This is the best Half-Life 2 speedrun ever.

[Otohiko]

I thought the original HL was incredible when it first came out. I think it was totally revolutionary for games in general. HL2 was a little less revolutionary, but it was no less incredible and the Source engine was absolutely amazing.

Yes, it's pretty close to a rail shooter. But I think the key is that it gets every element in its formula close to 100% right. The gameplay I found perfectly balanced, and that carried through the HL franchise. It's a fun ride from start to finish, that's all. There are very few points in any of the games where either I got bored or it got totally predictable. Also it's not like the game has ONE good thing about it and it uses it as a freaking gimmick all over (though the HL2 physics engine does come a bit close sometimes) - it has a lot of good parts, they work well, and they're put together in the way that the game actually gets to be more than the sum of these parts. I played both HL and HL2 through 3 times and never regretted it. When I beat Ep. 1 and Ep. 2, I'm sure I'll want to do it again.

It's not my favorite game of all time (see: simulations), but I honestly have no reservation calling the original HL the best video game of all time, and HL2 following immediately after.