2nd time thru is the best

[sk0aL]

I'm playing the game a second time through on the hard setting,and I have to say I think it's more enjoyable. The first time through I was probably too busy just taking the game in.

I think the game is more rewarding on the hard setting. I've died alot, but I haven't encountered a sequence yet that was frustratingly impossible.

Anyway, did anyone else like their second experience better?

 

[ríomhaire]

Warnig Spoiler:
This is the best way to play it the secont time through. On hard mode
1. Bring up console
2. Enter "sv_cheats 1"
3. "map d3_citadel_04"
4. "map d1_trainstation_02"
5. "give weapon_physcannon"
BLUE GRAV GUN
Toast the can in the bin guy.
Couses following glitches. Clones dead allies, crash if any vehichle picked up, can't pick up rollermines or turrets, turrets die when knocked over, guns disapear when people are killed(like in the citadel). Glitches may varry from game to game.
It makes some bits alot easier some alot harder and some stay about the same.

 

[Sid Burn]

5. "give weapon_physcannon"
BLUE GRAV GUN
.

is that the cheat to own a blue grav gun in teh beginning?

 

[Danimal]

No. No it isn't

 

[ríomhaire]

is that the cheat to own a blue grav gun in teh beginning?

Yes but you have to do all the other cheats first. FYI this only works half the time so keep trying it.
PS: You can't kill G-man with the grav gun ;(

 

[Sid Burn]

Yes but you have to do all the other cheats first. FYI this only works half the time so keep trying it.
PS: You can't kill G-man with the grav gun ;(

oh darn it... :frown:

 

[Lazz]

Anyway, did anyone else like their second experience better?

I didn't. Dont get me wrong, HL2 is the best single player FPS of its type that Ive played, but going the second time round wasn't partiuclarly entertaining. One of the factors which made me want to continue playing the first time round was to see how the story develops and of course the second time round, you know what happens to the characters.

I got to Highway 17 the second time I played HL2 but didn't bother going further

 

[ríomhaire]

I liked my second experience better
(Probably just because of the grav gun)

 

[NJspeed]

It was more fun the first time through on medium, although hard is definately more challenging. It was just fun playing the game and seeing all the cool stuff the first time through.

On hard, some parts were too impossible, I felt, and that kind of takes away from the overall experience. Only because I think its more fun to take in everything fast, one event after another, its the plot that makes the game exciting and good, not impossible battles. Not retrying the same fight 10x because you have almost no life and almost no ammo, that's not necessarily fun.

I think next time I'll put it back on medium, but go through it with a different attitude than the first time. The first time I wanted to see and explore everything. Next time I'll be pretending it's real and I better haul a$$ before the Combine get me. It might not be UBER challenging this way, but it will be fun playing it in a more linear way, and not getting stuck at certain parts for extended periods of time (like I did the first time on medium if I didn't know what to do in a part, or the second time (on hard) just because certain parts of the game have no health and ammo).

Some parts were so hard due to lack of health and ammo, I basically forgot what I had to do next, or why I'm here to begin with, and even where I'm coming from.. It's like uhhhh.. where am I going again?

For me, its just the story that makes the game exciting. Medium can be just as hard as hard (and more fun), if you play it right, don't waste time. Don't go through slowly clearing out mobs one at a time, move through it like your a man on a mission. Don't stop and explore every house on the Highway. Think about how much more exciting it is this way, play like you really have to get the hell out of City 17. Then play like you really have no time to waste and you gotta go bust out Eli. etc Then play the City 17 maps like you have no time to waste, if you don't take out Breen soon, the entire Combine army is going to teleport back into town.
This style of play will give you enough challenge that its fun, and keep you into the plot, which is fun. For example, Ravenholm is much more fun when your thinking "I gotta hurry and get to Alex" instead of getting bogged down in tons of mindless battles, and forgetting why your there in the first place. Nova Prospekt is more fun when your thinking "I gotta hurry and rescue Eli!" instead of "Well I've been stuck in this one room for half an hour, I can't kill these guys, let me walk back far as hell and try and find some health or ammo that I missed"

 

[jondy]

I had huge stuttering issues the first time, so I got a little pissed off when NPC's were saying stuff and I kept missing it. Now it's a little better, so I enjoy it more. Plus I tend to use 'host_timescale' bindings to slow down time for matrix stylee asskicking

Noticing new stuff also makes me look around even now, on my fifth time through - seems to me the game just gets better

 

[Shakermaker]

I enjoy Deathmatch too much to play for a second time.