Day Twenty-one

Ahhhh. Then end of the terror that is Ravenholm. Only to be replaced by the terror that is another fucking driving level. A driving level with much more on foot than the airboat driving level, but there's still way too much driving for my taste. At least there's the treasure of the bridge level.

The more I play Half Life 2, the more I'm seeing that I'm only remembering the parts of the game I really like or perhaps only hiding the parts of the game I didn't like. See, had you asked me about Half Life 2 before this replay, I would have fondly recalled playing through the section I'm on now. You're forced out of the damn dune buggy and made to cross a huge railroad bridge on foot. It's a wonderful mix of a little bit of puzzle and a lot of shooting bad guys with the guns you've racked up. Tossing a grenade in, hearing the Combine soldiers react and then ending their lives with two well placed shotgun rounds. A thing of beauty. I would not have recalled the tedium and grind of the airboat and dune buggy levels. Forced to play a shitty driving simulator instead of a shooter. Several years on, Half Life 2 was much more perfect before I was reminded of its flaws.

Perhaps that's just the mark of a good game, convincing the player to delightfully recall the highlights of the game and neglect the defects by virtue of the positive dramatically outweighing the negative. Nah, I think that's just the case for Half Life. I'd much rather just have a great game from stem to stern, without the need to jump into a vehicle.

Games Played: 
Half Life 2

Achievements: 
Hallowed Ground
OSHA Violation
Targetted Advertising
Where Cubbage Fears to Tread