For 2004 this game is absolutely spectacular and super ambitious and gorgeous, even 20 years later I was amazed at how beautiful some of the environments were, and the physics and interactivity is obviously incredible - without Half Life 2, it is pretty clear that most modern games would cease to exist. But unfortunately, this isn't the unrivaled masterpiece that I was expecting, in fact it's mostly a downgrade from the original. While some chapters are jaw-dropping even now like Ravenholm and the interior of the Citadel, a huge chunk of this game is driving around on gimmicky vehicles, or engaging in some of the most uninvolving, brain-dead combat ever put to the screen. While the original Half Life paced itself perfectly at upgrading your arsenal and introducing new enemies, HL2 stagnates nearly every step of the way. Instead of introducing new Combine enemies, it's mostly just the same guys but with increased health, which is incredibly lazy but also frustrating as it renders most of your weapons completely obsolete. While the gravity gun is obviously the coolest shit ever (second to only the Portal gun), the rest of the guns are just generic or never really needed to be used past their specific usage point in the game. What Half Life 2 does do better in, is probably the tension and dread that surrounds your movement. The introduction of the new headcrab/zombie variants in Ravenholm is perfectly executed, similar to how the antlions emerge from the ground in the chapter 'Sandtraps' and how you subsequently command them in 'Nova Prospekt' which is genius... but then you don't get to use them anymore past this point, which is also the case with the poison zombies - arguably the most terrifying enemy. The whole game feels really experimental and disjointed in it's treatment of weaponry and enemy usage, rather than being fully cohesive like the original. I still do think that Half Life 2 is a good game, and I'm annoyed that I didn't play it earlier so I could understand just how big of a deal it was, but I feel like people's love for it is chalked up more to nostalgia and it's influence on the industry, rather than assessing the overall experience.