I agree with you, really. In general, I think HL2 has way too much downtime in it, and it sometimes kills the pacing. I thought the good parts didn't go on as long as they could have, and the boring parts went on way too long. I also did not play HL2 until the hype had subsided, maybe 6 months after release, and I think I liked the game a lot more because I didn't have to hear people go on about how brilliant it was.
I do think it's a fantastic game (I have played through it, front to back, at least 5 times), but it has some clear areas for improvement. It's a great action movie-y experience, but it really doesn't have all that much shooting and gunplay, especially considering how long it is. It also doesn't use the gravity gun to its full potential, but that's forgivable since it was the first game to really have something like that be a part of core gameplay. I would probably give the game, on whole, an 8 out of 10.
