To this day, I compare all games to HL2 ... and they very rarely measure up. Maybe the Bioshock and Dishonored series. I'm always disappointed if a game won't let me stack things up to allow me to climb up higher.
It was basically “next gen” before the actual next gen consoles came out. Many of the things this game does was really only surpassed once we were a few years into the 360/PS3 era (with stuff like Gears and Uncharted, etc). And of course Crysis on the PC 3 years later. But I’d argue that the clean presentation and very deliberate, subtle yet muted lighting of the game makes it hold up far better then the blurry, muddy, post-process heavy games found early in that console generation.
remember sitting the computer lab freaking out about the engine demo. you can have barrels fall through pegs like pachinko. break wood and the fragments FLOAT on water. DID YOU SEE THE GORDON FREEMAN CHURCH WINDOWS?!!
Facial animations of G-man were somewhat revolutionary for its time. There was this famous E3 demo of G-man just talking and every journalist and fan losing their marbles over how "realistic" it is. Source engine was just as much(or even more) game changing as Goldsrc from Half-life 1. When I first played this game my gpu didnt even support shadrers yet and it still blew my mind.
Am i right or wrong that the facial animations were done by hand, with a human model as reference? I know thats how they made the L4D animations so good
@@zeallust8542 all facial and other animations made by hand,and you can find and try these tools in other Valve products such as Garris Mod and Source film maker.
Came here to say this. It’s truly a joy to watch someone experience this game for the first time. It’s a staple in gaming that I’m not sure will really ever be passed quite the same way.
49:17 Originally in 1999 when the development started HL2 was gonna be about Gordon hopping between alien dimensions, and you would start in your HL1 Mark 4 suit from the beginning, but Valve couldn't think of an interesting plot away from Earth so in 2000 they changed the setting to Earth and decided you should start without the suit for the sake of new players. This is Mark 5, the first game had Mark 4, the new one has sprint and the zoom but isn't really different in any other way, except maybe being pretty quiet. Originally the new suit was gonna be black, but the classic design was too iconic to change.
40:07 "Why did they just start beating us up?!" - just a few moments earlier, the voice-announcer lady says a miscount was detected in that block, i.e. one person too many - Gordon Freeman Also, 41:06 - you just made almost the exact same sound the Houndeyes make when they die!
They didn't know that was Gordon though, they thought it was just an ordinary noncitizen, they only knew it was Gordon after Breen saw him. It's funny how they did all that for a single unidentified person, but I suppose those aren't common.
@@SirKolass Ah, I didn't mean to imply they only attack because it's Gordon Freeman, I think it's just the miscount that prompts it - but I totally see how what I said can interpreted the way you did =P I just meant "you, Mapo, are the reason that violence was brought here"
Oh man, here we go.. Strap yourself in for the greatest FPS campaign ever fun fact re: improved character models. HL2 had some of the most advanced animation technology at the time, to the point where I believe a school for the deaf licensed it to help with learning to read lips. its hard to overstate just how mindblowing HL2 was when it came out. the physics, the animations, the level of immersion and detail and interactivity in the world... it was a revelation and one of the few times an insanely hyped game actually lived up to the buzz
49:25 That's what I like about G-man. "I'll let you keep the suit". Doesn't mean we're going to wear it right away. He just find a way so Dr.Kleiner's get a hold of Gordon's suit and not the combine. Because, imagine suddenly teleported in the station in city 17 wearing that suit. You'll be sticking out like a sore thumb. Well, at least that's how I think the devs think about it.
Yeah, and also in Half Life 1 you can see a blue shirt in Gordon's locker, so maybe they were put on Gordon by G-man because coincidentally it's the closest to a City 17 civie uniform, or Breen had the design as the official civilian outfit, atleast after Alyx happened when security grew tighter
@@ItsChevnotJeff Bruh don't overthink stuff, it's hardly a problem for a being like G-man to get Gordon a civie, he doesn't need to store a random t-shirt from 20 years ago.
28:30 It's depressing how you go through an abandoned playground at the beginning, even hearing the laughter of children as ambience. But as you learned earlier, humanity can't breed. So that makes it even darker.
@@HamazuraGOD well they have really done that with everything, all that is "useless" in the eyes of the combine is left to rot (like the boats in the canal). they insert their technology like they need to, and on the landscape it looks like a virus or cancer on a dying body (the city, the world).
I love that one of the notes on the wall in the lab says "Get more watermelons for Lamarr". Cool bit of world building that headcrabs aren't strict carnivores. And it's super cute to think of a headcrab attaching to a watermelon.
Half-Life was revolutionary in 1998. Now imagine waiting for six years and finally getting this, in 2004. And then imagine waiting for another 16 years and getting Half-Life: Alyx which is just as revolutionary. You still have the best Half-Life experiences in front of you.
Perfect timing, I just finished all the dlc episodes for the first game It's so funny that you went from just kind of randomly checking out the first game curiously, and now you're total fan boying over the sequel It's pretty fuckin good. The first games always considered a classic, but this ones usually got all time great status Absolutely fuckin in love with the world building and storytelling. With the dystopian future where humans can't breed it reminds me of the movie children of men. One of my all time favorites! You'd think after all these years and improvements since, the basic physics wouldn't be anything to write home about. Yet here we are still completely enamored with throwing garbage around to this day lol
I remember playing this when it first came out. My teenage mind was completely blown away by the graphics, facial animations, and physics interactions. It was like nothing else I had seen before and it stills holds up in certain areas. Amazing.
Seeing Mapo go nuts playing with all the physics objects took me way back to the first time I played this game and did the same thing. This is going to be a fun ride!
Same I first got half life 2 on Christmas 2 month ago and I’ve now finished half life 2 and all the episodes and I feel sad that I finished half life 2 because I have no more half life to play and even though it’s only been 2 months since I got half life 2 for some reason it feels very nostalgic
Dude I am so stoked to see you get to this after HL1, i knew you'd bloody love it and your reaction has surpassed my expectations haha! Now you see why I was so obsessed with it
Trying to play HL2 with a controller is like removing all the seats from your car. Yes, you _can_ drive like that but you're just making it unnecessarily difficult for yourself.
In all fairness that would suit his play style then as having watched him play through HL1 and both of its expansions he tends to spend 30 mins trying to do something that can be easily accomplished another way in just two minutes, so clearly unnecessarily difficult is his thing.
Yep. This game was definitely made and designed for PC. I played the pc version on release and the orange box for xbox, and playing with a controller makes it harder to move and shoot. To me, just about every game besides flying games is easier with mouse and keyboard. However, I do like the ability to lounge in any position I want with a wireless controller.
The engine of this game is called Source and it was revolutionary when it came out boosting the reputation of the series even more and out of that engine came so many games after that...it was just next gen stuff absolutely mindblowing for its time.
It really is incomprehensible to me that this came out 18 years ago. I still remember begging my mom to get me a shitty AMD graphics card to plug into my Dell desktop so I could run it at medium settings. I don't think most people understand how absolutely groundbreaking this game was (and HL1 for that matter). At the time this came out it was insanity. The physics, environmental storytelling, the campaign progression, the modding tools, literally everything in this game had never been seen before and it changed gaming forever. I was AMAZED in 2004 when I picked up the can and put it in the trash. Before my gaming experience had been "run over a power-up to get infinite ammo for 60 seconds", but this felt like a virtual world. A real world. To this day it holds up as probably the best game ever made. Enjoy your journey! Oh, and if you're amazed by picking stuff up... wait until you get a certain gun in a certain level... we don't go there anymore.
God I love the introductionary levels in Half Life 2. The fact that a game can hold up like this despite being nearly 20 years old is frankly incredible. Looking forward to seeing Mapo experience the rest of the game, it's truly a great experience start to finish.
I'm still impressed at how well HL2 holds up. Obviously not as good looking as Alyx, but I see even modern games still fail at facial animations to the point it looks uncanny valley. My favorite iteration is the "Half-Life Update" mod on Steam that just polishes it up a bit to look as good as episode 1 and 2.
2004 was the best year in gaming history. Half-Life 2, Halo 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, GTA San Andreas, Ninja Gaiden, Fable, Far Cry, Monster Hunter, NFS Underground 2. All in one year. And that's not even close to everything, that's just off the top of my head.
@@bitterman7258 That was the year I got my (first of four, because RRoD lol) Xbox 360. I remember TES IV: Oblivion and Prey were the games I got with it, then I bought Dead Rising shortly after. Definitely a pretty good year.
I watch this seeing myself all those years ago, figuring out all the small details and just becoming immersed in the world of this game (which by the way is just incredibly well-designed), have fun playing through the rest of the game!
This game was absolutely insane graphicly when i installed it back in 2004. I was blown away and it has aged pretty well i think. And when you imagine that the original Half-Life came out in 1998. Only 6 years later and the engine blew pretty much the whole gaming community and press away. There was a demo of the new engine shown in 2003. You can find poor quality versions of that here on RUclips. I was completely in awe when i first saw that. Also, Half-Life 2 is maybe my favorite game of all time (along with both Episodes). Have fun playing it 🙂
This is actually so cool, seeing the world of Half Life 2 through the eyes of someone who's going into the series blind. Only just at the part where you've started up the game, and I'm already so giddy at seeing how you react to this thing I've known for a good chunk of my life! Subscribed :)
A favorite little factoid of mine that I like to tell people about this game is that Barney and G-Man is voiced by the same actor. That was mind-blowing to me when I learned it, but you'll hear it after you know... :)
Your excitement is so genuine it's incredible. I'm very glad I found your channel. I wasn't even going to watch the whole video, but now I'm super stoked for part 2. I might even go all in and watch several in a row. I'll definately be watching more of your content. I'm loving it. That's weird because I've played the first part of HL2 God knows how many times. Your reactions are so genuine and real, it makes me want to see how you'll react to other things.
31:06 holy fck, after all this years i just realised this thing is here, because family took it to remember their children they probably lost, because of combine. I love environment storytelling. Also i love sound ambient background on children playground 27:40 . It's so creepy, and also tells a lot about the "ghosts" of the past. This game still amazes me, and i played it even before release, 1 year before game launch, unfortunately leaked version, it was very unfinished and almost unplayable, but already source engine just blowed my mind back then. Also people recreated/restored a lot of alpha version content, it was very different concept, even more dark and brutal, and more industrial/steampunkish. Can recommend to check if there any good video on YT about this topic, but of course only after completing HL2 and episodes.
Even darker than that. The suppression field has been active for years, decades even. Notice that you never see anyone younger than early twenties in the game? That's because the suppression field has stopped people conceiving children for 20 odd years. The part was probably taken by someone who used to play in the playground. Probably the last time that they were happy, before the Combine invaded. Environmental storytelling at its absolute best.
I’ve been waiting for this one, dude! You’re in for a wild ride. Relish this one. Also, your reactions to everything once you stepped off the train was priceless, man. Loved it.
Wish i could erase memories to replay this game blindly again. The only way to re-experience that thing it to watch such playthroughs from ppl like you. Thank you sir!
I love seeing someone start moving things around in the apartments and making themselves at home, I did that all the time when I was young. Also I tried many many times to break that lock Mapo is a menace to this city, trashing people’s homes. Half Life 2 is a special one and it has a very special place in my heart
Oh no, first kotor, now hl2 this day is amazing, damn, what a start to a weekend, well have a great one to Mapo, enjoy one of the greats. Its so much fun to see your first impression to this and how much of a leap this game took in 6 years. Enjoying every minute of it
53:07 fun fact, this isn't just video game trickery, she is physically teleported to that second location. You can tell because if you throw an item in with her it pops out the other side.
I love that you are exploring the map a lot, making some insightful comments. Makes me want to replay the game :-D Imagine seeing this in 2004 when it came out )))
One of the reasons it took 6 years to develop after hl1 was that valve designed their own engine for this game(the source engine) an engine they continued to use for years
36:23 Omg your face combined with the comical window smash sound! My sides 🤣 It's so magical to see someone with your disposition go through this completely blind after all these years. You have yourself a new fan!
I was just looking for a new blind playthrough of this to watch, its fantastic. Very Impressive for its day and even now, especially the facial animation. For 2004 the faces and emotions shown on them were Amazing, still better than some games today lol
I played half life 2 when it first came out, and seeing your reaction to it as a first time player in 2022 is giving me shivers at remembering my first time playing it thoroughly enjoying watching you slowly piece lore together as you navigate through the game! subbed :)
been waiting for this! Really glad your playing them in order and really grasping the lore. Most play thru channels just run thru each chapter blindly without even considering to look around
i appreciate that you really took the time to recap the games at the beginning. Really shows that your immersed in the world and the setting. Instant Sub for me
Found your video/channel NOW and watching your reaction, omg its so good and so fresh to see someone blindly going into Half-Life 2 and genuinely enjoying it totally, all those moments, all those dialogues its a WONDERFUL game! Will keep watching your playthrough as they coming out slowly, keep up the good work!
Your excitement is exactly how I felt when I first loaded up HL2 back when it came out in 2004! I played HL wayyy back in 98 on totally underpowered hardware and absolutely loved it, and when HL2 came out I was simply blown away by how amped up everything was. I can't wait for you to explore more of this and the Episodes! Also, Gordon teleported into C17 naked, that's why the scanners are taking so many photos of you. Can't get enough Gordon.
playing this game in 2004 was just mindblowing... the facial expressions, the physics, and even little details like this glass effect at 30:33 that we take from granted nowadays were revolutionary back then
its so cool seeing someone play the game that got me into well, gaming, I love hl2 and I hope you'll end up loving it as much as I do, its a real masterpiece and its what brought us to the games we have today.
It's so cool to see someone experience this masterpiece for the first time the way me and my brother were able to do it back in 2005-06. Good times. And good video.
blind reactions of the half life series are sooooo few and far between these days. thank you so much for making this, this series is actually so entertaining to watch.
it's so nice to see people being amazed by how good hl2 is i wish i could replay it and feel those emotions once again
2 года назад+3
Loving his reaction! This is how I felt when I played the game LONG ago first time! I was so mind blown. And you know what? I never felt this sensation from anything later on.
Your amazement with this game brought an ear-to-ear grin to my face. No other game ever created the anticipation and eventual awe that Half-Life 2 did. So glad you can experience it like this mate.
G-man controls all of time so when he said "You can keep the suit" He meant that even when you don't have it, your going to get it inevitably. Meaning he will always need it
Man it's so satisfying seeing someone play this and paying attention to the lore and dialogue, and even more so when you also paid attention and got to know the lore of the past games. So many people miss the plot and fail to understand the HL universe just because they leave it to the player to figure out instead of forcing exposition.
Im 31 and been playing half-life since day one. It molded my life and set standards for todays games. seeing your reaction to it bring me nostalgic joy that people are still experiencing it.
Still my favorite game if all time. I still remember playing this masterpiece for the first time in my life...I haven't been as hyped for a game since then
My favorite game of all time, among many reasons the diversity of gameplay...one of my favorite nes games was a game called Golgo 13 Top Secret Episode for the same reason, that game was mind-blowing for the hardware it was released on.
This game was so immersive that I couldn’t make it past Route Kanal my first play though in 2004. The mangled, burned corpses in the sewers, the violence, the startle factor of being shot at or attacked in such a realistic way, was too much stress for my young teenage brain. I had to wait a few years to finish it. Call me a pussy if you want, but that’s a real testament to the storytelling and realism of this groundbreaking game.
the themes in this game are absolutely devastating, it's justified that you were freaked out. considering any adult can be affected once you delve into the true magnitude of hopelessness in earth in this setting, no wonder!
Man seeing you enjoying this game is making me smile from ear to ear. It's like playing it again for the first time just like 16 years ago. Not to mention how you stop and check out all the little details. Half-Life 2 is unparalleled to this day and I hope you'll enjoy every second of it like many of us did.
I watched your Portal & Portal 2 playthroughs, and now HL2. Your excitement and energy is so great and nice to follow, almost like I can experience these games again for the first time. And we all still love these games!
if you haven't already finished the game you're in for a treat, its absolutely fantastic. once you're finished tho (with episodes 1 and 2) you're gunna need to play half life alyx. if you dont already have VR then playing that as your fist VR experience will blow your mind.
Small detail. When you play with the playground equipment, distant sounds of children playing can be heard. I loved the sound design and the art direction for HL2. It's why it's still one of the best games ever. Maximum immersion.
Thanks for continuing with Half-Life 2! I strongly encourage you to use the mouse and keyboard, because you have finer control. Also, something I'd like you to remember as you play this game is that this game puts a lot of focus on PHYSICS and using physics to your advantage... don't be afraid to TRY things you may not expect to work or you did not experience in other games.
Holy shit, I just found this. Did not know you hadn't played this game before. HL2 has incredible nostalgia for me as it's honestly among the first ever PC games I bought as a kid, and it still holds up very well despite its age.
I'm not sure I can word this right. But thank you for playing an old favorite. It is so great seeing someone like you getting so stoked while playing old games. Hell just enjoying the game itself, playing with the physics and exploring the town, and just being like a happy child in a new environment. I can't remember the last time I felt that kind of elated when playing a game, so it feels nice to see others enjoying that feeling. Thank you again.
This is great! I love watching people play games and take their time to understand them. Valve of all developers certainly take their time to playtest and polish their games to make them worthwhile. Looking forward to the rest! Also, and this will sound very impatient, I'd like to see how this format works with an even more interactive and immersive version of City 17 - in VR, and with Half-Life: Alyx!
I know one thing for sure. When he finishes all of HL2 and it's DLCs, he will join the millions of people who ask Valve the golden question: Where is Half Life 3?
That's exactly the feelings that we had when first time played this game. I remember how leaving train station at the beginning I just stood on that square and was looking around for like 10 minutes!. Every detail was way too realistic, even scratches on asphalt. I literally stood in awe. The game was mind blowing. It's one of that kind of games when you think to yourself "Is it even possible to made something better? I bet not".
I'm surprised you went through the intro of the game for an hour. Many players go through this part much faster. But you savor every bite, look at every little detail and share your sincere impressions. It's just wonderful! I wish every player could experience the game like you do.
Seeing your enjoyment and fascination with this game takes me right back when I first played it and it gives me joy. Thank you for playing and showing us!
Half Life 2 is genuinely one of the best sequels to any kind of piece of media or popular culture, ever. In terms of progressing the story, building on characters and more importantly creating character (especially since the old adage of everyone looking fairly cookie cutter in HL1), presenting a world utterly changed as a direct result of what you did in the first game, in terms of new gameplay mechanics, change of scenery and environment, all while keeping the uninterrupted perspective and combat and overall familiar gameplay feel of the original game but doing everything else that a sequel should do, it’s monumentally good!
First time seeing one of your videos and this was a lot of fun to watch. I love seeing how much passion and attention to detail you have for everything. I started playing Half Life 2 with the VR mod this year and it shocked me at how immersed I felt. it really was almost like living in the world in a way I hadn't felt with other VR titles.
40:07 ‘Civil Protection’ swept in and started beating people because there was an extra person (Gordon) unaccounted for in their sector. Just before the raid kicks off you can hear the Combine citywide intercom announce that there had been a miscount in the apartment block and to comply with the arriving police force.
![Gordon Freeman on the Run in Route Kanal - Half-Life 2 | Blind Playthrough [Part 2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/UiXjcDKNqfg/mqdefault.jpg)
![Gordon Freeman on the Run in Route Kanal - Half-Life 2 | Blind Playthrough [Part 2]](/img/tr.png)
![[Part 1] A Physicist Plays A Physicist In Black Mesa┃First Blind Playthrough](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PtSGiouFY10/mqdefault.jpg)
If you're impressed with the graphics and physics now, imagine how it felt for the people playing this in 2004 🤣
I think he was impressed that it looks decent for a game that came out in 2004
@@SrGwynnbleid I think he was simply impressed with the leap from the first half life game.
@@SrGwynnbleid I mean i actually think the graphics are fairly solid even by todays standards. Definitely one of the games that has aged the best
@@TheArrowedKnee Dude this game has better lip-syncing and facial expressions than most modern games. I mean look at Cyberpunk for example.
I just hope he got picking up every single item out of his system this episode. Or it's going to be a loooooong playthrough
The physics and narrative of half life 2 is something that even today is little used even in AAA games. This game is a historic landmark.
And we will always remember it
aka euophiria phiscys
@@slendrio bruh only rockstar uses euphoria
@@cones3283 yeah, most early physics systems used HAVOK, I remember seeing HAVOK physics tm on the back of tons of games back in the day
everything valve did
half life 2 was a technological masterpiece back in the day. Everyone had their chin on the floor with its technical brilliance.
To this day, I compare all games to HL2 ... and they very rarely measure up. Maybe the Bioshock and Dishonored series. I'm always disappointed if a game won't let me stack things up to allow me to climb up higher.
It was basically “next gen” before the actual next gen consoles came out. Many of the things this game does was really only surpassed once we were a few years into the 360/PS3 era (with stuff like Gears and Uncharted, etc). And of course Crysis on the PC 3 years later.
But I’d argue that the clean presentation and very deliberate, subtle yet muted lighting of the game makes it hold up far better then the blurry, muddy, post-process heavy games found early in that console generation.
@@grichard1585
Make sure to put Prey in that list
remember sitting the computer lab freaking out about the engine demo. you can have barrels fall through pegs like pachinko. break wood and the fragments FLOAT on water.
DID YOU SEE THE GORDON FREEMAN CHURCH WINDOWS?!!
Even Sam Lake the writer and face of Max Payne has HL2 as his favorite game
Facial animations of G-man were somewhat revolutionary for its time. There was this famous E3 demo of G-man just talking and every journalist and fan losing their marbles over how "realistic" it is.
Source engine was just as much(or even more) game changing as Goldsrc from Half-life 1. When I first played this game my gpu didnt even support shadrers yet and it still blew my mind.
Am i right or wrong that the facial animations were done by hand, with a human model as reference? I know thats how they made the L4D animations so good
@@zeallust8542 all facial and other animations made by hand,and you can find and try these tools in other Valve products such as Garris Mod and Source film maker.
@@monkeyrise856 Made by hand is probably exactly why the facial animations look good, but all the walking and interacting animations are stiff as hell
@@zeallust8542 animations only look stiff by modern standards, very few games had lifelike animation 18 years ago.
@@SLENDAMANN Nope. Theyve always looked stiff.
Seeing him this excited already fills me with so much joy! Second episode can't come soon enough.
Yeah! Can’t wait for the third-….
Yeah, it's heartwarming to see someone experience that joy for the first time. I remember mine.
Came here to say this. It’s truly a joy to watch someone experience this game for the first time. It’s a staple in gaming that I’m not sure will really ever be passed quite the same way.
49:17 Originally in 1999 when the development started HL2 was gonna be about Gordon hopping between alien dimensions, and you would start in your HL1 Mark 4 suit from the beginning, but Valve couldn't think of an interesting plot away from Earth so in 2000 they changed the setting to Earth and decided you should start without the suit for the sake of new players. This is Mark 5, the first game had Mark 4, the new one has sprint and the zoom but isn't really different in any other way, except maybe being pretty quiet. Originally the new suit was gonna be black, but the classic design was too iconic to change.
There is a lot more black on the Mark V than the Mark IV but there's still some orange.
@@creeperhunterD yeah it was supposed to be alot more of the black flexible material instead of large heavy metal plates
Also it was going to be more gritty and dark. This was the true Half Life 2 Beta
40:07 "Why did they just start beating us up?!" - just a few moments earlier, the voice-announcer lady says a miscount was detected in that block, i.e. one person too many - Gordon Freeman
Also, 41:06 - you just made almost the exact same sound the Houndeyes make when they die!
Lol
They didn't know that was Gordon though, they thought it was just an ordinary noncitizen, they only knew it was Gordon after Breen saw him. It's funny how they did all that for a single unidentified person, but I suppose those aren't common.
@@SirKolass Ah, I didn't mean to imply they only attack because it's Gordon Freeman, I think it's just the miscount that prompts it - but I totally see how what I said can interpreted the way you did =P I just meant "you, Mapo, are the reason that violence was brought here"
we need him to pin him
Oh man, here we go.. Strap yourself in for the greatest FPS campaign ever
fun fact re: improved character models. HL2 had some of the most advanced animation technology at the time, to the point where I believe a school for the deaf licensed it to help with learning to read lips.
its hard to overstate just how mindblowing HL2 was when it came out. the physics, the animations, the level of immersion and detail and interactivity in the world... it was a revelation and one of the few times an insanely hyped game actually lived up to the buzz
It didn't just live up to the hype, it over-shot everyone's imagination and then some.
im very doubtful on the deaf part, it's really not that accurate
49:25 That's what I like about G-man. "I'll let you keep the suit". Doesn't mean we're going to wear it right away. He just find a way so Dr.Kleiner's get a hold of Gordon's suit and not the combine. Because, imagine suddenly teleported in the station in city 17 wearing that suit. You'll be sticking out like a sore thumb.
Well, at least that's how I think the devs think about it.
Yeah, and also in Half Life 1 you can see a blue shirt in Gordon's locker, so maybe they were put on Gordon by G-man because coincidentally it's the closest to a City 17 civie uniform, or Breen had the design as the official civilian outfit, atleast after Alyx happened when security grew tighter
@@ItsChevnotJeff Bruh don't overthink stuff, it's hardly a problem for a being like G-man to get Gordon a civie, he doesn't need to store a random t-shirt from 20 years ago.
Lord works in mysterious ways
28:30 It's depressing how you go through an abandoned playground at the beginning, even hearing the laughter of children as ambience. But as you learned earlier, humanity can't breed. So that makes it even darker.
The fact the combine leave the playgrounds up is so messed, honestly
@@HamazuraGOD well they have really done that with everything, all that is "useless" in the eyes of the combine is left to rot (like the boats in the canal). they insert their technology like they need to, and on the landscape it looks like a virus or cancer on a dying body (the city, the world).
I love that one of the notes on the wall in the lab says "Get more watermelons for Lamarr". Cool bit of world building that headcrabs aren't strict carnivores. And it's super cute to think of a headcrab attaching to a watermelon.
Really? I never found that!
Cant wait for you to enjoy this masterpiece! The facial animations definitely hold up 15 years later
@@nax4448 Oh man the pandemic really made time fly...
@@MADVILLAIN669 fr the last two years felt like 6 months lol. Some Groundhog Day shit.
@@yewtewbstew547 batsoup day
Especially considering some of the truly awful facial animations in some recent AAA titles. Mass Effect: Andromeda and Cyberpunk 2077 come to mind.
The combine are many things but at least they understood that littering is no joke
Half-Life was revolutionary in 1998. Now imagine waiting for six years and finally getting this, in 2004. And then imagine waiting for another 16 years and getting Half-Life: Alyx which is just as revolutionary. You still have the best Half-Life experiences in front of you.
The Best part of all this is vale didnt forget about half life, thx half life Alyx the flames of hopes burn again as much as the first days
Thing is, it never felt that long because of all the great mods to play in the meantime, CS source, TFC, Sven Coop
Perfect timing, I just finished all the dlc episodes for the first game
It's so funny that you went from just kind of randomly checking out the first game curiously, and now you're total fan boying over the sequel
It's pretty fuckin good. The first games always considered a classic, but this ones usually got all time great status
Absolutely fuckin in love with the world building and storytelling. With the dystopian future where humans can't breed it reminds me of the movie children of men. One of my all time favorites!
You'd think after all these years and improvements since, the basic physics wouldn't be anything to write home about. Yet here we are still completely enamored with throwing garbage around to this day lol
I remember playing this when it first came out. My teenage mind was completely blown away by the graphics, facial animations, and physics interactions. It was like nothing else I had seen before and it stills holds up in certain areas. Amazing.
Seeing Mapo go nuts playing with all the physics objects took me way back to the first time I played this game and did the same thing. This is going to be a fun ride!
Same I first got half life 2 on Christmas 2 month ago and I’ve now finished half life 2 and all the episodes and I feel sad that I finished half life 2 because I have no more half life to play and even though it’s only been 2 months since I got half life 2 for some reason it feels very nostalgic
This is actually really cool, a blind playthrough of HL2? I was there in 2004, and gaming was never the same again.
Dude I am so stoked to see you get to this after HL1, i knew you'd bloody love it and your reaction has surpassed my expectations haha! Now you see why I was so obsessed with it
Trying to play HL2 with a controller is like removing all the seats from your car. Yes, you _can_ drive like that but you're just making it unnecessarily difficult for yourself.
This is exactly how I felt trying to play Portal with a controller.
I can't play anything with K&M it completely cramps my hands.
In all fairness that would suit his play style then as having watched him play through HL1 and both of its expansions he tends to spend 30 mins trying to do something that can be easily accomplished another way in just two minutes, so clearly unnecessarily difficult is his thing.
Yep. This game was definitely made and designed for PC. I played the pc version on release and the orange box for xbox, and playing with a controller makes it harder to move and shoot.
To me, just about every game besides flying games is easier with mouse and keyboard. However, I do like the ability to lounge in any position I want with a wireless controller.
Keyboard is more precise but uncomfortable, controller is less precise but comfortable.
The engine of this game is called Source and it was revolutionary when it came out boosting the reputation of the series even more and out of that engine came so many games after that...it was just next gen stuff absolutely mindblowing for its time.
I'd say it still is !
And now with HL:Alyx and Source 2, I entirely had my mind blown on how good VR can look and still run smooth, such a great experience
It really is incomprehensible to me that this came out 18 years ago. I still remember begging my mom to get me a shitty AMD graphics card to plug into my Dell desktop so I could run it at medium settings. I don't think most people understand how absolutely groundbreaking this game was (and HL1 for that matter). At the time this came out it was insanity. The physics, environmental storytelling, the campaign progression, the modding tools, literally everything in this game had never been seen before and it changed gaming forever. I was AMAZED in 2004 when I picked up the can and put it in the trash. Before my gaming experience had been "run over a power-up to get infinite ammo for 60 seconds", but this felt like a virtual world. A real world. To this day it holds up as probably the best game ever made. Enjoy your journey!
Oh, and if you're amazed by picking stuff up... wait until you get a certain gun in a certain level... we don't go there anymore.
Oh god its been 18 years?
@@zeallust8542 feel old yet? :D
@@juhaloukaja5078 Im too young to feel old and yet I do.
Seeing him so excited makes me so happy. I knew he was going to love it.
same!
Now I'm hoping he keeps going into Portal and Portal 2, because the reactions should be something to behold :D.
@@GaldirEonai Portal 2 is such a great experience. It’s almost feels like a movie.
@@beepst portal 1 has a feeling of dread through the whole game, like you dont belong there, portal 2 feels like a pixar movie
@@bitterman7258 Exactly my thoughts.
God I love the introductionary levels in Half Life 2. The fact that a game can hold up like this despite being nearly 20 years old is frankly incredible. Looking forward to seeing Mapo experience the rest of the game, it's truly a great experience start to finish.
Yesss, become a mouse and keyboard guy! It honestly works much better in immersive first person shooters imo
I'm still impressed at how well HL2 holds up. Obviously not as good looking as Alyx, but I see even modern games still fail at facial animations to the point it looks uncanny valley. My favorite iteration is the "Half-Life Update" mod on Steam that just polishes it up a bit to look as good as episode 1 and 2.
41:05 and also, didn't know that you can destroy this flying trashcans with just throwing paint cans. This is hilarious
I usually speed through this area in about 20 minutes, seeing someone be amazed by the graphics and storytelling once again feels amazing
36:21 - I mean this is pretty much HL2 initiation ceremony.
2004 was the best year in gaming history. Half-Life 2, Halo 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, GTA San Andreas, Ninja Gaiden, Fable, Far Cry, Monster Hunter, NFS Underground 2. All in one year. And that's not even close to everything, that's just off the top of my head.
2006 was THE year of the gamer
@@bitterman7258 That was the year I got my (first of four, because RRoD lol) Xbox 360. I remember TES IV: Oblivion and Prey were the games I got with it, then I bought Dead Rising shortly after. Definitely a pretty good year.
@@yewtewbstew547 i was making a joke but yeah 2006 was great, especially because of prey for me, one of my all time favourites
Resident Evil 4 just a year later
I watch this seeing myself all those years ago, figuring out all the small details and just becoming immersed in the world of this game (which by the way is just incredibly well-designed), have fun playing through the rest of the game!
This game was absolutely insane graphicly when i installed it back in 2004. I was blown away and it has aged pretty well i think.
And when you imagine that the original Half-Life came out in 1998. Only 6 years later and the engine blew pretty much the whole gaming community and press away.
There was a demo of the new engine shown in 2003. You can find poor quality versions of that here on RUclips. I was completely in awe when i first saw that.
Also, Half-Life 2 is maybe my favorite game of all time (along with both Episodes).
Have fun playing it 🙂
I really hope Mapo plays the Portal games after finishing Half-life.
Can't wait to see his reaction to the "cake"
@@patinthechat6452 "you will be baked, and then there will be baked"
This is actually so cool, seeing the world of Half Life 2 through the eyes of someone who's going into the series blind. Only just at the part where you've started up the game, and I'm already so giddy at seeing how you react to this thing I've known for a good chunk of my life!
Subscribed :)
Can't wait to see him have his mind blown when playing Alyx.
He has VR?
@@AE_Inc. idk maybe
A favorite little factoid of mine that I like to tell people about this game is that Barney and G-Man is voiced by the same actor. That was mind-blowing to me when I learned it, but you'll hear it after you know... :)
Booty Calling is the G-man??
@@kohakunushi3028 That's the gist of it, yeah. 😂
Your excitement is so genuine it's incredible. I'm very glad I found your channel. I wasn't even going to watch the whole video, but now I'm super stoked for part 2. I might even go all in and watch several in a row. I'll definately be watching more of your content. I'm loving it. That's weird because I've played the first part of HL2 God knows how many times. Your reactions are so genuine and real, it makes me want to see how you'll react to other things.
31:06 holy fck, after all this years i just realised this thing is here, because family took it to remember their children they probably lost, because of combine. I love environment storytelling.
Also i love sound ambient background on children playground 27:40 . It's so creepy, and also tells a lot about the "ghosts" of the past.
This game still amazes me, and i played it even before release, 1 year before game launch, unfortunately leaked version, it was very unfinished and almost unplayable, but already source engine just blowed my mind back then.
Also people recreated/restored a lot of alpha version content, it was very different concept, even more dark and brutal, and more industrial/steampunkish. Can recommend to check if there any good video on YT about this topic, but of course only after completing HL2 and episodes.
Even darker than that. The suppression field has been active for years, decades even. Notice that you never see anyone younger than early twenties in the game? That's because the suppression field has stopped people conceiving children for 20 odd years.
The part was probably taken by someone who used to play in the playground. Probably the last time that they were happy, before the Combine invaded.
Environmental storytelling at its absolute best.
I’ve been waiting for this one, dude! You’re in for a wild ride. Relish this one.
Also, your reactions to everything once you stepped off the train was priceless, man. Loved it.
Wish i could erase memories to replay this game blindly again. The only way to re-experience that thing it to watch such playthroughs from ppl like you. Thank you sir!
I love seeing someone start moving things around in the apartments and making themselves at home, I did that all the time when I was young.
Also
I tried many many times to break that lock
Mapo is a menace to this city, trashing people’s homes.
Half Life 2 is a special one and it has a very special place in my heart
Oh no, first kotor, now hl2 this day is amazing, damn, what a start to a weekend, well have a great one to Mapo, enjoy one of the greats.
Its so much fun to see your first impression to this and how much of a leap this game took in 6 years. Enjoying every minute of it
53:07 fun fact, this isn't just video game trickery, she is physically teleported to that second location. You can tell because if you throw an item in with her it pops out the other side.
The most valve move ever
Interesting, gonna check that later
Funny that despite being only 2 years older than this game, it's one my absolute favorites
oh my god I'm getting old
@@jamesliggins891 haha yeah... I was a sophomore in college when this came out. HL2 and Doom 3 came out within a month of each other, loved em both
And I am as old as the game
After xen, gordon was presumed dead. Its entirely possible g man planted the suit somewhere for kleiner to find it, and make further alterations
No shit i didnt think about this considering g man powers
I love that you are exploring the map a lot, making some insightful comments. Makes me want to replay the game :-D Imagine seeing this in 2004 when it came out )))
One of the reasons it took 6 years to develop after hl1 was that valve designed their own engine for this game(the source engine) an engine they continued to use for years
36:23 Omg your face combined with the comical window smash sound! My sides 🤣
It's so magical to see someone with your disposition go through this completely blind after all these years. You have yourself a new fan!
I was high as a kite the first time I played this back in '04, and it was one of the most mind blowing gaming experiences of my life.
Thank you for letting us come with you on this journey. Honestly, the JOY is giving me life today. Keep on keepin' on.
I was just looking for a new blind playthrough of this to watch, its fantastic. Very Impressive for its day and even now, especially the facial animation. For 2004 the faces and emotions shown on them were Amazing, still better than some games today lol
Man it seriously warms my heart seeing you having the exact same 'WHOA' reactions that I had when I first played Half Life 2, all those years ago.
I played half life 2 when it first came out, and seeing your reaction to it as a first time player in 2022 is giving me shivers at remembering my first time playing it
thoroughly enjoying watching you slowly piece lore together as you navigate through the game! subbed :)
been waiting for this! Really glad your playing them in order and really grasping the lore. Most play thru channels just run thru each chapter blindly without even considering to look around
i appreciate that you really took the time to recap the games at the beginning. Really shows that your immersed in the world and the setting. Instant Sub for me
Found your video/channel NOW and watching your reaction, omg its so good and so fresh to see someone blindly going into Half-Life 2 and genuinely enjoying it totally, all those moments, all those dialogues its a WONDERFUL game!
Will keep watching your playthrough as they coming out slowly, keep up the good work!
The first ever Half-Life game i played when i was 13 and it's so nostalgic.... I'm very jealous that you're experiencing this game for the first time
Your excitement is exactly how I felt when I first loaded up HL2 back when it came out in 2004! I played HL wayyy back in 98 on totally underpowered hardware and absolutely loved it, and when HL2 came out I was simply blown away by how amped up everything was.
I can't wait for you to explore more of this and the Episodes!
Also, Gordon teleported into C17 naked, that's why the scanners are taking so many photos of you. Can't get enough Gordon.
playing this game in 2004 was just mindblowing... the facial expressions, the physics, and even little details like this glass effect at 30:33 that we take from granted nowadays were revolutionary back then
its so cool seeing someone play the game that got me into well, gaming, I love hl2 and I hope you'll end up loving it as much as I do, its a real masterpiece and its what brought us to the games we have today.
It's so cool to see someone experience this masterpiece for the first time the way me and my brother were able to do it back in 2005-06. Good times. And good video.
blind reactions of the half life series are sooooo few and far between these days. thank you so much for making this, this series is actually so entertaining to watch.
it's so nice to see people being amazed by how good hl2 is i wish i could replay it and feel those emotions once again
Loving his reaction! This is how I felt when I played the game LONG ago first time! I was so mind blown. And you know what? I never felt this sensation from anything later on.
So glad I found this channel, your reactions bring me back to the joy that is to experience HL2 for the first time
Your amazement with this game brought an ear-to-ear grin to my face. No other game ever created the anticipation and eventual awe that Half-Life 2 did. So glad you can experience it like this mate.
Love how hype you are for every call-back / easter egg from the previous games!
I WAS WAITING FOR THIS!
this is going to be awesome
G-man controls all of time so when he said
"You can keep the suit"
He meant that even when you don't have it, your going to get it inevitably.
Meaning he will always need it
Half-Life 2 is one of the best games that have been around for years but is still great.
Watching you have fun exploring this for the first time is such a treat.
Man it's so satisfying seeing someone play this and paying attention to the lore and dialogue, and even more so when you also paid attention and got to know the lore of the past games.
So many people miss the plot and fail to understand the HL universe just because they leave it to the player to figure out instead of forcing exposition.
I love hl2, so nostalgic, and the setting too with a old Eastern European city with alien tech, and I’m glad your playing it
Im 31 and been playing half-life since day one. It molded my life and set standards for todays games. seeing your reaction to it bring me nostalgic joy that people are still experiencing it.
Still my favorite game if all time. I still remember playing this masterpiece for the first time in my life...I haven't been as hyped for a game since then
My favorite game of all time, among many reasons the diversity of gameplay...one of my favorite nes games was a game called Golgo 13 Top Secret Episode for the same reason, that game was mind-blowing for the hardware it was released on.
omg spending like half an hour playing with the physics is like the most relatable thing XD
This game was so immersive that I couldn’t make it past Route Kanal my first play though in 2004. The mangled, burned corpses in the sewers, the violence, the startle factor of being shot at or attacked in such a realistic way, was too much stress for my young teenage brain. I had to wait a few years to finish it. Call me a pussy if you want, but that’s a real testament to the storytelling and realism of this groundbreaking game.
the themes in this game are absolutely devastating, it's justified that you were freaked out. considering any adult can be affected once you delve into the true magnitude of hopelessness in earth in this setting, no wonder!
Man seeing you enjoying this game is making me smile from ear to ear. It's like playing it again for the first time just like 16 years ago. Not to mention how you stop and check out all the little details. Half-Life 2 is unparalleled to this day and I hope you'll enjoy every second of it like many of us did.
Having played this game for over ten years and being completely desensitized to it at this point, it's so cool to see someone's first reaction to it.
I watched your Portal & Portal 2 playthroughs, and now HL2. Your excitement and energy is so great and nice to follow, almost like I can experience these games again for the first time. And we all still love these games!
if you haven't already finished the game you're in for a treat, its absolutely fantastic. once you're finished tho (with episodes 1 and 2) you're gunna need to play half life alyx. if you dont already have VR then playing that as your fist VR experience will blow your mind.
Mapo is losing his mind hahahaha love it! Can't wait for this series!
Even two decades later there's something magical about seeing people experience HL2 for the first time.
That was me recently and it certainly was magical
@@jess648 fumo
@@nathanielsavory5434 I get replies like this almost daily
"Feels so much more natural on a keyboard." Welcome to the PC Gaming Master Race.
That was a great episode lol, only true gamers throw the tv out of the window
Small detail. When you play with the playground equipment, distant sounds of children playing can be heard.
I loved the sound design and the art direction for HL2. It's why it's still one of the best games ever. Maximum immersion.
Thanks for continuing with Half-Life 2! I strongly encourage you to use the mouse and keyboard, because you have finer control.
Also, something I'd like you to remember as you play this game is that this game puts a lot of focus on PHYSICS and using physics to your advantage... don't be afraid to TRY things you may not expect to work or you did not experience in other games.
Holy shit, I just found this. Did not know you hadn't played this game before. HL2 has incredible nostalgia for me as it's honestly among the first ever PC games I bought as a kid, and it still holds up very well despite its age.
I'm not sure I can word this right. But thank you for playing an old favorite. It is so great seeing someone like you getting so stoked while playing old games. Hell just enjoying the game itself, playing with the physics and exploring the town, and just being like a happy child in a new environment. I can't remember the last time I felt that kind of elated when playing a game, so it feels nice to see others enjoying that feeling.
Thank you again.
This is great! I love watching people play games and take their time to understand them. Valve of all developers certainly take their time to playtest and polish their games to make them worthwhile. Looking forward to the rest!
Also, and this will sound very impatient, I'd like to see how this format works with an even more interactive and immersive version of City 17 - in VR, and with Half-Life: Alyx!
I know one thing for sure. When he finishes all of HL2 and it's DLCs, he will join the millions of people who ask Valve the golden question: Where is Half Life 3?
its not dlc
I love see people reacting to half-life universe for the first time! I wish I could erase my memory of the game and play all this again XD
I know what you mean.
I rember playing this as a kid and being very, very lost on some parts, having to wander around until I finally figured out what to do.
That's exactly the feelings that we had when first time played this game.
I remember how leaving train station at the beginning I just stood on that square and was looking around for like 10 minutes!. Every detail was way too realistic, even scratches on asphalt.
I literally stood in awe. The game was mind blowing. It's one of that kind of games when you think to yourself "Is it even possible to made something better? I bet not".
Have you felt that way about any game since then?
@@cleverman383 I think similiar feelings was when I first time launched Witcher 3
I'm surprised you went through the intro of the game for an hour. Many players go through this part much faster. But you savor every bite, look at every little detail and share your sincere impressions. It's just wonderful! I wish every player could experience the game like you do.
all he did was throw stuff around and ignore the environmental storytelling
I've been checking my notifications every few hours for the past week. Finally it's here!
Seeing your enjoyment and fascination with this game takes me right back when I first played it and it gives me joy. Thank you for playing and showing us!
Half Life 2 is genuinely one of the best sequels to any kind of piece of media or popular culture, ever.
In terms of progressing the story, building on characters and more importantly creating character (especially since the old adage of everyone looking fairly cookie cutter in HL1), presenting a world utterly changed as a direct result of what you did in the first game, in terms of new gameplay mechanics, change of scenery and environment, all while keeping the uninterrupted perspective and combat and overall familiar gameplay feel of the original game but doing everything else that a sequel should do, it’s monumentally good!
First time seeing one of your videos and this was a lot of fun to watch. I love seeing how much passion and attention to detail you have for everything. I started playing Half Life 2 with the VR mod this year and it shocked me at how immersed I felt. it really was almost like living in the world in a way I hadn't felt with other VR titles.
40:07 ‘Civil Protection’ swept in and started beating people because there was an extra person (Gordon) unaccounted for in their sector.
Just before the raid kicks off you can hear the Combine citywide intercom announce that there had been a miscount in the apartment block and to comply with the arriving police force.