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Does Half Life 2 drag on too long?

M

Mineshaft_Gap

4077th
I've found myself having difficulty with repeat sessions of the game. Maybe it's because there have been a few instances over the years where I've stop-started and had to restart from the beginning after playing a few hours. Maybe it's not just me tho. Maybe the game really does drag on too long. It's one of my favorite games of all time and I remember feeling like I'd really gotten my moneys worth upon my initial playthrough. Now I'm sitting and scratching my head over the fact that I don't care to continue playing after having just finished Nova Prospekt.

It's gotten old. Am I the problem GAF? Let's talk about the length and pacing of the Half Life 2 campaign because right now, if Half Life 3 is going to be more of the same, I don't know that I really want it. I'm Half Life'd out.
 
Mineshaft_Gap said:
I've found myself having difficulty with repeat sessions of the game. Maybe it's because there have been a few instances over the years where I've stop-started and had to restart from the beginning after playing a few hours. Maybe it's not just me tho. Maybe the game really does drag on too long. It's one of my favorite games of all time and I remember feeling like I'd really gotten my moneys worth upon my initial playthrough. Now I'm sitting and scratching my head over the fact that I don't care to continue playing after having just finished Nova Prospekt.

It's gotten old. Am I the problem GAF? Let's talk about the length and pacing of the Half Life 2 campaign because right now, if Half Life 3 is going to be more of the same, I don't know that I really want it. I'm Half Life'd out.
Click to expand...

There are some parts that grow a bit long in the tooth, but after Nova Prospect is where things really get going, if memory serves.
 
Mineshaft_Gap said:
I've found myself having difficulty with repeat sessions of the game. Maybe it's because there have been a few instances over the years where I've stop-started and had to restart from the beginning after playing a few hours. Maybe it's not just me tho. Maybe the game really does drag on too long. It's one of my favorite games of all time and I remember feeling like I'd really gotten my moneys worth upon my initial playthrough. Now I'm sitting and scratching my head over the fact that I don't care to continue playing after having just finished Nova Prospekt.

It's gotten old. Am I the problem GAF? Let's talk about the length and pacing of the Half Life 2 campaign because right now, if Half Life 3 is going to be more of the same, I don't know that I really want it. I'm Half Life'd out.
Click to expand...

It does, both the episodes have WAY better pacing
 
Water Hazard may be one of the worst-paced levels in video game history, following the fairly-nice Route Kanal, which followed the ten-minute-long locked-room sequence A Red Letter Day, which also sucked, despite ethical violations featuring felines.
 
Mineshaft_Gap said:
Playing through the OG HL2 campaign has killed my desire to replay the other two episodes. My intent was to make my way through the HL2 "series" and I just dropped the mouse and keyboard after Nova Prospekt.
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Well for what it's worth I feel the exact same way you do about HL2, but I also loved both the episodes.
 
half-life 2 is like, the cardinal example of a game that drags on too long. its basic shooting isn't anywhere near fun enough to justify the length.
 
Nope, serious GOAT.

But really the vehicle sections do drag and have a lack of urgency, could have been trimmed down abit. And iirc backtracking over the bridge dragged too.
 
I think that feeling of dragging on is a side effect of gaming today. Games used to last much much longer than we're used to, especially fps'
 
i thought its pacing was excellent, one of my favorite games that i've finished. i played it at launch and i replayed it last year too. i don't agree when people say it's overrated.
 
DocSeuss said:
Water Hazard may be one of the worst-paced levels in video game history, following the fairly-nice Route Kanal, which followed the ten-minute-long locked-room sequence A Red Letter Day, which also sucked, despite ethical violations featuring felines.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I love Half-Life 2, but I get bored and want to do something else as soon as I hit Water Hazard.
 
I just finished my first ever playthrough earlier this year, and yes it felt long as hell. I thought it was generally pretty great all the way through but for some reason I'd play one hour-long session and have me fill of it for the next 3-6 months. No exaggeration, I think 2.5 years elapsed between my starting and finishing that game.
 
Water Hazard is probably the one section that drags on for longer than normal, but even then is still fairly short and broken up with a few different gun fights. Same goes with Highway 17. I can agree that the vehicle sections can be a bit long, but not needlessly so.
 
Gotta agree, vehicle sections overstay their welcome. Designers seemed too eager to show the vehicles off to the point it feels like padding.
 
Having played the game so many times, I can get through the vehicle sections easily, and the boat especially is fun with all the physics nonsense. But the first time through they definitely dragged on way too long.

A Red Letter Day is basically Source Facial Animations: The Chapter.

Nova Prospekt sort of drags on, but Anticitizen One and Follow Freeman are HL2 at its best. After Ravenholm.
 
The first 1/3 to 1/2 is painfully slow, things pick up as you approach the prison. This is what I remember playing it for the first time a few years ago, I might think differently now. Hope they have it in the winter sale.
 
Having completed the original Half-Life and all expansions, no, Half-Life 2 is not "too long."

Now, if you're including Episode 1 and 2, I can't comment as I have yet to play them (Episode 3 is likely a myth at this point).
 
Yes. Atleast the vehicle sections do. Alot of "drive drive drive drive get out fight guys to open gate drive drive drive drive drive"
 
Agree.
It took me 3 attempts to finally complete the game back in the days.
The pacing is awful, I often felt completely burn out in midway. I force myself to finish it on my third attempt because everybody tells me the game is SO GOOD, it really isn't. The gravity gun is cute, tho.

HL1 has no such problem, I can easily complete the game in a single attempt.
 
I liked everything except for the "Entanglement" chapter. Three turret placement sequences were not needed. They also should have kept the bug bait useful through that chapter. That whole mechanic vanished from the game far too quickly, and never returned in the episodes.
 
I felt like every time I would start to get a little tired of what I was doing, the game would change either the tone or game mechanics and I'd be pumped to play all over again.

Played it at launch and probably twice since. Great game!
 
I don't think they draged on too long, but the pacing could be better. The episodes perfected it, especially Episode 2.
 
I think the parts that drag work to complement the rest of the game. Yes, parts like the airboat level do seem to go on for awhile, but it makes reaching black mesa east all the more rewarding. Likewise, nova prospekt with the buggy levels. These sections make you feel like you are going through a labryinth, and it feels so satisfying to emerge out on the other end

One of the best quiet moments of the game for me is the stretch of water just after the airboat jump off the dam, and the guitar riff in the backround against the golden sunset. Beautiful.
 
Getting to Nova Prospekt is usually where I tap out when I decide to replay it. The boat ride has already worn me out and the Sand Lion stuff just breaks it for me.

It was pretty good the first time through from what I remember about that experience but yea, it's fairly lopsided.
 
That bloody first vehicle section. It's really the only thing that keeps me from replaying the game more often.
 
Um no?

I never got why people say the game has bad pacing, especially when it comes to the vehicle sections. I always found them to be my favorite parts of the game.

As far as I'm concerned, the game is pretty much perfect in every way.
 
I think it had the right amount of padding for a first play through back in the day, because it was the kind of game and world that you would want to spend a lot of time in. I'm glad it was designed that way, even if today it feels a bit too long now. People waited a long time to play it.

Now with the other two episodes it adds up to too much, but without those episodes it felt right.
 
In my opinion HL2 has only two flaws : one is technical the other is pure pacing.
- the loading. It kills it really. Even by today's rig, having to stop the action for a couple of seconds is anoying as hell.
- the pacing. Some portion do drag for too long (the buggy part in the sand, the overcraft) but not all. Nova Prospekt or Ravenholm were amazingly paced for example.
 
I feel that's part of the atmosphere of the game. The first one felt like a very long drawn out experience in which you're traversing a very large installation and the second really makes you feel like you're covering a large amount of ground by constantly having the giant tower looming in the distance, seeing more and more of it as I get closer. Part of the appeal to me is that it feels like I'm traveling this great distance and making this journey and fighting every step of the way. In short, I enjoy that very aspect of the Half Life games. I'm probably in the minority but the vehicle sections are some of my favorite bits. Driving along the coastline and discovering a completely optional house to explore or being chased through the aqueducts for what seems like miles. It's all very good to me.
 
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