Reviews VideoGame / Half Life 2

I agree completely: however, I actually felt very immersed, when i was being chased by combine, hearing them shout orders, I felt like I was the one they were after. In Ravenholm, when a blood curtling cry from a zombie sounded in the distance, I got goosebumps... When a fast zombie charged me from a distance, and i had only one round of ammo: I was scared for my life. I think that whether or not you feel immersed, depends on what type of gamer you are: If you are a Hardcore gamer: you probabaly wont feel very immersed, but you'll enjoy the game. If you are a casual gamer, or hobbyist, you will be much more likely to feel immersed. It really depends on your mindset.

I didn't feel immersed at all. It totally felt like a game the whole way through. Things like having characters talk while you're able to jump around and act like a screwball during the "not-cutscenes", the blatantly scripted moments, all did more to take me out of the game than anything else. Cutscenes exist for a reason. Being locked in a room because a group of idiots are holding a conversation and refusing to open the door until it's over is neither entertaining nor immersive; quite the opposite of both. And the scripted moments feel like I'm not in control. Cutscenes in first-person just feel unnatural to me.

I feel much more immersed playing Uncharted, which doesn't resort to some of these tricks, or when it does, speeds them up so the game still flows well and feels more natural.

It was immersive enough. The cutscenes were annoying because they were too long, but making them out of body wouldn't have been better save that they might have been skippable. The biggest problem was the last part, the overly long romp through the boring citadel with no guns and constant nonchallenging enemies and elevator puzzles. Blargh.

Odd, I never had trouble getting ammo for the magnum.

I agree with the general gix of the review, however. A good game, a great game, but not a perfect game.

You never had trouble with magnum? Ammo is only in like 4 spots in the entire game, and you can only carry 12 spare rounds at a time.

Nope, still didn't have a problem.

I did tend to break out the Magnum only when I needed some extra punch (Since using it on Antlions is a waste), but I almost always had ammo.

Speaking of Antlions, God, I hated Highway 17.

I agree with this review. It's unfortunate that it gets so hyped, because it's a good game that can be ruined by Hype Backlash.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks it feels like you're not actually Gordon Freeman. Everyone says the game is so immersive because Gordon has no personality, but it just has the opposite effect for me. Then again, maybe that's because no arms, no legs + Heroic Mime is one of my pet peeve tropes. Never was a fan of AFGNCAAP.

Immersion, like free-roam, is overrated.

Never said anything about immersion being bad, just that this particular game didn't have it. I understand that it's not a roleplaying game or anything, but it does not feel realistic or immersive. If you're going to make it so in this game you can't talk to anyone, you have to go through heavily railroaded levels, you have to sit in a room while people talk, you can take hundreds of bullets before dying, etc. Also, I didn't feel like this game was scary. When I saw a bunch of zombies limping towards me, I didn't think "OH SHIT", I thought, "Oh, here comes another bunch of enemies that I can kill with one shot".

First off, this review seems kind of amateurish. Not bad, just worded a bit oddly.

One of the big problems I had with Half-Life 2 was that it was very scripted. Sure, the setpieces and scripted events were nice on the first playthrough, but after a while it just sort of lost its spark.

The actual gameplay and action was pretty boring, there wasn't much that was really unique, and even the gravity gun was a bit gimicky and not as useful as it could have been. I also really, really despised Route Kanal, mostly because it didn't have nearly enough scripted stuff to cover up the rather boring action.

It wasn't very immersive either, and the supposedly exhilarating and creepy Ravenholm level ended up being much more of a mindless killfest than I ever expected. Granted, I came in with high expectations, but how could I not with all the hype?

And am I the only one who thinks that a couple of the levels dragged on way too long? Water Hazard really started to annoy me after a while, even if the end was nice and satisfying.

I agree, Route Kanal was pretty bad. I'm glad I toughed it out though (HL 2 from Route Kanal, to when you get back to City 17 was a real slog.)

Strange, I liked Route Canal and Water Hazard, maybe because I just felt like I was racking up a body count on the squishy cops. Though I do tend to like levels no one else does, like the Prophet of Regret boss battle from Halo 2 or the infamous Xen from the original Half Life.

I find it amusing that you didn't feel immersed in a game with a silent protagonist and no cutscenes.

I'm not saying you're wrong and whilst I haven't played the game I personally find those cutscenes immersion breaking in Assassins Creed because you either try really hard to act like a person and fail because the body is a lot more than a moving square window or don't try and end up with characters playing out a cutscene as though you weren't there (or desperately ignoring you whilst moving pots). Also from videos there seems to be way too many jumping elements for a game where you don't appear to have a proper body and don't have to land realistically.

But I haven't played the game so I can't say either way, it's just funny because it's a game that's done a lot in the name of immersion and yet with you thats the one thing they haven't done right

The guns are a tad disapointing, and there are far too few to have fun (where are the sciencey guns?). I think that the idea though is that you use certain weapons on certain enemies: save the pistol for head crabs, the smg for the squishy cops, the pulse rifle for the soldiers etc. I don't think they get it quite right due to the lack of variety, but I don't think it is a deal breaker in any way.