Was Half Life 2 really that groundbreaking of a game?

It was, but mostly for the Source engine. I think it's safe to say that, 20 years later, it doesn't hold much of a candle to HL1.

physics, graphics, story integrated into the world instead of cutscenes, source engine, good story, good pacing, good soundtrack

>>11810602
Was cutscene fatigue a problem in the mid 2000s? Outside of MGS they weren’t that bad

I really don't understand some of these threads. They have to be bots, right?
This is as generic as a thread can be

>>11810602
>story integrated into the world instead of cutscenes
>>11810609
>Was cutscene fatigue a problem in the mid 2000s?
With the benefit of hindsight, the playable cutscenes concept was more of a fun novelty than a groundbreaking innovation, and today it's mostly remembered for the fact that players could distract themselves by fucking around with physics objects and scripted events instead of listening to what was going on.

In practice there's nothing wrong with stopping gameplay for the sake of conveying narrative. Ironically in their attempt to make gameplay and narrative integrate better, the game designers who have since replaced cutscenes with "interactive" narrative sequences have made some of the most memorably irritating games in recent memory, especially with the "forced walking segment" that forces you to slow down to the storyteller's desired pace so you have no choice but to pay the fuck attention. Say what you will about the legendary cutscenes in the later Metal Gear Solid games, but at least you could skip those if you didn't feel like sitting through them.

In basically every other metric, though, I think there's a good argument to be made that Half-Life 2 was one of the most important games ever made in terms of technological and design innovation.

>>11810609
how many new time players would be butthurt about hl2's cutscenes?
I always feel like this is a "I've played hl2 twenty times and it's the game's fault I'm bored" problem

>>11810602
>physics
Used mostly for god awful physics puzzles.
>graphics
It looks fine but it wasn't anything groundbreaking even back then. Though that's largely due to the pace of technological progress in the early 2000's.
>story integrated into the world instead of cutscenes
And as you've no doubt noticed, very few games ever copied the Half-Life 2 style not-cutscenes. For a good reason.
For an actually well implemented game that never leaves the first person perspective, check out Breakdown for Xbox.
>good story
Absolutely not. It's a sequel that introduces brand new characters like they're beloved old friends from the previous game.

>>11810889
>It's a sequel that introduces brand new characters like they're beloved old friends from the previous game.
You know that Half-Life 1 was itself considered noteworthy for the inclusion of friendly NPCs that would help the player complete puzzles, right? Up until that point, it was generally considered common sense that anything mobile in a shooter was a valid target. The fact that you were incentivized, at least in some instances, to try to protect Black Mesa staff was one of the factors that made the original Half-Life so immersive. Expanding on those characters in the second game was a logical next step in the process of that, and a lot of the Source Engine's technological innovation was focused around specifically making those NPCs expressive and realistic in a way that took most game developers years to catch up to.

>>11810895
Nta but there's a big difference between
>Gordon, I don't know how I'll ever repay you for helping me in Black Mesa
and
>Gordon! My dearest friend, remember when you were the best man at my wedding and the godfather to my baby girl? What do you mean you've never seen me before, of course you know me. Oh you, classic Gordon.
Gordon in HL1 was very much a player avatar running through a massive facility, one who could shoot anyone in the face as soon as they were no longer needed to progress. The only reason people knew his name was because the scientists were giving a heads up to those ahead. Unless Gordon was a mute social butterfly who knew everyone on a first name basis in a facility the size of a town, HL2 overdoes it with trying to make everyone have some close connection.
This without even getting into the other issues in the story like how everyone of note in the resistance is former Black Mesa, Gordon is the messiah, the crowbar is elevated to a massive symbol of resistance. HL2's story jumps the shark.

>>11810596 (OP)
I played HL2 and FC on release.
BOTH are tech demo garbage.
Recently, I forced myself to finish HL2. What a generic garbage excuse for a game.

>>11810941
>BOTH are tech demo garbage
You're literally retarded

>>11810598
this, hl2 was just hl1 in source with better graphics
hl1 was the one that felt really something new

>>11810596 (OP)
In high school my friend and I would trade our Xbox games with each other. (Neither or us had a Live account at the time). I traded him my copy of Star Wars Battlefront 2 for his copy of HL2. Never got my game back before he left for college. Took me a few years to realize he got the better end of that deal. HL2 has minimal replay appeal for me.

> HL2 overdoes it with trying to make everyone have some close connection.
This without even getting into the other issues in the story like how everyone of note in the resistance is former Black Mesa, Gordon is the messiah, the crowbar is elevated to a massive symbol of resistance. HL2's story jumps the shark.
Excellent point, anon. I totally agree. I also didn't care for making the setting of the game somewhere in Eastern Europe. Why would everyone from New Mexico end up there?

>>11810596 (OP)
Nope. Gayest game to ever exist.

>>11812186
>Gordon is the messiah
This is basically a lie. Nobody treats Gordon like a messiah except
>people he personally worked with at black Mesa (mostly eli though)
>the vortigaunts, to whom he did free them from slavery under the nihilanth