I’ll just toss in my standard recommendation for the brilliant webcomic “Concerned” based on HL 2. It’s somewhat spoilery, so if you’re playing HL2 for the first time, don’t read past where you are in the game. And definitely read the notes at the end - they’re funny and interesting.
Really? In stuff I’ve played recently, I found parts of Stalker: SoC and Metro 2033 much scarier than Ravenholme.
Didn’t have trouble with ammo. I quickly learned that taptapsteptaptapsteptap with the crowbar killed the rank-and-file “infected” human/aliens with little risk. I only used bullets on large groups and the special types (speedy ones and the guys who throw head-huggers at you).
I haven’t really played many post-HL2 shooters, but I didn’t find Stalker scary at all.
To each their own, then. The dark abandoned labs filled with snorks scurrying about gave me more heebie-jeebies than Ravenholme. I think partially because of atmosphere and partially because the snorks were actually dangerous and the shambling alien-heads who made up most of Ravenholme were fodder I could easily whap to death with a crowbar.
Oh which part? You have to tell us!
It’s Chapter 2 (“To The Vortal Coil”) of Episode 2.
A big part of why I loved HL2 when it came out was the sound design. Great atmospheric effects, realistic and appropriate sounds overall, and music that felt perfectly paired with the action. Much more immersive than anything I’d played until then. The visuals were the best I’d ever seen at that point, especially a lot of the outdoors scenes. The bridge sequence especially blew me away at the time, especially because you could see other places you’d been from it – that was an effect that hadn’t been explored much at that point.
And the opening chase sequence was incredibly engaging.
I thought the narrative was fine, but, to me, it was mostly just something to chew while shooting mean jerks and gawking at pretty sights.
FWIW:
I got HL2 the day it came out. Played probably half-way through it. Enjoyed it, at the time - there were some neat bits - I’m thinking the gravity gun and playing catch with “Dog”, or whatever that mech was called.
But even back then, to this jaded gamer, it didn’t feel revolutionary. It was a fun adventure FPS, but it didn’t blow my mind. Never finished it.
/At the time, I only bought it to get CS:Source
I’m bad with names. Is that the dark elevator part?
It’s the part where you’re waiting for an elevator in the dark, and suddenly a squillion zombies attack and all you have is your flashlight. Is that what you meant?
There are flares around the room. I was naturally bringing around a stockpile of flares because I knew that elevators in HL2 are bad news, so it didn’t have as bad an effect on me because I could actually see.
Yes, that part. That was awesome. I loved that part!
I… don’t know if love is the right word, for me. It took years off my life.
Without experiencing the intensity of that battle, those years wouldn’t have been worth it to live anyway! 
Describing the shortage of storytelling as a “minimal narrative” sounds an awful lot like marketing & PR spin to me. Why does Half-Life gets a pass on that and something like, say, Quake 2 does not. You can fanwank a lot of story out of pretty much anything.
I can’t explain it, I’ve played Quake, and I’ve played HL. All I can say is that the amount of worldcrafting and attention to detail in HL/2 feels much more advanced in execution than that of Doom/Quake. The plot, to me, doesn’t scream “here’s your excuse,” it feels like they actually caringly created this world with a legitimate sense of cause and effect (within the limits of narrative convenience of course). Video games, being a visual and interactive medium don’t need dumps of exposition, and I felt that everything from the level design, to the modelling of the buildings contributed to an overall narrative more than the bland rooms of Quake/Doom.
It’s a YMMV thing, of course, but having played both, I legitimately think that there is some abstract “something” that separates HL/2’s “minimalist plot” from the “excuse plot” of old FPS games.
So apparently there’s a movement to play HL2 this weekend to get Valve to think about Ep3 or HL3. I think it’s bollocks and won’t go anywhere, but I was planning on playing it this weekend anyway so I joined the group.
Why did they have to pick Superbowl weekend? 
Why not? Computer gamers don’t go bowling very often.
I’ve been replaying the game a bit, and went and found something I half-remembered. There’s a fairly well-hidden Vort (he’s at the end of a dark tunnel full of sludge behind a grate that you have to stand on the boat to get into) has a lot to say to Gordon. Among his other comments, he says:
By implication, the “greater master” is the Combine. It seems to me that this only makes sense if the Combine was controlling the Nihilanth, which in turn was controlling the Vorts.