| My Half-Life 2 Review
Six years ago Valve Software released a game that would revolutionize gaming as we knew it; Half-Life. When everyone finished Half-Life they most likely had very good feelings towards it, except that it left a major cliff hanger for a sequel. What did G-Man have in store for you, and what would become of the world after Black Mesa? Half-Life established a base on how first person shooters should be done especially the way the story was told. So Half-Life 2 has huge shoes to fill. Now would the final product meet expectations?
To understand Half-Life 2, one would need to begin with the announcement of the game. As one would expect there was going to be a sequel but when it would be released is an entirely different story. When it was officially announced and when everyone saw it at E3 of ’03 the hype grew to a huge mass that just kept growing, especially with such a short release date after the major announcement. September 30, 2003 was going to be the day. With Valve never backing down from their stern position on the September release, no one was expecting the train wreck that was about to occur. First came the announcement that part of Half-Life 2’s source code had been stolen. What had happened? Over the next year Valve would have their work cut out for them. Throughout the end of 2003 and most of 2004 Valve kept pretty quiet and no real news ever came out. Even E3 04 were people would expect an avalanche of new info to be released it was pretty quiet for the most part. When finally during late October the gold announcement came, and it would officially come to stores and be released through Steam on November 16, 2004. Now the question was would it be worth the wait? I’m here to tell you, yes without a doubt it was.
In the opening sequence G-Man tells you it is time. What better way to start off a game is with the person you finished it last off with? Especially the mysterious G-Man. When the intro with G-Man is finished you wakeup on a train heading towards City 17, the intro with the train feels very nostalgic because you will remember the rail ride that brought you through Black Mesa in the start of Half-Life. When you get off the train you will see the administrator; Dr. Breen. Of course you don’t meet him in person but rather him spewing out propaganda through the giant LCD. This is where you will receive a lot of the info going on. You start walking through the station and you meet the Combine, your archenemies of the game. What a magnificent way to start the game. You should expect a good 15-20 hours of gameplay. This maybe a tad short by some standards but all of that time is time very well spent.
The enemies in Half-Life 2 range from the annoying headcrabs to the tripod terrors that are Striders. The enemy AI is great. The combine soldiers will take cover, rush, and flank you when needed. While the menacing headcrabs and zombies will just come for you. Headcrabs won’t give you much of a problem except when they can sneak up on you and even then they aren’t anything to worry about. The zombies will act very brain dead, they will walk towards you and stop at nothing, throwing anything in their way towards you. There are also different variants of headcrabs, and have zombies that will give them new characteristics. While I won’t spoil any of these types for you this adds some more depth to the game and will keep things interesting. One great touch was that zombies will cry in terror after being lit on fire. These little things that Valve has done go a long way in the end. You will meet the furious Ant Lions, which charge you and are quite fast, and can jump a good distance to get you.
The weapons of Half-Life are for the most part updates of their Half-Life counterparts. This however is not a drawback because each works wonderfully and they look great. The gravity gun however steals the show. One other very cool weapon is the pheropod which calls ant lions to your aid. It is really quite a show watching some ant lions taking out some combine scum. As I have said earlier the gravity gun makes up for any of the lack of weapons and cool gadgets that were in Half-Life. I cannot stop raving about how much fun the gravity gun is and how useful it becomes.
The Half-Life 2 source engine in my mind is the best to be ever to be released. Everything about it seems better then ever. The most realistic physics ever done however in my mind are the best part about it. The physics create a huge part in the game, and opportunities that would have never been possible without it. Almost everything can be moved whether that means from you just picking it up or grabbing the gravity gun and releasing the environment against your enemies. Have cars blocking your buggy from going forward? Take out your gravity gun and push them out of the way. Low on ammo without a lot of enemies around? Use your gravity gun and kill them with innocent looking things, or use a saw blade and cut them all in a row. The possibilities are endless and these possibilities create replay value. Even without the physics, the graphics in Half-Life 2 are draw dropping. The models, the skins, the textures are all beautiful. Now what good are all these things without animation? Valve has clearly put lots and lots of love into it alone. I have never seen game characters have such life. Especially the female lead role, Alyx. Who is the most human character yet to be seen in a video game. She expresses so much emotion whether it is angry, sad, or joy. At times you may just bring your hands away from the keyboard and mouse and watch. This technology will make your enemies and allies have more life then any technology thought previously possible.
The sound in Half-Life 2 is magnificent. Assuming you have a nice 5.1 system you will be stuck to your chair like glue. All the weapons sound right not too powerful and not to weak. The explosions pack quite a punch. The voice acting in HL2 is superbly done. It features Robert Guillaume, Michelle Forbes, and others. This all just fits into the immersion and greatness that is HL2.
The loading times in Half-Life are carefully spread out and never interrupt in any action. They are brief and never take you out of the immersion. You aren’t brought to a separate screen like many other games. It is a simple message on your current screen. This makes the game feel like one long level, with only a semi-apparent message to tell you that you are in a new part of the game. Anyone who remembers Half-Life will remember the jumping puzzles. At times it didn’t feel like an FPS, it felt like a platformer in first person. Fortunately jumping puzzles are few and far between. Also if you are expecting a lot of answers in Half-Life 2 you maybe a tad disappointed, in that the game leaves off in a major cliff hangar that has you asking, what just happened? This isn't as bad as it would have been if the game hadn't been such an overall pleasure to play.
The multiplayer in Half-Life 2 is Counter-Strike: Source, which is the update to the most popular game on the internet. If you have been living under a rock for the past five years Counter-Strike is a game where you have two forces: The terrorists and the counter-terrorists. On every map there is an objective that must be completed at the end of the mission. Some maps require the terrorists to plant a bomb, and the counter-terrorists to prevent that from happening. Other maps have counter-terrorists rescuing hostages and terrorists have to make sure that the hostages don’t make it to the rescue zones. The game has quite a few different weapons. While this might be a turn off to some people as it is slower gameplay then Half-Life if you give it some time CS: S can be fun. One major drawback for new people to the game is that a lot of people have been playing a long time and getting good takes some time. However if you are willing to take the time to learn, Counter-Strike is very fun. One major thing that would have been nice to see is a regular deathmatch for Half-Life 2 (which the first one did feature).
All in all Half-Life 2 serves as a pedestal that all first person shooters should follow. The source engine is a work of art and will be remembered for quite some time. That followed by the vast immersion in the game, believable characters, excellent sound, and great multiplayer addition make Half-Life 2 one of the most complete packages ever released. Anyone with a PC that can run Half-Life 2 would be doing themselves a huge favor buy going out and playing this work of art.
9.8
Last edited by AxL; 11-22-2004 at 12:13 AM.
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