I've played the first two games, and they're good.
As for Half-Life, I'm still playing the first one, and, true, there are some really creepy/scary moments. But what I mean by 'disorienting', I mean that I'm not really getting into it. A lot of it feels like trial-and-error, which I'm not fond of in a game like this. I also don't really follow the story. Half of the time I have little to no idea what I'm even supposed to be doing.
So far, honestly, I've enjoyed the BioShock series more. But hey, who knows, maybe Half-Life 2 will be a lot better.