Wake up and smell the ashes... Need a break or only care about hearing about one particular title? Then feel free to use the below time stamps: 0:00 - Intro 2:06 - Half-Life 11:19 - Opposing Force 16:09 - Blue Shift 18:50 - Decay 23:09 - Half-Life: Source 26:09 - Black Mesa 33:56 - Half-Life 2 45:27 - Lost Coast 46:33 - HL2: Episode One 50:27 - HL2: Episode Two 55:38 - Half-Life: Alyx If you'd like to see more of my content, here's the Critical Nobody playlist - bit.ly/2M3r65U Thank you for watching!
I know your "reviewing every..." videos does great but I think a big part of that is that long form in general suits you. I don't know how that comes across but it is meant as encouragement, you make good videos.
@@HaloWolf102 r/WoOooSH LOOK AT ME IM A 12 YEAR OLD WHO DOESN'T ACTUALLY USE REDDIT, BUT I WATCH REDDIT TH-cam CHANNELS SO I COUNT. I LOVE TO POST STUPID COMMENTS ON TH-cam JUST SO I CAN WOOSH PEOPLE. There is a difference between making a joke, and leaving a stupid reply, you should try learning the difference.
i never noticed this before but the main character of Hunt Down the Freeman doesn't really have to worry about his face being fucked up when it already looks like bread that hasn't been baked properly.
Please be advised that a noticeable taste of blood is not part of any test protocol, but is an _unintended side effect_ of the Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grid, which may, in semi-rare cases, emancipate dental fillings, crowns, tooth enamel, and teeth.
I'd like to think about Blue Shift as something like "Die Hard" movie. You're just doing your work and after everything takes a 180 turn, your primary and only goal is to escape. You, and your old, trusty Beretta (or Glock). Nothing more, just escaping the ultimate doom of the atomic explosion.
I don't even mind Blue Shift. It's criticised for not being "different" enough, but if it ain't broken, don't fix it. Half-Life's gameplay doesn't get boring.
@@zedrising9430 It's a pretty unpopular opinion, actually think Blue Shift is pretty underrated. I think Blue Shift has some of the best level design of the original Half-Life, and since the vast majority of combat is against the Military, it feels like a hunk of the better part of Half-Life. I get it if people think it doesn't do enough, but the way the maps highlight the fun of Half-Life's combat really carries it IMHO.
Well, Blue Shift was originally just supposed to be some additional content for the Dreamcast version, they decided to port it to the PC during development as well as the Dreamcasts version of the higher polygon models which Valve titled the Half-Life High Definition pack.
All of the half life games aren’t really that scary except for the music, ravenholm and most of the time the games tries to scare the player is with lazy jump scares
@@JetsetRM I’m not really creeped out by their sounds if anything I only feel empathy towards them, but the hev zombies in Black Mesa creeps me out instead
I wish more games were being made in that style. It's kinda cool seeing what the latest gaming PC's or even consoles can do graphics wise, but I don't need the realism, I want new games that are easily and smoothly playable on my cheaper setup.
@@xXUnhingedDevXx I've since played more than a few mods for both hl1 and 2, and it's proven the point to me that there can be some really good new games even on these older engines. Entropy zero 2, for one example is phenomenally well produced for a free fan game to expand the universe. There's also some really neat shorter ones
@@RJ-wx3fh source is still a pretty modern engine, although without some newer features. It's a pretty well optimized engine too considering all the cool physics stuff, not that other engines can't do cool physics stuff they obviously can but I mean hl2 is still pretty impressive to me. As for goldsrc I really have no idea how people made mods and games that look so good, like cry of fear for example is almost at the level of early hl2 tbh. They probably redone the renderer or something.
Yup as a kid when it came out i wrote complete walkthrough and this functionality man i just hated it. Imagine testing where it will take you all the time. I think it was a mix of random with level bound. quite bizarre really. I miss the fishy though :-)
@@pixeltiger4204 For 60 out of it's 100 ammo, right-clicking would teleport you to a small Xen instance where you could find various supplies and stuff. Every time you entered a new chapter in the game, teleporting would send you to a different Xen zone. There wasn't really any point in using it twice in the same chapter since you just went back to where you'd already explored. It basically ended up with you trying to make sure to have at least 60 ammo left at all times, and whenever a new chapter started you immediately went to its respective Xen zone to see if it had anything you needed. If it turned out you were already maxed out on most of the supplies it had to offer and you'd rather not blow the 60 energy to get there, just quick load to undo it and get on as normal. I'm still not sure if it was a good feature for the game as a whole or not but it was pretty unique at least
5:47 "Hopping from surface to surface in first person has never been particularly fun" *Portal has entered the chat* *Critical Nobody has left the chat*
Stress Level Zero, the developers of Boneworks got help and insight from Valve, they got the Knuckles controllers very early, they played Alyx a few times over the years and were every here and then in the Valve offices to talk with the developers of HL:A. Both Games don`t want to compete with each other.
This is pretty cool, enjoyed Alyx a lot, and id love to give boneworks a shot (if my PCs gpu was good enough) hope to see more games like that in the future tho
as underwhelming as people say blue shift was, I actually found it to be a pretty good expansion if for no other reason than playing as Barney (he's always been my favorite half life character)
I recommend looking out for VNN, he does a lot of games journalism on... Valve, he actually predicted HL:A like a year or more before the announcement lmao
some people who don't like FPS platforming just seem to be intentionally ignoring the thousands of people logged into various custom game servers dedicated to doing nothing else.
@Roby Ramoslugo FPS has come to colloquially mean any game in First Person. Regardless of if it's a shooter or not. So yes, literally you are right, but colloquially nobody gives a shit but you.
The story deserves more praise, theres so much depth behind this amazing series. I feel like that's a detail that's often overlooked when most talk about the game. I find myself enthralled with the universe of Half-life
@@drifter402 Blue Shift came out after Opposing Force, which added much, much more: new enemies, new guns, squad mechanics, etc. Blue Shift on the other hand felt extremely vanilla and used none of the earlier expansion pack's innovations. It's understandable that people were fairly disappointed with it, since the natural progression of things indicates that as time goes by, you should be getting better things. Since Opposing Force added so much, fans expected Blue Shift to innovate if not more, then at the very least just as much. However, Blue Shift shows clear signs of being either rushed or simply presented as something it isn't. It was first envisioned as a simple map pack type of thing for one of the console ports, and later on it got converted into a separate game / expansion. A lot of things in it make no sense. For example, the hazard course is exactly the same as in the original Half Life, even though you're playing as a security guard. You still have to use a crowbar instead of something like a nightstick, you get trained to use a machine gun instead of a handgun - which is actually used by the security guards in game, etc. Blue Shift is not bad by any means, but it's just not exciting enough after Opposing Force. And because of that, a lot of folks disregard it completely as nothing special.
Nope, first time we see a Shocktrooper in Opposing Force (when he kills the guard and teleports with the scientist) and when we encounter the first Pitdrones, Gordon didn't teleport to Xen yet, he goes to Xen in the chapter We Are Not Alone and both those encounters happen before this chapter, we just make the assumption that Black Mesa is huge and Gordon missed them, they weren't many before his departure i guess, but they were in Black Mesa nonetheless
@@DeanAmx Yes that's sad but i have to agree, Opposing Force is never been considered as real part of the story, even tho there's no official canon at Valve, i'm pretty sure that OpFor isn't considered canon internally
Actually no..race X started arriving when gordon was still in black mesa..but only on a certain section that gordon never went to which would explain why he never encountered them
@@devostripes5964 Actually it is canon. Or at least some thigs. For example, the bomb Shephard deactivates (also the one that gman activates again) is the bomb that when explodes makes the Combine notice earth and then invade it. Then for the other part, the race X is up to be considered if it's canon or not. I mean, Valve said that they 'don't believe' in canon so we can assume what things are canon and not. As they said before, maybe the reason why Gordon didn't see the race x is because Black Mesa is just huge... or maybe because those enemies don't really exist and it was just Gearbox trying to make something new. It's up to one to decide.
@ubvoiu9005 Depends on how you view the canon Pit drones are in Entropy Zero 2 too doe its obviously not cannon in Entropy's universe Race X is cannon and personally i also like to think its Cannon i just like the idea of a third party alien trying to invade earth after the oppurtunity they got from the Xen invasion but fails miserably
Actually an interesting detail is apart from a few instances in opposing force alien x dont begin there full scale attack until after Gordon leaves to xen, so it makes sense he never encountered them.
Being able to kill enemies with melee in Half life Alyx was probably included once. I mean, knowing Valve they probably wanted you to bash people's heads in with a crowbar. There were probably some playtesters who either got hurt or damaged equipment irl that made them think it was a bad idea to have in the game. Since I understand that they wanted to make the game as comfortable as possible, using a melee weapon would've probably caused more trouble than it would do any good.
They removed the crow bar because playtesters kept thinking that they were Gordon instead of Alyx. Despite being told who you are in text at the beginning of the game. The crowbar was too iconic. As for improvised melee, they haven't said any insider info about that yet
The thing is, you CAN actually kill enemies with melee. I have panic-smaked so many headcrabs flying at my face that I have lost count, and they often times die (given that you have shot them a couple of times first). I have also ended up rushing at the bigger enemies in the game with my shotgun and realised that the 3 shotgun shells I had left didnt do the trick, at which point I have given them a little smack as a last ditch effort to kill them. Most of the time to no avail, but sometimes I do get that sweet sounding flatline as they fall to the ground. Your melee in the game does almost no damage (which could lead to people thinking that you cannot melee enemies), but to be fair, Alyx (in the time that the game takes place atleast) is only 19 years old and not the largest person out there, so it only makes sence that a smack from her wont do much damage to fully armored soldiers. This might have also been added to the game in a later patch since I lacked the hardware to play the game at its release and it wasnt until last week that I could actually play the game.
@@Smol-vehvi well, I recall hearing somewhere that it was because melee combat is far more physically exhausting than gunfighting, but I’m not really sure if that’s the actual reason they omitted melee weapons.
"Stunned, unexpected announcement" Tyler Mcvicker: wait did I miss some unexpected announcement? All I saw was the game I've been reporting on for years...
I feel privileged having grown up alongside of gaming. Going from bleeps and bloops of Atari to the colorful 2D experiences on later consoles to playing Doom for the first time and being part of that phenomenon. Then, having my mind blown by the fast, full-3D Quake and experiencing the evolution of online gaming and playing Half-Life when it was new and being blown away by the realization of what video games as a medium could accomplish. Playing Quake was probably analogous to what people felt when they saw movies in color for the first time and playing Half-Life made prior attempts at video game storytelling seem archaic by comparison, not that there weren't games with great writing, or even that atmospheric storytelling didn't exist because of course it did, but the way Half-Life presented it's story made for an experience so much more immersive than anything that came before it. You didn't watch or read the story of Half-Life play out between gameplay, you experienced it first hand while you were playing. I know there are probably a lot of younger gamers shrugging their shoulders while reading this old fart's TH-cam comment and saying, "so what?". It can be hard to explain to people who weren't there how much of a big deal this was because this kind of thing is just how games work now, but there's a reason why so many of us view Half-Life as a generational leap forward in game design. Half-Life brought games kicking and screaming into the modern era, for better or worse.
There's actually a really good mod for HL2 that aims to fix and "modernize" some of the bad and dated gameplay aspects of it. It's called MMOD. Some of the changes includes, a separate bar for the flashlight, the option for non-hitscan combat and many others. It works for the episodes and Lost Coast as well
@@manunavoni7666 It just didn't work well for me. It was by no means bad. But it's so easy to distract him. Just get a bottle from literally anywhere, yeet it into the distance, and he's off your ass again for half a minute. If there were fewer bottles around, and if he could hear your footsteps too, that would make it a lot more tense. Then you can't just throw a bottle as you're walking, or throw it and then walk away. He'd hear your footsteps and follow you. And with fewer bottles, you'd really have to think out how to solve the puzzle. The things like the speaker coming online were cheap and predictable. But also so easy to fix, just grab a bottle and throw it to the other side. That removes the scary part I think. I personally thought the dark tunnel where you got the flashlight was scarier.
@@thebillyd00 They're slow, and bump into things. You could argue they are cute (like that one in the viewing cage thingy), but then again, when they do actually launch at you, most of the time you're going to scream.
Even the chapter meant to be that scary wasn't all that scary. I won't go too into detail for spoilers sake, but the game said it itself, its predictable. Things are scary when they're unknown, but when you can predict, manipulate and control something it becomes way less scary.
What made it truly scary for me was the immersion. When I got to that one enemy that we will not speak of. I spent solid 10 min assessing the situation simply because I was to scared of the unforseen consequences.
My favorite detail in Half-Life 2 is the realistic weight of the gravity gun. Everybody struggles to carry it (Alyx, the bad guy) except for Gordon thanks to his HEV suit.
Man sometimes i think What were Black Mesa designing these suits for Like they are hella durable when fully charged gives you bit of extra strength gives you a HUD its almost like they were not making a suit for Hazardous enviroments but a Superhuman suit
32:33 While there's much room to be interpreted between intention and execution, I'm pretty sure they balanced this part of Interloper the way they did was to serve as an homage to the conclusion of Half-Life 2 with obvious parallels between the overcharged gravity gun and the overcharged gluon gun. Subsequently, the difficulty curve goes way up when combat does roll around in an attempt to compensate for your effectively infinite ammo. Though I do agree that the parkour sections of this chapter can burn for eternity, especially that one laser section they ripped from the security room in Doom 4.
8:38 There's a scripted event that makes one of the soldiers press a button to crush you with a van showing how much detail is in the AI edit: They only push it when you go under the van
@@knavenformed9436 You're misinterpreting what he's saying there. If you're under the car, the HECU marines will head for the switches and try to crush you. It's a lot like FEAR's AI/scripting.
At first I kinda hoped each title he reviews gets dumber and dumber. First Half-Life, then Black Mesa, then Portal, and by the end he’s reviewing Genital Jousting or a Gordon Freeman body pillow
@rabid Yeah... no. Climbing each and every bulding from Old Town while being legend 250 is hella fun. Dying Light has one of the best parkour i've ever seen.
In episode 2 it's implied that the casserole in the microwave belonged to Magnusson. Kleiner and Eli are in the game as well. The first two scientists you meet after the resonance cascade.
I would hope that somebody would make a mod where he looked like that and make apply it to all of Half-life 2 to make stuff look more like it was from the same universe as the original Half-life then the sequel of a reboot of the original Half-life
Im just going to point something out.The HL2 flashlight and the sprint share energy but your oxygen does not. The game just lacks a UI graphic to represent it. You can test it by running your power down with the flashlight or by sprinting and then going for a swim. It´s a weird design flaw but at least you wont drown faster if your flashlight is on.
Love the reviews, it's always fun to hear someone else's thoughts on one of my favorite game series. As an added note, another way to experience a "remastered" version of Half-Life 2 + Episodes is the mod MMod. I feel it respects the original games all the way through, but adds subtle improvements that just makes the game feel smoother and more modern.
Just one thing I think is worth pointing out about Black Mesa: I feel like in some portions Crowbar Collective went a bit overboard in the shooting arena sections. HL is all about story progression and atmosphere, with gunplay coming secondary- but in some parts of the game (notably the final battle of Questional Ethics and Forget About Freeman), I almost felt like I was playing DOOM. Gordon Freeman really shouldn’t be fighting 24 soldiers and 4 tanks at once. All you can do is soak bullets and die repeatedly until you learn the best way to not get obliterated. Other than that though, Black Mesa is still stellar. Edit: While watching this review I also noticed why I think the Black Mesa Xen portions are done so much better than in the original- simply because more ideas had been present at the time. The portal configuration in Xen is just Dark Energy in HL2 Episode 1, the infinite Gluon ammo sections in Interloper is just the supercharged Gravity Gun in HL2. Not at all accusing Crowbar Collective of cheating or stealing in any way, but there’s a reason the Xen levels seemed so polished and professional. It’s because they’ve been done before, and we’ve played them.
@@Gordon_Freeman_PhD The movement speed is decreased and the level design is way more open, making the whole tactical element mute. The Snarks used to be incredibly useful for laying out a gameplan, but in Black Mesa they become borderline useless. Every room in the original game is it's own unique challenge and puzzle to solve. Half-Life rewards you for good problemsolving, while Black Mesa rewards you for labotomizing yourself and just shooting bad guys. Half-Life 2 has a similar problem but is far greater exemplified in Black Mesa.
@@VinVonVoom Not sure how the level design in Black Mesa is more open considering that in Half Life there were no "props" to speak of and many levels (as great as the levels were) were simply open boxes.
@@saisameer8771 if i were to compare the 2 females boss's of doom and half life, i'd make it clear that's it better to fight the gonarch then the spider mastermind
5:12 "only the briefest of loads." I remember waiting minutes for each load when I was a kid lol. I actually upgraded my pc for the first time because of Half-Life
32:13 The reason why they did this, if I recall, is because you would rarely otherwise use the gluon. So they wanted for you to use it more by giving you infinite ammo for it. Sure it doesn't always work, but at least there is a good reason for it.
I’m so incredibly shocked someone finally took the time to talk about Black Mesa more in-depth. There’s only one or two other videos covering it, and I personally got introduced to Half-Life through it. I’ve replayed it countless times and your praises and flaws of it I FULLY agree with. Nice job, I liked and subscribed. 👍
@@screm1471 it also wasn't random, it was a refrence to HL:VR:Ai which is a basically a feature length movie of HL1 but as a comedy? Idk how to perfectly word it, but it definitely wasn't random
Idk why it is that in almost every video of BM Xen I see, the player never uses the double jump unless it is absolutely needed to progress. I had a blast using it pretty much on cooldown and bhopping + boosting with explosions. That part of the game was amazing. EDIT: The Gluon Gun crystal sections remind me of the powered up Gravity Gun sections, it works well against Controllers and it's satisfying to pop them with it, I disagree.
Interesting. I just finished my first playthrough of half life 1 and actually enjoyed my time on Xen. I could definitely do with the health pools going a bit faster, but I enjoyed the puzzles overall and thought the final boss was interesting. Not the greatest final boss ever, but with the epilogue that takes right after being so good, the game still has a great capstone.
Currently playing through HL1 and I'm way impressed by it. I played a few 1990s PC FPSs, RPGs and strategy games as well as some PS1 one games about a month back and with that context, HL1 blows many of them away. Feels extremely modern.
Even as someone who played it way after all the hype had come down (two years ago), it's the best Half-Life. It's honestly my favourite game of all time.
It's insane how good Half-Life 2 looks especially compared to Doom 3 which released only months prior. Also: Quick fun fact: The reason Blue Shift seems so underwhelming (actually the best half-life media, you are all in denial) is because it was meant for the Dreamcast port of Half-Life, as a bonus essentially map pack. The thing is, the people making it could really only use the assets that were ported over to the Dreamcast version, so basically none of the Opposing Force stuff. Said port was essentially complete but cancelled at the last minute, so they just threw Blue Shift onto the PC.
my headcannon about magnusson is that he was the person in charge of white forest way before so he would have been in contact with other underground cells like kleiner and eli's lab
(MASSIVE TIP FOR HACKING IN HALF LIFE ALYX): when u do this puzzle 59:49 when u stop grabbing the red dots cant hit u so if u feel like ur gonna lose just dont touch anything till the coast is clear
This is one of the weirdest reviews I've seen of all Half Life games. I recently played through both Black Mesa and Alyx and I don't know if we just played completely different games or have really different tastes or play styles because I found the Xen levels to be really strong and fun to play through entirely, and Interloper has some great sequences. Solving many of the puzzles in that chapter, combined with the combat sequences really kept the game up for me. I always felt challenged just the right amount and I loved it. I do admit the factory part is not as great as the rest of the game, but still not bad at all! As for Half Life Alyx, it took me almost 24 hours to complete! I have no idea what you mean when you say 10 hours. I also did not at all find enough resin to buy all but one upgrade (I did get all the upgrades I had interest in, however), even though I did spend a thorough amount of time scavenging (hence the long play time). I admit that for me the Wow Factor did not go away through the entire experience. I did spend a lot of time just playing with the environments in every level, looking at the textures of objects, which even on lowest settings in my outdated computer looked fantastic! I explored every single area thoroughly and was never bored of the experience of VR. (Tho, then again, I am also very new to VR. Alyx was really the first game I played through.) I enjoyed the video and watched it until the end. I just wanted to mention how surprised I was at how different our experiences were of playing the same games! XD
Not that I dislike the Video's opinion but it seems that different people have different patience when it comes to any level being a grind or test of patience and repetition. He has consistently complained in the video about every sequence in all the games where there was a grind like platforming, puzzle solving and scavenging. But I'm glad I found someone who liked the Black Mesa Interloper
I feel the same way. Every level he hated or thought was dragged out too long is a level I enjoyed. Like the Highway and Airboat levels of Half Life 2, they were my favorites being fun and fast-paced.
I bought my headset when Boneworks and alyx were announced. It was maybe the best decision I've ever made. It reminds me of being a kid and playing games for the first time
@@saricubra2867 I play Half-Life 1 almost daily since last year I played it for the first time. Half-Life 2 reeks with 2004 in every sense other than graphical while Half-Life 1 could be a 2020 game if you upped the graphical and audio fidelity. That's just my take anyway.
@yes please I just can't agree. I never got close to finishing Hl1 because it really is a game of its time. It does NOT hold up. However with hl2 it holds up amazingly and have 100%ed hl2 and it's episodes
@@Tmob The Lighting is what sold it for me, Half Life 2 may not have real time lighting, it's all baked, but this mere trick alone made every level atmospheric as all heck, Valve truly studied their light sources when they made their source engine, the same engine that is still behind MODERN games today, no wonder Half life 2 still looks darn good. Half life 1 is great with gameplay, but if you want to be memorable, you have to have good story, something Half life 2 revolutionize with.
I cant stress how much I fucking love long videos like this, I just discovered this guy 2 days ago because of his Hitman video and I love it. It's the same for Pyrocynical, all his long videos like Petscop, Condemned. LOVE IT!
I think the whole thing of Russ' pistol turning into Alyx's pistol is friggin awesome and when i finally realized it while watching a lets play, i gasped.
I recently played the half life series (A week ago), Half - Life, Half - Life 2 and it's expansions and I can see where the love for this game comes from. I wasn't particularly interested and didn't see where the cliffhanger everyone was talking about came from. Until I played episode 2, the ending is why I know millions of people love this series/franchise and although I didn't play it when it was released (Because I wasn't alive then) I'm glad and thankful I got to take the time and enjoy the games now. Enjoy your day everyone! :D
As a VR developer i can tell you that boneworks has nothing on Alyx. Yeah, they have like 100 features but none of them are 100% working as it should be. I'm pretty sure valve tried to do melee and a lot of other things but in the end, they choose to have a stable and working game instead. And that was the right choice.
"Valve allowed the Crowbar Team to sell their mod." Well, technically you gotta *_pay_* in order to sell your Game, Mod, etc..., according to the Modding Community. Because I haven't heard that Black Mesa was just simply 'allowed' to be sold on Steam. Sure, you have to meet requirements in order to do that aswell, but even then, you still need to pay a fortune for your product to be sold on Steam. But don't take my word for it.
Blue Shift rocks bro! It certainly expands things, and without it Half-Life 2 could have been very different. You hear more about Blue-Shift than you do about Opposing Force in HL2 and its episodes. In-fact, you don't hear anything at all about OP4 but Barney and some other scientists are main characters in HL2.
"Dr. Magnusson comes into the plot out of nowhere and everyone acts as if he was there the whole time" Pretty much my opinion on most of the characters from HL2, which is one of the reasons I prefer Black Mesa over HL.
@@pfcjurassicking8320 I'm not talking about the characters not being in the game, it's more about how they needed an excuse for characters so they just went: "Oh yeah, remember that random guy you were talking to in HL that you probably forgot about midway through the game? That's him!".
@@VinVonVoom What I'm saying here is that I think HL2 was a lot more light-hearted than the first game and that the characters had a pretty big role in that, and it doesn't feel right to me when the first game was about science going too far and releasing a horror that is about as threatening as a natural disaster. Adding said characters to HL2's predecessor makes it feel less forced IMO. Also, I don't understand how BM's level design is worse than in Half Life, maybe it's just me.
Blue shift was made for the Dreamcast version just like decay was for de ps2 versions. When the dreamcast port was canceled they port blue shift for PC. Blue shift focus on Barny because he is a important member in HL2 and is considered a hero, also it was more atmospheric, since the beginning when you are in the elevator all the way to the end blue shift was made to make you feel alone, you are not longer Gordon Freeman , you are a "nobody", you don't know what is going on or why all that is happening, until the middle you almost never found anyone, you are alone in something you don't understand and you not have time to think about it, you need to escape and you will do anything you need to, including stealing from the corpses of your own friends and co-workers. If you play with this mentality and understand it wasn't for PC but for the Dreamcast so they only make something worth buying the dreamcast port even if you have the PC one, you understand that is a great media for HL, and more of what happens is important for HL2 while opposing forces don't really matters because we never see or heard about Shepard again (no hunt down the Freeman or the unreleased half life 2 episode ravenholm) even the ending is made so you feel alone, no one else is left and you hear the military is coming closer, you are just a security guard, you can't survive if all of them arrive there and the portal doesn't work, you don't understand how that thing works so it could easily stop working because of you. Blue shift is more Roleplaying that OG HL.
Alyx took me 20 hours to beat. The game is beautiful enough that I wanted to explore every corner and find every last piece of resin, so beating it in half the time would almost feel like rushing it.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you Craig! I love your videos and adding yet another video dedicated to one of my favorite series, makes me appreciate your content even more! Keep up with the good work, you are doing great 👍♥️
I'd prefer updates for all half life games that fixes issues like this instead of alyx. Why would i even want to play as alyx while a very cool soldier or a very cool scientist exists. Or while we have a real chad that can buy us a beer. Those characters are not just ordinary scientist, soldier or a security guard. But what is alyx?
@@MisterDoorNumber1 I wouldn't mind if the necessary ones would game end you if you killed them, like the Black Mesa scientists at the Questionable Ethics lobby fight. Once they open the door you can kill them and nothing happens. I could see it being a big problem with Alyx and Barney but BM fixes that too. The first security guard in Unforseen Consequences is invincible.
@@zombine7103 Somebody that literally grew up in the middle of the invasion. This is all normal day at the office for her. But to meet you half way, I agree shepherd or Barney needs another game.
HL2 E1 is fun for the "The One Free Bullet" challenge - took me some time and tries to get it ... give it a try - gives E1 a nice touch also - you missed a lot like Gunman Chronicles, Portal (yes, Portal does play in the same universe as we learn at the end of E2) and a lot of others also also - play Half-Life with friends? Sven Co-Op
![ลองสุ่มไอโฟน 990 โกงมั้ย? [ โกงมั้ยครับ ep.101 ] | DOM](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bfsWe0j492k/mqdefault.jpg)
Wake up and smell the ashes...
Need a break or only care about hearing about one particular title? Then feel free to use the below time stamps:
0:00 - Intro
2:06 - Half-Life
11:19 - Opposing Force
16:09 - Blue Shift
18:50 - Decay
23:09 - Half-Life: Source
26:09 - Black Mesa
33:56 - Half-Life 2
45:27 - Lost Coast
46:33 - HL2: Episode One
50:27 - HL2: Episode Two
55:38 - Half-Life: Alyx
If you'd like to see more of my content, here's the Critical Nobody playlist - bit.ly/2M3r65U
Thank you for watching!
I know your "reviewing every..." videos does great but I think a big part of that is that long form in general suits you. I don't know how that comes across but it is meant as encouragement, you make good videos.
You gonna review Resident Evil 3 Remake 2020? I think you're gonna have a lot to discuss, even more so than RE2 Remake 2019.
Does the Portal Games count as half life games? They do take place in the same universe.
Also, what a amazing April Fools joke.
Hey, good job on the video!
You forgot Half Life 2: Survivor though; it's a Japan-only arcade release. :D
My favourite part about half life 1, is that the security guards make keypad noises with their mouths when pressing the keypads
Never notice that when i first played the game
maybe black mesa ran out of budget when making keypads
Did you ever see the bug where the security guard pushes buttons on an invisible key pad in midair? It's some weird shit!
@@zherean42069 surely
Theory: The security guard was actually trying to stall with a broken keypad by making beeping sounds with his mouth.
To be fair....I didn't know how much room he had on top of the elevator.
I don't recall you asking DAN
Dan lies and will actually kill everyone with a elevator in half life 3 spoiler alert from the future it was Dan along.. He was the gman's employers
Your not having fun unless your killing your friends in a video game amiright?
Why don't you upload anymore
@@pfcjurassicking8320 Portal 2 Co-op in a nutshell. Gotta get those science collaboration points.
"... Conveys the disgusting, oppressing, violent setting..."
*casually plays with a hanging combine*
Half Life Alyx doesn't include shooting NPC's.
0/10
Mech Yes it does...
Anybody gonna do the honors?
@@HaloWolf102 r/WoOooSH LOOK AT ME IM A 12 YEAR OLD WHO DOESN'T ACTUALLY USE REDDIT, BUT I WATCH REDDIT TH-cam CHANNELS SO I COUNT. I LOVE TO POST STUPID COMMENTS ON TH-cam JUST SO I CAN WOOSH PEOPLE. There is a difference between making a joke, and leaving a stupid reply, you should try learning the difference.
@@monkeybubba1526 god I fucking hate the children who ruined reddit
I'm the guy who made those Half Life: Source videos you showed briefly. I'm glad you didn't sit and suffer through the entire game. Great video :)
Thank you for doing the suffering on other's behalf
I found a glitch in HL Source, you can start the resonance cascade by throwing snarks at the rotors th-cam.com/video/JEjFha3zXls/w-d-xo.html
@@nour2146 lmao
@@nour2146 bruh lmfao
@NoobPrePro that aged... Poorly
"Crowbar-only, blindfolded speedrun."
Somebody out there must have tried this, no doubt.
I think you mean: Crowbar only *no damage* blindfolded speedrun.
@@wta1518 I can't even imagine this. If anybody pulls that off, it'll be the 8th wonder of the world.
@@faismasterx One day i'll try
@Guy Whose opinions will offend you can confirm... _Super Metroid_ is an *asylum* for me ffs. 😐
I've *loved* all 20 odd years of it🙁
this here is impossible:only crowbar blindfolded no hit and world record
i never noticed this before but the main character of Hunt Down the Freeman doesn't really have to worry about his face being fucked up when it already looks like bread that hasn't been baked properly.
you have my permission to die,this mean people doesnt die unless he wants?
@@beef9785 yes, the guy that fucked up his face had 3 .500 S&W rounds in his gut, but wasn't permitted to die yet so he lived
@@batmangovno Speaking about that guy, he still tries to reason with the protag, guess he doesn't understand social cues
@@batmangovno i thought it was a
.357 mag?
@@derekmensch3601 that's a regular hl2 revolver
26:00 "Unintended side effect", lol that was a wasted opportunity to say "Unforeseen Consequence"
i think thats the joke
Half life 1
Please be advised that a noticeable taste of blood is not part of any test protocol, but is an _unintended side effect_ of the Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grid, which may, in semi-rare cases, emancipate dental fillings, crowns, tooth enamel, and teeth.
I'd like to think about Blue Shift as something like "Die Hard" movie. You're just doing your work and after everything takes a 180 turn, your primary and only goal is to escape. You, and your old, trusty Beretta (or Glock). Nothing more, just escaping the ultimate doom of the atomic explosion.
Let's be honest, that's how people would actually react in that sort of situation.
I don't even mind Blue Shift. It's criticised for not being "different" enough, but if it ain't broken, don't fix it. Half-Life's gameplay doesn't get boring.
@@zedrising9430 It's a pretty unpopular opinion, actually think Blue Shift is pretty underrated. I think Blue Shift has some of the best level design of the original Half-Life, and since the vast majority of combat is against the Military, it feels like a hunk of the better part of Half-Life. I get it if people think it doesn't do enough, but the way the maps highlight the fun of Half-Life's combat really carries it IMHO.
Well, Blue Shift was originally just supposed to be some additional content for the Dreamcast version, they decided to port it to the PC during development as well as the Dreamcasts version of the higher polygon models which Valve titled the Half-Life High Definition pack.
@@Radwar99 I thought the Dreamcast version was cancelled?
"HL Alyx isn't scary" My dude's got balls of steel.
All of the half life games aren’t really that scary except for the music, ravenholm and most of the time the games tries to scare the player is with lazy jump scares
@@rez9914 The zombie sound design alone bruv
@@JetsetRM I’m not really creeped out by their sounds if anything I only feel empathy towards them, but the hev zombies in Black Mesa creeps me out instead
@@rez9914
Lol it creeped me out
Like Duke Nukem?
I'm honestly amazed at how well Half Life 2 visuals aged. The animation and models still look good even though they're not hi-res
I wish more games were being made in that style. It's kinda cool seeing what the latest gaming PC's or even consoles can do graphics wise, but I don't need the realism, I want new games that are easily and smoothly playable on my cheaper setup.
@@RJ-wx3fh me too
@@RJ-wx3fh This graphical style is very easy too, it looks good and realistic and has a slight styling too
@@xXUnhingedDevXx I've since played more than a few mods for both hl1 and 2, and it's proven the point to me that there can be some really good new games even on these older engines.
Entropy zero 2, for one example is phenomenally well produced for a free fan game to expand the universe. There's also some really neat shorter ones
@@RJ-wx3fh source is still a pretty modern engine, although without some newer features. It's a pretty well optimized engine too considering all the cool physics stuff, not that other engines can't do cool physics stuff they obviously can but I mean hl2 is still pretty impressive to me. As for goldsrc I really have no idea how people made mods and games that look so good, like cry of fear for example is almost at the level of early hl2 tbh. They probably redone the renderer or something.
"discount BFG" also teleports you to xen with right click
Everyone that covers OpFor seems to either downplay that aspect or completely ignore it
it does WHAT
Yup as a kid when it came out i wrote complete walkthrough and this functionality man i just hated it. Imagine testing where it will take you all the time.
I think it was a mix of random with level bound.
quite bizarre really.
I miss the fishy though :-)
@@pixeltiger4204 For 60 out of it's 100 ammo, right-clicking would teleport you to a small Xen instance where you could find various supplies and stuff. Every time you entered a new chapter in the game, teleporting would send you to a different Xen zone. There wasn't really any point in using it twice in the same chapter since you just went back to where you'd already explored. It basically ended up with you trying to make sure to have at least 60 ammo left at all times, and whenever a new chapter started you immediately went to its respective Xen zone to see if it had anything you needed. If it turned out you were already maxed out on most of the supplies it had to offer and you'd rather not blow the 60 energy to get there, just quick load to undo it and get on as normal. I'm still not sure if it was a good feature for the game as a whole or not but it was pretty unique at least
@@Kuddochan wait it changes each chapter? I thought it changed based on what map you were in.
5:47 "Hopping from surface to surface in first person has never been particularly fun"
*Portal has entered the chat*
*Critical Nobody has left the chat*
never
at the time
Portal isn't platformer lmao
@@wynbarrett2989 It has platforming sections
Mirrors Edge: "Ya sure about that Critical Nobody?"
Meanwhile, Quake 3 Arena:
Stress Level Zero, the developers of Boneworks got help and insight from Valve, they got the Knuckles controllers very early, they played Alyx a few times over the years and were every here and then in the Valve offices to talk with the developers of HL:A. Both Games don`t want to compete with each other.
Exactly!
This is pretty cool, enjoyed Alyx a lot, and id love to give boneworks a shot (if my PCs gpu was good enough)
hope to see more games like that in the future tho
They also have a channel! Corridor Digital and Node both work on it, but mainly Node.
that explains why Boneworks feels similar to Half life. Well if you consider gameplay
@@ladylunaginaofgames40 well, even aside from Valve helping out, the game itself was heavily inspired by Half Life from the get go.
as underwhelming as people say blue shift was, I actually found it to be a pretty good expansion if for no other reason than playing as Barney (he's always been my favorite half life character)
What about Otis?
Otis deserves his own full length game
@@YeretV valve will release half-life Otis in billion years
yeah barney is underrated but i don't have a favorite character
I'm gonna be honest, I feel like G-Man staged the whole HL timeline for his own enjoyment.
Gman is valve
He is the writer for hl
@@T-pose315 Made by Gabe-man????
gman said it himself "fake free will" like the one you have and wrote this comment with
The best part of half-life alyx is that the flashlight has no cool down.
Downside is that there's no manual activation
same as good old HL1/Black Mesa. you can leave it on for the whole game if you so desire
The breathtaking visuals? No. The terrifying enemies? No. The mindfucking story? No. The flashlight? YESSS
@@bassbusterx You can't leave it long, just replay HL1. Flashlight has a battery, which charging when off.
@@shamshab4559 I checked it. you are talking about HL2. HL1 had no timer on the flashlight
kind reminder: we live in a timeline where half-life 3 is an actual, tangible, possibility
I hope 2020 just turns out to be a big prank.
Its official, for HL:3 Valve is actually going to open a Portal to Xen have a Galactic empire enslave earth. It releases this month too!!!!!!!
Yea Boreal-Alyph and Project Borealis fan games based off of Marc Laidlaw's Epistle 3
@@REDPyro-os2km Great not only do I have to play through an hour of a grueling, slow level but I'm gonna have to experience it too. 😔
I recommend looking out for VNN, he does a lot of games journalism on... Valve, he actually predicted HL:A like a year or more before the announcement lmao
"No one likes platforming in an fps game"
Meanwhile 9 year old me was a master at deathrunning in CS 1.6
Meanwhile I ABH across Half-Life 2 which is kinda like platforming in some parts
some people who don't like FPS platforming just seem to be intentionally ignoring the thousands of people logged into various custom game servers dedicated to doing nothing else.
There's also Mirror Edge, an FPS that focuses on platforming and free running
@Roby Ramoslugo FPS has come to colloquially mean any game in First Person. Regardless of if it's a shooter or not. So yes, literally you are right, but colloquially nobody gives a shit but you.
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Titanfall 2 yet. That's an fps game that is literally 90% platforming.
The story deserves more praise, theres so much depth behind this amazing series. I feel like that's a detail that's often overlooked when most talk about the game. I find myself enthralled with the universe of Half-life
*Many* fans do. Don't worry 😉
It's one of the _biggest_ reasons I and my friends got into it.
And they tied *Portal* into it.. brilliant 👌
Don't skip Blue Shift, it's better than it sounds like.
Like he says in this video: the core of half-life does still work. At the end of the day, blue shift is good simply because it’s still half-life
Blue shift is the shortest Half-Life game you play for the sole purpose: to find out how Barney Calhoun escaped Black Mesa
What's with the bizzare BS hate. It's great
@@drifter402 Most came from opposing force.
@@drifter402 Blue Shift came out after Opposing Force, which added much, much more: new enemies, new guns, squad mechanics, etc. Blue Shift on the other hand felt extremely vanilla and used none of the earlier expansion pack's innovations.
It's understandable that people were fairly disappointed with it, since the natural progression of things indicates that as time goes by, you should be getting better things. Since Opposing Force added so much, fans expected Blue Shift to innovate if not more, then at the very least just as much.
However, Blue Shift shows clear signs of being either rushed or simply presented as something it isn't. It was first envisioned as a simple map pack type of thing for one of the console ports, and later on it got converted into a separate game / expansion.
A lot of things in it make no sense. For example, the hazard course is exactly the same as in the original Half Life, even though you're playing as a security guard. You still have to use a crowbar instead of something like a nightstick, you get trained to use a machine gun instead of a handgun - which is actually used by the security guards in game, etc.
Blue Shift is not bad by any means, but it's just not exciting enough after Opposing Force. And because of that, a lot of folks disregard it completely as nothing special.
6:50 Those are ropes, not barnacles. You can use them to help you traverse large pits!
FOR THE LAST TIME COOMER THEY ARE NOT ROPES
Are you supposed to be here, buddy? Show me your passport.
Soda makes you see fast, Mr. Freeman
It’s amazing that wayneradiotv has managed to forever change the comments section of every half life video in under a week
@@JACKSTAY that's Wayne for you
why did i just watch an hour long review about multiple games i've played several times
It's at the beginning listen
Because reasons.
idk man kinda gathering takes
because im sort of seeing a pretty weird feature to every retrospective/review/analysis and its weird
To hit that like button, help the dude and increase user interactivity, affecting the algorithm? Hmm...
Why not?
The reason Gordon doesn't see race X is because he goes to Xen before they arrive on Earth
Nope, first time we see a Shocktrooper in Opposing Force (when he kills the guard and teleports with the scientist) and when we encounter the first Pitdrones, Gordon didn't teleport to Xen yet, he goes to Xen in the chapter We Are Not Alone and both those encounters happen before this chapter, we just make the assumption that Black Mesa is huge and Gordon missed them, they weren't many before his departure i guess, but they were in Black Mesa nonetheless
@@devostripes5964 Story-wise, yes. Technically-wise, it's just Gearbox's assets.
@@DeanAmx Yes that's sad but i have to agree, Opposing Force is never been considered as real part of the story, even tho there's no official canon at Valve, i'm pretty sure that OpFor isn't considered canon internally
Actually no..race X started arriving when gordon was still in black mesa..but only on a certain section that gordon never went to which would explain why he never encountered them
@@devostripes5964 Actually it is canon. Or at least some thigs. For example, the bomb Shephard deactivates (also the one that gman activates again) is the bomb that when explodes makes the Combine notice earth and then invade it. Then for the other part, the race X is up to be considered if it's canon or not. I mean, Valve said that they 'don't believe' in canon so we can assume what things are canon and not. As they said before, maybe the reason why Gordon didn't see the race x is because Black Mesa is just huge... or maybe because those enemies don't really exist and it was just Gearbox trying to make something new. It's up to one to decide.
14:18 That's actually explained - most of the new enemies are only encountered after Gordon goes to Xen.
@ubvoiu9005 Depends on how you view the canon
Pit drones are in Entropy Zero 2 too
doe its obviously not cannon
in Entropy's universe Race X is cannon
and personally i also like to think its Cannon
i just like the idea of a third party alien trying to invade earth after the oppurtunity they got from the Xen invasion
but fails miserably
Actually an interesting detail is apart from a few instances in opposing force alien x dont begin there full scale attack until after Gordon leaves to xen, so it makes sense he never encountered them.
Also he called the Displacer "just a BFG," so I assume he never discovered the secondary fire.
Being able to kill enemies with melee in Half life Alyx was probably included once.
I mean, knowing Valve they probably wanted you to bash people's heads in with a crowbar. There were probably some playtesters who either got hurt or damaged equipment irl that made them think it was a bad idea to have in the game. Since I understand that they wanted to make the game as comfortable as possible, using a melee weapon would've probably caused more trouble than it would do any good.
They removed the crow bar because playtesters kept thinking that they were Gordon instead of Alyx. Despite being told who you are in text at the beginning of the game. The crowbar was too iconic. As for improvised melee, they haven't said any insider info about that yet
Valve's playtesters are iconic for being extremely dumb.
The thing is, you CAN actually kill enemies with melee. I have panic-smaked so many headcrabs flying at my face that I have lost count, and they often times die (given that you have shot them a couple of times first). I have also ended up rushing at the bigger enemies in the game with my shotgun and realised that the 3 shotgun shells I had left didnt do the trick, at which point I have given them a little smack as a last ditch effort to kill them. Most of the time to no avail, but sometimes I do get that sweet sounding flatline as they fall to the ground. Your melee in the game does almost no damage (which could lead to people thinking that you cannot melee enemies), but to be fair, Alyx (in the time that the game takes place atleast) is only 19 years old and not the largest person out there, so it only makes sence that a smack from her wont do much damage to fully armored soldiers. This might have also been added to the game in a later patch since I lacked the hardware to play the game at its release and it wasnt until last week that I could actually play the game.
If the crowbar was so iconic then why didn’t they give her the socket wrench instead? That would be really fun in my opinion 🙃
@@Smol-vehvi well, I recall hearing somewhere that it was because melee combat is far more physically exhausting than gunfighting, but I’m not really sure if that’s the actual reason they omitted melee weapons.
"Stunned, unexpected announcement"
Tyler Mcvicker: wait did I miss some unexpected announcement? All I saw was the game I've been reporting on for years...
this is my favorite VNN quote
It should be noted that Valve said in their AMA that they're interested in adding dev commentary later down the line.
They also added the Portal commentary later on, so that's actually very logical
They added it in a few months ago.
I feel privileged having grown up alongside of gaming. Going from bleeps and bloops of Atari to the colorful 2D experiences on later consoles to playing Doom for the first time and being part of that phenomenon. Then, having my mind blown by the fast, full-3D Quake and experiencing the evolution of online gaming and playing Half-Life when it was new and being blown away by the realization of what video games as a medium could accomplish.
Playing Quake was probably analogous to what people felt when they saw movies in color for the first time and playing Half-Life made prior attempts at video game storytelling seem archaic by comparison, not that there weren't games with great writing, or even that atmospheric storytelling didn't exist because of course it did, but the way Half-Life presented it's story made for an experience so much more immersive than anything that came before it. You didn't watch or read the story of Half-Life play out between gameplay, you experienced it first hand while you were playing.
I know there are probably a lot of younger gamers shrugging their shoulders while reading this old fart's TH-cam comment and saying, "so what?". It can be hard to explain to people who weren't there how much of a big deal this was because this kind of thing is just how games work now, but there's a reason why so many of us view Half-Life as a generational leap forward in game design. Half-Life brought games kicking and screaming into the modern era, for better or worse.
There's actually a really good mod for HL2 that aims to fix and "modernize" some of the bad and dated gameplay aspects of it. It's called MMOD. Some of the changes includes, a separate bar for the flashlight, the option for non-hitscan combat and many others. It works for the episodes and Lost Coast as well
MMod is great lol. I've been playing a lot of it lately.
Critical nobody: "HL:A is not scary"
*Jeff has entered the chat
Gonna be honest, I didn't find him very scary.
It was too easy to make him go away.
@@MaxArceus More than scary, I'd say Jeff gave me a lot of anxiety
@@manunavoni7666 It just didn't work well for me. It was by no means bad. But it's so easy to distract him. Just get a bottle from literally anywhere, yeet it into the distance, and he's off your ass again for half a minute.
If there were fewer bottles around, and if he could hear your footsteps too, that would make it a lot more tense. Then you can't just throw a bottle as you're walking, or throw it and then walk away. He'd hear your footsteps and follow you. And with fewer bottles, you'd really have to think out how to solve the puzzle.
The things like the speaker coming online were cheap and predictable. But also so easy to fix, just grab a bottle and throw it to the other side. That removes the scary part I think.
I personally thought the dark tunnel where you got the flashlight was scarier.
I genuinely don't get why more people aren't overwhelmingly terrified by headcrabs.
@@thebillyd00 They're slow, and bump into things. You could argue they are cute (like that one in the viewing cage thingy), but then again, when they do actually launch at you, most of the time you're going to scream.
“I felt like a polygon writer trying to play Doom” 😂😂
"the game is not scary" I am confident most people would disagree with that point about HL Alyx.
Even the chapter meant to be that scary wasn't all that scary. I won't go too into detail for spoilers sake, but the game said it itself, its predictable. Things are scary when they're unknown, but when you can predict, manipulate and control something it becomes way less scary.
@@tastychunks I agree with you. However, the majority of reactions I have seen for that chapter indicate most people find it terrifying.
What made it truly scary for me was the immersion. When I got to that one enemy that we will not speak of. I spent solid 10 min assessing the situation simply because I was to scared of the unforseen consequences.
@@koliavakin704 Which enemy? Jeff?
@@grimes558 Shhhh, no spoilers.
My favorite detail in Half-Life 2 is the realistic weight of the gravity gun. Everybody struggles to carry it (Alyx, the bad guy) except for Gordon thanks to his HEV suit.
"The bad guy" is Dr. Breen
Man sometimes i think
What were Black Mesa designing these suits for
Like they are hella durable when fully charged
gives you bit of extra strength
gives you a HUD
its almost like they were not making a suit for Hazardous enviroments but a Superhuman suit
@@self-proclaimedanimator They might very well have considering they were also making weapons.
32:33 While there's much room to be interpreted between intention and execution, I'm pretty sure they balanced this part of Interloper the way they did was to serve as an homage to the conclusion of Half-Life 2 with obvious parallels between the overcharged gravity gun and the overcharged gluon gun. Subsequently, the difficulty curve goes way up when combat does roll around in an attempt to compensate for your effectively infinite ammo. Though I do agree that the parkour sections of this chapter can burn for eternity, especially that one laser section they ripped from the security room in Doom 4.
8:38 There's a scripted event that makes one of the soldiers press a button to crush you with a van showing how much detail is in the AI
edit: They only push it when you go under the van
Marphitimus Blackimus on TH-cam has done a lot of deep dives on the AI in Half-Life and how crazily overcrafted it is.
Having a scripted event is literally the opposite of detailed AI
@@knavenformed9436 You're misinterpreting what he's saying there. If you're under the car, the HECU marines will head for the switches and try to crush you. It's a lot like FEAR's AI/scripting.
@@orijimi Oh yeah okay, I was starting to wonder because I never remembered to encounter that situation.
I never noticed that they pushed the button until i thought about it.
But it's April first you can't post a normal video what is this?
At first I kinda hoped each title he reviews gets dumber and dumber. First Half-Life, then Black Mesa, then Portal, and by the end he’s reviewing Genital Jousting or a Gordon Freeman body pillow
@@MrSkerpentine Why not those last 2 at the same time?
he's April fooling you by not fooling you
He should have reviewed Hunt Down The Freeman.
5:48 "hopping from surface to surface in first person has never been fun"
dying light would like to disagree
Also Mirror's Edge. Hot Lava is really fun too
heck it's even fun in doom
I mean bunny hopping is a thing people apwnd thousands of hours doing
@rabid Yeah... no. Climbing each and every bulding from Old Town while being legend 250 is hella fun. Dying Light has one of the best parkour i've ever seen.
@rabid titanfall 2's one of my fav games and i especially love the movement but dying light is on a whole other level
Just imagine a scientist walking towards you in a dark hallway shouting “Stahp” in a nearly frantic tone
"Land of desktop wallpapers"
Holy shit you got me man ECKSDEE
If the next Half-Life game ends on a cliffhanger, I might fall into a coma. I’d probably wake up before another installment.
“ wake up mister Borsalino Kizaru, wake up and smell the ashes.”
@@jackcouch8322 "is it really that time again Borsalino Kizaru?"
Well, Half-Life 1, 2, Episode 1 and OpFor all end in cliffhangers and another installment came in a relatively small amount of time.
I’m still mad that Dr. Magnusson wasn’t one of the Einstein scientists from the first Half-Life
In episode 2 it's implied that the casserole in the microwave belonged to Magnusson. Kleiner and Eli are in the game as well. The first two scientists you meet after the resonance cascade.
@@Cardthulhu Exactly, and I wanted him to look like the Einstein scientist
TheGrayMysterious what about slick? :p
I would hope that somebody would make a mod where he looked like that and make apply it to all of Half-life 2 to make stuff look more like it was from the same universe as the original Half-life then the sequel of a reboot of the original Half-life
Ah, I remember when everyone called them Einstein instead of Coomer.
Critical nobody: the world was stunned by an unexpected announcement.
TH-cam: *Plays raid shadow legends ad*
[ VNN liked that ]
Imagine bragging about being too poor for TH-cam premium in 2020
Derek Furst, Use Adblock and SponsorBlock
When playing Half-Life back in the day, being the kid I was, I always called the barnacles "tongues" because, well, that's pretty much all they were.
Thank you so much for including Decay. So many people (even fans) aren't even aware of its existence
Im just going to point something out.The HL2 flashlight and the sprint share energy but your oxygen does not. The game just lacks a UI graphic to represent it. You can test it by running your power down with the flashlight or by sprinting and then going for a swim. It´s a weird design flaw but at least you wont drown faster if your flashlight is on.
In general I always felt that oxygen lasted for longer than the bar showed.
Sometimes I like when a April fools videos joke that it's a legit video
Love the reviews, it's always fun to hear someone else's thoughts on one of my favorite game series.
As an added note, another way to experience a "remastered" version of Half-Life 2 + Episodes is the mod MMod. I feel it respects the original games all the way through, but adds subtle improvements that just makes the game feel smoother and more modern.
Its just overlooking reload animations and unnecessary effects to lower my FPS.
"when you turn on your flashlight, Gordon forgets how to breath."
Me: ah yes you breath under water
@Barney yeah but that's not the point of my comment
In one of the games (ep1?), Alyx lampshades the need to get "a new battery" for the flashlight.
It doesnt affect the oxygen but it looks like it does.
He said "Hold his breath"
Edit: Nevermind he does say breath underwater but not in the part you quoted
Just one thing I think is worth pointing out about Black Mesa: I feel like in some portions Crowbar Collective went a bit overboard in the shooting arena sections. HL is all about story progression and atmosphere, with gunplay coming secondary- but in some parts of the game (notably the final battle of Questional Ethics and Forget About Freeman), I almost felt like I was playing DOOM. Gordon Freeman really shouldn’t be fighting 24 soldiers and 4 tanks at once. All you can do is soak bullets and die repeatedly until you learn the best way to not get obliterated. Other than that though, Black Mesa is still stellar.
Edit: While watching this review I also noticed why I think the Black Mesa Xen portions are done so much better than in the original- simply because more ideas had been present at the time. The portal configuration in Xen is just Dark Energy in HL2 Episode 1, the infinite Gluon ammo sections in Interloper is just the supercharged Gravity Gun in HL2. Not at all accusing Crowbar Collective of cheating or stealing in any way, but there’s a reason the Xen levels seemed so polished and professional. It’s because they’ve been done before, and we’ve played them.
It doesn't help that the shooting is also worse in Black Mesa then it is in the original.
@@VinVonVoom
I guess it's subjective.
I preffer Black Mesa's shooting.
@@Gordon_Freeman_PhD The movement speed is decreased and the level design is way more open, making the whole tactical element mute. The Snarks used to be incredibly useful for laying out a gameplan, but in Black Mesa they become borderline useless.
Every room in the original game is it's own unique challenge and puzzle to solve. Half-Life rewards you for good problemsolving, while Black Mesa rewards you for labotomizing yourself and just shooting bad guys. Half-Life 2 has a similar problem but is far greater exemplified in Black Mesa.
@@VinVonVoom So you're saying you had to:
Run
THINK
(then)
Shoot
Live
@@VinVonVoom Not sure how the level design in Black Mesa is more open considering that in Half Life there were no "props" to speak of and many levels (as great as the levels were) were simply open boxes.
Hold up did you just say THE GONARCH was boring? That was easily one of the most memorable parts of Half-Life 1, so was the final boss.
Gonarch was interesting to look at but not really fun to fight. Way too bullet spongy.
@@saisameer8771 if i were to compare the 2 females boss's of doom and half life, i'd make it clear that's it better to fight the gonarch then the spider mastermind
@@robowisanveithasung6022 Spider mastermind isn't that hard. Just spam the BFG and you're done. Gonarch is just tedious and a bit too scripted.
@@saisameer8771 well I had to learn that the hard way
@@saisameer8771 Yeah, that's cause the difficulty was tweaked for pistol starts. It's actually somewhat challenging then.
5:12 "only the briefest of loads." I remember waiting minutes for each load when I was a kid lol. I actually upgraded my pc for the first time because of Half-Life
32:13 The reason why they did this, if I recall, is because you would rarely otherwise use the gluon. So they wanted for you to use it more by giving you infinite ammo for it.
Sure it doesn't always work, but at least there is a good reason for it.
I’m so incredibly shocked someone finally took the time to talk about Black Mesa more in-depth. There’s only one or two other videos covering it, and I personally got introduced to Half-Life through it. I’ve replayed it countless times and your praises and flaws of it I FULLY agree with. Nice job, I liked and subscribed. 👍
6:50 "look gordon ropes! we can use the- HELP ME GORDON!!!"
Soda
r/iamveryrandom
@@screm1471 fucking redditors 🤦🤦
@@NOMORTARS I didn’t like that I did it either. I feel fat
@@screm1471 it also wasn't random, it was a refrence to HL:VR:Ai which is a basically a feature length movie of HL1 but as a comedy? Idk how to perfectly word it, but it definitely wasn't random
24:44 oh nah dude that’s just terry, he has Tourettes
Ok
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LMAO. i've been diagnosed with tourette's, you're a good ally dood.
same same i same have what same i have diagnose what same diag diagram have no no tou tou uh diagnose to tourette
Idk why it is that in almost every video of BM Xen I see, the player never uses the double jump unless it is absolutely needed to progress.
I had a blast using it pretty much on cooldown and bhopping + boosting with explosions. That part of the game was amazing.
EDIT: The Gluon Gun crystal sections remind me of the powered up Gravity Gun sections, it works well against Controllers and it's satisfying to pop them with it, I disagree.
Love how he just starts roleplaying with two dead head crabs
Imagine falling asleep for like 12 Hours during the Combine attack and now you just missed it
Interesting. I just finished my first playthrough of half life 1 and actually enjoyed my time on Xen. I could definitely do with the health pools going a bit faster, but I enjoyed the puzzles overall and thought the final boss was interesting. Not the greatest final boss ever, but with the epilogue that takes right after being so good, the game still has a great capstone.
some fans are developing "episode 3", project borealis.
Along with Boreal Aleph. Glad that the community have two chances.
I'm hyped for both. Boreal Alyph maybe a bit more because Source Engine.
I think valve might be working on half life 3 again after what the ending for half life alyx revealed
@@rez9914 I want to believe.
Lol I think they’re going to have to scrap the whole thing once Half life 3 inevitably comes
Currently playing through HL1 and I'm way impressed by it. I played a few 1990s PC FPSs, RPGs and strategy games as well as some PS1 one games about a month back and with that context, HL1 blows many of them away.
Feels extremely modern.
I felt same playing mafia 1
@@cybercop3108 Love Mafia 1! And yes, Half-Life 1 still holds up. Especially in its world-building.
Even as someone who played it way after all the hype had come down (two years ago), it's the best Half-Life. It's honestly my favourite game of all time.
It's insane how good Half-Life 2 looks especially compared to Doom 3 which released only months prior.
Also: Quick fun fact: The reason Blue Shift seems so underwhelming (actually the best half-life media, you are all in denial) is because it was meant for the Dreamcast port of Half-Life, as a bonus essentially map pack. The thing is, the people making it could really only use the assets that were ported over to the Dreamcast version, so basically none of the Opposing Force stuff. Said port was essentially complete but cancelled at the last minute, so they just threw Blue Shift onto the PC.
Gordon: *Turns on flashlight
Also Gordon: "when your legs don't work like they used to before"
The reason Valve removes melee is that testers kept thinking they were Gordon Freeman, not Alyx
i see someone played the commentary version.
Ah yes, playing as Gordon Freeman... In Half Life: Alyx.
@@chrispy3369 lmao
Try swinging a crowbar while playing vr, if you are lucky, you might hit your dad irl
That's the most stupid made up excuse I've ever heard.
Hell yeah...
I was not expecting to see you
Quite a welcoming surprise seeing you here.
oh hi there ryan
"should you run out and buy an Oculus or an index just to play Half-life: ALYX........No, of course not, that's silly"
me over here like >.> oops
Same
I absolutely think VR is worth it.
Can we play through google cardboard? (Ik it sounds dumb but...)
@@skuglious No. Mobile headsets don't support SteamVR.
my headcannon about magnusson is that he was the person in charge of white forest way before so he would have been in contact with other underground cells like kleiner and eli's lab
(MASSIVE TIP FOR HACKING IN HALF LIFE ALYX): when u do this puzzle 59:49 when u stop grabbing the red dots cant hit u so if u feel like ur gonna lose just dont touch anything till the coast is clear
This is one of the weirdest reviews I've seen of all Half Life games. I recently played through both Black Mesa and Alyx and I don't know if we just played completely different games or have really different tastes or play styles because I found the Xen levels to be really strong and fun to play through entirely, and Interloper has some great sequences. Solving many of the puzzles in that chapter, combined with the combat sequences really kept the game up for me. I always felt challenged just the right amount and I loved it. I do admit the factory part is not as great as the rest of the game, but still not bad at all!
As for Half Life Alyx, it took me almost 24 hours to complete! I have no idea what you mean when you say 10 hours. I also did not at all find enough resin to buy all but one upgrade (I did get all the upgrades I had interest in, however), even though I did spend a thorough amount of time scavenging (hence the long play time). I admit that for me the Wow Factor did not go away through the entire experience. I did spend a lot of time just playing with the environments in every level, looking at the textures of objects, which even on lowest settings in my outdated computer looked fantastic! I explored every single area thoroughly and was never bored of the experience of VR. (Tho, then again, I am also very new to VR. Alyx was really the first game I played through.)
I enjoyed the video and watched it until the end. I just wanted to mention how surprised I was at how different our experiences were of playing the same games! XD
cool, glad you have a good opinion
Not that I dislike the Video's opinion but it seems that different people have different patience when it comes to any level being a grind or test of patience and repetition. He has consistently complained in the video about every sequence in all the games where there was a grind like platforming, puzzle solving and scavenging. But I'm glad I found someone who liked the Black Mesa Interloper
I completly agree with that Black mesa part, cannot say anything about alyx because i Havent played it yet
I feel the same way. Every level he hated or thought was dragged out too long is a level I enjoyed. Like the Highway and Airboat levels of Half Life 2, they were my favorites being fun and fast-paced.
@@fubrokonway8529 theres no such thing as a "good opinion" or a "bad opinion", opinions are opinions
"The shock roach is too weak to be useful"
Seriously? It shreds Black-Opps apart!
22:07 LMAO that sounded like a short version of the "HAAUGH" scientist scream
Half-Life: You fucked up my face
Half-Life Source: *pain*
This was awesome! I think the Metal Gear series would be a fitting choice to review next considering how stealth games appeal to you.
I mean, I think HL: Alyx is a perfect excuse to have a sole reason to sink a load of cash into VR and a sick rig.
Not to forget what it confirmed is coming next
I bought my headset when Boneworks and alyx were announced. It was maybe the best decision I've ever made. It reminds me of being a kid and playing games for the first time
bruh with 300$ i can survive 2 month
I really like how Half Life 2 still holds up overall.
So does all the other games, in fact, I'd argue Half-Life 1 holds up better than Half-Life 2 does.
@@VinVonVoom Meh, i replayed Half Life 2 more than Half Life 1 and Counter Strike 1.6 is the only Goldsrc game that i still play to this day.
@@saricubra2867 I play Half-Life 1 almost daily since last year I played it for the first time. Half-Life 2 reeks with 2004 in every sense other than graphical while Half-Life 1 could be a 2020 game if you upped the graphical and audio fidelity. That's just my take anyway.
@yes please I just can't agree. I never got close to finishing Hl1 because it really is a game of its time. It does NOT hold up. However with hl2 it holds up amazingly and have 100%ed hl2 and it's episodes
@@Tmob The Lighting is what sold it for me, Half Life 2 may not have real time lighting, it's all baked, but this mere trick alone made every level atmospheric as all heck, Valve truly studied their light sources when they made their source engine, the same engine that is still behind MODERN games today, no wonder Half life 2 still looks darn good. Half life 1 is great with gameplay, but if you want to be memorable, you have to have good story, something Half life 2 revolutionize with.
I cant stress how much I fucking love long videos like this, I just discovered this guy 2 days ago because of his Hitman video and I love it. It's the same for Pyrocynical, all his long videos like Petscop, Condemned. LOVE IT!
Plus this guy is insanely likeable great personality, great commentary and good feedback for the games. Good job bro!
I think the whole thing of Russ' pistol turning into Alyx's pistol is friggin awesome and when i finally realized it while watching a lets play, i gasped.
I recently played half life 2 with the mad Max fury road soundtrack.
It was too awesome. It wasn't just epic, it was biblically orgasmic.
I recently played the half life series (A week ago), Half - Life, Half - Life 2 and it's expansions and I can see where the love for this game comes from. I wasn't particularly interested and didn't see where the cliffhanger everyone was talking about came from. Until I played episode 2, the ending is why I know millions of people love this series/franchise and although I didn't play it when it was released (Because I wasn't alive then) I'm glad and thankful I got to take the time and enjoy the games now. Enjoy your day everyone! :D
Thank you for playing, seriously. More people playing through the whole series is always great
@@zarrowthehorse My pleasure! Glad I got to experience such great games! :)
@@Comii_ Don't miss the oportunity to play portal too
@@todopasajulio Will play that soon!
When I come across someone who's new to PC games the Half-Life series is always my first recommendation
I can't wait for Half Life: more... than... two but less than four ?!
Nice Dota 2 announcer pack reference
As a VR developer i can tell you that boneworks has nothing on Alyx. Yeah, they have like 100 features but none of them are 100% working as it should be. I'm pretty sure valve tried to do melee and a lot of other things but in the end, they choose to have a stable and working game instead. And that was the right choice.
"my pc is a bit outdated"
boy I can´t even play the simpsons hit n run
You must have a potato then
Geez i would at least use a lemon powered computer
Could you possibly do all Mafia games next? Nobody seems to have played the first, and I think it’s a masterpiece.
"Valve allowed the Crowbar Team to sell their mod."
Well, technically you gotta *_pay_* in order to sell your Game, Mod, etc..., according to the Modding Community.
Because I haven't heard that Black Mesa was just simply 'allowed' to be sold on Steam.
Sure, you have to meet requirements in order to do that aswell, but even then, you still need to pay a fortune for your product to be sold on Steam.
But don't take my word for it.
@@ActualDavis
*_Thank you!_*
Here's a summary of hunt down the Freeman:
It's a great value wannabe of mgs 5 the phantom pain.
you fucked up my face
the gamer i hate everything is in it too
@@bigclean4380 who is it
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Black Messa
Blue Shift rocks bro! It certainly expands things, and without it Half-Life 2 could have been very different.
You hear more about Blue-Shift than you do about Opposing Force in HL2 and its episodes. In-fact, you don't hear anything at all about OP4 but Barney and some other scientists are main characters in HL2.
Well, we were about to hear of opposing force, i mean a new game for our dear soldier but instead we got alyx.
I would love to see a reviewing every Borderlands, Resident Evil, and of course Metal Gear Solid
metal gear? it can't be..
*After watching the whole video*
Huh. Now I really want to play these games.
"Dr. Magnusson comes into the plot out of nowhere and everyone acts as if he was there the whole time"
Pretty much my opinion on most of the characters from HL2, which is one of the reasons I prefer Black Mesa over HL.
We fucked up his casserole in hl1, that's enough plot ahahahhaha
Eli and Kliener were in Half Life 1, they were never named in game though.
@@pfcjurassicking8320 I'm not talking about the characters not being in the game, it's more about how they needed an excuse for characters so they just went: "Oh yeah, remember that random guy you were talking to in HL that you probably forgot about midway through the game? That's him!".
Well, I'll take far better level design and AI over fixing a little confusion in the second game.
@@VinVonVoom What I'm saying here is that I think HL2 was a lot more light-hearted than the first game and that the characters had a pretty big role in that, and it doesn't feel right to me when the first game was about science going too far and releasing a horror that is about as threatening as a natural disaster. Adding said characters to HL2's predecessor makes it feel less forced IMO.
Also, I don't understand how BM's level design is worse than in Half Life, maybe it's just me.
Blue shift was made for the Dreamcast version just like decay was for de ps2 versions.
When the dreamcast port was canceled they port blue shift for PC.
Blue shift focus on Barny because he is a important member in HL2 and is considered a hero, also it was more atmospheric, since the beginning when you are in the elevator all the way to the end blue shift was made to make you feel alone, you are not longer Gordon Freeman , you are a "nobody", you don't know what is going on or why all that is happening, until the middle you almost never found anyone, you are alone in something you don't understand and you not have time to think about it, you need to escape and you will do anything you need to, including stealing from the corpses of your own friends and co-workers.
If you play with this mentality and understand it wasn't for PC but for the Dreamcast so they only make something worth buying the dreamcast port even if you have the PC one, you understand that is a great media for HL, and more of what happens is important for HL2 while opposing forces don't really matters because we never see or heard about Shepard again (no hunt down the Freeman or the unreleased half life 2 episode ravenholm) even the ending is made so you feel alone, no one else is left and you hear the military is coming closer, you are just a security guard, you can't survive if all of them arrive there and the portal doesn't work, you don't understand how that thing works so it could easily stop working because of you.
Blue shift is more Roleplaying that OG HL.
Alyx took me 20 hours to beat. The game is beautiful enough that I wanted to explore every corner and find every last piece of resin, so beating it in half the time would almost feel like rushing it.
The blue gravity gun at the end of HL2 will always be epic
"pick up that can"
From the bottom of my heart, thank you Craig! I love your videos and adding yet another video dedicated to one of my favorite series, makes me appreciate your content even more! Keep up with the good work, you are doing great 👍♥️
The NPCs are my only big gripe with HL2. They get in the way constantly and you can't kill them. Really takes the immersion away.
I'd prefer updates for all half life games that fixes issues like this instead of alyx. Why would i even want to play as alyx while a very cool soldier or a very cool scientist exists. Or while we have a real chad that can buy us a beer. Those characters are not just ordinary scientist, soldier or a security guard. But what is alyx?
@@zombine7103 Yeah I'm not a huge fan of Alyx. She's way overpowered and too good at everything.
You can kill NPCs. But it breaks every script so only console allows it.
@@MisterDoorNumber1 I wouldn't mind if the necessary ones would game end you if you killed them, like the Black Mesa scientists at the Questionable Ethics lobby fight. Once they open the door you can kill them and nothing happens. I could see it being a big problem with Alyx and Barney but BM fixes that too. The first security guard in Unforseen Consequences is invincible.
@@zombine7103
Somebody that literally grew up in the middle of the invasion. This is all normal day at the office for her.
But to meet you half way, I agree shepherd or Barney needs another game.
44:03 The biggest spottable difference in this is Ravenholm. There is a large green mist floating above the whole town.
I found the Xen levels in Blue Shift to be very well presented and by far the best out of all the other Xen levels in Half Life.
HL2 E1 is fun for the "The One Free Bullet" challenge - took me some time and tries to get it ... give it a try - gives E1 a nice touch
also - you missed a lot like Gunman Chronicles, Portal (yes, Portal does play in the same universe as we learn at the end of E2) and a lot of others
also also - play Half-Life with friends? Sven Co-Op