Errant Signal: Half-Life

In which I try to find fault with two of the best received PC games of all time.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• gaming
• games
• reviews
• game review
• game reviews
• half-life
• halflife
• half life
• half-life 2
• halflife 2

[fruitbane]

You know, the whole Gordon Freeman as a Mary Sue and Alyx Vance as an ego booster isn't so much a criticism in my eyes. It was a very deliberate design decision that happens to work pretty well at pulling most folks directly into the story. It is simply an extended development of the silent protagonist.

[Doublicon]

You didn't put Hl1 in context of the time it was released. HL1 revolutionized story telling in FPS games. It had scripted sequences, characters that talked to you in real time, and no cut-scenes to speak off. All of the other games at the time managed their story through cut-scenes and then had you run through a puzzle-like maze shooting monsters. Everything in HL1 was presented in a realistic context, there were no floating weapons that spun in place behind a color key-locked door.

[benitobeetoven456]

Are you suggesting Valve either makes a shitty three-hour game or really long, boring, shitty twenty-hour games with no change in gameplay? Also, do you suggest that each enemy is very strong? Because one hard thing about Half-Life 2 when I first played it was the constant attacks.

[CrrackTheSkye]

I don't agree with what seems to be your biggest criticism on these games, the "train ride" feeling. Yes, it does work like that, but you have to remember that this isn't Dungeons and Dragons, it's a video game. When we buy this game, we buy it to play the story it presents to us, not to try as hard as possible to go against that.

I think your problem is more that you can't seem to immerse yourself in the game, which seems odd to me tbh...

[jurahrajehry]

OMG! Valve designed HL so the player can enjoy it as much as possible? How could they?

[Thevideoclown]

"Lets completely change what the player does every 2 hours" Im ok with this

[Thevideoclown]

Your videos are an amazing in depth look at gaming. This is what gaming journalism and commentary is.

[imanerd000]

Just because i now know the trick doesn't mean it is a bad trick and as long as it is entertaining i'm ok with it. Nice points, though. And nice balls for talking about such a highly regarded game in the way that you did.

[Andreadr23]

Just a suggestion, Campster : rename the channel with a more appropriate "the Master Revisionist"

With love, Andrea

[taog85]

First, I'll say that the half-life games are my favorite. Did you play the game in 2004 or later? Hell yeah the games are linear, but I think most fans like that about them. In 2004 there wasn't much that could compete with HL2, including those "flaws" you pointed out. Half-Life has a cool story with cool creations, if anything the problem is that we don't get enough of it.

[ZhilTP911]

The game is too linear? ... like most 2D Platformers? 2D Schmups? Turn based tactics RPG? Even most FPS BEFORE Half Life were linear content chunks. Like the vaunted Doom your recent video praised so much.