This isn't spam. This isn't a troll thread. I really want to know why everyone likes this game. I have spent hours on it and I don't get why it's so highly regarded as it is. I will go as far as to say that this game plays like major doo doo. It certainly isn't as fun as the first ones, which I enjoy a whole lot. I honestly can't find a single thing I enjoy about this game. So basically, show me the light. I want to like this game.
The story is pretty good, not the best I have seen in a video game but it's up there. It still runs really smoothly without any bugs (that I can find) to this day, even though it is pretty dated now. I have never had issues with the game, and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the special part about the game is the physics and the map creation. The fact that you can interact with so many things changed gaming dramatically. Nowadays it's nothing special but when the game was released, all the little features half life introduced were not seen before. It was a revolutionary game in the gaming world.
Having played through it years ago, I was asking myself the same questions then. I think it boils down to a few key points: 1. Nostalgia. 2. Physics-based interaction with the world. There was a time when things like physics puzzles, ragdoll animations, and the gravity gun were considered cutting-edge unique features and really wowed people. 3. Strong narrative and world-building, without heavy-handed cutscenes or quicktime events. HL2 presents the world "as-is" and leaves it up to you to decide whether to care, but it doesn't take away player control.
I didn't like the story. I hated all the maps except for that Ravenholm or something-another. I thought the physics gimmicks bogged the game down. I really want to like this game. I do.
If you don't like the game, you don't like the game. Simple as that. EDIT: I should mention that while I managed to play through it once, I'd never do it again. I'm one of those people that, for whatever reason, get really nauseated and suffer headaches after only an hour or so of gameplay. I don't know if it's the "grimy" aesthetic, the forced 1st-person view, the FOV, or what (Bioshock Infinite and Dishonored did this to me as well, though not as badly as HL2).
I kind of had a neutral feeling about the game when I played, fun at first, then got boring really quick kind of thing.
