Quote Originally Posted by frogbeastegg View Post
If you all promise to to lynch me I shall let you into a secret: the Half Life series is one of the most over-rated I've had the misfortune to play. Hated 1 and hated 2, and have never understood what all the fuss was about. The whole feel of the gameplay and world was artificial, stilted, plasticy. They have (slippery) jumping puzzles in them; that's a cardinal sin for a FPS! That much vaunted HL2 physics system is realistic in a universe with half gravity and objects made out of rubber surrounded by invisible force fields. I weep inside each time I see someone praise the plots and characters for this series; they don't even manage to be good in the cheesy, dumb way most throwaway games are.

Portal is the only decent SP thing to come out of that series. Glados, the gun turrets, cake, portaling through the ceiling at 70mph ... it's worth playing. Still over rated though. It's merely very good, not world shattering.
I must say I'm staggered by your comments. Did you play HL1 when it was released, or several years later?

HL1 was a revolution in FPS design when it was released. The mystery-nature of the storyline, with bits and pieces uncovered through overheard bits of conversation and numerous short-lived encounters with hapless scientists and Barneys, the stupendous scripted events which made the world seem like it was reacting to you, the game was damn scary in parts. The seamless environments were unique as well, with only brief pauses for loading the next section to keep the immersion factor going. The epic journey just to get back up to the surface, only to find it swarming with the military when you arrive, forcing you back down into the depths to survive. Not to mention the G-man. It also has possibly one of the best game intros I've ever seen: no cutscenes, everything was done in-game.

All in all, I do have to disagree with you heavily. I mark HL1 as one of the landmarks in FPS evolution. I put it up there with Wolf 3D, Quake 1, Thief, Descent, and Farcry.