It was a good game that I enjoyed.  I have no affinity with it though. 

I loved HL2, but I played an hour of Episode 1 and couldn't get into it for some reason

" I loved HL2, but I played an hour of Episode 1 and couldn't get into it for some reason "

" @Darknezz said:

 The story and characters are boring and uninteresting, there's next to no internal logic, the engine that was built for this game isn't utilized very well, and it's just overall not that fantastic.

I stopped reading there. You sir are a moron... "

Half-Life 2 is is my favorite game of all time, even after all these other great titles have come out over the years that I've sunk more time into, nothing ever feels as satisfying as HL2. What makes it such a great game is the way it just thrusts you into this incredibly interesting and mysterious world that is absolutely dripping with atmosphere. It's a much different world that the one you left in the original HL, and the game just leaves you to discover it on your own. Every inch of the story that the game wants you to know about unfolds before your eyes, no more, no less. The game does any excellent job of making you feel like a smaller part of something much, much bigger. With all of the stuff the game has you do, you always get the feeling that there are other people out there doing something as equally important to your cause. There's always a bigger mystery behind everything else that's going on. 
 
Of course, there's the game's great characters...arguably some of the most memorable characters in gaming. They're all fleshed out with rich back story, are portrayed by some extremely talented and convincing voice actors, and are powered by animation so realistic it's almost scary. Many would argue that Gordon Freeman is simply another faceless silent protagonist, and in many way (especially concerning HL 1), that is fairly true, but Freeman's real character comes from his impact on the game's universe, and how everyone perceives him. In the beginning of the game, you are just another citizen without a clue, defenseless and mostly alone. By the ending chapters, everyone else is looking up to you and is eager to fight at your side. Meanwhile, you go from being a moderate thorn in Dr. Breen's and Combine's side to being their biggest threat. The way the game treats this transition feels as natural as it could be, given the way the game is structured. Not to mention the way this is done in the episodes. In Episodes 1 and 2, the Combine's tactics to capture you grow increasingly brutal and desperate as the games progress, ultimately resulting the climactic and excruciatingly intense and frantic strider fight, one of the most epic battles in any video game...ever.
 
There's also the way that HL2 is paced. The balance between the action set-pieces, puzzle-solving, and exposition sequences is absolute perfection, and no part of the game feels arbitrary to the overall experience. The variety helps keep things fresh from beginning to end, and in the case of the majority of other FPS's out there, that's a hard feat to pull off. 
 
I could go on and on about what makes HL2 such an amazing and unforgettable gaming experience, but so much has been said already, and I'm sure I've repeated much of it by now. Frankly, I can't imagine anyone who has a true appreciation for video games NOT loving HL2. Half-Life is about as good as gaming gets.

OP is an idiot.

Half life 2 has one of the best stories ever...not just in games. 
 
OP has a short attention span and would rather play that twitchy kiddies game called cod

It was awesome until you got those idiots following you around. Then it got baaaaaaaaaad. It's like the best game ever and the worst game ever in one game.

OP doesn't complete a great game and then complains its story makes no sense.
 
OP is a fool looking for an audience of idiots to congratulate him for his foolishness.
 
I love HL series to death but this just isn't worthy of a response.

" @Laketown said:

" I loved HL2, but I played an hour of Episode 1 and couldn't get into it for some reason "

Yeaaah, Episode 1 isn't that great. You should plow through it and play Episode 2 which is a return to form. I'd say minute-for-minute, the overall quality is higher than the base game. It's paced better. "

Holy shit, I can't believe some of you guys.  I've played HL2 and Episode 1 at least 3 or 4 times, and Episode 2 twice, both on PC and 360 for all of those, and I'm still considering playing them again after they updated the graphics today. 
 
These are some of the best, most engaging single player experiences out there to this day.  And the source engine is fantastic, and wouldn't exist without HL2.  Do you guys even play many games?  Jesus...

Ive never been a "big" Half Life fan, thou I do like them.  I think some of the problem with that is I didn't play the first one beyond the demo.  There are games that really MUST be played when they come out.  Getting into them down the road takes away a lot of what makes them great.  The graphics, atmosphere, controls, everything gets judged by current standards.  
 
You can go on, and on about how great a game is 10 years later, to someone who has never played it, but they will NEVER understand because they last the reference and experience of playing it when it was new.

personal preferences disregarded, anyone who says this "However, as story-driven as Half-Life 2 pretends to be, I'd really like it if Freeman were actually a character", as well as this "The story and characters are boring and uninteresting", is an idiot.

firstly, we never see freeman do anything outside of our jurisdiction because we are the character, not him. the experiences in half-life 2 are experienced first hand. we feel our own emotions as we play the game, not somebody else's; we're not told what to think and feel, and we don't spend the entirety of the game playing third wheel. we control everything he does, much in the way we control everything we do ourselves. even in the very scarce scenes where control is taken away from us, it is done effectively. just watch the final scene of half-life 2: episode 2 and tell me that it doesn't have a profound effect on you; it is by far one of the most emotionally heartbreaking scenes in any form of media.

secondly, to blanket the game with "The story and characters are boring and uninteresting" actually confuses me. this is one of the very few games that i would consider art. if you look at any other fps, or even any third person shooters  (not saying all of them are like this, just most of them), does the constant shooting make any sense? would we find constant non-stop action in say, a book, or a film? no, because it doesn't make sense and it doesn't make for good storytelling. here, however, the near constant shooting makes complete sense because of the predicament of the characters themselves. while that last statement might sound a bit fanboy-ish, hear me out. people call games like heavy rain interactive movies, but even that is false: you are only telling the characters what to do from a third person standpoint. this, half-life 2, is the ultimate form of interaction because you (the player) are the main character. you are in charge. when that last scene in hl2: ep2 hit, it was me that was bawwing, not freeman.

pointing back to those pretty things that the op typed out: anybody who says that is a fucking moron and i refuse to associate myself with them.

" @Darknezz said:

 The story and characters are boring and uninteresting, there's next to no internal logic, the engine that was built for this game isn't utilized very well, and it's just overall not that fantastic.

I stopped reading there."

The main reason I play the Half Life series is because: 
 
- I'm intrigued by the G-Man, who or what he could be, and who he was hired by. 
- I'm interested to see why Gordon Freeman is thought of so highly, why he is called "The One Free Man", and why he is the only one able to stop whoever is doing this. 
- The general vagueness of the story. 
- The awesome characters like Eli and Dog.  
- The music and sound effects. 
- The unique weapons. 
- The shared universe-experience with Portal, and what it could mean for Half Life (if anything).

Wait so you liked half life 1's story but not hl2's ...
AND you thought the characters were boring and the source engine wasnt utilized well 
goddamnit you are such a moron

Yeah... I never thought I'd see someone compare KOS-MOS to Alyx favorably. Obviously what Half-Life needs is an injection of generic anime angst and big robot titties. And preposterous cut-scenes that go on forever.

To know more about the story: 
http://www.members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/
 
@Darknezz:
I'm not going to say your opinion isn't valid. Although, I think the reason you don't like Half-Life 2 (and probably every game after it) is because you don't like the way in which it is delivered. Also, your opinion doesn't become fact, great you don't like the game....you and a whole lot of other people. however, the video game industry and a majority of gamers recognize it for it's achievements which @gosukiller:  has highlighted. I'm sorry you don't like the game.

I really like Half Life 2. 
 
Just my two cents.

" I really like Half Life 2.  Just my two cents.   

Why is MW2 so highly praised? Why are Gears of War 1 & 2 so highly praised? Why is the Halo series so highly praised? Why is BF2 so highly praised? Hell, why is WoW so highly praised? Why does it matter? 
 
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 But thinking about it, I've come to the conclusion that it's really nothing more. The story and characters are boring and uninteresting,

Now, before I go deeper, I would also like to say that, yes, the gameplay is fun. The shooting feels good.

Because it's the only game I will continually go back and play year after year. It's just so good and has aged very well.

" - Story told exclusively interactively in a cleverly designed world
- It does not try to imitate a movie, trying to play the strengths of the medium
- believable, well written characters that are not fanservice
- Original gameplay ideas and lots of polish, trying to engage the player in many different activities instead of waves and waves of enemies
- excellent art design, especially early in the game  
- excellent and satisfying sound design
 
In short: Despite the lack of fancy cutscenes, hundreds of plot twists and a hugely thought out mythology; despite the lack of a protagonist even, people feel much more part of the creation of this world, City 17, are much more immersed and invested in it than in most other games.
 
This is Half-Life 2's greatest success, and one that has not really been recreated in the genre since, unless you count Portal. "

I never liked it.

It makes me motion sick so I never went extremely far. I literally force myself to get bypass the motion sick for as long as I could because of all the praise this game got. About 30 minutes a night for an entire week, by the end, I had little to any interest in the game and I hated the fanboat more than life itself. I personally have little to any interest in the game but my circumstances are largely my reasons why.

I probably am not in tthe best position to talk about Half-Life 2. For one thing I played it like three years after its release. On top of that the whole beginning part, where you're escaping from city 17, made me dizzy and sick as a dog for some reason. It's like the only time I've ever gotten sick from a video game.

WIth all of that out of the way I have to say I agree with you on many points. I found the story and characters to be rather bland, although somewhat less so than any other first person shooter that I've played and can think of  at the moment. What I remember most fondly though are the enviroments. The look and sound of the game does such a good job at immersing you in that world. I remember the part where you are riding along the beach in that suped-up buggy. Throughout that whole part I kept thinking "damn this game looks so damn cool" and "holy shit those are like the most realistic looking rock/mountain things I've ever seen".  

One thing that most people would disagree with me on though is the gameplay. Maybe it's because I was fighting nausea most of my time with the game, but I found the gameplay to be rather frustrating and unsatisfying; especially the vehicle sequences. I hate the feel of the movement; I hate the way the grenades explode; I hate, hate, hate the way the vehicles handle! 

I was so worried that when portal came out I wouldn't be able to play it. Both me and a friend were convinced that my problem was directly tied to the source engine. Thank god that isn't the case and I can play portal and Left 4 Dead perfectly fine. 

What the hell, what's with all the nausea from HL2?  I've never heard of this before.

I love the Half-Life series. One could say I had an unhealthy addiction to them. I've played through Half-Life 2 upwards of 15 times (mostly using different mods each time). I love the complexity and vagueness of the story. The way they give you so little to go off of but leave minuscule, easily ignored clues all over their series makes it satisfying to try to piece together a coherent time-line. The whole deal with Xen being the border-world between dimensions and a refuge for a group of aliens fleeing the onslaught of the dimensional terror that is the Combine. The first and second game are stitched together so well but it's never revealed to the player outright and I think that's where the genius of the story lies; in giving the player the ability to piece it together instead of just laying it out. 
 
The characters are also extremely well done and actually have personalities of their own (not to mention the great body and facial animations). And, even though he doesn't talk, I still feel a connection to Gordon Freeman like he's an actual person as well. 
 
/Half-Life fanboyism.

" Half Life 2 makes me feel nauseous for some reason, moreso than any other FPS I've played. I got to Ravenholm before getting bored and quit. I should probably godmode it to the end someday. "

It was a shooter that wasn't mindless (i.e. It made you actually think).

I didnt really like it but for its time it was ground breaking and even if it was realesed to today it would be considered a dated bug good game.

I hated half life 2 while i was playing it, though I look back on it fondly for some reason.

" What the hell, what's with all the nausea from HL2?  I've never heard of this before. "

All the story points you say arent there or arent developed ARE there but theyre not forced on you.  The background in the story is all over the environments.  It's in the events of the story.  Think about why Gordon and Alyx lost time when they transported to the lab, and you'll begin to answer some of the questions you raised.   
Alyx is an awesome character because of what she believes in, what she values, what she is capable of and the lengths to which she'll go.   
You are not meant to understand the broader story as its happening but only the characters' motivations.  You figure out the story by thinking about what happens afterwards. As far as the main story goes I don't see how it's hard to follow.   
1)  You arrive in City 17 
2) You are rescued by Alyx 
3)  You arrive in the Lambda center in city 17 where you meet your former colleague.  You set out to meet your other Lambda collegue at their base of operation but the teleporter breaks and you have to go on foot. 
4)  You arrive but are found by Breen and are forced to escape through Ravenholm. 
5)  You get word of Eli's Capture and set out to rescue him. 
6)  You escape the prison with Alyx and must once again find Eli after Judith had taken him. 
7)  You're search leads you logically to the citadel (breen's base of operation) where you confront breen. 
  
The motivations for doing these things are laid out plainly.  The things you see and that happen along the way develop the story.  
 
When i first played the game I wondered why there were aliens around on your side.  I figured it out by exploring the game and thinking about it in the context of HL1.  Why are there headcrabs being shot at you?  Think about it in the context of the previous game and the events that happen.  Headcrabs being shot at you by a space vessel....  The enemy you are facing is using them as a biological weapon just like they used the vortigonts in the last game against you.  Every question in the story can be answered if you really think about it.  If you don't like this form of exposition then i guess this game is not for you.  I happen to think that Half life 2 is still the best game i've played and love the way the story unfolds.  Figuring out what is going on it what throws me into the game.

Also, I cant think of a game that used motion capture as well as half life 2 came out.  It created a standard for how characters relate and emote - especially Alyx. 

Well, there are the people who praise it for it's outstanding gameplay, atmosphere, environments and set pieces... 

...and then there are the people who praise it for its "good" story (aliens invade, you shoot aliens), "interesting", "believable" characters (a chick with small tits (woman power!) and a gun (woman power!) who says "stop pointing that torch at me" when you point a torch at her and cries when someone close to her dies (so realistic!)) and "revolutionary" storytelling (instead of watching a cutscene, you jump around the room, knocking stuff over and shooting while listening to a guy who stares at thin air, talking to an imaginary person and completely ignoring your lunatic behaviour).

I feel the same way as the TC. There's nothing that stood out to me about the game. The gameplay was pretty standard, as was the weapons load out and most of the enemies. The AI was average, the graphics were average, and the soundtrack was forgettable (I can't remember any of the music at all)
 
Really, I'd take the single player campaign of Halo over Half-Life 2 any day, and I'm not even really a Halo fan.

 The story and characters are boring and uninteresting, there's next to no internal logic, the engine that was built for this game isn't utilized very well, and it's just overall not that fantastic.