Ok, I know I'm super late to the party on this, but I've been a strictly console gamer since like '01, so my first option to play this masterpiece was with the release of "The Orange Box," which I borrowed from my friend a few weeks ago for X360. All I can say is, I totally see where all the hype comes from, what fantastic setting, writing, pacing, etc., really top-class stuff! I won't deny, the first Half Life bored me senseless; yes the progression and scripted events were all well and good, but for so much of the game there was like zero story progression, zero character interaction, practically zero MUSIC (never a good thing with me), it just felt like such a dead and uninvolving experience, and I never even beat it (I tried playing a handful of times, and the farthest I got was beating Gonarch)
But while HL2 has a bit of the tedium of the first (mainly just that driving sequence along the coast on the way to Nova Prospet), I'm finding on my current second playthrough that it's nowhere near as bad when you've done it already, and now that I'm hooked by the story I suppose I'll play the first, though only on my PS3 (they made it for PS2) cuz I just can't stand sitting in my desk chair and using a mouse and keyboard (rather than flopped down on a couch with a small, ergonomic controller) - but no debating on that please, there's been plenty already
Anyway, yeah, this game rules, and I can't wait to play episodes 1 and 2! Does Ep. 2 wrap up the story, or is there still some chance for continuation? On the topic of the story, I think my favorite parts are how well-defined the characters are (I salute them for breaking the norm by making Alyx black, or at least partially, but she's like the least-black black person I've ever seen, except maybe for Sheva in RE5
) and how sharp the writing is; Dr. Breen's speeches especially are really well-written, and I love a work of fiction that I feel is at (or above) my intelligence level. Great stuff!
But while HL2 has a bit of the tedium of the first (mainly just that driving sequence along the coast on the way to Nova Prospet), I'm finding on my current second playthrough that it's nowhere near as bad when you've done it already, and now that I'm hooked by the story I suppose I'll play the first, though only on my PS3 (they made it for PS2) cuz I just can't stand sitting in my desk chair and using a mouse and keyboard (rather than flopped down on a couch with a small, ergonomic controller) - but no debating on that please, there's been plenty already
Anyway, yeah, this game rules, and I can't wait to play episodes 1 and 2! Does Ep. 2 wrap up the story, or is there still some chance for continuation? On the topic of the story, I think my favorite parts are how well-defined the characters are (I salute them for breaking the norm by making Alyx black, or at least partially, but she's like the least-black black person I've ever seen, except maybe for Sheva in RE5
) and how sharp the writing is; Dr. Breen's speeches especially are really well-written, and I love a work of fiction that I feel is at (or above) my intelligence level. Great stuff!
