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Re: Halo 2 vs. Half Life 2 (An example of how not to review) (Score: 1)
by OpinionsRule on Friday, February 18 @ 10:52:28 EST
I'm going to toss my 2 cents on this whole debate. Just because it seems like fun. These are just my opinions on the two games and not stated fact. You don't have to agree, or even read it if you're too tired of this whole debate.

But, here's what I have to say...

First, for the graphics. I think that Half Life 2 has better human and character models, while I believe Halo 2 has the better environmental models. I say this because Valve obviously spent an obscene amount of time on the characters in their game (especially their amazing faces). But the environment did suffer from lack of attention. I was disappointed with the lack of complexity in buildings and in some areas, the environment just sucked me right out of the game. It bothered me that the newspaper, flat cardboard boxes and various other flat junk were just flat textures on the floor. It might not bother anyone else but, I think in a game where interactivity with the environment is a highly touted feature, garbage that looks like it was painted on the ground hurts the immersion. Even Grand Theft Auto: Vice City hand litter on the ground that reacted to the wind whipped up by cars. I also noticed problems when you got up close to buildings, it showed that they were flat textured and had very low geometry. This does not make the game bad by any stretch of the imagination. It has positives and negatives, just like Halo 2.

Now, the I'll give my opinion on the graphics of Halo 2. Where I believe Half Life 2 faltered I think Halo 2 excelled, and that would be in the environment. While the environment in Half Life 2 felt flat in many places, in Halo 2 it felt like you could go up to a wall and just feel the texture you could see the small touches in the buildings and it felt like you could reach out and touch them. In Half Life 2 the textures felt painted on and flat. I found the environment in Halo 2 more immersive. However Halo 2 just can't compete with Half Life 2 when it comes to the character models. Valve put a lot of love and attention into those and it shows. The character models in Halo 2 while still looking good seem to plastic. They don't convey the same emotion as they do in Half Life 2. Whereas the characters in Half Life 2 look like real people, the ones in Halo 2 look more like action figures.

Moving on to the story.

I see too many parallels to the stories of Half Life 2 and Halo 2 that it baffles me as to why people make digs at one games story when a lot of the time, the same flaws are in the story of the other game. I'll take the main concept of both stories that people seem to love berating. Most people love to attack Halo 2s story as "retarded" because it's about aliens invading earth. Well, so is Half Life 2s story. One happens to take place during the invasion and the other takes place after. In both you are fighting alien invaders for the fate of humanity. Of course it's unoriginal, it's been used since there has been writing.
Both stories have some strange ideas. Half Life 2 even pokes fun at it's own premise of a lone scientist with no combat training whatsoever laying waste to scores of highly trained and motivated military personnel (The classic "Little guy takes on big guy and wins" scenario) and the fact that Gordon is highly educated yet never uses his intellect for anything more than throwing switches. Halo 2 plays the main protagonist as the cliche "Tough Guy" with all the one liners you would expect. It can get downright cheesy at times. But it fits for the action movie type setting of the game.
Personality wise, I would have to go with the Master Chief, even though it is a pretty cliche personality
. My main reasoning for this is that Gordon Freeman doesn't seem to have any personality to speak of. Though, that can be attributed to Valve wanting the player to be feel that he is Gordon Freeman, so his personality is whatever you choose to make of it.
In the end, both games had great stories. It all depends on what you're looking for in a story.

Finally, I'd just like to put to voice my frustration on certain beliefs in the Half Life 2 community.
First, the physics engine in Half Life 2 was not made by Valve. It is the Havok physics engine which Valve licensed.
And Second, although the gravity gun is a lot of fun, it wasn't an innovation. The game Psi-Ops (which came out

before HL2) gave you the ability to manipulate the environment in much the same way as the gravity gun. And the game Wild Nines on the original PlayStation also had a weapon you could use to manipulate enemies and the environment

(though no where near on the scale of the gravity gun). It's a great idea, but nothing new.
None of this take away from the amazing gameplay of Half Life 2 (In fact the 2 features add a lot to the game), it's just a problem I have with some (not all) of the fanboy beliefs

Now, for the Halo 2 community.
Dual wielding and vehicle jacking are nothing new. Bungie didn't reinvent the wheel here. Both of those features add a lot to the game and I know not everyone thinks that Bungie came up with the idea, but there is that vocal minority.

Both games are great in their own right, I can understand someone not liking one or the other as both games play differently and it migh just not be that persons preffered play style.

In the end Bungie and Valve should join forces and rule the world.


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