Half-Life 2
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Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
(2005)
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Half-Life 2: Complete
(2008) -
Half-Life 2: Game of the Year Edition
(2005) -
Half-Life 2: Holiday 2006 Collection
(2006) -
The Orange Box
(2007) -
Valve Complete Pack
(2008)
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Half-Life 2 (Collector's Edition)
(2004) -
Half-Life 2 (Gold Edition)
(2004)
Description official descriptions
Following the period of instability caused by the events described in Half-Life, an interdimensional organization known as the Combine invades the Earth, defeating the human forces in the Seven Hour War. A Combine Citadel is erected in City 17, a town in Eastern Europe reminiscent of World War II ghettos. Dr. Wallace Breen, a human scientist, rules the city on behalf of his new masters. An energy field prevents humans from procreating, and no new children are born. Earth is turning into a grim, oppressive police state.
Meanwhile, Gordon Freeman, the man who was at the center of the events that took place shortly before the rise of the Combine, awakens from his stasis and is inserted into a train to City 17 by the mysterious G-man. Gordon is soon brought into a resistance group and makes a seemingly futile attempt to bring down the Combine and liberate the Earth.
Half-Life 2 is a linear first-person shooter with light puzzle-solving elements and many setpieces, similar to its predecessor in concept. The player guides Gordon Freeman through City 17 and the wilderness that surrounds it. On his way, he'll encounter a few friendly characters, but also fight dangerous foes. The game features a realistic physics system: Gordon can pick up objects and toss them freely, and many of the puzzles are physics-based - for example, at one point the player has to weigh down a seesaw with bricks at one end to turn it into a ramp.
Gordon's enemies, apart from alien wildlife which found their way to Earth, are mainly Combine forces, which utilize a variety of firearms, gadgets, and vehicles. Policemen and foot soldiers work along with helicopters, gunships, and gigantic walking machines to hunt him down. To defend himself, Gordon has a range of weapons available: from the iconic crowbar for close-quarter fighting, through pistols and rifles, up to grenades and a rocket launcher. One of the most notable weapons is the gravity gun, with which Gordon can pick up objects, hold them in the gun's anti-gravity field, then hurl them at the enemy with great force.
Setpieces in the game include coordinated assaults on enemy bases, fighting gigantic boss enemies, bringing down aircraft with the rocket launcher, and others. A few levels require the player to navigate buggy-type vehicles. Some of the more exotic stages involve the player summoning an army of antlions to unleash on unsuspecting foes.
Included with the game is Counter-Strike: Source, a version of Counter-Strike made with the new Source engine which powers Half-Life 2, and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, an online multiplayer game featuring the same physics and weapons as the single player game.
Spellings
- 半条命2 - Simplified Chinese spelling
- 戰慄時空2 - Traditional Chinese spelling
- 하프라이프 2 - Korean spelling
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Credits (Windows version)
252 People (226 developers, 26 thanks) · View all
| VP Studio Operations | |
| Senior Administrative Assistant | |
| Senior QA Manager, Fuctionality | |
| Senior QA Manager, Resources | |
| Senior QA Manager, TRG/CRG/VUPC | |
| QA Manager | |
| QA Lead | |
| QA Testers | |
| [ full credits ] | |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 93% (based on 121 ratings)
Players
Average score: 4.2 out of 5 (based on 503 ratings with 24 reviews)
A thoroughly immersive, plot-centric game (no spoilers).
The Good
There are 5 main high-points for this game: the dramatic storyline, the games capability to immerse the player, the music, the physics, and the models.
As with Half-Life, the sequel Half-Life 2 is a plot-centric game where the story is king and events unfold into a dramatic "silent narrative". The sheer drama of the Half-Life 2 story, to me, was gripping.
The game's main strength is immersion. The best games of the genre are the ones where you forget there's a mouse and keyboard, and I believe the HL2 achieved that greatly. There were episodes, like Ravenholm, that made my heart pound in fear. I found myself completely immersed in the game, which was totally cool. I loved every second of it, and I feel this is the single best aspect of the game.
Music and sound was done effectively. Although I've read complaints about music occurring at odd times and stuttering, I had no problems. The choice of music and timing of the music gave me a sense of deja-vu about watching a George Romero movie, like Dawn of the Dead. I had to sleep with a night light for days after finishing the game -- the moans and cries of the zombies were extremely unnerving!
The physics was awesome. Since this is what most people comment on when they review HL2, I will say no more about it other than ... "whoa!"
The last high point of the game are the models. Totally effective. The eye movement was eerily realistic. The 5 o'clock shadows were masterful. NPC mannerisms like Alyx self-consciously touching her hair while she tells Gordon what an honor it was to be with him (or at the end when it feels like "I love you" is about to be said) was a superb touch.
The Bad
I personally don't have much bad to say about the game.
Many people complain about the vehicle sections of the game, stating that they're too long. I don't agree. The riverboat and dune buggy episodes were gripping and ended just as I started to become vaguely conscious of wanting a scene change.
I do have to complain about the NPC's AI though. They weren't very smart, and were very ineffective in killing enemies and saving their own neck. They were particularly incompetent in avoiding unnecessary death (like walking in the path of a known sniper). As a programmer, this doesn't so much bother me because I know how difficult AI is, but sadly, this deficiency often snapped me out of my immersive experience. I started to become conscious of needing to save the game in order to keep my squad alive. Too bad, especially considering the immersive quality of the game is its main strength.
I also take exception to the ending and certain elements of the story line. Not only were none of the questions of HL1 answered, we now have a whole bunch of new ones. The ending of the game, while dramatic, was completely and thoroughly unsatisfying.
Lastly, I take STRONG exception to Steam for being intrusive, buggy, and singling out non-broadband users. I will purchase this game only when Steam is removed, and not a second before.
The Bottom Line
FPS games often get the short-shrift when it comes to plots. Perhaps the story line was a goof back in the Doom and Build engine days, but most FPS games have a rather complex storyline, considering that the main objective is to shoot. Even so, Half-Life distinguishes itself in the sheer drama which was never quite achieved in games like Blair Witch, Quake or Alice (even though Alice tried).
This game is clearly influenced by a host of sci-fi and horror themes:
- The Matrix
- Dawn of the Dead (or Night of the Living Dead)
- 1984
This amalgam of influences is highly effective and should be very enjoyable to anyone who appreciates the genres.
Windows · by null-geodesic (106) · 2006
If you have a dial up line, DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!
The Good
Graphics were wonderful. The game is immersive. Sound is very good. Skin textures and facial movements are the best I have ever seen. Action is non stop.
The Bad
The game is totally unplayable if you have a dial up modem or if you don't have an internet connection. Product activation is one thing, but being forced to log onto the Internet and get Vivendis permission to play a game you have purchased is totally over the top. Especially when, if you have a dial up as I do it takes between 35 to 40 minutes before the game is finally ready to play. What were the Vivendi guys thinking. It is so stupid I am lost for words.
The Bottom Line
I am reminded of Winnie the Pooh and the Honey pot. There is this wonderful game, but it is totally out of reach. I think cruel and unusual punishment is an apt description for the Vivendi people. I will never ever buy their products again if they have such an outrageous activation scheme.
Windows · by Edwin Wigmore (2) · 2005
The Good
To me, HL2 is the best first-person shooter ever - and I rarely get this excited by an fps. The original was already out of this world, and HL2 did the impossible - it's even better. Despite being linear and mostly ordinary at first glance, the levels are often humongous and offer plenty of room for exploration. Graphically, the game is gorgeous even years after its release. I especially appreciate the vibrant colors and the excellent facial animations of the NPC's, at least the important ones.
Half-Life 2 may not be a horror game, but it still managed to instill jumpiness and paranoia in me during my very first playthrough. Few games have achieved such immersion, and few games have such an incredibly detailed, realistic-feeling yet still extremely interesting world. The physics engine in particular improves the experience a lot. The Gravity Gun we get around halfway through the game is easily the best weapon in gaming.
One of the things Half-Life gets but many other shooters, like Doom 3 and Call of Duty fail to get, is that it's all about the pacing. It shouldn't be all "action extreme yeah!" all the way through, but there needs to be quiet moments as well. The shooting, the exploring, the puzzles, everything works perfectly in this game and after shooting a couple of dozen enemies it always feels nice to draw a breath and do something lighter for a change. And the vehicle segments are some of the best I've ever seen.
The story may not be overly original and its connection to the first game feels shoddy at first, but it's still intriguing and is perfectly bound into the game without action-stopping cutscenes or long buckets of exposition. The game is more like a road movie, with the scenery constantly changing to keep things interesting. And Alyx Vance might just officially be my favorite character in all of gaming.
The Bad
Despite what somewhat overly glowing reviews (like mine) may claim, HL2 is far from perfect, and has some design flaws, chief among them that there's only one power meter for the flashlight, sprinting AND oxygen while underwater, so performing any of these activities at the same time will prove to be frustrating - fortunately Episode Two fixed this.
Being the sequel to a game that was praised for its AI, HL2's AI is rather bad. The enemies are no worse off than in any other fps, but I expected more from Valve. The rebel teammates, on the other hand, are just terrible, always blocking doorways, running headfirst into a swarm of bullets and freaking out over one headcrab which they take forever to kill due to running around too much. The fact that non-essential NPC's have only two voice actors and about a dozen faces is also pretty obvious towards the end, but it never really bothered me too much.
The Bottom Line
Half-Life 2 is an immersive, extremely entertaining adventure with tons of gameplay variety, an appropriate length and an interesting story that should not be missed by anyone, even if you don't normally enjoy first-person shooters.
Windows · by Zokolov (49) · 2012
Trivia
1001 Video Games
Half-Life 2 appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.
Characters
Almost all the characters in Half-Life 2 are modelled after a real person's appearance: * Barney's face in the game was provided by Valve's CEO Scott Lynch. * Alyx Vance is modelled after American actress and television host Jamil Giovanni Mullen. * Eli Vance's is based on Larry "The Count" Heard, a local man holding a sign indicating that he was looking for work. Valve found him on the corner of Highway 520 and 148th Avenue in Redmond and hired him as a model. * The G-Man's Half-Life 2 model is based on Frank Sheldon, an Alexander Technique practitioner. He was originally slated to be the model for Dr. Breen.
City 17
City 17, the main location of Half-Life 2, strongly resembles Eastern European and Soviet cities of the communist era; the architecture style of suburb districts is nearly identical to what can be see (even until now) in East Berlin, Prague, Moscow, etc. However, there is also more direct evidence to the "Soviet" nature of City 17; several times some Russian words can be spotted. For example, during the mud skipper chase there are large gates with the words ПОРТ written above; "порт" is Russian for "port" (pronounced roughly the same way as the English word).
Closed captions
Valve designed Half Life 2 with closed captioning for the deaf. Sounds are bracketed. Each character has a color assigned to their dialogue.
Cut levels
According to the book Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, the original storyline spanned four in-game days instead of just three. Among the parts cut are an antlion cave, a train ride through a dried out sea bed, a ship called the "Borealis", the underwater "Kraken Base", a Combine weather control station, a chapter set in arctic regions and a skyscraper. Many of these places show up in pre-release screenshots and press material.
Some parts were recycled for existing Half-Life 2 chapters, many others are making a comeback in the Half-Life 2 episodes.
Distribution
The PC version of Half-Life 2 was the last game that Sierra distributed for Valve at retail. Electronic Arts was quick to scoop up the retail deal, but their Steam digital distribution service remains independent.
As a result of a settlement in a lawsuit between Valve and VU Games, VU Games ceases distribution of retail packaged versions of Valve's games (including Half-Life 2), effective August 31, 2005.
Engine
Despite the complex graphics, including ragdoll physics and pixel shaders, the Source engine was designed to support cards that offer only DirectX 6 hardware support. The original Source engine code would run by using the software emulation encoded in the DirectX 9 library. That means that the game can be run even with an Intel 846g card or a Nvidia TNT chipset. To give some perspective, The TNT chipset was introduced in 1997.
According to John Carmack himself, "there are still bits of early Quake code in Half Life 2".
German version
There are changes in some German versions: * Blood from humans (including Gordon Freeman) and blood which is part of the level design was coloured grey * Almost all enemies disappear instantly after being killed. This is not true for a level near the end where the corpses are necessary to proceed. * The cries of burning zombies were toned down * In the original version enemies get dragged with the buggy for a short time after driving over them. In the German version the buggy just drives through them.
A detailed list of changes can be found on schnittberichte.com (German).
G-Man
G-Man can been spotted in a few places throughout the game, as he is watching over Gordon or walking around.
Hydra
An enemy that was shown in early previews known as the hydra, which was a blue tentacle, was cut out of the final game. The developers said that it was good to watch, but when it came to kill you, you would just see a blue blur and you would be dead. They didn't think it would be fun to fight against.
Macintosh version
In September of 2007 Valve's Gabe Newell was interviewed by gaming website Kikizo's Adam Doree about the then shortly to be released Orange Box, asking, among other things, about the potential for a Macintosh release. Newell responded by saying that though they had been in conversations with Apple regarding the possibility "they seem to think that they want to do gaming, but there's never any follow through on any of the things they say they're going to do. That makes it hard to be excited about doing games for their platforms." Thus, there wouldn't be a Macintosh version of Half-Life 2.
A month later, in October, Tuncer Deniz, a Macintosh developer and owner of the news site Inside Mac Games, posted on his blog that while Newell's complaints likely weren't without justification, the actual reason for the lack of a Macintosh port was due to "Valve's insistence that anyone who wanted to port Half-Life 2 to the Mac had to advance $1 million to Valve. That's right, that's $1,000,000. That might be peanuts to someone like Valve, but no Mac publisher in their right mind would have given Valve that kind of money just for the rights to publish Half-Life 2 for the Mac."
A Macintosh version was finally released in 2010 when Steam, Valve's digital distribution platform, was introduced for Macintosh.
Menu
The background picture of the main menu changes based on what chapter you are at when you last saved.
Multiplayer
Counter-Strike: Source was the only multiplayer mode available at the release. Two weeks later, on November 30, 2004, Valve released the regular multiplayer mode (Deathmatch) through Steam, their online content distribution system.
Piñata
Several news sources first reported Half-Life 2 entering gold status, quoting an unnamed source within the development team. The source revealed the existence of a piñata doll (a traditional South American custom of a doll stuffed with sweets and toys for children to break) which was broken to celebrate HL2's official completion.
It was later revealed that this "piñata" was in fact a full-scaled Scanner model (the flying machines that take pictures of suspects in-game) and it was broken using a crowbar.
Rating
Even though the initial release of Half-Life 2 as part of The Orange Box compilation received a PEGI rating of 16+, the stand-alone release received an initial rating of 18+.
References
Dr. Kleiner's pet headcrab Lamarr is actually named after Hedy Lamarr (November 9, 1913 – January 19, 2000, born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler), an Austrian-Jewish naturalized American actress and communications technology innovator.
References to the game
Half-Life 2 was parodied in an episode of "Die Redaktion" (The Editorial Team), a monthly comedy video produced by the German gaming magazine GameStar. It was published on the DVD of issue 05/2006.
Source code theft
Sometime in September 2003 Valve's network - including Gabe Newell's own computer - was compromised by a hacker and the worst case scenario soon unfolded. The entire Half-Life 2 source code was released on October 4 and only 3 days later a playable version of the game surfaced. FBI was brought into the case, and Gabe Newell also posted a message on a Half-Life 2 forum, asking the community to help them find the hacker.
Months went by without any substantial progress, when finally on February 15 the hacker sent an e-mail to Gabe Newell, expressing both his compliments on Valve's work so far and his somewhat dodgy statement that he never had any intention to hurt Valve. Gabe Newell and the hacker, known as "Da Guy" from Germany corresponded over the next period of time, and came to the agreement that since Da Guy had been smart enough to compromise Valve's security, he deserved a job. Soon, a job interview was setup. This was of course a trick. FBI agents would be waiting for the German when he arrived. However, when the German government heard about the scheme they denied such activities, and instead they arrested him themselves.
Da Guy, aka Axel G now faces charges for compromising Valve as well as several other computer related crimes.
Special Editions
3 different Half-Life 2 packages are available: * Half-Life 2 Bronze includes the game and Counter-Strike: Source. * Half-Life 2 Silver includes the game, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Valve's back catalog available on Steam at the time. * Half-Life 2 Gold includes the game, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source, Valve's back catalog available on Steam at the time, 3 HL2 posters, HL2 hat, HL2 soundtrack, HL2 sticker, City 17 postcard, Prima's HL2 strategy guide, special collector's box and a chance to win a trip to Valve.
Vortigaunts
The Vortigaunts are voiced by Louis Gossett, Jr. It is mentioned in Raising the Bar that Gossett was chosen partially due to his role as the alien in the film Enemy Mine.
Awards
- 4Players
- 2004 – PC Game of the Year
- 2004 – Best PC Action Game of the Year
- 2004 – Best PC Direction of the Year
- 2004 – Best PC Graphics of the Year
- 2004 – Best PC Successor of the Year
- Computer Games Magazine
- March 2005 - #4 Game of the Year 2004
- Computer Gaming World
- March 2005 (Issue #249) – Best Music of the Year
- March 2005 (Issue #249) – NPC of the Year (for Dog)
- GameSpy
- 2004 – #2 Game of the Year
- 2004 – PC Game of the Year
- 2004 – PC Action Game of the Year
- 2004 – PC Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
- 2004 – PC Action Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
- 2004 - Best Graphics of the Year (PC)
- 2004 - Best Character of the Year (PC) (for Dog)
- 2005 – #7 Game of the Year
- 2005 – Xbox Game of the Year
- 2005 – Xbox Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
- 2005 – Xbox Shooter of the Year
- 2005 – PC Mod of the Year (for Garry's Mod)
- 2005 - The "It Shoulda Been on Xbox 360 Award" (Xbox)
- 2011 – #10 Top PC Game of the 2000s
- GameStar (Germany)
- February 2005 - Best PC Game in 2004
- February 2005 - Best PC Game in 2004
- Issue 03/2005 - Most Annoying Copy Protection in 2004
- Golden Joystick Awards
- 2004 - Runner-up for "Most Wanted Game For Xmas"
- 2005 - PC Game of the Year
- PC Gamer
- April 2005 - #4 in the "50 Best Games of All Time" list
- It was the first game to tie PC Gamer's 98% rating of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, previously their highest rated game ever
- PC Powerplay (Germany)
- Issue 02/2006 - Best Game in 2005
- Issue 02/2006 - #1 Action Game in 2005
Information also contributed by Agent 5, Apogee IV, B14ck W01f, Indra was here, James Isaac, LepricahnsGold, Lumpi, Mark Ennis, Mark Papadakis, PCGamer77, piltdown man, Scott Monster, Silverblade, Unicorn Lynx, VVP and Zack Green.
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Related Sites +
-
Half-Life 2 Hints
This question and answer type solution guides you through the steps gradually, giving only as much information as you need before the final answers are provided. -
The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2
article about the game's source code theft, on Eurogamer.net (21st February 2011) -
The Final Hours of Half-Life 2
Gamespot's extensive article about the production process of Half-Life 2.
Identifiers +
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Zack Green.
Android added by GTramp. Linux added by Sciere. Xbox added by DarkDante. Macintosh added by Zeppin.
Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Apogee IV, Sciere, n][rvana, Paulus18950, lee jun ho, VVP, Patrick Bregger, Plok, FatherJack.
Game added November 25, 2004. Last modified January 27, 2024.