First of all, let me be very clear- I loved HL2 and I think it's a wonderful, outstanding game.
That being said, I don't understand the accolades that it has gotten, such as "best game ever". There are a few fields that I think HL2 does beautifully in, and those are the following:
- Voice acting, storytelling and character animation.
- Graphics for the time.
- Technical advancements with Source engine and level optimization.
- Character animation.
- Great level design and crafting of a specific atmosphere and feel.
- Realistic physics engine for 2004.
However, I found the gameplay to be incredibly linear, and replay value to be rather low. It also was perhaps a bit on the short side. Deus Ex, even with its stuffty graphics, (at times) laughable voice acting, and a pretty goofy physics engine had phenomenal gameplay where you could play it through eight times and find new things each time. The story was also very well written.
Hell, I even liked GTA:SA more than HL2.
In short, HL2 was graphically and technologically a great game, but it felt like playing through a book. It was a damn good book, but I never felt attached to the decision making process in the game. It didn't suck me in by allowing me to make decisions (or at least seem like I was making decisions) about how I accomplished an objective.
Anybody else get the same feeling?
