So, I just played through the game and I thought that it was
fantastic. Great fun all around, and some important and very well done character progression in there as well. I personally thought it was more enjoyable compared to episode one, mostly thanks to the change of scenery.
The vistas in it are entirely fuckawesome and the new and improved facial animation system really makes the characters come alive. Good stuff.
What was your thoughts and impressions with the game? Did it live up to your expectations? Was it a complete and utter let down?
Spoilers ahead!
Added some nice screenshots of the game. Not any hueg spoilers, but you'd probably just want to experience them first for yourself, eh.
Combine Convoy, protecting the advisors escape out of city 17
post blast city 17
Dog ripping a strider a new one
Strider brains!
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I dont expect it from the likes of Valve, but I'm required to ask the same tired question every time a game is cross platform with a console:
As a PC enthusiast, are there any signs of influence of the PC development by the console one? Level design, overall or specific case difficulty, user interface, enemy placement/number/aggressiveness, etc.
Also, I don't know about your complaints orik. Tell me about them
similar complaints re: ep 1
I thought it was a cool enough story, punctuated by the continuous points where the security warnings and communiques from Dr. Breen are either talking specifically about what you've just done, or speaking directly to you. You don't get to interact with the NPCs as such, but they talk to you and about you enough that it made me feel a part of the happenings.
sketchyblargh / Steam! / Tumblr Prime
alyx does everything for you while you guard her
but i was probably spoiled by playing bioshock first, which is much more up my alley plot-wise
But playing EP 2 so far feels different. I feel I can understand the context of the environment by just looking at it and the various characters/enemies are less confusing and more mysterious, which is how it should be. What also helps is that the comic relief is much better than what they had in previous HL games.
'Hey Freeman, be adequate!'
'What was that? Say something cool like the Vort'
I suffered those crashes in Episode 1 as well, pretty regular. Rest assured I didn't suffer even a single crash all the way through Episode 2.
Alright, ONE crash, but that's because I alt-tabbed out-in-out in a very short space of time and probably strained the poor PC too far.
As for the episode itself, brilliant. I mean, I can see what they were doing with all that time. Sure it's not as long as a full game (inevitably people will complain about that), but they really kicked the graphics up a few notches. First time I saw the Vortigaunts I was really impressed. Plus the shadowing, fogging, general lighting and fluid effects. Other games try to make use of effects like that and end up looking fake, HL2 has always seemed to manage to look more real-world than most other games that try this stuff.
Plus we get some really good story exposition in here as well.
Action was pretty good all the way through as well, loved the car too. Hunters were good for kicking the combat up a notch or two as well (we barely saw any combine this time around). And oh man, the ant-lion caves...
Seriously, I've watched plenty of documentaries about termites and ant mounds and things, but I was really impressed with how well they captured the look and feel of the thing. I felt distinctly uneasy exploring someplaces, especially seeing grubs grazing on blood stained walls. Ravenholme didn't really have an impact on me, but the ant-lion caves were really creepy to me in places.
I also really liked the more wide open spaces that this game had, especially near the end. When Valve said they were going for a slighlty less A-to-B linear gamestyle, I had to wonder whether the kings of set piece action would really be able to make something like that work, especially in Half Life. I'm glad to see they pulled it off.
Seriously, I feel Episode 2 is the best yet in the series. Although this may depend a lot on whether you like the slightly more open expanses and style of gameplay as opposed to Episode 1 / HL2's more close-encounters environments.
So yeah, roll on Episode 3 then. Even if it comes out in another 1.5 years, I don't mind as long as they keep updating the series both in its gameplay and its graphics like they have been so far.
After episode 3 though, I'd like to see Valve do some work on a new singleplayer franchise. They're probably got a lot of good ideas kicking around.
Anyway, pretty cool to see them blow up the base as well so yeah
It uses the little thing in the middle of its face to impale a persons head and suck out the contents.
Also, on the subject of combine advisors, the ending was awesome. So sad and yet so awesome.
I understand your reference and I thought that too but the other alternative .. *shudder*
while I thought the ending was great, I thought they could have made the .. err ...
well done though ..
i'm finding them amazing hard to kill.
how are you supposed to use their own flechettes against them? cant gravgun them ..
and yeah, generally, they take a bucket of bullets to bring down, bar the AR2 (TWO, NOT THREE) alternative firing mode.
True that. I did just not see that coming
[€dit] Also, I thought a saw a scene of Alyx hanging at the side of a cliff in an ep2 trailer, but I don't think I saw that in the game?
well, HL2 was supposed to feature that blue tentacle creature.
perhaps alyx will be dangling off some cliff in ep3.
same with the stance dog engages the strider in.
ingame is was waaaay more ordinary..
We've heard you state your opinions a hundred times already. Nobody cares.
On that note, I would guess that if this is a process of them... ahem... interrogating the victim, does this mean that the combine know pretty much everything about how they shut down the portal and possibly also how to create new, proper portals?
I'm guessing that lost Aperature sciences ship is going to be quite important to the plot of episode 3. Well, I suppose that was obvious anyway.
Also, I would have expected valve to release a little sneak peak trailer for Ep3 on finishing Ep2 like they did with the first one. Since I thought they developed them at least in part parallel to each other.
Also:
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I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
I got that achievement completely by accident. I was running them over with the car, and I guess some of the fletchettes stuck to the front and exploded just as I ran over one. No idea how you'd do it otherwise.
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I hit a... major storytelling point, and suddenly my game dropped to 1 frame per second. Sound stuttered and then dropped out, and the lip syncing screwed up as well. When the plot device passed, I had to save and reload to get things back to normal.
Anyone else have this problem?