All the people,
So many people,
And they all go hand in hand,
Hand in hand with their:
Half-Life
Yep, those are not the right lyrics! For those of you familiar with the British music scene of the 1990s, you should recognize this as a rendition (sort of) of Blur's classic Britpop hit, "Parklife." The lyrics, as you can see, have been modified at the end because: A) I love Blur (and Parklife) B) I love Half-Life (and it fits well into the place of Parklife so...).
After that slight tangent (and it is only a slight tangent, this blog IS about Half-Life), time to really get this baby going. I am in my last year at school. I am currently in the process of applying to universities. I am working hard. The problem is, I'm not working hard on... work! You see, last month I FINALLY got around to properly playing Half-Life 2 (I'd only played bits of it before). I've spent my free periods with my laptop and making progress and on Friday, I finally completed it (well, I completed Episode 2, fingers crossed that HL3 is on the way soon!). So after about an hour of searching for the meaning of life after enduring this technological roller-coaster of emotions, I decided to play the original Half-Life (yup, I started on the sequel). Both games have led to the series gaining a huge fan base and both are hugely popular. Here's my question (the most important question), which is better?
SPOILER ALERT: It's HL2
First things first, I'm a man (well... male) who likes a good campaign in a video game. To be a good campaign, the main issue is having a good narrative. From the very start, I was encapsulated by HL2. Where was I? Who was this? What was that? What happens if I do this? Why the hell am I being chased? For goodness sake, I'm playing as a theoretical physicist, why am I doing so much manual labour? Etc etc. For the original... that wasn't the case. For most of the game, I see no clear narrative. OK, you're Gordon Freeman, you work in Black Mesa and you're being attacked by aliens/zombies after accidentally opening a portal (as well as being attacked by your own military). What else? Nothing really. Well, not for most of the game, and that's what counts, most of the game. HL2 just has an amazing story that kept me playing, even with outdated the outdated qualities that we see in today's games (I mean in terms of graphics etc, I don't mean every game produced now is amazing). The story in the original isn't bad, it's just non-existent until the final few chapters and for that, HL2 wins by a landslide (in that particular category anyway).
Characters. Once again, HL2. In the original there are three characters who actually have names: Gordon Freeman, G-Man and that Vortigaunt thingy you kill at the end whose name I can't remember (begins with an N doesn't it?). Anyway, other than that, you have lots of scientists with no names and are basically split into four appearances (seriously, there are basically 4 different faces for the scientists a black guy, an old guy with glasses, one rocking a 'tache and a middle-aged one). There are even less faces for the security guards and military. HL2 has: Gordon, Kleiner, Barney, Alyx, Eli, DOg, Magnusson, Judith, G-Man, several Vortigaunts with big roles, that Russian preacher dude, and many more. SPOILER, DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED HL2: I nearly cried when Eli is killed at the end of Episode 2. Winner: HL2
OK, there's no point comparing graphics for games that were released 6 years apart, so next up: map. In history A-Level, we're learning about two groups of historians called intentionalists and structuralists. Structuralists. Structuralist. Structuralis. Structurali. Structural. Structura. Structure. See what I did so subtly there?! I like structure and that's what you get with HL2, you generally know where to go. That's not the case for the original. I found a lot of the finding where to go confusing and I'm amazed at how I got so far with a constant feeling of confusion at where I was going. Not only that, but the locations in HL2 are so much more varied and better than HL. You spend most of the original underground in Black Mesa, bar a few trips to the surface and your trip to Xen. In the sequel there's: City-17, the Citadel, Ravenholm, White Forest, some mines, and many more. For that reason, HL2 is the clear winner yet again.
So it's 4:16 am and I think that pretty much covers my main thoughts as to why HL2 is the better game. I admit, in terms of scariness, the original wins all the way (I mean the Combine are just not scary... at all) but other than that, it's gotta be HL2. I don't dislike Half-Life, not by a long shot, I actually really like it, but Half-Life 2? I love it. Methinks it's time for Valve to get off their rear ends and finish (or start?) making Half Life 3... I need it!
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| It started irrelevantly and so it will end irrelevantly. My new favourite G-Man theory: G-Man is Christopher Walken (it would explain why he always walks like there's a watch up his "ass." One for my fellow Pulp Fiction fans there!). |
