Half-Life 2 doesn't even have a good combat loop. Half-Life 1 has more variety in the weapons and the map team in HL1 actually talked to the AI team. Notice how the combine just stand in doorways or out in the open? It's lost, but I once saw a video showing that the combine can flank the player and do other complex maneuvers if the maps are properly designed, but Gabe was too obsessed with the Gravity Gun and everything else suffered. The "puzzles" are all either busy work or another seesaw task. I remember being hyped when Gabe said that Ep2 would have the biggest physics puzzle in it, but it ended up just being a huge seesaw "puzzle" that was solved just by clearing the cars off of it.

Every time I do a Half Life replay, I always end up getting bored in HL2 and skip to the community made stuff. Half-life Echoes and Entropy: Zero are musts.

[–] Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 17 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

The combat may not have been the most interesting versus basic grunts, but it never got stale. I've never played another game where the core gameplay changed so much so frequently.

Physics interactions -> Basic FPS -> Fan Boat -> Mounted Gun -> Gravity Gun -> Zombies & Traps -> Car -> THE CRANE FIGHT -> Rockets & Gunships -> Ant Lions -> Ant Lion Minions -> Turrets -> Resistance Squads -> Striders -> Super Gravity Gun

Honestly the HL1 combat may have been somewhat more challengjng, but it was a grind. Fights were often just frustrating. I've abandonded playthroughs because I didn't feel like spending another 10 hours beating my head against the endless amounts of enemies just to get to the end of... whatever I was doing I forgot.

HL1's big innovation was never removing control from the player just to tell the story. Beyond that they also had some interesting AI behaviour and weapons. It was a game with old-school length and old-school difficulty.

HL2's big innovation was the physics engine, and they played with it in so many ways, while polishing every other aspect of the design. They kept the gameplay tight and did something just long enough to explore it and then they moved on. They never forced you to hang out just repeating the same loop over and over to pad the length.

[–] Defaced@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

HL2 still did more for the industry than probably any other game on the market. Also, Minerva is a must to play, one of the best HL2 mods.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

There are so many landmark games. I'd say HL1 was more influential then HL2 anyway. Hell, I'd say Portal did more for first person puzzle games then HL2 did for FPS games.

It just handicapped itself by making the gravity gun such busy work and ignoring other aspects.

[–] Defaced@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

HL2 is more than just the gravity gun. The art style, the open levels on the beaches, the facial animations, the improved storytelling from HL1, the antlion army, game was so much more than just an updated half life. Without HL2, portal wouldn't have any legs to stand on, valve took on narbacular drop, hired the team and put them to work on the source engine to make portal. Counter strike source was the defacto mp shooter for years if not decades, hell even the portal 2 goo came from half life 2 ep 3 just like they mention in the documentary. Saying they ignored all other aspects of the game for the gravity gun does half life 2 a disservice to what it accomplished.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

antlion army,

Hey, here's this cool thing. You can summon Antlions to fight with you, but only in two areas and never again. Oh, that boss fight in Ep2 where you could have gotten it again? Nope, but here's a Defend Against Waves set piece instead.

What I'm saying is that the combat loop got ignored for the gravity gun. Where's the Gluon Gun? Why is the Tau Cannon only mounted to the buggy? Why are both the SMG and AR2 full auto, spread weapons? If we're doing wide open areas, the AR2 should really have a tighter spread for long range engagements.

Halo did wide open environments, did vehicles with mouse or analog stick steering was a joy to drive and actually used them in more then one area before HL2. Keyboard steering sucks.

What HL2 excels at is presentation of the story. It's really not that deep of a story.

Also, never liked CS or military shooters, so that's not exactly a going to sell me. And don't get me started on the hat shit.