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A Nobody

Quake 2 Or Half-Life 1?

Legendary Shooters  

97 members have voted

  1. 1. Which do you pick?

    • Quake 2
      42
    • Half-Life 1
      55


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Bald space marines or nerdy scientists? The Strogg or Nihilanth's army? Beefy guns or conventional and experimental weaponry? The Blaster or Crowbar? id Software or Valve? Choose!

Edited by The Strife Commando

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I prefer Quake 2 myself. As cool as Half-Life is and I love the whole sprawling, mysterious Black Mesa setting. I'll take fighting Strogg over annoying headcrabs any day of the week.

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Quake 2. -- I like Half-Life, but I always found myself playing all the other games that spawned from it instead, such as Counter-strike 1.6!

It has a great plot, Decent puzzle's and action, But at the end of the day, I found Quake 2 to be more exciting and more of a thrill. Challenging enemies, better level design, and a better Death-match experience all around.

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I respect both of them, but Half-Life is much more fun and has greater replay value in my opinion thanks to its campaign constantly throwing you in new scenarios. Mind you, I think any self-respecting FPS fan should play Quake 2 at least once out of curiosity, but I wouldn't blame them if they never feel compelled to play it again or even finish it, especially if they're coming fresh off Quake 1.

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I like both, but I fail to see any similarities between the two of them, so I'm not voting. One's a flawed invasion, and the other's a science experiment gone awry (not unlike Doom, to be honest).

 

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For me that's definitely HL1, better combat, better levels, more interesting story, more interesting enemies and characters, groovy and very iconic sound effects, not to mention voices, but perhaps an arsenal that's not on par with that of Q2 - there's also barely any similarities between the two -, and the music is definitely a matter of taste, I would never say one is better than the other here, the tone and atmosphere are completely different in each title.

 

I think the deathmatch experience was better in Q2 though, since HL was always a SP-focused series with a MP aspect, and I never played Quake multiplayer at all back when I was still invested in this aspect of the games, so I definitely won't do it now.

 

HL1 is also more advanced, more mod friendly, and has infinitely more mods than Q2 ever had. This is a no-brainer for me, but I know at least two people who will tell you the opposite :D . The poll will very soon take a turn too since there's not many Valve/HL fans around here, and even less of HL2.

Edited by seed

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It's a tough call as both games are quite different. On one hand, I prefer the weapons and strafe-jumping movement (things which matter a lot to me) of Quake 2 and also consider its MP(read deathmatch) superior. Not to mention that Quake 2 has source ports which Half Life doesn't.

 

But on the other hand, Half Life is better in everything else like better aesthetics, better level design, better environment/world building, better enemy design, better AI, better interactivity, better/advanced engine, more mods and so on. Overall I would give my vote to Half Life.

 

1 hour ago, seed said:

This is a no-brainer for me, but I know at least two people who will tell you the opposite :D

 

*curiosity intensifies*

 

1 hour ago, seed said:

The poll will very soon take a turn too since there's not many Valve/HL fans around here, and even less of HL2.

 

I have to say that despite many folks here bashing Half Life, I was still expecting it to decimate Quake 2 in the polls. But that does not seem to be the case here so far.

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6 minutes ago, ReaperAA said:

I have to say that despite many folks here bashing Half Life, I was still expecting it to decimate Quake 2 in the polls. But that does not seem to be the case here so far.

 

Nope, that's never happening, not here or on ZDF, for that matter, and potentially many more places not specifically dedicated to any Valve game.

 

Also HL does have ports, see the Xash3D engine.

 

6 minutes ago, ReaperAA said:

*curiosity intensifies*

 

Pff, c'mon bud, that was simple and very obvious: Graf and hybridial.

 

Q2 is one of Graf's favorite games after all, and hybridial... well, we all know what hybridial thinks of Valve as developers, and particularly HL and its influence on the industry.

 

Not trying to bash either of you if you're reading this BTW, so don't get me wrong, that was meant to simply be poking fun :p .

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Quake 2 or Half-Life 1? Easy. Doom.

(someone had to do it. I'll bite that bullet)

 

 

I only played Q2 on the playstation and I thing I didn't even finish it, as for Half-Life, when I did get around to play it, it was already old. But I did kinda-enjoy both of them, but neither as much as Doom (or Q3 for that matter), not sure I ever finished either of them but I'm pretty sure I didn't.

If the poll was Q3 vs HL2 I'd pick Quake, even if HL2 is "better".

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I'm on team Half-Life here, although it's a very close choice. They're both great in their respective areas, IMO, but the story and experience of Half-Life (even with it's over-powered marines and curious ending levels) is slightly more appealing to revisit than the great music and enjoyable gun play of Quake II (with it's odd late-game balance). I'd say the same for Half-Life 2 versus Quake IV, although again, I like both games (and consider them both superior to their earlier incarnations).

 

Of course, as soon as I've upgraded to an RTX-compatible PC (in a couple of years) Quake II RTX will be my first benchmark, having seen it bring my current (otherwise powerful) rig to a near stand-still.

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I am a low-key HL1 fan and like it more than HL2 due to, well, everything, especially Black Mesa and the variety of Xen lifeforms on offer. Not to discredit HL2 as a great sequel, but it always leaves me wanting more enemy variety and weapons options. Wiith that being said, I'm gonna have to side with Q2 here because it's easier to just jump in and blow away Strogg without having to be confined to more restrictive script-based levels in a linear fashion. The combat in HL1 is also kinda sorta maybe pretty rubbish nowadays, with awkward "intelligent" AI at best and brain-dead stupid every other time due to the over-reliance on scripting everything, so Q2 wins in the action department.

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Quake II

Nothing feels more badass than be one of the few humans on Strogg's planet to be able to kick alien asses with Sonic Mayhem soundtrack kicking in the background.

The objectives in the game makes you feel like you have done enormous damage to Strogg's military operations & efforts.

 

I love Half Life's environments & atmosphere plus one whole map divided by chapters.

Not a fan of playing as a scientist that somehow knows how to use all arsenal & completely mute, even when taking damage.

That's why I preferred Blue Shift & Opposing Force over it in which that last point stands as well.

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4 hours ago, ReaperAA said:

Not to mention that Quake 2 has source ports which Half Life doesn't.

 

well there's xash3d but that's more of a "made from scratch" engine than a source port

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Quake 2, easily. Its replay value turned out to be a lot better. While i like the concept behind HL, I think the game had one falal flaw: The entire game felt like it was just a randomly assembled sequence of events in loosely connected environments. At no point did I get the feeling of being inside a single large complex.  What about revisiting earlier areas after cleaning out some parts and opening up some locked doors? and what about some objectives that require getting back into earlier parts of the game where some new room has opened? And how were they able to do 2 mission packs in the same complex but presenting entirely new areas? It all felt like Black Mesa was never fully mapped out conceptually.

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Oof. This is a hard one. 

 

They are both fun for very different moods really. Half Life is a bit more involving, and demands far more of your attention for sure. Quake 2, on the other hand, you can pretty much just drop in and play without much focus. 

 

I'd give a VERY slight edge to Half Life, because it feels like its doing more things at once than Quake 2. A much heavier focus on atmosphere, some more quirky weapons, much bigger variety between enemy and weapon types... it's a big list. Still, it all only amounts to a  slight edge because Quake 2 is still a lot of fun, and I'm a real sucker for the sci-fi, cyborg monsters aesthetic. 

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15 hours ago, Graf Zahl said:

What about revisiting earlier areas after cleaning out some parts and opening up some locked doors? and what about some objectives that require getting back into earlier parts of the game where some new room has opened? And how were they able to do 2 mission packs in the same complex but presenting entirely new areas? It all felt like Black Mesa was never fully mapped out conceptually.

 

There's multiple reasons for that, but mainly because Black Mesa is a HUGE complex, that's how Gearbox was able to expand it further, with a lot of new, unseen areas, sectors, and so on that the player never has access to or visits in the original, but the canonicity of Opposing Force in particular is also questionable - for one, there's the Race X aliens who are never seen in either HL1 or even Blue Shift, that's the most glaring issue in the continuity.

 

Then both Shephard and Barney see Gordon at different times in their own games, Barney sees him twice actually, once during the beginning of the game right after the tram ride is over, and another time during HL1's Apprehension chapter when the marines carry him to the trash compactor, while Shephard catches a glimpse of Freeman right before he jumps into the portal in Lambda Core. Following Freeman on Xen also results in failing the game due to a time paradox/attempting to rewrite history.

 

This is why BS and OP4 work best as "pocket dimensions" with their own thing going and a more loose connection to the original title than something more strict, like some would like to believe. And it's good that they were designed like this in hindsight, allows more mystery and imagination to play.

 

But really, also because what is seen in HL1 is nothing but a small portion of the entire facility and its surroundings. It's set in the desert after all, that allows for a lot of creative freedom.

 

As for why you never backtrack, revisit, or look for many other areas and take detours, well, that's simple too - different design philosophy. HL was always meant to be a going-forward experience with a few detours but no running in circles to gain access to this or that for no good reason, and besides, the facility literally slips more and more into the void as you progress, and various return points become inaccessible as a result - see Forget about Freeman as a simple example, where the ceiling collapses immediately after the chapter starts, preventing the player from going back for whatever reason they might have.

Edited by seed

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Easily Quake 2; Finished it countless times. Never even finished Half life 1 once.

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I suppose Quake 2. Allows player character choices and changing weapon handedness, which is useful for shooting enemies behind corners without having to be visible. More fun weapons in Q2, or the enemies felt a bit too strong in HL. Very minimal multiplayer experience on each. When they were still somewhat new, I played AvP2 multiplayer until it kinda died.

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This is hard. Quake 2 is kind of dull. So freaking dull. You spend so much time fighting solo encounters that aren't particularly threatening. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I went through the game again on Hard recently and didn't even come close to dying once. But it's theme, the enemy visual designs, the weapons, and so on are all so great. It's a game with great potential.

 

Half-life out of the box is more involved. Enemies tend to be lighter on the HP, but can dish out more. Plus, they're frequently used in ways that make much more sense, and tend to be more interesting. The game on a whole just works better. But I'm also not all that for its hitscan-heavy combat. I've felt like Half-Life, at least for my play style, is strange in that when you're fighting aliens, it's not that hard, but it becomes a lot harder when fighting the marines since they're so unforgiving. The aesthetics of Black Mesa are pretty nice, though, and even Xen doesn't piss me off that much (though it could be much better, of course). One thing I definitely do miss in HL are the big enemies. Whenever there are big enemies in the half life series, they're usually special, but I did like that Quake 2 has bigass cyborgs that take a lot to go down. Now if only it could actually use them in interesting manners and make them somewhat threatening...

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Quake II. It's a replay staple on my living room PC (maps remarkably well to a Dualshock 4) and I finished it and the mission packs again just last week.

 

Finished HL once. Never felt the desire to go back to it.

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Half Life 1 here!

It's just a different gameplay and point of action as Quake 2. Where Quake 2 tries to be Doom 2 but sci-fi and with more 3D Grafics. Half Life it's more inmersive, storytelling and keeps you to trink and go foward, instead of look for keycards in the rooms and walk back.

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4 hours ago, seed said:

 

There's multiple reasons for that, but mainly because Black Mesa is a HUGE complex

 

Even a HUGE complex has some structure, it's not an endless string of sections that have no recognisable interconnectedness.

 

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I'd take Half-Life any day over Quake 2. Where Quake 2 is more of Quake, Half-Life gave you a story where you weren't just (insert game) guy/dude/man/person. It gave you varying enemies with smart AI. Half-Life's slogan was "Run. Think. Shoot. Live." and the gameplay reflects that. You couldn't get by with just running and gunning. Scenarios required you to strategize. In Half-Life, you were just a scientist, not a soldier. To me, Half-Life leaves excellent sequel potential. The Half-Life series is uncontested, Valve managed to incorporate other games into their universe excellently. But Valve games are mainly created to make a technological statement. 

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5 hours ago, TwinBeast said:

I suppose Quake 2. Allows player character choices and changing weapon handedness, which is useful for shooting enemies behind corners without having to be visible.

I never knew that the handedness affected the direction of the shot. I always assumed it was centered regardless. Thank you for this new, apparently 23 year old information. It actually feels like cheating, binding mouse 4 and 5 to left and right respectively. I really appreciate you mentioning it.

 

After reading this thread, I decided to go through Quake 2 again, and it's better than I remember. I think that I was disappointed when I originally played it when it came out, because I was expecting a direct sequel to Quake, with the same Lovecraftian themes. But it's quite a bit better than I remember, so I guess time heals all wounds.

 

At this point, I find them both to be great games for different reasons. The realistic setting of Half-Life was really amazing at the time, and the combat was enjoyable. Despite what anyone says, I thought the H_Grunts were the funnest enemies to fight in the game. Their AI, though based on a waypoint system, allowed them to do far more than just "See player, run at player". In the editor you could assign a squad leader, and assign grunts to a squad, so they always worked around the squad leader. That was neat.

 

Quake 2, it's run and gun, with lots of guns. And lots of freakish abominations of flesh to kill. The enemy roster is impressive, and I love the aesthetics of the game. Grey steel under an orange sky. But the AI sucks ass, if they're below you, find an alcove they run in to, and toss grenades in it. It's very barebones. But it's by no means a bad game.

 

But I would have to give an edge to Half-Life, due to the longevity of the game and it's mod community, the advancement of FPS games in general due to it's narrative style and introduction of scripted events, and the fact that they did so damn much based on a modified iDtech 2 is impressive.

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