What is it about Half-Life that people love so much?

[Akula2000]

Just a bit of genuine curiosity here. I'm not bashing either of the games (or the added episodes) as they are pretty good.. but that's all I get from them, they're fairly good, now I'll be the first to admit that I didn't grow up with Half-Life, but I have played through all of HL2 (and the following episodes) and thought it was alright, a bit stupid in places, and I'm currently heading through HL1 which is... better, but not the ground-breaking masterpiece I was expecting. Now don't start getting your panties in a bunch, Iagree that these are good games, but why are people so obsessed? Why are they hailed as such masterpieces?

[Sovereign]

Dude, you do know HL is almost 20 years old right? Every big innovative thing the series did has since been copied many times over and both games have aged. They were hailed as masterpieces when they were released and are clearly remembered with fondness. What else were you really expecting?

[just.nuke.em]

^ Yup. It's about context. To understand better, you have to start from the beginning, i.e. Doom. To truely understand, you would have had to have been there.

[Sanguine Fratres]

Very very old game it is, so to understand why it's so good, you gotta be there when it first came out and experience how other games were compared to HL in that time period.

Even games today are somewhat copies of other games. Just mostly in a series.

[Akula2000]

Originally posted by Sovereign:

Dude, you do know HL is almost 20 years old right? Every big innovative thing the series did has since been copied many times over and both games have aged. They were hailed as masterpieces when they were released and are clearly remembered with fondness. What else were you really expecting?

I understand the context of its release quite a bit actually, and I see the influence it had, but I just don't think that's a valid thing to say considering I play (and thoroughly enjoy) games of similar ages (or older than) Half-Life. Edit: for further clarification: games like the original Metal Gear Solid, Perfect Dark, the original Timesplitters, classic DOOM, etc.

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by Akula2000:

Originally posted by Sovereign:

Dude, you do know HL is almost 20 years old right? Every big innovative thing the series did has since been copied many times over and both games have aged. They were hailed as masterpieces when they were released and are clearly remembered with fondness. What else were you really expecting?

I understand the context of its release quite a bit actually, and I see the influence it had, but I just don't think that's a valid thing to say considering I play (and thoroughly enjoy) games of similar ages (or older than) Half-Life.

So you didn't enjoy HL as much as most other people, that's it. I'm not quite sure what your actually asking here?

[Akula2000]

Originally posted by Sovereign:

Originally posted by Akula2000:

I understand the context of its release quite a bit actually, and I see the influence it had, but I just don't think that's a valid thing to say considering I play (and thoroughly enjoy) games of similar ages (or older than) Half-Life.

So you didn't enjoy HL as much as most other people, that's it. I'm not quite sure what your actually asking here?

I'm asking WHY it's got this god-like image compared to other games of the time, it's a game of high quality (and I prefer it to the second in the series) yes, but I just don't understand what gives it that much punch. The point I'm also trying to make is that age doesn't really effect my enjoyment of games, and certainly not FPS games, as I get a lot of enjoyment out of the original DOOM.

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by Akula2000:

Originally posted by Sovereign:

So you didn't enjoy HL as much as most other people, that's it. I'm not quite sure what your actually asking here?

I'm asking WHY it's got this god-like image compared to other games of the time, it's a game of high quality (and I prefer it to the second in the series) yes, but I just don't understand what gives it that much punch. The point I'm also trying to make is that age doesn't really effect my enjoyment of games, and certainly not FPS games, as I get a lot of enjoyment out of the original DOOM.

But you said: "I understand the context of its release quite a bit actually, and I see the influence it had." If you understood why HL1 & HL2 (which I personally consider to be the far better game tbh) were so influential why are you still confused that they have such a positive rebutation.

[Akula2000]

Originally posted by Sovereign:

Originally posted by Akula2000:

I'm asking WHY it's got this god-like image compared to other games of the time, it's a game of high quality (and I prefer it to the second in the series) yes, but I just don't understand what gives it that much punch. The point I'm also trying to make is that age doesn't really effect my enjoyment of games, and certainly not FPS games, as I get a lot of enjoyment out of the original DOOM.

But you said: "I understand the context of its release quite a bit actually, and I see the influence it had." If you understood why HL1 & HL2 (which I personally consider to be the far better game tbh) were so influential why are you still confused that they have such a positive rebutation.

Because, frankly: HL1 is full of trial and error gameplay, and HL2 can't decide whether it's a shooter or a physics simulator. Edit: also, the plot presentation is great don't get me wrong, but the actual plot just isn't very interesting, maybe it's personal preference, but I seem to be the only person who can find any fault in the series.

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by Akula2000:

Originally posted by Sovereign:

But you said: "I understand the context of its release quite a bit actually, and I see the influence it had." If you understood why HL1 & HL2 (which I personally consider to be the far better game tbh) were so influential why are you still confused that they have such a positive rebutation.

Because, frankly: HL1 is full of trial and error gameplay, and HL2 can't decide whether it's a shooter or a physics simulator. Edit: also, the plot presentation is great don't get me wrong, but the actual plot just isn't very interesting, maybe it's personal preference, but I seem to be the only person who can find any fault in the series.

"Personal preference", you just answered your own question. Of course there are faults, every game has faults if you know where to look, most people just don't care and enjoy games regardless.