Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

For whatever reason, Ravenholm didn't particularly unsettle me. I don't know what it is, maybe expectation from the praise it receives left me underwhelmed, or maybe it's the fact that I was quite literally a toddler when the game came out and only first played it in 2019?

To be fair, I did enjoy it and could feel the intent of it being the horror section. I could see it usettling me if I played it at the time, but I see a lot of people saying it holds up really well so I still feel I've missed out on something.

It holds up well in gameplay because the gravity gun is still fun. But I think most of the hype was multiplied by HL2 being such a massive step up in graphics. Nobody in my friend group played Doom 3, so for us it was going straight from HL1 and CS 1.6 to HL2. Compare the 2 games side by side and HL2 literally looked futuristic, like it shouldn't even be possible with the hardware at the time. (And to be fair my graphics card burst into flames trying to push 15 fps in the canals section so maybe it wasn't).

I think an important aspect that's kinda faded away here is the visceral detail of the zombies, which were unusual at the time, mixed with the fact that you need to utilize the physics engine to get around, which created a unique kind of "panic" since at a glance there often seemed like there was no escape from certain circumstances.

If you want a similar feeling from a more modern game I recommend trying Prey (the new one). Terrible name that doesn't fit the title imo, but playing it felt similar to when I first played half life years ago, more than any other game I've played since then at least (except Half Life: Alyx).

Trying to think about it, I think it was the dynamics of the "fast zombies". I think if you plunked me in a crude pixelated FPS with abstract enemies, but with the same sudden accelerating approach dynamics I probably would have a similar stress reaction. I've always preferred FPS gameplay that's more focused on problem-solving without time limits, or where there's more of a strategic dynamic, like Portal (reading about HL2 has actually if anything made me want to play Portal 2 again, although HL2 as well).

I definitely think the atmosphere of Ravenholm contributed to my feelings about it, but I suspect if it was just the slow zombies or was all puzzles or something I would actually really enjoy it. There was something about the atmosphere + claustrophobic spaces + fast zombies in places I didn't like. Or rather, I did like it but not as much as the rest of it.