Drat.  I was hoping that there would be more alien stuff.  The
environment progression in HL1 was great.  First you have the
creatures in a human environment, and then you're the trespasser in
their environment.  The fact that HL2 takes place almost solely on
Earth is somewhat of a letdown for me as I loved the complete change
in the visual landscape and some of the physical rules.

Also, fighting human AI is just not as intriguing and interesting to
me.  SO many other games exist where you can do this.  I was hoping
that HL2 would improve on the great array of creatures and behaviors
from the first game such as the sound-sensitive tentacles and being
able to use alien weapons.

It just doesn't feel to me like HL2 is much of a sequel as it bears so
little resemblance to the original in these ways.  It's a great game,
but not great in the ways that I liked about HL1.

Dave S.

Indeed, it was!  As I've progressed through HL2, I've been struck by
the sense that this could easily be done by SO many other game
companies as far as realistic modern combat is concerned.  What I
loved so much about HL1 was the feeling that I was in a distinctively
non-military setting.  Of course, the military showed up later, but
the setting revealed to how out of place they were.

In HL2, the one thing that's really jumped out at me is the distinct
absence of aliens.  As I said before, one of the things that I loved
about HL1 was that you first encounter the aliens in your environment,
then in their own.  This adds to your understanding of their evolution
in a small way, and makes them seem less arbitrarily conceived.

For me, the best sequence in HL1 was the Blast Pit.  Solving that
scenario required patience and exploration, and yet it still offered a
few combat thrills.  However, not so much that you felt like you were
back playing DOOM.

Myst never appealed to me as it was too much on the problem solving
side.  Also, the fact that the environment was a series of still
images, not one in which you could move around in real time.  I always
appreciated the game from afar, and my mom LOVED it.  However, I got
the strong impression that you really needed to keep a notebook if you
wanted move along at a pace other than glacial.  I like problem
solving, but I also want to MOVE!

HL1 took us to an entirely new place, filled with creatures and
characters we'd never seen before.  Much of HL2 could be set in many
countries around the world right now.  I guess that's why I'm not so
swept up in the world, as it seems too familiar (and somewhat
depressing).

One other thing:  I thought that it was kind of lazy in a programming
way to end up back at the beginning of the game after completing
Entanglements.  Maybe I'm just a miserable nitpicking bastard, but I
just felt like: "Wait, haven't I been here already?!"  When I saw the
video screen being torn down, I wondered to myself: "So all that other
stuff was just filler before the final assault?!"

I know, I know, go and make your own damned game, right?  Sorry to add
more static if peeps have already groused about this, but I just
didn't like this development.

BTW, is Dog gone to pet heaven or will I see him again?  He DEFINITELY
did not get a big enough role in this game!

Dave S.