Thread 11916271

Why did it take so long for people to understand Half-Life 2's story? Before 2017 you'll find almost no discussion about the Earth's dramatically lowered sea level, or Breen becoming an advisor, or how the police state on Earth actually works.

>>11916271 (OP)
>Why did it take so long for people to understand Half-Life 2's story?

Because it doesn't have one

Here's a game that actually has one

>>11916271 (OP)
What is there to discuss? It's all very direct except for the "non-mechanical reproduction simulation" and "Memory replacement" but that doesn't really alter the story in any way.

Literally none of what you just said is true.

Why are you making things up?

>>11916272
As much as I love Deus Ex you have to admit Half Life 2 has the better story.

>>11916468
>>11916272

Deus Ex has better writing, Half Life 2 has better storytelling.

Because no one really gave a shit about stories in vidya until recently.

>>11916590
youre a couple decades late

>>11916468
>Alien shadow government entity grooms blasian mary sue as a child before the events of the game, so she can replace the iconic mute character with her nails on a chalkboard Seattle banter
Lol. No

HL2's story was super generic.

Aliens invading Earth and policing it with humans turned into hybrids? Never seen that before.

>>11916926
Anyone who says HL2 has a good story just pretends Alyx doesn't exist and ignores Valve progressively making her more of the focus over the episodes until the VR game was just entirely about her.

Ep 3 was literally going to be the final chapter of HL2 but rehashed for space. The Combine are found to be impossibly huge, Freeman blows up the Combine base anyways, Gman leaves him for dead and the Vortigaunts save Freeman. It's clear the writer already had an ending in mind and the episodes totally messed everything up. No wonder they scrapped it with the MCU/Rick and Morty alternate universe ending in HL Alyx that retconned Ep 2's ending.

>>11916543
>storyTELLING
Correct. Deus Ex shits the bed the moment it turns you loose on the streets of New York City.
>the six gorillion dollar man and his six gorillion dollar clone brother just live in a dumpy flat in lower manhattan or whatever
>just climb through the window
>do fetch quests and kill rats
I was expecting a total mindfuck, and the ellis island mission is incongruous enough to get me thinking about shit but after that, the scale and pacing of the game render the entire narrative absurd, never mind how the plot is ripped directly from Alex Jones' Big Book of Nursery Rhymes.

>>11917206
>do fetch quests and kill rats
what?

>>11917224
>what?
A white man would understand.

Most of Half Life's story is just kind of inferred, and invites people to have discussions to figure out what is actually going on.

>>11917230
You played the game for 30 minutes then got filtered and made up a bunch of shit.

>>11917237
I got to the majestic 12 secret lab and realized how dumb this shit was. Call that a filtration if you need to, but I'll be over here chuckling at you for passing that filter.
TTJJJ

>>11917246
Yeah, so you got 2% into the game and then got filtered.

>>11917260
Sure, pumpkin. Whatever helps you sleep at night. Dream of electric sheep and all that.

>>11917224
The bot mixed up Deus Ex and Oblivion

>>11917206
>the plot is ripped directly from Alex Jones' Big Book of Nursery Rhymes.
Even though this is bait, I still don't understand how anyone can play Deus Ex and not see it as one big x files ripoff.

>>11917318
A white man would understand.

>>11917318
What X-Files episode had a plot remotely resembling Deus Ex's?

>>11916271 (OP)
I played Half-Life 2 in the summer of 2017, so that's probably what caused it. I'm probably one of the most important people in this AI hell matrix we're living in.

>>11917359
Warren Spector literally said it was inspired by the X-Files
https://www.ign.com/articles/2000/04/20/deus-ex-interview-2

>>11916271 (OP)
kids who played half life 2 grew into adults who discuss video games on imageboards 10 years later

>>11916271 (OP)
>tech demo
>story

>>11917762
Inspired and ripoff aren't the same thing.

>>11918274
The story is part of the demo. Look at all these great, unskippable in game cutscenes like having to walk through metal detectors and play fetch with a robot, without a gun, so fun.

>>11917359
It's bits and pieces of plots from all over the show.

>>11916930
Absolutely, but it was told more compellingly. To be fair - with Duke, the story was more a thing to hang the textures and the humour around, it didn't really need much storytelling.

HL and HL2 did 'show me don't tell me' much better than most games that had come before - probably with the exception of the System Shock series (which also told a very similar story, but again did it with an atmosphere and style that was different from most of what had gone before in the Sci-Fi gaming world at least).

>>11917206
The main plot elements and elements of interest in Deus Ex happen after the bit you gave up on. There's a lot of philosophical discussion, and far more about who you and the characters in the world are. The dialogue and writing are really interesting - but it is absolutely Basil Exposition writing - the world and atmosphere building is nowhere near as effective as it is in the games I noted above.

>>11917234
Exactly

>>11918951
>Absolutely, but it was told more compellingly.
I was making a joke.
If you wanna know what HL2 directly ripped off: watch V.
And if you wanna see hot reptilian babes: also watch V.

>>11918958

Sounds like I need to watch V. But before I do, let me tell you how your light hearted reference to reptilian babes points to a more serious point...

I do think HL is one of the cleverer versions of a bog standard alien invasion story I've ever seen.
All of the neat touches like the aliens only being able to travel by wormhole, and weaponising life forms taken from other planets, along with humans themselves is just really clever. The idea that there's this third party represented by the G-Man who is now weaponising humans to strike back against the Combine, and he also probably caused the invasion specifically for this reason. Implications of endless conflicts on endless worlds, and you're only seeing a little bit of it.

There was no release for the SNES or Wii so who gives a fuck. Half life is irrrelevent goldeneye on the N64 was the first and only FPS worth playing.

>>11919057
Fuck off, Auster.

>>11916272
PLEASE never mention Deus Ex in a half life 2 thread. Don't you ever put a perfect game next to a disgusting tech demo.

>>11919106
Too late.
Ion Storm already did that.

>>11916926
>>11917183
Valve was ahead of the game. They were pushing the same shit current year woke slop does.
HL2 literally starts with G-Man telling you to "wake-up".

>>11916543
Hl2 doesnt tell anything. Just go set piece to set piece with silent protag cause they wanted to tell as little as possible.

>>11919454
Is this a joke?

>>11919060
Fuck you the N64 crushed shit like halflife all day long, it lifted gaming to an artform a fine wine if you will. Zelda is nearer poetry than a video game.

>>11917183
It’s impressive how thoroughly Alyx ruins Half-Life. Even back before we had all this woke shit, when I was just a stupid normie playing Ep.2 on release, when you are “forced to watch” her getting demolished, I was cheering at the screen. Like holy fuck, finally I can open my own doors again and have some peace and quiet. There’s no fucking point to having a silent protagonist if you saddle him with a sidekick who comments on everything.

Seeing the VR game completely destroyed all interest I have in buying future games. They really have Gman directly state that the old white man isn’t cooperating enough so he’s out, and now it’s time for his mudperson replacement. Fuck that.

>>11916271 (OP)
this but FF7

>>11919519
At least FF7 has a finished version of the game made in 1997 so you don't have to wait 30 years for the final episode to find out if Cloud killed le Sephiroth. Can't say the same about Gordon Freeman killing le ayylmaos.

>>11919509
>the free man is free
woah

>>11919519
I still don't understand FF7's story

>>11919106
Kill yourself. HL2 shits on Deus Ex.

>>11917183
>No wonder they scrapped it with the MCU/Rick and Morty alternate universe ending in HL Alyx that retconned Ep 2's ending.
Thank nigger gods I'm not the only one who hates HL:Alyx

>>11916468
Half-Life 2 is the best game ever made, but Deus Ex has BY FAR the greatest story in video game history.

>>11919060
Based

>>11916468
No, I genuinely don't care for HL2's story. Maybe I would if the game didn't try to force me to pay attention to it so hard. Not even any real criticisms beyond the fact that I do think I would've enjoyed the bleak tone of the beta version more, like you can't have a grim premise but also have a fun and bubbly young woman sidekick character. If I saw that shit in The Road, I would've turned it off. I simply resent how the game forces it on you. It both bores and annoys me to the point that it becomes impossible for me to become invested in any of it.