Half-Life 2

The Good
Half-Life 2 places you in the shoes of Gordon Freeman again. His day starts exactly the same way as it did in Half-Life: He travels to work by train and has to make his way to his destination. In this case, the environment is the City 17 Train Station, a place where you hear Dr. Wallace Breen explain the benefits of living in City 17. Freeman finds out that the city is overrun by the Combine, a mysterious Alien group who has enslaved all humanity and taken control of Earth on orders by Breen. A teleport malfunction later on alerts Breen to his presence, and he sends the Combine to get rid of Freeman.

Freeman can do a bit more things than he was able to in HL1, like pick up and throw objects. I remember at the start of the game, I was ordered by a Combine soldier to pick up a soda can and toss it into the bin. Rather than caving to my master's demands, I just threw it at him only to receive an electric shock. You can also put down objects rather than throwing them, a technique most useful for solving puzzles, particularly ones where you have to stack objects and stand on them to get through gaps in a gate for example. Freeman also has the ability to communicate with a number of troops. In this situation, I decided to tell them to stay put since all they do is get in your way and walk into the line of fire.

All throughout the game, you are faced with Combine soldiers, which are easily defeated with the machine gun. There are also headcrabs, zombies, gunships, and striders (the biggest enemy that I have seen in a first-person shooter). Two nastiest enemies that I faced were the ant lions. Not only do they attack you, but they are capable of throwing you back several feet into the air. Another nasty is a zombie that hurls poisonous headcrabs at you.

All throughout the game, you are faced with Combine soldiers, which are easily defeated with the machine gun. There are also headcrabs, zombies, gunships, and striders (the biggest enemy that I have seen in a first-person shooter). Two nastiest enemies that I faced were the ant lions and a zombie that looks as if it carries a lump on its back. Besides their ugly appearance and aggressive attack, the antlions capable of throwing you several meters into the air. The aforementioned lump on the zombie's back happens to be a sack full of headcrabs, and while the zombie is attacking you it manages to pull out a poisonous headcrab every five seconds.

The weapons are not bad. I got a lot of enjoyment out of the gravity gun, which is similar to Freeman's “pick up-and-throw” technique, but it deals with objects far away from the player. You see, you can aim for an object far away and pull it toward you and then you can throw it at enemies or other objects, or put it down in a safe place. A variation of the gravity gun can be picked up later in the game, where it acts like a laser gun used to vaporize enemies, as does the Overwatch rifle. You start out with a measly crowbar, but this can be used to kill the early Combine soldiers.

The highlight of this game for me would be driving the airboat in the “Water Hazard” chapter, going through the numerous tunnels and mowing down any Combine soldiers that get in the way. The best thing about using the Airboat – or any other vehicle for that matter – is that it can't be damaged. You can crash it into a wall as many times as you like.

HL2 uses the new Source engine, which, in my opinion, is much better than the GoldSrc engine used in Half-Life. As a result of Valve changing to this new engine, HL2 provides richer graphics and excellent animation. The Closed Captioning feature is a good thing as well, because for me, the dialogue goes in one ear and out the other. Also, the game allows you to select a chapter to start on, but only if you have played said chapter previously. So if you finish the game and want to relive all the action in the chapter, go ahead.

The graphics are breathtaking. The buildings are well designed, especially the Citadel, the blue building that extends into the sky (you can get up real close to it in the last two chapters). I had the feeling that most of the chapters are set in an entire day, because as you play through the entire game, you will notice the sky changing color as if some of the action takes place during the daytime, in the middle of the dusk, and at night.

When it comes to music, the pumping soundtrack goes well with the action. You'll notice a few soundtracks that are played in the game are taken from HL1. The sound effects, meanwhile, are good. I'm glad that the headcrabs and the HL1-style zombies still retain their attack/death sounds. And what's funny about these zombies is that they sound like old men begging for something.

The Bad
I really can't think of anything bad about this game.

The Bottom Line
Half-Life 2 once again places the player in the hands of Gordon Freeman, a scientist who starts his day as usual and tries to help out with something with one of his colleagues, only for that something to go wrong and Freeman suddenly finds himself killing aliens with an arsenal of weapons he has picked up. HL2 uses a new engine, and the result is breathtaking graphics and superb animation. The soundtrack blends well with what you are doing, with a few tunes taken straight from HL1. Two new features that are worth mentioning is the chapter selector and the Closed Captioning. If you like the original game and want to play this sequel, then I suggest buying it with Steam then downloading it so that you don't have to change CDs during installation.

The Good
First things first: Valve has really got their physics modelling down pat. Half-Life 2 was, in 2004, the first major title to feature a physics engine so refined and accurate that it is the stand-out feature of the product. Many of the puzzles and challenges throughout Half-Life 2 seem designed primarily to showcase the physics portion of Valve's Source engine. Moreover, the stand-out new weapon of Half-Life 2, the Gravity gun, is a great way to impress players with how believably tables, computers, barrels, and sawblades go shooting and/or tumbling through the air when fired.

The second-most impressive aspect of Half-Life 2 is the character animation. As in the original Half-Life, Valve has used a skeletal modelling system which produces hands-down the best, most realistic animation of characters in any game today. Explosions will send corpses flying head over heels, their limbs crumpling up against walls and furniture when they land. While playing Half-Life 2 Deathmatch (a free add-on), I will sometimes take pictures of players who died in particularly comical poses.

The last great feature of Half-Life 2 is simply the graphical rendering. Lighting is subtle and seamless, wide-open spaces look great (though not nearly as impressive as in Far Cry), and overall everything looks clean and sharp, particularly with the video options cranked up.

The Bad
There's three main beefs I have with Half-Life 2: linearity, setting, and plot. Now, the first Half-Life was completely linear, but it had a mysterious, cataclysmic story line. I enjoyed going through that game, although the linearity meant I only enjoyed it once.

Half-Life 2, on the other hand, was not a treat to play through, even the first time. The game is set in a dark, dystopian future. You are allied with a group of freedom fighters, who wear drab clothes and all have skin conditions. This is a rather dark and depressing game. DOOM³ may have been dark and scary, but I'll take scary over depressing any day of the week. Scary means exhilaration; depressing means depression. It's just no fun shooting endless Combine soldiers in masks. They've got no personality. The game is a variant on Orwell's Nineteen-Eighty Four, only the protagonists in Half-Life 2 have little personality, little to identify with. And the character of Alyx, your buxom young sidekick, always smiling and complimenting you, was clearly aimed at falsely boosting the egos of insecure fourteen-year-old boys. She is a two-dimensional character, not nearly as interesting as Cortana from Halo.

The Bottom Line
Half-Life 2 has to be considered a landmark game, but mainly for its technological attributes. After all, future games will build upon the physics, animation, and rendering ideas developed here, but storytelling does not evolve over time, so it makes no difference in the long term that Half-Life 2 is not a great masterwork of fiction.

Well-worth buying, as the various add-ons that may be included with it (Counter-Strike:Source, Team Fortress 2) have much greater replay value than Half-Life 2 itself.

The Good
Half-life 2 starts out with a very well put together speech from G-Man, the shady business man inhabiting the first Half-life game. Before you know it you end up in City 17, a post-apocalyptic, war-torn city. The game progresses pretty similarly to the original Half-life. It works like an interactive movie, in that you'll meet people that tell you what you should do next and it all takes place within the game's engine.

The levels are well varied, incorporating vehicles and team based action at points (more on this later) and there are some awesome action set-pieces which could come out of any movie. Many of these are very memorable and will warrant being replayed from time to time.

Team based, and Ant-lion sections of the game have excellent 3D pathfinding for the NPC characters - probably the best I've seen in any FPS. This makes these sections work wonderfully. If the pathfinding had been sub-par, these sections could have been extrememly annoying.

Half-life 2 is powered by the Source engine. The graphics that this engine renders are pretty damn special, with some really nice and subtle shader effects on most surfaces. Water in particular is beautiful to look at, as are laser fields and the like. Sound is pretty good, however has been done better by many recent games. In-game enemies and characters are incredible to look at, while not being has stylised and varied as in Doom 3, they are more comic-book like and this really adds to the atmosphere. In game cut-scenes are excellent and could not have been done much better (graphically) even with pre-rendered sequences.

Half-life 2 innovates in one major area - physics. Or more specifically physics integrated into the gameplay. It does this by providing the player with a "gravity gun". This weapon allows you to pick up and place or throw any object from the environment you are in. It can be used for stacking, hacking or even as a weapon. For example you could barricade a door up so bad guys can't get to you, or you pick up a fridge and hurl it at an enemy. The gravity gun is the most integral item in the game, and Valve has really made the most of it, moving it beyond just a "gimmick".

Some of the games puzzles are physics based also. For example you might have to weigh down one end of a board over a pipe so that you can walk to the other end to get to a higher part of a level. There are several weight based puzzles in the game.

The last section of the game is extremely fun (albeit far too easy) and I won't spoil the surprises in store for players in that section. Suffice to say, the physics engine really has a chance to shine and will warrant replaying more than most of the rest of the game.

The Bad
My major gripe with Half-life 2 with its game play mechanics. The first Half-life was linear from start to finish, however after being spoiled with games like Grand Theft Auto and Far-cry in the six years since Half-life's release most gamers have come to expect some level of freedom in their shooter. Half-life 2 essentially does not allow for any freedom of choice in progressing through the game. Most puzzles have only one solution, and there is only ever one available path through the game. This really limits replay value, much the same as in Doom 3. There are secret areas and areas that can be skipped, however these have no impact on the actual progress through the game, and often times don't warrant the effort involved in completing them. Sometimes it's not obvious where the game designers wanted you to go next, and its at these times that the linear nature of the game really becomes an issue, because thinking outside the box and doing things the designers did not expect, usually leads to instant death - punishment for not doing what the designers wanted you to do.

Next, are the vehicle sections (which are welcome), however there are only two main sections which involve vehicles. These sections get a bit boring after a while and seem to last a little too long. I feel the game could have benefited from having shorter and more frequent vehicle sections since these could have been used to more effectively break up the gameplay.

There are also team based sections where you can command up to four friendly team mates. These work well to enhance the atmosphere and the team mates have excellent pathfinding, however they are useless when it comes to combat. This detracts from the usefulness of these sections as sending your team mates into combat often leaves them shooting at anything but the enemy. Mostly the only real purpose they serve is to provide you with health when you get damaged.

My other major gripe is the way levels are delivered. The original Half-life pioneered the "seam-less" world idea, where levels were linked and after a short loading period you would just continue on with no break in the action. Half-life 2 uses the same technique and doesn't recognise that technology has changed in the past six years. With high-resolution textures and models loading times have increased exponentially and so often these "seam-less" level loads will happen in the middle of an action sequence in Half-life 2, completely ruining the tension that has been created. Loading times vary from 20 seconds up to 3 minutes depending on system specs. Valve would have been much better off to have fewer and longer loading points or the best option, to stream each level off the disk as it's required, not breaking the the gameplay at all.

I felt that the music in Half-life 2 while good, was not implemented all that well. It kicks in during certain action sequences, however it never seemed to kick in at the right times for me. It would either come in early leaving you thinking "what's the big deal?" or kick in late, after you're already half way through a situation. Compared to Far-cry's dynamic music system the scripted Half-life 2 approach is pretty primitive.

Half-life 2 shipped with a "sound skipping" bug, in which entering new areas or turning corners cause a pause of 1-2 seconds in the gameplay. Different people seem to experience this to different degrees, some every couple of seconds, others less so. For those that have had this problem, it is a major distraction breaking all continuity in the gameplay. It's a pretty major bug for the game to have shipped with, and difficult to understand why Valve didn't find it before release.

Half-life 2 has no multiplayer component, which is a shame, since it would be great fun to duel with the gravity gun in multiplayer. Counter Strike : Source is included which is a welcome addition, however new players may find it difficult to get into, due to closed and somewhat immature attitude of some players in the large and existing Counter Strike community. I've never played a game where I've been sworn at and insulted (stuff that I couldn't write in this review), simply because it's my first time playing the game. Instead of helping new players learn the ropes, this seems like a community that would rather that everyone else would just get lost. It's only a game isn't it? Counter Strike : Source also recycles content from the original Counter Strike, not really adding anything new, making it even harder for new players to be welcomed to the community.

My final thought is just to express my wonder at the amount of hype and praise that Half-life 2 has recieved in the past couple of weeks since release. I've never seen more comments of "this is the best game ever made!" ascribed to any single game ever. I find this odd, since the game is clearly less innovative than many other games released this year, confining innovation to several small gameplay areas, rather than breaking the mould of the genre. Half-life was a genre breaking game, it changed the format of every FPS to follow it. You're kidding yourself if you think that Half-life 2 is the same.

The Bottom Line
A well implemented, compelling game play experience with plenty of on-rails action. Innovative in areas of the FPS mechanics, most notably in integration of physics into gameplay. It's one of the best FPS games available on any platform, but don't get too caught up in the hype - it's just another game.