When comparing Half-Life 2 (and episodes) vs The Talos Principle, the Slant community recommends Half-Life 2 (and episodes) for most people. In the question“What are the best games on Linux?” Half-Life 2 (and episodes) is ranked 2nd while The Talos Principle is ranked 26th. The most important reason people chose Half-Life 2 (and episodes) is:
When Half Life 2 came out it set the bar super high for character animation that still rivals some games today.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Amazing character animation
When Half Life 2 came out it set the bar super high for character animation that still rivals some games today.
Pro Guns are varied and interesting
Almost every gun is fun to shoot and is distinct. The crossbow is super awesome for it’s power and the gravity gun offers variety in puzzles and what you can shoot with. Want to hit someone with an explosive barrel? Pick it up and throw it with the gravity gun!
Pro Great Sci-Fi story
Aliens, portals to other dimensions, oppressive regimes, oh my! This game brings a great flavor of dystopian sci-fi as you fight part of the rebel cause to deliver justice with your Gravity Gun to the many species afflicted by the evil Combine. Also Half Life ties in somehow with the Portal series which makes it even more awesome.
Pro Commentaries
Hear from the creators about the making of Half Life 2 Ep1 and 2. Everything from level design to technical details are discussed. More developers need to use this.
Pro Very moddable
Entire games have been made from Half Life (such as Counter Strike) and the tradition continues with it’s sequel! In fact there’s a game essentially about making your own things made from a modded Half Life 2 and that game is called Garry’s Mod.
Pro Great storyline
The puzzles in the game are great, but they're tied together with a thought provoking story line filled with mystery and intrigue. A story about a robot with human consciousness who is being guided by a disembodied voice, are they to be trusted? As the story progresses the player is drip fed clues which can lead them closer to the truth.
Pro Lots of side content
Many Easter eggs and more difficult puzzles as well as an ending in many parts of the game, as well as hidden lore.
Pro Difficulty ramp-up
Starts out easy enough, but gets to some truly difficult puzzles by the end. If you get stuck on a puzzle you can skip it and come back to it later.
Pro Rewards exploration and out-of-the-box thinking
It's hard to explain this without spoiling anything, but there are lots of "aha!" moments you will encounter on the areas if you get invested into the story, making the game deeper.
Pro Great original soundtrack
The soundtrack is very pleasant to listen to and fits perfectly with all the areas and themes present in the game. It varies from calm music, for those heavenly areas where you are solving puzzles, to more misterious and epic pieces for moments when things get... real. It's good to have some nice music playing while your brain is melting from solving the puzzles, or just appreciating the scenery.
Cons
Con Working with the level editor is difficult (no documentation)
There is not much documentation for the level editor in the game, as the creators primarily use it for themselves. There are of course many hotkeys you could accidentally press as well.
Con Obtuse puzzles, especially with optional content
Mediocre game design all around. Many puzzles are ordered badly or redundant and could have been combined or removed to smoothen the experience, as well as occasionally not exercising the bounds of certain elements (like ranged pickup). The game's optional content is even more worrisome as it often leads you to play hidden object games to look in hundreds of corners instead of using more difficult puzzles. One particularly egregious example is when you have to interpret a message in a very specific way after using a decryption algorithm you may not know about into another questionable input system.