Oh my god, I never thought I'd say this, but Half-Life 2 feels like it was made by some talented asshole with Gary's Mod. I shouldn't get this fucking mad at a game, but all I want are a few goddamn things that seem really obvious to me, but apparently not to the developers.
Like, say, I want to make my human companions just shut up. Just shut the fuck up. Don't remind me to reload, stop getting in my way, don't warn me of enemies, don't be always yelling about following me and stop getting in my way. I can't even kill these guys fast enough, I get more around every corner. Goddamnit I want Sheva back.
All I want is to have a "go to gravity gun" button, not double tapping 1 because that's just ever so slightly too slow and awkward for me to do in the heat of battle, and I want to toss a grenade back at an enemy. Cause lord knows I can't dodge because Gordon can't take a hit, and he gets tripped up on the smallest obstacle and everybody just keeps getting in his way. Just being able to map to individual weapons would be amazing instead of "weapon categories" which is fucking stupid because now I have alot of worthless weapons I just plain don't want to use cluttering my inventory!
and while I really love the WORLD Of Half-Life 2, it's really creative and you can tell alot of love went into the story design, my suspension of disbelief gets punched in the face with the incredibly asinine level design every single step of the way. Creative thinking is stifled so often it's absurd, either a strategy is pushed into your face and you're forced to use it, or it's swatted out of your hands as the game looks at your like you're stupid... And calls you stupid by constantly reminding you of the correct way of doing things.
And gameplay itself is just not satisfying. Just the mechanics don't lend themselves to giving you an actual sense of strength or power, your character and everything really just has this weightless floaty feel to it, when you shoot a gun it doesn't have recoil or muzzle flare and they all make dull redundant shooting noises, explosions (every explosion, regardless of source) has this dull, unsatisfying sound, and Gordon himself can't punch or push, or even take a hit! The areas are designed to shove health kits and armor down your throat at every turn just because your character is made of paper and has to hide like a coward in every fight. The only saving grace was the Gravity Gun, which zaps objects with a satisfying THUD and that's why I want to use it at every turn, cause it's the only weapon that's satisfying to use!.. BUT YOU CAN'T because the only thing it's strong against are zombies, which are only a threat if they take you by surprise.
Actually, now that I think about it, alot of those problems are endemic to every fps, probably why I don't indulge in them too often.
Man, I don't remember HL2 getting me so upset.
/venting