Well, I just finished HL2...and all I can say is WTF? I'd like to spoil the ending for someone, but I don't think I could if I tried. 2004 must be the year of the craphole endings - first Halo 2, now this.
Except for the ending, I thought the game was well executed. Nice length, interesting levels and a reasonably coherent plot. Actually, scratch that last - I still don't know what the game was about, but it was fun for the most part.
Some of the weapons seemed a little weak - the SMG springs to mind - and Valve have dialed back the amount of ammo you could carry too far IMO. Still, there was only one part of the game where I really ran low, and I think that was the point of that segment anyway.
The NPCs, both the interactive and non-interactive, really helped the environment along. The City was quite amazing looking in some places, though Valve got a little sloppy with textures in a few places.
Inevitably HL2 is going to be compared to Doom3 (y'know - the "other" big shooter this year). In every respect, I felt that HL2 was a better game. Looked better, moved better, played better. Hell, in Ravenshome(?) I was more scared than at any point in D3. It's scripted to buggery, but you don't care because it doesn't hinder you at all.
Valve had better follow up with HL3 soon to resolve my WTF delema, though... :rant
Oh...one more thing. Steam can suck my balls. Enforced patching (ie, no playing the game until your game is patched to whatever is the latest version and no indication of the size of the patches), no way to download patches offline (so if I need to reformat, I'll have to sit through hours of patching to play the game again), online authentication, the inability to sell-on the game once I'm done with it. It all sucks hard. I won't be buying another Steam enabled game in the future. I only hope that when Valve go under, they'll "unlock" their steam catalogue.
). Sighting down a barrel was extremely useful, but it slowed you down. I was able to nail someone from a decent distance with a Thompson, but in CS I couldn't shoot my foot if I tied my barrel to it.
