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A love letter to Half Life 2


unogueen

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HL2 is basically my favourite game. It conforms with its predecessor in having a no break presentation that never infers above action, endearing itself to a core puzzle logic that was intrinsically tied to the gameplay(hello gargantua orbital blast), but on a personal note, invoking a distinct weird pulp science motif(without the sex, natch).

HL2 grew in PR during development as a what would be THE showcase for physics. Earlier games like Max Payne did have realtime physics, but as window dressing largely distinct from the moment to moment gameplay.

What HL2 delivered was the most cogent video game experience I've had so far.

It begins with a thin palette. It's drab and mute, very boring, the aesthetic of formica. And between that is the 'technology', which seems awfully prone to prongs.

From there the game begins by stacking boxes. Then you're counterbalancing a swing, and somewhere down the line you use buoys to lift an aquatic ramp to guide a fucking redneck jetski over a gate.

Every puzzle in the game, especially playing with Dog, is a natural interaction with the world. There's no sliding tiles, some other fucking grid thing, arbitrary targets. The logic of this game is beyond match even today. In fact you don't even know who you're playing, but their importance seems entirely circumstantial. And that's important.

The real kicker is what came from it.

Dear Esther was a HL2 mod widely credited as one of most important walking sims.

The first person puzzle logic would be a silent influence in future titles like The Talos Principle, The Witness, Portal lol

 

This game has done a fuckton. But it loses points because Valve runs a store.

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6 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

One of those "wow, we can do that now!?" games for me. It felt way ahead of its time, that's what I remember most about it. That and that it felt like a lived-in world.

 

Would love to revisit it. I guess PC is the way?

 

Act now and get all valve games for under $8

 

 

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32 minutes ago, gamer.tv said:

It feels wrong that The Orange Box isn’t on every device possible. 

 

10 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

I'd actually get that on PS4/PS5 instantly

 

The Orange Box is BC on XBoxSX and Bone

 

The Portal games made it to switch.

Dunno about Playstation. Maybe check. 🤷‍♀️

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37 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

Yea. I wanted to play like the cool kids. It was a revolutionary game that needed the top of the line card to run it properly. 

You've probably played Half Life 2 a dozen times over. Children of Men is a late cousin. That never fucking happens.

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