crustyjpeg

agreed. the graphics sometimes actually look better than more recent games, especially with reflections and facial animation

It's unfortunately starting to show its age in certain departments, but for a game that's a decade and a half old and had as rocky a development cycle as it did (for example, multiple delays including the fact that the game, and every part of its then-four year development cycle including assets, unfinished levels, so on and so forth, was leaked less than a year before its release all because someone just managed to get Gabe Newell's password), but I can't say enough how astoundingly high-quality of a game that Half-Life 2 is. It's easily one of the most influential first-person shooters of all time, and a benchmark for what a video game sequel should be.

And honestly, I would be okay with another high-quality Half-Life project, even if it is not Half-Life 3 or even official. Like, another BS/OP4 style spinoff for Half-Life 2 would be sick.

Plus if you have some time to kill, I'd look into the Half-Life 2 beta as well, it was a completely different game back then and is an extremely fascinating insight into the game's development process. Don't expect much of it to be actually functional though.

When it come to graphics, HL 2 is the lowest i can stand. Any less, I can't do it. They're still pretty okay for 2019. Kinda.