts of the map while not having to time overpowered items like in Quake (Quad Damage and big armors). With practise HLDM made me feel free and agile. HL2DM's bunnyhop was bad, players had too many startweapons (bad for area control in TDM), no wallbang, no longjump, no Tau-Jump, overpowered AR2 energy core.. slower weaponhandling (you can't make use of all the weapons you carry in HL2 because weaponswitches take more time, shotgun has bigger weaponswitch delay and generally the RPG makes all other weapons feel useless..) HL1DM also had better maps. Each map in HL1DM had it's unique design and (for the most part) weren't just multiplayer versions of singleplayer maps. Sadly Black Mesa carries over most game mechanics from HL2 which really ruins the experience for me (boring movement, bad clipping, slow weaponhandling.. and in BMDM you are even less agile than in HL2DM..) I really hope the devs will fix these problems after they release Xen.
Half-Life 2's arsenal and enemy variety pales in comparison to Half-Life 1. Not only the guns you get in HL2 lack imagination compared to 1 - pulse rifle (slightly different assault rifle withan interesting altfire), gravity gun(the gun that is carrying the whole game), pheropods and crossbow vs tau cannon (you do get it but... it's a gun turret), gluon gun, hive hand, snarks, satchel charges, trip mines, but also they aren't as well ballanced as HL1 - no gun becomes really obsolete due to a new addition. In HL2 - pistol becomes obsolete after getting the SMG, and barely used when you get the shotgun. Crowbar basically becomes useless after you get the gravity gun. Shotgun pretty much eclipses the smg. Even if you would want to use smg in other areas the ar2 edges it out as well. Thankfully EP2 does do some things with the enemies, especially hunters.
I personally cannot compare HL1 and HL2, they're both so great to me The only complaints about HL2 I have is that there aren't enough Aliens and the Combine AI is stupid
15:34 “playing the floor is lava is less fun in video game form” my first play through I couldn’t be bothered to not walk on the sand and just ran through the whole thing
HL came out 1998. HL2 came out 2004. Look at how much more of a difference there was between 98 and 04 compared to the difference between 04 and today. Improving graphics _noticeably_ has gotten progressively, almost exponentially more difficult.
Honestly, I agree with this guy. Half-Life is WAY MORE satisfying. Especially with the Gargantua. You kill it in to ways. With electricity and a tactical map. But in the Xen levels, none of that stuff is there. So you have no choice but to do what I did: KILL IT WITH THE GLUON CANNON.
hl2 isn't as cool because a bunch of dumb impatient hackers decided to try to get their hands on it which resulted in cool stuff being cut from the game!
Agreed And well said. HL1 was a shining example of variety and progression and set pieces, and hl2 had its moments, but HL1 just has a better combat loop, more replayability, and more self esteem in different weapons etc. Like mgs1 vs mgs2
I also think that even though HL2s story with the uprising and Gordon Freeman basically single handedly taking down an oppressive alien regime is extremely cool, the gritty and slightly more grounded old school sci fi feel of HL1 I think is much cooler and more engaging than the huge scale and scope of HL2. HL1 doesnt just have aliens, it also has a government cover-up, and themes of ambiguous ethics and morality. HL2 basically just has aliens, which I feel really cuts down the relatability of the game.
My biggest issue with 2 is the AI is really fucking dumb. Combine just run into gunfire and don't care about their lives. The guns just feel weak compared to 1 as well.
HL2 your objectives aren’t always set as clearly. Also there aren’t as many enemies and cool bosses. HL1 also benefits from some of the best pacing of any game ever besides arguably the “on a rail” section.
I'm from a later generation that didn't grew up with HL1 but with HL2. I was so incredibly lucky to play "Black Mesa: Source" before Half Life 2 (no break, I was so amazed) I have to say that I like Black Mesa more. I think it's because of the setting and the progression of the story. The feeling to finally reach the surface for the first time in the game is extraordinary. But that doesn't diminish my fondness to the HL2-series and its other mods. It's just so that Black Mesa did a better job in bringing me into the HL-universe than HL2.
This video sums up exactly why Half-Life 2 is overrated. Half-Life 1 is super cool, well balanced and fun, but HL2 still feels like it could have been improved and not a final product. That being said throwing things around with your hands or gravity gun is fun!
Half life 1 all around, better setting firstly, black mesa feels so interesting and when you find out that the scientists actually knew about the xen monsters it adds so much more intrigue, the enemy variety is also better with so many different enemies, also the weapon variety is stronger with offering up an arsenal of useful and fun weapons, nothing replaces the gloon gun or the tal cannon for me, also the pacing feels way better, half life 2 has a couple to many slow points with the conversation scenes, while half life 1 always keeps everything moving, also the idea that the dlcs are taking place at the same time through different povs is cool as hell, wish more games had that, also i think the gameplay overrall in 1 is better than 2, half life 2 is still great and i love it, still one of my fav games, but half life 1 and its expansions are just close to perfect for me
Grunts: SQUAAAD! WE GOT FREEMAN!
Overwatch Soldiers: contact confirmed, freeman.
I mean, Kleiner, Barney and the gang are nice, but nothing will ever compare to the HL1 scientists.
S T A H P
N O O O O
D A A R G H
E U E G H
NOOO
AGH
I seem to be wou- STAHP
THEY'RE WAITING FOR YOU GORDON.
IN THE TEST CHAMBERRRRRRR
DONT SHOOT! IM WITH THE SCIENCE TEAM!
Half-Life was just a perfectly paced game. It almost never takes you out of the experience and from the moment of the resonance cascade to the ending it's a tense roller coaster ride that never lets up. That's why it's fun to revisit again and again.
HL1: Me and the boys trying to survive the Black Mesa Incident.
HL2: Me and the boys defeating the most powerful alien empire.
HLA: Me and the boys getting a job
lmao i like how your name is the Nihilianth and your pfp is a spy LMAO
Half Life 3: Me and the boys
Half-Life 1 feels tighter and more coherent to me. It feels like it has a clear vision of what it wants to do, and it does it well. It doesn't necessarily feel more polished, but more ... streamlined.
HL2 is cooler and more impressive.
HL1 is more reliable arcady campy fun.
Kinda represents the 2 eras of FPS doesn't it?
and HL3 will make the 3rd era of FPS...if the game release
Yea, microtransactions and short levels. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )
Except, yes I can. Great games that age well NEVER get old no matter how many times you play them. F.E.A.R., Rainbow six vegas, Serious sam, doom, etc etc. All classics that age well and never get old no matter how many times you play them.
Hecu: *runs away when damaged*
Combines: *stays Like a mofo attacking when getting damaged*
they emotions were wiped, combines don't have fear
Its either that or a permanent offworld-assignment.
I take more issues with Mass Effect 2s mercinaries.
Yeah, a three person Squad just wiped out 90% of your mates, but keep fighting, you're probably the one guy to take them down, I'm sure the paycheck will be worth it.
They are both great.
Orangy Pteco Agreed
But which one is greater
HL1 is better
real gigachad
god, the civil war part in HL2 was so mother fucking intense! I'll never forget the relative calm and silence after killing the last strinder. that was awesome
HL2 has more story, vehicles and gravity gun....but HL1 has the better gameplay and my favourite levels are from HL1. Both games are timeless however and I will still be playing both for years to come!
Great review, but you missed a BIG point. The ability to attack/kill friendly NPC's in Half-Life 1. This made the world feel more real. Whenever you shot a security guard, he shot back. When you shot a scientist, he ran away. But in Half-Life 2, whenever you shoot at friendly NPC's, nothing happens. The NPC's just continue going about their day like nothing's happening. Really takes a BIG chunk of realism out of Half-Life 2's world. That aside, this feature from Half-Life 1 gave the player a sense of freedom in that you weren't necessarily the good guy. Maybe you're saving mankind throughout your journey in Half-Life 1, or maybe you're just trying to get the fuck out of Black Mesa, killing any guard or scientist that gets in your way. You being the good/bad guy was up to YOU in Half-Life. In Half-Life 2, the game automatically decides that you're Jesus. Big loss of realism, big loss of freedom. Definitely plays a role in why I prefer the first game over the second.
Matt W Holy shit, your right, I haven't notice these kind of things after 60 hours in HL2
Matt W Half-Life was about survival; Half-Life 2 is community service
Half-Life 2 was supposted to have friendly fire, but playtesters complained, so Valve decided to remove it.
@@superdrinkingpepsi where are those play testers by the way?
@@RainydropTF2 Ah, these "playtesters" that don't play nor by videogames. We should definetely cater our games to their needs and wants.
"I never got the itch to play Half Life Two
And in the few cases where I do
I find myself bored halfway through"
Wonderful poetry
Haiku material
My man be spittin some bars tho
He's a poet and he doesn't even aware of it
Our finest poet describes it thus: Gallum galla gilla ma.
Same whenever i get the urge to play HL2 i normally stop after ravenholm
This video took a full week to make. If you enjoyed this type of content it'd mean a lot to me if you left a like, comment, subscribe, and share the video around! Thank you for watching!
I have to agree with him. but funny thing though, it was fellow UA-camr named "BigMacDavis" who actually got me interested in the "Half-Life" games, and he's even explained the lore on his channel as well.
This is great. I agree with most everything here. Half Life still tends to be the favored game of mine but HL2 was still very good. Ravenholm is my favorite chapter but most of Half Life is still far more entertaining in most chapters. (screw on a rail though.)
Actually in HL1 in MP5SD3, I like how look it gun.
What's your thought on the "Balck Mesa" Game/Mod?
that why we praise gmod for existing to make alpha-life more replayble! why? well... mods
half life 2 feels like a game. half life 1 is so immersive you sometimes forget you are playing a game
and thats the main reason i like playing half life 1. The feeling of "forgeting" im playing a game
Its the exact opposite for me. Don't get me wrong half life is a great game but holy shit, you know a game is insanely good when its graphics hold up very very well 20 years later.
agree
I wholeheartedly agree with the points made in this video, but I still personally prefer Half-Life 2's ending chapters over Half-Life's any day of the week. The buildup and progression towards approaching the Citadel and confronting Wallace Breen is extremely well done in my opinion. You've been looking up at the imposing Citadel for almost the entire game, making the ascension and eventual destruction of the Citadel far more climatic in my book.
Half-Life doesn't exactly execute it's climax quite as well as it's successor, if you ask me. Sure, you've been hearing about Xen for the entire game, mainly during the Lambda Core chapter, and even went there during Anomalous Materials, but the game isn't doing itself many favours by populating the last few hours of the game with awkwardly-designed platforming and those fucking Alien Controllers. The design and direction of prior chapters really do accentuate the bizarre and otherworldly nature of Xen, I'll give it that, but the rest of it just falls flat.
Fantastic video, by the way. You just earned a sub.
I personally disagree with this as well. HL2 is mostly an easy game but the difficulty suddenly ramps up at anticitizen one and follow freeman then takes a nose dive for the last two chapters. Anticitizen one/follow freeman don't add any new enemies or weapons to keep the players engaged. In my experience it's suddenly a few frustrating, tedious, and annoying chapters to slog through before the ending.
As for HL1, people love to hate Xen and it honestly confuses me. The biggest complaint, and usually the only complaint, people have is platforming, but Xen only really had a few platforming sections. They weren't good but for some reason people remember these platforming sections far more than every thing else about xen. Xen aside from this was great. It was this strange, weird, alien world. It gave you insight on the alien world. It showed they were more organized than you thought with full on factories and vortigaunt slaves. Most importantly, gonarch is one of the most memorable boss fights in the entire franchise and the interloper is a much better ending boss battle than breen was.
My complaint with Xen isn't the platforming itself, but instead, the combat poorly mixed with the platforming. While every platforming section until that point has serve as a way to take a break from combat , with Xen they try to mix both wich was not a good idea. It's extremely difficult because you almost no cover watsoever and is very tedious to try to time you jumps while you an obcene amount of aliens shooting at you at the same time from all directions.
JarekTheGamingDragon - Jarek4Gaming Interloper isn't a boss.Ninlanth is!😀😀😀
I'm impressed that after 13 years one can finally criticize Half-Life 2.
I really liked Half Life Opposing Force 👌
Opposing Force is my favourite expansion game. But.... I also find it too creepy for its own good. Seriously...those long, pitch black tunnels populated by huge aliens that suddenly charge at you out of nowhere whilst firing energy balls directly at your face!!!
I agree with all your points. Also, for me, I like the setting of the sprawling military-industrial complex of Black Mesa better than the dismal Eastern European setting of HL2.
I like how he uses Brutal Half-Life instead of the original.
I think HL1 was steadily fun throughout the entire game. HL2 has some extremely fun parts. Ravenholm was one of the most enjoyable things I have played in a video game. But it also has really bad parts like "drive car, raid house full of combine, drive, knock annoying things off car, repeat*12.
I personally adore both games, but I do have a slight preference for Half Life over Half Life 2, not just because it's more playable for everyone. Maybe it's just nostalgia getting in the way of things, considering how many hours I put into the PS2 port of Half Life as a kid, compared to the fewer hours I put into Half Life 2.
It's probably because Half-Life 2 wasn't suppose to come out that way. If you do a comparison between Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2's beta, then you'll see that it almost feels like two different games. Half-Life 2 beta is definitely more on track with Half-Life 1. Seriously, check it out.
I've done a lot of research on that. The original concept of HL2 and the actual HL2 are nothing alike other than there being Combine.
I mention the beta in this video
I only played Half Life for the first time in 2013. I played the first one, then the 2 expansions, then tried HL2 and it's episodes. And while I only played Half Life in 2013 when the game was way past it's due date, I still regard it as my favourite single player FPS, the same cannot be said about HL2, which I did enjoy, but not quite as much.
In a basic sense HL2 was fun to play because of all the inovation it brought to the table, but now, it has been surpassed, while HL1, while may be less advanced is more mechanically refined. To me the weapons also feel better to shoot in hl1 than hl2. The shotgun and revolver seem to have more power, the only exception would be the crossbow which is amazing in HL2.
If you're into cars, it's a bit like comparing a Mclaren P1 to the Mclaren F1 next decade. The Mclaren P1 will no longer feel like it's innovative, so it will feel stale in comparison to newer cars, while the Mclaren F1 was built with the filosophy of being the ultimate driving machine, not the fastest.
Ok, that was weird, why did I have to go on a rant about Mclarens? Anyway, other reasons why HL1 is so great is how every single enemy is trully different to fight and changes up the flow of combat. The bigger weapon variety also makes the decision making process much more fun, like you said the satchel charges and motion mines allowed for much more possibilities. You made the great point about the MP7 which by the end of the game really is just the grenade launcher.
Obi-Wan Kannabis And the fact that there is a LOT more attention to details compared to Hl-2, roaches, even roaches, have "advanced/realistic" A.I, they run away from lights, search for meat, and the fact you can calm down a Bullsquid by feeding him, on Office Complex fridges, or the fact that H.E.C.U Grunts are separated in Squads of 4 to 5 and have a Squad Leader which DO give them orders, i could list lots of stuff here, while in HL-2 the only detail ive noticed since 2004 was, if drop your car on the coast, seaguls poop on it.
Honestly, I just think Half-Life 2's failing point is its enemy variety. Where Combine only had one way of attacking -- charging forward and shooting at you -- there were also enemies like the Hunter, who had three methods of attack -- shooting you, charging at you, and slashing at you. For Combine, there were only ever one real way to fend them off, and that was to shoot them before they killed you. Hunters, though...
*When they shot at you,* you could use the gravity gun to catch some of their arrows on an object and hurl it back at them, essentially making them damage themselves. Or you could use that time to just unload your rounds on them, because they can't move when shooting you. *When they charged at you,* you could just strafe out of the way and have them crash into a wall, which opened up another opportunity to fire at them while they were stunned. *When they slashed at you,* you could (theoretically) just move back and attack as they missed, although I don't recall ever successfully doing that.
But as simple as Hunters were, they had multiple distinctive methods of attacking you, and that served to give the player multiple ways of getting around those attacks. For the soldiers, the most plentiful enemy in the game, there should have been more diversity in the ways they attacked you. Just like every squad had a shotgunner, there could have also been a sniper, or a soldier that only ever planted trip-mines or something. But that's just my dumb, gaymer take on it all.
should have been more "types" of soldiers. If they are genetically engineered humans then do that.
Imagine if on the way to Black Mesa East or further away from City 17 you would find Xen aliens, after all it is said in lore that they are out there and Eli lost his leg to a Bullsquid. Hell the beta even has models for the aliens.
Also, Hunters don’t even appear as regular enemies until Episode 2.
What's your opinion on HLA Combine soldiers, where there's a few different specialized types?
Black Mesa Source made me realize how good HL1 was and HL1 is definitely a better game. As for the original HL1, I think there's something about it's engine, graphics, and sounds that make it so special; it's just so pleasing to the eye and ear.
So HL2 is pretty much like having too much candy. All the different treats are awesome until you have enough and feel sick. While HL1 is a tasty, easily digestible meal from start to finish.
Geez, I'm hungry.
HL1 had better combats and gameplay, HL2 had better puzzle and overall design. All HL2 mechanics can be combined inside a level in virtually infinite ways to create gameplay, and that's where HL2 really shines. Turrets, barnacle, zombies, antlions, rollermines, all of these ennemies aren't really threatening. But as puzzle/minigame elements they are pretty fun. Then there's the physics objects of all kind (exploding barrels, gas can, sawblades), grenades, forcefields, ammo crates, energy balls generators, gravity gun, etc. HL1 had none of that, it was mostly button pressing and shooting all the way through. It's really a shame the combats of HL2 were so boring. Even with all the puzzle elements it's still a FPS at its core, and a good FPS without good combats isn't that good.
I disagree with this. HL2 basically just recycled the same physics based puzzles over and over. HL1 created a road block in the form of a large enemy and had you explore through a maze like map to eventually clear said enemy road block which is a much better puzzle design than what HL2 offered.
I couldn't agree more, nice video man! Have you played the HL2 Beta?
ESCalation ooo esclation in here too
I agree! My biggest problem with Half life 2 is that I just don’t think the combine are just not as interesting as the military in Half life 1. The military in Half life 1 were a lot more bad ass and somehow more fun to play against than the combine. Combine feels like you are just fighting robots and the battles against them just remains the same throughout the whole game, and it just kind of gets old fast, and there’s no real memorable parts where you are fighting against combine soldiers......and yeah; the lack of weapon variations in HL 2 is a let down as well.....also I think the water kanals and high way 17 both just dragged on for way too long and the controls of the vehicles were too stiff IMO
IMO Half Life 1 was just so mysterious and interesting and just had a more captivating vibe to it. It was a lot faster and the weapons just felt so sastifying. Not saying HL2 sucked but Half Life 1 was way better for me
I played through a bit of HL1 AFTER I played HL2 and holy crap, it feels way tenser. It feels like I could die any time of day. HL2 feels a bit too... secure? Safe? Yeah, safe. It doesn't feel like I'm going to die. The enemies are easier to kill. In HL1 though... yeah. It's just really tense
one thing about HL vs HL2 is the location. I'm surprised no one has mentioned this before. But Black Mesa allows for lots of different environments and provides tons of crazy sup quests- The fact that you had tons of "super science" things that could kill you or other employee's instantly (lasers, nuclear waste, reactors, live high voltage wires, secrete weapons accidental discharge, Public Transportation gone array, falling debris, ventilation ducts, teleports, explosives dangers) (just to name a few) and not even looking at the dangers of the Aliens and Marines.
The Thing i missed most in Half-Life 2 was Black Mesa.
@@MrChickennugget360 Agreed, so hard. Black Mesa as a setting was a gem, and I still find myself wanting to find out more about it. Getting a chance to visit all the different sectors was just amazing and allowed for so much exploration
What I personally love about the first 2 Half-Life games (and probably Alyx) is that the game only ever takes control away from you TWICE during the entire series. Freeman is a blank vessel for you to embody. Whatever you see or do is canon. You could react to meeting Alyx for the first time with normal actions, a praising action, or even a more... uncivilized action.
Half-Life 1 had a more interesting plot and atmosphere. Half-Life 2 has more interesting gameplay and focus on character.
But when you compare the overall impact in the gaming world Half-Life 1 just can't be toped, and it baffles me how a game from almost 20 years ago can be better designed and more atmospheric than most of the gargabe the drops out these days...
"This just feels like another shooter. But that's wrong, other games feel like Half-Life" - perfect!
I personally think that HL1 is better because it feels different, and flows different. I have played so many Source Engine games its amazing, and HL1 just feels different, simple, and just fun.
I love the atmosphere in half life 2, especially the opening bit
not a bad comparison! It's always nice to see people being critical and debating the supposed best games of all time rather than just claiming them to Be, nice work!
Half-Life was more visceral and raw and I think overall it's the better game. It was so shocking and impactful for its time. Not that HL2 didn't...but it just lacked that certain atmosphere 1 had. The original had terrifying enemies and insanely competent soldiers/AI.
The biggest character absent in HL2 is Black Mesa as a setting itself.
That said, they are both a hair apart.
we need valve to finish hl2 beta
We need valve to finish any thing
JarekTheGamingDragon - Jarek4Gaming yea really it's been about 11 years when hl3 was announced
Frank Lee there are rumors that they had tried to make HL3 as RTS or interactive movie and had 2 teams working on each. If that's true they are better to not release anything. Anymore. At all.
Hl3 Hasnt ever been announced
Houndeyes were cut from HL2. They looked skinnier, and still hunted in packs. Their blue stripes, were orange I recall. And skinnier due to lack of food in the wasteland. There are working versions of them in mods. We were to encounter them especially during the Highway 17 map. Bullsquids were also created and cut. Two types in fact. The regular red-brownish one, were to be encountered in the canals. Instead you are constantly attacked by Metrocops instead in the final game. There was to be a skinnier green-yellow ish bullsquid to be encoutered in water, that could swim. Looking like a mix between a pike, crocodile and bullsquid. The Icthyosaur was kept in for the teleport reflux malfunction, but were to be ecnountered in the Highway 17 maps if you ventured into the water. Instead they included the leeches from HL1 as a natural barrier if you swim to far out, but you are not able to kill them like in HL1. They are still canon, and Valve has said that those enemies are still "out there in the wasteland", we just dont encounter them. Alien Grunts and Alien Controllers were not made for HL2, as they were probably annihilated and killed off either by Earth's military forces after the Nihilanth's death, or by the combine. Gargantuas were cut too. During the original longer trainride at the start of HL2, you were to see a Combine Razortrain ram right into a Gargantua that attacks it, when you approach C17. A model looking like the HL1 version was created, but no texture files have been found in sourcefiles unfortunatly.
Great video! I couldn't agree more. HL1 is so dang replayable. I constantly catch myself starting up another playthrough, whether it be Black Mesa, Source, or vanilla. HL2 is good, but I can't be bothered to replay it. Once you've seen everything once, the game becomes somewhat of a repetitive slog in certain parts. If I want fun source physics, I'll just play Gmod :p
As someone who not only played Hl2 before HL1, but also played HL1 20 years after its original release date, I still lean more heavily to the first game. HL1's gameplay is fast and energetic, while Hl2 seems slower and methodical. Seems that Valve put its cards into physics and the grav gun for Hl2, sacrificing many of the aspects that made HL1 so popular.
I think the reason it might be more boring is because of how many cutscenes there are. There are so many and it drives me insane.
Ah, I found this video again. Here's my take:
Half-Life 1 is better through virtue of its environment and story and gameplay merging together so well. There's no doubt HL2 does this supremely well too, and in a different and interesting way, but it relies on the limitations of the medium to do so. I'm reminded of BioShock being set under the sea; Ken Levine said this was initially done to provide the players with a realistic reason for the game's limitations - why can I not go to this part of the city? Well, you've got hundreds of gallons of freezing seawater in the way, and the bulkheads keeping you alive. Irrational then built the bulk of the story out of that setting. Half-Life 2 does something very similar, but builds it into the puzzle aspects of the game too: why can't I explore City 17? The totalitarian Combine won't let you. Why are all these physics puzzles everywhere? To prevent the Combine from following you, and also for killing the zombies infesting the place. It took me three playthroughs of HL2 to realise this, but it's a very ingenious cover for the cracks in a linear shooter.
Now, why do I think HL1 is superior? It has nothing to do with the weapons, to be honest - both games have some doozies. No, it's my belief that HL2's narrative-supported limits and artificiality backfire in making it all too obvious. Half-Life 1, on the other hand, has some of the best puzzles I've ever seen in an action game, both in terms of setting and execution. Tell me, where else would you find a gargantuan tentacle beast that had to be killed by negotiating an enormous silo complex to power a rocket? HL1's puzzles are engaging, immersive, and best of all, fun. There are few things better paced and more fun than conveyor belt mazes, alien research labs, hopping across the pistons of waste processing vats, and using lasers to blow up a wall, all alongside a balanced, challenging, varied shooter with an interesting and well-paced story.
So yeah. HL1 > HL2, in my opinion.
For the most part I agree with you but I'd like to point out that Half-life 1's platforming puzzles are some of the absolute worst. Residue processing is especially obnoxious.
I mean, they can be tricky in first-person and with the relatively floaty controls. What did you specifically not like about Residue Processing?
It's very tedious with no real reward. First person platforming never works well.
Half Life 2 is linear while Half Life 1 is circular. People talk about linear vs non-linear levels, but they forget circular levels. A level like Blast Pit or Lambda Core is circular -- you end up where you started. These circular levels make the game world feel a lot more real.
You should post this on the /r/HalfLife subreddit.
I was sceptical when I first started watching this video, but then I went back and played HL1 again (I also used to play it when it came out) and I think I agree. As well as playing faster, HL1 is more of a sandbox than HL2 because of there being a bit less scripting. You can have fun with, and make up your own little stories about, the scientists and security guards more in HL1 because there's more scope for you to put a personality onto them yourself. When I managed to keep a guard alive for a while, both of us fighting marines and aliens, it was fun, we'd survived something together. HL2 doesn't really have this (except for the resistance later in the game).
It's a bit like reading a book over watching a film. A book's more immersive because you have to create part of the experience (the pictures) yourself.
Half-Life 2 was my favorite game when it came out, but it just doesn't stand the test of time. Forced characterisations, fragile scripting system, dialogues forcing you to stand idle for minutes, absolutely atrocious pacing in many chapters make replaying it a really painful experience for me these days. Yet I still often return to original and have a blast every single time I go through it.
"They tried to make it entertaining and it was.. the first view times.."
Some games never made me play through.. some were great but never made me play it a second time..
half life 2... > i played it 5 times through in 3 years..
that's a high level discussion here but still you are right. after 5 times these things get boring..
but many things in hl1 were boring too..
i never wanted to activate the oxigen and gas tubes for the rocket engine test more than once.. but that's something personal i think..
well made video, thank you for your efford.
Absolutely agree. HL1 has greater weapon and enemy variety, replayability, and a way higher skill cap. I also just prefer the faster movement of the days of yorr - a game's movement mechanics can make or break it for me.
half-life2 feels handholding, meeting with the characters after every section, and the characters itself are little odd, this is the combine holocaust and Alyx and Barney seems so happy, they should be sad and stressed
Every time I've played through Ravenholm, walking into rooms with sawblades and helium tanks felt like opening up a toybox
I think that when you right click with the Spas-12, Gordon trigger fingers 2 rounds in the semi auto mode. You can kind of hear two shots in the sound effect of HL1's shotgun.
Half-Life one was so revolutionary and immersive. Its ability to tell a nuanced story with no character exposition or scripted sequences that just relies on the genius of its level design, etc.
Whereas Half-Life 2 has to spoon-feed you every little detail via endless character exposition and scripted sequences.
I love hl1 man, it's one of my favorite video games that even tho I know the story I could come back and replay it and it would feel like new. hl2 is a good game, but after playing through it a couple more times the puzzles felt dull to me, and the excitement of killing an alien or a combine shoulder just lost its spark for me. its main takeaways for me is that in hl1 as gordon you could kill any npc you wanted which in my opinion made hl1 very emissive because even though they were just bots and some would only walk up 3 steps and say something like "I'll stay here, and wait for my colleges" it really just depended on the player, because you could be good and try to save as many as you can or you could kill everyone you come across. it really adds to the mystery of that being if gordon in hl1 is the good guy or the bad guy. in hl2 it's obvious you're fighting for the good guys and every npc (like Alex or Barney) you have to listen to them talk on and on and it's so boring and you can't even skip it and it really makes the game a pain to play.
14:25
This section was especially brilliant in a small way I noticed. Earlier in the level, the game teaches you that a headcrab shell contains 3 headcrabs, and yet when you enter the building, you only see 2 headcrabs and their unlucky companions. If you paid attention you know there's a third headcrab but you have no idea where. It's only when you climb up to the second floor and get jumped while trying to grab the loot cache that you find it.
11:50 "Be quiet! This thing hears us!" *literally runs out and tries to kill it*
The ONE thing that bugged me about HL2 was no gibby meat. I got an odd satisfaction from beating things into chunks of meat or watching something suddenly rupture into pieces unexpectedly. Or when I beat a headcrab with a crowbar and the husks of alien meat that flung out were all two big to have fit inside it. I loved the reactions when I introduced my friends to the old Half-Life as a huge monster with a menacing red eye and jet engines for harms crushed two grunts into guts as it pressed a Jeep up against a wall in the Surface Tension chapter. A few games have gibbed well but Half-Life did it the Half-Life way. It was just cool LoL
"Evolution of shooters" or is it? I couldn't care less about the god damn story, but not because I don't like a good story. The best sensation that the first person shooter gives is a feeling of being in control of the situation. A key thing. And that is what should be glorified, not a story that doesn't even react to your actions. Especially in the form of the cutscenes, or "dialogue pauses" where npc's take all the time they need to tell you things. I didn't enjoy HL2 nearly as much as I enjoyed HL1, because with HL1 I was mostly all to myself, in control, making decisions. There were just too many people telling me what the hell to do next in the second game, and it just felt like a big long tube with me being slowly pushed out of it by all those story events. And I actually blame Half-Life 2 for making that a trend, because pretty much every other shooter since then is a god damn tube. In my humble opinion it hurts replayability and it hurts the sensation of being a master of the game. Too much emphasis on a story turns player into its puppet. A puppet that is capable of destroying anything on its way. Do you feel the dissonance? Also, do you remember the times when people discussed the cool things the physics would enable us to do? Like breaking the walls, blowing up the doors, another words making our own way no matter what? Well look what we have now with all the CPU power that is barely used. Evolution my ass.
I was never a big fan of first person shooters, but HL1 was one of the best games I ever played. That game was such a huge leap from all the other fps, that the impact of it's release just over shadows the impact the sequel had during it's time. The only way anyone can understand this impact has to have been a gamer during the 90's with a decent PC. After figuring out the best video settings with the old nvidia voodoo gc, I was completely blown away. Two words... Barney's Helmet! lol. Not only were the textures and overall graphics where amazing, the environments, game design, and story telling were above anything else i ever played. It wasn't just a bunch of repetitive corridors, it was an exquisitely woven tapestry embellished with hundreds of uniquely crafted gems. HL2 was a great game too, but it did lack in variety. It didn't take great leaps, graphically, and level design. It may have been my state of mind at the time and I dont know about anyone else, but I remember feeling a weird sense of depressing isolation while playing hl2. It may have given most people an exciting eerie feeling, but it was probably the main reason why it didn't have the same replay-ability for me.
I just finished HL2 (working on episode 1) and I really agree with you. Already during the game there were moments in which I was like "is it over yet?". The boat and car thing were way too long. I still enjoyed it for this time, but I don't think I'll go back to this game again as much as I know I'll play the first one
Half life 2 lacks the cool exotic content from half life 1. Hl2 is just more realistic and generic in its content, compared to hl1 where you were on a trip through very cool and creative environments, whereas in hl2 its just common cities. And I do miss the weapons from hl1 a lot in hl2. Plus the soundtrack from hl1 is way better.
same, I got never bored of playing HL1 and even completed BM:S (HL1 Remake) 3 times, but was always tired of hl2
I find Half Life 1 better than 2, but i dont feel bored with it as you do, i do love both, just i find the aliens and marines on labs more fitting to my taste.
Half-life 1 and 2 are very fun to play.Keep up the good work.
I feel nostalgic for both games in a way that doesn't make sense, since I first played both of them last year.
Henry Ambrose I feel the same way.
I like the claustrophobic atmosphere of half life 1 better. When I first played it, I almost felt hopeless and terified that I am locked in a facility that is filled with vicious alien monsters.
My problem with Half-Life 2 is that its realism doesn't contribute to memorable setpieces, story or pacing. While Half-Life 1 was a masterpiece of video-game storytelling, Half-Life 2 felt drastically different and lost some of its focus. I only got hooked after playing Episode One and Two, which had a better sense of progression. And well, I had a lot of fun in the situations presented in these episodes, such as the hospital section in Episode One, or the fight alongside Vortigaunts in Episode Two. They also expanded HL2's puzzle solving in really fun ways, so that too is a big plus for me.
1 feels more like a survival game, and 2 makes you feel like an action hero. Both are great
HALF LIFE 1 any day. Black Mesa ambience is something no game has ever managed to accomplish. Even Aperture Science facility couldn't.
Half life one has better gunplay, enemy A.I., enemy variety, gun variety, level design and movement
Half-Life is, I think, tighter story set in fairly specific, enclosed environment(s). Half-Life 2 broadened the world massively and added a lot of interesting lore to it, but at the same time it had to lose the tight focus of Half-Life 1.
Half-Life is one intense adventure from the Black Mesa Inbound to ending credits. Half-Life 2 to better facilitate its expanded scope switches between intense, action-packed sequences and slow moments that allow for exposition or character interactions. Speaking of which...
Half-Life is a one actor theatre. Half-Life 2 added real characters to the formula, a well done cast of interesting supporting roles, but that unavoidably muddled Gordon focus somewhat.
Half-Life has a really large and interesting weapon selection. Half-Life 2 arsenal is more limited but it perhaps is better thought through with every weapon having its place and game construction that encourages you to constantly switch between them based on particular section of the game. And it adds amazing tool/toy/weapon in the form of Gravity Gun.
I think that's the gist of it. Half-Life and Half-Life 2 are two very different games for them being direct (from Gordon's perspective) sequels. Hard to pick a better one between the two. I will admit, though that Half-Life 2 begins to feel a little boring about halfway through. I think it is a byproduct of the fact that by about that point you already have all available weapons and, since at no point you lose your entire arsenal (unlike Half-Life 1), gameplay-wise (or at least gunplay-wise) it is pretty much repetition from then on.
Episode 2 is the perfect mix for me. It has story focus and character focus. It keeps the pacing really well thoughout and at the same time does a great job of showing another area of the world and having illusion of open world at times. The game is shorter, so any issues with weapon variety are less pronounced, even more so because of the Muscle Car which constantly gets new toys and features as the game progresses.
I rank the main games as follows: Episode 2 > Half-Life > Half-Life 2 > Episode 1.
Also, presonally I tend to enjoy chapters like Black Mesa East or exposition/tutorial section of White Forest base. Ravenholm is a masterpiece in itself.
Highway 17 is my favourite part of HL2. I just like it.
I love HL2, but I feel exactly what you said in the beginning. I can play HL1 over and over again and it's always fun, but HL2 isn't that replayable. I only play HL2 when I'm in the mood to immerse myself into the lore and story of the Half-Life universe.
It also has the expansions and the multiplayer in game. Finishing the main campaign in HL1 doesnt end the fun. The fun is endless.
Half life 2s biggets weakness is the combat
Mmod helps alot the projectile shooting makes combat so much better for me
But again the weapons always feel like worse verisons of half life
Plus the smg in half life feels so satisfying to shoot and use plus I think shotgun wise half life still has the better shotgun feels punchier
The thing that makes me enjoy replaying the first game more than the sequel is the variety of environments to explore - Black Mesa, as a setting, just feels a little less predictable and more varied (and yes, dare I say more interesting) than City17 and its surroundings.
While I had a blast playing Half Life 2 as well, I could always sort of predict what I was going to find around the next corner - which I guess is the case with more realistic settings.
Hl1 wins in atmosphere and enemies combat
Hl2 wins in terms of physics and story
You are very right. HL1 is better than HL2. In Single- and Multiplayer, too. HL1's Quake 1 style movement with bunnyhopping, circlejumps, wallstrafing, the Longjump Module and Tau-Cannon jumps it was fucking great in TDM because you were able to control parts of the map while not having to time overpowered items like in Quake (Quad Damage and big armors). With practise HLDM made me feel free and agile. HL2DM's bunnyhop was bad, players had too many startweapons (bad for area control in TDM), no wallbang, no longjump, no Tau-Jump, overpowered AR2 energy core.. slower weaponhandling (you can't make use of all the weapons you carry in HL2 because weaponswitches take more time, shotgun has bigger weaponswitch delay and generally the RPG makes all other weapons feel useless..) HL1DM also had better maps. Each map in HL1DM had it's unique design and (for the most part) weren't just multiplayer versions of singleplayer maps. Sadly Black Mesa carries over most game mechanics from HL2 which really ruins the experience for me (boring movement, bad clipping, slow weaponhandling.. and in BMDM you are even less agile than in HL2DM..) I really hope the devs will fix these problems after they release Xen.
Half life 2 aint very replayable indeed, unless your DeSinc
Half-Life 2's arsenal and enemy variety pales in comparison to Half-Life 1. Not only the guns you get in HL2 lack imagination compared to 1 - pulse rifle (slightly different assault rifle withan interesting altfire), gravity gun(the gun that is carrying the whole game), pheropods and crossbow vs tau cannon (you do get it but... it's a gun turret), gluon gun, hive hand, snarks, satchel charges, trip mines, but also they aren't as well ballanced as HL1 - no gun becomes really obsolete due to a new addition. In HL2 - pistol becomes obsolete after getting the SMG, and barely used when you get the shotgun. Crowbar basically becomes useless after you get the gravity gun. Shotgun pretty much eclipses the smg. Even if you would want to use smg in other areas the ar2 edges it out as well.
Thankfully EP2 does do some things with the enemies, especially hunters.
I personally cannot compare HL1 and HL2, they're both so great to me
The only complaints about HL2 I have is that there aren't enough Aliens and the Combine AI is stupid
15:34 “playing the floor is lava is less fun in video game form” my first play through I couldn’t be bothered to not walk on the sand and just ran through the whole thing
HL came out 1998.
HL2 came out 2004.
Look at how much more of a difference there was between 98 and 04 compared to the difference between 04 and today. Improving graphics _noticeably_ has gotten progressively, almost exponentially more difficult.
Honestly, I agree with this guy. Half-Life is WAY MORE satisfying. Especially with the Gargantua. You kill it in to ways. With electricity and a tactical map. But in the Xen levels, none of that stuff is there. So you have no choice but to do what I did: KILL IT WITH THE GLUON CANNON.
hl2 isn't as cool because a bunch of dumb impatient hackers decided to try to get their hands on it which resulted in cool stuff being cut from the game!
Agreed And well said. HL1 was a shining example of variety and progression and set pieces, and hl2 had its moments, but HL1 just has a better combat loop, more replayability, and more self esteem in different weapons etc. Like mgs1 vs mgs2
Gordon's crowbar aged really well, It gained a lot more polygons and better textures!
The Characters in half-life one are like strangers. in half-life 2 the characters are characters.
Even though both are linear, HL1 feels like you can explore the facility more unlike hl2 where it feels like a roller coaster ride.
half life 1's ai was way better then hl2s, and most aAa games
I had no idea there was someone else out there who shares literally all of my opinions about hl1 vs hl2. Thank you for this video.
I also think that even though HL2s story with the uprising and Gordon Freeman basically single handedly taking down an oppressive alien regime is extremely cool, the gritty and slightly more grounded old school sci fi feel of HL1 I think is much cooler and more engaging than the huge scale and scope of HL2. HL1 doesnt just have aliens, it also has a government cover-up, and themes of ambiguous ethics and morality. HL2 basically just has aliens, which I feel really cuts down the relatability of the game.
Half-life is a masterpiece. Half-life 2 is not. It's even annoying sometimes.
Lol you are so confused, Half Life 2 IS a masterpiece, just because you subjectively don't consider it q masterpiece, doesn't mean it's not
You should do this with halo
Unless you're talking about multiplayer. Then reach/4 is shitty and 5 is amazing.
reach had best mp fuck u ^
Halo Reacb
My biggest issue with 2 is the AI is really fucking dumb. Combine just run into gunfire and don't care about their lives. The guns just feel weak compared to 1 as well.
HL2 your objectives aren’t always set as clearly. Also there aren’t as many enemies and cool bosses. HL1 also benefits from some of the best pacing of any game ever besides arguably the “on a rail” section.
I'm from a later generation that didn't grew up with HL1 but with HL2. I was so incredibly lucky to play "Black Mesa: Source" before Half Life 2 (no break, I was so amazed)
I have to say that I like Black Mesa more. I think it's because of the setting and the progression of the story. The feeling to finally reach the surface for the first time in the game is extraordinary. But that doesn't diminish my fondness to the HL2-series and its other mods. It's just so that Black Mesa did a better job in bringing me into the HL-universe than HL2.
I really find half life 2 boring af. I play half life 1 a lot, its relaxing and satisfaying. Half life 2 turns out to be a bit redundant
Half Life is a timeless classic.
Half Life 2 is a tech demo for source.
This video sums up exactly why Half-Life 2 is overrated. Half-Life 1 is super cool, well balanced and fun, but HL2 still feels like it could have been improved and not a final product. That being said throwing things around with your hands or gravity gun is fun!
HL2 has more Lore and HL1 more action
Half life 1 all around, better setting firstly, black mesa feels so interesting and when you find out that the scientists actually knew about the xen monsters it adds so much more intrigue, the enemy variety is also better with so many different enemies, also the weapon variety is stronger with offering up an arsenal of useful and fun weapons, nothing replaces the gloon gun or the tal cannon for me, also the pacing feels way better, half life 2 has a couple to many slow points with the conversation scenes, while half life 1 always keeps everything moving, also the idea that the dlcs are taking place at the same time through different povs is cool as hell, wish more games had that, also i think the gameplay overrall in 1 is better than 2, half life 2 is still great and i love it, still one of my fav games, but half life 1 and its expansions are just close to perfect for me