https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-3gcVICiCs
Thoughts?
Intelligent Opinions.
Opinions nonetheless, but intelligent ones.
He Seems to forget the Role Gman plays in re-familiarizing the inhabitants in and around city 17 if Freeman’s Presence (or perhaps to Kleiner and Vance, his Goals).
Although I Had an issue with what he had to say with Alyx, Some points I could understand, others, not so much.
I think that the analogy between the starting train is well made but that is exactly what makes Half-Life so unique. You can’t control yourself. There is going to be a linear path. The next HL will follow the same thing. G-Man has you under his control. We may deny it and some parts of the game, especially in Episode 2 but he influences all our actions and what happens to the world. And that’s the point of HL. We’re trying to escape its control and make our own path. The world know who Gordon Freeman is because he played a leading role in the first HL. How do they know it? We don’t. We were on stasis and yet, when we wake up again, we are just part of a job. And I don’t agree with some opinions about Alyx and character development but opinions are opinions.
The guy has a strong bias against linearity in games which he tries to make sound objective.
Yeah, I’d like to hear him speak about sandbox games. I’m genuinely curious as to what he’d make of them.
Other than that, everything he says makes perfect sense but most of it applies to a shitload of games and some of it is even inherent of the medium by definition.
I also don’t agree that HL is overrated. Sure, it has it’s dedicated fanbase, like any game, but outside of that few have actually heard of it.
I think he’s got a point with that comparison of the G-Man and Valve…
They put the player in, let him experience their game as it’s designed to be experienced and take him off to have him eagerly awaiting the sequel (HL3 anyone ? ;O ).
He says that this predetermined experience makes gameplay “hollow”. And i agree to a certain point. I also get the idea that Alyx is kind of an pleasing, adjusted character that isn’t as deep as it appears to be at first glance…
BUT: Do we need all this ?
I mean, you’ve got a linear Shooter here, if you want total freedom where every choice you make or not has consequences, play an RPG. The first thing a videogame has to offer in my view is Entertainment, not a deeper meaning behind it’s story or mechanics. That totally works for me as an occasional gamer. Half-Life surely has entertained me a lot AND it is possible to grasp a deeper meaning behind the game story or mechanics if you want to get yourself into it (just look at the shitloads of threads regarding the HL Universe or Series in this Forum alone).
So, the critique is partially valid. Maybe I prove that I’m light minded and easy to satisfy by defending Half Life this way.
So, in conclusion… Is Half Life overrated ? Are the gameplay mechanics and characters below their potential or todays (or at their times) standard ? probably yes.
Does that change my love for this game or the overall influence and relevance it has in the gaming (and modding) industry? No
Boo this man!
I think nowadays, any game that is actuay good and receives good reviews is overrated…
pretty sure it’s bloodshot
Also, not all games have to be sandbox. Sometimes you’re not in the mood for that.
That’s not a Bloodshot thing, that’s a Someonerandm thing.
You know: “who gives a fuck about narrative or weapon handling/ combat or AI when you have a nice big field to experience the mediocrity in?” - Someonerandm
What happened to that guy?
No idea. Didn’t he disappear after the Dear Esther thread where he basically said everyone who didn’t agree with him was wrong?
Good review overall (I disagree with a lot of it, but it’s mostly well-stated), but…
…the complaints about the gameplay variety really stuck out as being flat-out stupid.
The variety is what I’ve found myself missing in every FPS since HL2. It’s the best thing about the game. It’s why it stays exciting, even 10 hours in when most other shooters are totally stale. Listing off all the different areas in a purposely dumb-sounding voice isn’t the same thing as making an argument against that design.
I can’t even fathom why someone would try to argue that HL2’s diversity of gameplay is a bad thing.
The part of Gordon Freeman is so wrong, it’s laughable. The reason the character has no real flaws is because there is no real character. Sure, Freeman is the protagonist of the Half-Life series, but other then that, we don’t know him very much. The reason because of this is to immerse the player into the role of Gordon. There are no character flaws in him because the goal behind any silent or “flat” protagonist is to have the player’s own flaws arise into the player’s character. If you’re scared easily, this flaw can arise in your gameplay. If you’re headstrong and brash, and tend to rush in and not think things through, this can arise in your gameplay. I think you get the point.
I think the error on his part is the fact that he is acting on the assumption that Gordon Freeman is a cohesive character you are meant to feel about, rather then taking him as an empty vessel meant to give the player a window into the game world without forcing it down our throats with cutscenes like a movie
Here’s his GTAIV review. He really seems infatuated with sandbox gameplay to the point where he criticizes GTAIV’s gameplay compared to the others handling of the mechanics.
He’s so infatuated with non-linear that he can’t fully acknowledge a good game like Half-Life or any other linear shooters because they’re linear. He thinks that it’s a flaw that Half-Life doesn’t have any plot changing choices to be made and that it’s been ignored because people are too in-love with the game to acknowledge this “flaw”. He doesn’t get that not all games are designed to give the player complete control over how events in the story go about. As Dias would call it, it’s like he’s looking through “nostalgia goggles” 
Very subjectively saturated arguments, and the arguments he makes that are actually fair are drastically out of context; especially the ones against Gordon Freeman. He is using classic-drama critiques often used to construct criticism against a television show or a play, and exercising them on a video game – a form of entertainment that isn’t bound by the rules or foundations of a standard story.
Secondly, he makes guesses about what the writers were intending to do. And with me familiarizing myself with Marc Laidlaw’s style (or simply Half Life’s style) of plot structure, his interpretations are usually wrong. My favorite bit is how he criticizes Valve for “engineering Alyx to make her overly appealing.” This shows he truly knows nothing about drama or how a story works at all. Emotionally involving readers (or players in this case) is considered a talent, and it’s an absolute necessity of story; how can you have a main character (a main character, not the) that you don’t care about?
If he complains so much of Half Life for being linear then he must probably think COD games are the worst ever lol
The guy just doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
All I heard from this guy was whining about the game. Sounded like he didn’t even know what is happening in the game…
MIND …MUST NOT… PROCESS BULLSHIT…ABOUT HALF LIFE…
Complaining about Half-Life being linear is like complaining about Super Mario Bros. being a platformer.