Well that was gruelling! Now finally I can get back to whatever it is I normally spend my time doing…

My final verdict — like it matters what I think — is that HL2 is bloody omazing, and the only things that interfered with my willing suspension of disbelief were a couple of hoary old FPS chestnuts like:

1. Being stuck in a hole because for some reason your heroic character can’t climb onto a ledge above chest height. This limitation seems pretty stupid to me, especially after a game like Prince of Persia.
2. The tendency to accidentally walk off ledges and the clumsiness of climbing ladders… again PoP showed that this kind of stuff could be handled better.
3. Other characters’ feet still seem to skitter about as they walk; This one really irks me because it breaks the illusion of reality, and I’m sure more could be done to rectify it… Ironically, dead characters can often seem more life-like than living ones, because once someone dies they stop following pre-animated sequences and become a "rag-doll", fully integrated into the [mostly] excellent physics engine. *
4. Other "friend" characters have an annoying habit of standing right in front of you, blocking your way, which is really frustrating when you’re in a hurry because someone is shooting at you.

These grievances are minor however, and on the whole I found HL2 an immersive and enjoyable experience.

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* Example: At one point I accidentally sent a squad member into the line of fire [ I was trying to instruct her to run across the road, but she seemed to think I meant: "go stand in the open and engage that hidden sniper" ]. Of course she was shot dead almost instantly, and as the sniper’s round struck she was thrown backwards in a sickeningly convincing way — up until that point she had just been an annoying character spitting out predictable one-liners, but then as she died it all seemed so real for a moment, and I felt really bad.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 26th, 2004 at 11:45 am and is filed under Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.