Should I play Half-Life Before Half-Life 2?

[Lysander]

How closely connected are the stories? Will I be missing out on crucial plot details if I start 2 without playing the first one, or do they recap things for you?

Second, do you know if the first Half-Life comes with The Orange Box, or would I have to buy that separately? Thanks.

[mightymonarch]

How closely connected are the stories? Will I be missing out on crucial plot details if I start 2 without playing the first one, or do they recap things for you?

Second, do you know if the first Half-Life comes with The Orange Box, or would I have to buy that separately? Thanks.

I would recommend playing HL before HL2. They are COMPLETELY different games, and while they are not directly connected (HL2 takes about 20 years after HL), there are things that would make more sense if you played HL first.

The Orange Box comes with HL2, both Episodes, Portal and TF2. So you'd have to get HL separately.

[Isak]

I didn't play Half Life 1 at all before playing Half Life 2...

I didn't know some of the characters, and there were a few things mentioned that I didn't quite get on my first play-through... but you pick it all up quick enough. If you play HL1 first, I'm sure there's plenty of references that you'll pick up on... but I wouldn't say it's necessary.

As far as HL1 in the Orange Box, No; it isn't included. You do get Half Life 2, Episodes 1 & 2, Portal, AND Team Fortress 2, however. Get this, no matter what. Probably the best video game deal in the past 10 years.

Edit: Ninja'd!

[Myatar_Panwar]

I found it rather hard to go back to HL1.

But HL2 is great, and you don't need the first to enjoy it.

[Lysander]

Thanks everyone. I'm downloading The Orange Box right now. I may decide to download Half-Life Source before I play Half-Life 2 or I may not, but I have quite a few hours to decide either way.

[Garland]

Nah, just read the plot of the first one and you're good to go. I played HL2 before HL1.

Still, 1 isn't a bad game, it's just easily skippable by today's standards.

[Triscuitable]

Think of it as this...

HL starts in 1999, with physician Gordon Freeman being introduced to a facility known as Black Mesa. Gordon gets warm and fuzzy with everything, and in the first 10 minutes of his job, he blows up a fusion reactor core that opens a portal to two planets, Zen and Vho. These races invade Black Mesa, and Gordon ends up on a fight for his life. US Army intervenes, with orders to shoot anything on sight, Gordon does that first, finds big bad, kills it, saves the vortigaunt race that was enslaved by big bad, day is saved, cue HL2.

(Just to let you know, there is a mod being made called Black Mesa, it looks AWESOME, and it's a remake of Half Life with the source engine. You need a source engine game, like Half Life 2, [duh], to play it. I suggest waiting for BM, and then buying HL2, then downloading BM. Black Mesa is free, BTW.)

HL2 opens on ANOTHER subway, with Gordon being sent to a facility known as Nova Prospect (Scary place, think Neo-Neo-Nazi experiments, but on humans overall.), Gordon is saved by Black Mesa security guard from HL: Blue Shift (expansion to HL), Barney, who is disguised as a combine, cue lengthy escape, meet Alyx Vance, daughter of the scientist from HL, Eli Vance, and Kleiner, also a returning character. Another escape, meet Dr. Breen for about 5 seconds, escape again, ... find rebel base, get boat, escape, find another, get jeep, escape, find Alyx, get gravity gun, cause havok, ... find Breen, kill Breen, cue HL2: Episodes...

In order to get the entire story, you need...

Half Life
Half Life: Blue Shift
Half Life: Opposing Force
Half Life 2
Half Life 2: Episode 1
Half Life 2: Episode 2
Half Life 2: Episode 3 (Unreleased)

[Mewtarthio]

In a word: No. The stories are pretty much unconnected. Gordon himself and the G-Man are the only characters that carry over (though I'm told Barney's in one of the expansions). Most of the events alluded to in the sequel happened between the two games, so if your confused about anything, playing the first game probably won't clear it up. Just about the only exceptions are references to the resonance cascade (which kicked off the events of the first game) and the G-Man's "ownership" of Freeman (which, let's face it, is and always will be Epileptic Trees territory no matter how many clues you've uncovered).

[Rutskarn]

I do know a guy who played Half-Life 2, then said, "Okay, that's it, I need to understand what the hell is going on in this game. I'm-a gonna go play the original."

Then they did, came back, and said, "Great. I've still got no friggin' clue."

[AlterForm]

In a word: No. The stories are pretty much unconnected. Gordon himself and the G-Man are the only characters that carry over (though I'm told Barney's in one of the expansions). Most of the events alluded to in the sequel happened between the two games, so if your confused about anything, playing the first game probably won't clear it up. Just about the only exceptions are references to the resonance cascade (which kicked off the events of the first game) and the G-Man's "ownership" of Freeman (which, let's face it, is and always will be Epileptic Trees territory no matter how many clues you've uncovered).

Don't forget that certain microwave casserole incident at Black Mesa. You know the one.

[onasuma]

Think of it as this...

You should probably spoiler that.

[toasty]

I still haven't played Half-Life 1. In fact, I won half-life 2 without knowing anything about the plot of the first one. Honestly, it doesn't matter. Half-Life 2 might as well just an independent game with some references to a previous game, that's really what it is.

Having said that, Half-Life is a really good game that is well designed and I encourage you to try it out if you so desire.

[Bayar]

Dont forget, you meet Eli Vance in Half Life, and there's a picture of Alyx somewhere.

[factotum]

To answer the question, "Should you play Half-Life before Half-Life 2?", my answer would be, "No, you don't need to."

To answer the question, "Should you play Half-Life?" my answer would be "HELL yes!". Despite its age (and the questionable inclusion of the alien world) Half-Life is still an utterly awesome game--I played it a couple of years ago (so I'm not going entirely from time-fogged spectacles here) and it's as good as it ever was.

[Cespenar]

Yes, you should play Half-Life before Half-Life 2, not only because to catch up with the story, but because it's a plain better game if you don't mind the graphics.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Actually, Eli Vance and all the other scientists (and guards) in HL1 were just generic models. You can actually pretty much kill all the guards and scientists with a single exception. Some have to survive long enough for them to open doors, but after that you can kill them. In fact, killing all the Barneys isn't that bad an idea because you may need that 9mm ammo they drop.

So really, the games are different. You may want to play the first one simply so you know a bit more about who the G-Man is and his importance. You also get to meet several of the enemies in the first one as well and the best way to deal with them. Some, like the bull squid and hound eye won't reappear in HL2.

[Archonic Energy]

A: yes.

slightly longer answer: yes, because it'll be "difficult" to go back to HL, baring in ming tht is is an old game which will look graphically inferiour to HL2. playing it may be a bit more "hardgoing on the eyes"

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Actually, if you want, you can get Half-Life: Source. It's the official source port of the first game. Graphics won't be as dated if you go with that. IIRC, it's free if you own HL2.

[Rawhide]

Black Mesa (http://blackmesasource.com/) (nee Black Mesa: Source) will run on the Orange Box. When it is released.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Black Mesa (http://blackmesasource.com/) (nee Black Mesa: Source) will run on the Orange Box. When it is released.

We have a betting pool at work. Which will come out first: Black Mesa:Source or Duke Nukem Forever.

[Saveducks]

Does anyone know when black mesa source comes out

[ZeroNumerous]

We have a betting pool at work. Which will come out first: Black Mesa:Source or Duke Nukem Forever.

I'd bet on Duke any day of the week.

[Artanis]

Wasn't DNF officially canceled? :smallconfused:

[Domochevsky]

Haha, no. They're still fighting over the rights to the franchise, so the bettings are still going. :smallwink:

[Triscuitable]

You should probably spoiler that.

Sorry, but do understand Half Life is a 10 year old game, and Half Life 2 is 6. So really, if you haven't played either by now, what kind of gamer are you? Besides, a recent test reveals %20 of web users read forum posts longer than 1 paragraph. Even I skipped my own post! :tongue:

[Trazoi]

Haha, no. They're still fighting over the rights to the franchise, so the bettings are still going. :smallwink:
It's ironic that 3D Realms going out of business makes it more likely that DNF will some day be released.


Sorry, but do understand Half Life is a 10 year old game, and Half Life 2 is 6. So really, if you haven't played either by now, what kind of gamer are you?
The kind who creates threads asking whether they would miss out on crucial plot details if they don't play Half-life before Half-life 2? :smalltongue:

To the OP: In my opinion you won't miss any crucial plot details if you started with HL2, but you might miss some of the flavour (who characters are, why they're giving you a special suit, and so on).

However the original Half-life is a great game and is worth playing. The engine is a bit dated but not so much that it would be uncomfortable to play (i.e., it should play a lot like a modern FPS, just less polygonial). In my opinion the original is better than the sequel due to a better feel to the level design.