Before you start flaming me, let me say that Half - Life 2 is a good game, probably a very good game. The graphics are awesome, the physics kick ass, the environments are great, the control is tight, and the story's fairly good (I havent beaten the game however)
But it's not a great game. A truly great game has to be different, to be creative, and to be innovative. Wolfenstien, Doom 1&2, Quake 1&2, Team Fortress, Tribes 1&2, Thief, Metal Gear Solid, Half - Life, Counterstrike, Day of Defeat, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Deus Ex, Unreal Tournament, Battlefield 1942, Halo, and Far Cry are great games. They did something new
With the Source engine, Valve had the capability to do something new. With the physics engine there's a lot of room for nonlinearity. It has the power to let players manipulate the game world to solve puzzles and defeat enemies in any way they see fit. For example, you could collapse a ceiling in on combine soldiers, stack plywood across a blown out bridge instead of travelling around it, chuck a grenade into a room and light it on fire, or chuck a car at a Strider's leg and make it buckle and collapse. I'm not saying Valve should have created a macrolinear Deus Ex/Far Cry style game or a completely deformable Red Faction world. Merely a series of linear challenges that can be overcome in ways other than what was originally conceived by the level designer while still advancing to the next area and plot sequence.
Secondly, the multiplayer is quite mediocre. CS Source is every bit as good as Counterstrike and has less of a cheating problem. But, for that matter, Frag.Ops for UT2k4 looks almost as good, plays as well, and has even fewer cheaters than CS:S. HL2DM has the same problem, but lets player chuck billboards/toasters/doors/corpses/other objects at each other.
But it's not a great game. A truly great game has to be different, to be creative, and to be innovative. Wolfenstien, Doom 1&2, Quake 1&2, Team Fortress, Tribes 1&2, Thief, Metal Gear Solid, Half - Life, Counterstrike, Day of Defeat, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Deus Ex, Unreal Tournament, Battlefield 1942, Halo, and Far Cry are great games. They did something new
With the Source engine, Valve had the capability to do something new. With the physics engine there's a lot of room for nonlinearity. It has the power to let players manipulate the game world to solve puzzles and defeat enemies in any way they see fit. For example, you could collapse a ceiling in on combine soldiers, stack plywood across a blown out bridge instead of travelling around it, chuck a grenade into a room and light it on fire, or chuck a car at a Strider's leg and make it buckle and collapse. I'm not saying Valve should have created a macrolinear Deus Ex/Far Cry style game or a completely deformable Red Faction world. Merely a series of linear challenges that can be overcome in ways other than what was originally conceived by the level designer while still advancing to the next area and plot sequence.
Secondly, the multiplayer is quite mediocre. CS Source is every bit as good as Counterstrike and has less of a cheating problem. But, for that matter, Frag.Ops for UT2k4 looks almost as good, plays as well, and has even fewer cheaters than CS:S. HL2DM has the same problem, but lets player chuck billboards/toasters/doors/corpses/other objects at each other.