I played through HL2 again recently and it was fun but I found it to be over designed. HL2 (and Portal!) try way too hard to make the player feel clever. You'll find some nook or cranny or hidden path that always turns out to be only way to go.
I used to rag on the guns in the game too; they are not fun to use, but looking back I think that was a deliberate strategy to encourage the player to use the gravity gun more.
HL1 certainly had a much more organic feel to it. Like the abstract bases and hell of DOOM vs the uncanny valley cities of Duke Nukem 3D, the missile base of the original HL, which has no basis in reality in terms of its design, feels more authentic and believable than City 17.
Most of the battles in HL2 are either forgettable or boring (SHOOT A ROCKET AT THE THING!), but I must say I really enjoyed the one near the end of the game where you fight against soldiers on multiple levels as you climb your way up some kind of warehouse: https://youtu.be/91uWeqArrok?t=3h38m19s
I played through HL2 again recently and it was fun but I found it to be over designed. HL2 (and Portal!) try way too hard to make the player feel clever. You'll find some nook or cranny or hidden path that always turns out to be only way to go.
I used to rag on the guns in the game too; they are not fun to use, but looking back I think that was a deliberate strategy to encourage the player to use the gravity gun more.
HL1 certainly had a much more organic feel to it. Like the abstract bases and hell of DOOM vs the uncanny valley cities of Duke Nukem 3D, the missile base of the original HL, which has no basis in reality in terms of its design, feels more authentic and believable than City 17.
Most of the battles in HL2 are either forgettable or boring (SHOOT A ROCKET AT THE THING!), but I must say I really enjoyed the one near the end of the game where you fight against soldiers on multiple levels as you climb your way up some kind of warehouse: https://youtu.be/91uWeqArrok?t=3h38m19s