Half-Life vs. Half-Life 2 Created 18 years ago2005-09-03 11:29:00 UTC by gordonfreeman

it may sound stupid but this topic is about comparing HL to HL2. Yes I know: graphics, physics, hl2 is better in these. But can you tell me something that makes you prefer hl1 to hl2? Well, I couldn't find any of those global-sized puzzles in hl2, it was just like walking through a corridor that has a door at the beginning and in the end, and I also didn't like that many of the hl1 monsters weren't used in hl2. Your opinion?

To be honest, I do prefer HL1. HL2 was awsome, cool graffix, and loads of action. But I preffered HL1's theme and realism. I liked the way HL1 had that sort of "look" (Difficult to describe) and the sense of a abondoned science facility in the middle of a desert. I though HL2 was a bit overdone, and two many flashy things. I am looking forward to Black Mesa Source, but I just hope they havent tarted it up to much.

I also liked HL 1'd puzzles. I liked the theme the best, with the freaky silo's, office complex, labs, then the warm, realistic surface.

global-sized puzzles

Good point. HL2 is pretty much linear rather than area-oriented.

Plod: to add to your previous post, click Edit and just add to the previous post rather than create another. Welcome to twhl, by the way.

Thanx I have alot to learn!

NR.348242 with this question.

But okay..

I prefer hl1. Why?

HL2 didn't had the "feeling" to my opinion.

I didn't liked parts like ravenholm... so many games with zombies...

I wish they had the aliens.. I miss my bullsquids!

HL2 didn't had a cool enviroment.. I didn't like the "rebel vs headcrab/combine" thing.

The only part of HL2 that I really liked was the end parts... the combine stuff.

I also miss the "Catch me later, I'll buy you a beer".

The only laugh I had in HL2 was "about that beer I owed you".

That gave me a smile....

Half-life has better :

• Monsters
• Jokes
• Enviroment
• The "feeling"
• Puzzles

HL2 Is fast action, It looked like a awesome constant shooter game that comes out once in a while. I liked half-life because it was a different kind of shooters then normal ones.

well my fav hl2 joke was about Freeman's M.I.T. education said by Barney
and it's topic no.1200 in the general disc.

Well said! Exactly what I meant

Freshed wonders who Mister Plod is all in the sudden.

I wonder how long you keep it out here

???

Mister Plod... joined yestersay? Than welcome, as BJ said
have you mapped before (for HL)?

Shut up will you!

what is going on, did I miss somethin?

Yes Mister plod raping.....

just kidding

Why the hell does Onslaught want to rape me! Is this because Im new

well my fav hl2 joke was about Freeman's M.I.T. education said by Barney

what's that joke, i don't remember it?

Along the lines of "yeah, wel done Gordon, I can see that M.I.T. education really pays for itself" when you <zomg>flick a switch on the teleporter</zomg>.

I have only played the Half-Life 2 demo but still...

Half-Life 1 is the greatest game i currently own, puzzles was great, athmosphere was great, almost everything else is great... but the intro... sitting in the train for like 5min? that sucked... also i didn't like the "story"
best part of Half-life is it's modability... i think half-life wouldn't be so popular without the modding tools...

I don't except much about HL2... First chapter sucked... it was like a tutorial/technology showoff or something... btw. didn't valve already made a HL1 remake for source? better graphics and stuff?

Hl2 has boring gameplay, it's easy and it repeats it self all the time.(combine/a few species of aliens vs rebels) Hl1 had better more monsters and stuff,funner. Anyway what heppend to all the monsters especially the X-species that came after gordon was teleported to space!

I still think the HL2 world is much more coherent than the infinte-sized Black Mesa base. There are less monsters, that's true, but it makes each encounter more important than in the previous game.
About the difficulty, I dont think HL2 is as easy compared to HL1 as some of you are saying. If you have played through Hl1, you obviously become a bit expert in FPS of that type. (I remember that Tomb Raider Chronicles had interesting puzzles, but they were very predictable if you had played the previous Tomb Raider games).
I had much more trouble killing the hordes of combine in Nova Prospekt than killing grunts in HL1. The hardest part of Hl1 are the Xen jumping puzzles and maybe Nihilanth.

And last but not least, some people are talking about "feeling". I dont remember a part in HL1 that has as much emotional depth and importance than the part in HL2 where you exit the station and look at the huge Citadel, Breen on TV, troops and flying-spy-cameras.
Of course, there is no comparison between the xen levels and the super-grav-gun fights in the Citadel.

Some people are probably judging HL1 by things they have played in Op4 and Blue-shift, which are expansions. Wait for the HL2 expansions and then we can look at the global picture.

P.S HL2 was good, and much better than Doom3 or Unreal2. And much more engaging than FarCry from my POV

Long Live HL (1&2) !!!

What I think:

1. Opposing force
2. Half-life
3. Half-life 2
4. Blue shift

Even if HL2 appared on 3:rd place, it was very good!
There is a big differens on the suxorg scale between HL2 and blue shift.
Opposing force is my favorite be cause it was much harder than HL1, and, it,, well, it was just great.
HL1 is better than HL2 be cause HL1 is more Half-lifeish

What i didn't like too much about HL2 (i've played it round friends) was that in some parts of the game it was all just one monster (headcrab zombies, antlions) its a shame that they don't have a 'healthy' mix. I can understand ravenholm having only zombies. But when you meet the antlions your driving on for miles meeting antlions only, and the occasional combine patrol. I would've that there would be a bit more variation from the just antlions (you only met combine in stupid little cabins that pooped up every 3-4 miles)

Apart from that, HL2 is very good, i agree on the puzzles somewhat hail in comparison to the HL1 puzzles. But still, very good game.

HL2 was good, and much better than Doom3

what wasn't

All in all, i'd say that both were very good games.

HL2, as a game, is pathetic. It's extremely repetitive, and isn't very "HL" at all. Although, the engine is nice (even though it uses DirectX, of which I despise). But yeah, the SP game, well, sucks.

HL2 wasn't HL be cause that part of the story couldn't be HLish.
HLish is, lab enviroment and weird hightech stuff, or just a dark walk with something hiding in the darkness.
HL2 isn't hlish be cause it had to be in town.
I bet gordon and the other guys would like to stay in black mesa and poke on those aliens ever more.
They had to run away.
There for, in to the city!

I bet HL3 will be a lot HLish, be cause I bet you will be a lot on Xen, kicking Gmans ass.

1. Opposing force
2. Half-life
3. Half-life 2
4. Blue shift

My list would would be the same! Also, I thought Doom3 was the biggest load of shit to have ever hit the gaming world I think the funniest part in HL2 is at the begining with the pet headcrab, that jumps on barneys head, then jumps off, knocking everything over, and finaly leaps into the vent. Then,when about to teleport, guess who would be the one to mess it up! And I like what barney says "Look! Its your friend the head humper!"

Lol, yeah, that part is great. ^^

Counter Strike right at the bottome? Cstrike is a good game

CS sucks.

I can't play on the internet for I don't have steam! Anyway all the other games have both multiplayer and singleplayer so they are better!

CS would be nice if it had proper SP. But what about CZ?

I miss the snarks in HL although the antlions are a loose replacement in HL2. HL2 also seemed to contain less of those nice puzzles that were part of what made HL so popular. Obviously the graphics in HL2 are better and those displacement surfaces are a very welcome alternative to making a bajillion triangles for outdoor terrain.

Good point. HL2 is pretty much linear rather than area-oriented.

I love hl2 for the graphics, physics, and new weapons. However, as BJ said, it is very linear, you never have a choice of where to go. And there are too many headcrabs. hl2dm is better, being quite intense if you get onto a server with lots of people. HL1 had way better puzzles, though.

You are forgetting that HL1 is also linear, but in much smaller enviroments (the only BIG place is the dam).
The only thing that makes HL1 non-linear are the 90 degree turns in each of the vent shafts... Now those really did get repetitive. "Oh!, a headcrab hidden in the dark! What a surprise!"
One thing about the HL1 puzzles is that you had to go from point A to B, and then come back to point A. This doesnt happen so much in HL2.
Boss battles are missing in HL2, which is a pity.
If you consider that HL2 is bad because it isnt HL1 with better graphics, then wait for BM:Source as has been suggested. I was quite happy that HL2 had a different feel and setting that the overused Black Mesa. I bet that if HL2 had taken place in BM, you would have critized that also.

HL2, as a game, is pathetic

Could you enlighten us with a list of non-pathetic games? (from 1999 onwards, if possible)

BF 1942, BF2, HL2, Cstrike etc

About that "Feeling" Kasperg...

When I stepped out the train in beginning of hl2 I thought..

Sjeesh a train station with citizens getting guarded that scream they want to go home.... Great.

But in half-life I had the feeling straight away.

The train ride I loved(love!) it! Seeing all kinds of different things.
Now we got the pod ride but that will never beat the train ride and it was boring seeing the same things.

But anyway let me put it this way. In half-life every time something else happened.. it was misterious. (is that the word?) Okay in each vent corner was a headcrab but that's not what I mean.

HL2 I just a very good looking' normal shooter.

The Combine vs. gordan and the zombie vs. gordan got me bored.

Everything was the same. I don't know how to tell this right and it will probaly sound dumb....but HL2 doesn't makes sense with HL.

Half-life was different every time while HL2 is just the Hero VS zombies (like a lot of games) and Hero VS combine (Some sort of high-tech soldiers that you see a lot) scene.

Not that I don't like HL2, it was a great game.

But as a sequal of HL it was stupid.

In half-life you had to do different things all the time.

In half-life2 It was pretty based constant shooting.

@Mister Plod: BF 1942 was nice, but BF2 is so fucking overrated. Hell the released version would be an alpha in the eyes of most devlopers. The pile of junk uses 999MB of RAM! Now, I bet if they gave me their source code I could get it to use half of that. The graphics look outdated too.

@ M0p: To be honest, Ive never played it before Just heard rumours

I didnt talk about the moment of the game when you get out of the train, I was talking about the part where you exit the trainstation, and get a wider view of the Combine's oppressive regime (as you said, it was hinted throughout the station, but you dont realize the magnitude of things until you see the citadel tower).
The HL1 train ride is very nice, but you have to understand that HL2 is not a copy of HL1. Introducing another long tram ride would make vALVE look unimaginative and keen only in "milking the cow" that was the success of the original game. It's a good thing they are different. I expect and hope that HL3 will also be different.
And before I forget, Unreal 2 is just a very good looking normal shooter. HL2 is a good one. It is not the same from beginning to end (you might need to play it again to remember)
There was only one part of HL2 which I would've liked to skip (some of the airboat maps) but there were many more in HL1 ("On rail" was long and tedious, and all the Xen maps were ugly, uninteresting and definately not worthy of the rest of the game )
Interaction with objects in HL2 was a nice touch, and the grav gun puzzles were better than most of the crate-pushing HL ones.
Keep bashing HL2 and I'll keep posting counter arguments

HL1 was an amazing game (and still is, even though the gfx are very outdated), but HL2 is an average game.

Black Mesa: Source should be nice though. I'd consider it to be what Valve's Half-Life: Source should have been. It will be interesting to see the good ol' puzzles redone with new graphics

Ok Kasperg somehow I agree with you but I didn't say I wanted a exact copy of hl1 (though I can't wait for bm:source).

I said HL2 Isn't "good" as a "sequal" of HL.

But to end another big discussion. HL PWNS ASS!

"On rail" was long and tedious

Yes, I didnt really like that chapter also. I thought It was a bit boring, confusing and uninteresting. I liked HL1 in interesting parts like the labs, office complex, the silo and Surface Tension.

I rather liked the later chapters, such as "forget about freeman" and "lambda core".

Yes, those where nice. I did'nt really like Xen.

The part right after the "Incident" was also good. I remember the elevator button that you could press, only to see a group of scientists falling to their death. It was pretty tragic (they tried a similar atmosphere at the beginning of the Resident Evil movie)
In HL2, my favourite chapters are "Route Kanal", "Nova Prospekt", "Anticitizen One" and "Our Benefactors"
But it's true, it doesnt really look like a sequel to HL. Op4 and Blue-Shift had that purpose years ago, and they accomplished it nicely. vALVE knew it was time to move on.

Hmm, I always though the Resident Evil movie was very simialr to HL. You know, underground science facility, zombies take over, etc etc

Yeah, except the Resident Evil film sucks.

Yes. The effects where very cheap, the acting was tinny and everything was overdone. Hmm, they really should make a movie based on Half-Life

I'd imagine it'd be ruined like all video game films.