So, Half-Life 2 wins the "Game of the Decade" honors from Spike TV's Video Game Awards. For one thing, you should take EVERYTHING that comes from that awards show with a grain of salt... but yet, people are still bitching about it.
I could totally understand if people just disagreed that HL2 is worthy of the honor, but people are straight up calling the game shit and overrated.
I've been gaming for a long time... since Atari 2600. I've played the top games on every system.
I've karate-chopped more friends in GoldenEye 007 than I care to admit. I've stomped my fair share of mushrooms in their own kingdom. I've fought the Covenant. I've gone treasure hunting with Lara Croft and Nathan Drake alike. I've Red Dead Redeemed myself. I've grand-thefted autos, crafted mines, and walked the dead.
As many incredible gaming moments I've experienced over the past two decades, no game has ever enthralled me as much as Half-Life 2.
Sure, by todays standards, the graphics aren't impressive, the physics are nothing surprising, and even the story telling doesn't stand out.
But experiencing that game for the very first time was more than just exciting - it was... moving, i guess would be a good word.
No other game I had ever played looked as good, sounded as good, felt as real or had me caring more for its characters than Half-Life 2. It was revolutionary.
I don't think modern gamers can truly appreciate how great HL2 is. They missed their chance to experience it from that fresh perspective. Given the fact that MOST games today - especially first person shooters - ape much of Half-Life 2's design philosophy, it's not surprising that modern games would have a hard time seeing what's so revolutionary about it. It's all stuff they've seen thousands of times now.
Today, you might look back on early 1900's automobiles and be less than impressed. Slow, terrible ride quality, difficult to operate and not pleasing to the eye... but if all you had ever known before that was horse-drawn carts, it would have been life changing.
I'm not suggesting that HL2 is to video games what the car was to transportation... my point is that you can't appreciate something of the past unless you also share the mindset of the time before its inception.
Half-Life 2 deserves "Game of the Decade" because it set the standard and influenced almost every game that came after it.