I’ve always been a harsh critic of shooters. Despite me needing to play them I’ve never let them off easy. Why? I’m a child of the Goldeneye and Perfect Dark ages meaning I expect greatness. Too much these days you see shooters like Halo, Gears of War, Black, Red Steel, Call of Duty series, Killzone, Resistance, and the list goes on and they are good shooters. But they aren’t great.
I’ve recently been playing Half Life 2 and I’m 10 hrs through and just about done with the game and I’m am easily convinced that this is the greatest shooter ever created. Some see it as a cliche because that’s what everyone says but no one ever explains why. And to explain why it has to be done by harsh contrasts.
Let’s take Halo or Gears of War for example. The games progress by going from battle to battle and really it’s like a mini game. Just defeat the next horde of enemies. IN reality all games like these are are the multiplayer modes in Gears of War 2 called Horde. It’s fitting. However, to be fair, every now and then you’ll have unique gameplay elements. In Halo 3 there is a boss fight with a giant scarab or in the first Gears of War there is unique light battle versus bat like creatures. And these are great elements, but the problem is there are so few and far between that the single player becomes boring.
Up until this point every shooter I’ve played since Goldeneye and Perfect Dark has not kept me interested. It’s been like a struggle and a pain to just finish the game. But not Half Life 2. Why? Because it is the exact opposite of Halo and Gears of War. Half Life 2 has the gameplay change so much throughout the game it is almost impossible to get bored. Of course it has the core elements of going from horde to horde, but you also have moments where you control bug creatures to help fight your battles, use the gravity gun to solve puzzles or cross “death” pits, find ways to cross things that seem impassable, and the list goes on.
The game is so dynamic that I can only describe it in one way. If Legend of Zelda was a shooter, Half Life 2 would be it because it’s like playing Zelda in shooter form. And what breed does it spawn from? The Goldeneye and Perfect Dark age which had similar variations in gameplay. Only other shooters recently that I can think of that do this is Metroid Prime series and Bioshock.
This is not to say I don’t enjoy my stereotypical shooters for online which I do for Halo, MOHH2, and eventually COD5 and The conduit. But Half Life 2 is the standard to beat. Not Crysis, not Killzone 2, not Gears of War 2, not Halo 3, not any of those games. The standard was set awhile ago and no one has touched it. This is why I criticize shooters so much because THIS is what they should be... like Half Life 2. Congrats Valve... you have shown me why shooters can be so amazing like Rare and Nintendo did so long ago.
Half Lige is aight but I enjoy COD4 better along with Halo and Time Splitters
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Immortal Menace wrote:
Why go back to australia..im already here. and i bet you my house is 10 times better than your piece of shit. and i curb stomp nigga’s heads into pavement. i’d do the same to you bitch
Although I do agree I think Half Life 2 is one of the greatest shooters. It’s second on my favorite games of all time list. (Halo 1 wins imo).
The reason I think Halo is better is because it had some of the most amazing non online Multiplayer modes ever created, and that is one thing that Half Life 2 flops at. I own the HL2 multiplayer expansion, and I have to say it’s pretty lame. Half Life 2 wins in single player, but when it came to multiplayer it just didn’t have that feeling Halo had to it.
98supra wrote:
Half Lige is aight but I enjoy COD4 better along with Halo and Time Splitters
wow.......................
I was jokin about TS but COD4?
are u kidding me?
__________________
Immortal Menace wrote:
Why go back to australia..im already here. and i bet you my house is 10 times better than your piece of shit. and i curb stomp nigga’s heads into pavement. i’d do the same to you bitch
Immortal Menace wrote:
Why go back to australia..im already here. and i bet you my house is 10 times better than your piece of shit. and i curb stomp nigga’s heads into pavement. i’d do the same to you bitch
I’m thinking of another shooter as well. It took place in the future, and you had to figure out all these little things as well. I had it on my Xbox, and it had 2 games to the series..It was like a splinter cell, Bond, Resident evil all in one.
But yeah, if you have like 25-30 bucks to spend, you can go get all these games used. Awesome games.
i recommend Jurassic park: Trespasser, sure people laughed at it, and it looks pretty shitty (FYI made in 1997) but it’s elements inspired valve’s creator to make the half-life series, it was one of the most realistic (not anymore) games ever created, you solve puzzles, scavenge for weaponery and ammunition and find Ingen’s darkest secrets.
it’s a good game, if you liked half-life.
