No, they are purposely trying to make the game easier. Half-Life 1 saves checkpoints halfway through a level or after you beat the level.
Half-Life 2 saves checkpoints after you go about 20 feet or fight a mini battle. Half-Life 2 is literally holding your hand.
I'm playing Half-Life 2 on hard but it feels easy, I constantly keep checking my difficulty settings to see if I am actually playing hard mode.
I found this interesting comment somewhere.
You're also the guy who wouldn't stop moaning about the flaws of Oblivion for at least six pages in the megathread. You seem to have a tendency for finding generally well-liked games and whining about their few downfalls.
I have replayed the game at least three times and it does not save that often. It saves in "safe spots." Ravenholm could take 30-45 minutes, if not more, on a first playthrough, and I'm pretty sure there are 3 checkpoints in the entire zone, which is packed chock-full with zombies.
You're also clearly very good at this game. On my first playthrough on Hard I had to replay the one room with a load of manhacks several times over, as they kept on murdering me within seconds.
At the Strider quote: Yes, that is true, but did you know if you don't take cover in time, their next bullets will have 100% accuracy? This is called "walking" the bullets: no matter what direction the player is running in, the 4th or 5th bullet fired will always hit its target. That's called balance, and an interesting machine-like tactic.
All in all, even if the game is still easy, just enjoy it for what it is. The Legend of Zelda games are generally notoriously easy, but also fun as hell and well-loved by just about everyone. Now I'm sure you'll say "so if the main point of the game isn't a challenging shooter, what point is there? The graphics suck and the environment is so unrealistic, after all who would put explosive barrels and medkits everywhere?!"
It's a game. You either like it or you don't, and you are in the minority of not liking it.
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