Poll Question 076 - What HL game has the best final fight level?

For me it was Opposing Force. I did not like the end fight in Ep 1 that much, and the end fight in Ep 2 was just too much for me.

I also liked the boss battle for HL1, but I still liked Opposing force better.

Blue Shift did not have a vary good ending in my eyes.

I also did not like the ending for Half life 2. It was too easy for me.

Yeah ep1 excellent end boss level design was great, I did like ep2 ending but to go back and play it now it would be tough because I know what happens right afterwards which is really sad because there’s nothing you can do about it.

I must be honest and say that non stick in my memory as being that good such that I wanted to repeat the scene. I am not a great lover of the big end battle or encounter, I like the ending where you feel you have escape as opposed to have survived, you know sailing away in the sunset.

Huh… 3 people here say Ep1, and I also say Ep1, that should mean at least 4, yet with my vote Ep1 has still only gotten 3 votes. Looks like some people commented without actually voting!

Having the poll in the footer beneath the comments is a bit counter-intuitive.

I’ll go through my thoughts on all the final fights…

Half-Life 1: I remember when I first played Half-Life I hated the Nihilanth boss fight, because it would teleport you away to side-rooms where you had to jump up platforms just to get into the fight again. Not so much a problem for me now, I’m far more skilled and Nihilanth isn’t much of a challenge, but when I first played Half-Life it was very challenging.

Opposing Force: I preferred this boss fight because if you messed up you were just plain dead, no getting teleported to irritating jumping rooms! And it was cool how when the boss monster’s chest opened it would emit a portal and a shock trooper would teleport in. Got across the idea that this boss monster was like a living organic teleporter, and that if it fully came through the big purple stargate-like portal then there would be no stopping the Race X army, even if the Black Mesa dimensional rift was closed. It was clever how as the battle went on the area became damaged you had to use the barnacle grapple to get around. The laser turret guns (powered by tiny yellow Xen crystals) were a nice touch, but it was a bit baffling how they got there. The security guard does mention “some of your buddies went down earlier” but surely there should have been mention of some scientists, or some scientist corpses lying aroud?

Blue Shift didn’t really have a proper boss fight. It was easy to escape if you used satchel charges or other explosives to blow up the grunts as they came through the doors. If you didn’t though and just relied on bullets then it was pretty cool. Grunts would burn through door, then run to the window above the teleport control area you are standing in and one grunt would smash the window and then fire down on you. Nice touch. Then when you climbed back up, more grunts would come in through the lab main entrance - some would blast through the front doors, others would come up the elevator from the basement power station areas. It was cool how they all converged. Wasn’t a touch final fight, but it was a nice final sequence that got across the idea of escaping in the nick of time.

Half-Life 2’s final fight was OK, but it would have been cool if got to fight some Combine synths of some sort, or if the top area had an extra large tough gunship. Rather than just the same old regular troops, and two gunships that were not much of a threat and not required to be killed. Still, the entire last two chapters of Half-Life 2 counted as one big awesome final fight, so was still cool.

Episode 1 was my favourite - making your way through that train area, avoiding being killed by the strider, being ambushed by soldiers dropping in and throwing explosive stuff, then finally getting to use the rocket launcher and get paypack and kill the Strider. The rocket ammo location was a bit contrived though… would have been better if there had already been some rebels there, one armed with rocket launcher. He could have attacked the strider but then been killed, and then it would make sense that you were trying to get to his stash of ammo to finish what he started.

Episode 2’s final battle was very cool, but I was dissapointed by the lack of Combine soldiers. The preview videos showed the final battle also had soldiers all over the place, with the player firing the crossbow at them and running them over etc. In the commentary Valve explained they removed them because it was too much for some players… er, excuse me, I seem to remember in the good old days computer games ended in a TOUGH boss battle where you’d expect to fail several times. The Hunters were quite easy to defeat, could simply run them over like regular soldiers, and once hunters were killed it was piece of cake to eliminate each strider. Having soldiers coming over the hills or something would have spiced that up, as with good enemy positioning could ensure that then not all enemies could be run over with the car.

I wasn’t expecting masses of Combine soldiers, don’t want to overwhelm the player, but I figured I’d see a few squads inbetween the waves of hunters and striders, or a few minutes break where there would be no hunter/strider attacks and just soldiers instead. That way challenge level would remain the same, but there would be enemy variety. Didn’t seem likely that the Combine would just send in striders and hunters with no support from regular soldiers.

So yeah, Episode 1 gets my vote. Episode 1 and Opposing Force were the closest things to what I’d consider a “proper boss fight”. Half-Life 1’s Nihilanth gets credit for being the toughest, but unfortunately his ability to telpeort the player caused irritation rather than excitement.

Half-Life 2 for me.

Episode One was a brilliant map but I got lost more than once.
Episode Two was brilliant, but I died a good 10 times trying to do that. Got frustrating in the end.

But with Half-Life 2, as someone else said, the last two or so chapters basically count as the final fight. Fighting through the combine to the Citadael and then blowing that thing sky high…! It just means all that much more considering how you’ve fought through the rest of the game to this final moment.

And isn’t the Gman there? Or is that in a cutscene the start of Ep1? I fail to remember, but whatever it is he’s awesome. Thus making that ending awesome!

I was going to say Episode 2 but decided to go for HL2. Episode 2 wasn’t a ‘boss fight’ as such, just a really awesome battle scene.

Half-Life Blue shift had the best final fight ending in my eyes. As with any battle it could have been improved depending on your point of view, different people liking different things.

I loved defending the teleporter room from the advancing millitary to give the scientists a chance to escape. It was somthing realistic which I could relate too. I really liked the way the millitary blasted their way in from all sides slowly crushing the last stronghold in the area. Finally ending with a desperate sprint for the teleporter as the Marines finally flooded into the room.

Thinking about it now tempts me to make a HL2 Ep2 map with a similar setup. Protect the citizens as they escape through one of the resistance teleporters while the combine slowly break down the defenses and pour into the area in greater and greater numbers. Could be awesome.