I made what turned out to be a surprise revelation to some friends of mine recently, I off handedly mentioned I don’t like Half Life 2. Friends and colleagues all question how I could not like one of the “greatest games ever made” and quite simply it’s because it’s tedious and boring. The easy option for any fans of it is to tell me “I didn’t get it” or that I’m somehow trying to be “counter-culture”, where as in fact I feel the truth of the matter is that I think there was a band wagon liking of the game.
Making this statement of scorn brought tweets and defensive arguments my way. I thought back to what I said and realised people were getting defensive over a couple of sentences where I didn’t really put across my point other than the equivalent of a long drawn out raspberry noise. So for all the fans I wound up with just a few words, please allow me to draw out the process this time and earn that vitriolic fan rage.
4. Silence Is Golden
Gordon Freeman, if this guy died tomorrow (or tomorrow in the near future) what could be said about this man at his funeral? “His goatee was like his hair trigger temper and violent use of crowbar, short and sweet.” that’s it. Every year this bespectacled muppet is put in “Top 10 characters” lists left right and centre, and quite simply I need to point out; This is not a character.
The obvious go to is that he doesn’t talk, he has the ranged acting ability of the Marine in Doom or B.J Blaskowitz in Wolfenstein 3D. Having a mute character means you don’t get real interactions with other cast members, all you have is people giving lines and filling in your parts like a drama student doing a monologue in front of their classmates.
Finally if you didn’t have the character design on the front of the box, would you know what Gordon Freeman looked like? This is a petty argument but at the same time it leads to one of the main issues with the game. You’re supposed to be this Free-man, the one who will save the day, but at no point do I feel power or association with the character. The fans will come at me with “You shouldn’t feel powerful, you’re a scientist” but that’s not true, you’re the one everyone’s hope are pinned to, so by proxy or osmosis you should have some sense of inner strength. Despite being able to control movements and actions in the game I never feel that connection with Gordon, his name could be Trixie the cross dressing sanitation worker and I wouldn’t know or feel any different.
GTA V: 9 Facts That Will Blow Your Mind
10 Outrageous Sexy Moments Hidden In Video Games
10 Video Game Endings With Disturbing Implications
8 Crazy Video Game Fan Theories That Actually Improve Games
10 Things Today’s Gamers Wouldn’t Understand
100 Greatest Video Game Villains Of All Time
10 Most Insanely Difficult Video Games Ever Made
10 Things You Should Know About Dating A Gamer
Want to write about the stuff you're passionate about and have your work read by an audience of over 10 million a month? Click here to become a contributor.
14 Comments
BLASPHEMY! You’re in the minority amongst game buffs, fans and those who know a good video game when it hits them in the face, so it’s more than likely that you’re wrong. Which is impossible, really, because you can’t be wrong on a subjective matter. You’re entitled to your opinion, of course — I just can’t believe you thought it was boring, though.
I disagree with you on every single point. Call me a cynic, but I suspect that perhaps you are posting “controversial” things in the hope of getting hits on your articles.
Assuming that you actually aren’t being disingenuous, I’ll just say that the fact that you don’t care for it doen’t mean that the rest of us are just poor, blind fools who have somehow managed to delude ourselves into thinking we are having fun. It doesn’t mean that you are enlightened and the rest of us are just slogging around, unable to understand that we aren’t actually having fun after all.
Even after all this time, HL2 still holds up….For me, at least. It’s an amazing game, and I can honestly say I’ve never been bored by it. Well, that’s how opinions are, eh? There’s no accounting for taste.
obvious flamebait is obvious.
Saying a game isn’t enjoyable because the graphics aren’t up to your standards, is like saying a movie from the 80′s can’t be enjoyed because it looks grainy. Silly.
Genuinely shocking to think anyone can dislike such a well crafted game. Half Life 2 is one of the the few games I’ll regularly replay and continue to enjoy. Forget Portal, HL2 is Valve’s crowning achievment.
I guess you are just plain wrong.
Half-Life 1 was a classic. I always come back to it. I never come back to Half-Life 2.
If he didn’t like it, he didn’t like it. If I had to guess, i’d say you’re one of those people, that simply because there is a bandwagon, you were determined to not enjoy the game, and succeeded due to your own negative outlook. Your loss.
This seems fair. I still haven’t finished episode2. I just keep getting bored with it.
This game is amazing. Yes, it has a physics engine, and it’s fun as hell. I love pulling things off ledges, breaking box’s, throwing things at enemies. I don’t think it was over used at all. This game is also very creative. It does things no other shooters have done.
I agree that freeman shouldn’t be on the best characters lists – he isn’t a character. But thats the ‘best character list’ maker’s fault, not the game’s. I love the feeling of playing this odd, disconnected character who is dictated by everyone around him – he isn’t a character, but thats whats so amazing about it. This weird, absent, kind of asperges guy … not interesting as a person, but thats not the point. It’s interesting because of what it does to the gameplay.
He doesn’t speak because they intended for the player to feel like hes just a average guy, doing his job, the glasses were just to make him look more science-y
I am not trying to be a troll, but I agree with him. I will say that point 3 is a trivial complaint, graphics should have little place in judging a game. He is not attacking gaming, he just doesn’t like the game. Half-Life 2′s popularity seems bandwagon, and Valve travelling the vaporware path should not be defended.
A couple of years ago I may have gotten upset or tried to set you straight on what I consider to be a great game, and probably MY favorite of all time. However, I realize people have different opinions and no one can be wrong if it’s a subjective opinion. Eye of the beholder and what not. However, when it is acclaimed by so many, can we really be wrong? Oh crap, Transformers: Dark of the Moon is like the fifth highest grossing movie so I guess I can’t use popularity as an argument. Plus, I didn’t really care for Citizen Kane all that much.
P.S. I didn’t play HL and HL2 until 2006 and I came in with little to no knowledge of the games. At the time I was big into Halo 2 and really looking forward to Halo 3. Then my friend had me try out HL2 and it’s been a love affair ever since. So no bandwagon for me.