Thread 719735939

the episodes aren't that good

>>719735939 (OP)
ok

>>719735939 (OP)
They are some of the best dlc ever made.

>>719735939 (OP)
>tons of cut beta content from hl2
>here's your new content for episodes: 0 new weapons, 2 new enemies
Such a waste

>>719735939 (OP)
The base game was already garbage

ep1 > basegame > ep2
although doing all cheevos during my last marathon influences my judgment
killing all grubs, taking the gnome everywhere with you, and saving all buildings in the last battle made ep2 miserable as fuck to grind through
base game and the lambda caches were annoying, it also likes to waste your time with those numerous defense segments in the 2nd half which is not necessarily the cheevos fault
ravenholm with gravity gun only was fun tho
ep1 with no gun was a decent puzzle and had a good pace

>>719735939 (OP)
1969 DODGE CHARGER... 300K MILES... USED IN UPRISING AGAINST COMBINE. 1 OF 1 CUSTOM ROLLCAGE BY RAVENHOLM CUSTOMS... SOME RUST ON UNDERSIDE AND OVERSIDE AND SIDESIDE.... AIR FILTER JUMPS UP AND DOWN.... COMES WITH NEW K&N PAN FILTER IN BOX JUST TOO BUSY TO INSTALL.... $69,000 OBO WILL TRADE FOR ADVISOR CONVERSION

>>719736794
>ep1 > basegame > ep2
this but in reverse

>>719738019
I don't care for Magnusson or his bombs.
Also weird that for the third game in a row the final boss was once again striders. By then I was simply tired of it.

>>719738019
Honestly yeah, Ep2 had the best pacing and variety. Forest, underground antlion hives, the strider finale - it actually felt like it was building toward something. Ep1 just felt like a retread of the Citadel but with less ammo and more elevator rides. Base game is great, but Ep2 had the better setpieces and atmosphere.

>>719740780
Episode 1 was just more of the worst part of hl2.

>>719736797
Worst part of the gnome achievement. Just launch it ahead and follow it. Don't bother trying to put it in the car.

>>719736362
None of the cut HL2 stuff is actually any good

>>719735939 (OP)
Half Life was never good.

>>719742545
the cut slime enemy and the freezing gun they showed in the documentary looked pretty cool

GORDON ARE YOU STILL THERE?
hehehehe i'm not turning this flashlight on biiitch

>>719742610
The beginning of HL2 up until Water Hazard is legitimately the greatest atmospheric opening in a game ever.

>>719740975
which "worst part" of hl2?
>direct intervention = hl2's citadel in reverse
>lowlife = better ravenholm
>urban flight = anticitizen one and follow freeman, but with less fat, less citizens blocking your path and fortunately less strider battles. also the hospital is probably one of the better setpiece levels in the franchise.

>>719735939 (OP)
on the contrary, episode 2 nailed the pacing and finally fleshed out the gameplay set in HL2. its such a fucking shame they stopped after it. and no, Im not counting retcon-Alyx, that doesn't really feel like a HL game

>>719743021
lowlife and ravenholm are both really good but i argue they set out to do different things. i don't think they're comparable aside from zombies and creepyish moments

>>719743134
I suppose that's fair enough.
but both are gravity gun centric zombie/horror sections, so I don't think it's unfair to compare them.

>>719740780
>>719743084
Episode 2 is only good on the first playthrough. Replays are just people talking for 80% of the time.

>>719743534
disagree, replayed all of them last year and the only part that truly bored me was the exposition dump in hl2 black mesa east. otherwise it was ok

>>719735939 (OP)
Episode 2 is absolute fucking kino. Pluck your own eyes out, philistine.

>>719743473
yeah that's true. i think overall lowlife is part re-familiarizing the player with the grav gun and part showing off what alyx can do, and encouraging the player to empathize with her more. ravenholm felt more like pure grav gun playground and just scarier overall in atmosphere.

>>719735939 (OP)
I don't mind that the Episodes had problems or that HL3 will probably be a disappointment, because we got Entropy Zero 1 and 2. Half Life peaked in this game. I am satisfied with what I we got already.

>>719743850
yeah. Ravenholm leaned much harder into classic zombie and horror. Feels like a grainy 60s or 70s movie with its rural Eastern European mining town and churches and sheds of tools to help you against the horde.
Lowlife is more urban, more actionized. Atmosphere is more contemporary.

>>719744149
definitely

>>719735939 (OP)
Both of them are far superior to the base game. Especially EP2. Only replayable part of the base game is Ravenholm and even that gets boring after a few playthroughs. I could replay EP2 infinitely.

where were you when was winston was hit?

>>719743473
its been a while since i played them but i feel like ravenholm was more focused on the shotgun halfway through, i dont remember if you even get a shotgun in lowlife

just wanna say that half life sucks ass until ravenholm too btw, i fucking HATE that boat and i hate even more that they thought it was a good idea to have you ride that hunk of garbage around before you even get a shotgun(although it is fun once you get the gun on it)

>>719744793
>i dont remember if you even get a shotgun in lowlife
you get it and this pistol right near the start, but the game is stingy with ammo throughout the chapter, so a lot of the time you're throwing stuff with the gravity gun.

>>719744793
>he doesn't like the kino

The game wasn't that good either. Replayed it recently and it was so boring. Haven't played it since I was a kid back whenever it came out on Xbox 360. I think it was the orange box. I never played much of half life on the ps2 though only cause my friend had it and I wasn't really interested. I was around 10 when I played it at his house. But replaying half life and finishing it was fun cause I never beat the game. It was way more fun than half life 2.

>>719744793
you get a shotgun and pistol but not much ammo so you have to rely on alyx. you shine enemies with the flashlight so she focuses on them with her machine pistol, and then later on you zap antlions with the grav gun so she can finish them off and cover up antlion burrows with cars.

Half Life is what happened when Valve watched the Rambo movies and went "Holy shit, what if you could play as this in a video game?"

IDK what you guys are talking about by saying hl2 didn't have a lot of ammo in the early missions.

>>719735939 (OP)
Agreed. The ending of HL2 was a perfect point to pick up with a HL3 in a future setting. The episodes threw that away to have GMan look at the camera and say "We'll see about that!".
We would be playing HL4 or 5 by now if the episodes never happened. Put Gordon on ice again and wake him up in the future again. Fuck I hate the episodes. So fucking retarded. They had to have a whole game just to retcon the ending of episode 2. Such a waste of time. But epic portal references chungus boat cameo and fucking magnuson devices... FUCKING TRASH SHIT FUCKING SLOP!!

>>719736794
>ravenholm with gravity gun only was fun tho
until you accidentally launch your last saw blade off the side of the roof

>>719735939 (OP)
Holy kino...
https://youtu.be/bqc1Tv1JbxM?feature=shared&t=222

They’re also made by known scammers who commit false advertising and fraud.

Valve screwed over the Artifact fanbase by cancelling the Artifact 2.0 beta without even allowing users to invite friends like they said they would in January 2021 and does not deserve your financial support for these gross consumer-unfriendly practices.

>>719748538
It's only a 'waste' because they never got concluded. Dyson sphere reveal followed by a lost Gordon now free from G-Man (who now has Alyx) sets up a more interesting ending rather than keeping to a pattern of "lol it'll always end with G-Man putting you back into stasis" and can still be followed up with the odyssey approach with whatever bs reason they can think up. It's better to make it feel like the plot is somehow advancing, and HL Alyx only retconned Ep.2 because we all know what would've happened afterwards and they gotta keep new games freash.

>>719750412
>HL Alyx
Valve is going to have to include a recap video or something with HL3 once it releases, right? If they continue the story from there only like 5% of people might have played it.

>>719735939 (OP)
Episode 1 is really forgettable, the Zombines were a great addition tho.
Episode 2 was really fun until the end. Really could have done without the bagillion Striders raid. Hunters were great but it made me wish for enemies with more mobility.
The fact you're constantly babysitting one NPC or another really drag them down.

>>719735939 (OP)
The fucking Magnusson device forest segment sucked

>>719751064
You got filtered

>>719751147
Ok

>>719749554
The romance felt more and more forced as hl2 progressed.

Love episode 2
The pacing was on point, music was stellar and I love how the hunters are slowly introduced.
Episode 1 was mainly to make the player bond with alyx as a character to make her dying have more impact

>>719751214
It this a bot pots? There is no romance in Half Life

>>719751436
FUCK MY LIFE I MADE A TYPO

>finally perfect the HL2 formula with ep2
>immediately stop making episodes

>>719736362
Err they added like one fast zombie torso enemy too, get it right

>>719742635
i see what you did there

>>719751214
It was fine in the base game. They overdid it in the episodes with Alyx constantly KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-ing over Gordon-san.

>>719735939 (OP)
Episode 2 is an almost perfect adventure game. Great pacing, encounter variety, memorable setpieces, less obtrusive story and an ideal length make it very fun and easy to replay. Episode 1 is great too. I think both episodes are better than the base game, whose interesting moments too scarcely intersect very long and boring sections of traversing huge levels and shooting at the same enemies.

I miss him like you wouldn't believe.

>>719747575
People say this? You would have to be sub60 IQ to run out of ammo in the canal sections, they dump so much ammo on you it's ridiculous.

>>719751436
Alyx simps for you
>>719752304
Yeah lol. It felt like she was a live streamer or something.

>>719751436
>It this a bot pots?
No it's a cactus.

>>719752653
So fvcking based
>>719752824
Maybe they didn't know about ammo crates?

>>719753038
>Maybe they didn't know about ammo crates?
Maybe they didn't know about remote ammo crates

>>719735939 (OP)
Episode 1 is decent, 2 is weak.

>>719736794
What is that appeal of episode 1?
It feels like a bunch of cut levels from the base game. Nothing about it feels new, just a bunch of annoying set pieces that might have been cool in the early 2000s

>>719753456
>annoying setpieces
the hospital section kicks ass

hehe zombine

>>719753690
>zombine, get it?

>>719735939 (OP)
Episode 1 kinda sucks but Episode 2 is the best the series has been.
Except the strider defense sequence at the end. That’s just pointlessly annoying

>>719735939 (OP)
Episode 1 is meh, save for the dark section with the zombies. Episode 2 is kino.

>hunters were probably the best addition to combat encounters they could have made
>only fight them five times and then the game's over
darn

EP 2 starts to overstay its welcome. There are some great parts like the first two striger fights but the mine part and the final strider battle are somewhat of a chore.

>>719755374
>first two striger fights
huh?

>>719735939 (OP)
I got the soft lock where Alyx gets stuck crying in the corner and doesn't follow you anymore, then turned it off and never tried again.

>>719742792
Water hazard is kino wtf

>>719755589
funnily enough, I don't believe they've fixed that. It happened to me one of my recent playthroughs of episode 1.
you can just reload a save, though. It's just an error in the scripting that didn't accommodate for what to do if the player hits a level transition while alyx is recovering from the train ride.

>>719755675
it insists upon itself

>>719755675
I remember the devs commenting about Water Hazard, iirc it could have been much worse
>"remember how we thought this segment was too short?"
>everybody laugh

I like how after all these years people still have varying opinions on which part of HL2 was the best (or the worst). Some people like Water Hazard, some people hate it, some people love the Nova Prospekt chapter, some prefer the Coast section than the Canals, others love the Uprising chapters, etc. It's even more varied than the first game where the opinion is mostly geared toward the Surface Tension chapter being the best and Xen chapters as the worst.

>>719755765
Yes you are escaping a surveillance state in the open sewers

>>719756170
Hl2 is objectively one of the best games of all time, and Garry's mod proves it.

>>719755675
It's too long. It should have been half of the length or even a third.

>>719749554
She probably hasn't shaved once in her entire life.

>>719751214
Only forced thing was GORDON PLEASE FUCK MY DAUGHTER

>>719736362
B-BUT YOU CAN CARRY THE GNOME WITH YOU, ISN'T IT HILAAAARIOUS???

>>719759043
idk about hilarious, but i did enjoy the challenge/hassle

>>719756170
Water Hazard is better on a 1st time playthrough. Every playthrough after it just has you dreading the slog.

>>719756170
I feel like a good chunk of HL1 prior to Surface Tension is just a buildup to what Surface Tension does.
Not to mention it's like the longest chapter in the game.

Frankly, I think Power Up and On A Rail are decently underrated as far as HL1's chapters go.

>>719758952
Can you blame an old man for wanting grandkids?

>>719735939 (OP)
HL > Alyx > HL2 > episodes

>>719760460
Power up and especially On a Rail are underrated for sure, it really sells the idea you're wandering aimlessly through these forgotten service tunnels. Love all the mini-setpieces and encounters you run across like the soldiers barricaded up in the area you swap trains.

>>719758952
>Gordon...we know what the human race has been...reduced to. Hard decisions come with a cost. Please, for all our sakes, insert your penis into my blasian daughter. For all of us. For me.

>>719763512
Yeah. I like On A Rail for a lot of the same reasons I'm fine with Water Hazard and Highway 17.
They do the same things, but On A Rail has the benefit of marines being more interesting to fight in practice.

>>719736794
ohnonono look at this nigga he is carrying gnomes everywhere with him for virtual stamps being miserable while doing it hahaha

Games from this era I can still start and play it to the end in a week or so without interruptions, newer games it takes me months to finish, Stellar Blade took a whole month Wuchang I still haven't finished and now I'm already playing that Cronus nigger game too.

>>719735939 (OP)
i mean the base game wasn't even a top 3 fps of its release year when we're no longer being wholly dishonest

Ep 1 > Ep 2

Ep 2 is bogged down big time by the ant lion defense section. It is perhaps the single worst Half-Life 2 set piece. You're in an enclosed space, fighting basic ant lions for 10 minutes with infinite ammo crates right beside you for SMG and shotguns. It is boring as fuck. This is the episode they introduce different ant lion variants and they stick you with the regular ones that entire time? Baffling.

>>719765909
it's like they stuck a gmod level in it and shipped it
kek

>>719735939 (OP)
Episode 1 is aids. Seriously try beating HL2 then immediately go try and beat Episode 1 without getting burned out. Its just a repeat of the final four hours of 2 but backwards.
Episode 2 is the best Half Life game though.

>>719752653
>LET ME SHOW YOU ITS FEATURES

>>719765909
>Ep 2 is bogged down big time by the ant lion defense section.
like you said, it's 10 minutes out of like a 5 hour game

>>719735939 (OP)
Episode 1 is kinda shit. Episode 2 is pure kino. The white forest battle is literally peak HL