I wanted to forget it so hard after playing it.
There was a game called Half-Life 2? I honestly can't remember if I played it or not. Wait, was that the one with where you control a dynamic duo consisting of a sunglasses-wearing komodo dragon and his retired barbershop basso profundo sidekick? And you go around delivering subpoenas to spaghetti-makers in downtown Yonkers as part of protracted, epic Simon Says-style rap battles?
Nah, that actually sounds like fun, if only because of the bizarre premise. You must mean the hugely generic, derivative, pretentious sequel to a '90s classic whose only particularly distinguishing merit was debuting a game engine used to make far superior games.
My bad.
...That was a pointless tangent.
I kinda want to play the Half Life games, but I assume that the elements it pioneered have been done to death by every other FPS with a physics engine and the same story stuff that flew in the nineties/mid noughties would be a bit outclassed by stuff like Bioshock and the like. And with that cliffhanger in part 2, I don't want to get involved in a blatantly unfinished series.
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No hurry for a third game...
This might be blasphemous but I am one of the few Valve fans who isn't in a great deal of hurry for the Game That Was Promised. The reason is that Half-Life 2 and especially its Episodes, and the finale of Episode 2 of riding the car and fighting all those striders from invading the base has essentially taken First Person Action Adventure to its limits. In terms of gameplay with weapons, use of terrain, non-interactive cutscenes and the like there probably isn't a lot left to do. Valve being a gameplay over story company were aware of that, and that's probably why they moved on to other projects rather than complete a story and give closure. And besides there's still so much to achieve with Portal that I'd rather see Portal 3...
The main thing about the games is the wit, the moment to moment trades that make it work. Like in Episode 2, Gordon crawling up that ladder(or rope?) to find a Vortigaunt staring at him and telling him, "No pit is complete without a freeman crawling out of it." The story itself isn't really special and that's why they underplayed it and removed cutscenes so we get know characters like Eli Vance and Alyx and her D0g. Video games are the only medium where something like the Gravity Gun or the Portal Gun can make sense and be compelling objects and make interaction with physics something amazing to behold.
I have never liked First Person Shooter games but even then the Half-Life games are something you can't ignore and it's such a powerful example of its kind that you really never need to play any other game of its kind, constantly changing the gameplay bit by bit. Going from a boating to a driving machine and literally giving you the sense of physically traveling a great deal of terrain in a way that even GTA haven't achieved. And then there's Ravenholm, a game within a game, survival horror zombie stage that's better than any Zombie game ever made, especially if you use the Gravity Gun and collect those saws and clubs along the way. Episode 1 is essentially Gordon and Alyx buddy-cop game and Episode 2 is a return to form with the final level being the greatest video game end fight and of course there's that ending.
To people who's playing Half Life 2 (and episodes) for the first time, well fasten your seatbelts it's going to be a bumpy ride and one you'll never forget.