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Recent reviews by Sedqubus

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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
27.7 hrs on record (24.2 hrs at review time)
i beat mile high club on veteran
Posted November 30, 2019.
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13 people found this review helpful
7 people found this review funny
22.5 hrs on record (22.0 hrs at review time)
adrian shephard, stuck in the freezer :(
Posted July 30, 2019.
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2 people found this review helpful
105.6 hrs on record (53.5 hrs at review time)
Alright, let us cut to the chase here.

Half-Life is a good game, pretty dated by today's standards, but still a good game. To kick things off, let me list out the...

Negatives:

—Voice acting: We are going to be going by today's standards here, the voice acting is bad on its own, but the audio quality of it just makes it worse. Also, a lot of the lines are really cheesy.

—Graphics: The elephant in the room. It looks like something straight out of its era at least. The HD pack (enabled by default for some reason) does not help much and looks really odd with the low-resolution textures. Also, extreme purists will scoff at you and claim that the HD models take away from the "true experience."

—Questionable level design: Enter "On a Rail," the chapter that is spent on a railroad. This idea on paper is not bad, but unless you've played this game more than two times, you are gonna be lost trying to figure out which path is the correct path by frantically shooting signs.

—The final chapters: My biggest complaint and perhaps the worst aspect of this game, Xen. At the very beginning of the game you get a glimpse of Xen and throughout the game you're left wondering what the heck it is and if you're ever going to go back. Well, you do go back, and it is... disappointing. It's just a lot of jumping from platform to platform while occasionally avoiding enemies (or fighting them if you please), and then it ends with a battle against Nihilanth, whose name can not be pronounced no matter how hard you try. Proceeding this is an epilogue that delivers a nice explanation of what you have done from everyone's favorite mutual fiend.

Alright, now that that is out of the way, let us get to the...

Positives:

—Optimization/compatibility: Valve is constantly pumping out optimization and compatibility patches for this thing, so it should be plug and play (just open-source the damn engine already you jesters.)

—The intro: "Black Mesa Inbound" is one of the best openings ever. It makes you think that there is so much going on outside of your tram but nothing major really happens. Despite this, however, you are still interested in the world outside the tram and find yourself observing everything that is happening around you. "Black Mesa Inbound" also shows you exactly who you are: a 27-year-old theoretical physicist on his way to work. In addition to this, "Black Mesa Inbound" plants the idea in your mind of how far below the surface you truly are, which comes into play right after the intro. "Anomalous Materials" delivers excellent world building and gives you a feel for your colleagues and your position in this facility.

—The story(telling): The story itself may seem simple on paper, but once you get into Half-Life 2, it gets a whole lot deeper, and this game is necessary for understanding the full story. Also, the way the story is told completely immerses the player in the world and really makes them feel like they are apart of the world, not the world itself.

—The chapters: They are just fun. I know earlier I said that there are some questionable choices in the level design, but overall you are going to have a great time in pretty much every chapter with the exception of a few. Even these exceptions, however, are still well done in their own regard. In the process of me writing a few chapters that stand out from the rest in terms of its quality, I ended up finding myself listing nearly every chapter. If I had to choose a personal favorite, however, I believe "Forget About Freeman!" and "Lambda Core" take the cake (these two chapters sort of melt into each other and they're both just fantastic.)

—The feeling of gradual progression: You are not just given an option of what guns to choose from at the beginning and it is not like Call of Duty or Halo where you can carry a maximum of two weapons. Instead, it plays out like Doom or Quake where you build up a large arsenal of many different weapons to choose from that differ from each other quite a lot. Just don't use the shotgun, it's unsatisfying.

—The weapons: The protagonist has to have a supporting cast, and he has got a good one (and an iconic one at that.) Instead of something like your fists, you have a crowbar for your melee weapon, which is now one of the most iconic weapons in video games. For pistols/sidearms, you got your standard 9mm semi- and fully-automatic Glock 17 (Beretta M9 in Gearbox's models) and a very powerful but also very scarce in ammunition Colt Python .357 magnum revolver. For your primary weapons, there's an MP5SDA3 with M203Pl (M4A1 with M203 in Gearbox's models) that will be acting as your main weapon for most of the game, a SPAS-12, which, again, is unsatisfying, and the crossbow which can pick off enemies from a distance with ease. For the specialty category, there's the laser-guided RPG missile launcher which is exactly what the name implies, the Gauss Gun, a laser gun on steroids, the Gluon Gun, basically the Proton Packs from Ghostbusters, and the Hivehand, which is a low-damage alien weapon that shoots hornets (but also has an unlimited auto-refilling ammo reserve capped at 8.) Then you've got your explosives, Mk 2 hand grenades, remotely detonated satchel charges, laser tripmines, and finally, to cap it off, the Snarks, alien bugs that you can send out to fight for you. Overall, the diversity in the weapons makes it fun to experiment with them and with the very balanced ammo distribution, you definitely can.

Well, that is my two cents on Half-Life. Again, it is a good game, a really good game, if not dated. If you have not yet played it, do yourself a favor and wait for this thing to go on sale for a buck so you can pick it up. You will not regret it.
Posted February 23, 2018. Last edited August 4, 2019.
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