What's weird is that I liked everything up until after the tower. Running around in the pitch dark with headcrabs/zombies directing Alyx with the flashlight was kinda weak, and the combat the end...eh.
Episode 2 mixed things up more. Usually when you're about sick of fighting one kind of enemy boom, you're onto something else, or you get to solve some puzzles. I actually enjoyed the driving portion of Episode 2 despite HATING the driving portion in the original HL2.
"The world is populated in the main by people who should not exist." - George Bernard Shaw
Overall it's been a bunch of mostly fun, though. I don't subscribe to the "portal ruined videogames and sex for me for the rest of my life" viewpoint, so that's a non-issue. I'm playing HL to shoot shit, and while I always enjoy usingthe grav gun to throw gas cannisters at.. well, anything that moves it's really just my love of videogame explosives. I enjoyed the Ravenhlolme-esque section in the abandoned industrial complex as you're going across to get the car, and the "Omaha Beach" section where you have to take out the sentry guns was also a nice change of pace.
on the other hand....
The car handles like dog shit on wheels. Alyx is still irritating, though marginally less so. The "story" exposition is weak and boring. There's some mysterious shit going on, but we're going to be all fucking mysterious about it and not tell you anything really. Because it's more exciting. We're also going to make you sit through several minites at a time of this uninteractive expository dialogue that sounds like it was written by George Lucas. No, fuck HL's story. I don't care anymore and haven't cared since I first played HL2 and nothing was revealed about anything. Doktor Magnusson is a weak character and just as annoying as dunderbrain and his pet headcrab. The annoying, gruff doctor. Yeah, whatever.
I'm up to the bullshit egg-tossing section of Ep2 now. And all I can say is ..not fun. Those hunters are utter tripe. I don't feel like playing it anymore, but I'm sure I'll quicksave pushthrough it in the next couple of days. Worst. FPS-feature. ever. (needing to quicksave through a level.) Reminds me of one of the earlier MoH or CoD's - one of those WW2 FPS games' "sniper" levels where you also had to quicksave every few seconds. Someone tell these fuckheads that it's simply not fun.
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