@ghosts4ever said:
Half life 1. better gunplay, better AI, More harder but xen part suck. black mesa is different thing.
Half life 2. Better story, level design, pacing, although its more easier. like even on the hardest difficulty its a piece of cake.
This is a myth my freind. People mistake "fast" and "more damage" for better AI. Went back and tested this out a year or two back. Simply not true.
The AI in both games combat wise act the same. The difference is Combine shuffle at a snail pace, fall easily and inflict soy damage regardless of difficulty, at least early game.
Additionally, combine will melee the player at close range, move from grenades. Friendly AI will seek and pick-up health kits and weapons and avoid mines etc...
It isn't until the introduction of the Hunter that land-based enemies become comparable to Halflife's marines in damage and manoeuvrability, even down to the presentation.
In Halflife 2, combine are initially presented as a shooting gallery for the player. Something that flops over.
Both the marines and Hunter are introduced to be intimidating. With a level of build up. It becomes instantly apparent they are more challenging than other enemies in the game within the first fire-fight.
The fire-fights in Alyx are probably the best. It's utilizes hot-spots to reward the player with John Woo style explosions. It never gets old. Combined with more viseral "oomph" to the weapons Halflife 2 lacked.
The weapons compared to Halflife 2 are pleasing to use as opposed to "do the job", with upgrades working in tandem with exploration akin to Resident Evil upgrades.
Even fighting something as typically mundane in the series as head-crabs (a whatever enemy) becomes an engaging experience.
However Alyx suffers from the exact same problem of Halflife 2, and typically most later Valve games that aren't multiplayer, in that they are focused tested with soccer moms to avoid frustration.
Valve indulgently add their "developer commentary" when in reality the game would be better served with an NG+ to create a secondary, or more, player experience that's more engaging and adds replay value.
Developer commentary just feels to me, they are jerking themselves off in the mirror with sticky pat on the back. Most gamers don't give a shit.
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